Corneille ‘Le Cid’ by W.D. Howarth. Introduction Theatrical season: 1636-37 The first major...
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Transcript of Corneille ‘Le Cid’ by W.D. Howarth. Introduction Theatrical season: 1636-37 The first major...
![Page 1: 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.](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022070308/551beb52550346c3588b62de/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Corneille ‘Le Cid’by W.D. Howarth
![Page 2: 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.](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022070308/551beb52550346c3588b62de/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
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.
![Page 3: 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.](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022070308/551beb52550346c3588b62de/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
‘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
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Historical Context Cont.
• Richelieu• Académie Française
• Compagnie des cinq auteurs
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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.”
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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.
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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.
![Page 9: 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.](https://reader036.fdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022070308/551beb52550346c3588b62de/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
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)
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Works Cited
Howarth, W.D. Corneille: Le Cid. London: Grant and Cutler LTD, 1988. Print.