Abstract
Abstract As the first French repertory companies formed in the latter sixteenth century, they were naturally drawn to seek their fortunes in Paris. There, itinerant troupes struggled to survive in a city where a religious confraternity, the Confrerie de la Passion, held the rights to the only public playhouse as well as a monopoly on all theatrical performances. During this formative period of French theatre, Valleran Le Conte, his company of viol-playing actors, and his playwright-in-residence, Alexandre Hardy, emerged as the first Paris-based repertory company. By 1628 another company bearing the King’s name and sponsorship had emerged as pre-eminent, and established itself at the Hotel de Bourgogne. Another troupe sponsored by Richelieu came to found the Theatre du Marais, and built in Paris the first playhouse specifically designed for spectacular plays. These two rival theatres employed as their in-house playwrights Jean Rotrou and Pierre Corneille, who furnished a constant supply of fashionable comedies and dramas for a new theatregoing public.
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