ABSTRACT
Alexandre Hardy was a writer of Spanish fecundity, throwing off plays at high speed for the entertainment of predominantly popular audiences. He had some learning, but not too much of it. Hardy was neither a skilful enough dramatist nor a great enough poet to equal even his good second-rank contemporaries in England and Spain. Exasperated by Bellerose’s intransigence, Hardy left him and signed a contract with a newly formed company who styled themselves provocatively Les Vrais Comediens du Roi. His plays, old or new, continued in demand for a short time, though by 1628 he was being overtaken by a younger generation of playwrights. The only important absentee is the comedie, of which there is no example among Hardy’s extant plays. This was natural at a date when comedy was not a flourishing genre and the short farce satisfied the popular demand for broad humour.
