Born in
La Ferté-Milon (
Aisne) on
December 22, 1639, Racine was orphaned at the age of three or four and received a classical education courtesy of his grandmother, Marie des Moulins. He was a graduate of
Port-Royal, a religious institution which would greatly influence other contemporary figures including
Blaise Pascal. Port-Royal was run by followers of the
Jansenist religious reform movement, which was deemed subversive by the
Catholic French government. Racine's interactions with the Jansenists in his years at this academy would have great influence over him for the rest of his life. At Port-Royal, he excelled in his studies of the
Classics and the themes of
Greek and
Roman mythology would play large roles in his future works.
He was expected to study law at the College of Harcourt, but instead found himself drawn to a more artistic lifestyle. Experimenting with poetry yielded high praise from France's greatest literary critic,
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux with whom Racine would later become great friends (Boileau would often claim that he was behind the budding poet's work). He eventually took up residence in Paris where he became involved in theatrical circles.
His first play,
Amasie, never reached the stage. On
June 20, 1664, Racine's tragedy
La Thébaïde ou les frères ennemis (
The Thebaide or the Enemy Brothers) was produced by Molière's troupe at the Palais-Royal Theatre. The next year, Molière also put on Racine's second play, "
Alexandre Le Grand". However, this play garnered such good feedback from the public that Racine secretly negotiated with a rival play company, the Hôtel de Bourgogne, to perform the play since they had a better reputation for performing tragedies. Thus,
Alexandre premiered for the second time, by a different acting troupe, 11 days after its first showing. Molière could never forgive Racine for his betrayal, and Racine simply widened the rift between he and his former friend by seducing Molière's leading actress, Thérèse du Parc, into becoming his companion both professionally and personally. From this point on, all of Racine's secular plays were performed by the Hôtel de Bourgogne troupe.
Though both
La Thébaide (1664) and its successor,
Alexandre (1665), had classical themes, Racine was already entering into controversy and forced to field accusations that he was polluting the minds of his audiences. He broke all ties with Port-Royal, and proceeded with
Andromaque (1667), which told the story of
Andromache, widow of
Hector, and her fate following the
Trojan War. He was by now acquiring many rivals, including
Pierre Corneille and his brother,
Thomas Corneille. Tragedians often competed with alternative versions of the same plot: for example,
Michel le Clerc produced an
Iphigénie in the same year as Racine (1674), and
Jacques Pradon also wrote a play about
Phèdre (1677). The success of Pradon's work (the result of the activities of a
claque) was one of the events which caused Racine to renounce his work as a dramatist at that time, even though his career up to this point was so successful that he was the first French author to live almost completely off of the money he earned from his writings. Others, including the historian
W.H. Lewis, attribute his retirement from the theater to qualms of conscience.
However, one major incident which seems to have contributed to Racine's departure from public life was his implication in a court scandal of 1679. He got married at about this time to the pious Catherine de Romanet, and his religious beliefs and devotion to the
Jansenist sect were revived. He and his wife eventually had two sons and five daughters. Around the time of his marriage and departure from the theater, Racine accepted a position as a royal historiographer in the court of King Louis XIV, alongside his friend
Boileau. He kept this position in spite of the minor scandals he was involved in. In 1672 he was elected to the Académie française, eventually gaining much power over this organization. Two years later he was bestowed the title of "treasurer of France," and he was later distinguished as an "ordinary gentleman of the king" (1690) and then as a secretary of the king (1696). Because of his flourishing career in the court, Louis XIV provided for his widow and children after his death. When at last he returned to the theatre, it was at the request of
Madame de Maintenon, morganatic second wife of King
Louis XIV, with the moral fables,
Esther (1689) and
Athalie (1691), both of which were based on
Old Testament stories and intended for performance by the pupils of the school of
Saint-Cyr.
Jean Racine died in
1699 from cancer of the liver. He requested to be buried in Port-Royal, but after Louis XIV had this site razed in 1710, his remains were moved to the
St. Etienne-du-Mont church in
Paris.
