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XXX: Fact and Fiction in Zaïre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Robert E. Pike
Robert E. Pike*
Affiliation:
The Principia College, Elsah, Illinois
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Extract

This article is an attempt to clear up the curious hodge-podge of fact and fiction in Voltaire's play Zaïre. From his facile use of famous names and historical events one receives the impression that the play is at least based on facts. But Voltaire tells us in a letter to M. La Roque (1732): “Je n'ai pris dans l'histoire que l'époque de saint Louis; tout le reste est entierèment d'invention.” Is his statement to be believed? The editors of Zaïre have done nothing to help solve this question.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 1936 , pp. 436 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1936

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References

1 At the battle of Harenc in 1164.

2 The name Zaïre is that of Atalide's slave in Racine's Bajazel, and the name Orosmane that of a character in Scudéry's “L'Amour Tyrannique.”

3 P. 1125 of Jacques Bongar's “Gesta Dei per Francos” (1611).