Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, 30C. Œuvres de 1746-1748 (III) (review)

This collection of short pieces completes the edition of Voltaire's writings in the period from 1746 to 1748 and in particular reflects some of Voltaire's work as historiographe du roi. On the other hand, the Saggio intorno ai cambiamenti avvenuti su'l globo della terra is the product of the scientific activity of the Cirey years. Voltaire is concerned to demolish theories of the earth's evolving structure and he attempts to prove matters of faith, such as the Flood, by scientific argument. But whatever his prejudices, his text, as Jean Mayer remarks, is interesting in its stylistic perfection in both Italian and French. De Cromwell, edited by Mark Waddicor, is much indebted to the unreliable historians Raguenet and Leti and presents Cromwell as a ruthless hypocrite. Voltaire contrasts him with Richard Cromwell and Newton and later thinks of him as a possible subject for drama. One is reminded of Voltaire's Mahomet. Marc Serge Rivière provides a very full introduction to the Anecdotes sur Louis XIV. He considers that they deserve serious consideration as shedding light on Voltaire's talent as a raconteur, on his historical method and on his consistent vision of the age of Louis XIV as the product of the King's personal leadership. Two brief commemorative pieces are edited by Ralph Nablow. The Lettre à la duchesse du Maine sur la victoire remportée par le roi à Laufelt was said to lack structure and probably disappointed readers by its restraint. It illustrates Voltaire's command of the decasyllabic metre and is original in its honest recognition of the inadequacy of panegyric to bring solace to grief. Conversely, the prose Éloge funèbre des officiers morts en 1741 is a funeral oration in the grand manner and deeply felt. It is designed to celebrate not only the great but the ordinary citizen. Voltaire had his Panégyrique de Louis XV published in five languages, perhaps thinking it was his duty, or in his interest, as historiographe du roi, to flatter the King. Janet Godden and Paul Meyer, the editors, remark that Voltaire's series of pen portraits of the various countries involved in the long struggles of continental Europe in the 1740s were found more interesting than thepanegyrical matter. The Compliment fait au roi le 21 février 1749 par monsieur le maréchal duc de Richelieu (on behalf of the Académie française), edited by Karlis Raceviskis, reads like a summary of the Panégyrique de Louis XV and its preface. In his brief commentary, which Adrienne Mason edits, on Polignac's long Latin poem attacking the doctrine of Lucretius, Voltaire admires Polignac's command of Latin but stoutly defends Lucretius' hero Epicurus as a virtuous atheist blameless for not having known the Christian revelation. On the other hand, he anachronistically assimilates ancient Epicureanism to eighteenth-century French Enlightenment. Three texts in defence of the 1748 Dresden edition of Voltaire's works include notably the Préface des éditeurs, ostensibly by 'H. Du Mont' and 'J. Bertaut' but now shown by Nicholas Cronk to be most probably from Voltaire's own teasing pen.