Socrate
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| Title: | Socrate |
| Genus: | drama |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Publishing year: | 1759 |
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Socrate is an unperformed drama in three acts by Voltaire in prose, allegedly a play by the Scottish poet James Thomson , translated by a M. Fatéma from 1759.
action
Socrate ( Socrates ) is condemned to death because he disbelieves and corrupts the youth. The real reason is the refusal to marry his supposedly rich ward Aglaé with the high priest Anitus. Aglaé loves Sophronime, Socrate's foster son. After drinking the hemlock cup, Socrate learns that the intrigues of the anitus have been uncovered and the sentence has been overturned.
Literary source and biographical references
Socrates was considered by the Enlightenmentists, including Denis Diderot and Charles Palissot de Montenoy , as a righteous philosopher who fell victim to intolerance and fanaticism . Voltaire intended end of the 1750s with the Constitution of Socrate a beacon against intolerance, "puisse cet ouvrage trembler les fanatiques".
Performances and contemporary reception
The Socrate was not performed on stage. Charles-Augustin de Ferriol d'Argental's letter of June 13, 1760 , the intention to revise the meter was omitted.
Going to press
Voltaire arranged for the printing in Geneva under the pretense that the piece came from the estate of James Thomson.
Addition
The Socrate is preceded by a fictitious foreword by the alleged translator M. Fatéma, which explains the invented provenance going back to Thomson.
First edition
- Socrate without imprint, Amsterdam (recte: Geneva, 1759), 107 pp. [1]
literature
- Theodore Besterman : Voltaire's God In: Voltaire. Winkler, Munich 1971, p. 179.
- Raymond Rousson: Socrate. In: Raymond Trousson, Jeroom Vercruysse, Jacques Lemaire (eds.): Dictionnaire Voltaire. Hachette Livre, Paris 1994, pp. 222f.
- Siegfried Detemple: Voltaire: The Works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 124 f.