The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born in Paris, 1655. Died at Dourdan, in France, 1709. Aged 54.] A celebrated comic writer of France, and a man of many adventures. Returning from an Italian journey, he was taken by pirates, and sold to slavery in Algiers. Whilst there he was sentenced to become a Mussulman, or to be burnt alive. Ransomed by the French Consul in 1681, he resumed his travels northwards. In 1683, he took up his abode in Paris, and wrote comedies, which became very popular,--the most successful being “The Gamester,” produced in 1696. Regnard had an inexhaustible fund of humour. Voltaire has said that “he who is not pleased with Regnard, is not entitled to admire Molière.” [In marble, by J. J. Foucon, signed and dated 1779. There is a copy of this bust at Versailles.]