In its modern form, the comedy of manners was essentially created by Molière in such plays as Les Précieuses ridicules (1658) and Le Médecin malgré lui (1666).

 

In the last, Lady Teazle berates her husband for denying her “little elegant expenses”: LADY TEAZLE For my part, I should think you would like to have your wife thought a woman of taste. SIR PETER Aye – there again – taste! Zounds! madam, you had no taste when you married me! LADY TEAZLE That's very true, indeed, Sir Peter… The elegant wit of the comedy of manners was revived in the late 19th century by Oscar Wilde in such plays as Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In the 20th century some of the plays of Noël Coward, such as Private Lives (1930), belong to this genre.