Playwright, born in Rouen, NW France. He trained as a lawyer, but in 1629 went to Paris, where his comedy Mélite was highly successful, and he became a favourite of Cardinal Richelieu. Other comedies followed, then in 1636 Le Cid, a classical tragedy, took Paris by storm. Other major tragedies were Horace (1639), Cinna (1639), and Polyeucte (1640). Le Menteur (1642, The Liar) entitles him to be called the father of French comedy as well as of French tragedy. A master of the alexandrine verse form, he wrote many other plays, and in 1671 he joined Molière and Quinault in writing Psyché, a play employing music, incorporating ballet sequences, and written in lyrical language. After his marriage in 1640 he lived in Rouen until 1662, then settled in Paris.
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Biography
Early life and plays
Corneille was born at Rouen, France, to Marthe le Pesant and Pierre Corneille (a minor administrative official). It is unknown exactly when the writing took place, but the play, the comedy Mélite, surfaced when Corneille brought it to a group of traveling actors in 1629. The play was a success in Paris, and Corneille began writing plays on a regular basis. Corneille describes his variety of comedy as "une peinture de la conversation des honnêtes gens" ("a painting of the conversation of the gentry").
Les Cinq Auteurs
1634 brought more attention to Corneille. The Cardinal took notice of Corneille and selected him to be among Les Cinq Auteurs ('The Five Poets'; After his initial contract ended, Corneille left Les Cinq Auteurs and returned to Rouen.
Querelle du Cid
In the years directly following this break with Richelieu, Corneille produced what is considered his finest play.
The original 1637 edition of the play was subtitled a tragicomedy, acknowledging that it intentionally defies the classical tragedy/comedy distinction. Cardinal Richelieu's Académie Française acknowledged the play's success, but determined that it was defective, in part because it did not respect the classical unities of time, place, and action (Unity of Time stipulated that all the action in a play must take place within a twenty-four hour time-frame; The Académie's recommendations concerning the play are articulated in Jean Chapelain's Sentiments de l'Académie française sur la tragi-comédie du Cid (1638). Even the prominent writer Georges de Scudéry harshly criticized the play in his Observations sur le Cid (1637).
The controversy grew too much for Corneille, who decided to return to Rouen. When one of his plays was reviewed unfavorably, Corneille was known to withdraw from public life.
Response to the Querelle du Cid
After a hiatus from the theater, Corneille returned in 1640. The Querelle du Cid caused Corneille to pay closer attention to classical dramatic rules. These three plays and Le Cid, are collectively known as Corneille's 'Classical Tetralogy'. Corneille also responded to the criticisms of the Académie by making multiple revisions to Le Cid to make it closer to the conventions of classical tragedy. In the mid to late 1640’s, Corneille produced mostly tragedies: La Mort de Pompée (The Death of Pompey, performed 1644), Rodogune (performed 1645), Theodore (performed 1646), and Héraclius (performed 1647).
In 1652, the play Pertharite was met with poor critical reviews and, a disheartened Corneille decided to quit his involvement in the theatre. After an absence of nearly eight years, Corneille was persuaded to return to the stage in 1659. In the next year, Corneille published Trois discours sur le poème dramatique (Three Discourses on Dramatic Poetry), which were, in part, defenses of his style. Although the relevance of classical rules is maintained, Corneille suggests that the rules should not be so tyrannical that they stifle innovation.
Later plays
Even though Corneille was prolific after his return to the stage, writing one play a year for the 14 years after 1659, his plays did not have the same success as those written in his earlier career. In 1670, Corneille and Jean Racine, one of his dramatic rivals, were challenged to write plays on the same incident. When both plays were completed, it was generally acknowledged that Corneille’s Tite et Bérénice (1671) was inferior to Racine’s play (Bérénice). Most of the plays that Corneille wrote after his return to the stage were tragedies.
Quotes
From Corneille's plays
"When we conquer without danger our triumph is without glory." - PolyeucteAbout Corneille
“Le Cid marks the birth of a man, the rebirth of poetry, the dawn of a great century.” – Sainte-Beuve (transl.)E-Text
Works by Pierre Corneille at Project Gutenberg Le Cid, available freely at Project Gutenberg Le Cid, available freely at Project Gutenberg Cinna (French)Further reading
Books
Guizot, M.Works
Mélite (1629) Clitandre (1630–31) la Veuve (1631) la Galerie du Palais (1631–32) la Place royale (1633–34) l'Illusion comique (1636) Médée (1635) le Cid (1637) Horace (1640) Cinna (1641) Polyeucte (1642) la Mort de Pompée (1643) Le Menteur (1643) Rodogune (1644) Héraclius (1647) Don Sanche d'Aragon (1650) Andromède, (1650) Nicomède, (1651) Pertharite, (1651) l'Imitation de Jésus-Christ (1656) Oedipe (1659) Trois Discours sur le poème dramatique (1660) La Toison d'or (1660) Sertorius (1662) Othon (1664) Agésilas (1666) Attila (1667) Tite et Bérénice (1670) Psyché (w/ Molière and Philippe Quinault,1671) Suréna (1674) Wikisource has original text related to this article: Pierre Corneille Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pierre Corneille Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pierre Corneille|
Preceded by: François Maynard |
Seat 14 Académie française 1647–1684 |
Succeeded by: Thomas Corneille |
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