The story
- French · calque ofpièce bien faite
- English todaywell-made play
Calque of French pièce bien faite, developed by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe (1791–1861).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
well-made play
Today it means: A play belonging to a 19th-century neoclassical theatrical genre involving a tight plot and a climax close to the end. The story depends upon a key piece of information kept from some characters, and moves forward in a chain of actions that use minor reversals of fortune to create suspense. Full definition →
French pièce bien faite