TYPES OF HEROINES IN THID ~RENCH ROMANTIC DRAMA: A COMPARISON WITH THE H~ROINES OF RACINE AND CORNEILLE • .A Thesis Presented for the Degree of Master of Arts BY Della Roggers Maidox, B. A. -- - . - - ... - - -- --.. - - ....... ·- ~ ;.: ~ ;~;~;-~~~.~-:~ - - - - - - - - -- - - - .. ... .. - THE OHIO-STATE UNIVERSITY -- 19 :20 BIBLIOGRAPHY I. French Sources Histoire da la Langue et ]e la Litterature Fran9aise Vols. IV, V, and VII Petit de Julleville. Drama Ancien, Drame Moderne Emile Faguet. Les 3rands Maitres du XVII~ Siecle, Vol V, IDmile Faguet. Histoire de la Litterature Fran9aise Brunetiere. Le Mouvement Litt~raire ju XIX! Sihcle t'ellissier. Le Rialisme iu Ro~a~ti3me Pellissier. Histoire ie la Litterature Fran9aise Abr Y..1 A11 Uc et Crou z;et Les Epoques iu Theatre Fran9ais• Bruneti~re~ Les Jranis Eorivains 'ran9ais~~Raoine .Justave Larroumet. " II " " Boilea11 Lanson. Histoire iu Romantisme Th6o~hile Gautier. ld(es et Doctrines Litteraires du XrII' Siecle Vial et Denise. n " II II " XIX ' ti Vial et Denise. Histoire de la Litt~rature Fran9aise, Vols.II,III " " " " " Lanson. Portraits Litteraires, Vol I Sainte-Beuve. CauserEes de Lunii Sainte-Beuve. De La Poesie Dramatique, Belles Lettres, Vol. VII Diderot. L'Art Poetique Boi l'eau. Racine et Victor Hugo P. Stapfer. La Poetique de Racine Robert. Les Granis IDcrivains Fran9ais--Alex. Dumas,P~re Parigot. II. English Sources Rousseau and Romanticism Irving Babbitt. Literature of the French Renaissance, Vols. I and II Tilley. Annals of the· French Stage, Vols. II ani III Hawkins. The Romantic Revolt Vaughan. The Romantic Triumph Omond. Studies in Hugo's Dramatic Characters Bruner. Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol.III Brandes~ History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century Beers. History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance Spingarn. PLAYS CONSIDERED Cornei Ile Victor Hugo Le Cid Hernani Horace Marion de Lorme Polyeucte Angelo Tite et Berenice Ruy Blas Rodogune Alexandre Dumas, pAre Racine Henri III et Sa Gour I.phi genie Ang~le Andromaque Mlle de Belle Isle Mithridate Les Demoiselles de St. Cyr Berenice La Tour de Nesle Athalia Phedra Alfre1.de Masset F'antasio On ne badine pas avec L'Amour OUTLINE I. Introduction II. French Classic Tragedy 1. Historical Survey . (a) In France (b) Influence of Italian Criticism 2. Causes Underlying Classic Tragedy (a) Humanism (b) Aristotelianism (c) aationalism (1) "La Raison Logique" (2) "La Raison Oratoire" (3) "La Raison ~ratique" 3. Characters (a) Limited Number (b) High Rank (c) Types, Abstractions Horace .Tite et Berenice Andromaque Polyeucte Mithridate Ro:io~une Berenice Ph~dre 4. Treatment of Lo~e i~ Classic Tra~e~y III. Romanticism 1. Causes for Romantic Revolt (a) Decadence of Classic Drama ' (b) New Awakening--Rousseau (c) Precursors of Romanticism (1) Transition Dramatists (2) Literary Criticism (d) Dramas of the Empire 2. Romantic Revolt (a) Preface to "Cromwell" (b) Characteristics of Romanticism (c) Battle of Hernani 3. Characters Dona Sol in Hernani Henri III et Sa Cour Marion '.ie Lorme Angele Tisbe Mlle 1e Belle Isle La Reine in Ruy Blas La Tour 1e Nes le Fanta.sio IV. Con cl us ion • 1 I. Introduction. Romanticism is the brid~e that spans ths gulf between rrench Classic Tra~edy and the Modern Drama. The highest form of poetic art is found, according to Victor Hugo, in the drama. Humanity, he says, has passed through first the stage of the lyric, then that of the epic, and has at last reached its hi~h­ est, its most perfect development in the irama. The elements of 1 the drama are all to be found in germ in the lyric ani in the epic ; their full fruitage may be seen in the drama, "la poesie complete". From the days of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the drama has furnished the clearest interpretation of what was best and noblest in each succee·:Hng age. It was in the field of drama, therefore, that the Romanticists of 1830 1ecide1 to storm the citadel of French Classicism, knowin~ well that a victory on the French stage would mean final victory for the young innovators. The enormity, the almost hopelessness of their task becomes evident when we consider that they hai opposing them not only the greatest names of French literature but also a dramatic system which had reigned· supreme for nea~ly three hundred years, which had been perfectej by centuries of classic culture. The place of women among the dramatie personnae of every literature.is by no means unimportant. In the greatest writers of French trage1y, for instance, women take a preiominx1t place. Of Racine's nine tra~e1ies, "Lia Thebaide" ani "Alexan1"ee" excepte1, six have women for their tit\e rales. Of the three 2 others, two might quite as logically be named for women, Roxane and Agrippina for Bajazet and Britannicus. Even when Racine abandoned profane subjects ani triei his hani at scriptural themes, he still took, in "Esther" and "Athalia", women for his leading roles. It is the purpose of these pages to analyze the heroines of representative dramas and to attempt to '.ietermine what is the message they bring to us of the real significance of the Romantic movement in its stru~gle against Classicism. Among the questions we shall ask ourselves are:- (1) Do the heroines of the Romantic School belong to a different type from the pure, statuesque, high-souled women who ~race the stage of Corneille and Racine? (3) Are tney real women, or are they the embodiment of an abstract idea? (3) Are they capable of determining their own destiny, or are they slaves to conven­ tion, to traiition? (4) Are their actions dominatei by the heal or by the heart? II. Survey of French Classic Tragedy. French Classic Tragedy had its ori~in in the 18th century with the coming of Ronsari ani the Pl~iade. It is true· that the Wrench interest in some form of spectacle ~oes back to the 11th century, with the pr~sentation of "Le Myst•re d'Adam" and kindred reli~ious plays. However, the Mystery, Miracle and Morality plays ha1 no real effect on Classic Tra~eiy, hardly more than an indirect influence. Then came the Renaissance with its awakening, to the stuiy and imitation of the ancients. The first impulse toward the imitation of the classic 3 iramatists dates fro~ the appearance in 1550 of the "Ddfense et Illustration de la Langue Fran9aise" in which Joachim du Bell~ advises the substitution of the ~reat genres of antiquity for the ·"~pisseries et drogueries" of the Middle Ages. Two years later Joislle, the youngest of the Pldiade, wrote his "Cldopatre", a tragedy which with its long monolo~ues and choruses omits no­ thing that coul1 possibly be borrowe~ from the ancients. Joielle was followed by Robert Jarnier whose principal title to honor is "Les Juives" (1583), in which he foreshadows, though faintly, Corneille. From 1600 to 1630 comes a period of reaction. Garnier had appealed only to the learned, the savants. The public would have nothing of it. The reaction was led by Alexandre Hardy whose dramas were for a time immensely popular. Hardy, whom Corneille honored with unselfish praise, departed not a little from the classic fashion of the Pl~iade. He has abundance of action and characters; a real sense of stage-craft ani an intuitive apprecia­ tion of what would please the audience. By cutting the choruses and intensifying the a~tion, Hardy made the classic play actable. Not less than two hunjred plays came from his prolific pen in twenty years, of which, however, only a few have livej. Hardy jrew from all sources, especially from the Spanish, an1 un1er his touch the 1rama began to diver3ify into the great....,.,. richness which it showed in the earlier 17th cent~ry. Alexandre Hardy played fast and loose with the rules laid down by the Pleiade. So much so that the Abbe D'Aubignac speaks of him as arresting the progress / 4 of the classic theatre. With the passing of Hardy, the rules of the ancient drama were fastened more firmly than ever on French tragedy. The story of the evolution of the principles underlying French classicism forms one of the most interesting chapters in the st11dy of French literature. Aristotle is a name to be con­ jured with. But where did the French get their notions of Aristotle? The influence of the Poetics on classic antiquity seems to have been very slight. In Horace, Cicero an1 iuintilian we find no reference to it. Durin~ the Middle Ages he was probably unknown, for. Dante an1 aoccaccio make no reference to Aristotle, and Petrarch makes only one obscure reference. Then came the fall of Constantinople an1 the ~reat influx of Greek culture into Italy. In 1515 appearei the "Sopbonisba" of Trissino, the first regular moiern tra~eiy, which was an attempt to pat Aristotle's theories into practice. In 1527 Vi1a in his "De Arte Poetica" paved the way for that literary criticism whieh was to influence so profoundly the literary work of two centuries in Europe. Vida's theory of the relation of nature to art was one of the steps in the development of Neo-Classicism. He says that every ancient writer is at bottom an imitator of nature; therefore one who would imitate the classics must imitate nature. Nature is to Vi1a syn­ onymous with court and city life. Fro~ the year 1536, a year which marked the beginning of the supremacy of Aristotle in lit­ erature, a great bost of versions of the Poetics was published in Italy;-- including critical versions in Jreek, La.tin an:i trans­ lations in Italian. These became living things not onl1 to the 5 Italian poets and critics but also to French writers.