Jacques Pradon, often called Nicolas Pradon (1632 – 14 January 1698), was a French playwright. Early in his career, he was helped by
Pierre Corneille and was introduced to the salons at the
Hôtel de Nevers and the
Hôtel de Bouillon by Madame Deshoulières.
Pradon was born in
Rouen and is the author of eight tragedies: ''Pyrame et Thisbé'' (1674) (see
Pyramus and Thisbe
Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The story has since been retold by many authors.
Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their r ...
), ''Tamerlan, ou la mort de Bajazet'' (1676), ' (1677), ''La Troade'' (1679), ''Statira'' (1680), ''Regulus'' (1688), ''Germanicus'' (1694) and ''Scipion'' (1697). His plays enjoyed a certain limited success, but were severely judged by his rival
Jean Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
, who also wrote tragedies based on the stories of Bajazet (
Bayezid I
Bayezid I ( ota, بايزيد اول, tr, I. Bayezid), also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt ( ota, link=no, یلدیرم بايزيد, tr, Yıldırım Bayezid, link=no; – 8 March 1403) was the Ottoman Sultan from 1389 to 1402. He adopted ...
) and
Phaedra ("The only difference between Pradon and me is that I know how to write", Racine is reported to have said), and Racine's supporter
Nicolas Boileau. This rivalry was particularly intense when Pradon brought out his ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'' at the same time as Racine's ''
Phèdre
''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris.
Composition and premiere
Wit ...
'' (the writers
Donneau de Visé and
Adrien-Thomas Perdou de Subligny both took Pradon's side), and throughout his life Pradon wrote several attacks on Boileau. He died in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
.
Pradon's plays have been largely denigrated by modern critics, both for his lack of imagination or historical awareness and his utter adherence to the three
classical unities
The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. The three unities are:
#''unity of action' ...
and the ''bienséances'' (proprieties) of . For example, to avoid depicting a stepmother in love with her stepson, Pradon made Phèdre merely Theseus' fiancée. Pradon's 14th-century
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
Tamerlan walks and acts like a gentleman of the 17th-century French court.
Notes
References
* Patrick Dandrey, ed. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le XVIIe siècle.'' Collection: La Pochothèque. Paris: Fayard, 1996.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pradon, Jacques
Writers from Rouen
1632 births
1698 deaths
17th-century French dramatists and playwrights
17th-century French male writers