«Une littérature qui doive, avec des modifications convenables, servir de règle aux autres»: changes in classical tragedy at the Comédie-Française

In terms of French theatre history, the Napoleonic Empire is frequently recognised as a key turning point in the development of the term “classique”, and thus the evolution of our scholarly understanding of “classicism”. This article concentrates on an 1814 manuscript from the Comédie-Française that details the corrections, cuts, and changes it made to its repertoire. The analysis of this manuscript reveals that the plays at the basis of theatrical classicism – notably the tragedies by Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, and Voltaire – were much more malleable than current studies acknowledge, which fundamentally challenges our current scholarly understanding of “classique” and “classicism”