Cuckoldage
-Dates from 1715
So if the dating by the Penguin authors and commentators is correct, Voltaire was roughly 21 years old when he wrote this really short fiction. The commentators note that it shows the authors gift for parody even when he was young. In this work Voltaire turns a fairly conventional story about the gods into something very unconventional. Its sacrilegious nature demonstrates what the commentators state as a bit of a shot across the brow towards Christianity, "Already, if only by implication, Christian values are dismissed in favour of a pagan world of free love" (ix)
The Literary Stuffs I like:
When talking about Vulcan (the blacksmith of the gods), Voltaire pens the line, "He filled the house with his din; cares and sorrows racked his spirit, jealous suspicions hammered at his brain" (Voltaire, 3).
The jealous of Vulcan drove his brain to give birth to Cuckoldage. Cuckoldage then goes about seducing married men's wives. As such, men must give devotion to this god: "whether from necessity or prudence, we must offer him our devotions, our incense and our candles. Married or unmarried, whether one acts or lives in fear, one must ever court his favors" (Voltaire, 4).
Voltaire expresses his love for Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. But, he decries that love now that she has been enslaved by a contract (God's covenant to Noah). Prior to that enslavement he only invoked the god of love. But now, because contracts lock up everything, Hymen is in charge of love. (Hymen presided over weddings). Now, Voltaire must invoke Cuckoldage "because he is the only god in whom I can believe" (Voltaire, 4).
That's some pretty dark humor on marriage and faithfulness.
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