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Jean Racine's play "Mithridate" premieres in Paris

Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western...

Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther, for the young.

Racine's plays displayed his mastery of the dodecasyllabic (12 syllable) French alexandrine. His writing is renowned for its elegance, purity, speed, and fury, and for what American poet Robert Lowell described as a "diamond-edge", and the "glory of its hard, electric rage".

Historical Significance

Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature.

Key People

Jean Racine

17th-century French dramatist

17th-century French dramatist

Events Before

  1. Isaac Newton reads his first optics paper before the Royal Society in London

    Sir Isaac Newton (4 January [O.S. 25 December] 1643 – 31 March [O.S. 20 March] 1727) was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, author and...

  2. Joan Blaeu's publishing house is destroyed by fire in Amsterdam

    Joan Blaeu's publishing house is destroyed by fire in Amsterdam

  3. France declares war on Netherlands

    The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with overseas territories in the Caribbean.

  4. John Maitland, administrator of Scotland for Charles II, made the Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March

    John Maitland, administrator of Scotland for Charles II, made the Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March

  5. Brandenburg monarch Frederik Willem signs treaty with Netherlands

    Brandenburg monarch Frederik Willem signs treaty with Netherlands

Events After

  1. Dutch Republic formally cedes New Netherland to England, who rename it New York

    Dutch Republic formally cedes New Netherland to England, who rename it New York

  2. English reconquer NY from Netherlands

    English reconquer NY from Netherlands

  3. Ambon earthquake and megatsunami kills at least 2322 people in the Maluku Islands (modern Indonesia), tsunami reaches he

    Ambon earthquake and megatsunami kills at least 2322 people in the Maluku Islands (modern Indonesia), tsunami reaches height of 100 meters (330 ft) [1]

  4. Dutch Republic and England sign Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War; North American colony of New Ne

    Dutch Republic and England sign Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War; North American colony of New Netherland returned to British [OS date, 02-09 NS]

  5. Netherlands and Münster sign peace treaty

    The Peace of Breda, or Treaty of Breda was signed in the Dutch city of Breda, on 31 July 1667.

More from the 1670s

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on January 13, 1673?
Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther, for the young.
Why is Jean Racine's play "Mithridate" premieres in Paris significant?
Jean-Baptiste Racine was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature.
Who was involved in Jean Racine's play "Mithridate" premieres in Paris?
Key figures include Jean Racine (17th-century French dramatist).

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