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

Wilhelmine's memoirs

[mildred_of_midgard]

Today I learned.

There are at least two editions of Wilhemine's memoirs floating around the internet (well, I'd already found different translations, but that's a different story). One that includes the Dresden interlude in full, and one that bowdlerizes it so effectively that Orzelska isn't once mentioned. The one I linked you to here is the full version. The archive.org version you linked to in your "Frederick the Great post links" post is the bowdlerized version.

I discovered this by accident, since I've been reading her memoirs, and am about halfway through the first volume, and it's 1730, and it occurred to me that I didn't even remember the Dresden interlude, much less any mention of Orzelska. When I went back to reread it, it was obvious why. Here it is in its entirety:

"The reception given to the King of Prussia was worthy of the two monarchs. As the Prussian monarch was not fond of ceremonies, everything was regulated according to his inclinations. He had requested to be lodged at the house of Count Wakerbart, for whom he entertained a high esteem. The mansion of this general was superb; the king found an apartment truly royal: unfortunately, it was consumed by fire the second day after his arrival. The conflagration was so sudden and violent, that it was not without extreme difficulty that the king was saved. The beautiful mansion was reduced to ashes. The loss would have been very considerable to Count Wakerbart, had not the Polish monarch presented him with the Pirna palace, which still excelled in sumptuousness.

"The court of Dresden was then the most brilliant in Germany: its magnificence was carried to excess. The King of Prussia was not long there before he forgot his devotion; the debauches of the table and the wines of Hungary soon revived his good-humor. The obliging manners of the Polish monarch made him contract an intimate friendship with that prince.

"My father, in the mean time, did not forget the object of his journey. He entered into a secret treaty with King Augustus, the conditions of which were nearly these: the King of Prussia engaged to furnish a certain number of troops to the King of Poland to force the Poles to render the crown hereditary in the electoral house of Saxony. He promised to marry me to the Polish monarch, to lend him four millions of dollars, and to give me a considerable portion. The King of Poland, on his part, was to assign Lusatia to him. as a mortgage for the four millions. A dowry of two hundred thousand dollars was to be settled for me upon that province, and after the king's death I should be permitted to reside where I might choose. I was to have the free exercise of my religion at Dresden, where a chapel was to be built for me. Lastly, all these articles were to be signed and confirmed by the electoral Prince of Saxony. As my father had invited the King of Poland to Berlin to be present at the review of his troops, the signature of the treaty was delayed to that time. The Polish monarch had solicited this delay, to prepare the mind of his son, and to persuade him to consent to what was required of him.

"The king my father left Dresden highly satisfied with his journey, as likewise was my brother. They were both equally zealous in launching out before us in praise of the King of Poland and his court."

I bet they were! All those debauches of the table and Hungarian wine, you know.

Wooow. Now I wonder what else was cut.

Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs

[selenak]

ZOMG who was the (presumably) Victorian prig who committed these acts of vile censorship to protect English readers from Wilhelmine‘s Rokoko frankness?!?

(I know that when her memoirs were finally published, there was a shortened German edition and a complete French edition, but my great aunt had the shortened German edition and even that one has the Dresden interlude with naked lady (and FW after some oggling recalling his teenage son and dragging him out of the room), Orzelska and Fritz getting deflowered, so I feel safe in blaming British censorship instead of assuming they were simply translating the first German edition.)

Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs

[mildred_of_midgard]

I don't know if he's who made the decision to censor, but the author of the introductory essay to the bowdlerized version is listed as William D. Howells, 1877. Sadly (for me as a resident, although not native, of Boston), the title page has the publishing company and location listed as "Boston, Ticknor and Company, 211 Tremont Street." I've half a mind to walk down there and give their ghosts a piece of my mind! ;)

Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs

[selenak]

Well, one of Howell's feats as listed in the wiki entry is "translating pieces from French, Spanish and German", so he could very well be responsible. Otherwise his entry sounds sympathetic enough, though if "Howells viewed realism as "nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material", then censoring dead German princesses writing in French about their insane family does not fit!

Otoh, behold my latest icon, courtesy of your screencap!

Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs

[mildred_of_midgard]

Aww, what a wonderful icon! <3 I'm glad I was able to be of assistance.

Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs

[cahn]

WHAT I AM NOT AMUSED

I just used that one because it had a convenient kindle link! And it is way more convenient for me to read on kindle than on my computer.

I remember that part! And thinking "huh, that seems rather tame, I guess all that wild stuff they were telling me about Orzelska must be in some other primary source" and then forgetting about it. CLEARLY I should have asked :P

Re: Wilhelmine's memoirs

[mildred_of_midgard]

ALWAYS ask! :D

See, while I haven't read her memoirs cover-to-cover, I've skimmed them and used them as a reference often enough that I knew that episode was there. So when I downloaded the file for reading, and had gotten well past the date of the Dresden episode without remembering anything bonkers, I went, "...Wait a minute!"