Thomas Corneille (20 August 1625 – 8 December 1709) was a French

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Biography

Born in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

some nineteen years after his brother

Pierre Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, the "great Corneille", Thomas's skill as a poet seems to have shown itself early. At the age of fifteen he composed a play in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

which was performed by his fellow-pupils at the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

school in Rouen, the Collège de Bourbon (now the Lycée Pierre Corneille). His first play in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...

, ''Les Engagements du hasard'', was probably first performed at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1647, although not published until 1656. ''Le Feint Astrologue'', imitated from the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (, ; ; 17 January 160025 May 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque ...

, and itself imitated in Dryden's ''

An Evening's Love ''An Evening's Love, or The Mock Astrologer'' is a comedy in prose by John Dryden. It was first performed before Charles II and Queen Catherine by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal on Bridges Street, London, on Friday, 12 June 1668. S ...

'', came the following year. After his brother's death, Thomas succeeded his vacant chair in the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

. He then turned his attention to

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

, producing a new edition of the ''Remarques'' of CF Vaugelas in 1687. His ''Le Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences'' first appeared in 1694 as a supplement to the first edition of '' Le dictionnaire de l'Academie françoise''—also published that year—and as a competitor to Furetière's '' Dictionaire universel'' of 1690. Corneille's ''Dictionnaire'' is regarded by Kafker as one of the nine ''Notable encyclopaedias of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries'' that preceded

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

and

d'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the '' Encyclopé ...

's ''

Encyclopédie ''Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'' (English: ''Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts''), better known as ''Encyclopédie'', was a general encyclopedia publis ...

''. A complete translation of

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

's ''Metamorphoses'' (he had published six books with the ''Heroic Epistles'' some years previously) followed in 1697. In 1704 he lost his sight and was constituted a "veteran," a dignity which gave him the privileges of an academician, while exempting him from the duties. He did not allow his blindness to put a stop to his work, however, and in 1708 produced a large ''Dictionnaire universel géographique et historique'' in three volumes folio. This was his last major work. He died at

Les Andelys Les Andelys (; Norman: ''Les Aundelys'') is a commune in the northern French department of Eure, in Normandy. Geography It lies on the Seine, about northeast of Évreux. The commune is divided into two parts, Grand-Andely (located about fr ...

at the age of eighty-four.

List of plays

* ''Les Engagements du hasard'' (1647) * ''Le Feint astrologue'' (1648) * ''Don Bertrand de Cigarral'' (1650) * ''L'Amour à la mode'' (1651) * ''Le Charme de la voix'' (1653) * ''Les Illustres ennemis'' (1654) * ''Le Geolier de soi-même'' (1655) * ''Timocrate'' (1656) * ''Bérénice'' (1657) * ''La Mort de l'empereur Commode'' (1658) * ''Stilicon'' (1660) * ''Le Galant doublé'' (1660) * ''Camma'' (1661) * ''Maximian'' (1662) * ''Persée et Démétrius'' (1663) * ''Antiochus'' (1666) * ''Laodice'' (1668) * ''Le Baron d'Albikrac'' (1668) * ''La Mort d'Annibal'' (1669) * ''La Comtesse d'Orgueil'' (1670) * ''Ariane'' (1672) * ''La Mort d’Achille'' (1673). * ''Don César D'Avalos'' (1674) * ''Circé'' (1675) * ''L'Inconnu'' (1675) * ''Le Festin de pierre'' (1677) * ''Le Triomphe des dames'' (1676) * ''Le Comte d'Essex'' (1678) * ''La Devineresse'' (1679) * ''Bradamante'' (1695)

Opera libretto

*''

Médée ''Médée'' is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Pierre Corneille in 1635. Summary The heroine of the play is the sorceress Médée. After Médée gives Jason twin boys, Jason leaves her for Creusa. Médée ex ...

'' for Charpentier (1693, adapted from

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 patron ...

's play and

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

)

Place in French Literature

Thomas Corneille has often been regarded as one who, but for his surname, would merit no notice. Others feel he was unlucky in having a brother (

) who outshone him, as he would have outshone almost anyone else. In 1761

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

wrote of Thomas Corneille: ‘si vous exceptez

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...

, auquel il ne faut comparer personne, il était le seul de son temps qui fût digne d’être le premier au-dessous de son frère' Voltaire, "Commentaires sur Corneille", in ''Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire'', LIII-LV, ed. David Williams (Banbury, Voltaire Foundation, 1973–1975), LV, p. 979. (if you except Racine, to whom nobody can be compared, he was the first of his time who was worthy to be behind his brother). The brothers were close, and practically lived together. Of his forty-two plays (the highest number assigned to him), the last edition of his complete works contains only thirty-two dramas, but he wrote several in collaboration with other authors. Two are usually reprinted as his masterpieces at the end of his brother's selected works. These are ''Ariane'' (1672) and the ''Le Comte d'Essex (The Earl of Essex (1678))'', in the former of which

Rachel Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...

attained success. (An oil painting depicting a scene from Le Comte d'Essex is in the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...

.) But of ''Laodice'', ''Camma'', ''Stilico'' and some other pieces, Pierre Corneille himself said that "he wished he had written them," and he was not wont to speak lightly. ''

Camma Camma ( grc, Κάμμα) was a Galatian princess and priestess of Artemis whom Plutarch writes about in both ''On the Bravery of Women'' and the ''Eroticus'' or ''Amatorius''. As Plutarch is our only source on Camma, her historicity cannot be inde ...

'' (1661, on the same story as

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

's ''Cup'') deserves special notice. Thomas Corneille is remarkable in the literary gossip-history of his time. His ''Timocrate'' boasted of the longest run (80 nights) recorded of any play during the century. For ''La Devineresse'', he and his cowriter

Jean Donneau de Visé Jean Donneau de Visé (1638 – 8 July 1710) was a French journalist, royal historian ("historiographe du roi"), playwright and publicist. He was founder of the literary, arts and society gazette "le Mercure galant" (founded in 1672) and ...

, founder of the ''

Mercure galant The was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was published ...

'' (to which Thomas contributed), received over 6,000

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 g ...

, the largest sum known to have been paid during that period. Lastly, one of his pieces (''Le Baron des Fondrières'') claims the honor of being the first which was booed off the stage. Thomas Corneille is also remarkable for having excelled in almost all dramatic genres of his time, including the new and innovative genres that were the '' pièce à machines'' and

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

at the time. His machine play ''Circé'' was among the most successful of the century. His three opera librettoes, '' Psyché'' (1678), ''

Bellérophon ''Bellérophon'' is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Thomas Corneille and Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle first performed by the Opéra at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on 31 January 1679. The libretto is ba ...

'' (1679) and ''

'' (1693) make him, next to Philippe Quinault and Jean Galbert de Campistron, one of the most important French librettists of the seventeenth century. In a letter to her father, shortly before her execution,

Charlotte Corday Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed by guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who ...

quotes Thomas Corneille: "Le Crime fait la honte, et non pas l’échafaud!" (The crime causes the shame, and not the scaffold!).

References

;Notes ;Sources * * Clarke, Jan (2007). ''The Guénégaud Theatre in Paris (1673–1680). Volume Three: The Demise of the Machine Play''. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. .

External links