diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/stylelib/classic.mplstyle b/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/stylelib/classic.mplstyle
index 800cda75f5de..247a40916c7d 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/stylelib/classic.mplstyle
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/mpl-data/stylelib/classic.mplstyle
@@ -267,7 +267,6 @@ grid.alpha       :   1.0     # transparency, between 0.0 and 1.0
 legend.fancybox      : False  # if True, use a rounded box for the
                               # legend, else a rectangle
 legend.loc           : upper right
-legend.isaxes        : True   # this option is internally ignored
 legend.numpoints     : 2      # the number of points in the legend line
 legend.fontsize      : large
 legend.borderpad     : 0.4    # border whitespace in fontsize units
@@ -503,4 +502,4 @@ animation.convert_path: convert   # Path to ImageMagick's convert binary.
 animation.convert_args:
 animation.html: none
 
-_internal.classic_mode: True
\ No newline at end of file
+_internal.classic_mode: True
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py b/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
index 6e59c2622774..43c559edcb38 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/rcsetup.py
@@ -1102,8 +1102,6 @@ def validate_hist_bins(s):
 
     #legend properties
     'legend.fancybox': [True, validate_bool],
-
-    # at some point, legend.loc should be changed to 'best'
     'legend.loc': ['best', validate_legend_loc],
 
     # this option is internally ignored - it never served any useful purpose
@@ -1113,12 +1111,12 @@ def validate_hist_bins(s):
     'legend.numpoints': [1, validate_int],
     # the number of points in the legend line for scatter
     'legend.scatterpoints': [3, validate_int],
-    'legend.fontsize': ['large', validate_fontsize],
+    'legend.fontsize': ['small', validate_fontsize],
      # the relative size of legend markers vs. original
     'legend.markerscale': [1.0, validate_float],
     'legend.shadow': [False, validate_bool],
      # whether or not to draw a frame around legend
-    'legend.frameon': [True, validate_bool],
+    'legend.frameon': [False, validate_bool],
      # alpha value of the legend frame
     'legend.framealpha': [None, validate_float_or_None],
 
diff --git a/matplotlibrc.template b/matplotlibrc.template
index fddfee7d05a4..b168beec9040 100644
--- a/matplotlibrc.template
+++ b/matplotlibrc.template
@@ -388,33 +388,32 @@ backend      : $TEMPLATE_BACKEND
 
 
 ### GRIDS
-#grid.color       :   b0b0b0 # grid color
+#grid.color       :   b0b0b0    # grid color
 #grid.linestyle   :   -         # solid
 #grid.linewidth   :   1.0       # in points
 #grid.alpha       :   1.0       # transparency, between 0.0 and 1.0
 
 ### Legend
-#legend.fancybox      : True  # if True, use a rounded box for the
-                              # legend, else a rectangle
 #legend.loc           : best
-#legend.isaxes        : True
-#legend.numpoints     : 1      # the number of points in the legend line
-#legend.fontsize      : large
-#legend.borderpad     : 0.5    # border whitespace in fontsize units
-#legend.markerscale   : 1.0    # the relative size of legend markers vs. original
-# the following dimensions are in axes coords
-#legend.labelspacing  : 0.5    # the vertical space between the legend entries in fraction of fontsize
-#legend.handlelength  : 2.     # the length of the legend lines in fraction of fontsize
-#legend.handleheight  : 0.7     # the height of the legend handle in fraction of fontsize
-#legend.handletextpad : 0.8    # the space between the legend line and legend text in fraction of fontsize
-#legend.borderaxespad : 0.5   # the border between the axes and legend edge in fraction of fontsize
-#legend.columnspacing : 2.    # the border between the axes and legend edge in fraction of fontsize
-#legend.shadow        : False
-#legend.frameon       : True   # whether or not to draw a frame around legend
-#legend.framealpha    : None    # opacity of of legend frame
-#legend.scatterpoints : 3 # number of scatter points
-#legend.facecolor     : inherit
+#legend.frameon       : False    # whether or not to draw a frame around legend
+#legend.framealpha    : None     # legend frame transparency
+#legend.facecolor     : inherit  # inherit from axes.facecolor; or color spec
 #legend.edgecolor     : k
+#legend.fancybox      : True     # if True, use a rounded box for the
+                                 # legend, else a rectangle
+#legend.shadow        : False
+#legend.numpoints     : 1        # the number of marker points in the legend line
+#legend.scatterpoints : 3        # number of scatter points
+#legend.markerscale   : 1.0      # the relative size of legend markers vs. original
+#legend.fontsize      : small
+# Dimensions as fraction of fontsize:
+#legend.borderpad     : 0.4      # border whitespace
+#legend.labelspacing  : 0.5      # the vertical space between the legend entries
+#legend.handlelength  : 2.0      # the length of the legend lines
+#legend.handleheight  : 0.7      # the height of the legend handle
+#legend.handletextpad : 0.8      # the space between the legend line and legend text
+#legend.borderaxespad : 0.5      # the border between the axes and legend edge
+#legend.columnspacing : 2.0      # column separation
 
 ### FIGURE
 # See http://matplotlib.org/api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure