Person

Pierre Corneille

1606–1684 · 17th century · Also known as Corneille

Pierre Corneille was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of seventeenth-century France with Molière and Racine. His tragedy Le Cid of 1637 was a great success and set off a debate on the rules of drama in which the Académie française took part. His plays, such as Horace and Cinna, often show heroes torn between duty and passion, and he was elected to the Académie in 1647.

Pierre Corneille
Image: After Charles Le Brun · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

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Kingdom of FranceImpact

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Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Pierre Corneille. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/pierre-corneille
MLA
“Pierre Corneille.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/pierre-corneille. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Pierre Corneille.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/pierre-corneille.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Pierre Corneille’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/pierre-corneille (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻