French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Louvat-Molozay, L'Enfance de la tragédie (1610-1642). French Tragic Practices from Hardy to Corneille
Theatre and Performance
L'"Enfance de la tragédie" (1610-1642). Pratiques tragiques françaises de Hardy à Corneille,
Presses Universitaires de Paris-Sorbonne, coll. "Theatrum mundi", 2014
ISBN : 978-2-84050-974-5
Publication date : 24/11/2014
Number of pages : 310
The tragedy that experienced a rebirth on the professional Parisian stage during the 1634–1635 theatrical season was anything but chemically pure: as a hybrid genre, it recycled techniques, forms, and themes borrowed from pastoral drama and tragi-comedy, the leading genres of the period. This persistent generic friction explains both the composition of Le Cid—a tragi-comedy that drew its subject matter from History, a domain then reserved for tragedy—and that of Cinna, a tragedy that annexed the distinct marker of tragi-comedy: the happy ending… unless it was rather rehabilitating a type of tragedy essential to Euripides.
Contrary to what literary history usually teaches, the experimentation that characterizes the "infancy of tragedy" (Sarasin, "Discours sur la tragédie" prefacing Scudéry's L'Amour tyrannique) actually predated the Parisian productions of the 1630s–1640s by a wide margin: it was a groundswell that swept through the entire tragic genre from the very beginning of the century, with the works of Hardy, Mainfray, and Billard serving as illustrations that are as decisive as they are overlooked. This book therefore offers both an archaeology of Parisian tragedy in the 1630s and a history of tragic practices in both Paris and the provinces during the first few decades of the century.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
I. TRAGEDY AND THE IDEA OF TRAGEDY BETWEEN 1610 AND 1630
Chap. 1: The Idea of Tragedy
On the utility and parts of tragedy. – Turmoil within the genre
Chap. 2: Around the Hardy Case: Tragedy to be Watched or Tragedy to be Read?
Ancients and Moderns: the controversy surrounding Hardy. – Publishing tragedy: the place and uses of the genre in Hardy's Théâtre. – Tragedy to be read or tragedy to be watched?
Chap. 3: Tragic Practices: A Missed Opportunity?
Garnier's heritage and its squandering. – Unity of time and multa tolles ex oculis: decisive mutations. – Norman theater. – Hardy: a dramaturgy of action and spectacle
Chap. 4: Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé: Hapax or Tragedy of Its Time?
Pyramus and Thisbe and contemporary love tragedy. – An Ovidian tragedy
II. "AND ALL OF THIS SEWN TOGETHER MAKES… A TRAGEDY": THE AGE OF EXPERIMENTATION
Chap. 5: Curtain: The 1633–1634 and 1634–1635 Theatrical Seasons
Elements of chronology. – Gallant Seneca. – A taste for spectacle. – Looking toward History?
Chap. 6: 1635–1643: Exponential Development
Dying of love. – The spectacle of tragedy. – Writing History. – The temptation of violence. – Diversifying sources: Christian subjects
Chap. 7: Chains of Adaptations and Twin Plays
The subjects of Saul and Cleopatra. – The three Coriolan plays
III. AROUND THE CORNEILLE CASE
Chap. 8: Tragedy or Tragi-comedy?
Du Ryer's Alcionée and Cléomédon. – History and fiction: Dalibray's reflection. – Two alternatives to tragedy: L'Amour tyrannique and La Sidonie
Chap. 9: Corneille: From L'Illusion comique to Horace
L'Illusion comique: the tragedy of Act V. – Horace: unnatural crime versus death by love
Chap. 10: Cinna and the Tragedy with a Happy Ending
Tragedy of conspiracy and the functionalization of the romantic subplot. – Why Cinna ends well
Conclusion. – Bibliography. – Index
Bénédicte Louvat-Molozay is a senior lecturer holding an HDR (Habilitation to Supervise Research) at Paul Valéry University Montpellier III and has been a member of the Institut Universitaire de France since 2010. A specialist in 17th-century French theater—having prepared several critical editions of works by Corneille, Molière, Rotrou, and Mairet—her research focuses in particular on music (Théâtre et musique. Dramaturgie de l’insertion musicale dans le théâtre français [1550-1680], Champion, 2002) and, in recent years, on 17th-century theater in the Occitan language (currently editing the "Théâtre de Béziers", forthcoming from Garnier).
During the seventeenth century, French theatrical culture underwent significant formal and generic transformations, particularly within dramatic writing and staging practices for both Parisian and provincial audiences. Before classic canonical standards solidified, playwrights frequently experimented with hybrid forms, drawing heavily upon pastoral drama and tragi-comedy. This book examines the evolution of tragic practices from 1610 to 1642, offering an archaeology of Parisian tragedy alongside a broader historical overview of early-century dramatic production, engaging with works by figures such as Hardy, Mainfray, Billard, and Corneille, as detailed in L'Enfance de la tragédie (1610-1642).
Readers interested in seventeenth-century French drama and theatrical history may find this study relevant. The volume investigates the interplay between generic conventions, spectacle, and historical subjects across various chapters, addressing how playwrights negotiated the boundaries between tragedy, tragi-comedy, and contemporary poetic theory. Through close attention to early modern dramatic texts, the research illuminates the wider ecosystem of French stage practices during the decades preceding the height of classical tragedy, drawing from the scholarly work of Bénédicte Louvat-Molozay.