ABSTRACT
Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orleans, was unhappy in her upbringing, her marriage, and her destiny. The weakly daughter of the exiled Stuart family, she spent her childhood on the fringes of the French Court, exposed to a respectful pity and realizing, as she grew older, that a brilliant match was needed to restore the fortunes of her line. So long as the Commonwealth lasted, however, prospective royal husbands fought shy of her. The highest prospect of all—Louis XIV—eluded her. With the restoration of her brother Charles to the throne of England, she became politically important as the sister of a reigning king and, as a tardy consolation, was married at seventeen to Louis XIV’s brother, Monsieur, a notorious homosexual. Secure now in her title of Madame, sister-in-law of the King, the unhappy girl wielded her immense social influence with diffidence. Through a habit implanted in her outcast years, she continually looked to those who surrounded her for reassurance and received it too rarely in a disinterested form. Of a delicate, appealing beauty set off by the highest rank, she inevitably attracted homages which further complicated her difficult life. Among them was that of Louis, who, having refused to consider her as a wife, returned to her for a time as her probably Platonic lover. Her life was full of pitfalls, outward triumphs, inward disappointments and regrets. Too sweet-natured to be cynical, she nursed 132a romantic spirit which left her sentimentally vulnerable to the end. Sensitive and enlightened, she admitted men of letters to her society and had befriended Molière at the height of the quarrel of Tartuffe. With Racine she had discussed Andromaque before he cast in its final form that moving exercise on a passionate theme. Now, watching with interest the young dramatist’s battle with Corneille, she called Racine to her again and suggested to him the subject of a new tragedy. The heroine was to be Berenice, Queen of Judea, in love with the Emperor Titus, who, for reasons of State, is obliged to renounce his intention of marrying her and to send her back broken-hearted to her dominions. At the same time (this no doubt occurred early in 1670, after the production of Britannicus and before the journey of the Princess to England in May), Madame communicated the subject independently to Corneille, who set to work, like Racine, in ignorance of his rival’s plans.
