Le Cid: Tragi-comédie

Margitic's critical edition of Pierre Corneille's Le Cid (1637) provides scholar and student with a complete, accurate resource for the study of this famous play. The original text is reproduced, with subsequent variants indicated in footnotes. The book begins with an introduction which examines the play's genesis, sources, successive modifications, critical reception, and stage fortune as well as thematic and dramatic structure, and concludes with a bibliography. Three appendices contain texts contemporary with Le Cid which comment on the work. The first two include Corneille's comments on his masterpiece and his list of Spanish sources (accompanied by French translations). The final appendix presents a selection of particularly important documents that formed part of the Querelle du Cid. All the texts are amply but not excessively annotated. A comprehensive glossary follows the appendices.