Racine, Jean
(1639–99),French playwright and poet, one of the greatest tragic dramatists in the history of the theatre. Orphaned at the age of 4, he was brought up by his grandparents and his aunt Agnès, later Abbess of Port-Royal, where Racine was educated after a few years at the Collège de Beauvais. He was an excellent scholar, an enthusiastic admirer of the Greek dramatists, and at 19 already a good poet. He soon escaped from the restraining influence of Port-Royal and the Jansenists and led a free, though not particularly dissipated, life. He was quickly accepted in literary circles, where he made the acquaintance of ... ...
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