Le Cid is a five-act French tragicomedy written by Pierre Corneille, first performed in December 1636 at the Théâtre du Marais in Paris and published the same year. It is based on Guillén de Castro’s play Las Mocedades del Cid. Castro’s play in turn is based on the legend of El Cid.
Le Cid is widely regarded as Corneille’s finest work, and is considered one of the greatest plays of the seventeenth century.
Background
| The stories of the Cid are based on the life of the Spanish warrior Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, who lived approximately from 1043 until 1099. The real ‘Cid’ seems to have fought for both Muslims and Christians at different times and appears to have been a sellsword figure. In the play, however, he is lauded solely as a Christian soldier.[2] The name ‘El Cid’ was derived from the Arabic word for lord (‘sayyid’) and made Spanish, and further given a French article for Corneille’s version. To this day, the Cid remains a popular Spanish folklore character, who has inspired many stories and works of art…|