Voltaire and Fougeret de Monbron a "Candide" Problem Reconsidered

Author(s): J. H. Broome
Source: The Modern Language Review , Oct., 1960, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct., 1960), pp. 509-518
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association

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 VOLTAIRE AND FOUGERET DE MONBRON
A 'CANDIDE' PROBLEM RECONSIDERED

In his 1913 edition of Candide, recently reprinted,l Andre Morize s

Voltaire may have been inspired partly by the cynical memoirs of
Monbron, which appeared in 1750 as Le Cosmopolite, ou le Citoyen du M
obstacle confronting this theory is the absence of references to Fougere
writings. There is, however, additional textual evidence suggesting
was interested in Fougeret's works. This is not confined to Candid
mopolite, but before discussing the material, it may be useful to recall
foundations of Morize's hypothesis. First, Le Cosmopolite was circulatin
the appropriate period; secondly, Fougeret was sent to the Bastille in 1
because of its impudent and racy attacks upon authority; thirdly, a
it, 'l'ensemble des deux recits, et surtout l'intention et l'allure, p
singulieres analogies'.3 To these facts it may be added that Fouger
for his licentious novel Margot la Ravaudeuse, was sufficiently picture
special attention in Diderot's Satire sur les mots de caractere, unru
challenge authority all over Europe, and enterprising enough to h
La Henriade Travestie, which ran into thirteen editions from 1745
perhaps the most successful French burlesque of its century.
Voltaire could hardly fail to notice a writer who exploited him in th
his reactions seem to have been mixed. A letter of 1748 to d'Argen
that he resented burlesque when he was the victim. The reference
of Semiramis, but the following extract seems aimed at La Henriad
La reine m'a fait ecrire, par Madame de Luynes, que les parodies etaient
qu'on avait travesti Virgile. Je r6ponds que ce n'est pas un compatriote
a fait l'Eneide Travestie, que les Romains en etaient incapables; que si on
une Ene'ide burlesque a Auguste et a Octavie, Virgile en aurait 6te indig
sottise etait reservee A notre nation longtemps grossiere et toujours friv
Freron later maintained, however, that 'M. de Voltaire lui-meme avait
cette parodie';5 and this testimony is in fact supported by a recent
note to Fr. Tronchin, in which Voltaire says:
Je renvoie.. .La Henriade Travestie, et je supplie Mr Tronchin de renvoye
trop guai a un homme tres triste qui l'aime de tout son coeur.6

Although dates for this note vary from 1755 to 1760, it indicate
Voltaire had Fougeret in view at a time not very distant from the perio
and that he probably savoured the anti-religious buffoonery of the bu

1 See also A. Morize, 'Le Candide de Voltaire', Revue du XVIIIe Siecle (1913),
2 Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron (1706-60) came from P6ronne and died
a stormy career which included imprisonment at For-1'Eveque in 1748 and
during 1755. He travelled in England, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portug
Russia. Le Cosmopolite is a sketch of his adventures from 1742 to 1748, ending w
of exile. Five of the six editions of this philosophical burlesque appeared from
3 Candide, ed. Morize (1913), p. xxv. 4 Best. 3311, 23 Oct. 1748.
5 Annee Litte'raire (1756), I, p. 356, 15 March.
6 Voltaire, Lettres inedites aux Tronchin, ed. Gagnebin (1950), ii, p. 224; Best. 5708.

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510 Voltaire and Fougeret de Monbron
It seems, then, that Voltaire was more or less nonplussed by Fougeret's amusing
exploit. He certainly knew something about the satirist, and there are reasons for
thinking that he must have kept a check on him in subsequent years. In 1746
Fougeret visited Prussia and, according to Le Cosmopolite,l departed in haste after
quarrelling with d'Argens or criticizing Frederick's regime. Voltaire may have
heard of this obscure episode while in Berlin; he must at any rate have known that
Le Cosmopolite alludes sarcastically to his own adulation of 'le Salomon du Nord',
as does also a poem of 1753 entitled EpUtre a M. F. de Voltaire pendant son sejour
a Mayence, au retour de Berlin. This biting attack upon Voltaire's vanity is
generally attributed to Fougeret, and would suffice to keep Voltaire mindful of
him. So, indeed, would the Preservatif contre l'Anglomanie of 1757, in which
Fougeret ridicules Voltaire as the prophet of a false gospel of English virtue.
What is surprising, is not that Voltaire should be well aware of Fougeret, but
that he should have said virtually nothing about him. However one explains this,
there are grounds for postulating, on Voltaire's part, a continuing interest in
Fougeret's writings, and hence, the plausibility of Morize's speculations about
Candide. The difficulties arise in translating hypothetical interest into 'influence'.
Candide and Le Cosmopolite are related by Morize in three ways: (1) by the
general conception of a voyage of disillusionment, expressed in terms of burlesque
naivety; (2) by correspondences of the actual itinerary, except for Candide's visit
to the New World; (3) by the following specific passages of Le Cosmopolite, which
seem to have equivalents in Candide. (The references in parenthesis are to the
Morize edition.)

Le Cosmopolite, 1753
(1) P. 54. Fougeret contracts, in Italy, 'un fort vilain mal, lequel j'ait fait circuler
depuis dans le cours de mes voyages par esprit d'economie, pour n'y pas revenir A
plusieurs fois.. .'. (p. 22)
(2) P. 152. Fougeret arrives
de Messieurs du Saint-Office'. (pp. 39-40)
(3) P. 40. Fougeret returns from Constantinople. '
de temps apres mon arrivee, je fus attaque d'une fie
temperament et peut-etre a un demi-tonneau d'apo
me fit avaler, j'en echappai.' (p. 147)
(4) P. 158. Fougeret is denounced to the
(5) P. 157. Fougeret arrested and imprisoned at For-l'Eveque. (pp. 166-8)
(6) P. 154. His discovery that the English 'n'etaient pas moins extravagants que
nous; avec cette difference seulement que nous sommes des fous gais et joyeux, et qu'ils
sont des fous serieux et tristes'. (pp. 171-2)
(7) P. 153. Fougeret disembarks at Portsmouth. (p. 172)
(8) P. 96 ff. Fougeret's adventures in Venice. (pp. 175 ff.)
(9) Pp. 84-5. Remarks on Italian opera. 'Une preuve encore que la m
italienne n'est pas toujours si ravissante.. c'est que pendant le recitatif cha
le dos au theatre, et qu'on ne cesse de causer que quand un de ces anim
a degrades de la qualite d'homme pour le bizarre amusement de nos or
fredonner un air eternel, souvent moins analogue que cloue au sujet.'
(10) P. 14. Fougeret at Constantinople. 'I1 est bon de savoir qu'il y a une
au Palais de France, et que les penaillons desservent la Chapelle de M. l'Am
en qualite d'aum6niers.' (p. 209)
(11) P. 25. Remarks on Turkish baths,
(pp. 209-10)

1 Le Cosmopolite (1753), pp. 120-4.

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 J. H. BROOME 511

Morize's argument from general resemblances is, no doubt, vu

adventures and disillusionments of Fougeret are more or less authe
have appealed to Voltaire's sense of humour. Furthermore, both wo
as well as philosophical burlesques, containing obvious elements
of the roman d'aventures or-in Le Cosmopolite especially-of th
kind of travel record; and this common aim distinguishes Foug
most of Voltaire's other source-material.' In detail, again, the c
but not conclusive, since the parallels deriving from the passage
of unequal value. Some, clearly, are cliches of the period, for
concerning the 'folie des Anglais', which can be found in Le Bl
La Pucelle.2 Similarly, Pococurante's remarks on the opera, which r
text (no. 9), recall also a passage in Misson's Nouveau Voyage d
used by Fougeret himself.3 Nevertheless, the resemblances not
varied and persistent enough to lend force to his hypothesis. A thr
through the fabric of Candide; it may be tenuous, but it justifies f
The first results of this are four more parallels in the Eldorado a
episodes, for which, again, the inaccessible Fougeret text is giv
references. The first concerns Candide's desire to return to Europe
and Cacambo's reaction-an urge to show off.
Le Cosmopolite, pp. 61-2. Fougeret satirizes the vanity of travellers.
ment A parler; des sots 6coutent avec complaisance. Cela donne du cou
les applaudissements le flattent...; il finit par etre le fleau et la bete
... Qu'un sot aille d'un pale & l'autre, avant son depart on le support
de sa stupidite; A son retour chacun le fuit; c'est un monstre, un anim
fenetres.' (pp. 122-3)
The second example, relat
tion is reversed (as befi
in the 'philosophy', bas
which is in fact the mott
Le Cosmopolite, pp. 163-4. The cosmopolitan 'creed' which ends the book. 'On me
sortit des fers avec injonction, de la part du Roi, de m'eloigner de Paris et de n'en point
approcher de cinquante lieues.... J'ai cru ne pas me rendre criminel en m'eloignant du
double et poussant jusqu'a Londres....Tous les pays me sont egaux, pourvu que je
jouisse en liberte de la clarte des cieux....' (p. 123)
The additional correspondences in the Pococurante c
aesthetic judgement and the cult of antiquity.
Le Cosmopolite, pp. 59-60. English travellers in Italy,
' Quand, apres deux ou trois ans d'absence ils rapportent ch
1 Fougeret's literary satire might well have attracted Vol
La Henriade Travestie. For example, before Zadig, with its pa
Fougeret had published Le Canape, a brutal parody of the 'me
school.
2 See Le Blanc, Lettres d'un Franfais (1745), I, p. 21, letter 4; and La Pucelle, Chant
(verses composed about 1752).
Chez les Anglais, sombres et durs esprits,
Toute folie est noire atrabilaire;
Chez les FranQais elle est vive et legere.
3 Misson, Nouveau Voyage d'Italie, Letter 17. 'Ils sont quelquefois plus longtemps su
seul fredon, qu'a chanter quatre lignes entieres.... .1 y a encore une chose dont ils sont charm
... Je veux parler de ces malheureux hommee qui se sont faits mutiler comme des laches,
d'avoir la voix plus belle. La sotte figure, a mon avis, qu'un pareil estropie...'. Eviden
one must be cautious in comparing the texts of Voltaire and Fougeret.

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512 Voltaire and Fougeret de Monbron
de peinture, on trouve alors qu'ils ont tres bien employe leurs temps.... Je ne rougirai
point d'avouer que parmi tant de belles choses que j'ai vues, il y en a beaucoup que je
n'ai trouvees telles que sur la foi d'autrui, et point du tout sur le rapport de mes yeux.'
(pp. 183-4)
Le Cosmopolite, p. 58. Antiquity, and medals (cf. Pococurante on Homer). 'Je ne suis
pas (e ces cnthousiastes qui decrient tout ce qui n'est point du vieux temps, et ne jugent
de l'excellence des choses que par leur date. Combien de gens paient cher cette ridicule
manie! On me montra a Rome un antiquaire qui avait achete... une pretendue medaille
d'Othon, entierement meconnaissable et rongee de vert-de-gris....' (p. 188)
The correspondences with these additional passages are as strong as most of thos
mentioned by Morize, and indeed, the Pococurante episode is one where Voltair
seems nearest to the spirit of Fougeret. This is worth noting, because the next point
of possible contact between the two writers also occurs in the Venetian chapter
of Candide, although it concerns, not Pococurante, but Paquette and Frere Giroflee.
In Voltaire's catalogue of misfortune, the protests of the prostitute and the
frustrated ecclesiastic are among the bitterest passages, and the possibility tha
they owe something to Fougeret is particularly interesting because it widens th
discussion and involves another of Fougeret's works. Le Cosmopolite itself offer
ino close parallel to this chapter of Candide, the nearest approach being a denuncia-
tion of forced vocations,l and a burlesque episode in which Fougeret rediscover
in Spain a prostitute from Paris.2 On the other hand, there is a marked resemblance
between the Candide episode and certain passages of Margot la Ravaudeuse, which
it may be recalled, purports to be the memoirs of an Opera-girl who fights her way
to prosperity by prostitution and other vicious means. This theme may be banal
but the novel is remarkable for its ferocious satire, and Voltaire might well hav
been impressed by its savage denunciation of social evils. It is, at least, instructive
to compare Paquette and Fougeret's Margot as case-histories.
In Candide, Paquette recounts her seduction by a monk; Margot has a similar
experience with a Carmelite instead of a Cordelier. Paquette becomes a doctor
mlistress, is imprisoned, and freed by a judge. Margot also is imprisoned-and
liberated by a president. The remainder of Paquette's lament can be set directly
against that of Margot. (Textual parallels are numbered for ease of reference.)
Candide, pp. 178-9 Margot la Ravaudeuse
Je fus bient6t supplantee par une p. 42. Est-il quelque profession,
rivale, chassee sans recompense et quelque metier dans la vie dont nous
obligee de continuer ce metier abomin- n'ayons incessamment occasion d'en-
able qui vous parait si plaisant a vous tendre discourir? Le guerrier, le robin,
1 autres hommes, et qui n'est pour nous 4 le financier, le philosophe, l'homme
qu'un abime de miseres. Ah! mon- d'Eglise, tous les etres divers cher-
sieur. si vous pouviez vous imaginer chent 6galement notre commerce....
2 ce que c'est que d'etre obligee de pp. 35-7. Quand je fais r6fiexion
3 caresser indifferemment un vieux aux epreuves cruelles et bizarres ot se
4 marchand, un avocat, un moine, un trouve reduite une fille du monde, je
gon(lolier, un abbe; d'etre exposee a ne saurais m'imaginer qu'il y ait de
5 toutes les insultes, a toutes les avanies; 2 condition plus rebutante et plus
d'6tre souvent reduite a emprunter 6 miserable. Je n'en exempte point
une jupe pour aller se le faire lever celle de forcat ni de courtisan. En
par un homme degoutant; d'etre effet, qu'y a-t-il de plus insupport-

1 Le Cosmopolite (1753), pp. 111-13.

2 Ibid. pp. 137-44. This passage also contains references to the Inquisition which Morize
ndicated as a point of contact with Candide.

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 J. H. BROOME 513

Candide, pp. 178-9 (cont.) Margot la Ravaudeuse (cont.)

volee par l'un de ce qu'on a gagne able que d'etre obligee d'essuyer les
avec l'autre; d'etre rangonnee par les 3 caprices du premier venu; que de
officiers de justice, et de n'avoir en sourire a un faquin que nous me-
perspective qu'une vieillesse affreuse, prisons dans 'Fame; de caresser l'objet
un h6pital et un fumier, vous con- de l'aversion universelle, de nous
cluriez que je suis une des plus mal- preter incessamment a des gofts aussi
6 heureuses creatures du monde.... singuliers que monstrueux, en un mot,
--Mais, dit Candide a Paquette, d'etre eternellement couverte du
vous aviez l'air si gai, si content, 7 masque de l'artifice et de la dissimu
quand je vous ai rencontree; vous tion; de rire, de chanter, de boire, de
7 chantiez, vous caressiez le theatin nous livrer a toute sorte d'exces et de
avec une complaisance naturelle; vous debauche, le plus souvent a contre-
m'avez paru aussi heureuse que vous coeur et avec une repugnance extreme ?
pretendez etre infortunee. 1 Que ceux qui se figurent notre vie un
- Ah! monsieur, repondit Paquette, tissu de plaisirs et d'agrements nous
c'est encore la une des miseres du connaissent mal....
8 metier. J'ai ete hier volee et battue Comme un vil interet est le mobil et
par un officier, il faut aujourd'hui la
quefin de notre prostitution, aussi les
je paraisse de bonne humeur pour 5 m6pris les plus accablants, les avanies,
plaire a un moine. les outrages en sont presque toujours
la juste salaire. I1 faut avoir ete catin
pour concevoir toutes les horreurs du
8 metier.

The subject-matter may have imposed its own pattern of expression on b

writers but, even so, the presence of eight such correspondences seems to
straining coincidence. Moreover, the complaint of Paquette is followed, in Candid
by the protest of Giroflee, which may be compared with a speech which Fouger
puts into the mouth of Pellegrin the librettist, one of a number of authe
characters appearing in the pages of his novel.
Candide, pp. 180-1 Margot la Ravaudeuse, pp. 136-7
Ma foi, monsieur, dit frere Giroflee, C'est
je a la cruaute de mes parents que je
voudrais que tous les Theatins fussentdois toute la misere et le ridicule dont je
au fond de la mer. J'ai ete tente cent suis accable....Les barbares me firent
fois de mettre le feu au couvent, et entrer de force dans l'ordre des Freres
d'aller me faire Turc. Mes parents me Servites. La repugnance que j'avais
forcerent a l'age de quinze ans d'endosser montree pour l'etat monacal s'accrut
cette detestable robe, pour laisser plus avec l'age; je gemis plusieurs annees
de fortune a un maudit frere aine, que sous le froc; j'y serais mort de desespoir
Dieu confonde! La jalousie, la discorde, si je n'avais trouve moyen de me
la rage habitent dans le couvent. I1 est seculariser.... J'ai subsiste dans les com-
vrai que j'ai preche quelques mauvais mencements du produit de mes messes
sermons qui m'ont valu un peu d'argent et de quelques sermons composes en
dont le prieur me vole la moitie; le reste poste, que je vendais aux ordres
me sert a entretenir des filles; mais quand mendiants.
je rentre le soir. ..je suis pres de me
casser la tete contre les murs du dortoir.

Here again, certain resemblances are apparent, and in addition, Giroflee's

'd'aller se faire Turc' is paralleled in Le Cosmopolite, where Fougeret reta
well-known anecdote of a certain Abbe Macarty and his friends, 'qui, decries d
Paris et poursuivis de leurs creanciers, etaient venus a Constantinople emb
la foi de Mahomet'.l

1 Le Cosmopolite (1753), pp. 11-12. Macarty, or MacCarthy, figures in Voltaire's letter t

Falkener, 22 February 1736, Best. 984.
33 M.L.R. LV

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514 Voltaire and Fougeret de Monbron
Although these analogies between Candide and Margot la Ravaudeuse do not
prove an 'influence', the Paquette-Margot parallel in particular is close enough to
be a genuine echo of Fougeret. But in default of other evidence, speculation can
only rest on the assumption that if Voltaire knew Le Cosmopolite, he must also
have known something of Margot, since the troubles which the novel brought upon
its author form the very lively climax of Fougeret's reminiscences.l
In addition to Le Cosmopolite and Margot, a third work of Fougeret may have
left some mark upon Candide. This is the anti-Parisian satire in two parts, entitled
La Capitale des Gaules, ou la Nouvelle Babylone, which is mentioned briefly by
Morize, but which merits more attention because it poses problems of dating, and
brings into the discussion another of Voltaire's works.
Barbier, and Morize after him, state that La Capitale des Gaules appeared in 1740
and was reprinted in 1759, a year before Fougeret's death. It now seems impossible
to trace a 1740 edition, and the absence of references to it in a searching police
interrogation which Fougeret underwent in 1748,2 coupled with the internal
evidence of the text, makes it almost certain that the work dates only from 1759.3
This means, of course, that it could not have affected Voltaire's original text.
La Capitale des Gaules is relevant, in fact, only to the twenty-second or 'Parisian'
chapter of Candide, which was revised in 1761, and could, therefore, owe something
to Fougeret's picture of life in the capital. The scope for such an influence is limited,
and Morize notes only three possible parallels, all with the first part of Fougeret's
satire-namely, the conduct of ecclesiastics, the account of a gaming session, and
the uncouthness of German visitors to Paris. Although these topics are, indeed,
well treated by Fougeret, they are commonplace, and the anti-Parisian feeling
which animates them can be traced in Voltaire's letters for some years previously.4
Yet it may be, as Professor Wade has recently observed,5 that Voltaire needed to
consult writers who were more in touch with Paris than he himself was at the time;
and a good reason for including Fougeret is the fact that his book provoked strong
reactions, among them, a refutation by Ange Goudar6 and harsh words from some
of Voltaire's own critics, such as Delaporte and Freron.7 It was to defend himself
that Fougeret wrote the second part of La Capitale des Gaules, and it is this sequel

La Cosmopolite (1753), pp. 158 ff.

2 Archives Nationales, Series Y 15792, papers of Miche de Rochebrune, Commissaire au
Chftelet. This is the most important MS. source relating to Fougeret's career, and authenticates
much of Le Cosmopolite.
3 Part ii of La Capitale des Gaules is a reply to criticisms published in 1759, while the text
of Part i is strongly influenced by Mirabeau's L'Ami des Hommes (1756) and Rousseau's Lettre
a d'Alembert (1758).
4 Voltaire sums up his anti-Parisian feelings in a letter to Mme du Deffand: 'Paris vous est
necessaire; et il me serait mortel.' (Best. 7327, Jan. 1759.) But writing to Mme Belot after
the publication of Fougeret's satire, he comes very close to its text. 'Je crois que Paris n'est
bon que pour les fermiers-generaux, les filles et les gros bonnets du parlement qui se donnent
le haut du pav6.' (Best. 8077, March 1760.) Cf. La Capitale des Gaules, Part i, p. 5. 'Cette ville
immense renferme dans son sein trois 6tats dominants: le corps des financiers, le corps innom-
brable des femmes galantes, et celui des intrigants. Ce sont eux qui mettent tout en mouvement,
qui donnent le ton partout, qui tiennent le haut bout....' This parallel might well be added to
Morize's observations on chapter xxII of Candide. The date of Voltaire's letter is significant also
for Le Pauvre Diable (see below).
5 I. O. Wade, 'A Manuscript of Voltaire's Candide', Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. ci (1957),
93-105.
6 Ange Goudar, L'Anti-Babylone, 'Londres' (1759).
7 Delaporte, L'Observateur Litteraire (1759), ii, 117-21; Fr6ron, L'Annee Litteraire (1759),
ITI, 157-61; and Journal Encyclopedique (1759), Iv, Part 3, pp. 120-3.

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 J. H. BROOME 515

which provides evidence much more compelling than anything i

parison of Candide and the first part of the satire.
Towards 1760 any work attacking Freron would stand a good chanc
Voltaire, and the obvious place to seek evidence of this is the other V
of that period. In fact, vague analogies do exist between Fougere
and La Vanite, Le Russe a Paris or the Etrennes aux Sots; but t
example is Le Pauvre Diable, of which a long section corresponds ver
passages of La Capitale des Gaules, Part II, where Fougeret descr
scene and then attacks the critics. The common topics include O
of exchange, the ramparts of Paris, beaux-esprits and the condemna
and his kind as being of less worth than a competent shoemaker. Th
may be seen if the following extracts from Fougeret are set beside v
Le Pauvre Diable, in the order given.
Pp. 57 ff. Les jeunes gens voient de beaux habits; ils veulent en avo
Tout les frappe; tout leur donne des desirs. Le faux sur toute chose est
le plus. Rien ne leur parait au-dessus du commerce d'une fille a la mo
d'Opera, ou d'une com6dienne. Mais, non licet omnibus, etc., ce sont des meubles
auxquels les millionnaires ont mis une si haute enchere qu'il n'est pas possible d'y
atteindre sans repandre l'or a pleines mains. Eh ! comment faire pour en avoir? II faut
recourir aux expedients. Onvatrouver un honnete usurier qui, sur de bonnes assurances,
sur un billet bien conditionne, prete le quart de la somme qu'on reconnait lui devoir...
[followed by four pages on 'lettres de change'].
Pp. 50-3. Montons sur le Rempart, nous y verrons au moins trois quarts de lieue
bordes de Palais.... Nous verrons ce vaste terrain orne de quantite de beaux bancs de
pierre, bien entretenu, bien net, bien uni, et regulierement arrose pour la commodite
et l'encouragement du vice....
C'est la que le Traitant, mollement etendu dans une elegante voiture, brave la miserc
du peuple, et m6dite, en digerant son or, de nouveaux moyens d'en amasser. A quelques
pas plus loin, sa Lais, eclatante comme un astre, fournit a tous les yeux des preuves
incontestables de ses malversations. Cette espece de char triomphal oh elle est assise,
cet attelage barbe et cette riche livree, sont autant de temoins qui deposent contre lui.
Pp. 94-5. [on 'filles a la mode'] Quiconque pensera comme lui [Cato] trouvera sans
doute bien etrange, que la fille d'un crocheteur. . .soit infiniment mieux logee et mieux
meublee qu'une dame du plus haut rang; que toute sa vaisselle et partie de sa batterie
de cuisine soient de la fagon de Germain, et qu'elle ne puisse manger son potage que
dans une ecuelle d'or.

Pp. 28 ff. [Caf6 society, cf. Voltaire on 'soi-disant beaux-esprits'] II regne dan
sortes d'assemblees un certain esprit d'independance et d'anarchie,... On y contr
des manieres brusques et grossieres. On s'y accoutume a disserter, chicaner et con
d6sagr6ablement sur les matieres les plus frivoles....De la naissent l'oisivete et le
Demon du bel-esprit....
Pp. 65 ff. [attack on Delaporte and Freron] J'ai dit, en parlant des intrus dans le
corps des litt6rateurs, qu'il leur serait plus avantageux d'etre de bons cordonniers que
de mauvais 6crivains. A cela, M. 1'Abbe replique finement: qu'il nous chausse donc, et
nous laisse ecrire.... M. Freron, plus indulgent que son ancien collegue, s'est contente
de me citer.... Voyons s'il ne se serait pas trompe, etc.

Close scrutiny of the texts reveals fifteen correspondences of ideas and expression,
which can hardly be thought fortuitous in works so close in date; but, rather
curiously, it is the dates which complicate the question of influence. The second
part of La Capitale des Gaules appeared at the end of 1759,1 while Voltaire's poem
See Grimm, Corr. Littiraire, ed. Tourneux, iv, 180, Jan. 1760.
33-2

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 516 Voltaire and Fougeret de Monbron
has 1758 on the original title-page. Thus, it might appear that Fougeret follow
Voltaire-but for the fact that Voltaire's editors now agree that the true date
Le Pauvre Diable is 1760. If this is so, it is tolerably certain that Voltaire's sources
include La Capitale des Gaules.
When all the evidence is weighed, there can be no real doubt that Voltair
consulted Fougeret's account of an atmosphere in which the latter was actual
living at the time. Voltaire's letters, in particular, confirm that Le Pauvre Dia
was not circulating until the summer of 1760, and that Fougeret could not ha
known it.1 One reason for the false date is that Voltaire used the name of the
defunct Vade, but he may also have been covering himself against charges
plagiarism. Whatever the explanation, the evidence from Le Pauvre Diable strongly
supports Morize's theories on Candide, and especially on the revision of chapter xx
Consideration of Fougeret's writings would be incomplete without mention
the Preservatif contre l'Anglomanie, published a year before Candide and reprinte
in 1762 under the misleading title of L'Anti-Anglais. It begins with a vigorous and
amusing diatribe against Voltaire, considered as a chef de secte, and criticizes t
Lettres Philosophiques, especially on the subject of English literature. Echoes of it
occur in contemporary writings-in Chevrier, for example2-and it achieved som
popularity in the war-like atmosphere of the day. Since it was attacked by th
Journal Encyclopedique,3 it is reasonable to suppose that Voltaire knew of i
Indeed, a few years later, he complains, in the Gazette Litte'raire,4 of the fashion fo
declaiming against Anglomania; and although this protest of 1764 can hardly b
connected specifically with the pamphlet, it is worth noting that while defending
England, Voltaire admits the absurdities of Anglomania in words which recall the
more picturesque sarcasms of Fougeret, as in this example.
Gazette Litteraire, 14 Nov. 1764. The Preservatif, pp. 18-19, attacking those
critics of Anglomania. S'ils veulent seen to: afficher a l'imitation des Anglais
parler de la fureur de travestir en modes l'indecence et la malproprete, et se
ridicules quelques usages utiles, de trans- montrer effrontement dans les lieux les
former un deshabille commode en un plus respectables, empaquetes d'une
vetement malpropre, de saisir jusqu'a grande vilaine casaque, crottes jusqu'aux
des jeux nationaux pour y mettre des epaules, les cheveux retrousses avec un
grimaces a la place de la gravite, ils peigne sous le chapeau et un couteau de
pourraient avoir raison. cuisine colle sur la cuisse.

Voltaire may have had Fougeret in mind here, and may have
satirical verve, even when directed against himself; but this does n
knowledge of the Preservatif when it first appeared. Nor does Candi
on the point, except, possibly, the remarks of the disillusion
apropos of English books:
Je serais content de'la liberte qui inspire les genies anglais, si la passion e
ne corrompaient pas tout ce que cette precieuse libertr a d'estimable.5

These sentiments, though commonplpce, agree with Fougeret's

liberty in the following gloomy appraisal of the parliamentary sys

1 See Voltaire, (Euvres, ed. Moland, x, 99; and Voltaire's letters to Saurin, d'Alembert,
Thieriot, Mme de Deffand, Helvetius and Mme d'Epinay (Best. 8153, 8223, 8234, 8245, 8258,
8294, 8312, 8318, 8333 and 8334).
2 Chevrier, (Euvres (1774), I, 329 (Portraits des Nations de l'Europe).
3 Journal Encyclopedique (April 1758), III, Part i, pp. 71-3.
4 Moland, xxv, 219-20. 5 Candide, ed. Morize, p. 192.

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 J. H. BROOME 517

Si l'on considere les troubles qui regnent etemellement dans les deux Chambres, la
brigue, la perfidie envers ceux qui les ont elus, les vues d'interet et d'agrandissement des
uns et des autres, le partage, en un mot, de ce fameux Senat vendu a la cour ou a la
republique par des motifs egalement injustes, toujours couverts du vernis de l'equite;
quelle idee, je le demande aux Anglais meme, doit-on se former de leur bonheur '1
The comparison is interesting not because it shows a clear textual parallel, but
because it supplements the analogies already noted between Pococurante's opinions
and Le Cosmopolite.
On the whole, there is little in Voltaire's formal writings to suggest familiarity
with the Preservatif. If he knew it, he chose to ignore the personal satire, and the
most that could be claimed is that the work may have fortified the feelings of
disillusionment towards England, which appear more frequently in Voltaire's
correspondence after 1757. At times, indeed, his moods are not far from Anglo-
phobia, and it is hardly surprising that his letters should then seem to echo the
Preservatif, as in this example:
To Mme du Bocage, 2 Feb. 1759. Preservatif. English thought and
Best. 7361. I1 me parait que les graces manners. p. 25. Je veux qu'ils soient les
et le bon gout sont bannis de France, et premiers speculateurs du monde - m
ont cede la place a la m6taphysique que revient-il A la societe de leurs doctes
embrouillee, A la politique des cerveaux et profondes speculations? Les ouvrages
creux, & des discussions enormes sur les les plus methodiquement obscurs, les
finances, sur le commerce, sur la popula- systemes les plus frivoles et les reves les
tion, qui ne mettront jamais dans l'Etat plus extravagants qu'il soit possible
ni un ecu ni un homme de plus. Le genie d'imaginer. p. 57. Le seul moyen de se
franCais est perdu; il veut devenir derober A leurs avanies, c'est de prendre,
anglais, hollandais et allemand. Nous s'il se peut, avec leur habit, leur gros-
sommes des singes qui avons renonce A sierete6... J'avoue que la delicatesse et
nos jolies gambades pour imiter mal les le savoir-vivre repugnent a une pareille
bceufs et les ours.... On croit 8tre solide, contrainte; mais necessite n'a pas de loi.
on n'est que lourd et lourdement chi- I1 faut hurler avec les loups, ou si la
m6rique. comparison est meilleure, avec les ours.
These resemblances are, perhaps, current cliches, but the
agreement and, on Voltaire's part, a change of heart which m
did not take up the challenge of the Preservatif. The same
example from a letter of 1760 to the Englishman Keate, w
be set against Fougeret's text.
To G. Keate, 16 Jan. 1760. Best. 7983. Preservatif, p. 54. Nous avons un
You are not, dear Sir, like most of yr proverbe trivial qui dit qu'il n'y a plus
countrymen, who forget their friendships d'amis quand la riviere est passee. Cette
contracted in terra, so soon as they are fa?on de parler ne saurait mieux s'ap-
pent up in their island. You remember pliquer qu'aux Anglais. Lorsque, contre
me. I am indeed yr friend, since you are leur coutume, ils ont contracte ',uelques
a man without prejudices, a man of every liaisons dans les pays etrang ,rs, elles
country. sont oubliees pour toujours ce's qu'ils
ont repasse le detroit de Calais.
de ce petit trajet font sur eux
changement que produisaient c
fleuve Lethe.

The juxtaposition in this letter of a point from the Preservatif and the form
which Le Cosmopolite is based may be coincidence, but when added to o
examples and the note to Tronchin concerning La Henriade Travestie, it
1 Prservatif (1757), pp. 43-4.

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518 Voltaire and Fougeret de Monbron
further doubts whether the later works of Fougeret, the professed 'man without
prejudices and man of every country', could have escaped Voltaire's attention.
It remains to sum up the effect of these observations upon the central problem
of Candide and Le Cosmopolite, as it was raised by Andre Morize.
First, the only certainty is that Voltaire read La Henriade Travestie, and did not,
perhaps, entirely disapprove. For the rest, we are still dependent upon evidence
from textual comparisons; but subject to the appropriate reservations, this suggests
that Voltaire may have been struck by the hard cynicism of Margot la Ravaudeuse;
that he very probably knew the Preservatif contre l'Anglomanie, and that he
certainly knew and drew upon La Capitale des Gaules. As for Le Cosmopolite itself,
Morize's scheme of analogies, though open to criticism, can also be extended
slightly; and one may agree that the 'philosophy' of this atrabilious cosmopolitan
Fougeret de Monbron, or something very like it, seems to pervade certain elements
of C(uldide, such as the personality of Pococurante and the 'detestables principes'
of Martin the Manichee. Whether these points justify a verdict of 'influence', must
remain a matter of argument; but in this argument we might well listen to the
voice of Fougeret himself.
The introduction to the Morize edition notes the exact correspondence between
Martin's final conviction that 'on est egalement mal partout', and the opening of
Le Cosmopolite which sets the tone of the whole work in the following words:
L'univers est une espece de livre dont on n'a lu que la premiere page quand on n'a vu
que son pays. J'en ai feuillete un assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouvees presque
egalement mauvaises.
What does not seem to have been pointed out, is that Fougeret was quick to seize
upon this undeniable resemblance, in a paragraph of La Capitale des Gaules, Part in,
the work which has been related to Le Pauvre Diable as well as to Candide. The
passage is part of the reply to Delaporte's criticisms of the first part of the satire.
II [Delaporte] dit que je suis de ces gens qui prennent tout en mauvaise part, et voient
tout avec de mauvais yeux. Qu'y faire? C'est le defaut ordinaire de ceux qui con-
naissent le monde. Monsieur l'Abbe De La Porte, qui ne l'a point pratique autant que
Martin et moi, croit comme le bon philosophe Pangloss que tout est an mieux dans cette
capitale du meilleur des mondes possibles.1
Exactly what is implied by this 'Martin et moi'2 Is it simply a topical jest? Or is
Fougeret's gratuitous allusion to Candide an ironical hint to the public that on this
occasion the author of La Henriade had followed the line of the author of La
Henriade Travestie?
If Fougeret believed that Voltaire was in his debt, and that the figure of Martin
in particular was inspired partly by his own brand of sardonic humour, there is a
reasonable chance that he was right. This could explain, moreover, why Voltaire,
after seeing La Henriade burlesqued, subsequently let pass repeated ridicule and
criticism from Fougeret. This uncharacteristic reserve can be accounted for in only
one of three ways. Either Voltaire was unaware of these pin-pricks from a minor
writer; or he dismissed them contemptuously; or he was sufficiently impressed by
Fougeret's irreverent and barbed humour to make some use of his work-and say
nothing when he himself was the target. The first explanation is ruled out, and the
second is seriously weakened by the evidence of the texts. The third remains the
most probable. . J. H. BROOME
KEELE
1 La Capitale des Gaules, Part ii, p. 8.

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