Frederick the Great, discussion post 6

[cahn]

...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

Comments

Re: Barbarina

[mildred_of_midgard]

Why is it every time I delete something, you go ahead and say it? Yes, indeed, I had originally written something about being witty/quick-witted as qualifications and given examples, but decided I was rambling.

Quick-wittedness was moreover a general qualification for Fritz being willing to give you the time of day, not just batmen, at least according to Catt (whom I have no reason to disbelieve), and Catt also reports that Fritz went by first impressions. If he decided you were quick-witted when you met, you were quick-witted forever. If not, you had little to no chance of changing his mind. So Lehndorff I think was SOL from the beginning.

If Catt's right, said line-up of batmen must have each been having a good day when they met him and got the job offer. (Catt's own job offer, as you may recall, came after a single incognito meeting. I've also been impressed just how quickly Fritz started confiding in Catt and telling him things, though it's possible the "Nobody else knows this, only you, my sole confidant" lines Fritz keeps feeding him are not strictly true? Actually, come to think of it, it wouldn't surprise me if it were paranoid Fritz testing him. Or a distortion of memory due to Catt's memoirs being written well after the fact.)

I don't think Lehndorff would have wanted to miss those fifty years of it

That's very true. Poor Lehndorff, caught between the brothers.

Re: Barbarina

[selenak]

Or a distortion of memory due to Catt's memoirs being written well after the fact.

My money is on the later. Though you mentioned diaries - do they still exist? The golden standard there is my guy Boswell, since we do have his diaries to compare with the way he used them as material in his Life of Johnson. Which was by no means arbitrary.

Anyway, when famous celebrity X tells someone "only you know this/you're my only confidant" in their memoirs, I tend to be sceptical unless there's contemporary back up material. Everyone likes to feel special. Still, as far as I know no other memoirist claims Fritz talked to him about Katte's death and Küstrin - or is there one? So maybe Henri de Catt was special.