Gillian Jondorf challenges the traditional critical approaches to French Renaissance theater, reevaluating its literary merit and originality. She shows how playwrights of the sixteenth century actually achieved an originality by introducing classical themes, breaking with the medieval tradition of religious and morality plays. Whereas many critics have considered writers of French Renaissance drama as mere forerunners of the more famous seventeenth-century writers such as Molière or Racine, Jondorf argues that these plays should be seen as competent and skillfully-composed in their own right. This book will appeal to students of Renaissance literature and European drama, as well as those interested in questions of originality and literary influence.