The New Student's Reference Work/Racine, Jean Baptiste

Racine, Jean Baptiste, the greatest dramatic poet of France, was born at La-Ferté-Milon, in the modern department of Aisne, in December, 1639. His parents dying when he was very young, he was cared for by his maternal grandfather, being sent first to Beauvais College and afterwards to Port Royal, at which he studied diligently under such masters as Claude Lancelot, Nicole and La Maitre. At 19 he left Port Royal to pursue a course of philosophy at the College d'Harcourt, where he appears to have first felt the attractions of a life devoted to letters and to have become intimately acquainted with various actors and actresses. Racine's earliest play was acted by Molière's company at the Palais Royal theatre in June, 1664, and in the same year he received from the king a pension of 600 francs for a congratulatory ode. The next fifteen years Racine devoted to writing plays, and produced a number of works, all of which bore the stamp of very high, if not the highest, genius. His last production, Phèdre, which appeared in 1677, was the one in which Rachel's genius, in the 19th century, reached its highest manifestation. His chief writings are Esther, Athalie, Phèdre, Bajazet and Iphigénie. He died at Paris, April 21, 1699, and was buried according to his own request at Port Royal.