Jean Racine

Definition and stakes

Jean Racine (1639–1699), a pivotal figure of 17th-century French drama, is celebrated for his neoclassical tragedies such as Phèdre and Andromaque, renowned for their psychological depth and mastery of the alexandrine verse. His works, marked by intense emotion and moral struggle, contrasted with the heroic grandeur of Corneille, as noted by critics like William Cleaver Wilkinson, who emphasized Racine’s focus on art over nature.

George Saintsbury acknowledged Racine’s ability to capture human vulnerability, while his own plays, like Phèdre, reveal a conflict between longing and obligation. Synthesizing these perspectives, Racine’s legacy lies in his blend of poetic precision and existential drama, shaping French literature’s tragic canon.

Quotes about “Jean Racine”

William Cleaver Wilkinson, French Classics

“ Jean Racine was Pierre Corneille reduced to rule. The younger was to the elder somewhat as Sophocles or Euripides was to Æschylus, as Virgil was to Lucretius, as Pope was to Dryden. Nature was more in Corneille, art was more in Racine. Corneille was a pathfinder in literature. He led the way even for Molière still more for Racine. But Racine was as much before Corneille in perfection of art as Corneille was before Racine in audacity of genius. Racine, accordingly, is much more even and uniform than Corneille. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

William Cleaver Wilkinson, French Classics

“ To such mutations is subject the fame of an author.
Jean Racine was early left an orphan. His grandparents put him, after preparatory training at another establishment, to school at Port Royal, where during three years he had the best opportunities of education that the kingdom afforded. His friends wanted to make a clergyman of him; but the preferences of the boy prevailed, and he addicted himself to literature. The Greek tragedists became familiar to him in his youth, and their example in literary art exercised a sovereign influence over Racine’s development as author. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

George Saintsbury, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 22… (1911)

“ But there is a higher game of criticism than this, and this game Racine does not attempt to play. He does not even attempt the highest poetry at all. His greatest achievements in pure passion-the foiled desires of Hermione and the jealous frenzy of Phédre-are cold, not merely beside the crossed love of Ophelia and the remorse of Lady Macbeth, but beside the sincerer if less perfectly expressed passion of Corneille’s Cléopatre and Camille. In men’s parts he fails still more completely. ”

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Source: Wikisource

George Saintsbury, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 22… (1911)

“ He had besides a real and saving vein of truth to nature, which preserved him from tricks pure and simple. He would be, and he was, as much a poet as prevalent taste would let him be. The result is that such plays as Phédre and Andromaque are supreme in their own way. If the critic will only abstain from thrusting in tierce, when according to the particular rules he ought to thrust in quart, Racine is sure to beat him. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Jean Racine

Definition and stakes

Quotes about “Jean Racine”

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