Editing Classicism (section)

==In the theatre==
[[File:Molière - Nicolas Mignard (1658).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Molière]] in classical dress, by [[Nicolas Mignard]], 1658.]]
Classicism in the [[theatre]] was developed by 17th century French [[playwright]]s from what they judged to be the rules of [[History of theater|Greek classical theatre]], including the "[[Classical unities]]" of time, place and action, found in the ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]'' of [[Aristotle]].

* Unity of time referred to the need for the entire action of the play to take place in a fictional 24-hour period
* Unity of place meant that the action should unfold in a single location
* Unity of action meant that the play should be constructed around a single 'plot-line', such as a tragic love affair or a conflict between [[honour]] and [[duty]].

Examples of classicist playwrights are [[Pierre Corneille]], [[Jean Racine]] and [[Molière]].  In the period of [[Romanticism]], [[Shakespeare]], who conformed to none of the classical rules, became the focus of French argument over them, in which the Romantics eventually triumphed; [[Victor Hugo]] was among the first French playwrights to break these conventions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=NASH|first=SUZANNE|date=2006|title=Casting Hugo into History|journal=Nineteenth-Century French Studies|volume=35|issue=1|pages=189–205|issn=0146-7891|jstor=23538386}}</ref>

The influence of these French rules on playwrights in other nations is debatable.  In the English theatre, Restoration playwrights such as [[William Wycherley]] and [[William Congreve]] would have been familiar with them.  [[William Shakespeare]] and his contemporaries did not follow this Classicist philosophy, in particular since they were not French and also because they wrote several decades prior to their establishment.  Those of Shakespeare's plays that seem to display the unities, such as ''[[The Tempest]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pierce|first=Robert B.|date=Spring 1999|title=Understanding "The Tempest"|jstor=20057542|journal=New Literary History|volume=30|issue=2|pages=373–388|doi=10.1353/nlh.1999.0028|s2cid=144654529}}</ref> probably indicate a familiarity with actual models from [[classical antiquity]].

Most famous 18th-century Italian playwright and libretist [[Carlo Goldoni]] created a hybrid style of playwriting (combining the model of Molière with the strengths of [[Commedia dell'arte]] and his own wit and sincerity).