The Old Regime; Court, Salons and Theatres (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVI. Voltaire, en Grand Seigneur.--Voltaire at Fernay.--Pretty Madame du Bocage.--A Pilgrimage to Fernay.--Death of "Cher Fontenelle."--Walpole and Madame du Deffand.--"L'Orphdlin de la Chine."--" L'Orphdlin" and the Jesuits.--La Guerre a Outrance.--" De 1'Esprit" of Helvetius.--Jesuits and Jansenists.--A Grand Auto-da-Fd.--The Esprit of the Police.--Philosophism and Loyalty.--A Sojourn in the Bastille.--" C'est un Singulier Homme."--Philosophe et Frondeur. T was hinted to Louis XV. that Voltaire would like to return to Paris. He replied curtly, " Qu'il reste ou il est? The poet was then at the Chateau de Prangin, in the Canton de Vaud, elaborating, at the suggestion of his friend d'Argental, his play of " L'Orphelin de la Chine," from three acts, in which it was first written, to five. Voltaire had discovered, from unpleasant experience, that the favours of the royal philosopher of Potzdam were more than counterbalanced by the mortifications that invariably followed them. The honours and dignities with which he had been VOLTAIRE, EN GRAND SEIGNEUR. 255 invested, he had been glad to resign, and with his niece and his secretary, after some skirmishes in doggerel verse, he had made an ignominious retreat from the Prussian territory--eventually taking up his quarters in Switzerland. Through fortunate commercial and monetary speculations, the competency he had inherited from his father had grown into an ample fortune. His writings had brought him fame rather than added to his income, and he was able to live en grand seigneur, first at "Les Delices," an estate distant a league from Geneva, and afterwards at Fernay, which was on French territory, without being at all dependent on the success of his literary labours. He would have been glad to have the ti...