Reading Order
Le CidLe Cid and the Cornelian Tragedies Reading Order
Le Cid (1637) by Pierre Corneille is the founding play of French classical theatre and the most celebrated theatrical controversy of the 17th century — a tragicomedy that was both the greatest popular success of its age and the target of a sustained critical campaign orchestrated by Richelieu's Académie française. The play adapts Guillén de Castro's Las Mocedades del Cid: Rodrigue and Chimène love each other; Rodrigue's father and Chimène's father quarrel over court honors; Rodrigue kills Chimène's father in a duel to defend his own family's honor; Chimène demands Rodrigue's death even while continuing to love him. The central dramatic conflict is the incompatibility of love and honor — both are absolute obligations, and the play refuses to resolve them, ending ambiguously with the king ordering Chimène to marry Rodrigue while leaving the emotional resolution uncertain. The 'Querelle du Cid' (1637–1638) pitted Corneille against the Académie française (in the Sentiments de l'Académie sur Le Cid) over questions of the unities and vraisemblance — whether it was plausible that Chimène could agree to marry the man who killed her father; the quarrel established the theoretical framework of French classical theatre. Corneille later wrote the great Roman tragedies — Horace (1640), Cinna (1641), Polyeucte (1642) — that define 'Cornelian' heroism: the hero who rises above natural feeling through an act of will.
Where to start
Read Le Cid first — it's the most accessible and most dramatically exciting of the Corneille plays. Then read Horace (1640) — the most austere and most 'Cornelian' — and Cinna (1641), the political tragedy. Polyeucte (1642) is the Christian tragedy. For the theoretical context, the Discours des trois unités (1660) is Corneille's own statement of his dramatic principles. Read Racine's Andromaque (1667) for the contrast: Racine's tragedy shows what happens when the Cornelian hero loses the power of will.
Complete Le Cid Book List
- 1Buy
Le Cid
Pierre Corneille·1637·The founding play — Rodrigue, Chimène, the duel, the Moors; the conflict of love and honor; the most popular French play of the 17th century - 2Buy
Horace
Pierre Corneille·1640·The most Cornelian — the Roman who kills his sister Camille for mourning the enemy she loved; 'Qu'il mourût'; the triumph of political over personal obligation - 3Buy
Cinna
Pierre Corneille·1641·The political tragedy — Auguste pardons the conspirators who plotted his death; the analysis of political generosity and its relation to power; the most philosophically complex Corneille - 4Buy
Polyeucte
Pierre Corneille·1642·The Christian tragedy — the Armenian noble who converts to Christianity and seeks martyrdom; the conflict of divine grace and human love; the theological Corneille - 5Buy
Nicomède
Pierre Corneille·1651·The late masterpiece — the prince who defeats his enemies through wit and contempt rather than physical courage; the most Cornelian of the late plays; the hero who cannot be broken
Le Cid — Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Cornelian" heroism?
The 'Cornelian' hero is the character who, faced with an impossible choice between love and duty or passion and honor, overcomes natural feeling through an act of will and chooses the higher obligation — Rodrigue killing Chimène's father, Horace killing his sister Camille, Auguste pardoning Cinna. The will that rises above the passions is the Cornelian formula.
What was the Querelle du Cid?
The Querelle du Cid (1637–1638) was the literary controversy triggered by the play's enormous success — Richelieu commissioned the Académie française to write the Sentiments sur Le Cid, criticizing its violations of the unities and its implausible ending (can Chimène marry the man who killed her father?); the controversy defined French classical dramatic theory.
What are the three unities?
The three unities are the neoclassical rules for French classical tragedy: unity of action (one main plot), unity of time (the action takes place within 24 hours), and unity of place (the action is set in one location). Derived from Aristotle's Poetics (loosely), they were formalized in France in the 1630s in the context of the Querelle du Cid.
How does Corneille differ from Racine?
In Corneille, the hero overcomes passion through will — Rodrigue chooses honor over love and succeeds. In Racine, the characters are destroyed by passion they cannot overcome — Phèdre cannot stop loving Hippolyte even though she wills it. Corneille is the theatre of will; Racine is the theatre of fate.
What is 'Qu'il mourût' in Horace?
'Qu'il mourût' (That he should have died) is the most celebrated line in French classical theatre — the old Horace's answer to the question 'What should your son have done when faced with three enemies?'; the absolute demand of Roman honor that the son die rather than retreat; the formula of Cornelian heroism at its most extreme.
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