Portsmouth Harbour
Portsmouth Harbour is the natural harbour of Portsmouth on England’s south coast, base of the Royal Navy. In Candide it is where Candide watches an admiral shot on his own ship ‘to encourage the others’.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candide | Voltaire | turning point | Candide watches an admiral shot on a warship ‘to encourage the others’ and refuses to set foot in England |
Candide — Voltaire (1759)
Source: Candide · Original · Readwise highlight
Talking thus they arrived at Portsmouth.
- Role: turning point
- In the book: Sailing from Dieppe, Candide and Martin arrive as crowds watch a blindfolded man kneeling on a man-of-war in the harbour; four soldiers shoot him. Candide is told he was an admiral killed for not getting close enough to a French admiral, because ‘it is found good, from time to time, to kill one Admiral to encourage the others’. Shocked, he will not land and pays the Dutch skipper to take him straight to Venice.
- Why it matters: A brief scene with a lasting line, aimed at a real execution, that of Admiral Byng in 1757. Candide never goes ashore.