Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine, was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie, although he did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther, for the young...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth22 December 1639
CountryFrance
Hippolytus can feel, and feels nothing for me!
The part I remember best is the beginning.
By dying I wanted to maintain my honor, and hide a flame so black from the daylight!
Sun, I come to see you for the last time.
You who love wild passions, flee the holy austerity of my pleasures. All here breathes of God, peace and truth.
I can hear those glances that you think are silent.
Ah, why can't I know if I love, or if I hate?
Have there ever been more submissive slaves? Adoring, even in their irons, the God who punishes them.
And do you count for nothing God who fights for us?
Some smaller crimes always precede the great crimes.
The joys of the evil flow away like a torrent.
Wrinkles on the brow are the imprints of exploits.
He who ruleth the raging of the sea, knows also how to check the designs of the ungodly. I submit myself with reverence to His Holy Will. O Abner, I fear my God, and I fear none but Him.
Felicity is in possession, happiness in anticipation.