French Tragic Drama In The 16 Und 17 Centuries

Originally published in 1973, the history of French tragedy and tragicomedy from their origins in the sixteenth century to the last years of Louis XIV’s reign is here surveyed in a single volume. Beginning with a brief account of the development of drama from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Dr Brereton examines the plays as types of drama, the circumstances in which they were produced and their reception by contemporaries. The traditionally great figures of Corneille and Racine are treated at some length, but their work is seen in perspective against the plays of their predecessors and of their own time. Garnier and Montchrestien are discussed, among others, as notable writers of Renaissance humanist tragedy. Sections are devoted to secondary but still important dramatists such as Mairet, Rotrou, Du Ryer, Tristan L’Hermite, Thomas Corneille and Quinault. A long chapter on Alexandre Hardy reviews the work of this neglected author and stresses his interest as a transitional link between the two centuries and as a vigorous pioneer of a type of drama which flourished for several decades after him concurrently with French ‘classical’ tragedy. The main currents of critical theory, social attitudes and stage history are described in their relation to the development of the drama. Well over a hundred plays are discussed or summarized; and the author has constantly referred back to the original material and has avoided an over-simplification of a vast subject which contains more exceptions and anomalies than has generally been recognized in the past. Chronological tables of the works of major dramatists, summaries of numerous plays and a bibliography containing modern editions of plays are included.

Studies the representation of violence in tragedies written for the French stage during the sixteenth century, and explores its connection with issues such as politics, religion, gender, and militantism to place the plays within their historical, cultural, and theatrical contexts.

Corneille virtually founded seventeenth-century French tragedy: Le Cid and the three subsequent tragedies gave the genre its models and much of its theory. Many critics have created a synthetic picture of "Cornelian heroism" by seeing these four plays as representative of all Corneille's work, thus neglecting the sixteen others that followed. Now the tide has turned: scholars are trying to analyse the meaning of Cornielle's work with close reference to historical events and political ideas.

Antoine de Montchrestien's tragedies have been the object of increased critical attention over the years. This annotated edition makes two of his most interesting plays available – Hector, often recognised as one of the masterpieces of French regular rhetorical tragedy, and La Reine d'Escosse, a showcase of Montchrestien's concept of tragedy.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.