22 Prosser Hall Frye 



Seigneur, je viens a vous. Car enfin aujourd'hui 

 Si vous m'abandonney, quel sera mon appuy? 

 Sans parens, sans amis, desolee et craintive, 

 Reine long-temps de nom, mais en effet captive, 

 Et veuve maintenant sans avoir eii d'espoux. 

 Seigneur, de mes malheurs ce sont la les plus doux. 



It is not a purely lyric note, perhaps, and yet its plaintive sim- 

 plicity has very much the effect of lyricism — at least of the ap- 

 plied lyricism of the drama. But I can not hope to detect all 

 Racine's inflections, much less to illustrate them. I am satisfied 

 to show that in introducing a certain lyric strain into his tragedy 

 he has provided it with something of the dramatic relief of which 

 the Greeks were possessed by virtue of their chorus and of which 

 modern French tragedy was destitute until he supplied it. 



II 



Such, it appears to me, are Racine's principal services toward 

 the revival of a classic tragedy in modern times ; — the discovery 

 of a congruous simplicity of treatment by the segregation of a 

 synthetic or unitary action, and what is less momentous, the res- 

 toration of dramatic relief by the application of lyricism to tragic 

 dialogue. With these subsidies neo-classic tragedy reached its 

 highest point of perfection. That it staggered presently and de- 

 clined is no detraction to its momentary excellence ; in that re- 

 spect it was but equal in fate with its Attic prototype. As for its 

 most powerful supporter, Racine, aside from his well-known in- 

 timacy with Euripides, it would be absurd, in view of the merits 

 that I have just mentioned, to deny that his sense for Greek 

 drama was far finer than Corneille's, who, as a matter of fact, 

 was never completely successful in shaking himself free of Span- 

 ish and romantic influence. And yet eager and sensitive though 

 this taste of Racine's was, there are certain aspects of the Greek 

 genius to which he is partially or wholly blind. That any one 

 with even a tincture of the great Athenian tradition should find 

 the invention of Eriphile or Aricie a happy one, seems incredible 

 — though much may be forgiven Aricie as the mover of Phedre's 

 jealousy. In particular, however, he seems never to have fath- 



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