Editing Pierre Corneille (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Rouen - Maison natale de Pierre Corneille 03.jpg|thumb|Home of the Corneille family in [[Rouen]], where Corneille was born. It was turned into a [[museum]] dedicated to his work in 1920.]]

Corneille was born in [[Rouen]], [[Normandy]], [[Kingdom of France|France]], to Marthe Le Pesant and Pierre Corneille, a distinguished lawyer.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7_wEAAAAYAAJ&dq=Corneille%20and%20His%20Times&pg=PR3 ''Corneille and His Times''], François M. Guizot; 1852, Harper & Bros., NY; [https://books.google.com/books?id=7_wEAAAAYAAJ&dq=Corneille%20and%20His%20Times&pg=PA130 p.130]: "His [Corneille's] father was a royal advocate at the marble table in Normandy...."</ref> His younger brother, [[Thomas Corneille]], also became a noted playwright. He was given a rigorous [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] education at the ''Collège de Bourbon'' ([[Lycée Pierre-Corneille]] since 1873),<ref name="LyCo6">[http://lgcorneille-lyc.spip.ac-rouen.fr/spip.php?article6 Lycée Pierre Corneille de Rouen – History]</ref> where acting on the stage was part of the [[Jesuit drama|training]]. At 18 he began to study law, but his practical legal endeavours were largely unsuccessful. Corneille's father secured two magisterial posts for him with the Rouen department of Forests and Rivers. During his time with the department, he wrote his first play. It is unknown exactly when he wrote it, but the play, the [[comedy]] ''[[Mélite]]'', surfaced when Corneille brought it to a group of traveling actors in 1629. The actors approved of the work and made it part of their repertoire. The play was a success in Paris, and Corneille began writing plays on a regular basis. He moved to Paris in the same year and soon became one of the leading playwrights of the French stage. His early comedies, starting with ''Mélite'', depart from the French farce tradition by reflecting the elevated language and manners of fashionable Parisian society. Corneille describes his variety of comedy as "une peinture de la conversation des honnêtes gens" ("a painting of the conversation of the gentry"). His first true [[tragedy]] is ''[[Médée]]'', produced in 1635.