Académie Royale de Danse other documents, however, it is clear the number is correctly stated. The identity of the omitted thirteenth member has long been a point of disagreement among dance historians. Gaston Vuillier forwarded Beauchamp as the missing member, while Régine Astier (Kunzel) unabashedly claimed it was Henri Prévost. Both were wrong. The original document signed by King Louis XIV was preserved in the French National Archives, and upon its close inspection in 1997 by scholar Maureen Needham, the thirteenth name was revealed to be “Molière.” Not to be confused with Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière (1622-73), the famous playwright of King Louis’ reign responsible
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai (12 June 1760 – 25 August 1797) was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician, and diplomat. Born in Paris as the son of a stationer, he became a bookseller's clerk, and first attracted attention with the first part of his novel "Les Amours du chevalier de Faublas" (Paris, 1787; English translation illustrated by etchings by Louis Monzies in 1898); it was followed in 1788 by "Six semaines de la vie du chevalier de Faublas" and in 1790 by "La Fin des amours du chevalier de Faublas". The heroine, Lodoiska, was modelled on