The coffee house or the Scottish woman
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| Title: | Le Café ou l'Écossaise |
| Genus: | comedy |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Publishing year: | 1760 |
| Premiere: | July 26, 1760 in the Comédie-Française |
| Place of premiere: | Paris |
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The coffee house or the Scottish woman ( French Le Café ou l'Écossaise or L'Écossaise ) is a 1760 comedy in five acts and in prose by Voltaire . The Comédie attendrissante with satirical interludes was premiered on July 26, 1760 in Paris and previously published in book form.
action
The tricky plot takes place in a London coffee house and in Lindane's apartment. The subject, Frélon, loitering in the coffee house, an allusion to Élie Catherine Fréron , is a scribe who writes dedications, pamphlets and informers' reports for a fee. As a secondary character, he repeatedly intervenes in the action in a disastrous manner. In the hotel rooms of the house, Lord Monrose meets his long-lost daughter Lindane, but also the son of his former enemy Murrai. In a dispute, the latter not only generously gives him his life, but also takes Monrose's virtuous daughter Lindane as wife.
Literary source and biographical references
Voltaire wrote his sensitive comedy Le Café ou l'Écossaise in early 1760, within eight days of composing his tragedy Tancrède . His intention was less of a play than a pamphlet. Élie Catherine Fréron had resumed the feud that had been smoldering since 1752 and panned Voltaire's comedy La Femme qui a raison, published in 1759 in his litarian magazine L'Année litteraire . Voltaire therefore made use of a trick used by Charles Palissot de Montenoy as early as 1755. In his comedy Le Cercle, he had inserted a crazy philosopher with the features of Rousseau as a minor character. Voltaire also intended with the figure of Frélon to ridicule Élie Catherine Fréron. In the spring of 1760 Palissot's comedy Les Philosophes hit the Parisian stage, denigrating Voltaire's friends D'Alembert and Diderot . Voltaire therefore decided to rename Frélon in Wasp , an allusion to Palissot, for the premiere . Palissot, actually an admirer of Voltaire, was taken aback and replied with an open letter from Les Avis . Voltaire himself was thoroughly satisfied with the success of the piece. On the cover of a follow-up edition he put the motto “J'ai vengé l'univers autant que j'ai pu” (I have avenged the universe with all my might).
Performances and contemporary reception
The comedy was performed on July 26, 1760 at the Comédie-Française . The audience was delighted. The piece Le Café ou l'Écossaise , initially not intended for performance, turned out to be a great stage success for Voltaire, contrary to expectations. Ten book editions in the year it was first printed prove the popularity of the piece, which was also performed with great success in Germany, Great Britain and Italy.
Going to press
Le Café ou l'Écossaise was printed before it was performed at Cramer in Geneva. After the Paris premiere, the edition was given a new title page, the list of roles in the cast of the first performance and a four-page errata containing the text changes to the stage version. The 204-page first edition differs from an early pirated print of the same page by the incorrect spelling Ecossaisse at the beginning of sheet A3.
Additions
In his foreword Voltaire described the piece as a translation of a work by the Edinburger pastor Hume, a brother of the philosopher David Hume . A Geneva edition of Tancrède is preceded by a frontispiece Gravelot depicting Fréron as a donkey under Melpomenes' lyre . This engraving was originally intended for the book edition of Le Café ou l'Écossaise . Fréron had circumvented the attack known to him in which he announced that the book edition would appear with a portrait of the author.
First editions
- Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise, Comédie, Par Mr. Hume, traduit en Français , Londres (Geneva), 1760, 12 °, XII, 204 pp.
- Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise, Comédie, Par Mr. Hume, traduit en Français , Londres (Geneva), 1760, 12 °, (IV) V – VIII, XII, 204 pp.
- Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise, Comédie, Par Mr. Hume, traduit en Français , Londres (unknown), 1760, 12 °, 204 p. (Spelling Ecosaisse on sheet A3)
- Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise, Comédie, Par Mr. Hume, traduit en Français , Londres (unknown), 1760, 12 °, XII, 204 p. (Spelling Ecosaisse on sheet A3) online
- Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise, Comédie, Par Mr. Hume, traduit en Français , Londres (unknown), 1760, 12 °, IV, 62 p. Online
- Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise, Comédie, Par Mr. Hume, traduit en Français , Londres (unknown), 1760, 12 °, XV, (1), 107 p. Online
literature
- Valérie André: L'Écossaise , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 67 f.
- Siegfried Detemple: The coffee house, in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 132 f.
Web links
- Literature on Le Caffé ou l'Écossaise on the website of the Société des Etudes Voltairiennes
- BnF data sheet on l'Écossaise
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Siegfried Detemple: Das Kaffeehaus, in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 91.
- ^ Valérie André: L'Écossaise, in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 66.
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