Cafe Corner - Voltaire and 50 Cups of Coffee!

Legend has it that the great French writer François-Marie Arouet, otherwise known by his nom de plume as Voltaire, was said to have once drunk 50 cups of coffee in a single day! Incroyable! Were such a feat true in modern history then the act indeed would have rapidly accumulated instant legendary status. B.1694 d.1778, Voltaire is perhaps one of the most colorful figures in French if not world literary history. Renown for command of language at an early age the young Voltaire already developed a brilliant and witty career at such an important epoch in the history of France and Europe. His career would span the age when men's minds were just about to begin to question everything around them. With the birth of scientific inquiry and reasoning all order of knowledge was now under intense revision and scrutiny. This was the Age of Enlightenment that preceded the momentous and turbulent French revolution that unfettered men's minds and led to the very execution of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinete and the once unshakeable concept of the Divine Rights of Kings.   Indeed Voltaire reached such an incredible level of notoriety in this age with a huge volume of satirical attacks upon French law and order and society totaling as much as 20,000 letters, more than 2,000 books and pamphlets of poetry, essays and plays. With a precocious penchant for trouble making and outspoken advocacy the young plume quickly found himself in confrontations with the established order of society.

In 1726 Voltaire was roundly insulted by the young French nobleman Chevalier de Rohan and consequently beaten by his servants. Without candor Voltaire challenged the young nobleman to a duel and soon found himself subject to prosecution as a mischief-maker by the powerful nobleman. Faced with the possibility of being sent to the

Bastille, Voltaire wittily challenged the courts that he should be exiled to the hated England as an alternative punishment! Outsmarted and outmaneuvered by the plume the judges keenly agreed what possible worse punishment could befall a Frenchman! He was then happily carted off to be disposed on English soil where Voltaire at once came face to face with the idea of English constitutional monarchy, and the refreshing freedom of speech and pursuit of religion, which then inspired his later writings to press for reform back home in his native France where absolute and unquestionable monarchy was the reign of the day. Inspired by the open intellectualism of English writers, the culture of London coffee houses and an ear for all sentiments Voltaire truly discovered the principles of philosophy that would shape his career in later life.

In 1729, after three years of study of the works of Sir Isaac Newton and John Locke, Voltaire returned to Paris. Immediately Voltaire set out to publish his support for the system of British government and politics, its culture of freedom and toleration, its literature and religion in a collection entitled "Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais". For the established order of l'ancien regime this was nothing short of an audacious and overt slap in the face that could not be condoned without public controversy in France. Pilloried and pursued by the French establishment Voltaire was again forced to leave Paris once again in 1734 when the French public was manipulated into acts of book burning and scapegoating.   

From 1734 until 1749 Voltaire retired to north east France and found a 15 year friendship with the intellectually renown Marquise Émilie du Châtelet. it was here during this sojourn that the bulk of his writings and letters were composed. In spite of growing radicalism where he even renounced religion, and called for the separation of the church and state to be based upon the English model, he was still accepted into the important Academie Francaise in 1746. With the death of his friend and lover, the death of the Marquise Émilie du Châtelet in 1749, Voltaire moved to Germany but in 1753 had to flee after a literary attack upon the president of the Berlin  Academy of Science once again enraged and led to book burning and a pursuit for his arrest as he fled back to Paris! But Louis XV had already banned Voltaire from entering Paris and branded him a trouble maker. Thus Voltaire retired to a secluded French region near Switzerland where he spent the last 20 years of his life writing the great work Candide ou l'Optimisme. Voltaire finally returned to Paris in 1778, at the age of 83. However, with all the excitement of his final triumphant return to a now more liberal and welcome populace, the journey became his last and indeed the great plume died on 30 May 1778 in Paris. In true witty fashion, Voltaire's last words are said to have been "For God's sake, let me die in peace"!

Today Voltaire is known as one of the four giants of 18th century European literature who manged to shape the birth of the monumental American and French revolutions. Together with the other literary giants of his time, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jaques Rousseau, the challenge was clearly laid down in defiance of the religious and political dogma of the time.

Let it not be said that coffee could inspire a greater literary genius as the life of François-Marie Arouet will always be reflected in modern constitutional monarchy and European politics even to this day. 

Reflections upon coffee and literary genius - Pieter Bergli, cafe enthusiast and narrator.

My Art Musings