NOTES

PAGE 85. A Monseigneur le Duc de Chevreuse. CharlesHonoré d'Albert (1646-1712), Duke of Luynes, Chevreuse and Chaulnes, the son of the duke who had favored Port-Royal. Racine's relative, Vitart, with whom he had lived after leaving school, was steward in the Luynes family.— Monseigneur was the title for the greater nobles and ecclesiastics.

8. se puisse taire. The usual order at this time. See note for Andromaque, Second Preface, p. 9, l. 12.

12. prenez part=prenez intérêt.

14. un homme. Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), the great minister of Louis XIV. The Duke of Chevreuse had married his daughter in 1667.

de la pénétration avec laquelle.

15. avec quelle, etc. = PAGE 86, 4. ce semble = First Preface, p. 6, 1. 9.

= il semble. See note for Andromaque,

9. en un siècle = dans un siècle.

=

13. n'avais autre dessein n'avais d'autre dessein. See First Preface, p. 92, 1. 6.

PAGE 87.

FIRST PREFACE.

Published with the first edition of 1670, in answer to

critics and Corneille's partisans.

8, etc. Il y en a qui, etc. A defense which recalls the defense of Pyrrhus' character in the First Preface to Andromaque.

PAGE 88, 5. l'intérêt =

6. en.

= les intérêts.

Refers to persons regularly in the seventeenth century,

as well as things. Cf. Andromaque, 252.

8. porta supporta. Cf. 1. 298.

=

II. Cujus, etc. The full quotation would be: "Cujus abditis ad

huc vitiis per avaritiam ac prodigentiam mire congruebat” (Tacitus' Annals, Book XIII, ch. 1).

15. préface d'Andromaque. See First Preface, p. 6, 1. 30 to p. 7, 1. 7.

=

26. deux ans plus deux ans de plus. — Narcissus committed suicide in the prison where Agrippina had confined him (Annals, XIII, 1).

28. un homme qui, etc. The critic referred to is Corneille. In his Héraclius (1647) he had extended Phocas' reign twelve years and claims poetical license for it. See Corneille's words in the preface "Au Lecteur," Marty-Laveaux edition, vol. V, p. 143 (also "Examen," vol. V, p. 152).

PAGE 89, 7. Junia Calvina is mentioned by Tacitus in the Annals (XII, 4) as involved in the enmity felt by Agrippina towards her brother, Silanus. See the quotation from Tacitus which follows. Cf. 11. 63-66.

9.

Octavie. Nero's wife later, and in Britannicus.

IO. Et comme dit Sénèque, etc. The citation is from Seneca's satire, Ludus de morte Claudii (VIII): "Sororem suam, festivissimam omnium puellarum, quam omnes Venerem vocarent, maluit Junorem vocare." Seneca evidently believed the charges against her which Tacitus mentions. However, this Junia was still in exile at Britannicus' death. Racine has simply taken the name and a hint of the real Junia.

20.

en quatre vers. See Junia's speech in the notes for Act V, Sc. 6. Racine soon yielded to this criticism and suppressed the scene in his second edition.

6. C'est ainsi que Sophocle, etc. Antigone is led away by the guards at 1. 943 of the Greek play. There are 1353 lines in all.

16. Au lieu, etc. Notice Racine's statement of his dramatic theory.

28. qui se voudrait faire haïr, etc. This remark would fit Attila in Corneille's tragedy of Attila (1667), who himself describes his savage character to his love, Ildione (Attila, 879-892). But Attila is not intoxicated in the play.

29. un Lacédémonien grand parleur. The heroes of Corneille's Agésilas (1666), either Agesilas, king of Sparta, or Lysander, a Spartan captain.

30. un conquérant, etc. Caesar, who wins victories for love of Cleopatra in Corneille's Pompée (1643).

31. une femme, etc. Cornelia, in the same tragedy of Pompée. 32. faire récrier. Notice the omission of the reflexive. See note for 1. 979; Andromaque, 1219.

PAGE 91, 6. la pensée d'un ancien. Racine refers to the literary essay, On the Sublime, by Dionysius Cassius Longinus, a Greek philosopher of the third century († 273 A.D.). This essay was translated into French by Racine's intimate friend, Boileau, a few years later (1674). Racine paraphrases Longinus' words.

12. Quid de te, etc. From Cicero's De Republica, VI, 23 (25). 21. malevoli, etc. See Terence's Andria, Prologue, 6, 7. 24. Occoepta est agi. Now written occoeptast agi. See Terence's Eunuchus, Prologue, 22, 23.

29. Aulu-Gelle. Aulus Gellius, a Latin writer of the second century. The reference is to his Noctes Atticae, I, 12.

PAGE 92, 22. Homine imperito, etc. From Terence's Adelphi, 98. The modern reading for the end of the line is "quicquam injustiust."

SECOND PREFACE.

PAGE 93. Written for the second edition, of 1676. It lacks the sharpness of tone which marked the First Preface.

10. C'est maintenant celle des miennes, etc. There is no record of the performances of Racine's tragedies between 1670 and 1680. From the time of the consolidation of all the troupes into the Comédie Française (1680) to 1700, the official register shows that Britannicus was played at court nineteen times, or more than any other of Racine's plays, save Bajazet, which was performed twenty times. It was played before the Parisian public during the same period eightyone times, or less than les Plaideurs, Phèdre, Andromaque, Mithridate and Iphigénie.

25. cet extrait tiendrait, etc. This is an exaggeration. Narcissus and Junia, for instance, are only suggested by Tacitus.

PAGE 94, 15. fausses caresses.

Cf. ll. 1271, 1272.

16. Factus natura, etc. Racine omits "et consuetudine exercitus" after "natura." (Tacitus' Annals, XIV, 56.)

18. couleurs. Cf. Athalie, 943.—à=pour. Cf. 1. 661.

19. Hactenus, etc. Annals, XIII, 47.

21. exemplaire. Note the singular. The adjective in the seventeenth century frequently agreed with the last of a series of substantives connected by et.

21. Fato quodam, etc. Tacitus has "abhorrebat "after" illicita " (Annals, XIII, 12). — Translation: "Whether because of destiny, or because illicit pleasures prevailed with him, and it was feared he might dishonor in his passions the most noble women."

25. qui dit que Néron, etc. See First Preface, p. 88, 11. 8-12. PAGE 95, 7, 9. militaribus curis . . . comitate honesta. A connected phrase in the Annals (XIII, 2).

II.

Civitati grande, etc. Annals, XIV, 51.

14. quae cunctis, etc. Annals, XIII, 2. — - Translation: "Who, burning with all the passions of a wicked rule, had Pallas on her side."

24. Sibi supremum auxilium, etc. Annals, XIII, 16. Translation: "She understood her last support was taken from her, and that an example for parricide was there."

32.

soit. . . ou soit. . . soit. Cf. Andromaque, 1194.

PAGE 96, 2. Neque segnem, etc. Annals, XII, 26. Paraphrased in the previous lines by Racine.

9. Nam ut proximus, etc. Annals, XIII, 15. Paraphrased by Racine.

II. Il me reste à parler de Junie. See note for First Preface, p. 89, 1. 7.

ACTEURS.

PAGE 97, 1.

The usual term for the characters at this time.

See note for Andromaque, p. 10.

3. Agrippine. See ll. 307-310.

6. Burrhus was prefect of the Prætorian Guards.

7. Narcisse. See ll. 343, 344.

IO. The stage setting for Britannicus was thus ordered: "Le