Jean Baptiste Racine

Esther (Folio Theatre) (French Edition) Jean Baptiste Racine French, Edition Unstated edition

Excerpt: ...        Du coeur ingrat qui l'abandonne           Il attend le retour.         Il excuse notre faiblesse. 1275         A nous chercher même il s'empresse.         Pour l'enfant qu'elle a mis au jour         Une mère a moins de tendresse.   Ah! qui peut avec lui partager notre amour? TROIS ISRAÉLITES. Il nous fait remporter une illustre victoire. 1280 L'UNE DES TROIS. Il nous a révélé sa gloire. TOUTES TROIS ensemble. Ah! qui peut avec lui partager notre amour? TOUT LE CHOEUR.   Que son nom soit béni, que son nom soit chanté!       Que l'on célèbre ses ouvrages       Au delà des temps et des âges, 1285       Au delà de l'éternité! NOTES TO PROLOGUE. This prologue is an afterthought, having been written to provide a part for Mme. de Caylus, a niece of Mme. de Maintenon. It is never spoken on the stage, and rarely, if ever, read in French schools. It is here given for the sake of completeness only. 3 ce lieu, of course is St. Cyr. 9 un roi, Louis XIV. 13 à sa porte, St. Cyr being in the vicinity of Versailles, the king's residence. 15 cet ouvrage, the founding of this institution. 24 Louis XIV. supported foreign missions in the East and in the Nouveau Monde. 31-32 Allusion is here made to the Augsburg League (1687), in which Austria joined Sweden, Saxony, etc., for the purpose of opposing Louis XIV. Its leading spirit was the protestant William of Orange. 36 The pope Innocent III. was accused by Louis XIV. of aiding the anti-Roman designs of William of Orange, 48 Allusion to the taking of Philippsburg, Mannheim and Frankenthal, in the preceding year. 49 un fils. The Grand Dauphin had conducted the above campaign, with the great engineer Vauban. NOTES TO PLAY. 2 Beni soit is the usual form. The retained que is therefore emphatic.-Voeux very frequent in poetry for prieres, for metrical reasons. The whole expression is elliptical: qui te rend a moi en reponse a etc. 3...