Jean Racine

Jean Racine was born at La Ferté-Milon in December 1639 and was orphaned young. He was brought up by the Jansenist community at Port-Royal, where he learned Greek and absorbed the tragedians whose plots he would later rework, and he studied further in Paris.

With Andromaque (1667) he began the run of verse tragedies on which his reputation rests, among them Britannicus, Bérénice, Bajazet, Mithridate, Iphigénie and Phèdre (1677). Written in rhymed alexandrines, they are known for their economy of action and their close attention to the passions of their characters.

After Phèdre he largely withdrew from the public theatre, took up the post of royal historiographer, and returned to the stage only with the biblical plays Esther and Athalie, written for the girls of Saint-Cyr. He died in Paris in April 1699 and was buried at Port-Royal.