Cinna

By Pierre Corneille

Subjects: conspiracy, Tragedy, forgiveness, classical theater, politics, Drama, French literature, History, 17th century literature, clemency, redemption, power

Description: Cinna, his beloved Emilia, and his friend Maximus are participants in a plot to assassinate the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. What will happen to them when Augustus learns of the plot? The first performance of Cinna occurred either late in 1640 or early in 1641, most likely at the Théâtre du Marais in Paris, where Le Cid and Horace had previously been performed. The text of Cinna was printed and published in 1643. The subject matter of the play was derived from a chapter in Seneca’s De Clementia. The present volume is a translation of Corneille’s French alexandrine verse into English iambic pentameter. Pierre Corneille (June 6, 1606 – October 1, 1684) was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.