Philippe Quinault was one of the most versatile and most successful writers in seventeenth-century France. By the time he was thirty-six, in 1671, he had had eighteen of his plays performed and was about to begin a "second career" as librettist for Jean-Baptiste Lully's operas, a position that brought him the reputation throughout the ancien régime as one of France's greatest lyric poets. Quinault was also well known for his contributions to ballets and other court spectacles; for songs, witty light verse, and elegant occasional verse; and for his talents as an orator.

Indeed, Quinault was probably the most frequently performed and the best remunerated playwright of the seventeenth century. Astrate, roi de Tyr (Astrate, King of Tyre, 1665) was staged at least 40 times in 1664-1665, a record rarely matched even by Jean Racine, and Thésée (Theseus, 1675) could have had as many as 150 performances...