Sophonisbe (Voltaire)

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Data
Title: Sophonisbe
Genus: tragedy
Original language: French
Author: Voltaire
Publishing year: 1770
Premiere: January 15, 1774
Place of premiere: Paris
Place and time of the action: Comédie-Française
people
  • Scipion , consul
  • Lelie , Lieutenant of the Scipion
  • Siphax , King of Numidia
  • Sophonisbe , daughter of d'Asdrubal, wife of Siphax
  • Massinisse , follower of Siphax and Sophonisbe
  • Actor , confidante of the Fulvia
  • Alamar , officer of the Siphax
  • Phaedime , Numidian lady in the wake of the Sophonisbe
  • Roman soldiers, Numidian soldiers, lictors
Jean-Michel Moreau : Illustration to the Sophonisbe 1786

Sophonisbe is a tragedy in five acts by Voltaire . The piece, already printed in 1769 with the year 1770, fell through when it was first performed on January 15, 1774.

action

The action takes place in a hall of the palace of Cirta at the time of the Second Punic War . Sophonisbe , the daughter of Asdrubal ( Hasdrubal ) is married to the King of Numidia Siphax ( Syphax ). Her former fiancé Massinisse ( Massinissa ) defeats and slays Siphax with the help of the Romans. Massinisse wants to marry Sophonisbe. Scipion ( Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus ), however, demands her extradition to Rome. Massinisse then kills Sophonisbe and herself.

Literary source and biographical references

The material goes back to the written records of Titus Livius , Polybios and Appian . Since the Renaissance , Gian Giorgio Trissino (1514) to Jean Mairet (1629) used the material several times for stage plays. The claim from 1770 that the piece was a revision of Jean Mairet's version by Monsieur Lantin, who had died more than fifty years, is deliberately misleading. It was a complete rewrite of Voltaire, as he admitted: “There will be clever minds who will say… there is not a word in sophonisbe that resembles the Mairets. But you have to talk to people and not allow yourself to be misled ”.

Performances and contemporary reception

Voltaire managed to have the piece premiered on January 15, 1774 in the Comédie-Française . The diarrhea of ​​the play and the rejection of Don Pèdre, roi de Castille depressed Voltaire, who took a break from writing tragedies until 1777.

Going to press

Voltaire got the printing from the widow Duchesne in Paris at the end of 1769 . The publication took place at the end of the same year with the indication 1770. The formal design of the title page also went back to Jean Mairet.

Addition

In a brief explanatory preface, Voltaire developed an invented legend. M. Lantin, a man of letters who died about fifty years ago, did the processing.

First edition

  • Sophonisbe, Tragédie de Mairet, reparée à neuf , Veuve Duchesne, Paris, 1770, XII, 71 pp.

Web links

literature

  • Theodore Besterman : Exil (1773–1775), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 441.
  • Eric van der Schueren: Sophonisbe In: Raymond Trousson, Jeroom Vercruysse, Jacques Lemaire (eds.): Dictionnaire Voltaire. Hachette Livre, Paris 1994, pp. 224f.
  • Siegfried Detemple: Sophonisbe , in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, pp. 220f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Siegfried Detemple: Sophonisbe , in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, pp. 220f.
  2. ^ Theodore Besterman: Exil (1773–1775), in: Voltaire, Winkler, Munich, 1971, p. 441.
  3. ^ Siegfried Detemple: Sophonisbe , in: Voltaire: The works. 300th birthday catalog. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1994, pp. 220f.