Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-173) and index
I. The formula: structure and statistics -- II. Sources and channels -- III. Towards F in France, 1630-1659 -- IV. Moliere and his contemporaries -- The conscious exploitation of F -- Marivaux and his contemporaries, 1715-1760 -- V. The dissolution of F.