Jean Racine
Classical Greek and Roman themes base noted tragedies, such as
Britannicus
(1669) and
Phèdre
(1677), of French playwright Jean Baptiste Racine.
Adherents of movement of Cornelis Jansen included Jean Baptiste Racine.
This dramatist ranks alongside Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin) and Pierre Corneille of the "big three" of 17th century and of the most important literary figures in the western tradition. Psychological insight, the prevailing passion of characters, and the nakedness of both plot and stage mark dramaturgy of Racine. Although primarily a tragedian, Racine wrote one comedy.
Orphaned by the age of four years when his mother died in 1641 and his father died in 1643, he came into the care of his grandparents. At the death of his grandfather in 1649, his grandmother, Marie des Moulins, went to live in the convent of Port-Royal and took her grandson Jean-Baptiste. He received a classical education at the Petites écoles de Port-Royal, a religious institution that greatly influenced other contemporary figures, including Blaise Pascal.
The French bishops and the pope condemned Jansenism, a heretical theology, but its followers ran Port-Royal. Interactions of Racine with the Jansenists in his years at this academy great influenced the rest of his life. At Port-Royal, he excelled in his studies of the classics, and the themes of Greek and Roman mythology played large roles in his works.
Jean Racine died from cancer of the liver. He requested burial in Port-Royal, but after Louis XIV razed this site in 1710, people moved his body to the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris.
*source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ra...
“Presente, huyes: ausente, te encuentro otra vez.”
“Plus l'offenseur m'est cher, plus je ressens l'injure.”
“J'aime en lui sa beauté, sa grâce tant vantée,Présents dont la nature a voulu l'honorer,Qu'il méprise lui-même, et qu'il semble ignorer.”
“happiness heldis the seedhappiness shared is the flower,happiness seems to be shared”
“Est-ce un malheur si grand que de cesser de vivre?”
“I have loved him too much not to hate”
“J'embrasse mon rival, mais c'est pour l'étouffer.”
“Elle flotte, elle hésite; en un mot, elle est femme.” “(She floats, she hesitates; in a word, she's a woman.)”
“Grâces au ciel, mes mains ne sont point criminelles. Plût aux dieux que mon cœur fût innocent comme elles!”
“ I cherished you inconstant; what would I have done, faithful? Now, even now, when your cruel mouth so calmly speaks my death sentence, I wonder, cold wretch, I wonder still, if I do not love you. ”
“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.”
“A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.”
“In their opinion, a tragedy with so little plot could not conform with the rules of drama. I enquired whether they were complaining that they had found my play boring. I was told that none of them was bored, that they were often touched by it, and that they would go and see it again with pleasure. What more do they want?”
“Le nom d'amant peut-être offense son courage;Mais il en a les yeux, s'il n'en a le langage.”
“Quand tu sauras mon crime, et le sort qui m'accable,Je n'en mourrai pas moins, j'en mourrai plus coupable”