When Le Cid was first produced in 1936, people in France recognized the name of its author but not his ability to write tragedies. Corneille was better known at that time for his comedies, which were only moderately successful. However, with the production of Le Cid, Corneille's reputation took a dramatic turn. It was, according to John C. Lapp, translator and author of an introduction to this play, "a tremendous popular hit, combining all the elements calculated to please its aristocratic audience: the pangs of youthful love, heroic derring-do, tender lyricism and violent declamation."

Corneille was a writer of "exuberance of invention," writes Lapp. The success of this play, as well as much of criticism, was due in part to Corneille's departure from the accepted form of drama that was considered unbendable at the time—the unities of time, place, and action—classical rules based on what...