Edward Bruce Hamley,
Voltaire — UNDER THE REGENCY
(1877)
“ The gilded youth of the time ceased to haunt taverns, ceased to brawl in the streets and fight duels, and vied with each other in deference to women. It was out of these conditions that sprang also the felicity and fineness of wit so characteristic of Voltaire, and which could hardly have been the product of a different age. ”
Edward Bruce Hamley,
Voltaire — UNDER THE REGENCY
(1877)
“ The early part of Louis's reign had been by no means remarkable for morality, but it had always been distinguished by decorum. Perhaps the best and most enduring result of that reign was the amelioration in manners which it diffused far beyond the boundaries of France. The flowing courtesy, the refined address, the consideration for others, which Sterne, in the next century, found alike in peasant, shopkeeper, and noble, had their source in the splendid Court where the stately and gracious king was for so long the glass of fashion. ”
Edward Bruce Hamley,
Voltaire — UNDER THE REGENCY
(1877)
“ While Voltaire awaited the audience in the ante-chamber, a great storm broke over Paris. "Things could not go on worse," he said aloud, looking at the sky, "if there was a Regency up there." His conductor, introducing him to the Regent, said, repeating the remark which the irrepressible youth had then made, "I bring you a young man whom your Highness has just released from the Bastille, and whom you should send back again." ”
