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The Despatches of Earl Gower
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Historical SummaryFRANÇOIS-MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE audaciously lampooned royal absolutism, class privilege, serfdom, slavery, the barbarous in-humanity of the prevailing legal procedure, political oppression, religious intolerance, and war. Nothing escaped his fearless, irreverent, and caustic pen. His attacks forced him to spend many years abroad or on the very borders of France, whence escape would be comparatively easy. Though Voltaire used the weapon of reason against virtually all the political and social institutions of his day, he saved his sharpest darts for the church, which he sought to ridicule out of existence. Expressing himself with wit and clarity, he popularized the aims and methods of the Enlightenment and became "the authentic and inspired voice" of the age in which he lived. By no means a crusader for constitutionalism and democracy, Voltaire nevertheless promoted revolution through his whole intellectual approach toward politics and society. The living Voltaire was in fact the leading advocate of benevolent monarchy; the dead Voltaire became a powerful propagandist for democracy. Though lacking patience toward those who disagreed with him, he helped lay the foundations for the ideals of tolerance and liberalism which determined the course of political life in nineteenth-century Europe. Voltaire died on May 30, 1778, and, as was to be expected, the Archbishop of Paris refused him Christian burial. He was hurriedly interred at Scellières, before the bishop of that diocese had a chance to object. On May 30, 1791, at the height of the French Revolution, the Assembly resolved that his remains be brought to Paris and publicly interred in the Panthéon as befitted a hero of the Revolution. The burial procession of Voltaire, coming three weeks after the king’s flight to Varennes, turned into a republican demonstration. Below are two eyewitness accounts of the bizarre proceedings. The first is by second Viscount Palmerston Henry Temple, who entered in his diary an account of the funeral. The second comes from J. G. Millingen’s Recollections of Republican France (1848). The latter was a lad somewhere between eight and ten years of age at the time. Something must be allowed for later reflection or embroidery, or, possibly for discussions with his father, who at the time of the narrative held a position at the Paris mint. Commenting on the funeral of Sir Isaac Newton, Voltaire once praised England, a land where a professor of mathematics "is buried like a king." There is no question that Voltaire would have thoroughly enjoyed his own funeral.
Key Quote"Oedipus," "Caesar," and "Mohammed" join the cortège.
1885
Voltaire Joins the Immortals
[1791]
I.
This afternoon the procession of Voltaire took place though the weather was very unfavorable as it was found inconvenient to defer it. It was very long, but a great part of it consisted of very shabby, ill-dressed people whose appearance was made worse by the mud and dirt they had collected. Great quantities of National Guards attended; but in disorder and without arms, except such as were on duty. Deputations of different orders of people and among others the Academy.
A figure of Voltaire, very like him, in a gown was carried first sitting in an elbow chair, and afterwards came the coffin on a very fine triumphal car drawn by twelve beautiful grey horses four abreast. The coffin was covered and over it a waxen figure was laid on a bed. After having made a great circuit round the town they came to the house of the Marquis de Villette, who is married to Voltaire’s niece and where he died. There the figures stopped, a kind of hymn was sung, Madame Villette and her child came down, mounted the car and embraced the figure and then with several other ladies followed it on foot during the remainder of the procession, to the new Church of St. Geneviève where it is to be deposited.
Chicago: Henry Temple, The Despatches of Earl Gower in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed September 22, 2023, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=P237DW44XNK71EE.
MLA: Temple, Henry. The Despatches of Earl Gower, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 22 Sep. 2023. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=P237DW44XNK71EE.
Harvard: Temple, H, The Despatches of Earl Gower. cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 22 September 2023, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=P237DW44XNK71EE.
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