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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow NOTE ON MAHOMET. - The Works of Voltaire, Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems).

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NOTE ON MAHOMET. - Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire, Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems). [1901]

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From The Works of Voltaire, A Contemporary Version, (New York: E.R. DuMont, 1901), A Critique and Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming. Vol. X The Dramatic Works Part 1 (Zaire, Caesar, The Prodigal, Prefaces) and Part II (The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems).

Part of: The Works of Voltaire. A Contemporary Version, in 21 vols.

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NOTE ON MAHOMET.

[By the First Editor.]

The literary world will perhaps think themselves obliged to me for publishing the tragedy of “Mahomet,” which had been barbarously mangled in two surreptitious editions. I can venture to assure the reader that it was written in 1736, and a copy of it then sent by the author to the Prince Royal, now King of Prussia, who at that time cultivated the belles-lettres with astonishing success, and continues to make them his principal amusement.

Is there a good and worthy citizen who would not adopt all the maxims of “La Henriade?” Does not that poem inspire us with the love of virtue? “Mahomet” appears to me to be written in the same spirit, and this, I am persuaded, the author’s greatest enemies will frankly acknowledge.