Une expression trompeuse dans l’historiographie du théâtre français au xvii^e siècle : « poète à gages »

The expression “poète à gages” that is to say a hired poet, a writer who is a servant to others, is always used by those writing about French playwright Alexandre Hardy (circa 1575–1632). This term has its origins primarily in the works of historian S. Wilma Deierkauf-Holsboer. However, recent research has shown that it is not correct. It seems that the term should be abandoned in order to allow for a fairer view of what a playwright was in the seventeenth century.