Virginia Scott is Professor Emerita in the Department of Theater, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She specializes in Commedia dell'arte and French theatre of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Her books include The Commedia dell'arte in Paris, which won the George Freedley award, and Molière: A Theatrical Life. Professor Scott is also a dramaturge, playwright, actor, and director.

'In this lively and engaging study, Virginia Scott examines the careers of actresses in France from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, placing them firmly in their social and artistic context. Refreshingly, she eschews anecdotal evidence, thereby providing us, perhaps for the first time, with an unbiased and even-handed account of her subjects' lives and work, but which nonetheless explores the fascination these first celebrities have exercised on audiences and critics both then and since.' Professor Jan Clarke, Durham University

• Preface; 1. The actress and the anecdote; 2. 'So perverse was her wantonness': antitheatricalism and the actress; 3. In the beginning: 'Twelve Livres per year'; 4. 'Those diverting little ways': 1630–40; 5. 'Mademoiselle L'Étoile': 1640–1700; 6. 'Embellished by art': 1680–1720; 7. Lives and afterlives: 1700–2010; Works consulted.

Virginia Scott is Professor Emerita in the Department of Theater, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She specializes in Commedia dell'arte and French theatre of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Her books include The Commedia dell'arte in Paris, which won the George Freedley award, and Molière: A Theatrical Life. Professor Scott is also a dramaturge, playwright, actor, and director.

'In this lively and engaging study, Virginia Scott examines the careers of actresses in France from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, placing them firmly in their social and artistic context. Refreshingly, she eschews anecdotal evidence, thereby providing us, perhaps for the first time, with an unbiased and even-handed account of her subjects' lives and work, but which nonetheless explores the fascination these first celebrities have exercised on audiences and critics both then and since.' Professor Jan Clarke, Durham University

• Preface; 1. The actress and the anecdote; 2. 'So perverse was her wantonness': antitheatricalism and the actress; 3. In the beginning: 'Twelve Livres per year'; 4. 'Those diverting little ways': 1630–40; 5. 'Mademoiselle L'Étoile': 1640–1700; 6. 'Embellished by art': 1680–1720; 7. Lives and afterlives: 1700–2010; Works consulted.

Virginia Scott is Professor Emerita in the Department of Theater, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She specializes in Commedia dell'arte and French theatre of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Her books include The Commedia dell'arte in Paris, which won the George Freedley award, and Molière: A Theatrical Life. Professor Scott is also a dramaturge, playwright, actor, and director.

'In this lively and engaging study, Virginia Scott examines the careers of actresses in France from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, placing them firmly in their social and artistic context. Refreshingly, she eschews anecdotal evidence, thereby providing us, perhaps for the first time, with an unbiased and even-handed account of her subjects' lives and work, but which nonetheless explores the fascination these first celebrities have exercised on audiences and critics both then and since.' Professor Jan Clarke, Durham University

• Preface; 1. The actress and the anecdote; 2. 'So perverse was her wantonness': antitheatricalism and the actress; 3. In the beginning: 'Twelve Livres per year'; 4. 'Those diverting little ways': 1630–40; 5. 'Mademoiselle L'Étoile': 1640–1700; 6. 'Embellished by art': 1680–1720; 7. Lives and afterlives: 1700–2010; Works consulted.