Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther for the young.
Portrait of Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine on the 1989 USSR commemorative stamp
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière".
Portrait of Molière by Pierre Mignard (c. 1658)
Molière as Caesar in The Death of Pompey by Pierre Corneille, portrait by Nicolas Mignard
Illustration after Pierre Brissart for the printed text of L'Étourdi ou les Contretemps
First volume of a 1739 translation into English of all of Molière's plays, printed by John Watts.