Pierre Corneille

Pierre Corneille
Detail from a portrait by Charles Le Brun
Detail from a portrait by Charles Le Brun
Born6 June 1606
Rouen, France
Died1 October 1684 (aged 78)
Paris, France
Resting placeSaint-Roch, Paris
OccupationPlaywright
NationalityFrench
GenreTragedy, comedy
Literary movementClassicism
Notable worksLe Cid
SpouseMarie de Lampérière
RelativesThomas Corneille

Pierre Corneille (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ kɔʁnɛj]; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.

As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, who was trying to promote classical tragedy along formal lines, but later quarrelled with him, especially over his best-known play, Le Cid, about a medieval Spanish warrior, which was denounced by the newly formed Académie française for breaching the unities. He continued to write well-received tragedies for nearly forty years.

Coat of arms of the Corneille family, which dates back to 1637