Arbeit am Stein. Verfahren sprachlicher Monumentalisierung in Étienne Jodelles „Cléopâtre captive“ (1553)

The first secular tragedy in French, Étienne Jodelle’s tragedy Cléopâtre captive, echoes a specific historical moment, namely the siege of Metz by Charles V in the winter of 1552–1553. In the play, the Egyptian queen is defeated militarily by the conqueror Octavien, yet triumphs morally. In the style of the mirrors of princes, the plot is directed at Henry II, himself present in the audience at the premiere evening, and recommends to him – with the Egyptian queen as a model – the modesty of his triumphal gestures. To this end, Jodelle exploits the semantic field of the stone: While he demonstrates the dangers of a moral corrosion of heroic greatness in Antoine, the beloved, and Octavien, Cléopâtre’s besieger, he emphasises in the queen herself a sovereignty arising from contempt for death, by means of which she immortalises her own voice in the stone funeral monument of her beloved. In this we can also recognise a poetological programme of the author, as he recommends himself to the crown with his tragedy by demonstrating the timeless power of his writing.