Le Dépositaire

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Data
Title: Le Dépositaire
Genus: comedy
Original language: French
Author: Voltaire
Publishing year: 1772
Premiere: July 1767 in the country
Place of premiere: unknown
people
  • Ninon
  • Gourville the Elder
  • Gourville the Younger
  • M. Garant , church council
  • Placet , lawyer
  • M. Agnant , citizen
  • Mme Agnant , citizen
  • Lisette , servant
  • Picard , servant
Jean-Michel Moreau : Illustration for Le Dépositaire , 1785

Le Dépositaire , with the German title Der Treuhänder , is a 1767 comedy in five acts and in verse by Voltaire . The piece, rejected by the Comédie-Française , was premiered in the country in 1767 and published in book form in 1772, after a performance in Lyon .

action

The action takes place in the house of the Ninon de Lenclos in the Marais district of Paris . Ninon saves the legacy of the two simple-minded Gourville brothers from the clutches of the greedy church councilor M. Garant.

Literary source and biographical references

Voltaire had been introduced as a highly gifted boy to the lady of life and Salonnière Ninon de Lenclos, a client of the father's, and was given a small bequest from her in her will. Voltaire paid her late reverence in 1767 by making her the heroine of his last comedy. The plot is based on a true experience of Ninon, which she entrusted to Molière .

Performances and contemporary reception

The comedy was first performed in 1767 "in the country" in an unknown location. Submitted by Voltaire to the Comédie-Française , the play was read to the actors on February 7, 1770, but was banned at the last moment. A first public performance took place after Voltaire's letter to d'Argental on September 5, 1772, to great applause in Lyon .

Going to press

Le Dépositaire was first published in Geneva in 1772 by Cramer in the twelfth volume of the Nouveaux Mélanges , the supplementary volumes to the 1764 edition. A single print first appeared in 1772 in Lausanne by Grasset. Three more editions followed until 1773, which speaks for a moderate acceptance of the readership.

Addition

In a short foreword Voltaire reports the decaying anecdote from the life of the Ninon de Lenclos as well as his own experience from youth with a bigoted, fraudulent moneylender.

First editions

  • Le Dépositaire, comédie , in: Nouveaux Melanges Philosophiques, Historiques, Critiques, etc., Douzieme Partie, (Geneva, Cramer), 1772, 8 °, pp. 1–114. on-line
  • Le Dépositaire, comédie en cinq actes , Lausanne, Grasset, 1772, 8 °, 116 pp.
  • Le Dépositaire, comédie en cinq actes , Lausanne, Grasset (probably Lyon), 1772, 8 °, 84 pp.
  • Le Dépositaire, comédie en vers en cinq actes, par M. de Voltaire , without the preface, Geneva and Paris, Valadé, 1772, 8 °, 91 p. Online
  • Le Dépositaire, comédie en cinq actes , Londres, 1773, 8 °, 112 pp.
  • Le Dépositaire, comédie en vers en cinq actes, par M. de Voltaire , Paris, Didot l'Ainé, 1779, 8 °, 72 p. Online

literature

  • Valérie André: Le Dépositaire , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 49 f.
  • Siegfried Detemple: The trustee, in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 224 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Siegfried Detemple: Der Treuhänder, in: Voltaire: Die Werke. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 224 f.
  2. ↑ Valérie André: Le Dépositaire in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p 49th
  3. ↑ Valérie André: Le Dépositaire in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p 49th