What is the significance of the six kings in chapter 26?

Two of the
major themes of
are the arbitrary nature of fortune and the universal
nature of
misfortune. Chapter 26 represents perhaps the strongest statement of this theme, as
it
carries these observations across to the most privileged subset of the
eighteenth-century
socio-political order: kings.

In this
chapter, Candide and Martin are dining
with six strangers, all deposed
monarchs, who have come to Venice for the Carnival. We see here
the former
Grand Sultan, who previously deposed his own brother and has now been deposed by
his
nephew. Next, there is Ivan of Russia, who was dethroned as an infant and
raised in a Russian
prison. Then, we meet a...