Les Lois de Minos or Astérie
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| Title: | Les lois de Minos, ou Astérie |
| Genus: | tragedy |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Publishing year: | 1773 |
| Place of premiere: | unplayed |
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Les Lois de Minos, ou Astérie is a verse tragedy in five acts by Voltaire that has not been performed in Paris . The piece was published in book form in 1773.
action
The action takes place in the town of Gorline on Crete . King Teucer lost his wife and children to the invading barbarians. The priests demand as atonement to sacrifice a young prisoner, the barbarian Astérie, to the gods. "Teucer finds this pointless: Can the altar, dripping with the blood of a stranger, help Crete and comfort a father?" Teucer discovers that Astérie is his daughter. Together with the barbarians, he snatches the priests from their booty. The temple of the priests goes up in the flames. A new time is dawning.
Political template and biographical references
Voltaire worked on the text from December 18, 1771 until March 1772. Behind the ancient backdrop with the noble King Teucer and the anarchic violent archons lies the contemporary uprising against Stanislaus II August Poniatowski . The Archons represent the Confederation of Bar . Pharès, the infamous high priest, is a caricature of the Bishop of Kraków Kajetan Sołtyk . Astérie stands for the persecuted Polish dissidents.
Performances and contemporary reception
The tragedy was rehearsed at the Comédie-Française in the summer of 1772, but not performed. Voltaire withdrew the piece in the spring of 1773. After a letter from Voltaire to Richelieu, a performance took place in Lyon .
Going to press
Voltaire intended both a performance and going to press. In June 1772 the first rehearsals took place at the Comédie-Française , but they were suspended in the autumn. Submitted to the censorship in 1772, the privilege was not granted. In February 1773 a pirated print was published by Valadé in Paris. Voltaire rejected the illegal issue. As a result of the early publication and a cautious recording, a performance was not performed. Voltaire's research revealed that the general secretary of the booksellers and censor François-Louis-Claude Marin had infamously not only withheld the work, but had also sold it to Valadé on the black book market. Voltaire was deeply concerned:
“My dear angel, my writer no longer exists. I have neither paper nor pens. I am blind and dumb, I write as I can. Snow covers Ferney . He is in my body. I'm dead."
Voltaire was friends with Marin and had supported him in 1770 on the occasion of his admission to the Academie of Marseille. Hence the question of Voltaire's role in the publication of the politically explosive piece.
Additions
Voltaire added a dedication to the Duc de Richelieu in front of the original edition of the tragedy . In the appendix, after a half-title, 28 shorter, mostly already published texts by Voltaire and other free-spirited authors follow.
First editions
- Les Loix (sic!) De Minos, ou Astérie , Geneva and Paris, Valadé, 1773, 8 °, 65 p., Illegitimate pirated print, preceding the original edition
- Les Loix (sic!) De Minos, ou Astérie , Geneva and Paris, Valadé, 1773, 8 °, 64 p., Second illegitimate pirated print, preceding the original edition
- Les Loix (sic!) De Minos, ou Astérie. tragédie en cinq actes et en vers, par M. de Voltaire. Nouvelle édition , Paris, Didot, 1773, 8 °, 64 p., Another illegitimate pirated print, preceding the original edition
- Les Loix (sic!) De Minos, tragédie, avec les Notes de M. de Morza et plusieurs pièces curieuses détachées , without imprint (Geneva, Cramer), 1773, 8 °, XVI, 395 (2) p. [1] , Original edition
literature
- Daniel Beauvois: Les Lois de Minos ou Astérie, in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 131.
- Siegfried Detemple: The laws of Minos, in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 228 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Siegfried Detemple: Voltaire: Die Werke, catalog for the 300th birthday, Berlin, 1994, The Laws of Minos, p. 228 ff.
- ^ Daniel Beauvois: Les Lois de Minos ou Astérie, in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 131.
- ↑ Voltaire's letter to Richelieu of August 7, 1773.
- ↑ March and April 1773 edition, Mercure de France, p. 157 f.
- ↑ Voltaire's letter to d'Argental dated October 19, 1773, quoted from: Siegfried Detemple: The Laws of Minos, in: Voltaire: Die Werke. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 229.