Jean Racine

Born in December 1639, Jean-Baptiste Racine became one of three towering playwrights in 17th-century France alongside Molière and Corneille, though his territory was almost entirely tragedy. He mastered the twelve-syllable alexandrine and bent it into what Robert Lowell later called a "diamond-edge" — verse known for elegance, purity, speed, and a hard electric rage. Works like Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie became examples of neoclassical perfection, marked by psychological insight, prevailing passion, and a nakedness of both plot and stage. He wrote one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and one muted…