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The Epître à Uranie
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Although the Epître à Uranie is the first work of Voltaire with which the student becomes familiar, it is still one about which very little is known. In 1924, Professor Lanson wrote:
On voudrait savoir ce qu'était cette fameuse épître à Julie “marquée au coin de l'impiété la plus noire,” qui fit frémir en 1722 le dévot Rousseau. Faut-il, comme on fait d'ordinaire, l'identifier avec l'Epître à Uranie qui courut dix ans plus tard et fut imprimée en 1738?
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932
References
1 Moland, xxxiii, 73.
2 Moland, xxxiii, 75.
3 Ibid., 215.
4 Rousseau, Oeuvres, (Paris, 1820), v, pp. 208–212.
5 Bibliothèque française, xxiii, lère partie, Art. ix et x (Amsterdam, chez H. de Sauzet, 1736). See Collection complète des œuvres de M. de Voltaire, nouvelle édition, tome xiii, pp. 76–77 (Amsterdam, 1764).
6 Recueil de lettres inédites à Danchet, p. 17. The poem referred to could be La Ligue, or any other poem which was being passed from hand to hand in 1724. It is, of course, not impossible that it was the Epître à Uranie.
7 Unless, of course, the confirmatory letter was manufactured by Rosseau, who is quite capable of such a trick. The editors of the Collection complète of 1764 who published the letter, do not seem, however, to be sufficiently naïve to be deceived by such a trick.
8 MLN., 1912 (Feb.), Vol. xxvii, No. 2, p. 52–54.
9 Moland, xxxiii, 39.
10 Ibid., p. 31.
11 Ibid., p. 53.
12 Beuchot, x, 17.
13 Ibid., pp. 31–32.
14 Moland, xxxiii, 58; June, 1721.
15 Ibid., p. 59. See also xxxiii, 67.
16 Ibid., p. 65.
17 Moland, xxxiv, 124.
18 Moland, xxxiii, 76.
19 Ibid., p. 121.
20 Cf. E. Harel, Particularités sur la vie de Voltaire, p. 17.
21 Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille, xii, 121.
22 Ibid., xii, 132.
23 Rousseau, Oeuvres, v, 228.
24 Moland, xxxiii, 85.
25 Voltaire, Collection complète, xii, 113.
26 Duvernet, La Vie de Voltaire (Genève, 1786), in-8, p. 52.
27 Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XIV. See Moland, xiv, 53 and Oeuvres mêlées de Voltaire (Genève, 1742), v, 197.
28 Beuchot, xiii, 18.
29 Moland, x, pp. 246–247.
30 Ibid., pp. 231–232.
31 Ibid., p. 479.
32 MSS. Fran. F. xiv, 21, D(oubrowsky). I am greatly indebted to Professor G. R. Havens of Ohio State University who called my attention to this manuscript and very kindly had photographed the section containing the Epître à Uranie.
33 R. C. C., April-July, 1924 (xxv2), pp. 17–19.
34 Line 2.
35 Nouveaux mélanges, tome xvii, p. 239, 1775.
36 This general resemblance has constantly been noted, both in the eighteenth century, and since.
37 Also De rerum natura, iii, 91–93.
38 The references to Chaulieu are taken from the 1733 edition of his works: Oeuvres diverses de M. de Chaulieu, 2 tomes (Amsterdam, 1733).
39 See also Chaulieu, p. 24.
40 R. C. C., 1907–8.
41 R. H. L., 1912, pp. 1–29 and 293–317. 42 R. H. L., 1912, p. 26.
43 See Havens, G., “Voltaire's Library: A Selected List,” in MP (August, 1929), pp. 1–22.
44 iv, 189. See also iv, 194.
45 iv, 256–257.
46 iv, 207, 252, 257.
47 iv, 184.
48 A manuscript copy of the Pensées exists in the Columbia Library x 843, M. 56. The work is attributed to Meslier and the date 1720 is given. It is, of course, not by Meslier. The references here given are to this manuscript.
49 P. 10.
50 P. 19.
51 P. 31.
52 See also p. 34 and p. 58.
53 P. 124.
54 Larroumet, G., Marivaux, sa vie et ses œuvres (Paris, 1894), p. 79.
55 F. fr. 25541, f. 475.
56 Marais, Mémoires, iv, 327.
57 P. 625.
58 Poésies diverses par M. Tanevot; 3 tomes en 2 Vols. (Paris, 1766), i, 121.
59 March, 1732, p. 605.
60 F. fr. 24412, p. 407.
61 La Religion défendue, poème contre l'Epître à Uranie (Rotterdam, 1733), p. iii.
62 P. 43.
63 March, 1732, p. 605.
64 Paris, 1818, in-8, p. 70.
65 Arsenal, 3310.
66 F. 34.
67 Genève, 1786, in-8, p. 52.
68 Moland, i, 209.
69 Crouslé, La Vie et les œuvres de Voltaire (Paris, 1899).
70 E. Harel, Particularités sur la vie de Voltaire, p. 17.
71 Chaudon, Anti-dictionnaire philosophique (Avignon, 1785), ii, 490.
72 Lepan, Vie politique de Voltaire (Paris, 1838), p. 16.
73 i, 26–27.
74 Desnoiresterres, Voltaire et la société française (Paris, 1871), i, 458–460.
75 Moland, ix, 358–9.
76 La France littéraire, x, 279.
77 Léouzun le Duc, Etudes sur la Russie (Paris, 1853), in-18, p. 420.
78 Bibliographie des œuvres de Voltaire, i, 160.
79 MLN, xxvii (1912), 52–54.
80 R. H. L., 1912, “Questions diverses sur l'histoire de l'esprit philosophique en France avant 1750.”
81 R. H. L., 1928, 564–565.
82 Léouzun le Duc, Etudes sur la Russie (Paris, 1853), in-18, p. 420.
83 See Quérard, La France littéraire.
84 “Fr. Michel-Chrétien Deschamps, né près de Troyes en 1683, mort le 10 novembre, 1747.” See Moland ix, 359.
85 See Schinz, A., La Pensée de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, p. 483.
86 Cf. Bengesco, Bibliographie des œuvres de Voltaire, ii, No. 1898: “Les Mouveaux mélanges ont été publiés de 1765 à 1775, à Genève, sous les yeux de Voltaire et avec sa participation.”
87 Lepan, Vie politique de Voltaire (Paris, 1838), p. 17.
88 Lanson, G., Voltaire, p. 33.
89 Op. cit., p. 51.
90 Durdent, Histoire littéraire de Voltaire (Paris, 1818), in-8, p. 35 n.
91 Therefore line 95 of Le Pour et le contre had to be constructed entirely.
92 Léouzun le Duc, Le Sottisier de Voltaire (Paris, 1880), in-8, p. vi, n. 2.
93 Specifically, Voltaire's handwriting in 1722 is much finer than that of this manuscript. Voltaire seems to write with a sharp-pointed plume, while that of the manuscript was a stub. While Voltaire's letters slant at an angle of 30°, the handwriting of the manuscript hardly slants at all. The individual letters are not at all similar in the Leningrad manuscript and in an authentic fac-simile of Voltaire's handwriting in 1722. The letters d, r, t, p, q, h, especially are different.
94 The Epître à Uranie Contre les impies which made use of Voltaire's rimes omits line 30 and 31. It also omits line 109.
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