Phaedra | Page 3

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Etext prepared by Dagny, [email protected] and John Bickers,
[email protected]

Phaedra
by Jean Baptiste Racine
Translated by Robert Bruce Boswell

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
JEAN BAPTISTE RACINE, the younger contemporary of Corneille,
and his rival for supremacy in French classical tragedy, was born at
Ferte- Milon, December 21, 1639. He was educated at the College of
Beauvais, at the great Jansenist school at Port Royal, and at the College
d'Harcourt. He attracted notice by an ode written for the marriage of
Louis XIV in 1660, and made his first really great dramatic success
with his "Andromaque." His tragic masterpieces include "Britannicus,"
"Berenice," "Bajazet," "Mithridate," "Iphigenie," and "Phaedre," all
written between 1669 and 1677. Then for some years he gave up
dramatic composition, disgusted by the intrigues of enemies who
sought to injure his career by exalting above him an unworthy rival. In
1689 he resumed his work under the persuasion of Mme. de Maintenon,
and produced "Esther" and "Athalie," the latter ranking among his
finest productions, although it did not receive public recognition until
some time after his death in 1699. Besides his tragedies, Racine wrote
one comedy, "Les Plaideurs," four hymns of great beauty, and a history
of Port Royal.
The external conventions of classical tragedy which had been
established by Corneille, Racine did not attempt to modify. His study
of the Greek tragedians and his own taste led him to submit willingly to
the rigor and simplicity of form which were the fundamental marks of
the classical ideal. It was in his treatment of character that he differed
most from his predecessor; for whereas, as we have seen, Corneille
represented his leading figures as heroically subduing passion by force
of will, Racine represents his as driven by almost uncontrollable
passion. Thus his creations appeal to the modern reader as more
warmly human; their speech, if less exalted, is simpler and more
natural; and he succeeds more brilliantly with his portraits of women
than with those of men.
All these characteristics are exemplified in "Phaedre," the tragedy of
Racine which has made an appeal to the widest audience. To the legend
as treated by Euripides, Racine added the love of Hippolytus for Aricia,
and thus supplied a motive for Phaedra's jealousy, and at the same time
he made the nurse instead of Phaedra the calumniator of his son to
Theseus.

PHAEDRA

CHARACTERS
THESEUS, son of Aegeus and King of Athens. PHAEDRA, wife of
Theseus and Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. HIPPOLYTUS, son of
Theseus and Antiope, Queen of the Amazons. ARICIA, Princess of the
Blood Royal of Athens. OENONE, nurse of Phaedra. THERAMENES,
tutor of Hippolytus. ISMENE, bosom friend of Aricia. PANOPE,
waiting-woman of Phaedra. GUARDS.

The scene is laid at Troezen, a town of the Peloponnesus.

ACT I
SCENE I HIPPOLYTUS, THERAMENES
HIPPOLYTUS My mind is settled, dear Theramenes, And I can stay no