I just want to say that I have this huge grudge against biographer Carlyle for not only not shipping my ship--which, fair enough!--but for being an anti. And Carlyle specifically because of my own personal history with this fandom.
In high school, I read voraciously (god knows, none of this was covered in class) on Fritz, but was interested in the military history and magnificent bastardy aspects, not the interpersonal relations.
At the end of high school, I had moved into another fandom and discovered slash, but since I can only do one fandom at a time, it was too late to go back and start slashing Fritz.
For the next twenty or so years, I was never deeply in 18th century or Fritz fandom again, until three months ago. I only sporadically spent an hour here or there making up stories about Fritz in my head, without doing research, just based on what I remembered. (Realize that everything I've been regurgitating here is a combination of a couple of years of reading in high school, a 20-year lacuna, then 4-8 weeks of refreshing myself in summer 2019 and taking advantage of internet resources on Katte. And internet only because of the new physical disability that I will never stop complaining about.)
But, even in my days of not being in this fandom, I did want to ship Fritz/Katte. Badly. But being deeply immersed in other fandoms, I was unmotivated to go getting my hands on sources. And, due to repeated moves on a low budget, I had gotten rid of my history book collection, seeing as how I hadn't been in that fandom in a gazillion years. So all I had was an electronic copy of the public domain biography of Fritz by Carlyle, written in the 1860s.
And I have multiple memories, years apart, of trying to get material for my ship from Carlyle, and being defeated by his "anti" attitude toward my ship, which basically consists of repeating Wilhelmine, either in paraphrase or direct quotation at length. Behold.
"Poor young man, [Fritz] has got into a disastrous course; consorts chiefly with debauched young fellows, as Lieutenants Katte, Keith, and others of their stamp, who lead him on ways not pleasant to his Father, nor conformable to the Laws of this Universe."
"Of Lieutenant von Katte,— a short stout young fellow, with black eyebrows, pock-marked face, and rather dissolute manners,— we shall not fail to hear."
"A second favorite, and a much more dangerous, succeeded Keith. This was a young man of the name of Katte, Captain-Lieutenant in the regiment GENS-D'ARMES."
Then he repeats the entire passage from Wilhelmine, which you've read, including the "His physiognomy was rather disagreeable than otherwise. A pair of thick black eyebrows almost covered the eyes of him; his look had in it something ominous, presage of the fate he met with: a tawny skin, torn by small-pox, increased his ugliness. He affected the freethinker, and carried libertinism to excess; a great deal of ambition and headlong rashness accompanied this vice. A dangerous adviser here in the Berlin element, with lightnings going! Such a favorite was not the man to bring back my Brother from his follies."
"The maternal heart and Wilhelmina's are grieved to see Lieutenant Katte so much in his confidence— could wish him a wiser councillor in such predicaments and emergencies! Katte is greatly flattered by the Prince's confidence; even brags of it in society, with his foolish loose tongue. Poor youth, he is of dissolute ways; has plenty of it 'unwise intellect,' little of the 'wise' kind; and is still under the years of discretion."
[After the failed escape attempt] "The same post brought an order to the Colonel of the Gerns-d'Armes to put that Lieutenant Katte of his under close confinement:— we hope the thoughtless young fellow has already got out of the way? He is getting his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what danger he is in."
He gets some pity for being young, foolish, and loyal, that's all.
Now, I am far from saying that we have to paint Katte and young Fritz as perfect in all ways. Among other things, they made some seriously bad choices around the escape plan! But my ship is my ship and it's for a reason.
So I always went "meh" after flipping through this chapter in Carlyle, was annoyed at what comes across as reflexes of victim-blaming and homophobic mindsets, and went back to kind of vaguely background shipping them without too much detail. Occasionally, I would be like, "And in some AU there was a successful escape attempt, yay, and they lived happily ever after. The end."
Only in my very recent re-perusal of the sources and examination of some new sources did I get enough material for the ship to set sail properly.
And while I should refrain from spending too much money I don't have on books I can't read, this week I did buy a couple used paperbacks for a few dollars each, one of which was Goldsmith's. I can at least use them as references as needed, even if I can't read them cover-to-cover.
And by flipping through the obligatory escape attempt chapter, I discovered that Goldsmith, despite writing in 1929 (!!!) ships my ship! I am willing to forgive her her various claims and omissions that were very common a hundred years ago but which don't stand up to more recent thorough examinations of the documentary evidence, because she ships my ship!
Check this out.
"Rumors of his attachment [to Keith] finally reached the King. Such affairs were by no means uncommon in the century of Louis XV, but they were decidedly out of place at the Court of Frederick William." [!! Her whole attitude is "Fritz was gay and I'm cool with that, deal with it."]
"Frederick's attachment to Keith had been a mere episode, but his friendship with Katte was not a schoolboy's passing fancy; it was deep love and friendship." [!!! <333]
"Katte was the son of a general in Frederick William's army. His ancestors had been Prussian officers for generations, but the military life had never appealed to him. Even Wilhelmine, who disliked him because she was afraid of the disaster which this friendship might mean for her brother, had to admit that Katte was 'well read, intelligent, and that he had savoir faire.' He had studied law in Berlin and had traveled all over Europe, but in the end he had been forced into the army; for one of his class in Prussia there was no future in any but a military career. He would have preferred the life of a scholar, but he was not strong enough to oppose so radically the traditions of his family. Katte was widely read and very well informed for a man of his age and class. He was witty and entertaining. He stimulated Frederick's imagination. He was not good-looking--his heavy eyebrows met over the bridge of a large nose, and he was badly pockmarked--but his great charm of manner apparently caused people to forget his unattractive face.
"Katte, in turn, was devoted to Frederick. Although the young officer had abandoned all hope of any other life, he still rebelled inwardly against the army. It gave him tremendous satisfaction to encourage Frederick's revolt against his father's regime. This hopeless rebellion against the Prussian military system was the chief bond between the two. They had a hate in common: Frederick's father and all he stood for." [Not my interpretation at all, granted, but perfectly possible and an interesting take.]
"Katte helped Frederick to continue his non-military interests in many ways. He smuggled forbidden books into the Prince's apartments, and secretly arranged flute lessons at regular intervals. During these lessons the faithful Katte always kept watch outside Frederick's door, and warned him if he heard the unexpected approach of Frederick William.
"Frederick's allowance was so small that he could afford neither books nor lessons in flute-playing. Katte seemed to know everyone in Berlin, and he easily arranged loans with a number of wealthy merchants." [Insert secret library description.]
[After the failed escape attempt] "The king wanted to catch Katte unwarned. Undoubtedly, however, when Wilhelmine told him of this letter from her father, Katte knew that he would, inevitably, be involved; that he would share Frederick's final punishment if he stayed in Berlin. His furlough had begun. He was free to leave Berlin at any time, but he did not go. Katte was neither a coward nor a weakling, and he loved Frederick. He could not make up his mind to let his friend face Frederick William's wrath alone. Finally, one morning the King's courier arrived in Berlin, and it was rumored that Katte was about to be arrested. He was a popular young man, and by noon some of his his friends had informed him of his coming arrest. Even his colonel sympathized with Katte, and wanted to give the young officer a chance to get away. The arrest was postponed, therefore, until late in the evening. The colonel fully expected that Katte would have left by then, but he was awaiting the officers in his rooms when they arrived.
"During the day Katte had been busy. He had sent the Queen a sealed case with all his letters from Frederick, as well as copies of Frederick's secret messages to England. These documents compromised the Queen as well as Frederick, and it would have been disastrous for her if Frederick William had found them."
"Katte, alone in his cell, not far from Frederick's, hoped for many weeks that his life would be spared. All the time he thought more of Frederick than he did of himself."
[Insert his final letter to his grandfather.] "No, Katte was no coward and no weakling. On the day of his execution he said to Major Schenk, who, much against his will, was ordered by Frederick William to take charge of the execution, 'I die for a Prince whom I love, and I comfort myself with the thought that my death will be the greatest possible proof of my devotion to him.' Wilhelmine, usually so ready with sarcasm, has nothing to say about Katte's last talk with Schenk. She simply records what he told her, word for word. Clearly there was nothing for her to add."
"When he recognized Katte, [Fritz] went almost mad, and knocked his head frantically against the iron bars which separated him from his friend.
"'Forgive me, my dear Katte,' was all he could say again and again.
"The gallant Katte, rising to this last occasion, looked up at Frederick, smiled, and said:
"'Death for such a charming Prince is indeed sweet.'"
Then Goldsmith writes about Fritz's roaring twenties: "[Random woman who Fritz het-posed about]: She has caused his biographers much racking of brains. Some, who are very respectable, wanting to forget or ignore his gay life in Dresden or his friendships with Keith and Katte, speak of Frau von Wreech as his 'first love', but most of them agree that his love for the lady, who must indeed have been very charming, was purely platonic. But I have grown suspicious, skeptical, about Frederick's relations with women...I have wondered whether...gossip about a liaison with a woman of her type would have been welcomed by his father...I do not think Frederick would have announced his passion for the lady had he really cared. Increasingly, as he grew older he locked his real secrets away within himself. There is no reference to Katte in his letters." Earlier on, Goldsmith has said, about Doris Ritter, "[Fritz] thought that he was in love with her, but he was mistaken. His predilection was not for her sex."
1929! Meanwhile, biographers much later in the 20th century are still going, "There was nothing unnatural about Frederick's sex drive, it was just underdeveloped," or "There's no evidence for homosexuality except one estranged and notoriously unreliable Frenchman." Only 8 years ago (!!!), Blanning's bio was notable for going, "Look, people, he was GAY. AND CAMP. Look at the evidence. Sheesh."
Man, if I had had her book instead of Carlyle's, how the history of this ship in my life might have been different. And yes, I transcribed all the Goldsmith excerpts myself, from a physical book, and my upper back is now paying the price. WORTH IT.
Also, shipping aside, I think these two sets of excerpts show just how much room for interpretation of the sources there is, and the one is not necessarily more reliable than the other (I honestly think Goldsmith, while good for <333, goes too far for nonfiction in her interpretations and puts more weight on the evidence than it will bear. Basically, like everyone else, she's presenting her headcanon as canon.). This is why I said, in a comment to one of your other posts, that I've started to read history books like novels. Thank you for your novel, Goldsmith. Ima go write some fic and not call it a bio.
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Tragic ship
Date: 2019-09-29 10:02 pm (UTC)In high school, I read voraciously (god knows, none of this was covered in class) on Fritz, but was interested in the military history and magnificent bastardy aspects, not the interpersonal relations.
At the end of high school, I had moved into another fandom and discovered slash, but since I can only do one fandom at a time, it was too late to go back and start slashing Fritz.
For the next twenty or so years, I was never deeply in 18th century or Fritz fandom again, until three months ago. I only sporadically spent an hour here or there making up stories about Fritz in my head, without doing research, just based on what I remembered. (Realize that everything I've been regurgitating here is a combination of a couple of years of reading in high school, a 20-year lacuna, then 4-8 weeks of refreshing myself in summer 2019 and taking advantage of internet resources on Katte. And internet only because of the new physical disability that I will never stop complaining about.)
But, even in my days of not being in this fandom, I did want to ship Fritz/Katte. Badly. But being deeply immersed in other fandoms, I was unmotivated to go getting my hands on sources. And, due to repeated moves on a low budget, I had gotten rid of my history book collection, seeing as how I hadn't been in that fandom in a gazillion years. So all I had was an electronic copy of the public domain biography of Fritz by Carlyle, written in the 1860s.
And I have multiple memories, years apart, of trying to get material for my ship from Carlyle, and being defeated by his "anti" attitude toward my ship, which basically consists of repeating Wilhelmine, either in paraphrase or direct quotation at length. Behold.
"Poor young man, [Fritz] has got into a disastrous course; consorts chiefly with debauched young fellows, as Lieutenants Katte, Keith, and others of their stamp, who lead him on ways not pleasant to his Father, nor conformable to the Laws of this Universe."
"Of Lieutenant von Katte,— a short stout young fellow, with black eyebrows, pock-marked face, and rather dissolute manners,— we shall not fail to hear."
"A second favorite, and a much more dangerous, succeeded Keith. This was a young man of the name of Katte, Captain-Lieutenant in the regiment GENS-D'ARMES."
Then he repeats the entire passage from Wilhelmine, which you've read, including the "His physiognomy was rather disagreeable than otherwise. A pair of thick black eyebrows almost covered the eyes of him; his look had in it something ominous, presage of the fate he met with: a tawny skin, torn by small-pox, increased his ugliness. He affected the freethinker, and carried libertinism to excess; a great deal of ambition and headlong rashness accompanied this vice. A dangerous adviser here in the Berlin element, with lightnings going! Such a favorite was not the man to bring back my Brother from his follies."
"The maternal heart and Wilhelmina's are grieved to see Lieutenant Katte so much in his confidence— could wish him a wiser councillor in such predicaments and emergencies! Katte is greatly flattered by the Prince's confidence; even brags of it in society, with his foolish loose tongue. Poor youth, he is of dissolute ways; has plenty of it 'unwise intellect,' little of the 'wise' kind; and is still under the years of discretion."
[After the failed escape attempt] "The same post brought an order to the Colonel of the Gerns-d'Armes to put that Lieutenant Katte of his under close confinement:— we hope the thoughtless young fellow has already got out of the way? He is getting his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what danger he is in."
He gets some pity for being young, foolish, and loyal, that's all.
Now, I am far from saying that we have to paint Katte and young Fritz as perfect in all ways. Among other things, they made some seriously bad choices around the escape plan! But my ship is my ship and it's for a reason.
So I always went "meh" after flipping through this chapter in Carlyle, was annoyed at what comes across as reflexes of victim-blaming and homophobic mindsets, and went back to kind of vaguely background shipping them without too much detail. Occasionally, I would be like, "And in some AU there was a successful escape attempt, yay, and they lived happily ever after. The end."
Only in my very recent re-perusal of the sources and examination of some new sources did I get enough material for the ship to set sail properly.
And while I should refrain from spending too much money I don't have on books I can't read, this week I did buy a couple used paperbacks for a few dollars each, one of which was Goldsmith's. I can at least use them as references as needed, even if I can't read them cover-to-cover.
And by flipping through the obligatory escape attempt chapter, I discovered that Goldsmith, despite writing in 1929 (!!!) ships my ship! I am willing to forgive her her various claims and omissions that were very common a hundred years ago but which don't stand up to more recent thorough examinations of the documentary evidence, because she ships my ship!
Check this out.
"Rumors of his attachment [to Keith] finally reached the King. Such affairs were by no means uncommon in the century of Louis XV, but they were decidedly out of place at the Court of Frederick William." [!! Her whole attitude is "Fritz was gay and I'm cool with that, deal with it."]
"Frederick's attachment to Keith had been a mere episode, but his friendship with Katte was not a schoolboy's passing fancy; it was deep love and friendship." [!!! <333]
"Katte was the son of a general in Frederick William's army. His ancestors had been Prussian officers for generations, but the military life had never appealed to him. Even Wilhelmine, who disliked him because she was afraid of the disaster which this friendship might mean for her brother, had to admit that Katte was 'well read, intelligent, and that he had savoir faire.' He had studied law in Berlin and had traveled all over Europe, but in the end he had been forced into the army; for one of his class in Prussia there was no future in any but a military career. He would have preferred the life of a scholar, but he was not strong enough to oppose so radically the traditions of his family. Katte was widely read and very well informed for a man of his age and class. He was witty and entertaining. He stimulated Frederick's imagination. He was not good-looking--his heavy eyebrows met over the bridge of a large nose, and he was badly pockmarked--but his great charm of manner apparently caused people to forget his unattractive face.
"Katte, in turn, was devoted to Frederick. Although the young officer had abandoned all hope of any other life, he still rebelled inwardly against the army. It gave him tremendous satisfaction to encourage Frederick's revolt against his father's regime. This hopeless rebellion against the Prussian military system was the chief bond between the two. They had a hate in common: Frederick's father and all he stood for." [Not my interpretation at all, granted, but perfectly possible and an interesting take.]
"Katte helped Frederick to continue his non-military interests in many ways. He smuggled forbidden books into the Prince's apartments, and secretly arranged flute lessons at regular intervals. During these lessons the faithful Katte always kept watch outside Frederick's door, and warned him if he heard the unexpected approach of Frederick William.
"Frederick's allowance was so small that he could afford neither books nor lessons in flute-playing. Katte seemed to know everyone in Berlin, and he easily arranged loans with a number of wealthy merchants." [Insert secret library description.]
[After the failed escape attempt] "The king wanted to catch Katte unwarned. Undoubtedly, however, when Wilhelmine told him of this letter from her father, Katte knew that he would, inevitably, be involved; that he would share Frederick's final punishment if he stayed in Berlin. His furlough had begun. He was free to leave Berlin at any time, but he did not go. Katte was neither a coward nor a weakling, and he loved Frederick. He could not make up his mind to let his friend face Frederick William's wrath alone. Finally, one morning the King's courier arrived in Berlin, and it was rumored that Katte was about to be arrested. He was a popular young man, and by noon some of his his friends had informed him of his coming arrest. Even his colonel sympathized with Katte, and wanted to give the young officer a chance to get away. The arrest was postponed, therefore, until late in the evening. The colonel fully expected that Katte would have left by then, but he was awaiting the officers in his rooms when they arrived.
"During the day Katte had been busy. He had sent the Queen a sealed case with all his letters from Frederick, as well as copies of Frederick's secret messages to England. These documents compromised the Queen as well as Frederick, and it would have been disastrous for her if Frederick William had found them."
"Katte, alone in his cell, not far from Frederick's, hoped for many weeks that his life would be spared. All the time he thought more of Frederick than he did of himself."
[Insert his final letter to his grandfather.] "No, Katte was no coward and no weakling. On the day of his execution he said to Major Schenk, who, much against his will, was ordered by Frederick William to take charge of the execution, 'I die for a Prince whom I love, and I comfort myself with the thought that my death will be the greatest possible proof of my devotion to him.' Wilhelmine, usually so ready with sarcasm, has nothing to say about Katte's last talk with Schenk. She simply records what he told her, word for word. Clearly there was nothing for her to add."
"When he recognized Katte, [Fritz] went almost mad, and knocked his head frantically against the iron bars which separated him from his friend.
"'Forgive me, my dear Katte,' was all he could say again and again.
"The gallant Katte, rising to this last occasion, looked up at Frederick, smiled, and said:
"'Death for such a charming Prince is indeed sweet.'"
Then Goldsmith writes about Fritz's roaring twenties: "[Random woman who Fritz het-posed about]: She has caused his biographers much racking of brains. Some, who are very respectable, wanting to forget or ignore his gay life in Dresden or his friendships with Keith and Katte, speak of Frau von Wreech as his 'first love', but most of them agree that his love for the lady, who must indeed have been very charming, was purely platonic. But I have grown suspicious, skeptical, about Frederick's relations with women...I have wondered whether...gossip about a liaison with a woman of her type would have been welcomed by his father...I do not think Frederick would have announced his passion for the lady had he really cared. Increasingly, as he grew older he locked his real secrets away within himself. There is no reference to Katte in his letters." Earlier on, Goldsmith has said, about Doris Ritter, "[Fritz] thought that he was in love with her, but he was mistaken. His predilection was not for her sex."
1929! Meanwhile, biographers much later in the 20th century are still going, "There was nothing unnatural about Frederick's sex drive, it was just underdeveloped," or "There's no evidence for homosexuality except one estranged and notoriously unreliable Frenchman." Only 8 years ago (!!!), Blanning's bio was notable for going, "Look, people, he was GAY. AND CAMP. Look at the evidence. Sheesh."
Man, if I had had her book instead of Carlyle's, how the history of this ship in my life might have been different. And yes, I transcribed all the Goldsmith excerpts myself, from a physical book, and my upper back is now paying the price. WORTH IT.
Also, shipping aside, I think these two sets of excerpts show just how much room for interpretation of the sources there is, and the one is not necessarily more reliable than the other (I honestly think Goldsmith, while good for <333, goes too far for nonfiction in her interpretations and puts more weight on the evidence than it will bear. Basically, like everyone else, she's presenting her headcanon as canon.). This is why I said, in a comment to one of your other posts, that I've started to read history books like novels. Thank you for your novel, Goldsmith. Ima go write some fic and not call it a bio.