The Tragic History of La Pucelle of Domremy (1580) was the first formal theatrical treatment of the spectacular Jeanne d'Arc from her visions announcing her mission (to drive the English out of France and see the Dauphin crowned), to her astounding military exploits, capture and execution. The author was a young professor at the Jesuit university of Pont-a-Mousson in Lorraine, and his own declared mission involved promoting both the local and the divine associations of the heroine. The circumstances of the work's composition, performance, and publication further suggest, however, a pointed political intervention at a period when the last Valois monarch, Henri III, was under threat from the ultra-Catholic House of Lorraine. Actively implicated as well were the interests of Mary, Queen of Scots, hence of the Protestant England of Elizabeth, and it is possible that this ostensibly minor academic tragedy-which may nevertheless claim consideration in its own right as an innovative and accomplished literary work-also captured the attention of the first English playwright to put Jeanne on stage, William Shakespeare.

The Author

Richard Hillman is Professor at the Universite Francois-Rabelais, Tours, France (department of English and Centre d'Etudes Superieures de la Renaissance). His chief specialty is English Renaissance theatre, on which he has published numerous articles and five books, including Shakespeare, Marlow and the Politics of France (Palgrave, 2002).