Unreal unrealities : prison as locus in Seventeenth Century French comic and tragicomic theatre

First of two articles considering the importance of the locus of the prison in C17th French theatre. In comic & tragicomic theatre, the locus has a functionality on various levels including plot, characterisation and comic effect. However, the locus is not necessarily confined to the traditional notion of prison as a building in which prisoners are held, as imprisonment can take many forms (e.g. Agnès in Molière's «L'École des Femmes»).