Manipulating Martyrdom: Corneille’s (hetero)sexualization of Polyeucte

Since its creation in the season of 1641–42, Pierre Corneille’s martyr-play Polyeucte has generated widely di·ering interpretations, more so than any other work by the playwright. The debate that first surfaced among Corneille’s contemporaries, focusing on the orthodoxy of the tragedy’s central theme of martyrdom, still continues to divide critical opinion. Thus, Andr‹ e Gide confidently asserts that Polyeucte ‘se comporte en r‹ evolutionnaire bien plutôt qu’en chr‹ etien’, whereas Henry Carrington Lancaster observes the contrary: ‘if [Polyeucte] disobeys the emperor, it is not because he is politically rebellious’. In common with other portrayals of martyrs, some commentators have cast the tragedy’s hero as a dubious manifestation of a suicidal fanatic, while others have detected a Christian apologia for the doctrine of grace. This long-standing and ongoing discussion centring on problematic theological implications has tended to overshadow other aspects of the tragedy. The combination of the religious and sexual tensions that underpin the work, particularly with respect to the representation of friendship and marriage, is an essential factor contributing to the play’s originality. Corneille’s martyr creation is radical in its presentation of a sexualized saintly hero, a fact best illustrated by comparing details inPolyeucte with those presented in any of the sizeable number of martyr tragedies that had already appeared in Paris and the provinces in the preceding four decades. Corneille distinguishes himself from other martyr dramatists through his selection of an obscure martyr, one whose details would not be readily known to spectators, and a saint who is not even mentioned in the Legenda Aurea. This is not the case with other martyrs dramatized until that point, typically