14 > Prosser Hall Frye 



jestic grief which makes the pleasure of tragedy. "^^ And there 

 is, indeed, about the play a sort of appalling tightness or constric- 

 tion — binding the characters like a fatal ligature — to which an 

 act of violence would be a relaxation and to which the piece is 

 indebted for its individuality as compared with the other dramas 

 of Racine. It may not rise to the highest effect of which tragedy 

 is capable; but at its acme, when Berenice fancies that Titus is 

 slipping from her, it does rise to a very high pitch of poetry. 



Pour jamais! Ah! Seigneur, songez-vous en vous meme 

 Combien ce mot cruel est affreux quand on aime? 

 Dans un mois, dans un an, comment souffrirons-nous, 

 Seigneur, que tant de mers separent me de vous, 

 Que le jour recommence et que le jour finisse 

 Sans que jamais Titus puisse voir Berenice, 

 Sans que de tout le jour je puisse voir Titus. i^ 



Nevertheless, its merits and demerits aside, I am proposing 

 Berenice only as an illustration of the author's bare idea. For 

 the elaboration of the sketch it is necessary to turn to Phedre. 

 If one were considering the "art" of Phedre without reference 

 to any particular thesis, it would be difficult to know where to 

 begin or end. Certainly, one could hardly refrain from expati- 

 ating upon the delicacy and firmness of drawing in the charac- 

 terization of the heroine. 



La fille de Minos et de Pasiphae ;i4 



the subtlety with which from the first she insinuates herself, with 

 all the morbid fascination of her moral distemper and personal 

 disorder, into the blood and senses of the audience. The debut 

 of all Racine's heroines is tremendously effective — Monime's is 

 a good instance ; but Phedre's is, in especial, insidious : 



N'allons point plus avant, demeurons, chere CEnone. 

 Je ne me soutiens plus, ma force m'abandonne; 

 Mes yeux sont ebloues du jour que je revoy, 

 Et mes genoux tremblans se derobent sous moy . . , 

 Que ces vains ornemens, que ces voiles me pesent! 



12 Berenice, Preface. 



13 IV, V. 



14 Phedre I, i. 



i86 



