Pausanias : tragédie, 1668

Pausanias, the penultimate tragedy by Philippe Quinault (1635-1688), was first performed in November 1668. It was written hurriedly to plug a gap in the Hôtel de Bourgogne’s schedule of performances, and inspired by Racine’s Andromaque, which had been given the previous year. Quinault’s play, however, is no mere copy. It belongs to a different tradition that did not regard theatre as an elite form of literature. Quinault sets out to put right what he saw as flaws in Racine’s work, and in so doing, portrays both Démarate, a violent and furious heroine who contrives a memorable dénouement, and Cléonice, the last role played by the celebrated actress Mademoiselle Du Parc, who had also created the part of Andromaque in Racine’s play.The text, established and annotated by Edmund J. Campion, is published here for the first time in over two hundred years, and William Brooks contributes a study of the origins, construction, and fate of this tragedy, which has suffered from an unjustifiably poor reputation.