RACINE, JEAN. 



RADCLIFFE, JOHN, M.D. 



Hia satires, which with one exception are written in prose, show great 

 power of observation, and a cheerful disposition combined with a 

 considerable share of wit ; the style is easy and attractive, though 

 sometimes rather prolix. They were first published in several 

 periodicals, but collected in 1751 at Leipzig in 2 vols. ; in 1752 

 another, and in 1 755 a fourth volume was added. A complete edition, 

 with a life of the author, was published in 1777 in 6 vols. 



RACINE. JEAN, was born towards the end of 1639 at Forte* Milon, 

 in the present department of Aisne, France. He was the son of an 

 officer of the excise, but lost both his parents while he was a child. 

 He htudied first at Beauvais, and afterwards in the celebrated school 

 of Port Royal des Champs, under Lemaistre, Lancelot, and the Abbe" 

 Hanon. He applied himself especially to the study of the Greek poets. 

 After three years spent at Port Royal he went to finish his education 

 at Paris, in the College d'Harcourt, in 1658. He had long shown a 

 decided inclination for poetry, and on the occasion of the marriage of 

 Louis XIV. in 1660 he entered the lists with various other poets who 

 wrote in honour of that event ; and his composition, ' La Nymphe de 

 la Seine,' being considered as the best, was noticed by the king, who 

 sent to the young poet, through Colbert, a present of 100 louis-d'or. 

 In 1664 Racine brought out his first tragedy, 'La Thebaide, ou les 

 Freres Ennemis,' a subject which was suggested to him by Moliere. 

 He next wrote his ' Alexandre,' which is a feeble composition. Cor- 

 neille, who was then grown old, advised Racine to give up writing 

 tragedy. Boileau, on the contrary, encouraged him ; and Racine, 

 having studied hard for some years to improve himself, produced in 

 1667 his ' Andromaque,' which was acted with great applause. In the 

 next year he wrote ' Les Plaideurs,' a humorous comedy in imitation 

 of the ' Wasps ' of Aristophanes, which was so much relished by 

 Louia XIV. that he bestowed upon the author a pension, accompanied 

 by a very flattering letter. Racine now produced in succession 

 ' Britannicus,' 'Bdrenice,' 'Bajazet,' ' Mithridate,' ' Iphige'nie,' and 

 ' Ph6dre,' which last is often considered his masterpiece ; but when 

 'Phedre' was first brought on the stage in 1677, a rival coterie 

 intrigued against him, and succeeded in running down the work, 

 which so disgusted Racine that he resolved to write no more plays. 

 About that time he married the daughter of the treasurer of Amiens, 

 a match which proved a happy one. 



Racine frequented the court, where he had a warm friend in Madame 

 de Maintenou, and he was appointed by Louis XIV. historiographer 

 of the kingdom, together with Boileau. Of his historical labours 

 however only a few fragments remain. Several years after, at the 

 entreaty of Madame de Maintenon, he wrote another drama, ' Esther," 

 which was acted in the house of education of St. Cyr in 1689, and was 

 well received. In the following year he wrote ' Athalie,' which was 

 performed in the same place, and was afterwards published ; but it 

 was received very coldly, although it has since been acknowledged to 

 be Racine's noblest composition. This was also Boileau's opinion at 

 the time, who told him so, adding that the judgment of the public 

 would right "itself in time a prediction however which was not 

 accomplished till long after Racine's death. 



' Athalie ' was the last play of Racine. He continued to visit 

 Madame de Maintenon, to whom he used to read parts of his pro- 

 jected history of Louis XIV. As he came to advert to the system of 

 administration, he could not help reflecting upon the wanton prodi- 

 gality of expenditure, the enormous burden of taxation, the disastrous 

 wars caused by mere ambition, and the consequent distress of the 

 country, and the misery of a great part of the population. Racine 

 was a man of honest feelings ; he became animated with his subject ; 

 and Madame de Mainteuon was evidently affected by his picture. She 

 suggested to him to draw up a memoir of what he thought could be 

 done in the way of alleviating the distress of the people. Racine 

 complied, and delivered his memoir to madame for her perusal. As 

 she was reading it one day in her cabinet, Louis XIV. entered, and 

 she could not conceal from him the paper nor the author of it. Louis, 

 having glanced at the memoir, observed with a frown that, " as M. 

 Racine could make excellent verses, he fancied that he knew every- 

 thing ; as if, because he was a great poet, he ought to be also a minister 

 of state." Racine was informed of this, and from that time he was 

 banished from the court He had been for some years in a declining 

 state of health, under the influence of mental excitement and of 

 melancholy, and the mortification which he now felt embittered his 

 sufferings. Hia complaint, which was an abscess in the liver, was 

 badly treated by the physicians, and he sank rapidly. Louis XIV., 

 being informed of his danger, showed great interest in his fate, and 

 sent to inquire after him ; indeed, the whole court sympathised with 

 the dying poet. At last an operation was performed ; but three days 

 after Racine expired, in the midst of acute pain, on the 21st of April 

 1697, in his fifty-ninth year. He was interred, according to his request, 

 in the abbey of Port Royal des Champs, a spot for which he had always 

 retained a great affection. After the destruction of that monastery in 

 1709, the remains of Raciue were transferred to Paris, and deposited 

 in the church of St. Etieune du Mont, by the side of those of Pacca!. 

 Louis XIV. beatowed upon his widow a pension of 2000 livres, and 

 tho reversion of it on her sons till the death of the youngest. 



The plays of Racine have gone through many editions; one of the 

 best is that of 1768, (Euvres de Joan Racine, avec des Commentaires 

 par Luneau de Bokjermain,' 6 yok 8vo. It also contains hia 'History 



of Port Royal,' the ' Fragmens Historiques,' several discourses delivered 



the French Academy, of which he was a member, and other small 

 compositions, with a biography of Racine. 



His son, Louis RACINE, published memoirs of his father's life, two 

 volumes of commentaries on his plays, and a poem, ' La Religion,' in 

 six cantos. 



Racine adhered strictly to what are called the classical unities, and 

 liifi subjects were chiefly taken from ancient history; but his personages, 

 though Greek or Roman by name, are French in their character. His 

 great merit lay in his delineation of the passions, his exquisite pathos, 

 ind the harmony of his verse. By common consent he stands at the 

 bead of French dramatists of the classic school. 



RACZYNSKI, EDUARD, a Polish nobleman of literary tastes and 

 talents, was born at Posen in 1786, the son of Count Philip Raczynski, 

 a Polish general. Count Eduard entered the Polish army, and took 

 some share in Napoleon's campaign of 1807 ; but on the fall of 

 Napoleon I., when he became a simple Prussian subject, he withdrew 

 from a military career. He travelled in Turkey in 1814, and pub- 

 lished an account of his journey in one of the most splendid volumes 

 in the Polish language, ' Dziennik Podro'zy do Turcyi ' (folio, Breslau, 

 1821, illustrated with numerous plates). The rest of his life was 

 chiefly devoted to literary pursuits. His 'Obraz Polakow i Polski' 

 ('Picture of the Poles and Poland in the 18th Century,' 21 vols., 

 Breslau, 1840, &c.), is a valuable collection of memoirs, most of them 

 before unpublished. Another of his most prominent works is his 

 " Cabinet medalow Polskich/ or ' Cabinet of Polish Medals/ in 4 vols. 

 4to (Berlin and Posen, 1841-45), with a text in Polish and French. Hia 

 ' Wspomnienia Wielkopolski ' (' Memorials of Great Poland,' 2 vols., 

 with an atlas of plates), is also deserving of mention. The ' Codex 

 Diplomaticus Majoris PoloniEe,' or collection of documents illustrating 

 the history of Poland, which he edited, had been originally compiled 

 by his grandfather, Count Kazimierz Raczynski; but a companion 

 work, the ' Codex Diplomaticus Lithuania,' was his own. Among 

 other benefactions to Posen, he founded a public library hi that town, 

 erecting a building for the purpose, presenting to it a collection of 

 21,000 volumes, and endowing it with a fund for the maintenance of 

 the librarian, who is at present Lukaszewicz, one of the first historians 

 and antiquaries in Poland, to whom the count gave the appointment. 

 On the 20th of January 1845 Raczynski destroyed himself, by means 

 of an ornamental cannon which was kept in his park. It was currently 

 reported that the motive of the act was, that iu looking over some old 

 family papers, he had found that one of his ancestors had received 

 part of the family estates as a bribe from Catharine II. of Russia to 

 betray the cause of his country. The lady of Count Raczynski, who 

 survived him, was the widow of Count Jan Potocki, also a Polish 

 author of eminence, who destroyed himself thirty years before in 

 1815. His son, Count Roger Raczynski, who succeeded him, gene- 

 rously abolished the feudal dues that were payable to him by 4000 

 peasants of the twenty -seven villages on the estates of the family. 



* RACZYNSKI, ATHANASIUS, the younger brother of Count 

 Eduard, born on the 2nd of May 1788, entered the Prussian diplo- 

 matic service, was in 1840 the Prussian ambassador at Copenhagen, 

 and afterwards at Lisbon and Madrid, but quitted the latter post in 

 1853, and has since lived in retirement. His literary works have been 

 chiefly on subjects of art, and written in the French language. His 

 account of modern art in Germany (' Histoire de 1'Art Mod erne en 

 Allemagne,' 3 vols. 4to, with atlas, Paris, 1836-42), though not a work 

 of much depth, is the most convenient general view of the subject 

 that has yet appeared. The same praise may be given to his ' Arts in 

 Portugal,' and ' Historico-artistical Dictionary of Portugal,' both in 

 French, published at Paris in 1846 and 1847. 



RADCLIFFE, JOHN, M.D., was born in 1650, of a good family at 

 Wakefield in Yorkshire. From the grammar-school of his native town 

 he passed to University College, Oxford, at the age of fifteen. He 

 took his degree of B.A. in 1691, and became senior scholar of his 

 college, but, as no fellowship became vacant there, he accepted a 

 fellowship at Lincoln College. He took his degree of M.A. in 1672, 

 and commenced the study of physic, which he pursued in no other 

 medical school, but attended the different courses of anatomy, chemistry, 

 and botany delivered iu the University. He is represented by his 

 biographers as having " recommended himself more by ready wit and 

 vivacity than by any extraordinary acquisitions hi learning :" being 

 visited in his rooms by Dr. Bathurst, the president of Trinity College, 

 and asked by him where was his library, he is said to have pointed to 

 a few vials, a skeleton, and a herbal in one corner of his room, and 

 exclaimed with emphasis, " There, sir, is Radcliffe's library." In 1675 

 he took his degree of M.B., and began to practise as a licentiate in 

 Oxford, where by some happy cures he soon acquired a great reputa- 

 tion. In 1677 he relinquished his fellowship in accordance with the 

 statutes of his college, which require all the fellows after a certain time 

 to enter into holy orders. He wished however to keep his rooms in 

 college, and to reside there as a commoner, but this Dr. Marshall, the 

 Rector (whom he is supposed to have offended by some witticisms), 

 refused to allow, which so much disgusted him that in after-life he 

 lavished the whole of his munificence on his former college, University, 

 leaving to Lincoln only the second presentation to a living if no fellow 

 of University chose to accept it. In 1682 he took the degree of M.D., 

 and went out a Grand Compounder. At length, in 1684, he removed 



