I suppose, identifying the correct answer is in the key "now accepted".
Shakespeare and Mo are "now accepted" as greatest but earlier to their "own people", they were not considered so.
The BEST FIT would be contemporaries.

All others like actors/audience/scribes etc may fit in a particular context, like if there are additional two lines which talks about the opinion of scribes etc. However with no additional information, the best word is contemporaries.

finding their profit in every new device of their fellow craftsmen. --> They must be considered so by fellow craftsmen OR CONTEMPORARIES

Can you please explain this sir

The correct answer is C. contemporaries.

Explanation
- Logic: The sentence contrasts how Shakespeare and Molière are viewed "now" (by modern audiences/history) with how they were viewed by people of "their own" time period. The word needed must describe the people living during the same era as the playwrights.
- Vocabulary:
- Contemporaries means people living or occurring at the same time. This perfectly completes the contrast between past and present reception.
- Actors is too narrow; while they worked with actors, their reputation as "ingenious playwrights" extended to the theater-going public and rivals of their era.
- Audience is tempting, but "their own audience" is idiomatically weaker here than "contemporaries," which encompasses the broader cultural and critical view of their era (including rivals, critics, and the public).
- Allies implies political or strategic partners, which doesn't fit a general artistic reputation.
- Scribes refers to people who copy documents, which is irrelevant to their peer group.

Let me know if you need further assistance