A Tragic Farce

The Civil War of the Fronde was recognized right from the start as having the making of an entertaining piece of theatre: colourful intrigues, spectacular episodes, unstoppable heroes, fearless heroines. After the fashion of a play programme, this introduces the leading members of the cast, gives a synopsis of the plot and shows how and why a performance that initially drew applause ultimately turned out to be a flop. The writer narrates the Fronde for the benefit of English-speaking francophiles whose prior knowledge and command of French are not unlimited.