L'Envieux

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Data
Title: L'Envieux
Genus: comedy
Original language: French
Author: Voltaire
Publishing year: 1833
Premiere: not listed
people
  • Cléon , officer and commander of the province
  • Hortense , wife of Cléon
  • Ariston , friend of Cléon and Hortense
  • Zoïlin , a man of letters introduced by Ariston to the house of Cléon
  • Nicodon , nephew of Zoïlin
  • Laure , the Hortense's maid
  • An off duty cop
  • La Fleure , valet of the Hortense
  • A lackey
  • Guards
  • Several servants from Cléon's entourage

L'Envieux , in German Der Neider , is a 1738 comedy in three acts and verses by Voltaire . The play was not performed during Voltaire's lifetime and was only published in book form in 1833.

action

Ariston is a welcome guest in the castle of the mighty Cléon and his wife Hortense. He introduces the writer and scribe Zoïlin to the castle. Zoïlin, envious of Ariston, threads an intrigue with forged love letters from Hortense to Ariston. Ariston falls from grace. Zoïlin's nephew, used as a tool, however, reveals the intrigue. Ariston is being rehabilitated.

Literary source and biographical references

Voltaire wrote L'Envieux during his stay in Cirey-sur-Blaise . Voltaire reflected his current situation free of any literary source. The villain Zoïlin is the alter ego of Voltaire's intimate enemy, the Abbé Desfontaines . Cléon figured for Cirey's landlord, the Marquis Florent Claude du Chastellet, and Hortense for his wife, Émilie du Châtelet . Ariston figured for Voltaire himself.

Performances and contemporary reception

The comedy was not performed during Voltaire's lifetime. In the opinion of Émilie du Châtelet, the apparently too thick piece was mediocre. Voltaire was of the opinion that he had not written a good comedy, but that he had done a godly work (against Desfontaines). Voltaire gave the manuscript at the end of 1738 to his protégé Abbé de La Marre (1708–1742), who was visiting Cirey. De la Marre, who was in dire financial straits, was supposed to perform the piece in his favor.

Going to press

L'Envieux did not appear until 1833 in Volume IV of the work edition published by Lefèvre and Didot in 70 volumes with a foreword by the editor Beuchot. A separate print was published the following year by Didot's publishing house.

First editions

  • L'Envieux in: Oeuvres de Voltaire par Beuchot , Volume 4, Paris, Lefèvre and Didot, 1833, pp. 337-403. on-line
  • L'Envieux, comédie en 3 actes et en vers, par Voltaire, imprimée pour la 1re fois , Paris, Didot frères, 1834, 8 °, 68 pp.

literature

  • Theodore Besterman : Irritability at Cirey Castle (1736–1739), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich 1971, p. 197.
  • Daniel Acke: L'Envieux, in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 70 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Daniel Acke: L'Envieux , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire , Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 71.
  2. ↑ Daniel Acke: L'envieux in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p 71st
  3. ↑ Theodore Besterman: Gereizheit at Castle Cirey (1736-1739), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich 1971, p 197th
  4. ↑ Voltaire's letter to d'Argental dated December 5, 1738