François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Socrates is a play in three acts about Socrates and the events of his trial and eventual death. Satirical in nature it takes aim at government authority and organized religion. Voltaire's contempt for government and religion come, through clearly in this play....

THE DUKE OF ALENÇON tells a tale of medieval France. Two princely brothers, Alençon and Nemours, both love Adelaide; their murderous rage for each other threatens to tear the country apart. Tragedy is only averted through the action of a servant who loves them both.

In THE TWO WINE CASKS, a spurned priest of Bacchus switches the wine cups at a wedding to avenge himself on the woman he loves, who's marrying another. The enchanted vintage makes her hate her husband-to-be. Three great dramas of jealousy and its corrosive effects on the relations between men and women.

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Œdipus was written when Voltaire was but nineteen years of age. It was played for the first time in 1718, and ran for forty-five nights. Du Frêsne, a celebrated actor, and of the same age as the author, played the part of Œdipus; and Madame Desmarêts, a famous...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. In his preface to this play Voltaire says: "The learned will not here meet with a faithful narrative of Catiline's conspiracy: a tragedy, they very well know, is not a history, but they will see a true picture of the manners of those times: all that Cicero, Catiline,...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. "I don't belong to the house, sir; but I spend most of my time in the coffee-room; write news, politics, and so forth, and am always ready to do an honest gentleman service. If you have any friend you want to have praised, or any enemy to be abused; any author...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. "This Comedy is called in the French Nanine, ou le Préjugé Vaincu (Nanine, or Prejudice Overcome). It is written, as we are told in the title-page, in verses of ten syllables. The absurdity of comedies in rhyme I have already remarked. The original begins thus:...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. "Yet it is too soon. When I possess the crown, your faithful eyes Shall be the witnesses of all my deeds. Stay in this porch, the priestesses to-day Present Olympia to the powers divine: This day in secret she must expiate, Sins which are even to herself unknown....

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Her eyes are sunk in darkness: help the king And guard his life. Learn from her sad example, That heaven is witness to our secret crimes: The higher is the criminal, remember, The gods inflict the greater punishment; Kings, tremble on your thrones, and fear their...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. "The Chinese tragedy, which they call 'The Orphan,' was taken out of an immense collection of the theatrical performances of that nation, which has cultivated this art for about three thousand years before it was invented by the Greeks, the art of making living...