Von der tragi-comédie zur tragédie

Abstract Using Théophile de Viau’s Les amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé (1623) and Jean Mairet’s La Sophonisbe (1635) as examples, the article examines the influence of the dramatic pastoral on the development of the French love tragedy. On the one hand, this can be seen in the motif of death, which threatens the lovers in the pastoral and is realised in the double suicide of the lovers in both Théophile’s and Mairet’s tra- gedies. On the other hand, the figure of the lovers’ antagonist is a structural constant that undergoes a characteristic metamorphosis. The satyr of the pastorale becomes the ‘king’ in Theophile’s tragedy and the representative of the Roman state in Mairet’s Sophonisbe . This ‘politicisation’ of the antagonist opens up the possibility of a political interpretation aimed at the abuse of power by the ‘tyrant’.