Figures From 1700s Europe Trivia Quiz

Answer: Milton

Milton was about 100 years earlier, best known for 'Paradise Lost'. Voltaire's 'Candide' was a curt satire written in 1759 as a critique of the notion that the existing world was the best of all possible worlds. Swift, an Irish satirist, was best known for 'Gulliver's Travels' (1726), though he also wrote numerous short satirical stories, among them 'A Modest Proposal' in which he humorously suggested the eating of children. Montesquieu was best known for 'The Persian Letters' (1721), in which he created a fictional realm through which to criticize contemporary European morality.

Answer: Samuel Johnson

Johnson started printing his 'Dictionary' around the 1750s. The ground-breaking mammoth helped to purify and standardize the English language. Diderot compiled the 'Encyclopedia' over a period of 20 years starting in 1752. Most of the work for the volumes had to be done underground and the copies smuggled into the country.

The authorities objected to the work largely because it demystified religion and put it on the same plane as science and technology. 'Bartlett's Familiar Quotations' came around about 100 years later. Roget's 'Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases' also came out about 100 years later.

Answer: Natural History

Buffon produced the 'Natural History of the Earth' between 1749 and 1778. Using his extensive knowledge of fossils, he attempted to classify the data of nature and put forth a theory on and description of the earth's development.

Answer: Vigee-Lebrun was female; the other three were male.

Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun was the most successful female artist of the time. In fact, one of her patrons was Queen Marie Antoinette.

Answer: Goethe

The movement emphasized strong artistic emotions and hinted at the romantic temperament to come. Schiller was a friend of Goethe's. Fielding and Richardson were writing a bit earlier, popularizing the form of the novel that Goethe's influence would subsequently affect.

Answer: Sieyes

Emmanuel Sieyes asked and answered the following: 'What is the Third Estate? Everything... And what has it been until now in the political order? Nothing.' This statement was fuelled by the fact that the Third Estate included the vast majority of the population in France, but was only given a single vote against the single vote of the clergy and the single vote of the nobility. Thus, while representing the majority, the Third Estate was inevitably the minority vote.

The other three men were controller-generals under Louis XVI.

Answer: Edmund Burke's 'Reflections on the Revolution in France'

Burke, an Anglo-Irish statesman, wrote this in his work condemning the French revolution's break with history. The Wollstonecraft and Paine were refutations to Burke's ideas.

Answer: Brissot

Brissot was one of the leaders of the Girondins, and sometimes the party was even referred to as the Brissotins after their leader. The other three were all prominent figures in the Mountain party. Robespierre later rose to greater fame as he became a pivotal character during the Reign of Terror.

Answer: radical revolutionaries

'Enrages', meaning rabid ones, was the term used by the Jacobins to refer to the radical groups, many of whom were also feminist, who dared to irritate the revolutionary government with their demands for price controls and compulsory use of republican symbols. Less than a year after their emergence, the most prominent of the women were arrested and the government forbade the future formation of female political groups.

Answer: Louis Capet

Though not a Capetian, the Parisian masses gave Louis XIV the name of 'Louis Capet'. He was executed like an ordinary citizen, signifying his loss of prestige and the new equality that replaced the class systems of the previous years.