Produced by Al Haines
Heath's Modern Language Series.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
By I. H. B. SPIERS.
The tragedy of Esther commends itself to moderately advanced studentsof the French language by the fact that it is both the easiest and theshortest masterpiece of French tragic literature. For such studentsthe present edition has been prepared. The text has been modified inall minor points of spelling and grammar so as to conform with presentusage. The notes are intended either to make clear such matters ofhistory or grammar as offer any difficulty, or to emphasize that whichmay be especially instructive from a literary, historical, orgrammatical point of view.
The appendix contains, in addition to a brief statement of the rules ofFrench verse, a systematic presentation of quotations from the playillustrating a few of the grammatical points on which experienceteaches that the student's knowledge, in spite of grammars, is likelyto be vague.
The editor desires to acknowledge gratefully his indebtedness to M.Paul Mesnard's exhaustive work in the Collection des Grands Écrivainsde la France, published under the direction of M. Ad. Régnier (Paris,1865), and also to the excellent editions of Mr. G. Saintsbury (Oxford,1886), and of Prof. E. S. Joynes (New York, 1882).
Jean Racine, unquestionably the most perfect of the French tragicpoets, was born in 1639, at La Ferté-Milon, near Paris. He received asound classical education at Port-Royal des Champs, then a famouscentre of religious thought and scholastic learning. At the early ageof twenty he was so fortunate as to attract, by an ode in honor of themarriage of King Louis XIV., the favor of that exacting monarch,—afavor which he was to enjoy during forty years. Yet more fortunate inthe friendship of Molière, of La Fontaine, and especially of his trustycounsellor, Boileau, he doubtless owed to them his determination todevote himself to dramatic literature.
His first tragedies to be put upon the stage were La Thébaïde (1664)and Alexandre (1665), which gave brilliant promise. In 1667 appearedAndromaque, his first chef-d'oeuvre, which placed him at once in thevery front rank by the side of Corneille. From that time forth, until1677, almost each year was marked by a new triumph. In 1668, heproduced his one comedy, Les Plaideurs, a highly successful satire onthe Law Courts, in the vein of the "Wasps" of Aristophanes. In 1669,he resumed his tragedies on historical subjects with Britannicus,largely drawn from Tacitus, followed by Bérénice (1670), Bajazet(1672), Mithridate (1673), Iphigénie (1674), and Phèdre (1677),the last two being inspired by Euripides.
Incensed at a literary