Mahomet
By Voltaire
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About this ebook
Voltaire
Voltaire (París, 1694-1778), seudónimo de François-Marie Arouet, fue escritor, abogado, filósofo y pensador, considerado como uno de los más importantes intelectuales de la Ilustración y una de las personalidades más brillantes y provocadoras de su época. La obra de Voltaire es heterogénea, abarca desde poemas filosóficos y novelas satíricas, hasta obras de teatro y ensayo; en ella destacan sus relatos y libros de polémica ideológica. Colaboró en la redacción de la emblemática Enciclopedia, una de las obras más importantes de su tiempo, que le valió nuevos problemas con la Iglesia.
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Mahomet - Voltaire
Mahomet
Voltaire
Translation by William F. Fleming
Wilder Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2014
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-62755-760-3
CONTENTS
Dramatis Personæ
A Letter to His Majesty the King of Prussia
A Letter From M. De Voltaire to Pope Benedict XIV
The Answer of Pope Benedict
A Letter of Thanks From M. De Voltaire to the Pope
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
Mahomet
Contents
Dramatis Personæ
A Letter to His Majesty the King of Prussia
A Letter From M. De Voltaire to Pope Benedict XIV
The Answer of Pope Benedict
A Letter of Thanks From M. De Voltaire to the Pope
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
Dramatis Personæ
Mahomet.
Zopir, Sheik of Mecca.
Omar, General and second in command to Mahomet.
Seid, Slave to Mahomet.
Palmira, Slave to Mahomet.
Phanor, Senator of Mecca.
Company of Meccans.
Company of Mussulmans.
This powerful work was read by Voltaire to Frederick of Prussia in 1740, to the king’s great delight. The following correspondence has peculiar interest. In his Life of Voltaire
James Parton says: The great lesson of the play is that the founders of false religions at once despise and practise upon the docile credulity of men. When I remember that this powerful exhibition of executive force triumphing over credulity and weakness was vividly stamped upon the susceptible brain of Frederick by Voltaire’s impassioned declamation, at the very time he was revolving his Silesian project, I am inclined to the conjecture that it may have been the deciding influence upon the king’s mind.
The play was withdrawn after the fourth representation, under pressure of Church authorities who professed to see in it a bloody satire against the Christian religion.
This letter preserves the original characteristics.
To His Majesty the King of Prussia
Rotterdam, January 20, 1742.
Sir:
I am at present, like the pilgrims of Mecca, turning their eyes perpetually towards that city after leaving it, as I do mine towards the court of Prussia. My heart, deeply penetrated with the sense of your majesty’s goodness, knows no grief but that which arises from my incapacity of being always with you. I have taken the liberty to send your majesty a fresh copy of Mahomet,
the sketch of which you have seen some time ago. This is a tribute which I pay to the lover of arts, the sensible critic, and above all, to the philosopher much more than to the sovereign. Your majesty knows by what motive I was inspired in the composition of that work. The love of mankind, and the hatred of fanaticism, two virtues that adorn your throne, guided my pen: I have ever been of opinion, that tragedy should correct, as well as move the heart. Of what consequence or importance to mankind are the passions or misfortunes of any of the heroes of antiquity, if they do not convey some instruction to us? It is universally acknowledged, that the comedy of Tartuffe,
a piece hitherto unequalled, did a great deal of good in the world, by showing hypocrisy in its proper light; and why therefore should we not endeavor in a tragedy to expose that species of imposture which sets to work the hypocrisy of some, and the madness of others? Why may we not go back to the histories of those ancient ruffians, the illustrious founders of superstition and fanaticism, who first carried the sword to the altar to sacrifice all those who refused to embrace their doctrines?
They who tell us that these days of wickedness are past, that we shall never see any more Barcochebas, Mahomets, Johns of Leyden, etc., and that the flames of religious war are totally extinguished, in my opinion, pay too high a compliment to human nature. The same poison still subsists, though it does not appear so openly—some symptoms of this plague break out from time to time—enough to infect the earth: have not we in our own age seen the prophets of Cévennes killing in the name of God those of their sect, who were not sufficiently pliant to their purposes?
The action I have described is terrible; I do not know whether horror was ever carried farther on any stage.