Farscape Rewatch: Green Eyed Monster (3.08)

Wiki summary: Talyn gets swallowed by a Budong, and it is up to Stark to save them. Crichton, already distrustful of Crais, believes he and Aeryn are having an affair while Talyn himself soon shows his hatred of the human.

( This is not a moon )

The other episodes

When Casanova met Voltaire

Trying to get to meet Voltaire was a must for European travellers not just in his old age, but pretty much since his thirties. It was easier once he had settled down in exile near Geneva, though. If the would be visitor in question was a young unknown like James Boswell, you got encounters such as this one; if, on the other hand, the other party was an 18th century superstar himself, well, then you get volume 15th of Casanova's memoirs. Background the first: Casanova's encounter with Voltaire takes place in 1760 (though he gets Voltaire's age wrong); at this point, Casanova is moderately famous for having managed to escape the The Leads, the notorious Venetian state prison, but he's by no means as universally known as he is today, as his memoirs have not yet been written. Some might even know him as a con man of the Saint Germain and Cagliostro type from his adventures in France. He's decades younger than Voltaire, true, but hitting middle age himself, and about to feel it soon. Voltaire, on the other hand, has been the most famous (French) writer of the age for good while, despite competition; his claim to literary fame is unquestioned, nor is his ability to piss off governments and authorities all over Europe (which is why he has ended up in Switzerland). Background the second: Also worth keeping in mind: by the time old Casanova writes his memoirs, stuck in a dead-end job as a librarian in Bohemia, Voltaire has died decades ago (being controversial even in death, due to the church's unwillingness to bury him in Paris), and the French Revolution has happened, irrevocably changing the world they had both known. For which Voltaire got, depending from your pov, some credit/blame.

On to the first encounter, which has Voltaire doing that thing people still do today, which is meeting someone from a place and automatically assuming they must know someone else from the same place. In other words, Voltaire is playing Six Degrees of Algarotti. To understand Casanova's attitude, bear in mind that while Casanova is, uncontestedly, the most famous 18th Century Venetian now, back then he wasn't; it was none other than, you guessed it, Francesco Algarotti.

( So did Casanova know Algarotti, and if so, how well did he know him? )

( Which is when a discussion of Italian literature becomes mutual show-off in declaiming by heart: Voltaire vs Casanova, it's on! )

(This gets Casanova an invitation to stay for three days chez Voltaire. Sidenote re: Ariosto: given Voltaire uses a simile from Orlando Furioso, from which they've just quoted, in his memoirs when talking about his hate/love relationship with Frederick the Great - who gets called "my Frederick-Alcina", casting Friedrich as the sorceress bewitching men into staying at her palace, I'm completely willing to believe he warmed up to Ariosto. As for everyone's tears, that was the custom of the day. 18th Century: when everyone, especially the men, cried a lot. Bless.)

( Voltaire advises budding author Casanova on booksellers )

(Sidenote:Voltaire was indeed one of the few writers with independent wealth. Which he had not inherited. As a young man, he'd decided that while money without talent was stupid, talent without money was a drag, and thus contrived by various deals, some of which shady, some legal, to make himself a fortune. More about where his income came from - indeed not from his writings - here.)

Casanova finds the time in between Voltaire audiences to have an adventure with three ladies, because of course he does. Then he tries his charm on Madame Denis, about whom he has a far more positive impression than your average 18th century memoir writer:

( Wherein we learn how Madame Denis feels about Frederick the Great and that Voltaire doesn't like losing at backgammon )

Casanova then has more adventures with the three ladies, and proceeds to spend the last of his three days with Voltaire. Alas, though, first they disagree about a book Casanova lent Voltaire, and then they argue politics. Specifically, whether or not humanity is ready for liberty, and what liberty means anyway. Three guesses as to who takes which attitude....

( Game on, Voltaire! )

And thus ended the meeting between two of the most famous pre-French Revolution people of the 18th century.