George Saintsbury

“ There is even some ground for believing that he endeavoured to prevent the opposition play from being played at all. It was of no value, but the measures of the cabal had been so well taken that the finest tragedy of the French classical school was all but driven from the stage, while Pradon's was a positive success. A war of sonnets and epigrams followed, during which it is said that the duke of Nevers menaced Racine and Boileau with the same treatment which Dryden and Voltaire actually received, and was only deterred by the protection which Condé extended to them. ”

“ The tradition of including acting in education was not obsolete. At first the governess, Madame de Grinon, composed pieces for representation, but, says Madame de Caylus, a witness at first hand and a good judge, they were “detestable.” Then recourse was had to chosen plays of Corneille and Racine, but here there were obvious objections. The favourite herself wrote to Racine that “ nos petites filles ” had played Andromaque “ a great deal too well.” She asked the poet for a new play suited to the circumstances, and, though Boileau advised him against it, it is not wonderful that he yielded. ”

“ It is impossible to imagine anything less Oriental than the atmosphere of Bajazet; the whole thing is not only French but ephemerally French-French of the day and hour; and its ingenious scenario and admirable style scarcely save it. ”

“ It was extremely popular, and Racine could hardly have lodged a more triumphant diploma piece. His next attempt, Iphigénie, was a long step backwards and upwards in the direction of Andromaque. It is not that the characters are eminently Greek, but that Greek tragedy gave Racine examples which prevented him from flying in the face of the propriety of character as he had done in Bérénice, Bajazet, and Mithridate, and that he here called in, as in Andromaque, other passions to the aid of the mere sighing and crying which form the sole appeal of these three tragedies. ”

“ But he filled the piece with personalities, telling an absurd story of Mere Angélique Arnauld's supposed intolerance, drawing a ridiculous picture of Le Maitre (a dead man and his own special teacher and friend) , and sneering savagely at Nicole himself. The latter made no reply, but two lay adherents of Port Royal took up the quarrel with more zeal than discretion or ability. Racine wrote a second pamphlet as bitter and personal as the first, but less amusing, and was about to publish it when fortunately Boileau, who had been absent from Paris, returned and protested against the publication. ”

“ The series of his unquestioned dramatic triumphs began with Andromaque, and this play may perhaps dispute with Phédre and Alhalie the title of his masterpiece. It is much more uniformly good than Phedre, and the character of Hermione is the most personally interesting on the French tragic stage. It is said that the first representation of Andrornaque was on 10th November 1667, in public and by the actors of the Hotel de Bourgogne, but the first contemporary mention of it by the gazettes, prose and verse, is on the 17th, as performed in the queen's apartment. ”

“ It failed completely, the chief favouring voice being, according to a story sufficiently well attested and worthy of belief even without attestation, that of the man who was best qualified to praise and who might have been most tempted to blame of any man then living. Moliére, says Valincourt, the special friend of Racine, said in leaving the house, “ Que ceux qui se moquoient de cette piéce meritoient qu'on se moquoient d'eux.” ”

“ It may be added that in the preface of the printed play the poet showed the extreme sensitiveness to criticism which perhaps excuses, and which certainly often accompanies, a tendency to criticize others. These defects of character showed themselves still more fully in another matter. The Port Royalists, as has been said, detested the theatre, and in January 1666 Nicole, their chief writer, spoke in one of his Lellres sur les visiormaires, directed against Desmurets de Saint-Sulin, of dramatic poets as “empoisonneurs publics." Racine immediately published a letter to the author. ”

“ The first but the least characteristic of the dramas by which Racine is known, La Thébaide, was finished by the end of 1663, and on Friday 20th June 1664 it was played by Moliére’s company at the Palais Royal theatre. Some editors assert that Moliére himself acted in it, but the earliest account of the cast we have, and that is sixty years after date, omits his name, though those of Madeleine Béjard and Mademoiselle de Brie occur. There is also a tradition that Moliére suggested the subject; but Louis Racine distinctly says that his father wrote most of the play at Uzés before he knew Moliere. ”

“ This was much less successful than Andromaque, and seems to have held its own but a very few nights. Afterwards it became very popular, and even from the first the exquisite versification was not denied. But there is no doubt that in Britannicus the defects of Racine display themselves pretty clearly to any competent critic. The complete nullity of Britannicus himself and of junie, and the insufficient attempt to display the complex and dangerous character of Nero are not redeemed by Agrippina, who is really good, and Burrhus, who is solidly painted as a secondary character. ”

“ His son simply says that he was “ mécontent des acteurs, ” which indeed is self-evident. It is certain that Moliére and he ceased to be friends in consequence of this proceeding; and that Moliere was in fault no one who has studied the character of the two men will easily believe. If, however, Alexandre was the occasion of showing the defects of Racine's character as a man, it raised him vastly in public estimation as a poet. He was now for the first time proposed as a serious rival to Corneille. ”

“ An ode on the recovery of Louis XIV. from a slight illness probably secured him the promise of a pension, of which he speaks to his sister in the summer of 1664. It is uncertain whether this pension is identical with “gratifications” which we know that Racine for some years received, and which were sometimes eight and sometimes six hundred livres. ”

“ From other sources—notably Boileau, Claude Brossette and Jean Baptiste de Valincourt—a good deal of pretty certainly authentic information is obtainable, and there exists a considerable body of correspondence between Boileau and the poet during the last ten years of Racine’s life. ”