Note 484 — Chapter V · SATIRIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE LEARNED LADY IN COMEDY

There are two other indications of the early influence of Les Précieuses. Flecknoe published in 1667 an unacted play entitled Damoiselles à la mode, a sort of mosaic made up from four plays of which Les Précieuses was one. September 15, 1668, Pepys wrote: "To the King's play-house, to see a new play, acted but yesterday, a translation out of French by Dryden, called 'The Lady's à la Mode': so mean a thing as when they came to say it would be acted again to-morrow, both he that said it, Beeson, and the pit fell a-laughing, there being this day not a quarter of the pit full." Pepys is the only authority for attributing the piece to Dryden.