Le Cid

Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. John C. Lapp is the author of Le Cid, published by Wiley.

• 1606: Birth of Pierre Croneille, in Rouen, June 61622: Finishes studies at the Jesuit college of Rouen1624: Receives law degree1625-29: His first play, Mélite, a comedy, staged in Paris1632: Clitandre, tragicomedy1633-34: Three comedies, La Veuve, La Galerie du Palais, and La Suivante. Médée, a tradegy1636: L’Illusion comique, comedy, and Le Cid, tragicomedy, based on the play by Guillen de Castro, Las Mocedades del Cid. Richelieu grants him an annual pension of 1,500 livres1637-38: “Quarrel of the Cid,” various critics and the Academy itself publish criticisms, to which the author replies1640: Horace and Cinna, tragedies. Marriage to Marie de Lampérière1641-43: Polyeucte, tragedy1642-43: La Mort de Pompée, tragedy; le Menteur, comedy; la Suite du Menteur, comedy1644: Rodogune, tragedy1645: Théodore, vierge et martyre, tragedy1647: Héraclius, tragedy1650: Andromède, tragedy “with machines” (the use of stage machinery for spectacular effects, as in opera), Don Sanche d’Aragon, heroic comedy1651: Nocomède, tragedy1652: Pertharite tragedy whichfails. Corneille gives up writing drama for seven years1659: Returns to the theatre with Œdipe, tragedy1661: La Toison d’Or, tragedy with machines1662: Sertorius, tragedy1663: Sophonisbe, tragedy1664: Othon, tragedy1666: Agésilas, tragedy1667: Attila, tragedy1670: Tite et Bérénice, heroic comedy1671: Psyché, tragic ballet, in collaboration with Molière, Quinault, and Lully1672: Pulchérie, heroic comedy1684: Death of Corneille on October 1st