with titles such as Aesop at Epsom, Old Aesop at White-Hall, etc. In content they ranged from political commentary to scandal sheets. La Feste de la Seine (English: The feast of the Seine, 1690). A one-act divertissement, set to music. Phaeton (1691). A comedy. Based on Classical mythology, the main character is Phaëton, son of Helios/Sol (French:Soleil for Sun) and Clymene. The other featured characters include (1)Cephise (French for Cephissus), daughter of Merops, King of Egypt, (2) Clymene, mother of Phaëton and wife of Merops, (3) Epaphus, son of Zeus/Jupiter and Isis/Io, (4) Proteus, demigod and guardian to the herds of Poseidon/Neptune, (5)Theone, daughter of Proteus, (6)Nicaea, confidant to Theone, (7) Helios/Sol/La Soleil/The Sun, (8) Momus, (9) the first Hour of the day, (10) The Hour at which the Ladies go to the Temple, (11) a personified Moment, (12) Gaia/Terra (French:La Terre for Earth), (13) Zeus/Jupiter, and (14)the guards of Clymene. The main setting is Memphis. Fashionable Words (French: Les Mots à la mode, 1694). A comedy spoofing the fashion fads of the time and their associated terminology. Scenes are devoted to listing the many names for variants of the fontange hairstyle. The long list includes names such as "bourgogne" (Burgundy), "jardiniere" (gardener), "souris" (mouse), "effrontée" (shameless), and "crève-cœur" (heartbreaker). Meleager (French: Méléagre, 1694). A tragedy, unperformed. Based on the legendary hunt for the Calydonian Boar. The play takes place in Calydon, a city in Aetolia. The main characters are (1) Meleager, son of Oeneus and Althaea, and his lover (2) Atalanta, daughter of Iasus. Ésope à la Cour (English: Aesop at the Court, 1701). Sequel to the previous work, first performed shortly after the death of the writer. A number of characters and situations point to its social context at the dawn of the 18th-century. Croesus appoints Aesop as his Minister of State, and the newly appointed man delivers a speech condemning the vices of the royal court: dishonesty, hypocrisy, deception, flattery, love of gambling, and dissipation. The target is evidently not the court of Croesus, but that of Louis XIV. Another scene has Aesop debating religion with Iphicrates, a retired general who doubts the very existence of God. Iphicrates is a representative of freethought, though Aesop reminds him that free-thinkers still send for priests when at death's door. Another target for criticism was relatively new for French comedy, "M. Griffet" the fermier (tax farmer). Jean de La Bruyère