LOUIS FASQUELLE, LL.D., PROFESSOR OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, NEW YORK: IVISON, PHINNEY & COMPANY, 48 & 50 WALKER STREET. CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS & COMPANY, 89 & 41 LAKE STREET. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by IVISON & PHINNEY. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Michigan. STEREOTYPED BY THOMAS B. SMITH, 82 & 84 Beekman Street. PREFACE. AN edition of the CHEFS D'ŒUVRE of RACINE, with Explanatory Notes and Grammatical References, is here offered to the American student. The want of such a book has long been felt by the instructor and pupil. The references in this, as in the editor's other reading books, are made to his "New French Method," a work which, in little more than four years, has already passed through thirty-three large editions. The dramatic compositions of Racine contained in this volume are: Les Plaideurs, Andromaque, Iphigénie, Esther, Athalie. The first of these, Les Plaideurs, the only comedy written by Racine, makes us wish that the author had done more in this department. This gem, an imitation of the Wasps of Aristophanes, far surpassing the original, has not hitherto been placed in the hands of the student on account of the peculiar difficulties of its style and of the numerous proverbial expressions and allusions which it contains. The notes, therefore, will be found much fuller in this play than in the others which offer less difficulties. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, L. F. |