SOURCE: Mallinson, G. J. “The Variants of Corneille's Early Plays.” Modern Language Review 77, no. 3 (July 1982): 547-57.

In the following essay, Mallinson examines Corneille's attitude toward his early comedies.

The first edition of Corneille's complete works, whatever its merits as financial speculation on the part of the publisher, was for the dramatist himself, seemingly, a cause of great concern. Comedies written a decade earlier were to be brought again to the public eye, plays which, according to the avis of 1644, would be better forgotten:

C'est contre mon inclination que mes libraires vous font ce présent, et j'aurais été plus aise de la suppression entière de la plus grande partie de ces poèmes, que d'en voir renouveler la mémoire par ce recueil.¹

Corneille seemed no longer able to identify with this work of his youth, to view it with the same confidence and enthusiasm which characterized...