L'Indiscret

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Data
Title: L'indiscret
Genus: comedy
Original language: French
Author: Voltaire
Publishing year: 1725
Premiere: August 18, 1725 in the Comédie-Française
Place of premiere: Paris
people
  • Euphemia
  • Damis
  • Hortense
  • Trasimon
  • Clitandre
  • Nérine
  • Pasquin
  • Several lackeys of Damis
Jean-Michel Moreau : Illustration for L'indiscret, 1783

L'indiscret is a 1724 comedy in one act and verse by Voltaire . The piece premiered on August 18, 1725 and was published in book form that same year.

action

Damis, a handsome young nobleman, tries to get ahead at court with little success. He has won the heart of the beautiful young widow Hortense and intends to marry her. Damis, however, does not follow his mother's advice and uses his loose tongue to rob those around him and Hortense. According to the rules of the court, this means that he has no chance of a career or a marriage that will bring him further.

Literary source and biographical references

Voltaire wrote L'indiscret in July and August 1724 during a spa treatment in Forges-les-Bains in the wake of the Duke of Richelieu . Voltaire did not get much out of the bathroom: "There is more vitriol in a bottle of water from Forges than in a bottle of ink , and I don't think ink is particularly good for health. In Forges-les-Bains, the deposed prime minister took a cure this season , the Duc de Bourbon , and his mistress the Marquise de Prie . Voltaire dedicated his first comedy in this context to the Marquise de Prie.

Performances and contemporary reception

The comedy premiered on August 18, 1725 at the Comédie-Française . A joint performance with the tragedy Hérode et Mariamne in front of the Queen followed. The queen is said to have cried and laughed and suspended mon pauvre Voltaire another annual pension.

Going to press

L'indiscret was published in 1725 by Pissot and Flahault in Paris without specifying the author.

Additions

Voltaire prefixed the edition with a gallant, rhymed dedication to the Marquise de Prie.

First editions

  • L'indiscret, comédie de M. de Voltaire , Paris, Pissot et Flahault, 1725, 8 °, 60 p. Online
  • L'indiscret, comédie de M. de Voltaire. Nouvelle édition revue et corrigée , Ledet et compagnie et Desbordes, 1732, 8 °, 63 pp.
  • L'indiscret, comédie de M. de Voltaire. Représentée sur le Théatre de la Compagnie française , Paris, Prault Fils, 1742, 8 °, 62 p. (Recycling of the remaining edition from 1725 with a reprinted title).

literature

  • Theodore Besterman : The end of the beginning (1723–1725), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, pp. 80 and 83.
  • Valérie André: L'indiscret, in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 111 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodore Besterman : The end of the beginning (1723-1725), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 80.
  2. ^ Valérie André: L'indiscret, in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 111.
  3. ^ Theodore Besterman : The end of the beginning (1723-1725), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 83.