VOLTAIRE, vetPtilr'. The assumed name of JEAN FRANcOIS :MARIE AROUET ( 1694-1778 ) . A French philosopher and a versatile author, born in Paris in February, 1694. He belonged to a good middle-class family, his father being first a notary and afterwards a treasurer at tached to one of the high courts of the king dom. Jean Francois was educated first at the College Louis le Grand, then by the Jesuits, of w110111 he was soon one of the most brilliant, scholars. Ilis education was di rected partly by his father, partly by a worldly ecclesiastic, the Abbe de Chateauneuf, who intro duced hint to the most brilliant society of the last. years of Louis XIV. llis school days were followed by a few years of rather dissipated life, which emled when he was taken to The Hague as secretary by the French Ambassador to I folland, the ,Marquis de Chfiteanneuf, a kinsman of the Abbe. Having fallen into a dangerous love intrigue with a young lady of a refugee Huguenot family, Olympe Dunoyer, lie was sent hack to Paris, and his father determined to ship him off to the colonies, hut relented on the young man's promise to reform and to study procedure in an attorney's office. In the freer life of the Regency, he soon became known as one of the most bril liant and most sarcastic wits of the period. His light and caustic repartees more than once brought him into trouble. He had twice to leave l'aris by order of the Regent, and finally, on ac count of something lie had written, and of other things wrongly ascribed to him, lie was im prisoned in the Bastille. where he remained eleven months (1717-18). His release was soon fol lowed by the performance at the Thefitre Franeais of his first tragedy. (Edipe, based on the (Edipus Tgroiinus oi Sophocles. The play was received with great applause, and the author was at once hailed as the legitimate heir of the great masters of French tragedy. About this time Armlet as sumed the name of Voltaire, the origin of which has never been satisfactorily explained.
The production of (Edipe (1718) may he con sidered the beginning of his extraordinary lit erary career. For a long time he was considered mainly a dramatic poet; yet even then he had conceived the idea of an epic poem devoted to the glory of Henry IV., and intended as a eulogy of the principle of religious toleration, and he had planned a great historical work relating the events of the reign of Louis XIV. From 1719 to
1726 he was occupied mainly with the produc tion of plays, none of which repeated the success of his (Edipe, and with the composition of his epic poem, which, under the strict laws then governing the printing of literary works, he was unable to publish. This poem, known first as the Poc'me de la Ligue. was printed in Geneva (1723) and issued secretly, but met with considerable suc cess. In his first philosophical poem. Le pour et le contrc, both his anti-Christian views and his deistic philosophy found clear and eloquent ex pression. This period of Voltaire's life is also marked by the beginning of his enmity toward a man who was then considered the greatest lyric poet of France, Jean Baptiste Rousseau. A quarrel with a member of a very high family, the Chevalier de Bohan, led in 1726 to a second im prisonment in the Bastille, which was ended in a f"w days by his promise to leave the kingdom forthwith and to move to England. Ile remained there twenty-six months, during which he ac quainted himself with the social and intellec tual life of the country. His visit had been preceded by his acquaintance with Bolingbroke, through whom he was introduced to the greatest literary men of the time. Pope, Congreve. Young, and Chesterfield. He soon mastered the language, and. in order to prepare the British public for the appearance of an enlarged edition of his epic poem, wrote in English two remarkable essays, one on epic poetry, the other on the history of civil wars in France. The poem itself, under its permanent title of La Hcnriade, soon followed. Although the French Government took the great est precautions to prevent the introduction of the book into France, its success all over the Continent of Europe was unprecedented. Vol taire, already considered the most brilliant dra matic poet of the age, was proclaimed a not un worthy rival of Homer and Vergil. This judg ment is far from having been indorsed by pos terity. The success of La Henriadr was due to temporary circumstances and conditions, and es pecially to its eloquent presentation of the idea of religious toleration.