Françoise Pascal's Agathonphile martyr, tragi-comédie

Written at the end of the Counter Reformation, Francoise Pascal´s first play, Agathonphie martyr, tragi-comedie (1655), is an important transitional piece, marking the passage from religious drama as a moralizing device to that of a diversion, prompted by the growing influence of the société mondaine in Lyon. In her introduction, Kennedy examines how this play is characterized by a unique merging ...