Micromegas and Other Short Fictions (Penguin ed.)

by Voltaire

14. Barneveldt: Executed in 1619 for a Protestant heresy.

  15. preacher: A Calvinist.

  16. the galleons had returned safely: From the American colonies with their rich cargo.

  17. flames: These references are all to the rituals of an auto-da-fé, organized by the Spanish Inquisition; alguazils: police officers.

  18. Hermandad: Spanish police; familiars: Inquisition officials, with the power to arrest.

  19. Bishop of Chiapa: Las Casas (1474–1566), whose Brevisima Relación de la destrucción de las Indias (1552) gives a trenchant account of these massacres.

  20. Divan: Turkish judicial court.

  21. Allah, Illah, Allah!: ‘Only Allah is great!’

  22. Cadi: Turkish judge.

  23. Aureng-Zebe: Moghul Emperor of India (1619–1707).

  24. Muley Ismaël: Sultan Sherif of Morocco (1646–1727).

  The Consoler and the Consoled

  1. daughter of… Henri IV: Henrietta Maria (1609–69), queen consort of Charles I.

  2. Mary Stuart… eighteen years: The musician, David Rizzio, was murdered (1566) by Mary’s husband Darnley and others. Elizabeth sent Mary to the executioner’s block in 1587.

  3. Queen of Naples… strangled: Queen Joan of Naples was murdered in 1382 by her successor, Charles de Durazzo.

  4. Hecuba: Wife of Priam, King of Troy, who saw most of her children die in the Trojan War and was thereafter taken into slavery.

  5. Niobe: Queen of Thebes, whose many children were murdered. She wept for nine days and nights, and remains a poignant literary symbol of grief.

  The Story of a Good Brahmin

  1.. if Brahma… they are both eternal: An indirect allusion to the theological debate on the nature of the Christian Trinity.

  Pot-Pourri

  1. Brioché: A marionette presenter (d. 1680). He represents St Joseph, Jesus’ father.

  2. Punchinello: An Italian marionette.

  3. Brioche’s actual father… Fat-René: A parody of the differing genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels (Matthew and Luke).

  4. Almanac of the Fairground: A fictitious journal.

  5. Monsieur Parfaict: In fact two brothers, François and Claude, authors of a history of fairground theatre (1743).

  6. Tabarin… Big-William… John-the-Sausage: All seventeenth-century comic actors who specialized in farce.

  7. Father Daniel: Jesuit historian, author of a 17-volume Histoire de France (1758).

  8. parricide in Portugal: The assassination of Joseph I (1758).

  9. fomenting a rebellion in Paraguay: The Jesuits had encouraged a rebellion by the Indians in 1750 which was still going on several years later.

  10. in France: An anti-Jesuit campaign was to lead to the expulsion of the Order from France in 1767.

  11. faction: Cf. above, ‘Cosi-Sancta’, n. 3.

  12. he never mastered the use of a pen: A reference to the illiteracy of Jesus Christ, who left no written documents behind him.

  13. read it: John 8: 2–11; a somewhat tendentious reading of this episode.

  14. orvietan: The allusion is to the Temple of Jerusalem; orvietan was considered a miracle cure. Cf. below, Ch. VII, where the pedlars of orvietan stand for activists in the competing religious sects.

  15. magistrate: Jesus appeared before the Jewish courts, who passed on their condemnation of him to Pilate.

  16. It was also claimed… sorcerer: Voltaire appears to have in mind Christ’s actions against the merchants in the Temple (Mark 11: 15; John 2: 13–17) and the miracle at the Cana wedding feast (John 2: 1–12).

  17. We do not know… Brioché: The Gospels do not mention St Joseph’s fate.

  18. Dumarsais: Grammarian and philosophe (1676–1756).

  19. Urbain Grandier: Burned at the stake in 1634 for practising witchcraft with the nuns of Loudun.

  20. Gaufredi: Burned in 1611 as a sorcerer.

  21. since you are a Dutchman: The Catholic Italian cannot imagine that a Protestant could be considered a Christian: a signal example of the sheer ignorance which underlies religious intolerance.

  22. Socinian: Socinians did not believe in the Holy Trinity.

  23. Mansebo: An anagram of one Böseman, a Jewish merchant.

  24. On this particular day… exchange: This recalls Voltaire’s famous description of the London Stock Exchange in the sixth Lettre philosophique, where all religious sects trade together peaceably. The wax medals were blessed and distributed by the Pope.

  25. Ahmed III: Reigned as Sultan in Constantinople (1703–30), where Christianity was tolerated. In contrast, neither Islam (next paragraph) nor Protestantism (Ch. VI) was accorded open toleration in France at this time.

  26. janissaries: Turkish soldiers.

  27. Unigenitus: A Papal edict imposed on the Catholic Church by the Jesuits in 1713, which instigated deep unrest amongst the Jansenists, since it condemned over a hundred Jansenist propositions.

  28. Cévennes Massacres: The Protestant peasants in the Cévennes, whose rebellion was brutally suppressed (1702–4).

  29. “Wake up… beauty”: Allusion to the Protestant custom of singing psalms (like Psalm 136, quoted below) to popular airs and in French.

  30. “Happy… heads”: This appears to be a free development of Psalm 137: 9: ‘Happy he who seizes thy children and crushes them on the rock!’

  31. hills that skip like rams: Psalm 114.

  32. Racine junior: Louis Racine (1692–1763), son of the dramatist and great defender of the Catholic faith.

  33. I find it very bad… interference: Protestants who refused marriage by Catholic priests were denied marital rights under the law.

  34. went from village to village: As did the Apostles.

  35. Nostradamus: The sixteenth-century astrologer, famed for his cryptic prophecies; this is a veiled allusion to the Old Testament prophesying of the coming of Christ.

  36. Madame Carminetta: Represents the Emperor Constantine, whose protection the Christians sought through the Edict of Milan (AD 313).

  37. Madame Gigogne: A traditional character in fairground theatre, she comes to represent the Catholic Church in this story.

  38. orvietan: See above, n. 14.

  39. he elected himself leader of the troupe: Refers to the establishment of the Bishop of Rome as the Pope.

  40. he had the door… her face: Refers to quarrels between Pope and Emperor.

  41. Father La Valette: (1707–62), a Jesuit missionary in Martinique, whose bankruptcy was considered the responsibility of the Order; the subsequent lawsuit led to its suppression.

  42. Polyeucte: Play by Corneille (c. 1642). The eponymous hero, an early Christian martyr, is seen by Voltaire as a fanatic.

  43. Lubolier… Urieju: Lubolier is an anagram of Boullier (1699–1759), a Protestant enemy of the philosophes; Morfyré = Formey (1711–97), a German Protestant; Urieju = Jurieu (1637–1713), a Huguenot extremist.

  44. the scene… husband: Act V, sc. 5: the preceding quotation is an approximate version of lines in Act II, sc. 2.

  45. Polyeucte… I now am: Act III, sc. 5; this quotation is more correct.

  46. provincial… Paris Opera: Alludes to payments made to the Catholic Church for various indulgences and ceremonies.

  47. a servant… Good-Deed: Luther’s rebellion against the Catholic Church (1517), which led to the Wars of Religion.

  48. The English… over him: Allusion to Henry VIII (1494–1547) and his establishment of the Church of England.

  49. Simon Bar-jona: St Peter (see Matthew 16: 17).

  50. Porentru: Near Colmar; refers to Voltaire’s dispute with the Bishop of Colmar since 1754 in trying to obtain permission for the peasants to work on feast days.

  51. bills of confession: The Archbishop of Paris had demanded that those on their deathbed produce a certificate testifying that they had not been confessed by a Jansenist priest, before they could receive the last sacraments.

  An Indian Incident

  1. Pythagoras: Greek philosopher (c. 550-c
. 500 BC), about whom little is known. He bequeathed a way of life rather than a specific doctrine, based upon asceticism and the kinship of all living things. Plato was probably influenced by Pythagoreanism; after Plato, the movement became a form of neo-Platonism.

  Lord Chesterfield’s Ears

  1. a dreamy fellow… Channel: Voltaire.

  2. Schools: The Faculties of Theology; the biblical reference is to St Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, 15: 38.

  3. Gloucester: Bishop Warburton (1698–1779), whom Voltaire attacked virulently in a pamphlet addressed to Warburton.

  4. Philips: John Philips (1676–1709), author of The Splendid Shilling, a well-known burlesque poem.

  5. his book… ever written: Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690), a work consistently praised by Voltaire.

  6. Rabelais’s characters: Panurge and Thaumaste converse by signs, Pantagruel, Bk. I, ch. xix. Cf. also below, Conversation between Lucian, Erasmus and Rabelais, n. 4.

  7. Apollonius and Archimedes: Apollonius of Perga (fl. 250–220 BC); Archimedes: arguably the greatest mathematician of ancient Greece (c. 287–212 BC).

  8. Likewise he: In this and the preceding sentence Voltaire is quoting himself.

  9. Epictetus: Greek Stoic philosopher (fl. first century AD), one of Voltaire’s admired predecessors as ‘apostles of Reason’.

  10. Banks and Solander: Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), President of the Royal Society, and Daniel Solander (1736–82), a distinguished botanist and secretary to Banks, were companions of Cook on his expedition to Tahiti (1768–71) and wrote an account of the voyage.

  11. Bonneval: A French officer (1675–1747) who served the Sultan of Constantinople and was converted to Islam.

  12. MacCarthy: An Irish priest who was said to have become a Muslim (c. 1730).

  13. Ramsay: (1686–1743), a Scottish nobleman who was a convert to Catholicism (not to Islam).

  14. Malagrida: Gabriel Malagrida (1689–1761), a Portuguese Jesuit, had been implicated in a plot in 1758 against King Joseph II; he was later condemned and executed.

  15. domicile: The latter baptism was for foreigners living in Palestine, whereas baptism of justice was complete, including circumcision.

  16. such as are to be found… Jesuit Fathers: Letters by several Jesuits, published in the Journal de Trévoux from 1702 onwards.

  17. Dr John Hawkesworth: (c. 1715–73), Director of the East India Company.

  18 Dawkins and Wood: James Dawkins (1722–57); Robert Wood (c. 1717–71), author of Ruins of Palmyra (1753) and Ruins of Balbec (1757).

  19. Vesuvius: Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British Ambassador to Naples, wrote on Vesuvius and Etna.

  20. Wallis: Samuel Wallis (1728–95), a naval officer, visited Tahiti in 1767.

  21. Bougainville: Circumnavigated the globe and published an account of it, Voyage autour du monde (1771).

  22. It has been said: By Voltaire in ‘Candide’, ch. IV.

  23. Finxit… deorum: ‘He fashioned [us] in the image of the gods who control all things’ (Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 83).

  24. Lord Rochester’s noble verse: 'Love… to God’: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647–80). Voltaire had respectfully translated a passage of Rochester’s verse in his 21st Lettre philosophique. This line, which also appears in the article ‘Amour’ of the Dictionnaire philosophique, does not seem to exist as such in the original, and is probably the digest of a complex phrase in the letter-poem ‘Artemisa to Chloë’: ‘Love, the most generous passion of the mind… On which one only blessing God might raise / In lands of atheists subsidies of praise’ (Rochester: Complete Works, ed. F. H. Ellis, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1994, p. 50).

  25. Pecquet’s reservoir: Jean Pecquet, a well-known doctor of Dieppe (d. 1647).

  26. together with his brother: duc de Guise (1550–88) and cardinal de Guise (1555–88), both assassinated on the orders of Henri III at Blois.

  27. St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: Massacre of Protestants (1572), ordered by Charles IX (1550–74), but at the instigation of his mother, Catherine de Médicis, and the Guise family.

  28. demi-lune: Fortified outwork.

  29. ‘Now… write history’: In fact, a verse from Voltaire’s play Chariot, Act I, sc. 7.

  30. six burghers of Calais… necks: Edward III (1312–77) captured Calais in 1347 after a year’s siege. Voltaire’s sceptical comments run counter to the traditional view that the action of the six burghers constituted a glorious sacrifice.

  31. pitchers: Judges 7: 16–22.

  32. a Burnet, a Whiston or a Woodward: All three produced accounts of the Earth in the late seventeenth century: Thomas Burnet (c. 1635–1715), Telluris Theoria Sacra (1680–89); William Whiston (1667–1752), New Theory of the Earth (1696); John Woodward, Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth (1695). Voltaire disliked their dependence on the Bible, especially regarding the Flood.

  33. a Maillet: Benoît de Maillet (1656–1738), Telliamed (1748).

  Account of the Illness, Confession, Death and Apparition of the Jesuit Berthier

  1. Berthier: Guillaume Berthier (1704–82), editor of the Jesuit Journal de Trévoux (1745–62). This satire by Voltaire marks his definitive break with the Order, which had attacked his works over a long period of time and also the Encyclopédie.

  2. Coutu: Probably fictitious.

  3. Mead and Boerhaave: Richard Mead (1673–1754), Fellow of the Royal Society, whose Mechanical Account of Poisons (1702) was much admired by Voltaire; Hermann Boerhaave (1668–1738), Dutch Professor of Medicine, who had turned Leiden into one of the most prestigious medical schools in Europe.

  4. Lemoine’s ‘Louisiade’: Pierre Le Moine (1602–71), Jesuit author of the unsuccessful epic Saint Louis (1651–3).

  5. Ducerceau’s… dressing: Jean Du Cerceau (1670–1730), Jesuit poet, whose verses are mocked elsewhere by Voltaire.

  6. Reflections: Pensez-y bien, ou Réflexions (1710), a proselytizing work by Father Paul de Barry (1585–1661).

  7. Bougeant: Guillaume Bougeant (1690–1743), a professor in the Jesuit College of Louis-le-Grand where Voltaire was a schoolboy; his Amusement philosophique sur le langage des bêtes (1739) was considered by Voltaire to be full of extravagant fantasies. No trace, however, has been found of any condemnation of the work by the Parlement or the Archbishop.

  8. Father Berruyer… in France: Isaac Berruyer (1681–1758); his Histoire du peuple de Dieu (1728–53) had caused a great scandal and been condemned by two Popes and a wide range of ecclesiastical authorities in Paris and elsewhere for its improprieties. Clélie: a 10-volume romance by Madeleine de Scudéry (1654–60).

  9. Brother Busenbaum and Brother Lacroix: Voltaire attacked both Hermann Busenbaum (1600–1668) and Claude Lacroix (1652–1714) as authors of the Theologia moralis (1707–11), which defended regicide and was condemned by the Parlements of Paris and Toulouse, as well as being disavowed by the Jesuit Order.

  10. Guignard, Guéret: Jean Guignard had been executed in 1595 for writings proposing the murder of Henri IV. Jean Guéret (1559–1639) was indicted for his part in the attempted assassination of Henri IV and suffered banishment for life.

  11. Garnet, Oldcorn: Henry Garnett and Edward Oldcorn, both English Jesuits, were implicated in the Gunpowder Plot and put to death in 1606. Neither, however, appears to have actually advocated regicide in writing; the same is true of Guéret (n. 10).

  12. Jouvency: Joseph de Jouvency (1643–1719), whose Histoire de la Société de Jésus (1710) was condemned by the Paris Parlement, the Sorbonne and the Pope for supporting the right of regicide.

  13. Harlay: Achille de Harlay (1536–1616), a leading magistrate ofthe Paris Parlement, who had opposed the Jesuits.

  14. Pascal’s eloquence… merciful: Reference to Pascal’s swingeing attack on the Jesuits in his Lettres provinciales (1656–7).

  15. Sanchez… dared to say: Thomas Sanchez (1550–1610), a Spanish Jesuit, had provoked a scandal by the lubricious nature of t
he anatomical remarks in his De Matrimonio (1598), including the question as to whether semen had been produced in the copulation of the Virgin Mary with the Holy Ghost. Pietro Aretino (1492–1554) was an Italian poet whose verses were notoriously obscene; as was also the Histoire de dom B., portier des Chartreux (History of Father B., the Carthusian Porter, 1715–18), by Jean de La Touche.

  16. hell fire: Matthew 5: 22.

  17. Abbé Velly: Paul Velly (1709–59), criticized by the Journal de Trévoux for misusing source materials in his Histoire de France (1755–86).

  18. Abbé Coyer: François Coyer (1707–82), attacked by the Journal de Trévoux for purportedly defending the philosophes in his Lettre au R. P. Berthier sur le matérialisme (1759).

  19. Abbé d’Olivet: Pierre d’Olivet (1682–1768), one of Voltaire’s former teachers, who attracted unfavourable comment in the Journal de Trévoux for his criticisms of Jesuit commentaries and alleged tendencies towards scepticism.

  20. Francis Xavier… crab: Père Dominique Bouhours (1628–1702) recounts this tale in his Vie de Saint François Xavier (1682) as evidence supporting Xavier’s claim to sainthood.

  21. St Francis… one time: Voltaire tells how Xavier was seen simultaneously on two ships 150 leagues apart (art. ‘François Xavier’, Dictionnaire philosophique, Moland ed., xix. 203–4).

  22. accomplices: See above, Lord Chesterfield’s Ears’, n. 14.

  23. intentionality: This refers to the Jesuit doctrine whereby an evil act may be remitted if the original contribution was pure. Pascal fiercely attacked this doctrine as casuistical in the Lettres provinciales (1656–7), esp. VII and IX.

  24. Nouvelles ecclésiastiques: The Jansenist journal, published weekly since 1724.

  25. fox… wolf: Voltaire frequently refers to the Jesuits as foxes and to the Jansenists as wolves.

  26. Lettres… curieuses: See above, ‘Lord Chesterfield’s Ears’, n. 16. The source of the History of Convulsions is unknown.

  27. Garasse: François Garasse (1585–1631), a particularly fanatical Jesuit preacher. Garassise: probably fictitious.

  28. Paradise Open to Philagie: Another work (1636) by Father Paul de Barry (see n. 6), referred to mockingly by Pascal in the ninth of his Lettres provinciales.