VOLTAIRE • UNIT 1 OF 4

“WRITE NOW” QUESTIONS Due as a printed hard copy in the class focused on Voltaire, Unit 1 of 4. Due also as a Word (not a PDF) attachment to an email message, sent to [email protected] on the due date.

Q-1 • According to our translation, how heavy is the Baron’s wife; and around what age is her only daughter, Cunegund (a name that means “brave” and “tribe”)?

Correct Answer (which you can copy and paste into your work):

Question 1 The Baron’s wife weighs 350 pounds; and Cunegund is around 17 years of age.

Incorrect Answer (because not presented as a complete sentence or sentences:

Question 1 350 pounds; around 17.

Q-2 • To provide both his son and his sister’s son, Candide, with an education, the Baron employs the “preceptor” Pangloss (pan = all; gloss = tongue). What does that individual say about why humans wear spectacles and stockings — and how does the explanation fit with his philosophical opinions that “there is no effect without a cause” and “all things have been created for some end [purpose]”?

Q-3 • In a “park” near the Baron’s Westphalian castle, to whom does Cunegund see Pangloss “giving a lecture in experimental philosophy,” and what does the scene cause her to “imagin[e]” about her future?

1 Q-4 • After his expulsion from the “terrestrial paradise” of Thunder-den-tronckh, Candide finds himself press-ganged into one of the armies participating in a major European conflict. Voltaire based those hostilities on the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763), in which a French-led coalition sought to curtail the rising power of Britain and Prussia (now part of Germany). Our translation uses the terms “Abares” and “Bulgarians” as stand-ins for the actual combatants. In Chapter 3, Candide (a member of the Bulgarian forces) enters “the Abarian territories” and witnesses “several young virgins.” What precisely has happened to those women? In this instance, use your own words, as opposed to quoting from the text.

Q-5 • Having escaped the war, Candide ends up in Holland (the Netherlands), whose inhabitants are “all rich and Christians.” In that country, why does the wife of an “orator” or Protestant religious preacher throw a “utensil full of water” over Candide? By the way: The word “water” may be a euphemism; it’s possible that the “utensil” is a chamber pot containing urine!

Q-6 • Candide next encounters James, whose religion, Anabaptism, we will discuss in lecture. In some ways, James resembles a figure highlighted in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10, Verses 25-37. Who is that figure? (You can use a hardcopy Bible or an online Bible to find out.) What is James’s “trade,” and where does he practice it?

Q-7 • In Chapter 4, Candide intersects with a “beggar all covered with scabs.” This “shocking figure” turns out to be Pangloss, who has contracted syphilis, also known as the Great Pox. From whom did the preceptor get the disease, and how does he relate it to “chocolate” and “cochineal” (an insect that yields a valuable crimson dye called carmine)?

FYI: EXAMPLE OF A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTION (answer highlighted in yellow)

Question In Candide, Pangloss makes a (kind of) logical connection between his syphilis and the cochineal, an insect that the Spanish made into a global commodity, having witnessed its use by the Aztecs, whom they conquered. When processed, cochineals yield a crimson dye, known as ••••••. A • tekhelet B • kermes C • catechu D • carmine E • annatto

Q-8 • Candide and Pangloss accompany James the Anabaptist on a sea-journey to Lisbon, capital of the Kingdom of Portugal. As they approach the city, their vessel is impacted by the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1 November 1755. In that event, an undersea earthquake triggered a triple tsunami that overwhelmed Lisbon, killing perhaps 60,000 people. Compounding the damage, many fires occurred. Voltaire’s “Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne” includes the following couplet: “Mysteries like these can no man penetrate | Hid from his [any man’s] view remains the book of fate.” What is James’s fate during the ocean “tempest” that the disaster occasions? What is an auto da fé, the means whereby the Lisbon authorities react to the earthquake-tsunami-fire tragedy?

Q-9 • During the auto da fé, Candide endures a public flogging, but later a compassionate “old woman” takes him to a “lonely house” situated “about a quarter of a mile into the country” beyond Lisbon. There, his “conductress” introduces Candide to a “young lady” with a “veil.” Who is she? What arrangement does the she endure as a resident of the house? It involves the Grand Inquisitor and a Jewish (“Hebrew”; “Israelite”) merchant, Issachar, whose name occurs in the Book of Exodus, belonging to one of the sons of the Patriarch called Jacob or Israel.

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Q-10 • Reunited with Candide, Cunegund relates that her “father, mother, and brother” were murdered “before my eyes.” What two individuals does Candide kill in Chapter 9, precipitating the decision to depart for the Spanish port city of Cádiz, whence he (along with Cunegund and the old woman) can sail for Buenos Aires, perceived as “another world”?

Q-11 • On the transatlantic voyage to South America, the old woman narrates her life-story. When reading the account, it is useful to know that the word “Moor” refers to a North African Muslim or follower of “Mahomet” (the Prophet Muhammad), often a Berber or Arab. Who was the old woman’s father, and why does that detail suggest the famous Italian Renaissance figure Lucrezia Borgia? How did the old woman lose her virginity, which she terms a “precious flower”?

Q-12 • According to the old woman, what did the “pretty” Italian “eunuch” (castrated man) do that resulted in her becoming a “slave”? One of her enslavements involved being a member of the “seraglio” (harem) of an “aga” (chief) affiliated with the “janissaries” (elite military units of the Ottoman or Turkish Empire). During a siege by Russian troops, what action did Ottoman soldiers guarding the aga’s seraglio perform on one of the old woman’s buttocks — and why?

Q-13 • Upon their safe arrival at Buenos Aires, what “counsel” does the old woman impart to Cunegund? What does that advice imply about female agency (a woman’s ability to control her destiny) when Voltaire composed Candide — the middle of the eighteenth century?

Note

• Bloodline calculus: Candide is likely the Baron’s sister’s son. While the Baron cannot be confident that his two children are biologically his, he can rest assured that Candide — a sister-son — possess some of the family’s genes. “The Battle of Maldon,” a poem in the Old English language, identifies the fallen warrior Wulfmær as the lord’s “swuster sunu.” The mythological Irish warrior youth, Cúchulainn, is nephew (sister- son) of the king of the province of Ulster, which Cúchulainn singlehandedly defends.

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