The comedy of national character: Images of the English in early eighteenth-century French comedy

Abstract

This article examines how various stereotypes of the English were expressed on the French comic stage in the first half of the eighteenth century. Focusing on the prolific and successful dramatist Louis de Boissy, four of whose comedies, written over a period of more than twenty-five years, explore the comic potential of national stereotypes, the article demonstrates that the comic theatre did not simply offer distorted perspectives on the English for straightforwardly satirical effect; rather, it also offered possibilities for a more complex exploration of the issues of cultural difference that were being discussed elsewhere in the period. © 2010 British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studi..