The Thebaid

By Jean Racine

The 17th century dramatist Jean Racine was considered, along with Molière and Corneille, as one of the three great playwrights of his era. The quality of Racine's poetry has been described as possibly his most important contribution to French literature and his use of the alexandrine poetic line is one of the best examples of such use noted for its harmony, simplicity and elegance. While critics over the centuries have debated the worth of Jean Racine, at present, he is widely considered a literary genius of revolutionary proportions. In this volume of Racine's plays we find "The Thebaid", the first of twelve plays by the author. Racine draws upon Sophocles' "Antigone" and Euripides' "Phoenician Women" for this drama. The play concerns the struggle and death of the young son of Oedipus, as well as that of Antigone. The plot follows that of the other Theban plays in which we find Eteocles and Polynices, two warring brothers, Jocasta, their mother, Antigone, their sister, and Menoeceus and Haemon, their two cousins. All attempt unsuccessfully to quell the conflict between these two brothers in this tragic drama.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781420949124

Jean Racine

Jean Racine, né le 22 décembre 1639 à La Ferté-Milon et mort le 21 avril 1699 à Paris, est un dramaturge et poète français. Issu d'une famille de petits notables de la Ferté-Milon et tôt orphelin, Racine reçoit auprès des « Solitaires » de Port-Royal une éducation littéraire et religieuse rare.

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THE THEBAÏD

BY JEAN RACINE

TRANSLATED BY ROBERT BRUCE BOSWELL

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4912-4

ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4911-7

This edition copyright © 2013

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO THE THEBAÏD.

CHARACTERS.

ACT I.

ACT II.

ACT III.

ACT IV.

ACT V.

THE THEBAÏD;

OR, THE BROTHERS AT WAR.

A TRAGEDY.

1664.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THEBAÏD.

This play, which was first acted in 1664, when Racine was in his twenty-fifth year, is a tragedy founded upon the Seven against Thebes of Æschylus and the Phœnician Women of Euripides. The part of Hæmon is borrowed from the Antigone of Sophocles, and free use has been made of Rotrou's tragedy of the same name. The author, in the preface to this drama in his collected works, begs the reader's indulgence for its imperfections, in consideration of the early age at which he wrote it. He apologizes for the wholesale slaughter of nearly all the characters at its close on the ground that he has therein only followed tradition. Love occupies but a subsidiary place in the development of the plot, the main theme being the hatred between the sons of Œdipus, as inheritors of the curse pronounced against the latter for the parricide and incest of which he was unwittingly guilty.

The influence of Corneille is strongly marked in this the earliest of Racine's published plays; and neither in matter nor style is there more than a faint promise of original genius.

CHARACTERS.

ETEOCLES, King of Thebes.

POLYNICES, brother of Eteocles.

JOCASTA, mother of those two princes, and of Antigone.

ANTIGONE, sister of Eteocles and Polynices.

CREON, their uncle.

HÆMON, son of Creon, lover of Antigone.

OLYMPIA, confidential friend of Jocasta.

ATTALUS, confidential friend of Creon.

A SOLDIER of the army of Polynices.

Guards.

The scene is laid at Thebes, in a room of the palace.

THE THEBAÏD;

OR, THE BROTHERS AT WAR.

ACT I.

SCENE I. JOCASTA, OLYMPIA.

JOCASTA. Olympia, are they gone? What grief is mine,

To pay with weeping for one moment's rest!

For six long months mine eyes have open'd thus

Only to tears, nor ever closed in peace:

Ah, would that death might seal them up for aye,

Ere they behold this darkest deed of all!

Have they encountered?

OLYMPIA. From th' high city wall

I saw their hosts for battle all array'd,

Their bright arms flashing in the sun; then left

The ramparts straight to bring you word; for there

I saw the king himself march, sword in hand,

Before his troops, teaching the stoutest hearts

Surpassing eagerness to dare the worst.

JOCASTA. No doubt remains, Olympia, they are bent

On mutual slaughter. Let the Princess know,

And bid her hasten hither. Righteous Heav'n,

Support my weakness. We must after them,

Part these unnatural brothers, or else die

Slain by their hands. The fatal day is come,

Bare dread of which has fill'd me with despair?

Of no avail have been my prayers and tears;

The Fates not yet their wrath have satisfied.

О Sun, that givest light to all the world,

Why hast thou left us not in deepest night?

Shall thy fair beams on deeds of darkness shine,

Nor horror turn thine eyes from what we see?

Alas, such portents can appal no more,

The race of Laïus has made them trite;

Thou canst unmoved behold my guilty sons,

For crimes more heinous yet their parents wrought;

Thou dost not shudder if my sons forswear

Their solemn oaths, unnatural murderers both,

Knowing them from incestuous union born,

Rather would'st wonder were they virtuous.

SCENE II. JOCASTA, ANTIGONE, OLYMPIA.

JOCASTA. My daughter, have you heard our misery?

ANTIGONE. Yes, they have told me of my brothers' rage.

JOCASTA. Let us then hasten, dear Antigone,

To stop, if it may be, their fratricide.