NOTES ON THE SYNOPSIS

Westphalia
The Westphalia of Candide is completely fictional in everything except that it is German. However, there is a real region of western Germany named Westphalia. Its boundaries have shifted over the years; today its capital is Dusseldorf and other cities include Bonn and Cologne.

Best of all possible worlds
This phrase originated with the German philosopher Gottfried Leibnitz who argued that, since God is good and all-powerful and chose this world of all the possible ones, this must be the best of all possible worlds. Other philosophers, especially Voltaire, questioned this asking how, then, can disasters be explained.

Quod erat demonstratum
This phrase is familiar to those who have studied geometry. It means "that which was to be demonstrated". It was used by Euclid and Archimedes and is used in many situations today. A mathematical or philosophical theory is proposed, and a proof is given, ending in Q.E.D.. Pangloss uses it after he "proves" that this is the best of all possible worlds.

Quarterings
In heraldry a family crest or shield is quartered when noble families are joined, usually by marriage, sometimes by political union. For example, one of the shields used by James VI of Scotland when he became king of England and Ireland shows the lion of Scotland in the first and fourth quarters and the harp of Ireland in the third. The second quarter is itself quartered with the shield of Mary Queen of Scots showing the fleur-de-lis of France and the lions of England since her mother was French, she herself was briefly the Queen of France, and she claimed the throne of England. (Note: there are a number of versions of the shield of James.) Quartering can continue for generation after generation resulting in a shield that resembles nothing more than a patchwork quilt. The British record is 323 quarterings on a shield, the start of which dates back to before the ninth century.

Created for a purpose
This reasoning, so palpably faulty and absurd, is repeated over and over during the play and, until the end, Candide continues to believe it. Some other instances: war makes everyone equal and thus improves relationships, stones were made to build houses, mouths were made to kiss. Pangloss firmly believes one can always connect a cause with an effect.

King of the Bulgars
It has been suggested that the King is patterned after Frederick the Great, Frederick II of Prussia and the erstwhile patron of Voltaire. He rebuilt the Prussian army and was noted for the intensity with which the soldiers were drilled.

Free Will
Actually Candide has little free will in this situation. For more on Voltaire's ideas and the philosophical argument's about free will see the notes on Voltaire.

War
Voltaire was strongly opposed to war. The outbreak of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), which was particularly blood with about 1,000,000 deaths, was one of the factors which inspired Voltaire to write Candide with its graphic, bloody battle scenes.

Anabaptist
The Anabaptists are a Protestant sect who believe that the rite of baptism should only be performed on those who understood its meaning, thus only adults. The picturing of him as one of the few truly good persons in the play was one of many darts Voltaire threw at the Roman Catholic Church. In America the peaceful and hard working Amish and Mennonites are offshoots of the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists are the only religious not satirized or condemned in Candide.

Syphilis
While some dispute this, most think that syphilis was endemic in the Americas and was brought to Europe by the sailors on the expeditions of Columbus. The other side of the coin is that the same ships brought European diseases to the New World, resulting in the wiping out of a large proportion of the native population which had no immunity against them. For the path of the infection which reached Pangloss see History below.

Sea was formed
One more example of Pangloss's seriously flawed reasoning.

Earthquake
The 1955 Lisbon earthquake struck on All Saints Day, November 1, when most of the citizens were at church services, and killed over 60,000 people. For more on this and its effect on Voltaire see Lisbon Earthquake.

Inquisition
Portugal had its own Inquisition which was similar to the Spanish Inquisition. Both were independent of the Inquisition in the rest of Europe.

Auto-da-fé
The auto-da-fé depicted here is completely fictitious, heretics were not flogged, and punishment was not part of the religious rite of an auto-da-fé but was inflicted later by the secular government. Those who recanted were garroted (choked to death) before being burnt, but no one was hung. However, after the Lisbon earthquake, looting was rampant, and those caught were punished by hanging.

History
The chain of contacts which brought the syphilis to Paquette and Pangloss is lengthy and not always easy to follow. Starting in South American it reached a seafaring Scot, a woman in Shalott (a land mentioned in the King Arthur stories as told by Tennyson in The Idylls of the King), a girl in Paris, a man from Japan, a Moor from Iran (Iranians are Persians, not Moors), a young English Lord, a wasp, a soprano from Milan and her lover before reaching Paquette.

Killed
The resurrection of Cunegonde, whose body had been seen by Candide, is one of many in Candide. In fact, of the main characters, only the good Anabaptist remains dead.

Cardinal Archbishop
In Voltaire's Candide these events take place in Buenos Aires and the churchman is the Grand Inquisitor.

Sewer
This sounds harsh but, in fact, did occur. Only practicing Catholics could be buried in cemeteries in Paris. The bodies of others landed, at best, in paupers' graves outside of town. Many did end up being treated as trash.

Daughter of a Pope
She is the daughter of the Polish Pope, Urban the Tenth. He is fictitious; there was no Urban the Tenth. However, many popes did have children, most notoriously the Borgia pope Alexander VI, the father of Cesare and Lucretia. Cesare was truly a monster, but Lucretia was more sinned against than a sinner.

The Old Lady's Tale
The daughter of a pope and a princess, she was brought up in a splendid palace and was so beautiful that her maids would faint as they helped her undress. She was engaged to the Prince of Massa Carra but a former mistress of his killed him by poisoning his chocolate. She and her mother then sailed to a country estate, but the ship was boarded by Barbary pirates, and they were carried off to Morocco. There the Moors tore the other women in two, but she ended up a slave in Northern Turkey. The Turks were besieged by Russians, and the starving men decided to eat one buttock from each of their women, leading to a disability she mentions several time. Twenty times she has contemplated suicide but still loves life.

Franciscan
Another scathing attack on the Catholic Church. Truly observant Franciscans had and have the strictest vows of poverty and would never be tempted to steal.

Jesuits
From 1609 on the Jesuits had established many missions in South America. When they were expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1767, many went to the colonies where the soldiers followed in an attempt to eradicate them. Among other things they organized the Indians who then denied their labor to the colonists.

Spaniards
Because they had been expelled from Spain and were still under attack, the Jesuits understandably did not welcome Spaniards.

Mump Indians
The Spanish called the natives of that part of South America Orejones or long ears, possibly because of their dangling earrings. The French oreillon means the similar "ear flap". However the plural, oreillons, literally means the disease mumps. Voltaire, by using the French word in the plural, inadvertently or purposely changed the meaning, and the librettists of the musical Candide used this literal meaning, calling them "Mump Indians".

Noble savages and Rousseau
The philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau was one of the major figures of the Enlightenment. He taught that primitive men were much more humane and "civilized" than those who were called civilized.

El Dorado
Sir Walter Raleigh described the later British Guiana (now Guyana) as a country of soaring mountains and immense treasures whose rulers were descendants of the Incas, and he identified it as the legendary El Dorado.

Three-in-one
The Trinity is a Christian doctrine which states the God exists in three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) but is one being. Voltaire, being a Deist, did not believe this doctrine, and this is another attack on Christianity.

Utopia
Utopia is the name of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More just before he entered the service of King Henry VIII of England. In it he describes a fictional island, Utopia, in the Atlantic with an ideal of society where all religions are tolerated and with no poverty, no laws or lawyers, and no war. In Act I of Candide, the inhabitants of Westphalia think they live in an utopian society but are soon proved wrong. In sharp contrast the Act II El Dorado is such a country.

Red sheep
Voltaire describes the sheep as red and it is though he might have been thinking of llamas which can have a reddish coloration and are used as pack animals, a role not performed by domestic sheep.

Surinam and Sugar
Sugar cane was the principal crop of the Dutch colony of Surinam and was even often used as currency. For example, the fees to be married, to have a seat in church and to be buried in a church was paid in sugar. The plantation owners became extremely wealthy and many lived in the Netherlands, leaving management of the estate to overseers. Life for the slaves was miserable, attempted escapes were frequent and punishment if caught, extremely harsh. Sugar in France was expensive and rare for most people. The average yearly consumption among all people in Paris was about one pound a year.

Survived
It seems the rope with which he was hanged was wet and the knot slipped. He was unconscious but alive when he was cut down and his body was sent to be autopsied. When the surgeon started to cut him open, he woke up.

Montevideo
Her Jesuit "confessor" there had lost his faith and brought her to Venice to work as a prostitute, but she hasn't made any money because her clients steal what others have given her.

Grand Canal
The Grand Canal is the Main Street of Venice and is not known for its cleanliness. Not an ideal place to wash dishes.

Garden
Gardening was very important to Voltaire and he himself found respite from his other work in his gardens at his various homes.

Characters
The ending of Voltaire's Candide is very similar except that it takes place near Constantinople. Cunegonde has become old, ugly and shrewish but, although he no longer really cares for her, Candide honors his promise to marry her. Pangloss, Martin (who was not drowned in Voltaire's story), Cacambo, Paquette and the Old Woman live with them, but "Maximilian" has been sent to the galleys. Pangloss is unhappy because he would have liked to be at a German university, and Cacambo is unhappy because he is overworked in the garden. Paquette does embroidery. Martin and the Old Lady are resigned, she because she realizes her present harsh life is still better than her previous disasters and the stoic Martin keeps busy working.

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Revised August 2008
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