Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/707

RADBERTUS family, asked Racine for a drama to be represented by her protegees. He wrote "Esther", which had an enormous success. Every critic admires in it the splendour of the chorus, the perfection of the characters, and the wonderful art of the play as a whole. The other was "Athalie", a drama of the same kind. As a dramatic writer, Racine is one of the leaders of the classical school. His dramatic art was a protest against the heroic and bombastic tragedies which, until that time, had been the fashion. We read in the preface to " Britannicus ": "What can I do to satisfy my stern critics? It would be very easy to do so if I were willing to sacrifice common sense. I need only disregard nature and rush into the sensational." Corneille liked an action rather comphcated, "full of incident, a large number of theatrical surprises, and numberless high-flown speeches". Racine, to quote his own words, always chose "a simple action, not overladen, which, progressing steadily to the catastrophe, is sustained by the interest, the feelings, and the passions of the characters". Again, while in Corneille the characters are secondary to the action, in Racine the action is suited to the characters. Hence we do not find sensational situations in his tragedies, but rather a deep and complete study of the passions to which the human heart is a prey and, above all, of love. Racine is the great painter of love, but love as he conceives it is always violent, impetuous, jealous, and sometimes criminal. The eifeet of his new method was to bring about a change in that of the French drama. Racine's style is simple and smooth, always pure, elegant, harmonious, and, nevertheless, when necessary, strong and bold. Racine was a sensitive, vain, and irritable man, with deeply religious feelings, and a keen, supple, and strong intellect. He displays in his work almost unique powers of psychological analysis, a wonderful delicacy of sentiment, and an exquisite sense of literary art. The standard text of his works is Mesnahd (7 vols., Paris, 1865-73); tr. Boswell, in Bohn's Library (London, 1889-91); DE BoRY, Racine and the French Classical Drama (London, 1845); Trollope, Corneille and Racine in Foreign Classics Series (Edinburgh, 1881): BRUNETifcRE. Les Epoques du thedtre fran,ais (Paris, 1892); Larrounert in Les grands icrivains fran,ais (Paris. 1898); Stendhal. Racine et Shakespeare (Paris, 18S2); Sainte-Beuve, Fori Royal, VX (4th ed., Paris. 1878); De Grocchy, Documents inidits relali/s a Jean Racine (Paris, 1892); Lemaitre, Impressions de thedtre, 1, II, IV (Paris, ISSS— ); FiaijET, Diz-Septieme Siicle. JeaN LebARS. Radbertus. See Paschasitjs Radbertds. Radegunde, Saint. See Fortunatds, VenanTiu.s HoNoRius Clementianus. Rader, Matthew, philologist and historian, b. at Innichen in the Tyrol in 1561; d. at Munich, 22 December, 1634. At the age of twenty he entered the Society of Jesus and subsequently taught the humanities for twenty-one years in different Jesuit institutions. He wrote several school dramas, but was particularly known among Catholics and non-Catholics for his scholarly attainments. In 1.599 he published an improved and expurgated edition of Martial, and in 1628 one of Quintus Curtius. His edition of the Acts of the Eighth (Ecumenical Council was incorporated by Labbe and Cossart in their collection of the Acts of councils; that of the works of St. John Climacus, publishcil in 1614. was reprinted by Migne in his Greek patrology (l.XXXVUI, 585 sqq.). More important than the publications just mentioned were hisnow very rare works: " Bavaria Sancta " (Munich, 1615-27), and "Bavaria Pia" (Munich, 1628). Both wore reprinted in 1704 at Dillingen and Augsburg, and (he formci- was jKUtly published in a German translation by Kather Has.sler at Straubing in 1840. Ub Backek-.Sommkkvuuel, liiblioth., VI. 1371-82; Janbben, History of the German People, tr. Christie, XIII (St. Louis, 1909), 198, 203, 393, 437, 459. N. A. Weber.

Radewyns, Florens, co-founder of the Brethren of the Common Life, b. at Leyderdam, near Utrecht, about 1350; d. at Deventer, 25 March, 1400. He passed a brilliant university course, took his M.A. degree at Prague. Returning home, he was installed canon of St. Peter's, Utrecht. For some little time he led a gay life, until converted by a sermon of Gerard Groote. Thereupon he resigned his canonry, placed himself unreservedly under Groote's direction, at his instance was ordained priest, and accepted a poor benefice at Deventer, where Groote resided. There he powerfully seconded his friend's apostolate, especially among tlic jxior clrrical scholars of Deventer, and it was at his suggestion and in his house that the first community of the Brethren of the Common Life was formed. It was also from his house that the six brethren who estabhshed the Congregation of Windesheim went forth in 1386, and among them John, the elder brother of Thomas a Kempis. Thomas himself was under the immediate care and guidance of Radewyns from his thirteenth to his twenty-first year. He wrote a loving and edifying sketch of his master, wherein he describes Florens as a man learned in the Scriptures and all sacred science, exceedingly devout, humble, simple, zealous, charitable, and excessively mortified. His austerities enfeebled his health, possibly hastened his end. He was commonly regarded among the brethren as a saint. His skull, with that of Groote, is still preserved in the Catholic church (Broedern Kerk) of Deventer. Of his correspondence we have only one letter, preserved for us by a Kempis, who also gives us a collection of his notable sayings. Arthur, The Founders of the New Devotion (London, 1905); Cruise, Thomas d Kempis (London, 1887); Kettlewell, Thomas a Kempis and the Brothers of the Common Life (London, 1882); ScnLLT, Lifeofthe Yen. Thomasd Kempis (London, 1901); Thomas A Kempis, Opera Omnia (Freiburg, 1901). Vincent Scully.

Radowitz, Joseph Maria von, b. at Blankenburg, 6 February, 1797; d. at Berlin, 25 December, 18.53. Radowitz was of Hungarian descent, though his family had lived in Germany since 1745. In his youth he fought with the French in the War of Liberation, but had no feeling against the German cause. While an array officer in the service of the Elector of Hesse (1815-23) he gained an extensive knowledge of modern languages and history, and laid the foundation of his religious and political convictions. As the child of a mixed marriage he had lived in purely Protestant surroundings, but in time he grasped the historic fact of the Incarnation of God, the founding of the Church by Christ, and the superiority of the truth of Christian dogma and the Catholic view of life over all ))hilosophy, thus becoming a strong Catholic. Repelled in politics by Liberalism, which he considered sujjerficial, he studied Burke and Haller, adopted the theories of the latter, and became an opponent of Absolutism in every form. His preference was for constitutional government by the Estates, but he considered a representative constitution unavoidable at that time. In 1823 Radowitz entered the Prussian army, and from this time served Prussia with enthusiasm. The king took a kindly interest in him, the crown prince was his friend, and by his marriage with Countess Voss, a Protestant, he came into connexion with the higher aristocracy. His efforts to improve Prussian military training and artillery were rewarded by repeated promotion, but on account of his birth and faith he met with opposition among the bureaucracy and army officers. In 1S31 he combined with the "Christian-German" followers of Haller in issuing at Berlin the "Politisches Wochenblatt" (see Jarcke) and wrote largely for the publication. For this transgression of military traditions the king removed him from Berlin in 1835. Until 1848 he