cahn | Frederick the Great, discussion post 6

...I think we need another one (seriously, you guys, this is THE BEST) and I'd better make it now before I disappear into the wilds of music performance.

(also, as of this week there are two Frederician fics in the yuletide archive and eeeeeeeeeee)
(huh, only one of them is actually tagged with Frederick the Great even though two with Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, eeeeeee this is awesome I CAN'T WAIT)

Frederick the Great masterpost

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From:

cahn

omg this is great!! ahahaha, sadly I am unavailable for Fritz/Voltaire this Yuletide (see also: OMG DECEMBER), but let us talk about this next Yuletide :P Because OMG this is AWESOME. Fritz/Voltaire is maybe my favorite crack ship now :P (...only it's canon!)

(well, okay, Fritz/Joe will always have a special place in my heart too)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

By next Yuletide, I hope to have acquired more background info on Voltaire! That should help. I've already managed to read/skim his memoirs insofar as they pertained to Fritz, made possible even in my current state by dint of its being 1) short, 2) full of things I already know about Fritz, 3) so heavily quoted in secondary sources that it was almost like rereading rather than reading. I hope to do a write-up as soon as I have time + brainpower, i.e. brainpower that doesn't get spent on something else.

I mean, learning French and reading their 3 volumes of correspondence is a bit ambitious, but aggressively Google translating a bunch of letters: very likely.

They are an awesome crack pairing! Even 1926!Editor admits they're canon to at least some degree! (And aww, we never did get Fritz and Joe together.)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I have found two Fritz/Voltaire quotes of possible interest. One is for real, and the other is one of those things where I tracked down the citation and it didn't say that, nay, not even in the French. However, the text gives a different citation that seems more likely to be real, only good luck tracking it down. Anyway. Here we go!

This is Fritz writing to Algarotti in 1749, when he's trying to lure Voltaire into a permanent position at his court:

It is a great pity that such a cowardly soul should be joined to such a great genius. He has all the lovableness and maliciousness of a monkey … I am not going to make a fuss because I need him for the study of French elocution. You may learn pretty things from a scoundrel. I want to know his French: how important is the moral issue? This man has found the means to combine opposites. You admire his mind at the same time as despising his character.

So, on the one hand, Fritz knew. He knew what he was getting himself in for. On the other hand, his protestation that he's only doing it for the French lessons...dude, your French and your poetry are bad enough that there are a number of other people you can get lessons from. You don't get this emotionally invested in a French teacher. You are Head. Over. Heels.

And then there's this quote, which is supposedly from a letter from Voltaire to his niece (Madame Denis' sister) which got translated into the memoirs. Now, I have the memoirs, both in English and in French, and neither of them has this passage. But the original letter may. Anyway. Voltaire has just accepted the position and arrived at Fritz's court. He writes:

I have been formally granted, my dear child, to the king of Prussia. My marriage has been celebrated; will it be a happy one? I have no idea. I could not stop myself from saying yes. The marriage would have happened anyway, after flirting for so many years. My heart beat nervously at the altar.

THEY WRITE THEMSELVES.

(I really need to see the original, though. If I could afford it, I'd love a subscription to E-Enlightenment, which supposedly has his full correspondence as well as that of a lot of other Enlightenment figures, such as Lady Mary, but...it's $40/mo, and even if I could download everything I needed in one month...not until I'm working again. Of course, then I'll have much less time for fandom, but, tradeoffs.)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

More Voltaire crackfic material!

Remember when

selenak reported a conspiracy theory that all accusations of homosexuality against Fritz were from a Voltaire being paid by Austrian agents to slander him? And she wrote:

As centuries old conspiracy theories go, this is a new one, at least to me. I mean: how MT would have hired Voltaire to spread gossip about Fritz' sex life (as opposed to Voltaire doing it out of spite), I don't know, but I'm sure Voltaire would have taken the money if he was annoyed and broke enough at the time, principles be damned. It's just that given MT's general opinion on French freethinking philosphers suspected of denying god, he'd probably run once he saw an Austrian agent.

Well, just because Voltaire's ENTIRE LIFE is a crackfic, I have figured out how that would work! Immediately after the whole Frankfurt explosion, Fritz wrote to Marischal that Voltaire "has petitioned the queen of Hungary to enter into her service. She has sent an ingenious reply that there was room for Voltaire only on Mount Parnassus, and as that was not in Vienna, they couldn’t receive him in the manner due. On learning this the poet wrote to the king my uncle, asking him for a pension of £800 a year."

And yes, I have the actual letter where Fritz says this. Now, is Fritz necessarily a reliable source on Voltaire? No, but he's attributing a retort to MT that he calls ingenious, so maybe that's genuine. Or he's just trying to make it look like Voltaire is consorting with his enemies. But I like to think Voltaire asked her and she made that quip.

Voltaire *sitting on a street corner holding up a cardboard sign*: Will Satirize Fritz for Money
Voltaire *sotto voce*: Will also do it on my own time, unpaid.

From:

cahn

I...

I am not even sure Fritz/Voltaire is a thing a fic could do justice to. It's one of those things where you're like, "but who could really ~~get more crackfic~~ improve on canon?!"

OMG LOL, I am laughing both at Voltaire and at Fritz saying something nice about MT. (Also: MT, I still love you lots!)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

It's like when someone asked for Alcibiades crackfic for Yuletide and back when I still thought I might be able to write fics before Dec 25, I was like, "I don't have to write a crackfic, I just have to describe what happened!"

MT was too smart to invite Voltaire to her court, but we--or at least I--still wish she had. :P Fritz wasn't, and look at all the comedy = tragedy + time that resulted!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

From Passionate Minds, which doesn't believe in citations: "In writings that were to be kept strictly private, Frederick jotted down his dreams. 'I admire [Voltaire's] eyes, so clear and piercing...I would kiss his eloquent lips, 100 times.'"

CITATION NEEDED. CITATION DESPERATELY NEEDED by gossipy sensationalists.

Also, the immediately following line, "Voltaire was willing to do a lot for his country, but Frederick was gay, and Voltaire was not. With a certain amount of deft footwork, he intended to remain that way," in combination with one of my earlier quotes, is hilarious.

"I'm not gay, I just want to marry Frederick."

Oh, man, rarely have I needed two citations as badly as I need the citations for these two quotes.

(Also, the implication that rape turns you gay is...hopefully unintentional, but very unfortunate wording.)

From:

cahn

Wait, like, what are these Fritz writings that were to be kept strictly private? And why don't you, the terrier scholar with sensationalist gossipy tendencies, know about them? I'm more than half inclined to say that the author made them up :P

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Oh, the author def makes lots of things up, but there are sooo many things I don't know. With $40, I'd plow through the E-Enlightenment site with everyone's correspondence, and the gossipy sensationalism would blow your mind. :-PP (It's not that I don't have $40. It's that I don't have $40 and also all the other unlimited dollars I want to spend on the Fritz fandom and other books, so am trying to limit myself to one purchase per month until I'm back at work.)

Heck, I still think it's possible FW expressed some interest in getting Silesia back, just not in the 1722 testament. It would help a great deal if this terrier scholar 1) knew German or even better French, 2) could read physical books.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

More Fritz/Voltaire, from Catt. It's 1758, so 5 years after their big falling out.

[Fritz is speaking] "After having depicted Voltaire to you as wicked, faithless, and dangerous, I will say a word to you about those who formerly composed my literary society."

He was at this point, when a letter was brought in to him. He saw the seal and cried: "Ah, Catt, it is from Voltaire. He still remembers then that I exist." He opened and read or rather devoured with his eyes the letter.

And Wilhelmine is the one who's hopelessly fallen for him, riiiight.