Pierre Corneille

Pierre Corneille was a lawyer from Rouen whose Le Cid of 1637, a play of love and honour in Spanish dress, was so popular that Richelieu had the Academy condemn it for breaking the rules, an argument that set the terms of French classical drama. Polyeucte made a Christian martyr a tragic hero. His subject was the will choosing glory over happiness, in heroes who are larger than life, and he was eclipsed in his last years by the younger Racine, whose heroes are smaller and more like us. The French still divide themselves into Cornelians and Racinians.