PREFACEINTRODUCTIONCHAPTER 1: The Critique of Le Cid: Richelieu, Royal Judgment, and the RulesCHAPTER 2: Failed Judgments, Thwarted Justice: Alexandre Hardy’s Scédase ou l’hôspitalité violéeCHAPTER 3: The Ceremony Unravels: Tragedy’s Comedic TurnCHAPTER 4: Learning From Experience: On Corneille and CoherenceCHAPTER 5: Corneille’s Cinna and Rotrou’s Crisante: A Search for the Emperor’s JudgmentCHAPTER 6: Racine and Royal Fathers of Injustice—Mithridate and PhèdreCONCLUSIONNoteBibliographyIndex “Bilis writes with admirable clarity as she traces a fine line of research and thinking about dramatic history and court culture during this period. She makes a valuable contribution to seventeenth-century French studies and to theatre history.” Harriet Stone, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Washington University in St Louis