KINGDOM OF FRANCE AUTHOR · DRAMA · FICTION
Jean Racine
Also known as: Racine, Jean Baptiste Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( rass-EEN, US also rə-SEEN; French: [ʒɑ̃ batist ʁasin]; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther, for the young. Racine's plays displayed his mastery of the dodecasyllabic (12 syllable) French alexandrine. His writing is renowned for its elegance, purity, speed, and fury, and for what American poet Robert Lowell described as a "diamond-edge", and the "glory of its hard, electric rage".
Yes, reunited with so true a friend,
— from Andromaque
Most acclaimed
Théâtre complet
1919
Racine's poetry is always thought to be untranslatable; so one of the world's great dramatists remains inaccessible to readers without French. This is the best translation into English; Professor Knight has used a regular English blank verse which conveys remarkably well both the formality and the passion of the original. the plays given here - Andromache, Iphigenia, Phaedra and Athaliah - are chosen because the first three are those which come nearest in subject and feeling to the Attic tragedy that Racine always claimed as his inspiration; while the final biblical drama with its choruses comes nearest to the original Greek form, and perhaps to its spirit. These choruses in Professor Knight's version adhere to the French poetic form, and can be sung to the original music by Moreau. this will be a very helpful group of texts for students of drama. They will act well, and also give the armchair reader a sense of the original.
Berenice
Antiochus. Arretons un moment. La pompe de ces lieux, je le vois bien, Arsace, est nouvelle a tes yeux. Souvent ce cabinet superbe et solitaire des secrets de Titus est le depositaire. C'est ici quelquefois qu'il se cache a sa cour, lorsqu'il vient a la reine expliquer son amour. De son appartement cette porte est prochaine, et cette autre conduit dans celui de la reine. Va chez elle : dis-lui qu'importun a regret j'ose lui demander un entretien secret. Arsace. Vous, seigneur, importun ? Vous, cet ami fidele qu'un soin si genereux interesse pour elle ? Vous, cet Antiochus son amant autrefois ? Vous, que l'orient compte entre ses plus grands rois ? Quoi ? Deja de Titus epouse en esperance, ce rang entre elle et vous met-il tant de distance ? Antiochus. Va, dis-je ; et sans vouloir te charger d'autres soins, vois si je puis bientot lui parler sans temoins. ACTE I , SCENE II .Antiochus, seul.