Jean Mairet

Jean Mairet (born May 10, 1604, Besançon, Fr.—died Jan. 31, 1686, Besançon) was a classical French dramatist, the forerunner and rival of Pierre Corneille. Mairet’s characters, his verse, and his situations were freely borrowed by his contemporaries. Before Corneille, he brought to the stage the famous Cornelian figures Sophonisbe and Pulchérie, and he anticipated Jean Racine in two important names, Roxane and Pharnace. Mairet worked chiefly in Paris, where he secured important patrons, notably the...