Voltaire et quelques « nuances » sur le massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy

Abstract

Voltaire states that the “dominant color” of the massacre can be seen, but that the “nuances”, or “shades,” are more difficult to identify. This article will outline the few remaining nuances: the symbolic importance of the anniversary of the massacre, Voltaire’s constant and consistent interest in this barbaric page of history, the effects of lexicalization and, finally, the selection of heroic victims in La Henriade. The massacre of the Protestants does not evoke a distant and forgotten past, but a recent past that memory regularly reactivates; a place, a name or a day are enough to shorten the temporal gap and to establish a continuity with this past. The St. Bartholomew's Day or the St. Bartholomew's Day narrative is the source of several auctorial scenographies, as historian, memorialist or aedic.

Keywords

• history
• Voltaire
• memory
• testimony
• St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
• tolerance