Corneille ‘Le Cid’by W.D. Howarth

Introduction

• Theatrical season: 1636-37• The first major example of a French classical tragedy.• Published in 1637 as a ‘tragicomédie.’• Corneille vs. Critics• Created in conditions of vigorous competition.• Classification change in 1648

• The more generally available version.

‘le milieu’ and ‘le moment’

• Parlement de Paris (1548)• Publication of Du Bellay’s Défense et illustration de la

langue française• Result: French classical tragedy

• Five acts• Alexandrin couplets

Historical Context Cont.

• Richelieu• Académie Française • Compagnie des cinq auteurs

Corneille as a Playwright

• 8 pieces prior to ‘Le Cid’• Clitandre: vintage baroque tragicomedy• 5 comedies: experimentation with place and time• Médée: regular tragedy• L’Illusion comique: “Masterpiece of baroque theatricality.”

Theatrical Qualities• Hinge between multiple set (décor simultané) and single

perspective set.• Single perspective allows for unity of place. • Hôtel de Bourgogne • Le théâtre du Marais• Written for a compartmented stage. • Lack of textual direction. • Demise of multiple set.

Distinguishing Tragicomedy from Tragedy

• 5 distinctions • Drama libre: structure that dramatizes without sense of unity, only

interest. • Events treated as serious, secular, non-historic, and Romanesque. • Denouement is happy. • Leading characters are aristocratic. • Addition of comic passages, but not required.

Querelle du Cid

• Argument over norm of dramatic practice.• Did not respect ‘unity of time’

• 24 hour time frame • One setting• Plot with a single conflict

• Scudéry: Observations sur le cid (1637)• Horace (1640)

Works Cited

Howarth, W.D. Corneille: Le Cid. London: Grant and Cutler LTD, 1988. Print.