Zaïre
Zaïre Alternative Title: Zara
Author: Voltaire
First Performance: 1732, Paris
Published: 1733
First English Translation: 1736
Genre: Trag. in 5 acts; French alexandrines
Setting: Jerusalem, 13th c.
Cast: 7 m, 2 f, extras
Zaïre is a slave-girl in the palace of the enlightened sultan Orosmane, who has fallen in love with her and, contrary to Muslim custom, wishes to make her his sole wife. Orosmane has captured many French knights engaged in the seventh crusade of Louis IX. Nérestan, a young knight, comes with ransom money to free some of the captives, and Zaïre pleads that their old commander Lusignan should be included. It transpires that Lusignan is the father of Nérestan and of his long-lost daughter Zaïre. Lusignan, who is dying, begs Zaïre to...
[The entire page is 349 words long]
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