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An Unpublished Criticism of Voltaire's Eryphile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Antony Constans
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Extract

Voltaire's tragedy Eryphile was performed first in the private theater of Madame de Fontaine-Martel, and on Friday, March 7, 1732, in the Theâtre Royal. Although announced as a masterpiece, it was not a success. Only seven representations were given before Easter and five after. In vain did Voltaire make hasty changes in his text between the performances; he could not save it, and the original verdict of the public proved fatal. As he had already done with Artémire (1720), Voltaire withdrew the play and never allowed it to be printed. However, in 1779, just after his death, it was published for the first time with the note: “Pièce que l'auteur s'était oposée qu'elle fut imprimée de son vivant.”

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , December 1923, pp. 859 - 868
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1923

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Footnotes

*

I am indebted to Professor Gustave L. van Roosbroeck for drawing my attention to this criticism and for helpful suggestions.

References

1 Henri Lion, Les Tragédies et les Théories dramatiques de M. de Voltaire, 1895, p. 66. The number of twelve performances agrees with the report given by the Mercure of March 1732.

2 Cf. Gust. L. van Roosbroeck, “A Prologue for Voltaire's Artémire,” Phil. Quart., April 1922. Voltaire made use of a few verses of Eryphile for some of his other plays and took up a similar subject in his Sémiramis. Some of these verses are found in Mahomet, Mérope, La Mort de César. Cf. Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, Didot, 1827, p. 142. Also Moland, II, pp. 461-530. Lion, op. cit., p. 194 sq.

3 It is probable that this edition was based on a copy of the actor Lekain. The same manuscript was used again for the Kehl edition. Another manuscript, which Decroix (the corrector of the proofs of the Kehl edition) believed more reliable, enabled Beuchot to print a quite different version of Eryphile.

4 Voltaire drew upon himself much criticism for disguising an old plot under new names. There are traces of still other influences in his tragedy: the duel near the grave, for instance, is an adaptation from a scene in the Choefores of Aeschylus. Cf. Theâtre des Grecs, trad. par le P. Brumoy, II, p. III sq.

5 Who was the author of the Mémoire? The only clue to his name is his initials: M. D. L. M. (Monsieur De La Motte?)

6 Jephté is an opera by l'abbé Pellegrin. Les Catastrophes liri-tragicomiques were published separately in 1732. See Sonneck, Catalogue of Opera Librettos in the Library of Congress.

7 A few lines of the play were printed in Desbouhniers, Histoire du Th. de l'Opéra-Comique. Le Triomphe de l'Ignorance is one of the newly discovered MSS. of Louis de Boissy (1694-1758). I intend to make them the subject of a later publication. A few data derived from Desboulmiers' Histoire anecdotique et raisonnée du Théâtre Italien (publiée sous l'anonyme). Paris, 1769, 7 vol. in-12. have been given on some of them in C. F. Zeek's thesis: Louis de Boissy, Auteur comique. (Grenoble, 1914). The eleven MSS are entitled: 1. Melpomène vengée ou les trois Spectacles réduits à un et les Amours des Déesses à rien. 2. Les Contes. 3. La France galante. 4. Scène qui devait être ajoutée à la Comédie du Je ne sais quoi. 5. Le Triomphe de l'Ignorance. 6. La Coquette amoureuse. 7. Zéphire et la Lune ou la Nuit d'Eté. 8. Le Droit du Seigneur ou Parodie d'Aben-Saïd. 9. Margéon et Katifé ou le Muet par Amour. 10. La Comète. 11. La Péruvienne.

8 Voltaire's tragedy, Brutus (1730), had been a failure.

9 Corneille: “... Car aux âmes bien nées, La valeur n'attend point le nombre des années.”

10 A similar fight around a tomb in Voltaire's Sémiramis was sharply criticised at the time.—Cf. Mannory, Observations sur la Sémiramis de M. de Voltaire, 1749.

11 An allusion to Molière's comedy, Don Juan ou le Festin de Pierre, in which a ghost appears.