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Voltaire's Candide and Gracián's El Criticón

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Dorothy M. McGhee
Dorothy M. McGhee*
Affiliation:
Hamline University
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Extract

Perusal of some Voltairian conte material not long ago elicited two cursory observations which have since seemed to be confirmed by more detailed reading. They concern the evident interest which the seventeenth-century Spanish moralist, Gracián, appears to have evoked in Voltaire. The observations, as first made, were these: that in a list of Voltaire's library, works of Gracián stand out prominently, in both Spanish and French; that El Criticón, a moralistic tale of a traveling naïf and his realist-tutor, presents not only an interesting link in the adventure genre, but seemingly a hint of the Candide-Martin relationship of the conte philosophique} The suggestion of a connection, conscious or not, between El Criticón and Candide was, on first observation, based upon superficial comparison. The present brief inquiry will attempt to confirm the point that a reasonably close connection does exist—one which receives attention neither in editions of the contes nor in other critical works on the period.

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Research Article
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PMLA , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , September 1937, pp. 778 - 784
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Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1937

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References

1 Editions used: El Crilicón, Compañiá Ibero-Americana de Publicaciones, Vol. lxvi (Madrid: Fernando Fe, s.f.); El Criticón, por Lorenzo Gracián, ed. transcrita y rev. por Julio Cejador (Madrid: Renacimiento, 1913–14);—Candide, André Morize, édition critique, Textes Français Modernes, no. 485 (Paris: Hachette, 1913).

2 See note 7.

3 Characteristics of Gracián which would make him of possible interest to Voltaire, are evident in the accounts by Ludwig Pfandl, Historia de la literatura nacional española en la edad de oro, traducción del alemán, por el dr. Jorge Rubio Balaguer (Barcelona, 1933), and Miguel Romera-Navarro, Historia de la literatura espanola (Boston and New York: Heath, 1928).

3a In the author's Voltairian Narrative Devices (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1933), p. 21.

4 Candide, pp. xlvii, lxii.

5 See note 7.

6 See notes 21 and 23.

7 The numbers are not available.

8 Miguel Cervantes, Prólogo de las obras de Miguel Cervantes (pot-pourri, tome xxxi); Primera Parte del ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, en Brucelas, 1617; Histoire de l'admirable Don Quichotte de la Manche, nouv. éd. (Lyon, 1723), Vols. i, ii, iii, v, vi, Havens and Torrey, “Voltaire's Books: a Selected List,” in MP, Vol. xxvii, 1–22. Voltairian mention of Cervantes, Moland. xii, 151; xxvii, 420.

9 Opinions on Lope de Vega: Dominated by his century, Moland, xxiv, 216; Compared to Shakespeare, Ibid., vii, 484 ff.; A passage translated into French verse, Ibid., xvii, 397; Infused pomp and nobility into the Spanish language, Ibid., xxiii, 210; A mixture of grandeur and extravagance, Ibid., xxx, 364.

10 Manuscript catalogue, listed thus: 4 vols. Addison's Works, Havens and Torrey, “Voltaire's Books: a Selected List,” in MP, xxvii, 1–22. 5 Lord Bolingbroke's Works, Ibid., 5. 6 Swift's Works, Miscellanies (1738), Ibid., 18. 1 Tale of a Tub, MS Catalogue, fol. 53 vo., Ibid., 18.

11 Gustave Desnoiresterres, Voltaire et la Société Française au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1871–76), viii, 418; George R. Havens, Voltaire's Marginalia on the Pages of Rousseau (Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University, 1933), Intro.

12 Dates as given in notel.

13 Examples of Spanish satire of the seventeenth century include Cervantes, Novelas Ejemplares, 1613; Quevedo, El Buscón, 1606–07; in French eighteenth century field, the names of Voisenon, Sabatier de Castres, Sébastian Mercier, Jullien, Diderot.—The Spanish case, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in satire, is succinctly expressed in Pfandl, op. cit., p. 47: “Finalmente, las obras de Baltasar Gracián son los últimos frutos madurados en la introspección de los Exercitia ignacianos, si bien en ellas el recogimiento místico casi se desvanece y el ascético desengaño del siglo xvi se transforma en el pesimista desengaño del siglo xvii.

14 Gracian was admonished (1655) by the Provincial of Jesuits to desist from his writing. See Aubrey Bell, Baltasar Gracian (Oxford Univ. Press, 1921), pp. 2–3; Arturo Farinelli, Baltasar Gracián, Edición Serra (Madrid, 1900), p. 211; Cejador ed. of El Criticón, Nota.

15 See note 45 for numerous citations on War. Saint-Albin Berville, Notice sur Voltaire (Caen: Hardel, 1858), pp. 2–3.

16 El Criticón, iii, chapter 6, passim; also, iii, 126. Farinelli, op. cit., 477. On Voltaire's attitude, Van Tieghem (Philippe), Voltaire: Contes, xx; E. G. Peignot, Recherches sur les Ouvrages de Voltaire (Paris, 1817), pp. 64–65. Gracián's statement of purpose, El Criticón, i, A Quién Leyere.

17 Joseph Texte, L'Espagne et la Critique Française au XVIII e Siècle, in Revue des Cours et Conférences, février, 1896, pp. 606, 612; Farinelli, op. cit., 338, 342; Morel-Fatio, Etudes sur l'Espagne (L'Espagne en France), 1ère série, 2e éd. (1895), pp.41-42, 61, 71.

18 Moland, xii, 351; Morel-Fatio, op. cit., 69.—Voltaire's personal note on travel may be regarded as wit for the moment. See Moland, i, 390–391.

19 Morel-Fatio, op. cit., 69. See notes 8 and 9. Quevedo's Sueños appear in the Voltairian library, MS catalogue, fol. 45 vo.

20 Farinelli, op. cit., 338.

21 Moland, xxxiii (1880), Correspondance, 1711–35, p. 155.

22 See note 7.

23 Moland, xlv (1881), Correspondance, 1767–68, p. 345.

24 See note 9.

25 See notes 33, 34, 35, 36.

26 Baltasar Gracián, Pages Caractéristiques, précédées d'une étude critique par André Rouveyre (Paris: Mercure de France, 1925), p. 202.

27 El Criticón, i, 115—“el otro yo.” Voltaire, Le Blanc et le Noir, the duality of Man.

28 Pages Caractéristiques (Rouveyre), 108, 113.

29 El Criticón, i, 145, 170 et passim. Candide, especially chapters 22, 26.

30 Gracián expresses it, i, Prólogo, 1 (El Criticón). This the typical formula all through Voltaire. Pages Caractéristiques, 112.

31 On gradual progress for the “inexperto”—El Criticón, i, Prólogo, 3; i, 62, 64; ii, 21; iii, 83.

32 El Criticón, i, 59–60, 149, 158; ii, 95; iii, 83. Candide, the conclusion. See note 40.

33 El Criticón, i, Prólogo, 2; Morize, Candide, 146.

34 Ibid., i, 152.

35 Ibid., i, 55. Heroes must also seek action, i, 74.

36 Ibid., I, 95.

37 Morize, Candide, Introduction, xlvii, Ixii.

38 El Criticón, especially ii and ii. Candide persists in spite of Martin, chapter xix to the end. Critilo's counsel recalls Le Blanc et le Noir, El Criticón, i, 109, 153, 181.

39 Critilo, “pero”: El Criticón, ii, 148, iii, 68, 246–247. Candide, “mais”: and “et”—passim. Mentioned in McGhee, op. cit., pp. 167–168.

40 El Criticón, i, 122.

41 Morize, Candide, 223.

42 Ibid.

43 El Criticón, i, 108; Candide, 223.—Specific instances for Critilo and Andrenio, El Criticón, I, 72; ii, 99, 108, 199; iii, 70, 188, 197, 198, 203, 206, 208.

44 El Criticón, i, 119, 133, 208.

45 On War: El Criticón, i, 57, 83, 84; ii, 60–67, 139, 152, 153; iii, 132, 219. Candide, chapters iii, viii. Frequency of the subject also in Le Monde comme il va and Zadig.

46 El Criticón, i, 51, 179. Voltaire's Jeannot et Colin is built about this idea.—Other subjects treated in common are: gold dictating justice, Criticón, iii, 98, 101; vicious circle of favoritism, Criticón, ii, 221, Candide and Zadig, passim; law and justice, Criticón, I, 83; ii, 165, 213; slander, Ibid., i, 96; the aggressiveness of ignorance, Ibid., i, 81; ii, 101; cf. Voltaire's “conte,” Les Aveugles Juges des Couleurs.

47 El Criticón, i, 80. Discouragements in Candide, Morize, 21, 42, 212, 213 (beginning doubt); Ibid., 214, 215 (disillusionment).

48 Voltaire, Le Monde comme il va, conclusion. El Criticón, ii, 206, public opinion keeps balance; i, 89, 92, world is passable.

49 For discussions on the style of Gracián, Pfandl, op. cit., 603–614. Prologue to El Criticón (Rafael Seco), i, Prólogo, 8; Pages Caractéristiques (Rouveyre), 37; Farinelli, op. cit., 503–504. For Voltaire, especially Gustave Lanson, L'Art de la Prose (Paris: Librairie des Annales, 1908), and Ferdinand Brunetière, Etudes Critiques (Paris, 1891), pp. 207–253.—Instances of devices that appear frequently in Gracián and Voltaire are: Plays on words—gusto-gasto, Criticón, i, 161; famoso, fumoso, Ibid., ii, 100; perdido, perdiendo, Ibid., ii, 208. Turns, Criticón, ii, 140; iii, 19,28,256. Single word paragraphs ojos ii, 17; el i, 91. Series of aphorisms—ii, 185.—Criticism on Gracián, says Sr. Allué Salvador, has undergone three stages, indifference, hostility, comprehension, Baltasar Gracián, Escritor Aragonés

del Siglo xvii (Zaragoza, 1922, 1926), p. 177. Certain it is that the last two apply to Voltairian criticism as well.—The immediate effect of the works of these two presented similarities: See, for Gracián, Pfandl, op. cit., 603–614; Gracián, Tratados, Prólogo, 18 (edition, Madrid, Casa editorial Calleja, 1918); Farinelli, op. cit., 68; (Gracián) Pages Caractéristiques, 7; Gracián Escritor Aragonés, passim.; A. Coster, “Baltasar Gracián,” in Revue Hispanique, xxix, 347–426; also Romera-Navarro articles, passim, Ibid.—For Voltaire, the case is stated succinctly in: François Harel, Discours sur Voltaire (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1844), pp. 3, 6, 7, 33; Eugène la Poudroie, Voltaire und seine Zeit (Berlin und Leipzig: Seemann, 1910), pp. 64–65: “Praktisch ist seine Philosophie, sie zielt auf materielle Wirksamkeit ab, im Grunde ist sie nicht viel mehr als die Propaganda des gesunden Menschenverstandes . . . Kleine, dünne Bände nehmen seine werberden Gedanken auf, heute würde man sagen: ”aktuelle“ Broschüren, die leicht und amusant zu lesen sind und ihre Angriffe immer auf einen kleinen, empfindlicher Punkt konzentrieren.”