Rules, Rule-Breaking, and French Neoclassicism: Crash Course Theater #20

Everyone knows, you need a bunch of rules to make good theater. That's what the French thought in the 17th century, anyway. The French Neoclassical revival had a BUNCH of French playwrights following a bunch of rules. Unsurprisingly, some of the most interesting plays of the era broke those rules. Today, we'll talk about the rules, and we'll talk about Racine (who followed them), and Corneille (who was not so much a rules guy).

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[Segkee]

I haven't said this yet, but this is a really fascinating series with a great host. Well done CrashCourse!

[chrissypngjpeg]

as someone who's learnt all of this in french since high school, its so cool to see you explain it so well and in such a fun way! im so excited for the moliere video, his pieces were hilarious!!

[rashidanjackson]

Studying for a Theatre Teacher Certification exam and Crash Course has soooo helped me learn in an exciting and fun way! I’ve learned more from Crash Course than I’ve learned in High School and majoring in Theatre in College! So grateful for you guys!

[acetronautinspace_acm]

MOLIÈRE!!!

Fun fact you might want to mention: Molière preferred tragedy plays over comedy but had the misfortune of being good at writing and acting comedies

[koellekind]

Mike's disapproving face when he says "And do you know better than Seneca?!" Haha, that is so funny to me. :) I really like this series.

[sixpomegranateseeds]

Really fascinating! We always think of Shakespeare and the Greeks when it comes to theatre, but there's also that religious stuff, the stuff out east, and now in France!

[kendalltracey]

Omg, we learned about El Cid in my Spanish IV class!

[fizzylimon]

This is also super interesting with relation to French (by which we of course actually mean Parisian) opera at the time, or Tragédie lyrique. Because of all the rules for plays, there was an opening for opera to be a little more supernatural, so they took all the stories of Greek gods, heroes, etc., and put on MASSIVE spectacles for the audience. But the catch was that literally one composer, Jean-Baptiste Lully, was allowed to write them because of a contract with the opera house. He died after getting a gangrenous toe from a conducting accident, and the public just had no idea what to do, so they kept re-staging his operas for like twenty years while others tried and failed to live up to his legacy until Jean-Philippe Rameau came along, and even he was controversial. Gotta love French audiences!

[blubberface]

This is really, really good. Thanks for the lesson, even during the summer. It got my brain pumpin.

[elag]

Oooh next time is Moliere right??? His plays have made me have the laugh of my life

[missof]

get ready for the king of classic comedy people MOLIÈRE

[valerieb]

I feel like i’m back in high school ! This analysis is really interesting but Corneille didn't really fall in line after Le Cid.
His response, 3 or 4 years later, was Horace ... And other cornelien hero torn between love and duty

[nicholasnino]

Much love Crash course! hope you get many grants! I was inspired to start an education channel by this video! You do so much with so little! Lol "great plan here's my sword"

[bobmiller]

So it was like, the medieval French version of "Dogme 95" then huh? Cool :)

[CarolineGarland]

Allons-y! Brilliant! Though you should've changed your ending just this once to "I don't want to go..."

[vrixphillips]

Ah, Racine <3 I love his adaptations of Euripides and Greek myth, like Andromache/Andromaque. All the vigor and tragic force of the original dramatic poets with that extra French flair for despair lol

[murrvvmurr]

French lit song writing etc is alot about lexico-grammatical gymnastics. One's being apt at expressing his or her thought and emotions wilst practicing said calisthenics, is perceived as smarter and more competent inspite of empirical evidence to the contrary. I love it! ALLEZ LES BLEUS! ALLEZ LES BLEU! First i was affraid, i was petrified. Couldn't imagine all my life without you by my

[MelodicNoise]

I notice this on most of Crash Course episodes, what does DFTBA stand for?

[HalfpennyTerwilliger]

I d'd like to know where you've seen that French Renaissance came late, after the religious wars.

The peak of French Renaissance was during François the First's reign. Born in 1494, he reigned from 1515 to 1547. The Renaissance is considered to have ended with the religious wars around 1600. Corneille was born in 1606 and Racine decades later in 1639.

[samuelhuang]

Great video! Are you guys going to do courses on geography?