Etienne
Jodelle
born 1532, Paris, France
died July 1573, Paris
French dramatist and poet, one of the
seven members of the literary circle
known as La Pléiade, who applied the
aesthetic principles of the group to
drama.
Jodelle aimed at creating a classical
drama that in every respect would be
different from the moralities and
mysteries then occupying the French
stage; he succeeded in producing the
first modern French tragedy and comedy.
These plays have the reputation of being
unactable and unreadable, but they set a
new example that prepared the ground for
the great Neoclassical tragedians
Corneille and Racine. His first play,
Cléopâtre captive, a tragedy in verse,
was presented before the court at Paris
in 1553. The cast included his friends
Rémy Belleau and Jean de La Péruse.
Jodelle wrote two other plays, Eugène
(1552), a comedy, and Didon se
sacrifiant, another verse tragedy, based
on Virgil’s account of Dido.
In the prologue to Eugéne Jodelle
explained his theory of comedy. It must
deal with people of low or middle class
because, he argued, among them can be
found the crudity and ignorance that are
the stuff of comedy. Tragedy, on the
other hand, must have as its characters
kings or other nobility, like the
audiences for which it is written,
because the populace would not
understand the classical allusions of
tragedy.
