United States or Yemen ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He did not obtain full liberty until the 12th of April, 1718, and it was at this time with a clearly formed design to associate the name he took with work of high attempt in literature that Francois Marie Arouet, aged twenty-four, first called himself Voltaire. Voltaire's OEdipe was played with success in November, 1718.
A notable incident occurred on the recital of the line in the "Oedipe" of Voltaire: "L'amitié d'un grand homme est un bienfait des dieux." As if moved by a sudden inspiration, Alexander arose and warmly pressed the hand of Napoleon, who was then half-dozing at his side. On the surface, indeed, everything was friendship and harmony.
"After all," he murmured, "one must accept men as they come." "Especially when they are not what they seem to be." "You must mistake me for OEdipe since you pose me with these enigmas, Roland." "Ah! If you guess this one, general, I will herald you king of Thebes! But, with all my follies, I forgot that your time is precious and that I am detaining you needlessly with my nonsense." "That is so!
The play of "Oedipe" was presented by Voltaire at the Theater Francaise, November Eighteenth, Seventeen Hundred Eighteen. This play was written before the author's sojourn in prison, but there he had sandpapered its passages, and hand-polished the epigrams.
There was a touch of old-world courtesy in the repression of the evident impulse to spring at one's throat. The voice had notes that recalled M. Mounet-Sully's in the later and more important passages of Oedipe Roi. I remember that he always spoke with the greatest contempt of Mr. and Mrs. Pegaway's translations. He likened them to but enough! His boom is not yet at the full.
A notable incident occurred on the recital of the line in the "Oedipe" of Voltaire: "L'amitié d'un grand homme est un bienfait des dieux." As if moved by a sudden inspiration, Alexander arose and warmly pressed the hand of Napoleon, who was then half-dozing at his side. On the surface, indeed, everything was friendship and harmony.
At thirty-one, when he was already famous for his drama, "OEdipe," as well as for audacious lampoons, he was obliged to retreat to England, where he remained some three years. Various publications during the years following his return placed him among the foremost French writers of the day. From 1750 to 1753 he was with Frederick the Great in Prussia.
A certain bright young Frenchman, Francois Arouet, spoiled for a solid law-career, but whose OEDIPE we saw triumphing in the Theatres, and who will, under the new name of VOLTAIRE, become very memorable to us, happened to be running towards Holland that way, one of his many journeys thitherward; and actually saw this Congress, then in the first year of its existence.
On a corner of their table lay a smeared copy of a theatrical journal. It caught Sophy's eye and after poring over the page she looked up with an excited exclamation. "They're giving Oedipe tomorrow afternoon at the Francais! I suppose you've seen it heaps and heaps of times?" He smiled back at her. "You must see it too. We'll go tomorrow." She sighed at his suggestion, but without discarding it.
As a consequence, he was thrown into the Bastille. His opinions were suspected although he was but twenty-one and was under the protection of his godfather, the Abbé Chateauneuf. Voltaire was philosopher enough to use his year in the Bastille very profitably he finished his first great tragedy, Oedipe, and produced it in 1716, winning the admiration of French critics.
Word Of The Day