Scribe’s masterpiece in the field of full-length comedy is usually considered to be The Glass of Water. Never overly concerned with factual accuracy, Scribe concentrated in his historical plays on intricate plots mixing real and fictional characters. As critics have noted, Scribe had no passion for history and, unlike the Romantics, felt no urge to reconstruct the manners and attitudes of past eras. Yet Scribe’s motivation in writing historical drama was not limited to catering to popular taste. Political upheavals provided a suitable backdrop for a five-act drama of constant reversals and intrigues and allowed Scribe to depict the past as a metaphor for the present.