ABSTRACT
“The criticisms have vanished,” Racine had once written. “The play remains.” What had been true of Britannicus was truer still of Phèdre. The prestige which his last secular tragedy rapidly acquired in the French theatre has been maintained almost uninterrupted until this day. Amid revolutionary changes of taste, it has, with only minor fluctuations, preserved its fascination for the critic and the scholar, its power of moving an audience and its attraction for great actresses who have looked to it for the crowning role of their careers.
