INTRODUCTION. It would be extremely interesting, did time and space allow, to study the influence which Biblical literature had upon the French drama, and to see with what success both before and since Racine the tragic muse amongst our neighbours caught its inspiration from the Sacred Scriptures. 5 The medieval miracle plays, described in a previous volume of this series, may be left unnoticed; if we wish to find a dramatic production really deserving to be called a work of art, and the subject of which is borrowed from Christian traditions, we must come down as late as Corneille's Polyeucte; 10 for the Saül of Du Ryer and the Saint Eustache of Balthazar Baro, both brought out in 1639, are absolutely worthless. 'À la renaissance vraie du théâtre au temps de Henri IV,' says M. Sainte-Beuve, ‘(car à cette époque, université, religion, société polie, théâtre, il y eut sur tous les points toutes les 15 sortes de renaissance), sous Hardi et ses successeurs immédiats, le genre des sujets religieux et Chrétiens ne s'était pas reproduit, ou l'avait été sans aucun éclat.' Rotrou's Saint Genest (1646) was suggested to its author by Corneille's masterpiece: it is an episode of the Acta 20 Sanctorum, treated with considerable vigour and talent by a man of real genius, and the excellent analysis which M. SainteBeuve has given of it in his Port-Royal (i. 151-170) proves sufficiently that Rotrou deserves the reputation he still enjoys at the present day. The author of Polyeucte made another attempt to dramatize religious themes, but the performance of Théodore Vierge et 25 5 Martyre (1645) was a signal failure, and, as the illustrious causeur already quoted remarks, 'alla presque au scandale.' The selection of the subject displayed great want of taste, and some of the incidents were quite repulsive. Racine's Esther and Athalie form the next two links in the chain of what the French critics call 'tragédies sacrées ;' and then we come to Duché, whose Absalon, composed also for the school of Saint Cyr, is almost worthy to be ranked amongst the chefs d'œuvre of French dramatic literature. After him, 10 so far as our subject is concerned, the reign of dull mediocrity begins, and we need only allude to Boyer's tragedy of Judith, amusingly characterised by Racine himself in the following epigram: 15 20 A sa Judith, Boyer, par aventure, "Bon gré vous sais," lui dit le vieux rimeur; Lors le richard, en larmoyant, lui dit: 66 'Je pleure, hélas! de ce pauvre Holoferne, Si méchamment mis à mort par Judith."" The illustrative matter I had to dispose of for my notes 25 on Athalie is so copious, that the difficulty was to make a selection. Besides introducing the various readings, &c., given by M. Paul Mesnard, in the beautiful edition prepared for Messrs. Hachette's 'Grands Écrivains de la France,' I have borrowed largely from the best commentators, and I am quite sure that 30 my readers will thank me for placing before them, by way of preface, M. Sainte-Beuve's reflections on Racine's last and best tragedy. Two separate editions of Athalie were published during the poet's life-time: one in quarto in 1691 (chez Denys Thierry, avec privilège du Roy), and one in octavo 35 in 1692. GUSTAVE MASSON, |