Born, 1694, at Sceaux; died in Paris, 1778.
He was the son of Maître François Arouet, a lawyer who held a position
in the _Cour des Comptes_ in Paris. The birth of Voltaire took
place under peculiar circumstances. His mother, who was not immediately
expecting her confinement, joined a party one afternoon for a long walk
in the environs of Paris. Before she could get home, she was taken
suddenly in labour, and her child was prematurely born in a stranger’s
house. The infant was so weak, small, and feeble that it could not be
taken to church for baptism until nine months after its birth. Young
Arouet lost his mother a few years later. His relations with his father
were not happy, and his only brother, ten years his senior, was a
bigoted Jansenist.
When only ten years of age, François Arouet was placed at the College
of Louis le Grand, directed by the Jesuit Fathers. Here he remained
for seven years, the favourite of his teachers, who considered him
their most brilliant scholar, his amusing sallies and lively wit gained
him popularity with his fellow students. At college, Voltaire (who
through life assiduously cultivated intimacy with exalted personages)
contracted friendships with the sons of noblemen, ministers and
magistrates. When he was eleven years of age his godfather, the Abbé
Châteauneuf, presented him to Ninon de l’Enclos, then nearly ninety
years old, but still mentally and physically attractive. The clever
and witty child delighted the aged courtesan, who in her will left him
2000 francs (£80) to buy books. He also met Jean Jacques Rousseau a few
years later: the latter embraced him, and predicted a glorious future
for the youthful genius.
After he left college, Arouet soon profited by the friendships he
had made among his superiors in rank and position, and succeeded in
obtaining a footing which he maintained till 1726 in the most exclusive
and fashionable society in Paris. He had many adventures, notably a
romantic affair when attached to the Legation in Holland. Accused of
writing a series of satirical poems against the Government of the
Regency, he was sent to the Bastille; but this only increased his fame
and added to his notoriety. Released a year later, the Regent granted
him a private and friendly interview, settling upon him a pension of
1000 livres (£120) a year. Ever afterwards he wrote in most eulogistic
terms of the Regent, and dedicated his _Tragedy of Œdipus_ to
the Duchess of Orleans. He continued to write successful plays and to
publish books of poetry and prose as well as to move in the highest
society until 1726, when a catastrophe occurred which changed the bent
of his whole life.
Arouet, who had now assumed the name and style of de Voltaire, was on
December 10 of this year dining with one of his chief patrons, the
Duke de Sully. Among the guests was a dissolute middle aged man, the
Chevalier de Rohan (younger son of the Duke de Rohan). The Chevalier
inquired in a loud voice--“Who was the young man who talked so much
and gave his unasked-for opinion so freely?” Voltaire answered, “He
is a man who cannot boast of an exalted name, but who understands how
to keep up the honour of the humble name he does bear.” This sally
almost convulsed de Rohan with fury, being a direct allusion to his
notoriously evil reputation. Three days later Voltaire was seized
on the very steps of the Hôtel du Sully and soundly flogged there
and then in the open street by three of the chevalier’s lackeys, De
Rohan enjoying the spectacle seated in a coach drawn up hard by. The
chevalier’s victim could obtain no redress, his adversary refused to
fight him, and when Arouet made further efforts to obtain satisfaction,
he was again confined in the Bastille. Upon his release he immediately
started for England, his pride forbade his reappearance among his old
companions. His host in London was Bolingbroke, who had only just
returned to Great Britain after a long exile. Arouet remained three
years in England, making an earnest and thorough study of English
literature, and becoming intimate with Pope, Addison, and Swift.
In 1729 he went back to Paris and recommenced his literary career. The
bold unconventionality of his writings and the freedom of his opinions
in religion and politics made the author an object of suspicion to the
French Government. His “Letters from England” were suppressed, his
_Lettres Philosophiques_ publicly burnt by the common hangman,
and their publisher incarcerated in the Bastille; to avoid sharing his
fate, Voltaire again fled from France.
His _liaison_ with the beautiful and cultivated Madame du Châtelet
commenced about this time. She was about twenty-eight years of age. The
Marquis and Marchioness du Châtelet inhabited a château in Lorraine,
and there Voltaire principally lived until the death of the Marquis in
1749. He was occasionally absent for considerable periods--at Brussels
in 1739, in Paris, 1740.
He had several interviews with Frederick the Great when the latter was
Prince of Prussia.
After the Battle of Fontenoy in 1744, an ode he composed upon that
victory brought him once more into favour at Versailles, and for two
years he enjoyed the immediate patronage of Madame de Pompadour. He
could not, however, control his powers of satire, and in 1746 fell into
disgrace at Court, from which he never successfully emerged. He then,
in company with Madame du Châtelet, joined the literary _coterie_
of the Duchess de Maine at Sçeaux, and afterwards, still accompanied by
his fair friend, paid a visit to the Court of the ex-King Stanislaus,
father of the Queen of France, at Luneville. Here Madame du Châtelet
fell desperately in love with a handsome young officer, thirteen years
her junior, the Marquis de St. Lombert. Voltaire accepted the situation
with philosophic calm, saying he wished to change his position as lover
for that of a sincere and devoted friend. A year later the Marquise
died in child-bed, and a grotesque as well as melancholy scene took
place; the three men, her husband, the Marquis du Châtelet, Voltaire,
and St. Lombert, all weeping in each other’s arms over her body!
Voltaire established himself in Paris: a widowed niece, Mdme. Denis,
whom he adopted as his daughter, kept house for him, and remained
his companion for the rest of his life. In 1750 Frederick the Great
invited the distinguished author to settle at Potsdam as his permanent
guest. Voltaire accepted the offer, reaching Berlin in July of the
same year. He was received with almost regal honours: a pension of
20,000 livres, the golden key of Great Chamberlain, and the Cross of
the Order of Prussia bestowed upon him. All his plays were performed
in succession at the theatre of Potsdam. At the King’s private suppers
the French poet was privileged to make any remarks he pleased, and not
bound to observe any form of Court etiquette. This (to Voltaire) ideal
existence lasted two years and six months, during which time he wrote
and published at Berlin the _Siècle de Louis XIV._ Voltaire began
to take too great an advantage of the licence accorded to him by the
Prussian monarch; he presumed to correct Frederick’s French prose,
and to make light of his verses. He quarrelled with the Court banker,
Hirsch (the direct ancestor of the late great financier Baron Hirsch),
about a doubtful monetary speculation, and a lawsuit took place
between them. It seems probable that this affair, which has never been
satisfactorily cleared up, contributed far more than a literary dispute
to the final rupture between King Frederick and his pet philosopher.
Voltaire had always shown great financial ability, and had amassed a
large fortune, which he continued to increase during the remainder of
his career.
In the early spring of 1753, Voltaire and Frederick parted never to
meet again, mutually disgusted with one another. The poet departed
with his niece to Weime, on a visit to the Grand Duke and Duchess.
Frederick, discovering soon after that Voltaire had taken with him a
volume of very obscene, scurrilous, and questionable verse, which the
King had had printed for private circulation only, a commission, led
by a stupid and hotheaded officer named Freytag, was despatched in
pursuit, with orders to take it by force if necessary from the former
favourite, together with his golden key, and the Cross of Prussia.
Voltaire and Mdme. Denis were accordingly arrested at Frankfort and
kept in durance for thirty-six days, during which time they were
subjected to every possible form of arrogant insult.
Although Voltaire desired to conciliate the religious party in France,
even going so far as to confess and communicate at Easter in Lyons, he
could not persuade them to overlook his anti-Christian publications.
The appearance in print of the _Siècle de Louis XIV._, and an
abominable skit upon Joan of Arc, called _La Pucelle_, destroyed
the last chance of his ever again being received at Court. He therefore
purchased an estate in Switzerland, where he built a charming villa
called _Les Délices_; in 1760 he bought the estate of Ferney, near
the Swiss and French frontier, but in French territory. For the next
eighteen years he resided there in great state, and was visited by
innumerable famous and distinguished personages, from kings and princes
to authors and actors. One of his visitors has thus described life at
Ferney:
Voltaire is very rich; he is as proud of his wealth as of his
literary reputation. He loves to act the part of _Seigneur
du Village_, and to show his guests his houses, gardens,
fields, woods, horses (of which he has twelve in his private
stable), and his cattle. He dresses with elegance and care; on
feast days his attire is splendid. He has built a church for the
villagers, and attends Mass in state on Sundays, with an escort
of two game-keepers carrying loaded muskets. He exacts all
feudal rights and privileges as a landlord. He is always ill,
or ailing, and yet an indefatigable worker, with an activity
and liveliness of mind and intellect of a young man. His temper
is variable. He is by turns capricious, obstinate, irascible,
passionate, and revengeful. His reputation for avarice is
undeserved, but, on the other hand, he is often very liberal and
generous; though, being a man of great business capacity, he
administers his affairs with practical common sense, and will
not allow himself to be cheated of a farthing.
His writings continued to make more and more stir in the world of
letters, and he was to a great extent the arbiter of intellectual
thought all over Europe during the last twenty years of his life. He
hailed the advent of Louis XVI. to the throne of France with joy,
believing a new and enlightened _régime_ was about to begin.
Pressure was put upon him on all sides to return to Paris, Queen Marie
Antoinette herself interceded with the King to give the required
permission for the exile’s reception at Court, and in February 1778,
Voltaire quitted Ferney and arrived in Paris on the evening of the
10th of that month. He had been an exile for twenty-nine years. From
this time until his death his existence was one perpetual ovation.
The excitement of this round of entertainments and receptions--which
culminated, when after a performance of his new tragedy _Irene_,
his bust was crowned upon the stage of the _Théâtre Français_--was
too much for his aged feeble frame to support, and taken suddenly ill
he expired on May 30, 1778, aged eighty-four and three months. He
desired to receive the last Sacraments, but when the priest arrived the
patient was already unconscious. He had, however, confessed himself
to the Abbé Gauthier, an ex-Jesuit, and received the Communion on
the previous March 2, when he signed a retractation of his deistic
and infidel opinions. He added--“I shall die adoring God, loving my
friends, and detesting superstition of every kind.”
Voltaire was buried in the Abbey of Scellières, where his body lay
until it was removed to the Panthéon by the order of the Convention.
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