Inspirational Quotations by Jean Racine (French Dramatist)

Jean Baptiste Racine (1639–99) was the principal tragedian of the French classical period. He is considered one of the greatest tragic dramatists in the history of the theater.

Orphaned at age four, Racine was brought up by nuns of the heretical Catholic Jansenist order, for whom the theater was an anathema. His solid education, especially in ancient Greek, made him well equipped to embark on a literary career. He attained some praise for his poetry while studying at the University of Paris. After training for priesthood, he established himself among the court circle of King Louis XIV as that age’s preeminent tragedian.

Racine’s early plays, such as La Thébaïde (1664) and Alexandre le Grand (1665,) were inspired by contemporaries such as rivals Pierre Corneille and Molière. Racine’s later plays, Andromaque (1667,) Les Plaideurs (1668,) Britannicus (1669,) Bérénice (1670,) Mithridate (1673,) and his masterpiece Phèdre (1677,) epitomize the peak of dramatic art in seventeenth-century. Phèdre is based on the Greek legend on Queen Phaedra who falls in love with her stepson and commits suicide after her husband Theseus returns from the underworld and uncovers her unfaithfulness.

Racine’s 11 tragedies and a comedy are admired for his portrayal of humans’ subtle psychology and the perception of the blind folly of human passion. After the publication of Phèdre, Racine experienced a religious conversion; he abandoned the theater and reunited with the Jansenists. He took the position of a royal historiographer and spent his last 22 years recording the activities of the king and his court. Racine wrote two religious plays, Esther (1689) and Athalie (1691,) before falling from the king’s favor in 1698, a year before he died.

• READ: Books by Jean Racine