Abbé d'Aubignac et le principe de vraisemblance

The article examines d'Aubignac's dramatic output in the context of his rules on verisimilitude. In spite of the author's rhetoric regarding the supremacy of this doctrine, there are notable examples in his own tragedies where the rules are violated. Rather than considering d'Aubignac's plays as a failed attempt at applying his own theories on verisimilitude, the article argues that they should be regarded as a complement to his theoretical works, revealing an author who was more pragmatic about this important doctrine than has been thought heretofore. The article studies the causes of this triumph of practice over theory and establishes a link between d'Aubignac as dramatist and the perspective of Pierre Corneille regarding the concept of verisimilitude.