Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Alexander the Great
    Alexander the Great
    Alexander the Great
    Ebook77 pages46 minutes

    Alexander the Great

    By Jean Racine

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The 17th century dramatist Jean Racine was considered, along with Molière and Corneille, as one of the three great playwrights of his era. The quality of Racine's poetry has been described as possibly his most important contribution to French literature and his use of the alexandrine poetic line is one of the best examples of such use noted for its harmony, simplicity and elegance. While critics over the centuries have debated the worth of Jean Racine, at present, he is widely considered a literary genius of revolutionary proportions. In this volume of Racine's plays we find "Alexander the Great", the second of twelve plays by the author. As you would expect the drama concerns its titular character and his love for the Indian princess Cleofile. Based largely on the histories of Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus, Alexander finds his pursuit of love of the Indian princess complicated by intrigues between her brother Taxilus and his ally Porus.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2013
    ISBN9781420948875
    Alexander the Great
    Author

    Jean Racine

    Jean Racine, né le 22 décembre 1639 à La Ferté-Milon et mort le 21 avril 1699 à Paris, est un dramaturge et poète français. Issu d'une famille de petits notables de la Ferté-Milon et tôt orphelin, Racine reçoit auprès des « Solitaires » de Port-Royal une éducation littéraire et religieuse rare.

    Read more from Jean Racine

    Related to Alexander the Great

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Blot on Our Democracy

      Jul 24, 2021

      It is very unusual for three benches of the Supreme Court to express their views almost simultaneously on the sedition law—Sec. 124A of the Indian Penal Code. For decades, farmers, artists, activists, trade unionists, journalists and others have been

      3 min read

    • Article

      Fight To The Finish

      May 6, 2023

      Fight To The Finish
      4 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems by Geoffrey Hill

      Dec 15, 2018

      62. Why such irony in re the mystical context when a graph of even the most commonplace exchange would appear perplexed; when we drop out from the plainest statement in the posture of a bat? So, decide to make something of that, the style to resemble

      2 min read

    • Article

      Death

      Mar 2, 2023

      Death
      1 min read

    • Article

      On Grief

      Jul 29, 2019

      On Grief
      5 min read

    • Article

      AUSTRALOPITHECA1 & STARMAN2

      Sep 1, 2019

      The countdown to you begyns with me, deere Starman, when I wander, dumbly, deep into a space hospittable to Hunger. Now, all’s desert. No milk in syte. Just pitifull sand, what shushes as it slydes through your hande to rejoin itself. I’d join myself

      7 min read

    • Article

      Come To The Party

      Nov 18, 2019

      King Xerxes, a wealthy and prominent king who ruled over 127 provinces, decided to give a banquet for all his nobles and officials. For a full 180 days, he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the glory of his majesty. Then for seven days, he

      3 min read

    • Article

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors

      Jul 11, 2023

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors
      6 min read

    • Article

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work

      Dec 15, 2018

      HERNAN BAS New and Recent Work
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Pink

      Sep 22, 2023

      The Pink
      1 min read

    • Article

      Echo and Narcissus

      Mar 7, 2022

      Echo and Narcissus
      7 min read

    • Article

      The World’s First Superhero

      Oct 28, 2021

      In 321 BC, a very strange procession set out from Babylon. Alexander the Great was on the move. He had died two years earlier, in 323 BC, at the age of 32. Over the course of a few brief years, this astonishing soldier and statesman had transformed t

      8 min read

    • Article

      Napoleon’s Russian Namesis

      Jun 9, 2022

      Napoleon’s Russian Namesis
      11 min read

    • Article

      In Memory Of Derek Alton Walcott

      Mar 15, 2018

      1 Island traffic slows to a haltas screeching gulls reluctantto lift heavenwardcongregate like mourners in saltcrustedkelp, as the repellentnews spreads to colder shores: Sir Derek is no more.Bandwidths, clogged by streamingtributes, carry the pitcho

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      On Love

      Mar 7, 2022

      On Love
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Epic Of Gilgamesh

      Jan 1, 2020

      My friends, who can reach heaven? The monster bellows like a river swollen with flood.Many are consumed in his fiery breath. My friends, who can reach heaven? Let us ask the mountain for a sign.Let us cut the spirits from the cedars. My friends, who

      3 min read

    • Article

      Our Library

      Dec 5, 2022

      A mean As we have said, then, courage is a mean with respect to things that inspire confidence or fear, in the circumstances that have been stated; and it chooses or endures things because it is noble to do so, or because it is base not to do so. Bu

      2 min read

    • Article

      from BLACK PASTORAL

      Nov 1, 2023

      somewheres, some lifetimes ago I have run so far, so long.There is nowhere I haven’t beenBut here, in this field, a bodyLength from the ragged brinkThat gives way to forest.I collapsed here, the thin, hard slipOf me whittled at both ends.I want badly

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Odyssey and the Other

      Nov 14, 2017

      The Odyssey and the Other
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Alexander the Great

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Alexander the Great - Jean Racine

      cover.jpg

      ALEXANDER THE GREAT

      BY JEAN RACINE

      TRANSLATED BY ROBERT BRUCE BOSWELL

      eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4887-5

      ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4886-8

      This edition copyright © 2013

      Please visit www.digireads.com

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

      CHARACTERS.

      ACT I.

      ACT II.

      ACT III.

      ACT IV.

      ACT V.

      ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

      A TRAGEDY.

      INTRODUCTION TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

      The story of this drama is derived from Quintus Curtius, Plutarch, and Justin. The real hero is Porus rather than Alexander; and when it was first acted in 1665, mention is made of it under the former title. Racine himself writes thus:—I have endeavoured to represent in Porus an enemy worthy of Alexander; and I may say that his character has met with a high degree of public favour, and some have even censured me for making this prince greater than Alexander. But such persons forget that in virtue of his victory Alexander is really greater than Porus, that every line of the tragedy reflects his praises, and that even the invectives of Porus and Axiana are so many tributes to the conqueror's valour. There is perhaps in Porus something that interests us more, from the very circumstance of his misfortunes; for, as Seneca has remarked, 'we are naturally disposed to admire nothing in the world so much as a man who can bear adversity with courage.'

      CHARACTERS.

      ALEXANDER.

      PORUS.

      INDIAN KINGS.

      TAXILES.

      ASIANA, Queen of another part of India.

      CLEOPHIL, a sister of Taxiles.

      HEPHÆSTION.

      ATTENDANTS of Alexander.

      The scene is laid on the banks of the Hydaspes, in the camp of Taxiles.

      ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

      A TRAGEDY.

      ACT I.

      SCENE I. TAXILES, CLEOPHILA.

      CLEOPHILA. What! go you to resist a king whose might

      Seems to force Heav'n itself to take his side,

      Before whose feet have fallen all the kings

      Of Asia, who holds Fortune at his beck?

      Open your eyes, my brother, and behold

      In Alexander one who casts down thrones,

      Binds kings in chains, and makes whole nations slaves;

      And all the ills they have incurr'd prevent.

      TAXILES. Would you that, stricken with so mean a fear,

      I bow my head to meet his threat'ning yoke,

      And hear it said by every Indian tribe,

      I forged the fetters for myself and them?

      Shall I leave Porus, and betray those chiefs

      Met to defend the freedom of our realms,

      Who without hesitation have declared

      Their brave resolve to live or die like kings?

      See you a single one of them so cow'd

      At Alexander's name, that he forgets

      To fight, and begs to be enroll'd his slave,

      As of th' acknowledge master of the world?

      So far from being daunted at his fame,

      They will attack him e'en in Victory's lap.

      And would you, sister, have me crave his help

      Whom I to-day am ready to withstand?

      CLEOPHILA. Nay, is it not to you this prince appeals,

      Sues for your friendship, and for yours alone,

      And, ready to discharge his lightning flash,

      Makes secret efforts to protect your head?

      TAXILES. Why should he spare his wrath for me alone?

      Of all Hydaspes arms against him, how

      Have I deserved a pity that insults?

      Why not to Porus make these overtures?

      Doubtless he deems him too magnanimous

      To heed an offer that is fraught with shame,

      And, seeking virtue of less stubborn mould,

      Thinks me, forsooth, more worthy of his care.

      CLEOPHILA. Say not he thinks to find in you a slave,

      But deems you bravest of his enemies,

      And hopes that, may he but disarm your hand,

      His triumph o'er the rest will be secured.

      His choice does no discredit to your name,

      He offers friendship cowards may not share.

      Tho' he would fain see all the world submit

      To him, he wants no slave among his friends.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1