The Complete Plays of Jean Racine: Volume 1: The Fratricides

Translator's Note

translator’s note This is the first volume in a series which, when complete, will offer in English translation all twelve of Racine’s plays (eleven tragedies and one comedy), only the third such traversal since Racine’s death in 1699. This traversal, in addition, is the first to be composed in rhymed iambic pentameter couplets. My aim has been to reconceive Racine in that pedigreed indigenous English verse form in order to produce a poetic translation of concentrated power and dramatic impact, and to render Racine’s French into English that is incisive, lucid, elegant, ingenious, and memorable. While I have taken particular care to ensure that my translations remain scrupulously faithful to Racine’s text and tone, I have been just as committed to creating a work of English literature. In the Translator’s Introduction I offer an extensive rationale for my approach to translating Racine, a rationale — or, rather, an apologia — necessitated by the absurd, unthinking, yet time-honored contempt for the rhymed couplet as a medium for translating Racine. I believe I have made a wise decision in modeling my translations on the productions of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, two of England’s greatest poets, rather than attempting to imitate a French paradigm that is not viable in English. The main thrust of that Introduction, however, is to urge that these translations be given a reasonable chance to prove their effectiveness in the theater, for I am firmly convinced that the dramatic potency and profound psychological truth of Racine’s plays, as transmitted through vibrant and vital English verse, and purveyed by a committed director and a courageous cast, would make for a compelling theatrical experience. xvi S translator’s note This translation is based on the definitive 1697 edition of Racine’s theater as it appears in the 1980 Bibliothèque de la Pléiade edition, edited by Raymond Picard. The 1697 texts represent Racine’s final thoughts on his twelve plays. The divergences between that edition and the earlier editions published in Racine’s lifetime are of two orders. The first involves minor, if numerous, changes. As to these, one may confidently assert that virtually all of Racine’s later changes represent improvements over the earlier versions: improvements in diction, concentration, clarity, and impact. To have offered these variants (in translation) would have been pointless and well beyond the scope of any but a French-language definitive edition. The second order of changes involves Racine’s deletions of verses that appeared in the earlier editions, deletions ranging from one or two couplets to whole speeches (and even, in one special case, discussed below, an entire scene). While again, for the most part, these excisions serve the interests of each play, the deleted passages are by no means without merit and deserve inclusion in any edition that aspires to be a reference edition for Racine’s plays in English. Not surprising for Racine’s first play, the deletions he made in Les Frères ennemis (The Fratricides) are quite extensive. The 144 lines subsequently cut from the first edition of his first play will be found in the Notes and Commentary, translated (consistently with the primary text of the play) into rhymed couplets. This is the first time these fascinating verses have appeared in English, and I believe my translations make the best possible case for them. Of Racine’s other plays, his second, Alexandre le Grand, underwent major surgery; Les Plaideurs and Bérénice also went under the knife, but those excisions were less extensive. The most interesting textual deviations occur in Andromaque and Britannicus. Racine significantly altered the last act of Andromaque (eliminating the title character’s awkward reappearance ) to produce the version that is read and performed today. Although there are no major textual variants among the published versions of Britannicus, there does exist a lengthy scene between Burrhus and Narcissus (who otherwise never meet in the play), known to us only from its transcription by Racine’s son Louis in his Memoirs of the Life and Works of Jean Racine; originally intended to open Act III, it was jettisoned before the first performance on the translator’s note S xvii advice of Racine’s friend, the eminent poet and critic Nicolas Boileau . Subsequent volumes will offer (for the first time) translations of all these deleted passages. The most recent Pléiade edition, from 1999, edited by Georges...