Editing Tragedy (section)

==Neo-classical==
[[File:Talma as Nero in Britannicus by Racine - Delacroix - zeno.jpg|thumb|190px|French actor [[François-Joseph Talma|Talma]] as Nero in Racine's ''[[Britannicus (play)|Britannicus]].]]
For much of the 17th century, [[Pierre Corneille]], who made his mark on the world of tragedy with plays like ''[[Médée]]'' (1635) and ''[[Le Cid]]'' (1636), was the most successful writer of French tragedies. Corneille's tragedies were strangely un-tragic (his first version of ''Le Cid'' was even listed as a tragicomedy), for they had happy endings. In his theoretical works on theatre, Corneille redefined both comedy and tragedy around the following suppositions:
* The stage—in both comedy and tragedy—should feature noble characters (this would eliminate many low-characters, typical of the farce, from Corneille's comedies). Noble characters should not be depicted as vile (reprehensible actions are generally due to non-noble characters in Corneille's plays).
* Tragedy deals with affairs of the state (wars, dynastic marriages); comedy deals with love. For a work to be tragic, it need not have a tragic ending.
* Although [[Aristotle]] says that [[catharsis]] (purgation of emotion) should be the goal of tragedy, this is only an ideal. In conformity with the moral codes of the period, plays should not show evil being rewarded or nobility being degraded.

Corneille continued to write plays through 1674 (mainly tragedies, but also something he called "heroic comedies") and many continued to be successes, although the "irregularities" of his theatrical methods were increasingly criticised (notably by [[François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac]]) and the success of Jean Racine from the late 1660s signalled the end of his preeminence.

[[Jean Racine]]'s tragedies—inspired by Greek myths, [[Euripides]], [[Sophocles]] and [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]]—condensed their plot into a tight set of passionate and duty-bound conflicts between a small group of noble characters, and concentrated on these characters' double-binds and the geometry of their unfulfilled desires and hatreds. Racine's poetic skill was in the representation of [[pathos]] and amorous passion (like [[Phèdre]]'s love for her stepson) and his impact was such that emotional crisis would be the dominant mode of tragedy to the end of the century. Racine's two late plays ("Esther" and "Athalie") opened new doors to biblical subject matter and to the use of theatre in the education of young women. Racine also faced criticism for his irregularities: when his play, ''[[Bérénice]]'', was criticised for not containing any deaths, Racine disputed the conventional view of tragedy.

For more on French tragedy of the 16th and 17th centuries, see [[French Renaissance literature]] and [[French literature of the 17th century]].

===Later development===

Towards the close of the eighteenth century, having studied her predecessors, [[Joanna Baillie]] wanted to revolutionise theatre, believing that it could be used more effectively to affect people's lives.{{sfn|Colón|2007|p=xi}} To this end she gave a new direction to tragedy, which she defined as 'the unveiling of the human mind under the dominion of those strong and fixed passions, which seemingly unprovoked by outward circumstances, will from small beginnings brood within the breast, till all the better dispositions, all the fair gifts of nature are borne down before them'.{{sfn|Baillie|1798|p=38}} 
This theory, she put into practice in her 'Series of Plays on the Passions' in three volumes (commencing in 1798) and in other dramatic works. Her method was to create a series of scenes and incidents intended to capture the audience's inquisitiveness and 'trace the progress of the passion, pointing out those stages in the approach of the enemy, when he might have been combated most successfully; and where the suffering him to pass may be considered as occasioning all the misery that ensues.'{{sfn|Baillie|1798|p=41}}