This write-up is amaaaaazing, thank you so much. (Also for the Swedish write-up, and just generally the ongoing free education.)
two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist)
Wooow. Are they on display somewhere?
Which reminds me, I have read (unreliable source) that Katte's grave was robbed by souvenir-hunters over the years, and people have helped themselves to teeth, the burial shroud, the cracked vertebra (how's that for gruesome?), and I forget what else. I say unreliable, but that's pretty damn typical of human beings, and Fritz memorabilia being in such high demand after 1786, so...I consider it plausible at the very least.
young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!)
Wilhelmine: I can work with this.
FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before)
Ahahahahaaa. Well, from FW's perspective, it didn't work out too badly! He did get to hear about how he was a bully and a boor first, but then he seemed just a bit disconcerted but generally pleased when Fritz started crying and kissing his hands.
(Go home, Fritz, you're drunk.)
Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally
Wow. That was unknown to me. That's...some serious displeasure.
The Italian journey: if Fritz was, in fact, afraid of her staying in Italy in that letter I quoted, he wasn't being paranoid. She was tempted, because she was happy there, the climate while at first not as warm as was typical agreed with her
It's interesting seeing the same events from multiple perspectives. You mentioned a while back, in the first description you made of her trip, that Italy was unseasonably cold that year. When I went to read through the Algarotti/Fritz correspondence, I got to 1753/1754 and saw Algarotti complaining to Fritz, "We're getting about as much sun here as you would get in London," and I thought of Wilhelmine.
Then there was the letter where Algarotti tells Fritz how he met Wilhelmine, and everyone in Venice was really nice to her, and Fritz replies, "So I heard!" Now we get to see Wilhelmine talking about Algarotti, and backing his "I'm super sick!" story. (Like I said, his decreased productivity and travel after 1753 really backs the idea to me that he wasn't just avoiding Fritz.)
Cahn: As you can tell from the letter, she'd met Algarotti before. This was in 1740, just after Fritz became king, when he decided to visit her and then dart over to Strasbourg, incognito, with Algarotti, in hopes of doing a full Paris trip. As you recall, the incognito thing fell apart immediately, and he went home. But Wilhelmine recording liking Algarotti a lot, as pretty much everyone did. He seems to have had incredibly winning ways. (A footnote in the Lady Mary correspondence says that he was described as a total people-pleaser, which I think played a role in his gift for amicable non-breakups.)
As sick and miserable as you are, you still think about my miseries? That is going too far.
Wow. "I'm exempting you from the usual rule of putting me and my wars first!" That's some true sibling love right there.
No pressure, Voltaire.
No pressure! Also wow, in a different way.
Anyway, thanks for this whole thing, it was all gold. You are compensating in a serious way for my inability to read 1) German, 2) physical books. <3
Re: Sibling Correspondance - II
two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist)
Wooow. Are they on display somewhere?
Which reminds me, I have read (unreliable source) that Katte's grave was robbed by souvenir-hunters over the years, and people have helped themselves to teeth, the burial shroud, the cracked vertebra (how's that for gruesome?), and I forget what else. I say unreliable, but that's pretty damn typical of human beings, and Fritz memorabilia being in such high demand after 1786, so...I consider it plausible at the very least.
young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!)
Wilhelmine: I can work with this.
FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before)
Ahahahahaaa. Well, from FW's perspective, it didn't work out too badly! He did get to hear about how he was a bully and a boor first, but then he seemed just a bit disconcerted but generally pleased when Fritz started crying and kissing his hands.
(Go home, Fritz, you're drunk.)
Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally
Wow. That was unknown to me. That's...some serious displeasure.
The Italian journey: if Fritz was, in fact, afraid of her staying in Italy in that letter I quoted, he wasn't being paranoid. She was tempted, because she was happy there, the climate while at first not as warm as was typical agreed with her
It's interesting seeing the same events from multiple perspectives. You mentioned a while back, in the first description you made of her trip, that Italy was unseasonably cold that year. When I went to read through the Algarotti/Fritz correspondence, I got to 1753/1754 and saw Algarotti complaining to Fritz, "We're getting about as much sun here as you would get in London," and I thought of Wilhelmine.
Then there was the letter where Algarotti tells Fritz how he met Wilhelmine, and everyone in Venice was really nice to her, and Fritz replies, "So I heard!" Now we get to see Wilhelmine talking about Algarotti, and backing his "I'm super sick!" story. (Like I said, his decreased productivity and travel after 1753 really backs the idea to me that he wasn't just avoiding Fritz.)
Cahn: As you can tell from the letter, she'd met Algarotti before. This was in 1740, just after Fritz became king, when he decided to visit her and then dart over to Strasbourg, incognito, with Algarotti, in hopes of doing a full Paris trip. As you recall, the incognito thing fell apart immediately, and he went home. But Wilhelmine recording liking Algarotti a lot, as pretty much everyone did. He seems to have had incredibly winning ways. (A footnote in the Lady Mary correspondence says that he was described as a total people-pleaser, which I think played a role in his gift for amicable non-breakups.)
As sick and miserable as you are, you still think about my miseries? That is going too far.
Wow. "I'm exempting you from the usual rule of putting me and my wars first!" That's some true sibling love right there.
No pressure, Voltaire.
No pressure! Also wow, in a different way.
Anyway, thanks for this whole thing, it was all gold. You are compensating in a serious way for my inability to read 1) German, 2) physical books. <3