Yuletide tags are out: Frederician version

[cahn]

Come join us in this crazy Frederick the Great fandom and learn more about all these crazy associated people, like the star-crossed and heartbreaking romance between Maria Theresia's daughter Maria Christina and her daughter-in-law Isabella, wow.

OK, so, there are FOURTEEN characters nominated:
Anna Karolina Orzelska (Frederician RPF)
Elisabeth Christine von Preußen | Elisabeth Christine Queen of Prussia (Frederician RPF)
Francesco Algarotti (Frederician RPF)
François-Marie Arouet | Voltaire (Frederician RPF)
Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great (Frederician RPF)
Hans Hermann Von Katte (Frederician RPF)
Joseph II Holy Roman Emperor (Frederician RPF)
Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria (Frederician RPF)
Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf (Frederician RPF)
Peter Karl Christoph von Keith (Frederician RPF)
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (Frederician RPF)
Stanisław August Poniatowski (Frederician RPF)
Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758) (Frederician RPF)
Yekatarina II Alekseyevna | Catherine the Great of Russia (Frederician RPF)

This means some fourth person kindly nominated Algarotti and -- I think? -- Stanislaw August Poniatowski! YAY! Thank you fourth person! Come be our friend! :D Yuletide is so great!

I am definitely requesting Maria Theresia, Wilhelmine, and Fritz (Put them in a room together. Shake. How big is the explosion?), and thinking about Elisabeth Christine, but maybe not this year.

I am also declaring this post another Frederician post, as the last one was getting out of hand. I think I'll still use that one as the overall index to these, though, to keep all the links in one place.

(seriously, every time I think the wild stories are done there is ANOTHER one)

Comments

Re: Monkey see, monkey do

[mildred_of_midgard]

Just to clear this up, Mimi was a male monkey?

Well, this is an excellent question. That first passage I pasted was translated either by a biographer or someone the biographer was quoting. I was a bit surprised to see the "he/him" myself, so I went and looked at the original. Fritz definitely uses "il", but since "le singe" is masculine, that could just as easily be grammatical gender as biological. I stuck with "he" in my translation of the subsequent passage, just to be consistent with the first and in case somebody knew something I didn't, but, yes, I did raise an eyebrow, and I did check first, before deciding to just go with it.

In 1737 Wolff's Metafysica was translated into French by Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm (1691–1740). Voltaire got the impression Frederick had translated the book himself.

I mean, he hadn't met Fritz yet? If he was still making this mistake in 1753, then I'd be worried. :P But yes, the reason Fritz had Suhm (the recipient of the Mimi letters, btw) translate it was because he didn't feel his German was up to the task of reading philosophy.

Speaking of translations and going back to the Algarotti discussion: Émilie du Châtelet's 1749 translation of (and commentary on) Newton's Principia is still the definitive French translation today, because it's such a difficult text to translate. An impressive feat from an impressive woman.