Racine, Jean 1639-99
French dramatist and poet

Racine was born in La Fert�-Milon, the son of a solicitor. He studied at the college of Beauvais and with the Jansenists at Port Royal. There he developed a faculty for verse-making and a liking for romance that disturbed his teachers. At 19 he went to study philosophy at the Coll�ge d'Harcourt, where he wrote the first of many odes, La Nymphe de la Seine, (1660, 'The Nymph of the River Seine') on the marriage of Louis XIV, and made the acquaintance of Jean de la Fontaine, the critic Jean Chapelain (1595-1674), and other men of letters.

In 1664 his first play, La Th�ba�de ou Les Fr�res ennemis (Eng trans The Fatal Legacy, 1723), was acted by Moli�re's company at the Palais Royal. His second, Alexandre le grand (1665, Eng trans Alexander the Great, 1714), was after its sixth performance played by the rival actors at the H�tel de Bourgogne, which led to a break with Moli�re. During the following 10 years Racine produced his greatest works - Andromaque (1667, Eng trans Andromache, 1675); Les Plaideurs (1668, Eng trans The Litigants, 1715), satirizing lawyers; Britannicus (1669, Eng trans 1714); B�r�nice (1670, Eng trans Titus and Berenice, 1701); Bajazet (1672, Eng trans The Sultaness, 1717); Mithridate (1673, Eng trans Mithridates, 1926), produced almost at the moment of his admission to the Academy; Iphig�nie (1675, Eng trans Achilles; or, Iphigenia in Aulis, 1700), a masterpiece of pathos; and Ph�dre (1677, Eng trans Phaedre and Hippolytys, 1756), a marvellous representation of human agony.

When the troupe du roi introduced a rival Ph�dre, by Jacques Pradon, supported by a powerful party, Racine retired from dramatic work, married in June 1677, and settled down to 20 years of domestic happiness. His wife provided him with money, and bore him two sons and five daughters. In 1677, jointly with Nicolas Boileau, he was appointed royal historian. In 1689 and 1691 he wrote two plays on Old Testament themes: Esther for Madame de Maintenon's schoolgirls at Saint-Cyr, and Athalie.

Racine was greatly influenced by Greek drama and adopted its principles as well as taking its subjects (often women). He is regarded, especially in France, as one of the greatest masters of tragic pathos.

Bibliography: Philip Butler, Racine (1974); Geoffrey Brereton, Jean Racine: A Critical Biography (1973); L Goldman, Racine (1973).