''Nicomède'' is a

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

by French dramatist

Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...

, first performed in 1651.

Characters

* Prusias, king of

Bithynia Bithynia (; Koine Greek: , ''Bithynía'') was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Pa ...

* Flaminius, Roman ambassador * Arsinoé, Prusias' second wife * Laodice, queen of

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

* Nicomède, older son of Prusias by his first marriage * Attale, son of Prusias and Arsinoé * Araspe, captain of Prusias' palace guard * Cléone, Arsinoé's confidante

The play

The source for the play is a 12-line sectionLanson and Tuffrau, p. 190 within a longer work by the ancient historian

Justin Justin may refer to: People * Justin (name), including a list of persons with the given name Justin * Justin (historian), a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527), or ''Flavius Iustinius Augustus'', Eastern Rom ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

's policies with respect to its allies, in particular the princelings of the East. Corneille, caught up as he was in the

Fronde The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...

, then at its height, was inspired to write a play whose basic premise is a clash between aristocratic and political ideals - a clash between hero and state. The tragedy portrays two brothers, Nicomède and Attale, both sons of the same father - Prusias, king of Bithynia. Attale, Prusias' son by his second wife Arsinoé, has been brought up in Rome, from where he has recently returned. Nicomède, by contrast, hates Rome, having been inspired by

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...

's example: loyal, courageous and proud, he commands Prusias' army.Lanson and Tuffrau, p. 191 The ambitious Arsinoé, who holds sway at court, dominating her husband, detests Nicomède, and seeks to put her young son on the throne in place of his older brother. In a further twist, Laodice, the young queen of Armenia who has been placed under the tutelage of Prusias by her father, is loved by both of the brothers, though her preference is for Nicomède. The action: the people rise up in revolt, proclaiming Nicomède as their king after he falls victim to the machinations of Arsinoé, who has him removed after he arrives at court and placed in Roman custody (in the person of Roman ambassador Flaminius). However, a stranger releases him. With Prusias and Flaminius now opting to flee, Arsinoé finds herself without support when the prince-cum-hero Nicomède returns. Prusias and Flaminius, their predicament now dire, decide to return in order to die with her, but Nicomède chooses to pardon all three of them. The mystery man who freed Nicomède turns out to be none other than Attale, and he it is who disentangles the web of intrigue. Despite this, however, all the plaudits fall on Nicomède. He returns to the throne, gradually taking over the reins of power over against the opposition of Prusias, who relinquishes them despite himself, having previously wanted to send Nicomède to Rome as a hostage. He closes the play with a response that is not far short of comedy, which has the effect of making him a king devoid of credibility. The way is then open for Nicomède, who gains both power and the love of Laodice thanks to his generosity of spirit. He calms the popular uprising that had been clamouring for him to be king, agreeing to live in friendly alliance with Rome if the empire will refrain from reducing the kingdom to servitude. Although family harmony is re-established at the end of the play, the genuineness of it seems to be very much in doubt. Because of this apparently happy ending, ''Nicomède'' is sometimes not considered to be a genuine tragedy. Literary critics Gustave Lanson and Paul Tuffrau observe that tenderness and passion feature not at all in the play - a drama in which the idea of courage as a noble ideal reigns supreme.

References

Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicomede (Corneille) Plays by Pierre Corneille 1651 plays Tragedy plays