The Project Gutenberg EBook of Polyeucte, by Pierre Corneille

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Title: Polyeucte

Author: Pierre Corneille

Translator: Thomas Constable

Release Date: April 3, 2006 [EBook #2543]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLYEUCTE ***

Produced by Dagny; Emma Dudding; John Bickers

POLYEUCTE

By Pierre Corneille

Translated by Thomas Constable

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Pierre Corneille was born in Rouen in 1606, the son of an official; was
educated by the Jesuits, and practised unsuccessfully as a lawyer. His
dramatic career began with the comedy of "Melite," but it was by his
"Medee" that he first proved his tragic genius. "The Cid" appeared
in 1636, and a series of masterpieces followed--"Horace," "Cinna,"
"Polyeucte," "Le Menteur." After a failure in "Pertharite" he retired
from the stage, deeply hurt by the disapproval of his audience. Six
years later he resumed play writing with "OEdipe" and continued till
1674, producing in all some thirty plays. Though he earned a great
reputation, he was poorly paid; and a proud and sensitive nature laid
him open to considerable suffering. He died in 1684.

The works of Corneille represent most fully the ideal of French
so-called "classical" tragedy. The laws to which this type of tragedy
sought to conform were not so much truth to nature as the principles
which the critics had derived from a somewhat inadequate interpretation
of Aristotle and of the practise of the Greek tragedians. These
principles concentrated the interest of the play upon a single central
situation, in order to emphasize which, subordinate characters and
complicating under-plots were avoided as much as possible. There was
little or no action upon the stage, and the events of the plot were
narrated by messengers, or by the main characters in conversation with
confidantes. Further, the "dramatic unities" of time and place, as well
as of action, were held to be binding.

One result of these rules was to give an extraordinary importance to
the speeches; and it is in the eloquence of these, in the grandeur and
dignity of the versification, and in the lofty moral elevation of th