Floridor

Floridor [ Josias de Soulas, Sieur de Primefosse] (c.1608–71), French actor, leader of a troupe of strolling players whom he took to London in 1635, appearing before the Court and at the Cockpit in Drury Lane. Three years later he toured the French provinces and then joined the company of the Théâtre du Marais. Some of his best performances were given in the plays of Pierre Corneille, and it may have been Floridor's move to the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1647 which induced Corneille to give his later plays to that theatre rather than the Marais. Floridor soon became the leader of the company, his quiet, authoritative acting being in marked contrast to the bombastic style of his colleague Montfleury, and he was the only actor spared by Molière in his mockery of the rival troupe in L'Impromptu de Versailles (1663).