Corneille, 1663 : une Sophonisbe « pour les dames »

Abstract

In his version of Sophonisbe, which he gave a few months after the premiere of Molière’s L’École des femmes and Mlle Desjardins’s Manlius, Corneille, following the example of his rival playwrights, completely reconfigured the subject of Livy, so as to satisfy the aspirations of the female public. These various modifications, which relate to the structure of the plot, the building of characters, the insertion of speeches of love psychology, and the imitation of everyday situations, constitute a dramaturgical audacity that reveals the extent to which Corneille in the 1660s was in touch with the evolution of theatrical life.

Keywords

• female audience
• theatrical life
• Corneille
• female condition
• love psychology