Artistic Reasons for Racine’s Silence after Phèdre (1953) (In memoriam Gaston Broche)

Abstract

Our values are those of Racine’s days no longer, yet, even after Jean Pommier’s and Raymond Picard’s careful and convincing analyses, can it be assumed that merely human or social reasons weighed with the poet and brought about his decision to withdraw from the stage after Phèdre, which proved a lasting success despite the intrigues (and alarms perhaps) of the first few nights? The appointment as historiographer royal was indeed a remarkable worldly achievement for a poet ‘born at La Ferté-Milon’, as the lampoonists of the day seldom lost an opportunity to recall — just as an unromantic marriage brought regular habits and drew a veil of respectability over the errors of the past; and Racine had succeeded in establishing a delicate balance, between elements as distinct as the King’s favour (including that of his favourites), his own ambition (an orphan’s lifelong desire for revenge over fate adverse) and his personal convenience.