A History of French Literature de William Nitze et Preston Dargan, dont la première édition date de 1921, est typique des ouvrages conçus pour les étudiants anglo-saxons. Pour le théâtre, seuls Corneille, Molière et Racine sont pris au sérieux. Par exemple :
Compared to his contemporaries Racine is like an oasis in a desert. Pradon imitated him but is remembered only by his opposition with respect to Phèdre. Quinault and Thomas Corneille had of course been wholly outdistanced.
Neanmoins, Quinault mérite une phrase positive :
Quinault's Stratonice (1660) approached opera in harmonious lyrism and in mere elegance of expression.
William A. Nitze et E. Preston Dargan,
A History of French Literature from the Earliest Times to the Present,
3e édition, New York, Holt, 1938, p. 322, 315.