Extracts from Alex Gleason’s Book – Voltaire

He consented, but Voltaire fell in love with the daughter of Madame Noyer, a refugee in Holland,
and was therefore sent back to his family. In 1716 he was imprisoned in the Bastille on the charge of having written a satire against the Government.

He remained in confinement a year and a half, and, in this situation, planned a poem upon the League, the result of which was the Henriade. He likewise improved the tragedy ‘AEdipus , ’ which was brought upon the stage in 1718, and was performed forty-five times in one year. Meanwhile, the poet had been released from prison in consequence of the real author of the satire having disclosed himself, but had been banished from Paris. In 1726 Voltaire was again imprisoned, at the age of thirty-two, in the Bastille.

Return to France

In 1728 he was permitted to return to France, where he put his effects into a lottery. By this, as well as by other fortunate speculations (he traded under the name of Du Molin and sent ships to Africa), he obtained great wealth, so that, after he came into the possession of the estates of his father, his income amounted to nearly 130,000 livres, which he employed in a praiseworthy manner; he particularly aided youthful literary talent. In 1730 he brought the tragedy of ‘Brutus’ on the stage. He afterwards attacked the pretensions of the Church with such vehemence in his Lettres Philosophiques that the Parliament of Paris condemned the book to be burnt, and an order was issued for the arrest of the author. He thereupon passed some years in concealment.

Poetry

He soon returned to his poetry and wrote, in 1736, his Alzire, and, in 1741, his Mahommed… To the clergy he was particularly hostile, on account of their intolerance and persecuting spirit. But he often injured the cause of religion itself while he attacked its servants. His motives, moreover, were not always of the highest kind. ”[Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my servants, ye have done it unto me.—Christ.]“ At the advanced age, February, 1778, he returned once more to Paris. Here he found admirers and bitter enemies. He was sensible of the dislike entertained
towards him, and therefore when stopped by the officers of the customs with the inquiry if he had any contraband goods with him, he replied: ‘No, no; there is nothing contraband here but myself. ’ The inquiry of the King, on his arrival, as to the decree of Parliament being still in force against him made him uneasy, but nothing further was done to molest him. The actors waited on him in a body. We have come,’ said they to beseech you to inspire us with your odes.’ ‘I live only for you and through you,’ was his answer; ‘

Death

I have come to Paris to find my glory and my grave,’—a proof that he considered his dramas as his chief productions [of life], and, in truth, dramatic works were his last labors. The circumstances of his death have been related differently, but it is certain that Voltaire died without receiving the sacrament in the eighty-fifth year of his age, May 30, 1778. The Archbishop of Paris is said to
have denied the corpse Christian burigl, and it was therefore interred secretly at Scellaires, a Barnardian abbey, between Nogent Troyes. By a decree of the National Assembly (1791) his remains were placed in the Pantheon, in Paris.

“The exterior of Voltaire was quite characteristic. In his countenance, as has been said, there was a mixture of the eagle and the monkey; and, in character, he exhibited the, boldness of the one with something of the malice of the other. Dupont has lately published an edition of Voltaire’s works, in seventy volumes. A tolerably complete but perhaps not entirely impartial review of the numerous literary contests of Voltaire is given in the Tableau Philosophique de L ’ Esprit de M. d Voltaire (Geneva, 1771.)”