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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Any critic writing on Polyeucle must come to grips with a problem that is specific to this particular play (not merely generic, as the conflict between two kinds of “love-duty”). He must ask himself, “Why did Corneille, the poet of heroic humanism, choose to write about Christian martyrdom?” I do not believe it is an adequate answer to say that he did not write about Christian martyrdom but, once again, about heroic humanism. It must have been obvious to Corneille that on the one hand martyrdom had something in common with heroism and on the other that it provided a new variation on the theme. The question, then, is to identify this new variation, to determine the quiddity of Polyeucte, the special light it throws on the Cornelian glorification of man. If Corneille's theater as a whole is about idealism, its potential and its dangers, then the Christian idealism of the martyr is particular in several ways. It demands the ultimate sacrifice, which is not necessarily demanded of the secular hero. The martyr must not only risk his life, he must give it. At the same time, it promises an ultimate in glory. Thus, both the “danger” and the “potential” are extreme. It is this aspect of martyrdom that enters the dramaturgy of Polyeucte in the conflicts between the heroic Christian idealism of Polyeucte and Néarque and the various forms and levels of religious and secular idealism represented by the other characters (and Polyeucte and Néarque) at different moments of the play. But there is a related yet even more fundamental aspect of martyrdom that is built into the fabric and structure of Polyeucle. As Tertullian wrote (A pologeticus, Ch. i), “The more you mow us down, the more quickly we grow; the blood of Christians is fresh seed.” Grace, working through the example of the martyr, leads others to augment the ranks of the Christians. It is this theme of emulation that is central in Polyeucte and forms the link between the two worlds of heroic humanism and Christian martyrdom. As has often been pointed out, admiration is a key emotion in Corneille's theatre. But it is not solely an emotion the playwright hopes to evoke in the spectator; it is also a basic response of many characters to the noble and courageous actions of other characters and a response they hope to arouse in others by their own actions. Now the term admiration, the act of gazing at with wonder, can (and did at times in the Latin) imply strong approval and desire. Admiration may, as it very often does in Corneille, lead to emulation. I should like to suggest that in this theme the seventeenth-century dramatist discovered a religious analogue to the admiring imitation of a model or an ideal self-image that we find typical of so many of his secular heroes.
Note 1 in page 314 “Plures efficimur quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum.”
Note 2 in page 314 All quotations from Polyeucle are taken from Œuvres de P. Corneille, ed. Charles Marty-Laveaux (Paris, 1862), Vol. iii, and are followed directly by line references. Older spellings are modernized.
Note 3 in page 314 Here it is difficult to resist recalling the fact that Corneille was to translate the De imitalione Christi of Thomas à Kempis.
Note 4 in page 320 Pauline's early love included admiration, of course. It was irrational only in the sense that it went against a higher call of reason, her filial obedience. On another occasion Pauline refers to the “révolte des sens” (1. 356).
Note 5 in page 320 See also lines 56 and 1227 for the link between Satan and the idea of recul. The motif of the backward glance recalls Horace, Unes 487–488: “Et c'est mal de l'honneur entrer dans la carrière/Que dès le premier pas regarder en arrière.”
Note 6 in page 321 In a general way the imagery of light and the eyes recalls the language of the Bible. For the association of the images of light and witness, see especially John i. 7–9.
Note 7 in page 321 For these and some other instances contributing to the pattern of visual imagery, see the following lines: 47, 67, 105, 196, 208, 523, 645–646, 715, 719, 856–857, 865–866, 913, 924, 929, 934, 948, 969, 1127, 1136, 1156–60, 1266, 1498, 1502, 1602, 1664, 1672–73, 1726–27, 1767.
Note 8 in page 322 Polyeucte had forecast the effect of his direct intercession in heaven for Félix as well as for Pauline (iv.iv; v.ii).
Note 9 in page 322 There is, of course, a very important distinction between a verbal warning and an imaginative re-creation in words. Still, one wonders how many verbal accounts of bloody offstage action—had it not been for the bienséances—Corneille might have replaced with visual representations of the horrible.
Note 10 in page 323 In spite of an ambiguous reception of the private reading at the hotel de Rambouillet. In his Examen, Corneille writes of “cette faveur que l'auditeur nous doit toujours, quand l'occasion s'en offre, en reconnaissance de la peine que nous avons prise à le divertir” (M-L, iii, 481).
