17th-century French literature was written throughout the Grand Siècle of France, spanning the reigns of Henri, the Regency of Marie de' Medici, Louis XIII, the Regency of Anne of Austria, and the rei
Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701)
Tragedy
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A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering, specifically by way of terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy
17th-century French literature
…genres and dramatists of the previous generation; most influential in this respect was Robert Garnier. Although the royal court had grown tired of the tragedy (preferring the more-escapist tragicomedy), the theatergoing public preferred the former. This would change in the 1630s and 1640s when (influenced by…
Reliefs from Tarentum (Modern Day Taranto) believed to depict scenes from Greek tragedy: at left Electra and Orestes, who murder their mother Clytemnestra in order to avenge their father, Agamemnon; Clytemnestra was motivated by Agamemnon taking the princess Cassandra as concubine, and by Agamemnon sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia. At right is Oedipus and Antigone; Oedipus was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a shepherd; he then unknowingly murdered his father and married his mother, siring children including Antigone. When Oedipus became aware of what he had done, he put out his own eyes in horror; his daughter here guides him.
The Bacchae, ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides
Scene from the tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides. Roman fresco in Pompeii.
Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911) King Lear, Cordelia's Farewell