Chapter III: Literature

Most just way of criticising character 98

Some traits in Voltaire 99

Acquaintance with the Marquise du Châtelet 101

Her character 103

Voltaire’s placableness 105

His money transactions 107

The life at Cirey 111

His attempts in physical science 116

Literature his true calling 117

Qualities of his style 119

Significance of literature as a profession 125

Voltaire’s dramatic art 126

Not deliberately art with a purpose 126

His plays a prolongation of the tradition of the great age
of Lewis XIV. 129

His criticism on Hamlet 132

Merits of the French classic drama 134

Voltaire compared with Corneille and Racine 136

His ideas of dramatic renovation 140

His Roman subjects 141

His enlargement of dramatic themes 143

Failure in comedy 144

Arising from want of deep humour 145

The Pucelle: offends two modern sentiments 147

Its true significance 148

Peculiarity of the licence of the eighteenth century 149

Sophisms by which it was defended 149

Contempt for the middle ages 152

The Henriade 153