The Cid

Soon after the first performances of Corneille’s Le Cid in France, English poet and playwright Joseph Rutter translated the play into iambic pentameter verse in English. Rutter’s translation was performed at the royal court before King Charles I and his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, and subsequently at the Cockpit Stage, Drury Lane, London by the king’s players. In the present edition the spelling and punctuation of Rutter’s translation have been modernized. And the editor has added his own translation of two scenes that Rutter had omitted from his translation.