Latin vs Greek?

JHS
Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:09:41 +0000

Racine’s Phedre was probably my favorite among the books I had to read in 12th grade. I just adored it, and wound up essentially reading all of Racine over the course of the next few years. One of my most vivid memories of the beginning of college was lining up with all the other AP French kids to be interviewed by the French Department DUS for permission to skip language courses and register for upper-level literature courses, and at one point seven or eight of us did a group recitation of Phedre’s death monologue: " . . . Et ma morte, a mes yeux derobant la clarite / Rend au jour, qu’ils souillaient, toute sa purete." (Sorry for not including the accents.)

Anyway, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.