Having emerged from a long period of relative obscurity, Jean Rotrou is now generally recognized as the greatest French playwright of the seventeenth century after the great trio of Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, and Molière. Much remains sketchy in Rotrou's biography, including such key dates as the precise years he moved from one city to another. Likewise, the exact number of his plays and the dates of their premieres are largely a matter of speculation. Jean Rotrou was born in the city of Dreux in Normandy, the oldest of four children, and was baptized on 21 August 1609. His father, also named Jean, was a respectable merchant; his mother, Elisabeth Facheu, likewise came from a commercial family. Little is known of Rotrou's childhood.

Rotrou received his schooling in Paris and stayed there to pursue legal studies, although there is no evidence that he ever practiced law. In any...