Note 1065 — Chapter VII · THE EARLIEST DIFFERENTIATIONS OF POETRY

See Maurice Drack, Le Théâtre de la Foire, la Comédie Italienne, et l’Opéra-comique, Paris, 1889. Vol. I. has a sketch of the movement—from 1678 on—indicated in the title. It began with the pièce à couplets, and passed gradually into modern comic opera. The great popular fair of St. Lawrence, at Paris, was the scene of part of this development.