Ah! lorfque pénétré d'un amour veritable,
En gemiffant aux pieds d'un objet adorable,
J'ai connu, dans fes yeux timides ou diftraits,
Que mes foins de fon cœur ont pu troubler la paix,
Que par l'aveu fecret d'une ardeur mutuelle,
La mienue a pris encore une force nouvelle ;
Dans ces momens fi doux, j'ai cent fois eprouvé,
Qu'un mortel peut goûter un bonheur achevé.

In your Venice preferved old Renaud wants to ravish the wife of Jaffier, and fhe complains of it in terms not very decent, faying, that he came to her unbuttoned, &c.

That love might be worthy of the tragic fcene, it fhould become the neceffary knot of the play, and not be brought in to fill up the vacancies of your tragedies and ours, which are, both,

* With tender paffion, when my breaft was warm'd, And foftly fighing at the fair one's feet,

By the dear language of her eyes I found
My love had raised new conflicts in her breast;
When, by the wish'd confeffion of her flame,
The ardor I expreffed received new strength;
In these sweet moments, loving and beloved,
I often felt that man is fometimes blefs'd
With happiness complete.

too

too long; it must be a paffion truly tragic, confidered as a weakness, and refifted by remorse. Either love must be the cause of crimes and misfortunes, in order to fhew the danger of fuch a paffion, or virtue muft get the better of it, to prove that it is not irrefiftible. Otherwife it will be more properly adapted to eclogues and to comedy.

'Tis you, my lord, who are to de termine whether I have fulfilled any of thefe conditions; but above all things, I beg your friends will not judge of the taste or genius of our nation by this essay and the tragedy that I fend you. I am perhaps one of those who apply to literature in France with the leaft fuccefs; and if the opinions which I here fubmit to your judgment, be difapproved of, I alone, am to bear the blame..

LETTER

LET THE Rom

From Mr.Voltaire to father Porée, a Jefuit.

I

fend you, my reverend father, the edi

tion that has been lately published of the tragedy of Edipus. I have endeavoured to throw out, as much as poffible, the filly expreflions of a mif-placed intrigue, which I had been obliged to introduce, among the bold and manly ftrokes that the fubject required. You must know, in my juftification, that young as I was, when I wrote Edipus, I composed it pretty much in the fame manner, in which it will now appear to you. My head was full of the ancients, and of your instructions; I knew but little of the theatre of Paris, but was better acquainted with that of Athens. I confulted Mr. Dacier + who advised me to intro

.

duce

* The author wrote this play when he was but nineteen. It was acted in the year 1718, and ran forty-five nights fucceffively.

+A famous French critic, particularly fond of, and well acquainted with, the Grecian language

and

duce a chorus in every fcene after the manner of the Greeks, which was advising me to walk in the ftreets of Paris in Plato's robes. It was with difficulty that I could' prevail upon the actors of Paris to admit a chorus three or four times only, during the whole play. It was ftill more difficult to make them accept a tragedy almoft entirely void of amorous intrigue. The actreffes laughed at me when they perceived there was no miftrefs's part. The fcene of the double difcovery between Edipus and Jocafta, partly taken from Sophocles, appeared to them quite infipid. In fhort, the actors who were great men at that time, and great coxcombs, abfolutely refused to bring on the play. I was then extremely young; I fuppofed, they must be in the right. In compliance to them, I fpoiled the whole tragedy, by introducing tender fentiments in a fubject fo little fufceptible of them. When there was a love-intrigue, the players began to be

and writings. He tranflated Hippocrates and other books from the Greek into the French.

fatisfied;

fatisfied; but were ftill entirely against the important scene between dipus and Jocafta. Sophocles and his imitator were both laughed at. I argued the case; and employed fome friends, by whose interest Edipus was at last represented. One of the players, whose name was Quinaut, faid, that to punish me for my obftinacy, they ought to act it with it's bad fourth act taken from the Greek. Befides, it was looked upon as the greatest mark of rashness in me, to dare to undertake a fubject which Peter Corneille had already handled fo fuccefsfully. Corneille's Edipus at that time was thought excellent; but, for my part, -I found it a very bad performance; twelve years ago I dared not say so: but now every body is of my opinion. It's fometimes a great while before juftice is exactly administered. The two Edipus' of Mr. de la Motte * had their proper value

A very ingenious French writer; the most remarkable of his works is a volume of fables in verfe, on a different plan from Efop's; inftead of beafts, he introduces and perfonifies, in a very de