Voltaire's History of Charles XII, King of Sweden
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EVERYMAN S LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS BIOGRAPHY VOLTAIRE S HISTORY OF CHARLES TWELFTH INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY RT. HON. JOHN BURNS, M.P. THE PUBLISHERS OF LIBIfyFRr WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED AND PROJECTED VOLUMES TO BE COMPRISED UNDER THE FOLLOWING THIRTEEN HEADINGS: TRAVEL ^ SCIENCE ^ FICTION THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY HISTORY ^ CLASSICAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE ESSAYS ^ ORATORY POETRY & DRAMA BIOGRAPHY REFERENCE ROMANCE IN FOUR STYLES OF BINDING : CLOTH, FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP ; LEATHER, ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP; LIBRARY BINDING IN CLOTH, & QUARTER PIGSKIN LTD. LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS, NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. VOLTAIRE S HI STORY of CHARLES XII KING SWEDEN Translated 6y WINIFRED -<D TODHUNTER LONDON: PUBLISHED byJ-M-DENT S-SONS-IS3 AND IN NEW YORK BY E-P- DUTTONSCO FIRST ISSUE OF THIS EDITION . 1908 REPRINTED .... 1912 PREFATORY NOTE " much To Charles the Twelfth of Sweden I owe in best stead all It of what has stood me my life. but a that was nearly thirty years ago, when boy, in the New Cut. I I bought his Life for a penny a took it home and devoured it. It made great but the impression on me. Not his wars, Spartan me with the heroism of his character. He inspired over weakness, weari idea of triumphing physical to bear all manner ness and pain. To inure his body to bathe in ice, or of hardships indifferently, face his the torrid rays of the sun, to discipline physical the niceties powers by gymnastics, to despise of to make his an instrument as food and drink, body and at the same time to have that of tempered steel, the mind, that body absolutely at the disposition of seemed to me conduct worthy of a hero. And so, imitate and succeeded at boylike, I tried to him, to the circum least so far as to be happily indifferent environment." stances of my personal JOHN BURNS. " Och an ar det likt det slagte som boi Bland Nordiska fjellar och dalar, Och annu pa Gud och pi Stalet det tror, An fadernas karnsprik det talar." And still as of old are the folk that abide Mid northerly mountain and valley ; In God and their weapons they ever confide, To voice of their fathers they rally. INTRODUCTION " THE " Life of Charles XII that Mr. John Burns once bought for a penny in the New Cut an inci dent in itself historical if one looks at it in the right version of way Was, he writes to say, an English " Voltaire s book. The Histoire de Charles XII, at Rouen in Roi de Suede," was first published into Alex 1731, first freely translated English by ander Henderson in 1734, and soon afterwards reduced into a chap-book, which made the King fairs and market a proverbial hero in English other translations since places. There have been Miss Henderson s, and it is now retranslated by Todhunter with a closer correspondence than his to Voltaire s original. The book may claim a particular right to an English hearing, apart from the main interest of the life of its subject. It was in England that Charles XII was written by Voltaire, when he was on a visit of exigency there after the Rohan escapade and his second Bastille imprisonment. The effect of this stay in England was that of a " determining event in his career. Voltairism," " writes Mr. John Morley, may be said to have begun from the flight of its founder from Paris to London. This, to borrow a name from the most memorable instance of outward change marking inward revolution, was the decisive hegira, from which the philosophy of destruction in a formal shape may be held seriously to date." We may supplement this passage from the criticism of a ix A 2 x Introduction " French critic of another school, who says, Eng land at this time was worked by a spirit of dog matic irreligion which based itself on a false erudition, a bold criticism and an insidious meta- physic. It was the time of Woolston, of Toland, of Tindal, of Chubb, of Collins, of Bolingbroke. Until then, an insouciant disciple and imitator of the epicureans of the Temple and the rous of the Regency, Voltaire had only ventured on impiety by sallies; dogmas and mysteries had so far only Inspired him with bon mots. In the school of the English philosophers he learnt to reason out his incredulity." Voltaire had had time by this to mend his youth and find his intellectual stature. Born in 1694, he was now a man approaching thirty-three. He had written plays, for his love for the theatre, as it lasted late in him, began early; he had completed his " la Henriade he had used his wit irre epic, "; sponsibly, and, thanks to it, had twice been in the Bastille. In England he learnt, if one may say so, to take his wit seriously, that is, to realize it as a decisive weapon in his inevitable revolt and warfare. Similarly he was to use some of his other faculties " in their most adroit perfection. If in the Henri " ade the epic method had failed him, considered by the side of other poems as ambitious and as long, he was able to sit down on his return from his English exile and complete this rapid piece of biography, in effect a short prose epic, which shows us the narrative art used by a consummate master in that art. More than this we need not claim for him. If we " " admit Carlyle s stigma of persifleur as apply ing to his first period, we need not go on to write him down now philosopher, by way of compensa tion, because he had studied for a brief period under Introduction xi certain notorious English philosophers. He was neither a persifleur nor a philosopher : he was a militant scribe and hyper-critic with a master bias, anti-religious or anti-Catholic, and an inimitable in gift of expression. We see his gift a very lumin " ous special form in his Charles XII," which luckily need offend no man s susceptibilities. We do not know whether that extraordinarily long indicative nose of his was at this time as telling a sign of his character, backed by his keen twinkling black eyes, as it became later? The two best pen-portraits of Voltaire we have belong to a " " later day than 1728, when Charles XII was written. The first takes us to the year when his " S^miramis " was produced, when he appears in a strange disguise among the casual nightly appari tions of the Cafe de Procope. " M. de Voltaire, who always loved to correct his works, and perfect them, became desirous to learn, more specially and at first hand, what good or ill the public were saying of his Tragedy; and it appeared to him that he could nowhere learn it better than in the Cafe de Procope, which was also called the Antre (Cavern) de Procope, because it was very dark even in full day, and ill-lighted in because often saw there a the evenings ; and you set of lank, sallow poets, who had somewhat the air of apparitions. In this cafe, which fronts the Com^die Franchise, had been held, for more than sixty years, the tribunal of those self-called Aristarchs, who fancied they could pass sentence without appeal, on plays, authors and actors. M. de Voltaire wished to compear there, but in disguise and altogether incognito. It was on coming out from the playhouse that the judges usually pro ceeded thither, to open what they called their great * sessions. On the second night of Se"miramis A3 xii Introduction he borrowed a clergyman s clothes; dressed himself in cassock and cloak black long ; stockings, girdle, bands, breviary itself; nothing was forgotten. He on a clapt large peruke, unpowdered, very ill combed, which covered more than the half of his cheeks, and left nothing to be seen but the end of a long nose. The peruke was surmounted by a large three-cornered hat, corners half bruised-in. In this * equipment, then, the author of Se"mi- ramis on foot proceeded to the Cafe" de Procope, where he squatted himself in a corner; and waiting for the end of the play, called for a bavaroise, a small roll of bread, and the Gazette. It was not long till those familiars of the Parterre and tenants of the cafe" stept in. They instantly began discuss ing the new Tragedy. Its partisans and its adver saries pleaded their cause with warmth; each giving his reasons. Impartial persons also spoke their sentiment; and repeated some fine verses of the piece. During all this time, M. de Voltaire, with spectacles on nose, head stooping over the Gazette which he pretended to be reading, was listening to the debate; profiting by reasonable observations, suffering much to hear very absurd ones and not answer them, which irritated him. Thus, during an hour and a half, had he the courage * and patience to hear Se"miramis talked of and babbled of, without speaking a word. At last, all these pretended judges of the fame of authors having gone their ways, without converting one another, M. de Voltaire also went off; took a coach in the Rue Mazarine, and returned home about eleven o clock.