Resumen de Das Geschlecht der Tränen in der klassischen französischen Tragödie (Rodogune, Bérénice)
The validity of royal on-stage tears in seventeenth-century serious drama had to be confirmed by the audience, which either joined in the crying or condemned a lack (or excess) of tears; contemporary criticism contains many examples of this differentiated response and the habit of assessing the male and female heroes. The intertwining of gallant, ritual and psychological motives accounts for the fact that, within tragic action, the mostly female »rhetoric of tears« must be considered a case-to-case device. This allows the question whether crying has a political agenda – or is even a legitimate contribution to politics. Not only the female, but also the male protagonists in Rodogune and Bérénice shed their tears with rhetorical proficiency in extreme and original situations. Analysis of these plays shows their political relevance, but also the fundamental ambiguity of tears; both go well beyond the »licence to cry« that was accorded to women.
