Voltaire in Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

allowed under Louis XIV, but it got the author into no further trouble and was a startling triumph. It received the kind of publicity that makes for success, pamphlets either violently for or violently against; it ran for forty-two nights and was seen by 27,000 paying spectators. (Five or six performances were an average run.) On the first night Old Arouet sat in a corner of the theatre, weeping with pride and ejaculating ‘le coquin’ , in the time-honoured manner of the goose that has hatched a swan. After this, until his death some three years later, father and son were on good terms. The Regent now forgave Voltaire, allowed him to come and pay his court, presented him with a gold medal and a pension from the King. This was often done for people who were recognized to have been unjustly imprisoned. Voltaire rather cheekily remarked that, while he was all in favour of the King paying for his food he would prefer, in future, to find his own lodging. The Regent laughed heartily. The two men might have been friends had they been on a more equal footing. Voltaire was always at his worst with royalty; besides, the Regent was trying to govern France in the face of great difficulties and Voltaire did not make this task any easier.
    During the next few years all went well for Voltaire. His father died without disinheriting him as he had often threatened to do. A quarrel with his elder brother over the will was no sadness to him as he had never been fond of that sour Jansenist, ten years older than himself. He loved his sister, Mme Mignot, and there was no quarrel with her. He neither made nor lost money through following the famous Scotchman, Law, whose ‘ système’ , introducing paper money, was the sensation of the 1720s. Voltaire kept his capital intact through dangerous years. Finally, when there was a scramble to sell the notes, it was his remark ‘they are reducing paper to its intrinsic value’ that proved the death knell of the système.
    A little banishment, of a few weeks only, was spent again at Sully, again with his ‘adorable Duke’ rather than with the nebulous relations. There was more country-house life in France during the minority of Louis XV than later in his reign, when he attracted the nobles to Versailles. It suited Voltaire to stay in luxurious châteauxwhere he found the peace and fresh air that his nervous system required, combined with agreeable company. When he had had enough and began to be bored, or wanted a pretext to go back to Paris, his wretched health would be called into play; he would make his excuses and go home for treatment. There was no question of his ever outstaying his welcome; his hosts only allowed him to leave their houses with the greatest reluctance. He was a constant guest at Vaux-le-Vicomte, or Villars as it was then called, belonging to the Duc de Villars, Marshal of France, whose Duchess was, for a time, Voltaire’s mistress. Richelieu was another château where he went regularly; he thought it the most beautiful of all. It had been built, together with a little town in the same style, by the Duke’s great-uncle the Cardinal. He stayed at La Source, where Lord Bolingbroke lived with his French wife, and at La Rivière-Bourdet, near Rouen, with the Marquis de Bernières. Voltaire made love to Mme de Bernières, was on very friendly terms with her husband, and had rooms in their Paris house (now no. 27 Quai Voltaire) where, by a curious chance, he was to die. Thieriot was a constant fellow guest at La Rivière-Bourdet, and Cideville, a member of the Rouen parlement, was a neighbour.
    Voltaire, so industrious himself, was for ever trying to find work for his beloved Thieriot – the last thing that lazy fellow wanted. He basked in the fame of his friend and led a parasitical existence with various rich, vulgar financiers who were ready to put him up for the pleasure of his company. Very occasionally he did some little job; he