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HARDY, ALEXANDRE (1569?-1631)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 946 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HARDY, See also:ALEXANDRE (1569?-1631) , See also:French dramatist, was See also:born in See also:Paris. He was one of the most fertile of all dramatic authors, and himself claimed to have written some six See also:hundred plays, of which, however, only See also:thirty-four are preserved. He seems to have been connected all his See also:life with a troupe of actors headed by a See also:clever comedian named Valleran-Lecomte, whom he provided with plays. Hardy toured the provinces with thiscompany, which gave some representations in Paris in 1599 at the Hotel de Bourgogne. Valleran-Lecomte occupied the same See also:theatre in 160o-1603, and again in 1607, apparently for some years. In consequence of disputes with the Confrerie de la See also:Passion, who owned the See also:privilege of the theatre, they played elsewhere in Paris and in the provinces for some years; but in 1628, when they had See also:long See also:borne the See also:title of " royal," they were definitely established at the Hotel de Bourgogne.' Hardy's numerous dedications never seem to have brought him riches or patrons. His most powerful friend was See also:Isaac de Laffemas (d. 1657), one of See also:Richelieu's most unscrupulous agents, and he was on friendly terms with the poet See also:Theophile, who addressed him in some verses placed at the See also:head of his Theatre (1632), and See also:Tristan 1'Hermite had a similar admiration for him. Hardy's plays were written for the See also:stage, not to be read; and it was in the See also:interest of the See also:company that they should not be printed and thus fall into the See also:common stock. But in 1623 he published See also:Les Chastes et loyales amours de Theagene et Cariclee, a tragicomedy in eight " days " or dramatic poems; and in 1624 he began a collected edition of his See also:works, Le Theatre d'Alexandre Hardy, parisien, of which five volumes (1624-1628) were published, one at See also:Rouen and the See also:rest in Paris. These comprise eleven tragedies: See also:Dixon se sacrifiant, Scedase ou l'hospitalite violee, Pant/zee, Meleagre, La Mort d'Achille, Coriolan, Marianne, a trilogy on the See also:history of See also:Alexander, Alcmeon, ou la vengeance feminine; five mythological pieces; thirteen tragi-comedies, among them Gesippe, See also:drawn from See also:Boccaccio; Phraarte, taken from See also:Giraldi's Cent excellentes nouvelles (Paris, 1584); See also:Cornelia, La Force du sang, Felismene, La Belle Egyptienne, taken from See also:Spanish subjects; and five pastorals, of which the best is Alphee, ou la See also:justice d'amour. Hardy's importance in the history of the French theatre can hardly be over-estimated.

Up to the end of the 16th See also:

century See also:medieval See also:farce and spectacle kept their hold on the stage in Paris. The French classical tragedy of See also:Etienne See also:Jodelle and his followers had been written for the learned, and in 1628 when Hardy's See also:work was nearly over and See also:Rotrou was on the See also:threshold of his career, very few See also:literary dramas by any other author are known to have been publicly represented. Hardy educated the popular See also:taste, and made possible the dramatic activity of the 17th century. He had abundant See also:practical experience of the stage, and modified tragedy accordingly, suppressing See also:chorus and See also:monologue, and providing the See also:action and variety which was denied to the literary See also:drama. He was the See also:father in See also:France of tragi-See also:comedy, but cannot fairly be called a See also:disciple of the romantic school of See also:England and See also:Spain. It is impossible to know how much later dramatists were indebted to him in detail, since only a fraction of his work is preserved, but their See also:general See also:obligation is amply established. He died in 1631 or 1632. The See also:sources for Hardy's See also:biography are extremely limited. The See also:account given by the See also:brothers Parfaict in their Hist. du theatre See also:francais (1745, &c., vol. iv. pp. 2-4) must be received with caution, and no documents are forthcoming. Many writers have identified him with the provincial playwright picturesquely described in See also:chap. xi. of Le See also:Page disgracie (1643), the autobiography of Tristan 1'Hermite, but if the portrait is drawn from life at all, it is more probably drawn from Theophile. See Le Theatre d'Alexandre Hardy, edited by E.,Stengel (See also:Marburg and Paris, 1883-1884, 5 vols.); E.

Lombard, " Etude sur Alexandre Hardy," in Zeitschr. See also:

fur neufrarz. Spr. u. Lit. (See also:Oppeln and See also:Leipzig, vols. i. and ii., 188o—1881) ; K. Nagel, A. Hardy's Einfluss auf See also:Pierre See also:Corneille (Marburg, 1884); and especially E. Rigal, Alexandre Hardy .

End of Article: HARDY, ALEXANDRE (1569?-1631)

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