Augustin-Eugène Scribe was the first French playwright to make a fortune solely by writing plays. He was proud to acknowledge the source of his income and went so far as to have inscribed over the gate of his country estate: "Le théâtre a payé cet asile champêtre / Vous qui passez, merci! Je vous le dois peut-être." (The theater funded this rustic retreat. Thanks, traveler! I may owe it to you.) He was so much in demand that he could negotiate good royalties for his plays, and he helped impose the rules that brought similar benefits to his fellow authors. His name on the playbill virtually assured a successful run, and his inventive mind and quick pen kept his name constantly in the public eye and brought them back regularly to the theaters he supplied. He was as versatile...