The Swiss magistrate | The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu and

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by Nicolas-Sébastien Roch (1740 - 1794), as Nicolas Chamfort

Translation © by Laura Stanfield Prichard

Le magistrat suisse

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

Chosen for Diff

L'esprit des lois de Montesquieu et 
La pucelle de Voltaire furent interdits en 
Suisse. Un magistrat de Berne fit rechercher 
ces deux ouvrages, puis écrivit au Sénat: 
Nous n'avons trouvé dans le canton ni Esprit
ni Pucelle.

Text Authorship:

by Nicolas-Sébastien Roch (1740 - 1794), as Nicolas Chamfort [an adaptation] [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Jean Françaix (1912 - 1997), "Le magistrat suisse", 1948, published 1951 [ baritone and piano ], from Huit anecdotes de Chamfort, no. 6, Éd. Max Eschig [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "The Swiss magistrate ", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 6
Word count: 38

The Swiss magistrate

Language: English after the French (Français)

Chosen for Diff

The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu and
The Virgin by Voltaire were banned in 
Switzerland. A magistrate from Bern searched for 
these two works, then wrote to the Senate: 
We have in this canton, found neither Spirit
nor a Virgin.

Translator's notes:
Montesquieu (1689-1755) was a political philosopher and writer
Voltaire (1694-1788) was a poet, historian and philosopher. La pucelle (1755) is a licentious mock-heroic poem about Joan of Arc.

Text Authorship:

Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2016 by Laura Stanfield Prichard, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in French (Français) by Nicolas-Sébastien Roch (1740 - 1794), as Nicolas Chamfort [an adaptation]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-04-19
Line count: 6
Word count: 42