Cahn: another Fritz anecdote, while we're talking about his micromanaging style of government. Once upon a time, in his elderly years, he was riding through Berlin, and a crowd was gazing at some piece of paper that had been posted. It was a caricature of him, and I'll quote Carlyle quoting his source here because it's too good: the "King in a very melancholy guise, seated on a Stool, a Coffee-mill between his knees; diligently grinding with the one hand, and with the other picking up any bean that might have fallen." <-- Accurate caricature is accurate.
The anecdote is told to illustrate how, instead of being offended like a normal king might be, he ordered someone to move the caricature lower so the people could see it better, and the people loved him for it. (Part of Fritz's whole "freedom of speech" thing he prided himself on, which he was not as consistent about as we moderns might like, but, as usual, "fair for its time.")
His musicians, like Voltaire, love-hated him: loved him because he was such a great patron of the arts and enthusiastic participant, hated him because, yes, he really did stand over your shoulder during the entire performance making commentary, and woe unto you if you did anything he didn't like, and that was very easy to do. Composers got the same treatment. People complained that he treated his singers like soldiers, and if he said you couldn't leave the country and had to stay and perform, well, then, you'd better be prepared to come up with a more successful escape attempt from Prussia than he and Katte did. (Friiiiiitz!)
I have *opinions* about his parallels not only with Alexander the Great but with Odysseus, and it has recently come to my attention that there's a translation of the Odyssey that renders the untranslatable word "polutropos" (which, if there's a word in Greek that describes Fritz, that's it) in the first line as "complicated", as in, "Tell me about a complicated man, Muse."
Tell me about a complicated man, Mildred and Selena. ;)
ETA: People complained that he treated his singers like soldiers, and if he said you couldn't leave the country and had to stay and perform, well, then, you'd better be prepared to come up with a more successful escape attempt from Prussia than he and Katte did.
Part of the reason when I was reading about Carl August and Goethe I was all "Whoooooaa." Voltaire was no angel when he was fleeing the country, and he has to take his 50% of the blame, but I have a hard time seeing Fritz being that chill about it even if Voltaire had just wanted to rediscover his muse.
It's almost 3 am here (woken up by sciatica), but maybe tomorrow if selenak hasn't done one of her fantastic summaries, I'll give you "Voltaire Leaving Prussia."
Re: Fredersdorf
The anecdote is told to illustrate how, instead of being offended like a normal king might be, he ordered someone to move the caricature lower so the people could see it better, and the people loved him for it. (Part of Fritz's whole "freedom of speech" thing he prided himself on, which he was not as consistent about as we moderns might like, but, as usual, "fair for its time.")
His musicians, like Voltaire, love-hated him: loved him because he was such a great patron of the arts and enthusiastic participant, hated him because, yes, he really did stand over your shoulder during the entire performance making commentary, and woe unto you if you did anything he didn't like, and that was very easy to do. Composers got the same treatment. People complained that he treated his singers like soldiers, and if he said you couldn't leave the country and had to stay and perform, well, then, you'd better be prepared to come up with a more successful escape attempt from Prussia than he and Katte did. (Friiiiiitz!)
I have *opinions* about his parallels not only with Alexander the Great but with Odysseus, and it has recently come to my attention that there's a translation of the Odyssey that renders the untranslatable word "polutropos" (which, if there's a word in Greek that describes Fritz, that's it) in the first line as "complicated", as in, "Tell me about a complicated man, Muse."
Tell me about a complicated man, Mildred and Selena. ;)
ETA:
People complained that he treated his singers like soldiers, and if he said you couldn't leave the country and had to stay and perform, well, then, you'd better be prepared to come up with a more successful escape attempt from Prussia than he and Katte did.
Part of the reason when I was reading about Carl August and Goethe I was all "Whoooooaa." Voltaire was no angel when he was fleeing the country, and he has to take his 50% of the blame, but I have a hard time seeing Fritz being that chill about it even if Voltaire had just wanted to rediscover his muse.
It's almost 3 am here (woken up by sciatica), but maybe tomorrow if