This unique volume contains studies not only of Corneille's and Racine's tragedies but also of the best work of the lesser French-classical tragic dramatists, too generally neglected, to whom more than half of the book is devoted. Its author brings to his tasks of presentation, criticism, and appraisal a wider acquaintance, perhaps, with the drama of many lands and times than anyone who has previously written at any considerable length on the subject of French-classical tragedy. To the desirable perspective thus obtained, he joins an appreciation of good plays of every type, without prejudice either for or against any type of drama. Numerous, often lengthy, quoted passages (with an English verse translation accompanying the French in every case) exemplify the achievement and exhibit the qualities of the dramas and dramatists discussed. That portion of the author's critical work in this field which has already appeared, as introductions in his volumes of translated plays, has been much appreciated, as witness the following brief excerpts from reviews of those books: "The plays...are discussed with insight and enthusiasm."--(London) Notes and Queries. "Refreshingly original and yet free from specious pleading or naïve enthusiasm."--Chattanooga Times. "Thoughtful, discerning appraisals."--Seventeenth Century News. "An excellent critical introduction."--The Library Journal. "A judicious introduction."--Arthur Knodel in The Personalist. "The very best interpretative treatment of Corneille that has appeared."--C. Maxwell Lancaster.

Chiefly treats Corneille and Racine.

Excerpt from An Introduction to the French Classical Drama If we assume with the large majority of French critics that the seventeenth century was the time in which French art most truly reflected the ideal qualities of the French nation as a whole, we shall be anxious to discover in the literature of that century what it is that marks it off from the pscudo-classical literature of the age of Anne in England, and why the Siede d'or is a truer epithet as applied to France than the 'Augustan age' as applied to England. It was, in the first place, the age of the greatest French dramatists : and it is not generally disputed that though the genius of the French can be expressed in beautiful and lucid prose, whether in the seventeenth-century 'period' or the freer, more pictured phrase of modern times, yet the drama offers to the French spirit its greatest opportunities. Perhaps one reason for this is to be seen in a consideration of the national temperament. In contrast to the genius of the Teuton, which tends to express the thought and emotion of the individual, the French mind tends to express in art and literature the thought and feeling of man as part of a society. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.