Ériphyle (Voltaire)
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| Title: | Eriphyle |
| Genus: | tragedy |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Publishing year: | 1779 |
| Premiere: | March 7, 1732 |
| Place of premiere: | Paris |
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Ériphyle is a tragedy in five acts by Voltaire . The piece was completed and premiered in 1732, and its development began in 1731. The meager success of the first performance prompted Voltaire to withdraw the printing.
action
Voltaire used the library of Apollodorus for the material Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique and its template . The action takes place in the vestibule of the Temple of Jupiter at Argos . Ériphyle married the king, general and seer Amphiaraos , but maintained a relationship with his rival and enemy Hermogide. Amphiaraos falls victim to a plot. Alcméon, who has risen to become general under Hermongide, falls in love with the queen. In the Jupiter temple of Argos the spirit of the father reveals itself to him and he demands vengeance. The high priest proves to Alcméon that he is the son of Amphiaraos, believed to be dead. In the fight with Hermongide, Alcméon accidentally kills the mother.
Performances
The tragedy Ériphyle premiered on March 7, 1732 in the Comédie-Française . Voltaire revised the piece until the beginning of May. The last performance of a total of twelve took place on May 3, 1732.
Contemporary reception
The reviews, especially at the Mercure de France , were muted. An actual tear cannot be determined. The income, 3970 livres at the premiere alone, speaks against the piece failing. Above all, the success of the twelve performances did not meet the author's higher expectations.
Going to press
Voltaire had already commissioned the printing of his previously established publisher Claude-François Jore, with whom he fell out two years later, in Rouen . The last corrections and changes are dated May 7th. He stopped printing three days later, on May 10th. Voltaire refused to publish the play throughout his life. He took over individual verses from the withheld manuscript for the later tragedies Mérope and Sémiramis . Voltaire's last visit to Paris and the performance of Iréne initiated the printing of an incorrect stage manuscript from the possession of the actor Lekain , which also formed the basis for Kehl's edition of the work . The imprint Paris is uncertain. It may have gone to press in Switzerland. Another revised manuscript comes from the estate of Voltaire's secretary Sébastien G. Longchamps (1718–1793), and was first published in 1877 in the Moland edition .
First editions
- Ériphyle, tragédie de M. de Voltaire. Représentée par les Comédiens ordinaire du Roi, le Venredi 7 mars 1732. Pièce que l'author s'ètoit opposé qu'elle fût imprimée de son vivant. Prix 36 Sols , Paris, 1779, 82 pp. [1]
- Ériphyle, tragédie de M. de Voltaire. Représentée par les Comédiens ordinaire du Roi, le Venredi 7 mars 1732. Pièce que l'author s'ètoit opposé qu'elle fût imprimée de son vivant. Prix 36 Sols , Paris, 1779, 80 p., Opposite version.
- Ériphyle, tragédie de M. de Voltaire. Représentée par les Comédiens ordinaire du Roi, le Venredi 7 mars 1732. Pièce que l'author s'ètoit opposé qu'elle fût imprimée de son vivant. Avec les changements qu'il fit après les représentations , Paris (= French province), 1779, 54 pp.
literature
- Theodore Besterman: Charles II and the new historiography, in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 132.
- Robert Niklaus: Ériphyle and Sémiramis, in: Essays on the age of the Enlightenment, Droz, Geneva, 1977, pp. 247–245.
- A. Saunderson: Voltaire and the problem of dramatic structure: the evolution of the form of Ériphyle, Études Voltariennes 228, 1984, pp. 97-128.
- Robert Niklaus: Ériphyle, in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 72f.
- Siegfried Detemple: Voltaire: Die Werke, catalog for the 300th birthday, Berlin, 1994, p. 39.