Word: cyr
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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Racine wrote the tragedy of Athalie for the demoiselles de St. Cyr. Under the direction of Madame de Maintenon, the girls of this school had already produced a play of Corneille. After this Madame de Maintenon requested Racine to write a play for the school. He complied, but his "Andromaque" was not quite suitable for her purposes, and soon afterwards he wrote "Esther," a tragedy drawn from Holy Writ. Inspired by his biblical material Racine wrote "Athalie" his masterpiece, but owing to the intervention of the spiritual advision of the school, the first performances of the play were stripped...
Professor de Sumichrast introduced his subject by a short history of the Convent of Saint Cyr where the masterpieces of Racine were acted under the supervision of Mme. de Maintenon. When Athalie was first produced, instead of arousing the enthusiasm which Racine had so confidently hoped for it, it seemed to fall flat, the truth being that it was so far superior to the standards of the times that it was beyond appreciation; it was a play written for posterity...
...Louis Cyr broke the world's record for putting up dumb-bells at Montreal last week. He put up 109 pounds with one hand from the shoulder twenty-seven times...