Candide; or, The Optimist, XXVI - OF A SUPPER WHICH CANDIDE AND MARTIN TOOK WITH SIX STRANGERS, AND WHO THEY WERE.[34] quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Who grabs Candide by the arm at the beginning of Chapter XXVI?

   • Martin
   • Cunegonde
   • Correct answer: Cacambo
   • Pangloss

   Cacambo, described as a man "whose complexion was as black as soot," suddenly reappears and seizes Candide's arm, telling him to prepare for departure.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Where does Cacambo say Cunegonde is located?

   • Venice
   • Correct answer: Constantinople
   • Eldorado
   • Paris

   Cacambo tells Candide, "Cunegonde is not here... she is at Constantinople," dashing Candide's hope of finding her in Venice.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What is Cacambo's current status when he reappears?

   • A wealthy merchant
   • Correct answer: A slave
   • A ship captain
   • A government official

   Cacambo tells Candide, "I am a slave, my master awaits me, I must serve him at table," revealing his dramatic reversal of fortune.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What event is taking place in Venice during this chapter?

   • A royal coronation
   • Correct answer: The Carnival
   • A peace treaty signing
   • A trade fair

   The supper takes place during Venice's Carnival, a festival of masks and role reversal that symbolically mirrors the chapter's themes of disguised identity and inverted social rank.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How do the servants address the six strangers at the table?

   • "Sir" and "Your Honor"
   • Correct answer: "Sire" and "Your Majesty"
   • "My Lord" and "Your Grace"
   • "Your Excellency" and "Your Eminence"

   Each servant addresses his master as "Sire" or "Your Majesty," gradually revealing that all six strangers are kings.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What do Candide and Martin initially think the servants' royal addresses are?

   • A genuine display of respect
   • Correct answer: A masquerade of the Carnival
   • A foreign custom
   • An insult in disguise

   The text states: "Candide and Martin did not doubt that this was a masquerade of the Carnival," assuming it was a festive joke.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Which king was "dethroned in my cradle"?

   • Ahmed III
   • Correct answer: Ivan VI
   • Charles Edward
   • Theodore of Corsica

   Ivan VI, Emperor of Russia, says he "was dethroned in my cradle" and raised in prison along with his confined parents.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What distinguishes the sixth servant's message from the other five?

   • He announces a ship is ready
   • Correct answer: He warns they may both be jailed for debt
   • He delivers a letter from a king
   • He refuses to serve any longer

   The sixth servant bluntly says, "they will no longer give credit to your Majesty nor to me, and we may perhaps both of us be put in jail this very night."

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9. 9

   Question 9. Who is the most impoverished of the six kings?

   • Ahmed III
   • Augustus III
   • Stanislaw Leszczynski
   • Correct answer: Theodore of Corsica

   Theodore says he "coined money, and now am not worth a farthing" and fears imprisonment. The other five kings give him money out of compassion.

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10. 10

    Question 10. How much do each of the five kings give to Theodore?

    • Ten sequins
    • Correct answer: Twenty sequins
    • Fifty sequins
    • One hundred sequins

    "Each of them gave twenty sequins to King Theodore to buy him clothes and linen."

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does Candide give King Theodore?

    • A purse of gold coins
    • Correct answer: A diamond worth two thousand sequins
    • His Eldorado treasure chest
    • A letter of credit from a Venetian bank

    Candide gives Theodore "a diamond worth two thousand sequins," roughly a hundred times what any individual king contributed.

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12. 12

    Question 12. Which king claims to have "done more good" in his new country than previous rulers of Poland?

    • Ahmed III
    • Augustus III
    • Correct answer: Stanislaw Leszczynski
    • Charles Edward

    The fifth king (Stanislaw) says Providence gave him another country where he "done more good than all the Sarmatian kings were ever capable of doing on the banks of the Vistula."

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13. 13

    Question 13. How many Kings of Poland are among the six strangers?

    • One
    • Correct answer: Two
    • Three
    • None

    Both the fourth stranger (Augustus III) and the fifth stranger (Stanislaw Leszczynski) identify themselves as Kings of Poland.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What happens at the very end of the chapter?

    • Candide and Martin leave immediately for Constantinople
    • Correct answer: Four more dispossessed Serene Highnesses arrive at the inn
    • The six kings challenge Candide to a game of cards
    • Cacambo reveals the location of Eldorado

    "Just as they rose from table, in came four Serene Highnesses, who had also been stripped of their territories by the fortune of war," extending the joke to the point of absurdity.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What primary theme does the six kings scene illustrate?

    • The superiority of democratic government
    • Correct answer: The instability of earthly power and fortune
    • The importance of religious faith
    • The virtue of military conquest

    Six monarchs stripped of their thrones converge at one table, demonstrating that even the most powerful figures are subject to the whims of fate—undermining Pangloss's optimistic philosophy.

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