In his spare time Racine interested himself in poetry, made the acquaintance of Jean de La Fontaine, the poet and fabulist, and wrote an official poem,
La Nymphe de la Seine (1660). He also wrote two tragedies, both refused by the theatrical troupes of the day and now lost. Apparently discouraged, Racine spent perhaps a year in Uzés preparing to enter the priesthood, but in 1663 he returned to Paris and to literature.
Racine was approached by the great comic writer and actor Molière, whose troupe wished to commission a tragedy, La Thébaide, to compete with one being put on by a rival troupe. Racine agreed to write such a tragedy according to Molière's instructions, and the play was first performed in 1664. Although it was indifferently received, Molière requested another play from Racine. Racine's Alexandre (1665) was his first success in the theater.
French Theatrical Situation
During this period the French theater was influenced profoundly by the famous neo-Aristotelian precepts for good literature. Playwrights observed with ever greater severity the famous "three unities" of time, place, and action, and the principles of verisimilitude and theatrical bienséance (seemliness).
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