SOURCE: An introduction to The Cid, Cinna, The Theatrical Illusion by Pierre Corneille, translated by John Cairncross, Penguin Books, 1975, pp. 11-19.

A longtime correspondent for the Observer, the Economist, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Cairncross has translated several plays by Racine, Molière, and Corneille into English. In the following essay, he surveys the principal attributes of Cornelian drama, particularly its themes, characterization, and preoccupations.

Fate has dealt unkindly with the great seventeenth-century French dramatist, Pierre Corneille, even in his native land. 'As a result of an over-simple and restrictive tradition,' writes Raymond Picard in his admirable analysis of the writer [Two Centuries of French Literature,] 'it has long been contended that, of all Corneille's plays, only a handful of tragedies such as Le Cid, Horace, Cinna, or Pompée (1637-43) deserve to survive. By disregarding all the rest, critics have had no trouble in reducing Corneille's...