The Feast of Stone by Thomas Corneille / Thomas Corneille   Thomas Corneille (1625 -1709) Born in Rouen in 1625, Thomas is eighteen years younger than his brother Pierre Corneille. Their careers are similar. Like Pierre, he studies law, becomes lawyer at the Tribunal of Normandy and settles in Paris where he tries his luck in the theatre. At the outset, he incontestably benefits from his brother's fame but acquires his own celebrity very quickly because his plays meet with resounding success. In the 1650s, he especially concentrates on Spanish comedy as do his brother and numerous other dramatic authors of the time, and then moves toward tragedy. He also succeeds brilliantly at this and his Timocrate encourages him to continue in this vein. His return to comedy is then more episodic, although his play " La devineresse " (The Soothsayer) - which he writes in collaboration with Jean Doinneau de Visé - is a comedy of manners perfectly in tune with the time, in the fashion of those of Molière. Thomas Corneille is a productive author. Between 1660 and 1677 he writes twelve tragedies and tragicomedies and these are appreciated by the public. He has an undeniable talent, his writing is intelligent and he knows how to rejuvenate old techniques. His merit is to have succeeded in keeping the art of the tragedy at a time when it is less popular, waiting for Racine to renew and magnify it. In contrast to the latter, Thomas Corneille finds the source of tragedy solely in history and politics, without involving so much love. From 1677 he becomes one of the editors of the Mercure Galant, a very fashionable newspaper, composed of literature and worldly gossip. In 1685, he is elected to the French Academy, succeeding his brother. At the same time, he produces an edition in five volumes of his revised and corrected plays, and he continues to write works dedicated to the arts and sciences, as well as an opera. This man marks the literary life of his era into which he invests his ideas. It is not therefore by chance that the widow of Molière, Armande Béjard, chooses him to rewrite the still forbidden Dom Juan.