The heart itself is only a small vessel, yet

dragons are there, and lions, there are

poisonous beasts, and all the treasures of evil,
there are rough and uneven roads, there are
precipices; but there too is God and the
angels, life is there, and the Kingdom, there
too is light, and there the apostles and
heavenly cities, and treasures of grace. All
things lie within that little space.

-Makarios the Great

 Neoclassicism
in French Theatre
 “ Unofficial” French
Academy
•Started informally in 1630s

•Criticism, rhetoric, literature

“ The” French Academy
• Cardinal Richelieu made it official.

• 40 Members: “ The Forty Immortals”

• Governance of
• French literature
• French grammar
• French orthography
 The French Academy
• Solidified the
Neoclassical ideal
in French
literature.
The Rules!
1) only tragedy and comedy,
no mixed forms/tones

✔ Antigone

✔ MacBeth

Much Ado
✗
2) tragedy must be about
great and noble men
(royalty)
3) comedy must be about low
and/or middle classes
4) The Three Unities:

•Time
•Place
•Action
5) Five act structure
6) Verisimilitude

** The appearance of truth; the

quality of seeming to be true.
7) Decorum

Appropriateness of
behavior or conduct;
propriety
* part of
verisimilitude!
Neo-Classicism is KING

until 150 years later…

ROMANTICISM
 Romantics believed that…

• Creation -> Absolute Being

• All creation contains eternal truth

• All things are part of the whole

• More NATURAL = More TRUE

 Romantic writers preferred topics of …

• “untamed” nature

• “unspoiled” or “natural” people

• Rebellion against society / bureaucrats

 Human existence is a compound of dualities –

• Body and Soul

• Physical and Spiritual
• Temporal and Eternal
• Finite and Infinite
• …therefore, you are divided
against yourself!
Human existence is a compound of dualities

• ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE makes you WHOLE

AGAIN
 The ARTIST
• ART and PHILOSOPHY are superior forms of
knowledge (over science)

• The artist can provide guidance to others if

they are willing to listen
 The Artist
• Concept of the “Genius Artist”

• Artist as extraordinary being, different from

everyone else
 Victor Hugo
(1802-1885)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(Novel)
Les Misérables (Novel).

Cromwell (Play)
Hernani (Play)
 Victor Hugo
1827; Hugo writes play Cromwell

Publishes preface with the play

***Most significant statement of

Romantic doctrine in French.
 Main Ideas in the
Preface to Cromwell

1. Hugo – “No more UNITIES”

2. Hugo – No more separation of

genre!
 Main Ideas in
the Preface to Cromwell

3. Hugo insisted art go beyond

the “Idealized Nature” (Neo-
Classical!)
*art must include both
the SUBLIME and
the GROTESQUE
The Sublime & The Grotesque

The Sublime is related to human

spiritual qualities

The Grotesque is related to our

animal nature

Together these help produce a

truthful depiction of human nature.
Quasimodo
 HERNANI (1830)
• Opened on Feb. 25, 1830 at the Comédie
Française

• ROMANTIC!

• Created a fierce fight about Romanticism

• “The Battle of Hernani”

 HERNANI
• What’s the BIG DEAL??????

• HERNANI deliberately violated

many of the rules of neo-
classicism!!
 Hernani
• altered the Alexandrine

• used words considered beneath tragedy

• broke unities of time and place

• showed deaths and violence on stage

• humor was mixed with seriousness

Hernani

“Claques”
 Hernani

• Romantics won!

• We date the beginning of French

Romanticism with the triumph of
HERNANI.
Cyrano
(High Romanticism)