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Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!
All Yuletide requests are out!
Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!
-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)
Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!
-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French
-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...
Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links
Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!
-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)
Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!
-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French
-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...
Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links
Algarotti
Maupertuis (remember Maupertuis? Captured by Austrians when joining Fritz on campaign, president of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, quarreled with Voltaire?), back in 1736 (aka when Fritz was still Crown Prince), went on an Arctic expedition to Lapland.
The reason is actually kinda cool. You know how the Earth bulges at the center and is kind of flat on the top, because of gravity and rotation and all that? Whether it was bulging at the center, or stretched out toward the poles like an egg, was a big scientific debate at the time. Maupertuis was convinced it was the former, so he led an expedition in the direction of the North Pole to take measurements. This expedition ended up proving him right.
Anyway, Algarotti was invited to help take measurements and also write poetry to immortalize and popularize the expedition. Which is pretty cool, because not everyone is qualified to be the scientist and the poet of the expedition.
Unfortunately, posterity didn't always appreciate Algarotti's polymathy. The Algarotti dissertation recounts a scene from a novel written in 1869:
"In a scene that is set in 1750, a party is held in honour of Algarotti's arrival in Venice. In it, one of the characters asks to know who the 'pallid, skinny little thing with the necklace, the medallions, and the cross on his chest' is. He is told that this person is Algarotti, who is then described with a touch of sarcasm as, 'member of all the universities, and of all the academies that ever were, that are, and that ever will be; astronomer, poet, painter, architect, violinist...Of many people it is usual to ask what they are...in his case, one ought rather to ask what he is not.'"
As someone who was given a good-natured ribbing by a fellow student in high school for monopolizing all the prizes and awards, to the point of being accused of being named "best male athlete" (I was neither male nor an athlete--although the track coach tried to recruit me for four years: I was notoriously faster than the male athletes)...I sympathize, Algarotti. I will join you in "Posterity: Mildred who?" land. <3
Long tangent: the reason Algarotti didn't end up going to Lapland with Maupertuis was that he was choosing between this offer and a simultaneous offer to come live with Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet. He ended up choosing the latter, which was kind of interesting.
Voltaire was jealous, saying that if it weren't so cold, he would have accepted a position as poet, if he had been invited. [Me: That's a lot of "if"s, Voltaire.] But since it was cold and he wasn't invited, he and du Châtelet were like, "Pleeeeease, pleeeease come live with us! We love you forever! We're way better than Lapland! We will appreciate you like you deserve!"
They won, but Algarotti ended up staying with them for only 6 weeks. I was kind of joking when I wrote "Live with Voltaire! *double take* Live with Voltaire? *sigh*" as his reason for leaving. My sources give *no* reason why Algarotti left so quickly. What we know is that he continued to be on very complimentary terms with both his hosts after leaving, and they with him. My wanton and unsubstantiated speculation is based on two things: 1) Voltaire is Voltaire. 2) This is also how Algarotti later broke up with Fritz, as you may remember. "ILU! ILU from very far away!" "ILU too! Come back soon!" "When pigs fly, but ILU anyway!"
Algarotti seems to have been master of the amicable unofficial breakup, IOW. Even Lady Mary was left in some doubt as to his interest in her until she showed up in Italy several years later trying to move in with him. [ETA: My library shocked me by having the 3-volume set of the complete letters! I have placed a hold and will scan the Algarotti letters as soon as they arrive. Wheeee.]
Plus 3) I couldn't resist throwing some shade at Voltaire. :P
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Ahahaha. Being good at the amicable unofficial breakup is an art! (One which I sadly do not have, though I like all my ex-boyfriends.)
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I mean, you could probably dig through Voltaire's correspondence to see what he was up to during those six weeks, and if I'm not falsely accusing him (I mean, Émilie seemed happy to live with him until her death!), maybe you'd get some ideas. But idk.
Voltaire's correspondence has been digitized, btw, but for the cost of a subscription that's more than I'm willing to pay atm, especially since the three volumes of letters to and from Fritz are freely available. (Would love to write a Fritz/Voltaire treat, but I would need to learn French and read said three volumes first, and possibly get my hands on a bio of Voltaire, and oh yeah, I still need to read the translation of that Fritz-trashing memoir that's on my list. So yeah. :P)
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I am still wishing for translated Fritz/Wilhelmine :D I haven't even gotten to them yet. (When I looked up the 1745 letters, they haven't yet been digitized! I just see a scanned-in page.)
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Unfortunately, the political correspondence really only seems to be available in scans, so not even searchable or anything. I guess if I had to pick one, I'd pick the personal correspondence, but still. I'm starting to get interested in his political correspondence too. (Yesterday, for example, I found the letters where Fritz wrote to the guy in Hanover, shortly after becoming king, telling him to find Peter Keith and tell him to come home. I'm still a bit uncertain why Fritz said to keep the matter a secret?)
ETA: Correction, the first 20 of the 46 volumes of political correspondence have been converted to text! I just thought they hadn't because my first foray into the correspondence was the Peter III correspondence, which is in volume 22.
Wilhelmine/Fritz letters
Also my French is even worse than I thought it was, sigh.
So now I'm puzzled -- it seems to be missing at least one 1745/1746 letter and the dates are all over the place!
Quoting from
20. September 1745: Coronation of FS in Frankfurt; en route to said coronation, but the biography does not specify on which day exactly, MT passes through Emskirchen which is Bayreuth principality territory, and there has lunch with Wilhelmine
=> all hell breaks loose.
22. November 1745: Fritz invades Saxony (the first time). This basically ends the second Silesian War, with MT agreeing to letting Fritz have Silesia, Fritz belatedly voting for FS as Emperor and writes to Wilhelmine the "have made peace with YOUR FRIEND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY" letter I already mentioned, along with Wilhelmine's "yay peace! she's not my friend, though cool" reply. Or, to quote it in the original phrasing: "Regarding the Queen of Hungary, I have never had a preference for her or a particular attachment to her interests. I simply do justice to her good qualities and consider it permitted to esteem all people who possess these." (Countered with "you are a traitor and a miscreant" type of letters.)
The letters:
2 Oct, F to W - "We have just defeated the Austrians."
19 Oct, W to F - You're the greatest, bro!
29 Oct, F to W - Thanks, sis! I am the greatest!
30 Dec, F to W - (Ma chere soeur instead of Ma tres chere, :(((((( ) - I just made peace with YOUR FRIEND
15 Jan, W to F - Yay peace! She's not my friend, I just acknowledge her good qualities! (these two are the ones referred to above)
29 Mar, F to W - You know, all the conflicts we've been having are not JUST your fault, it's also the fault of That Person I Won't Name Because That Would Actually Be Good Communication, but if I say "cuckold" will you get my hint? (which selenak has also translated previously)
But it sounds like there is at least one more letter between Jan and Mar where Fritz really got on her case for the "yay peace" comment? Or am I misunderstanding something one of you said in previous comments? Or is it a later letter where she's called a traitor and miscreant?
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a) The audiobook version of their correspondance - which is a selection.
b) Various quotes from their correspondance in various biographies
c) The website with the travel correspondance.
This being said, the big big "reason you suck" letter from Fritz I have in mind is from April 16th - that's the one that lists all he thinks Wilhelmine did wrong. Also, the AW biography as well as the Wilhelmine biography point out that parallel to all the Fritz letters, she corresponded with AW - there's one letter either from her or Fritz which brings this up as well, see: ways Fritz shows his displeasure -, and the Wilhelmine/AW correspondance has never been published except in quotes in various biographies.
(Mind you: In one letter to Fritz dated May 9th 1744 (i.e. the previous year, when the trouble wasn't yet the MT meeting but mainly the Marwitz business), AW writes "Following your order I have written to my Bayreuth sister and as you have asked me to transmit you her reply, I add her letter to mine here", which you can read as either Fritz asking AW to run interference as a mediator or as Fritz using AW to distance himself from Wilhelmine as a punishment - perhaps it's also a bit of both.)
Among the quotes from Wilhelmine's letters to AW during the estrangement from Fritz era:
"Your tenderness is my one consolation in my distress caused by the King's harsh way. But I am sure in his heart of hearts, he cannot but feel ashamed for treating me thus."
This was written in 1744 and thus overly optimistic. By the time we're in early 1745, Wilhelmine to AW sounds thusly:
"Please make him return his friendship to me again, and tell him I can't go on living like this any longer, as all I've written to change his mind about me has been in vain. He is still angry with me. I am eternally grateful to you for all you're doing on my behalf."
And after Fritz finally signals he is mollified, she writes to AW:
"You were the only one who felt with me and understood how hurt I was, I shall never forget it. From this, I have learned to value your kind heart, and your good character, and if you'd been the only one drawn into these affairs, the misunderstandings would have been cleared up far sooner. I still write respectful and affectionate letters to the Queen Mother, but she demands too much of me and has never understood me."
Wilhelmine was as good as her word, too, and did plead for AW when he needed her in the last year of their lives.
W to F: I am convinced that my brother was not lacking in good will. The grace you've shown him in entrusting the leadership of the army to him was a mighty incentive to deserve it. Only you, my dearest brother, are free of flaws in this regard. You cannot demand of others what you ask from yourself. His despair (...) is a very harsh punishment for him. His mistake will teach him to be smarter, and he will make up for it, I am sure!
This was written after her letter from Fritz about the whole disaster but before AW's letter about his version arrived. Post receiving AW's letter, rites Ziebura: "In her letter from August 24th 1e747, the Margravine pointed out to Wilhelm that much of one said in the first flush of anger was soon repented. The King had gone too far, true, and Wilhelm's hurt reaction was understandable. But Friedrich's accusations had not yet been made public. (...) His reputation and honor thus had not yet been damaged in the eyes of the outside world, it was still a private matter between him and the King. He should make a generous gesture towards the King as he couldn't expect the King to make the first move."
As things instead go from bad to worse (and AW's disgrace does become public): "We cannot find a remedy in the past, only in the future. (...) At your hearts, both of you want things to be alright again!"
But unlike Wilhelmine's estrangement from Fritz in the 40s, this was to have no reconciliation ending....
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W to F: I am convinced that my brother was not lacking in good will. The grace you've shown him in entrusting the leadership of the army to him was a mighty incentive to deserve it. Only you, my dearest brother, are free of flaws in this regard. You cannot demand of others what you ask from yourself. His despair (...) is a very harsh punishment for him. His mistake will teach him to be smarter, and he will make up for it, I am sure!
<33333 Wilhelmine is so great, I love her <3 And now that I know more about AW I'm even more :((((((( about him :( <3
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Re: AW, naturally Fontane covers him as well in his travel guide, apropos Oranienburg, the palace Fritz gave him when Heinrich got Rheinsberg. It had been one of their grandfather's favored residences, which meant of course that FW had shut it down and ignored it for the three decades of his rule as part of his saving money to balance the state budget policy. This, however, meant that by the time AW got it and reopened it, the park had grown wild and really made it look like a fairy tale residence. Now Fontane quotes an older Prussian courtier - who did remember the F1 days - describing the party AW threw for his mother and siblings there. As it is a great example of a rokoko festivity, here is the description as quoted by Theodor Fontane: "On April 14," it says, "the Queen Mother set out from Berlin and arrived in Oranienburg in the afternoon of the same day. Her court followed her in a long line of bodies, probably thirty in number. The princess Amalie sat in the car of the queen. As soon as the approach of the train was announced to Prince August Wilhelm, he hurried up the great avenue towards the train, leapt from the horse in the face of the Queen's carriage, and greeted her, with his head bare, at the door of the carriage. Then he quickly swung himself back into the saddle and hurried forward in full gallop to repeat the honors at the entrance to the castle. At his side stood his wife, the Princess of Prussia (a born princess of Brunswick), the princes Heinrich and Ferdinand, and the court ladies of Wollden, Henckel, Wartensleben, Kamecke, Hacke, Pannewitz and Kannenberg. The queen most tenderly embraced her sons, greeted the bystanders, and was then led up the great staircase to the bedchamber destined for her, the same that King Frederick I used to inhabit during his visits to Oranienburg Castle. The queen found in this room a state bed of red damask, as well as an armchair, a fire-screen, and four taburets of the same cloth and the same color. Soon after the noble woman had settled in and enjoyed the view of the park and the landscape, the prince appeared to present her with three beautiful figures of Dresden porcelain, which the Queen Mother, as the prince knew, was particularly enamored by. But the queen mother was not alone in attracting the attention of this amiable prince, and Baron von Pöllnitz was also honored with similar attention. His Royal Highness well knew the fondness of the old Baron (von Pöllnitz) for all the antiquities and curiosities of the time of King Frederick I, who had always been a good and gracious lord to him, and mindful of that fondness, His Royal Highness presented the old baron with a morning cap, richly embroidered with gold, and a pair of slippers, which King Frederick I used to wear during his visits to Oranienburg, and who for more than thirty-two years had stood unnoticed and unappreciated in a half-forgotten chest. After sunset, promenades followed in the park, then game tables were arranged until about ten the welcome message that the supper was served, the game interrupted. What subtleties and surprises from the kitchen, which highly qualified wines, what cheerfulness, what cheerfulness of the guests! And yet at last the inevitable happened, as King Dagobert bitterly lamented at the time that even the best society had its end and had to part.
That was on April 14th. Early the next morning, and sooner than we liked, unfamiliar sounds woke us; the shepherd drove his flock past the castle, out into the fresh fields. The decision was made by a bull of such extra-elegant beauty that he could be none other than the well-known happy lover of the Virgin Europe; indeed, the manner in which he wore, and the strength of his breast tones, seemed to indicate that he would steal our Ladies at the different windows of the castle. But he was deceived, our ladies, who may have read the story, were afraid and held back so as not to expose themselves and their charms to similar dangers. However that may be, the morning slumber was disturbed, and in place of sleep, which refused to come again, promenades in a light, fluttering morning costume and, after breakfast, the mutual visits. The Princess Amalie received the tributes offered to her beauty; she wore a corset of black satin quilted with white silk and beneath it a silver-embroidered dress, embroidered with natural flowers. In this costume she stood and practiced the flute: Euterpe itself could have been the envy.
After dinner, the queen-mother received all the ladies present in her bedroom; those who preferred hand-crafting to card-playing sat on tabourets for the queen, while Baron Pöllnitz took his place as a reader, continuing in the reading of "La Manche or The Adventures of Monsieur. Bigaud". The queen followed the lecture and took off gold threads (se à à effiler de l'or). The decision of the day was made by a ball in the brightly lit dance hall, followed by a supper in the state room, at the end of the porcelain gallery. As the queen entered the state room, she suddenly noticed through the high windows opposite, as it suddenly did, in the middle of the dark park, like a flame-tree growing out of the earth. The picture became ever clearer, until at last it stood like a fiery arcade, which bore a crown at the highest point and below it the words "Vivat Sophia Dorothea."
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AND FRITZ I HOPE YOU WERE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF. Ahem.
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Guys, they're in French! I had no idea. She broke into French for her most passionate letters, apparently because French is the language of love and English couldn't begin to express the depth and strength of her emotions.
This is not something she normally does! In 500 pages of letters, 32 are in French, and 11 of those are to Algarotti. The others seem to be largely to French people who presumably don't speak English. But she starts writing to Algarotti in English, and then switches to French when her emotions become too strong (switching occasionally back to English). Woooow.
Guys, she's obsessed. o.O
After picking my very slow way through a subset of the French, I accidentally discovered that the back of the book has the English translations, haha. (I discovered this while deciding to flip through the entire book to see how often she writes in French. Then all the French letters were collated and translated in the last few pages, yay. Then I felt silly. :P) So I scanned and uploaded those as well, for those of us whose French is very slow.
Oh, and apologies for the sometimes slanted or wavy writing. Holding the book flat and scanning and getting a good quality picture was hard. But it should be readable in all cases. As always, let me know if you can't access the files. (I live in horror of this, ever since sending a blast email announcing my wedding, with a link to our wedding registry that apparently worked only if you were logged in as me.)
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Apr 1736
LM to A: I waited THREE HOURS for you. Quote: "Three Hours of expectation is no small Tryal of Patience, and I beleive [sic] some of your Martyrs have been canoniz'd for suffering less."
May 1736
LM to A: Come visit me tomorrow! If you don't reply, I'll take that to mean you're coming.
Aug 1736
LM to A: Now writing in the Language of Losing Your Mind to Love, aka French. Almost swooned at the thought of seeing you again.
Sep 1736
LM to A: Will love you forever, spend all my time agonizing over whether telling you so will offend you.
Sep 1736
LM to A: Remember Dido? Foreign guy comes to visit her, she falls in love, he abandons her, she kills herself. THAT'S ME RIGHT NOW. I mean, I think I'm tougher than that, but the thought did cross my mind, just so you know.
I had dinner with an acquaintance last night. She said you were the most attractive [aimable--translation the editor's] person she'd ever seen. I made her stay and talk until two am. Not because we talked about you, because we didn't. But just so I could enjoy the company of someone who had once enjoyed yours. THAT'S how far gone I am. The only other pleasure I have in life is writing letters you never answer. I realize this is irrational!
Also, since I never get anything in return, I maintain that makes my love the purest. When people pray to the Virgin Mary, they expect to get something in return. You've made it quite clear I can expect nothing. I LOVE YOU ANYWAY.
Sep 1736
LM to A: You're still not writing to me. I don't think your ship sank, or I would have heard about it. I'm going to go ask Lord Hervey if he has any news. Brb.
LH to LM: Yes, Algarotti writes to me, and no, he never mentions you. And yes, he knows you and I talk. Draw your own conclusions.
Sep 1736
LM to A: OMG, you wrote to me! I went to see Lord Hervey to ask him if you'd arrived safely in Paris. But I was such an emotional mess that I couldn't get this simple question out, and he got super annoyed with me.
LH to A: Omg, I tried to get out of talking to her, and then she caught me, and we had this incredibly painful, extended, and unsuccessful interview. What does she want?! FML
LH to LM: "It is not strange that any body who labours as much as you do to be unintelligible should be misunderstood, but if you will send me word what hour to night I may see you, I will call upon you for better information, if it be but for a minute, to show you that at least it is not willfully (as you say) that I misunderstand."
Oct 1736
LM to A: Pretty sure you haven't written to me. Your letters can't possibly be going astray. I have retired to the countryside to look at trees. Since I can't look at you, I don't want to look at other people.
Addendum later that day: OMG YOU WROTE TO HERVEY AGAIN? You bastard.
Dec 1736
Please find enclosed an unsolicited portrait of me. If you can't come to England, I'm moving to Italy so we can live together.
Feb 1738
LM to A: Everything sucks.
Jun 1738
LM to A: Haven't heard from you in over a month. Remember, me moving to Italy forever just to be with you is totally an option.
Jul 1738
LM to A: What do you mean, I didn't reply to your letter? You know I always reply to your letters the same day I get them. I am your Penelope. You're just lying so you can pretend you didn't get the many letters I sent you. P.S. I love you anyway.
Jul 1738
LM to A: I keep writing to you. I really hope you're getting all these letters. I'm going crazy here.
Aug 1738
LM to A: Ditto above.
Nov 1738
LM to A: Why are you upset with me? I do everything for you! If you're upset, it's all your fault. P.S. If I can't see you again, I want to die. Immediately.
Jan 1739
LM to A: I said I wasn't going to write to you any more until I heard from you, but here I am writing to you. You're probably infatuated with some beautiful Parisian woman. I am in very real danger of falling out of love with you here.
Feb 1739
LM to A: OMG, you're coming to London??!! Yes, I will totally pay for your trip! OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!
Mar 1739
LM to A: ...And now you're unhappy with my method of payment. Fine. We'll do it your way, despite the great inconvenience to me.
Jul 1739
LM to A: Since you managed to leave immediately after arriving, I am officially declaring: fuck this. I'm going to Italy, and we're going to be together forever.
Sep 1739
LM to A: I'm at the foot of the Alps and about to arrive in Italy. Trembling with anticipation. I went all the way through France without thinking about anything except you.
Algarotti: *hasn't been anywhere near Italy for years*
Algarotti: *currently hanging out with Crown Prince Fritz at Rheinsberg*
Dec 1739
LM to A: What the actual fuck. Now you're claiming you had no idea I was coming to Venice to live with you? You think I came here for the freaking Carnival*? NO I cannot go to Paris! You agreed to this plan! I'm staying here, I like it here, and if you don't want to join me, you can just stay wherever the heck you are now and feel bad about me coming all this way for you, you ingrate. You know, I could be happy here if it weren't for you.
* Footnote: the Carnival in Venice is kind of a big deal. You go there at the furthest removed time from Carnival, i.e. autumn, and you're like, "Wow, Carnival masks for sale everywhere."
Mar 1740
LM to A: What do you mean, you told me not to come to Italy? You totally agreed I should come to Italy! I have it in writing! I would have gone to Japan for you. Now. Seriously. I'm going to stay here, unless you tell me you really want me, and then I'll go anywhere. But you need to be super clear about it if you expect me to relocate again.
July 1740
LM to A: Still waiting for you.
Oct 1740
LM to A: Prepared to go anywhere in the world with you. Just say the word.
May 1741
LM to A: Newton did not study light more than I studied you. And when I looked into the prism of your eyes, I saw only indifference toward me. I'm sure this is my fault for not being interesting enough to spark emotion in a soul like yours.
Footnote: Critically, this letter is undated. Its content makes the most sense if it dates to May 1741, when they ran into each other in Turin, met up, and it was unpleasant enough that she stopped writing to him for the next decade and a half. BUT. The ink and paper are most similar to letters she wrote in England in the 1730s, so she might have gone through a period of disillusionment with him after his brief visit to London in spring 1739.
I'm sort of torn between sympathy and horror. Train wreck much? Without Algarotti's letters (of course, there aren't many), it's hard to say how much he encouraged her, but aside from the one where she claims he agreed to live in Venice with her, it sounds like not much. She's clearly suffering, but she's also clearly driving him crazy and she *knows* it (she repeatedly says so), so I am also totally sympathetic to Algarotti here. Since he was apparently a notorious people pleaser, I could imagine him going, "Suuuuuure, you should tooootally come to Venice
for, like, a two-day visit" hoping she didn't follow through, and making sure she didn't know he was far, far away when she did.Nothing about everything I know about Algarotti indicates that he was any good at confrontation, like, at all, so he probably carries some share of the blame here, but I can imagine him trying to be distantly polite in the face of her relentlessness, and her latching onto the least bit of encouragement and ignoring all the attempts at discouragement he claims to have made. It's also quite possible he wrote something that read to him as, "If you're in town, you're welcome to my guest room," and to her as, "Drop everything and come to Venice so we can fulfill our destiny of being together forever."
In the end, I'm glad she managed to enjoy Italy more than England and be much happier there than she was at home, to the point where she lived there for the next twenty years without him. Silver lining?
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But yes, silver lining. BTW, Burgdorf the unreliable GAY GAY AND DID I MENTION GAY Fritz biographer of course lists Alagarotti among the Fritzian conquests and assures his readers that never ever did Algarotti consort with anyone female ever. For verily, bi people do not exist. Sigh.
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True. As we've seen elsewhere, he was on a desperate job hunt at the time, hence his very brief stay, buuuut, you're right, that may not have been the most ethical move ever.
BTW, Burgdorf the unreliable GAY GAY AND DID I MENTION GAY Fritz biographer of course lists Alagarotti among the Fritzian conquests and assures his readers that never ever did Algarotti consort with anyone female ever. For verily, bi people do not exist.
Sigh, sigh, and sigh. I mean, Algarotti is generally listed among the Fritzian conquests (orgasm poem, anyone?), but Algarotti was almost certainly bi! And not just because of Lady Mary. Omg, reactionary historians are terrible.
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It is nice she liked Italy, though :P