Thomas Corneille
Thomas Corneille ( born August 20, 1625 Rouen, † December 8, 1709 ) was a French writer, who chiefly made a name for himself as a playwright. He was 19-year- younger brother of Pierre Corneille and is now practically only in this capacity is known, although he was quite successful and highly regarded during his lifetime itself.
Thomas Corneille studied, like his father and his brother, Jura and was in 1649 admitted to the bar at the Parlement of Rouen. A year later he married a sister of his brother's wife and remained otherwise very closely related to this, which had also been his guardian after his father's death ( 1639 ). He wrote a long time under the care of his brother, around 40 mostly successful comedies, tragedies and opera libretti.
Work
Inspired by Calderón and Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla, he wrote comedies first: Les Engagements du hasard (1647 ), Le Feint astrologue ( 1648), Don Bertrand de Cigarral (1650). The latter was from 1659-1661 regularly on the board of the troupe of Molière and still found in 1685 the applause of the audience.
From 1653, after his brother had retired from the theater because of the utter failure of his tragedy Pertharite and for several years wrote no plays, Thomas turned more to the tragedy. Initially, he wrote the tragicomedy Les illustrious ennemis (1654 ), which was well received. A " relapse " in the comedy, 1655, Le Geôlier de soi - même, arrived perfectly and was played in the 18th century under the title Jodelet Prince.
The first tragedy of Corneille, Timocrate ( 1656), was one of the greatest successes of the time. She was in the presence of the king, which the author was presented on this occasion, premiered and played 80 times in a row within six months.
In the next few years brought further tragedies Corneille out: 1657 Bérénice, 1658 La Mort de l' empereur Commode, 1659 Darius.
Meanwhile, he had caught up with the Minister of Finance and major patron, Nicolas Fouquet, together with the 1659 he brought his brother Pierre to attempt a return as a playwright. Of the three substances, which suggested to him Fouquet for editing, Pierre chose the Oedipus material and wrote the tragedy Oedipe. For the other two, Thomas made the tragedies Camma and Stilicon (1660 and 1661). Then he wrote Pyrrhus, Roi d' Épire ( end 1661), Maximian ( 1662), Persée et Demetrius ( 1662).
1662, after the Corneille instead Fouquet, who was convicted in 1661 for alleged abuse of office, had found the Duke of Guise as a patron, they moved together their residence from Rouen to Paris, where they and their families often even, as stated earlier in the hometown, lived under one roof.
In the aftermath Thomas Antiochus wrote ( 1666), Laodice (1668 ) and Le Baron d' Albikrac (1668 ); In 1669 he wrote the comedy Le Galant doublé and end of the year the tragedy La Mort d' Hannibal, after La Comtesse d' Orgueil. The diarrhea of the latter two pieces signaled a change in taste of the audience: The style of Corneille (Pierre had begun, the more successful Thomas imitate the style ) was no longer in demand.
Thomas now was inspired by Jean Racine, who since his great success with Andromaque ( 1667) set the tone in Paris. As he wrote in 1672 in the mythological tragedy Ariane, who as his best rated Voltaire later. With little success after the tragedies Theodat came ( also 1672) and La Mort d' Achille ( 1673 ) on the stage.
The Death of Molière in 1673 meant for his acting troupe also that she needed a new author. In this context, Thomas wrote at the request of Armande Béjart, Molière's widow, of whose prose piece Dom Juan ( Don Juan ), which had been banned in 1665, in a version in verse order, which was also less offensive. Then he wrote the comedy Dom César d' Avalos ( 1674).
1675 was, in collaboration with his friend Jean Donneau de Visé, Circé, a tragedy with music by Marc- Antoine Charpentier, the ausschöpfte all possibilities of that stage machinery: grow mountains, statues come to life, from gardens are rocks on the surges of the sea and the like. Circé was a great success, was able to connect with L' Inconnu to Corneille in the autumn of the same year. Le Triomphe des Dames, a year later, however, fell through.
As 1677 Racine Theatre turned his back after his play Phèdre was because of an intrigue poorly absorbed, Thomas Corneille tried again with tragedies. Le Comte d' Essex came in 1678 to well. In collaboration with his nephew Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle as librettist and the composer Jean -Baptiste Lully created in 1678 Psyché and in 1679 the opera Bellérophon ( the 1773 set to music again by Pierre Montan Berton and Grenier, already in 1671 had Lully Molière, Pierre Corneille and Philippe Quinault processed the same substance to a ballet tragedy same title. )
From 1677 Thomas Corneille scored an extra income as an editor and co-owner of the monthly Salon sheet Mercure Galant, which his friend had Visé founded in 1672. 1679 succeeded again together with Visé, the successful play La Devineresse.
After that it left the stage success. Although he continued to write, but was La Pierre philosophale ( 1681) found to be "too mysterious "; without reverberation remained L' usurier (1685 ), Le Baron of Fondrières (1686), Medea ( 1693, with music by Charpentier ), the tragedy of Bradamante and the comedy Les Dames vengées (both 1695).
Between 1669 and 1697 Corneille translated Ovid's Metamorphoses, and about 1702 he published his translation and editing of Aesop's fables.
In 1685 he was elected in place of his brother who died last year unanimously to the Académie française, the work entrusted to him by the exclusion of Antoine Furetière a supplement to the Dictionnaire de l' Académie. This, one of the Dictionnaire des termes arts et des sciences, came out in Paris on September 11, 1694. Prior to the Notes de M. Corneille sur les Remarques de M. de Vaugelas published ( 2 vols, Paris 1687 ) were. In 1694 he had begun working on an encyclopedic work, the Dictionnaire universel géographique et historique, that should keep him busy almost until his death in three volumes in 1708 and published in Paris.
As he gradually went blind, Corneille had around 1700 employees at its Mercure galant set and thus deprived of an important source of income. In 1701 he was elected member of the Academy of Inscriptions. 1705 transferred him to the Académie française in the state of veterans and freed him from all obligations. Because of the costly marriage of his daughter with Fontenelle and the little revenue for his Dictionnaire universel Corneille, last made in impoverished circumstances. To escape his creditors, he retired to Les Andelys, where his wife had inherited a house. He died on 8 December 1709.
Positive as Meyers encyclopedia judged Voltaire the dramatist: Le cadet n'avait pas la force et la profondeur du genie de l' aîné; mais il parlait sa langue avec plus de pureté, quoique avec plus de faiblesse. C'était un homme d'un très grand Mérite, et d'une vaste littérature; et si vous exceptez Racine, il ne faut auquel comparer personne, il était le seul de son temps qui fût digne d' être le premier au- dessous de son frère. translation: The younger man had not the strength and depth of the genius of his elder brother; but had his language, even if it was weaker, greater purity. He was a very deserving man, and had long-span literary knowledge; and apart from Racine, with which you can compare anyone, he was in his time the only one who was worthy of first place with his brother.