La femme qui a raison
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | La femme qui a raison |
| Genus: | comedy |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Publishing year: | 1759 |
| Premiere: | 1749 in Lunéville Castle |
| Place of premiere: | Luneville |
| people | |
|
|
La Femme qui a raison , The woman who is right (title of the first translation Berlin, 1762), is a comedy in three acts and in verse by Voltaire from 1749 . The play was premiered in 1749 at a festival in honor of Stanislaus I. Leszczyński in the castle of Lunéville and published in book form in 1759.
action
The action takes place in Paris in Madame Duru's house on Rue Thévenot. To the delight of Madame Duru, the Marquis d'Outremont solicits her daughter Erise's hand and agrees that his sister should marry Erise's brother Damis. The husband M. Duru has lived in India for twelve years and has arranged for Erise and Damis to marry the children of the wealthy factory owner M. Gripon. Gripon arrives with a letter from his father, according to which the wedding must take place immediately. Madame Duru doesn't care about the man's will and organizes the lovers' wedding on the same evening. On the following day, M. Gripon announced that the husband would return soon. Duru has already arrived under a different name as the supposed friend of the landlord and cannot find his way in the general chaos. When he finally grasps the situation, he climbs into an outburst of anger at a perversity supposedly crept in through luxury. His wife explains her emotive attitude to him. Ultimately, the servant Marthe changes the angry man and enables reconciliation.
Literary source and biographical references
Voltaire varied the theme of love marriage following his Samuel Richardson- influenced sentimental comedy Nanine . The focus is on the third estate money marriage. Voltaire's estate contained a one-act version of the piece that largely corresponds to the three-act version. The writing of the comedy coincided with Voltaire's move to Lorraine . Voltaire last revised the piece for the Geneva work edition published by Cramer and Bardin in 1775.
Performances and contemporary reception
The comedy premiered in 1749 as an intermezzo of a festival given in honor of Stanislaus I. Leszczyński in the castle of Lunéville. According to Fréron, who cites eyewitnesses, the performance was only warmly received. The comedy was not performed in Paris in the following years, but in Dijon , La Rochelle , Bordeaux and Marseille . In 1758 it was performed again in the Théâtre de Carrouge near Geneva . The book edition, published in 1759, was reviewed and thoroughly panned by Élie Catherine Fréron in volumes III and IV of the literary magazine L'Année littéraire, which he published. Voltaire saw himself devalued to a provincial poet and responded to the harsh criticism by incorporating the person of Frérons as the unscrupulous paid scribe Fléron into his 1760 comedy Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise .
Going to press
La Femme qui a raison was first printed in 1759 by Gabriel Cramer in Geneva. Four more individual editions followed by 1760.
First editions
- La Femme qui a raison, Comédie en trois actes, en vers. Par M. de Voltaire. Donnée sur le Théâtre de Caronge (sic!), Près Genève, en 1758 , Geneva, (probably Cramer), 1759, 8 °, 71 S. online
- La Femme qui a raison, Comédie en trois actes, en vers. Par M. de Voltaire. Donnée sur le Theâtre de Caronge (sic!), Près Genève, en 1758 , Geneva, (probably Paris Lambert), 1759, 12 °, 48 pp.
- La Femme qui a raison, Comédie en trois actes, en vers. Par M. de Voltaire. Donnée sur le Théâtre de Carouge, près Genève, en 1758 , Amsterdam, Ledet, 1760, 8 °, 80 p. Online
- La Femme qui a raison, Comédie en trois actes, en vers. Par M. de Voltaire. Donnée sur le Théâtre de Caronge (sic!), Près Genève, en 1758 , Geneva, (unknown), 1760, 8 °, 71 S. online
- La Femme qui a raison, Comédie en trois actes, en vers. Par M. de Voltaire. Donnée sur le Théâtre de Caronge (sic!), Près Genève, en 1758. Nouvelle Edition , Geneva, (without printer), 1760, 8 °, 44 pp.
literature
- Valérie André: La Femme qui a raison , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 83.