The Enigma of a Legend: Jean Racine

In October, 1677, the French newspaper Mercure Galant announced: “The stage is threatened with a great loss. It is understood (and the rumor is confirmed on all sides) that one of our most celebrated authors is renouncing it in order to devote himself entirely to the writing of history.” Jean Racine, author of Andromaque, Bérénice, and Phaedra (Phèdre), was appointed historiographer royal by King Louis XIV. Devoting himself to his new position, Racine stopped writing for the theater. His entire life changed. He stopped attending the theater altogether, ending relationships with his friends who were actors, marrying a simple woman who had never been exposed to the theater, and reconciling with the church of his youth. Racine would continue to live a pious life until his death. His biography presents us with an enigma. Who was the man who brought such passion to the stage while seeking the forgiveness of God for having lived a worldly life? The contradictions of Racine’s personality appeared at a young age, and throughout his life each side struggled for supremacy.

Ironically, the central conflict of Racine’s life, balancing his devotion to the church with his worldly passions, plays itself out in the last play he wrote before his conversion. Based on Hippolytus by Euripides, Phaedra is Racine’s most concentrated and terrifying vision of human nature. Phaedra, wife of Theseus, King of Athens and Troezen, confesses to her nurse, Enone, that she loves her stepson, Hippolytus. The forbidden desire plunges Phaedra into hopeless despair. When word arrives that her long-absent husband has died, Phaedra reveals her love to Hippolytus. Horrified by her admission, Hippolytus spurns Phaedra. Fearing that Hippolytus will reveal Phaedra’s transgression, Enone urges her mistress to accuse Hippolytus of rape. Theseus returns to his home (the news of his death was false) to find his wife in despair. Confronted by his father, Hippolytus denies the charges against him and admits his own transgression in the form of his love for the Athenian princess, Aricia. Theseus banishes Hippolytus and calls on Neptune to punish his son. Phaedra wants to clear Hippolytus’s name, but news of his love for Aricia sends her into a jealous rage. After Hippolytus dies because of Neptune’s intervention, Phaedra poisons herself, but before she dies she confesses her guilt.

Phaedra embodies two kinds of heroine found in Racine’s tragedies that had never before been combined. She has a sense of purity and high moral awareness, but she also suffers from violent passion. Driven by a forbidden lust, Phaedra is at every moment conscious of the horror of her emotions. Unable to control the events set into motion by her passion, she is tortured by guilt and a horrifying level of self-awareness. The terrifying conflict Phaedra faces in many ways parallels the contradictory sides of Racine’s own personality. Through the story of Phaedra, Racine skillfully explores human nature and desire. Examination of Racine’s life shows that the conflict within his own soul may have been as much of a source for the tragedy as the play by Euripides.

Racine was born in 1639 in La Ferté-Milon, a small town fifty miles north of Paris, where his father held a government position. Racine’s mother died when he was thirteen months old, and his father died two years later. He was raised by his paternal grandparents. Racine’s grandmother, Marie Desmoulins, came from a family of strict Jansenist Catholics. Jansenist were members of a Counter Reformation Catholic sect that denied free will and stressed the necessity of grace for salvation.

Educated by the Jansenist of Port-Royal, Racine was a voracious reader and diligent student, writing in French and Latin and studying Greek drama. After finishing his studies with the Jansenist, Racine visited his cousin Nicolas Vitart, the steward of the Duc de Luynes, a Jansenist. Although still in Jansenist surroundings, Racine no longer lived a life of strict devotion. He spent time with the poet Jean de la Fontaine, a relative by marriage, and the Abbé le Vasseur. Racine had the opportunity to see life through the eyes of la Fontaine, a man not influenced by Jansenist strictures and the Abbé, whose proclivities leaned more toward women and wine than toward the Church. This was a time of transition for Racine away from Port-Royal and toward the world. Soon after he finished his studies, he composed a sonnet in honor of the marriage of Louis XIV to Marie-Thérèse of Spain. That same year, in 1660, he wrote his first play, Amasie. Rejected by the Théâtre Marais, the play has been lost. The next year he began another play, Les Amours d’Ovide (The Loves of Ovid), for the prestigious theater Hôtel de Bourgogne; this play also did not survive, and it is assumed that he never finished it. These early attempts at playwriting brought Racine into contact with the theater for the first time.

Racine’s differences with Port-Royal coincide with this period. In the eyes of the Jansenist, not only had Racine started a career as a poet and a playwright, but worse yet, he was associated with licentious theatre people. In September, 1660, Racine complained to a friend, “I keep getting [from Port-Royal] every day letter after letter, or to put it better, excommunication after excommunication on account of my unlucky sonnet.” (The sonnet he refers to on Mazarin has disappeared.) He grew increasingly frustrated with the interference from Port-Royal. In November, 1661, an uncle of Racine’s invited him to Uzès in an attempt to save him from unemployment by securing him an ecclesiastical sinecure. In Uzès, Racine spent his time reading and composing new works, including his first extant play, La Thébaïde. Although his time in Uzès may not have fully prepared him for a career in the church, Racine found himself open to impressions that later contributed to the wellspring he would tap as dramatist. In a May, 1662 letter to La Vasseur he writes: “You must know that in this country you do not see any amours médiocres. All passions are extreme here, and the people of this town, who are rather easygoing in other matters, involve themselves more violently in their love affairs than they do in any other place in the world.” This observation of the power of passion in human life would play itself out several times in Racine’s dramas.

During his time in Uzès, the rift between Racine and Port-Royal continued to grow. In a letter to Vitart in May, 1662 he writes, “I shall try to write to my Aunt Vitart this afternoon, and to my Aunt the nun, since you are complaining about it. But you must forgive me, and they too, for not having written, for what news can I send them? It is quite enough to be playing the hypocrite here, without playing it in Paris too by correspondence; for I call it hypocrisy to be writing letters when you can talk about nothing but devotion and do nothing else than recommend yourself to people’s prayers. It’s not that I don’t need them badly. But I wish people would say them for me, without my being obliged to ask them so often to say them. If God grants that I become a prior, I’ll say as many prayers for others as they have said for me.” Soon after writing this letter Racine gave up his attempts at an ecclesiastical career and returned to Paris.

In Paris, Racine began his career as a dramatist in earnest. He also made the acquaintance of some powerful people. By 1663 he had written two more sonnets to the King, “Ode sur la convalescence du roi (Ode on the King’s Convalescence)” and “La Renommée aux Muses (The Goddess Fame Speaks to the Muses).” The two poems garnered much attention at court. Soon Racine would be considered a “courtier poet” and one of the King’s favorites among men of letters. During this time, Racine submitted his first play, La Thébaïde, to Molière’s company. It was performed on June 20, 1664, at the Palais-Royal. His second tragedy, Alexandre le Grand, was produced by Molière’s company in December, 1665. That same month, Racine allowed the Hôtel de Bourgogne to produce the play as well. This duplicity brought about the end of Racine’s friendship with Molière. From then on, Racine’s plays were performed at the Hotel de Bourgogne.

By January, 1666, Racine’s break with the Jansenist was complete. Nicole had published a pamphlet in which novelists and dramatists were denounced as “public poisoners.” Racine wrote a scathing letter in response, attacking Nicole and his former teachers at Port-Royal. Painfully separated from Port-Royal, this phase of Racine’s life was finished. His dramatic career blossomed. In 1667, Andromaque was produced. During this production, Racine began a relationship with the Marquise du Parc, who was his mistress until her death a year later.

Eleven years after the death of Du Parc (and more than two years after Racine had left theater), he was implicated in her murder. The actress’s stepmother and the daughters of the Marquis Du Parc testified that they suspected Racine of poisoning his lover. Stories of Racine’s involvement varied. Some said that he had secretly married Du Parc and was extremely jealous of all of her friends, so he poisoned her. Rumors circulated that Du Parc died in childbirth; this led to the charges that Racine may have had knowledge of an attempted abortion, which ended fatally. Racine was never arrested, and the charges have never been corroborated. The true impact Racine’s affair with Du Parc had on his writing cannot be proven, but one cannot deny how different this episode must have been compared with the purity and devotion of his Port-Royal background.

Racine’s next affair (with the famous actress la Champmeslé) eventually filled him with even more disgust and humiliation, which he would confess after his conversion. Racine met la Champmeslé in 1670, when she performed the role of Hermione. So taken was he by her interpretation of the passionate scenes, Racine immediately offered her the role of Bérénice. During the rehearsals of Bérénice, his infatuation for the actress grew. Eventually, la Champmeslé introduced the leading roles of Roxane, Monime, Iphigénie, and Phèdre. Although his desire for the actress may have been great, Racine was forced to share her with five other lovers. Stories surfaced of wild parties for which Racine may have paid; for a time, Racine indulged in a bohemian atmosphere of wine and debauchery. The affair continued until Racine broke with the stage. It is not clear whether Racine dropped his mistress in disgust or whether she ended her relationship with him in favor of another man. It was at this time, however, that Racine ended his career as dramatist, married, and reconciled with the church.

Although Racine’s decision to leave the stage may have come as a shock to his public, the events leading up to this moment leave open several possibilities to explain why he chose this path. Racine may not have completely severed his connections with Port-Royal; certainly the moral codes that had been instilled in him as a youth continued to prick his conscience. Also, acts of conversion were becoming common. Racine’s conversion coincided with a time when piety had become the fashion at court. Phaedra may have been Racine’s attempt to reconcile his career as a dramatist with his revulsion against a life of worldliness. The play shows the misery unlawful love brings to those who yield to it. Racine brings a moral fervor to the story that had not been present in his previous tragedies. Perhaps if the production had been successful, Racine would not have taken the path he did. Unfortunately, the play was not a success. Two days after Racine’s Phaedra premiered, another version written by the Duchesse de Bouillon and Jacques Pradon opened. That version enjoyed greater success. Eventually, Racine’s play was recognized as superior, but the damage had already been done. Racine’s professional reputation had been challenged. At this moment, Racine received the offer from the King for the position of historiographer. Again, one phase of Racine’s life ended, and a new life began.

After his conversion, Racine married Catherine de Romanet. They had seven children, and Racine fulfilled his duties as historiographer with distinction. He eventually wrote plays again, but they were not stories of amorous passion; they were biblical tragedies (Esther and Athaliah). At his death in 1699, he was laid to rest at Port-Royal. He requested the honor of being buried at the foot of the grave of his teacher, M. Hamon. He was buried at the head. His life was eulogized in the following simple words:

“On this day, one thousand six hundred and ninety-nine, there died in Paris Jean Racine, treasurer of France, secretary of the King and Gentleman-in-Ordinary of his Bedchamber. He had been brought up in these precincts with other persons who were pursuing their studies here, and having been obliged to depart hence, he followed for some time the ways of the world. But God showed him His grace by renewing in his spirit the light of truth which had been darkened there and by awakening in his heart the sentiments of piety. He had much affection for this monastery; and he has given us proof of his zeal, having used his influence to protect us. His body has been brought here and buried in the outside cemetery as he had directed. He left us eight hundred livres in his will.”

One of the most important dramatists in history, Jean Racine died a penitent and reverent man. A man of many contradictions, filled with worldly passion and religious piety, the legendary playwright and poet remains an enigma.

Jennifer Kiger is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training.