d for a secret impression, under the title _La Ligue_,
at Rouen (1723), whence many copies were smuggled into Paris. The
young Queen, Marie Lecszinska, before whom his _Mariamne_ and the
comedy _L'Indiscret_ were presented, favoured Voltaire. His
prospects were bright, when sudden disaster fell. A quarrel in the
theatre with the Chevalier de Rohan, followed by personal violence
at the hands of the Chevalier's bullies, ended for Voltaire, not with
the justice which he demanded, but with his own lodgment in the
Bastille. When released, with orders to quit Paris, he thought of
his acquaintance and admirer Bolingbroke, and lost no time in taking
refuge on English soil.

Voltaire's residence in England extended over three years (1726-29).
Bolingbroke, Peterborough, Chesterfield, Pope, Swift, Gay, Thomson,
Young, Samuel Clarke were among his acquaintances. He discovered the
genius of that semi-barbarian Shakespeare, but found the only
reasonable English tragedy in Addison's "Cato." He admired the epic
power of Milton, and scorned Milton's allegory of Sin and Death. He
found a master of philosophy in Locke. He effected a partial entrance
into the scientific system of Newton. He read with zeal the writings
of those pupils of Bayle, the English Deists. He honoured English
freedom and the spirit of religious toleration. In 1728 the _Henriade_
was published by subscription in London, and brought the author
prodigious praise and not a little pelf. He collected material for
his _Histoire de Charles XII._, and, observing English life and
manners, prepared the _Lettres Philosophiques_, which were to make
the mind of England favourably known to his countrymen.

_Charles XII._, like _La Ligue_, was printed at Rouen, and smuggled
into Paris. The tragedies _Brutus_ and _Eriphyle_, both of which show
the influence of the English drama, were coldly received. Voltaire
rose from his fall, and produced _Zaire_ (1732), a kind of
eighteenth-century French "Othello," which proved a triumph; it was
held that Corneille and Racine had been surpassed. In 1733 a little
work of mingled verse and prose, the _Temple du Gout_, in which recent
and contemporary writers were criticised, gratified the self-esteem
of some, and wounded the vanity of a larger number of his
fellow-authors. The _Lettres Philosophiques sur les Anglais_, which
followed, were condemned by the Parliament to be burnt by the public
executioner. With other audacities of his pen, the st