Gay and Lesbian Review March-April 2018

I BEGAN my research by going to the hôtel de Vil- lette ( hôtel particulier , back then, meant a private res- idence or aristocratic townhouse), on the Quai Voltaire directly across the Seine from the Louvre. Of course, back in 1778 the dock had a different name, Quai des Théâtins, named for a big church whose shadow fell daily onto this house where Voltaire came to live. Today, planted in front of the building is one of the “Histoire de Paris” information plaques in the shape of an oar that gives more detailed information. As luck would have it, Voltaire had lived so long that he had stayed in this house before, in 1724, when it belonged to the Présidente Bernière, widow of an old friend of his. Since then, the Marquis de Villette, père , had bought it, and then his son inherited it, along with the fortune and the title that went along with it. The Mar- quis de Villette, fils , hired the architect du jour, Charles de Wailly, for extravagant renovation and embellishment. The building, then, set the stage for Voltaire’s last and ar- guably the best performance of his life. Hundreds if not thou- sands of people congregated daily by the front and side entrances of the townhouse, seeking the honor of a Voltairean audience. His philosophical friends were the first to be allowed in—d’Alembert, Condorcet, and Diderot—as were meritori- ous folk such as Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, who were in Paris trying to cajole Versailles into recognizing the re- bellious government of the inchoate United States of Amer- ica. The first time that Franklin and Voltaire met at the hôtel de Villette, Franklin asked the philosopher to bless his grandson, eighteen-year-old Temple Franklin, who was so tall he had to kneel before the skinny old deist. Voltaire, who recognized a theatrical event if ever there was one, put a bony hand on the handsome young man’s long wavy brown locks and pro- nounced solemnly, in English: “God and Liberty.” There was- n’t a dry eye in the house. I would imagine that the tears of the sensitive and histri- onic Marquis de Villette flowed most copiously. He was for- ever reminding people of an old rumor that Voltaire had been in love with his mother, the beautiful and engaging Marquise de Villette, during the time that he was conceived. That Villette was also a dabbler in literature was—for him!—further proof that he was the probable progeny of the great Voltaire. Villette repeatedly visited the exiled Voltaire in his domain of Ferney, which straddled the border between France and Geneva, then a republic. Rumored father and son passed the time playing chess, depilating each other’s sparse beard hairs, and talking shop. Charles Michel, Marquis de Villette, left us a few works of poetry in virtue of which Voltaire christened him “ le nou- veau Tibulle .” I had to look up the identity of the Old Tibullus: a Latin poet from a few years BCE whose verses proclaim his amours with women as well as with young men. I find his po- etry in praise of men to be more persuasive. Villette also left us his correspondence and a personal account of the French Rev- olution. Best of all, as a future Revolutionary, Villette be- queathed to the ages a story of dramatic import: publicly burning his “ lettres de noblesse ,” for which his father had paid a fortune. Voltaire lived in the luxurious townhouse of the wealthy Marquis de Villette for four months, which is how long he had to live. If he recognized the “Tibullian” intricacies of Villette’s sexuality, he does not seem to have been overly concerned to be living in his house—even with the Marquis de Thibouville sharing the premises. I was eager to find out if Voltaire cham- pioned his friends’ sexuality in the same way that he champi- oned tolerance toward others who were shunned: victims of religion, or of injustice or superstition. Where was the litera- ture, if any, that Voltaire left as his legacy concerning the tol- erance for “ les invertis ,” to introduce another contemporary expression? Part of the answer lies in another layer of complexity that caught my eye in Voltaire’s relationship with his friend/son. During one of Villette’s visits to Voltaire’s sanctuary in Ferney, the philosopher decided that Vil- lette, at 42 years of age, needed to get seri- ous and create philosopher-children to continue his dynasty. The end result was marriage for Villette— something that Voltaire never tried himself—to one of the adopted orphans he raised in his château: the beautiful and in- telligent nineteen-year-old Reine Philiberte Rouph de Vari- court, called by her adoptive father’s pet name “Belle et Bonne.” Voltaire writes: “I die happy having been able to con- tribute to the happiness of two people, one of whom is full of wit and charm and the most amiable of men in high society, never having had anything to reproach himself save for a few Was Voltaire aware of his host’s predilection for bringing in handsome young boys from the provinces? ( Bien sûr .) March–Apr%l 2018 13