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.