(Download) "Voltaire, Ovid, And la Pucelle D'orleans." by Romance Notes # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Voltaire, Ovid, And la Pucelle D'orleans.
- Author : Romance Notes
- Release Date : January 22, 2004
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 177 KB
Description
VOLTAIRE'S love of Latin poetry finds its fullest expression in the use he made of Virgil and Horace (Wade 23-24). Third in importance is Ovid. Here Voltaire's interest was vital and enduring, and is manifested in various ways. For one thing, his library was well stocked with Latin editions of Ovid, which give evidence of having been used (Alekseev 666). Strewn throughout his works and correspondence are numerous references to the Roman poet. No less frequent are the quotations, which are invariably in the original Latin. Voltaire's interest, moreover, went beyond brief statements, and even resulted in an essay entitled D'Ovide (1756) (Moland 20:158-66). Although he was familiar with all Ovid's major works, it was the Metamorphoses, "son admirable ouvrage," "son livre charmant," that concerned Voltaire most (Voltaire 36:371; 69:396). He entitled chapter 29 of La Philosophie de l'histoire (1764): "Des metamorphoses chez les Grecs, recueillies par Ovide," and in the article "Figure" of the Questions sur l'Encyclopedie (1771) he quotes and discusses Ovid's text (Moland 19:139-40). Quotations from the Metamorphoses occur in Voltaire's correspondence as early as 1711 and 1716 (Voltaire 85:6, 52), reflecting the excellent knowledge of Latin and of Ovid in particular that he acquired at the College Louisle-grand (1704-1711). As Theodore Besterman remarked, "Cicero and the famous historians, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Phaedrus among the poets, were taught in depth, by reading, translation, retranslation, so that the works studied became rooted in the memories of the pupils" (Besterman 38). Given Voltaire's close familiarity with the Metamorphoses, it is surprising that Ovid has received inadequate attention in Voltaire scholarship. This is especially true in the case of Voltaire's long burlesque poem on Joan of Arc, La Pucelle d'Orleans (1730), (1) a work influenced by Ariosto among others, and in which Ovid is mentioned four times (Vercruysse 518, 520, 564). (2) What has hitherto passed unnoticed is the full extent of Ovid's influence. This is an important matter, since an understanding of Voltaire's creative imagination hinges upon knowing what parts of his work are original and what parts derive from his sources. With this knowledge we can read his work in fuller perspective. An analysis of four passages from the Pucelle will bring out the different ways in which the text of the Metamorphoses has made itself heard in the French poem.
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