Jean Racine
Jean Racine, (1639-99). French tragic dramatist. Orphaned in early childhood, he attended the Jansenist school at Port-Royal in Paris before studying theology. His first tragedy, produced by Moliere, was a failure, but within a few years he was recognized as France’s greatest tragic dramatist with such works as Andromaque (1667) and Britannicus (1669). After the initial failure of Phedre (1677), his masterpiece, Racine gave up the theatre for religion, subsequently writing only two biblical plays for a girls’ school. Raleigh, Sir Walter (1554-1618). English courtier, soldier, explorer, and poet. He became a favourite of Elizabeth I and was knighted in 1584. His expeditions to the Americas (1584-95) led to the introduction of potatoes and tobacco to England and the establishment of a settlement in Virginia. In 1596 he took part in the sack of Cadiz and helped to plan the defeat of the Armada. With the accession of James I he fell out of favour at court and was imprisoned in the Tower of London (1603-16), where he wrote his History of the World (1614). He was executed after an unsuccessful expedition in search of El Dorado.
“I will prove you the notoriousest traitor that ever came to the bar…Nay, I will prove all; thou art a monster: thou has an English face but a Spanish heart. Thou art the most vile and execrable Traitor that ever lived… There never lived a viler viper upon the face of the earth than thou. Sir Edward Coke to Sir Walter Raleigh, during the latter’s trial for treason, 17 November 1603”
