18th Centrury's most influential plyawright

Although agruments can be made for many writers of the 18th Century if we take into consideration of the fact that:

  "In Italy and in Germany, as in England and in Spain, the men-of-letters maintained the necessity of conforming to the theatrical theory of the French because they believed the French to be the only true exponents of the Greek tradition.." 1

The answer would be Racine for tragedy and Moliere for comedy.


1 The Drama in the 18th Century This article was originally published in The Development of the Drama. Brander Matthews. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912. pp. 263-295.