In this three-part study of the serious plays that Corneille wrote between 1630 and 1643, David Clarke first explores the Norman experience and identity of the dramatist himself. A second section reviews the principles and distinctiveness of his poetics in a period when literary activity, and particularly historical drama, became increasingly subject to central government pressures. The third and final section discusses the political and tragic significance of Corneille’s plays and seeks to re-establish a link between their reflection of contemporary ideological tensions and the ‘collective mind’ of their intended audience with reference to popular, but now little-read, contemporary moralists and political theorists.