Cicisbeo: I had to look it up, too, but in a previous letter, because Fritz earlier asked her whether she had one yet.
Wilhelmine, Fritz and their "dogs are the better people" conviction: in addition to their background, Wilhelmine had lived through the Bayreuth town residence burning down, with her and the Margrave in it, and the Bayreuth population not lifting a finger to help them, or to quench the fire. Obviously, they made it out alive, but that experience deeply shocked her, not least because it underscored how unpopular they both were. The main reason was money, i.e. her building the beautiful Eremitage and the gorgeous Rokoko opera house (that several generations later would be Wagner's reason for moving to Bayreuth in the first place), along with the garden of Sanspareil, and the Margrave living in Rokoko prince style (provincial edition), too. Not to mention that the Bayreuth/Prussia alliance meant Franconians ended up as soldiers in the various conflicts between Fritz & MT. Now Fritz who spent even more money on cultural things and whose fault most of the wars were still was (for most of his reign) very popular and beloved in his kingdom because nobody doubted he was simultanously a workoholic and he took that "first servant of the state" thing seriously. But the Margrave was decidedly not a workoholic, and Wilhelmine wasn't allowed to do any governing because WOMAN. So they had the "this couple taxes us and spends our money on their hobbies, AND our sons are prone to die in wars we have zilch to do with" anger from the population.
I went !! at the bit where Fritz actually had the self-awareness to pick up that he might be sour-graping :D
Same here, when I first read it. I was also struck by the second image he uses, of the galley slave.
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Re: Sibling Correspondance
Date: 2019-11-14 10:04 am (UTC)Wilhelmine, Fritz and their "dogs are the better people" conviction: in addition to their background, Wilhelmine had lived through the Bayreuth town residence burning down, with her and the Margrave in it, and the Bayreuth population not lifting a finger to help them, or to quench the fire. Obviously, they made it out alive, but that experience deeply shocked her, not least because it underscored how unpopular they both were. The main reason was money, i.e. her building the beautiful Eremitage and the gorgeous Rokoko opera house (that several generations later would be Wagner's reason for moving to Bayreuth in the first place), along with the garden of Sanspareil, and the Margrave living in Rokoko prince style (provincial edition), too. Not to mention that the Bayreuth/Prussia alliance meant Franconians ended up as soldiers in the various conflicts between Fritz & MT. Now Fritz who spent even more money on cultural things and whose fault most of the wars were still was (for most of his reign) very popular and beloved in his kingdom because nobody doubted he was simultanously a workoholic and he took that "first servant of the state" thing seriously. But the Margrave was decidedly not a workoholic, and Wilhelmine wasn't allowed to do any governing because WOMAN. So they had the "this couple taxes us and spends our money on their hobbies, AND our sons are prone to die in wars we have zilch to do with" anger from the population.
I went !! at the bit where Fritz actually had the self-awareness to pick up that he might be sour-graping :D
Same here, when I first read it. I was also struck by the second image he uses, of the galley slave.