Representation of Voltaire's play “The Cafe” or “The Scottish” (1760) (engraving)

Representation of Voltaire's play “The Cafe” or “The Scottish” (1760). The piece ridiculed Elie Catherine Freron (1718 -1776), journalist, literary critic and polemist. On this engraving of Granville (Grandville), in two contiguous lodges, Voltaire and the couple Freron attending the first performance. Madame Frenon fainted, Freron remains undisturbed and will make an ironic but correct account in her diary. Voltaire mocked the major work of Freron (The Literary Year) by calling it “The Litterary Donkey” and wrote the famous epigram: The other day at the bottom of a valley, A snake piqued Jean Freron; What do you think happened? It was the snake that died.