Louis XIV of France | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 13 pages of analysis & critique of Louis XIV of France.

Louis XIV of France | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 13 pages of analysis & critique of Louis XIV of France.
This section contains 3,371 words
(approx. 12 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the George Bernard Daniel

SOURCE: "The Tragédie Nationale in the Seventeenth Century," in The Development of the "Tragédie Nationale" in France from 1552–1800, The University of North Carolina Press, 1964, pp. 36–67.

In the following excerpt, Daniel analyzes the treatment of history and the use of classical form in historical tragedies, arguing that while French history offered the potential for theatrical exploitation, the public did not approve of dramatists' departures from classical ideas.

François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac (1604–1676), known primarily for the Pratique du théâtre (1657), wrote three prose tragedies. All were turned into verse by other dramatists. Neither Zénobie (1645) nor Cyminde (1642) concern us here. La Pucelle d'Orléans, acted in 1641 and published in 1642, was exceptional in its choice of subject and development of plot.

D'Aubignac's saccharine treatment of Jeanne d'Arc was an indication why, during the century, national historical tragedy never became important. The dramatists who endeavored to tap the...

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This section contains 3,371 words
(approx. 12 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the George Bernard Daniel
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