![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnFrederician fandom is the best! 3 stories in main archive and 2 stories in Madness, eeeeeeee and I have only managed to read my own gifts so far (well, I guess Madness isn't open yet either, but even if it had been I wouldn't have managed to have read them) but they are so goooooood
Also, I would like to apologize on behalf of the fandom that none of us apparently managed any Fritz/Voltaire. Some of us, uh, didn't know enough about Voltaire, and we are Taking Steps to attempt to rectify this in the future if anyone requests it, say, next year. Just saying.
I'm making this post because the last one has an insane number of comments, but I still owe SO many comments on the last post and I kiiiinda would like to read and comment on Yuletide stories for the next week as time permits so I almost hope this post doesn't get much action and then we resume in the new year? (Especially since there is a limited amount of discussion we can do on the fics right now!) :D I was thinking of making another post anyway for reveals.
(*) My husband D came up with this :P :)
Also, I would like to apologize on behalf of the fandom that none of us apparently managed any Fritz/Voltaire. Some of us, uh, didn't know enough about Voltaire, and we are Taking Steps to attempt to rectify this in the future if anyone requests it, say, next year. Just saying.
I'm making this post because the last one has an insane number of comments, but I still owe SO many comments on the last post and I kiiiinda would like to read and comment on Yuletide stories for the next week as time permits so I almost hope this post doesn't get much action and then we resume in the new year? (Especially since there is a limited amount of discussion we can do on the fics right now!) :D I was thinking of making another post anyway for reveals.
(*) My husband D came up with this :P :)
no subject
Date: 2019-12-26 05:45 am (UTC)HAHAHAHAAA. Steps are Being Taken. *official sounding voice*
I almost hope this post doesn't get much action and then we resume in the new year?
If you're suggesting I hold off another week on my textual criticism, I suppooose. :P It's true I would like to give you time to catch up on comments to existing discussions, and then
(Especially since there is a limited amount of discussion we can do on the fics right now!)
Alternatively, you could lock the post to the three of us for a week? How wedded are you two to maintaining
the pretensethat last 0.00001% of uncertainty as to author identity? If you are, that's fine, I'm just...proposing alternatives?no subject
Date: 2019-12-26 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-26 09:37 am (UTC)Secondly, mes amies, we have to ask yourselves: what would Fritz and Voltaire do? Remain anonymous with their pamphlets and attribute them to other people, that's what. More seriously, I'm thinking (oblique) tactics. Maybe some reading friends of
Thirdly, I want to gush about the amazing quote from Catt's memoirs that you posted in the last post: 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.
Yep. Would definitely have eloped with Voltaire to London, or for that matter, Lappland, if it had been an option. >After all the arguments and fallouts.
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.
Which is clearly why MT made the Parnassos quip instead of hiring him. I mean, she could count. Why waste money for something that you'll get for free anyway?
More seriously: what do we think Voltaire saw in Fritz? Other than a source of money (as any writer would have done) and, early on before he got disabused of the notion, a chance to change at least some part of the world by shaping an enlightened monarch? (I would say "play Aristotle to an Alexander", but being Alexander always comes with starting wars and conquering, and Voltaire did not want Fritz to do that.) Because as far as I know, Voltaire's other long term feuds - most famously with Rousseau, the other Most Famous French Writing Philospher Of The Enlightenment - did not come with the "can't do without" dimension of "can't do with", and he certainly didn't make Alcina and marriage comparisons. Spiritual/emotional kinship (ranging from love of sarcasm and feuds to evil fathers)? The one homoromantic exception in an otherwise het life? (And I do think Voltaire was straight, and not in a repressed FW fashion) because seriously, if he'd wanted to have sex with men, he would have.) What?
no subject
Date: 2019-12-26 10:30 am (UTC)Oh, well, they would deny their own authorship, but they would be very outspoken in accusing each other, as we've seen! Plus both were wretchedly hopeless at remaining incognito: Fritz lasted, what, a day or two in Strasbourg? Voltaire less than a day when fleeing for his life? By the time he arrived in Brussels, the townspeople were already staging his plays in his honor and inviting him to attend. :P But all right, since everyone else is busy and I'm the only one who doesn't celebrate. I will sit on my hands a while longer.
Maybe some reading friends of [personal profile] cahn's will find their curiosity triggered by Yuletide and will want to check out our discussion posts, which they can't when they're locked.
I'm already inviting people, but really, it's only the one fic discussion post that would be locked. By the time they read the 425,000 words in the first 6, I'm pretty sure author reveals will have happened!
Btw, quick fic rec for someone I invited, who posted their first Fritz fic on the 24th: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21939409
Yep. Would definitely have eloped with Voltaire to London, or for that matter, Lappland, if it had been an option. >After all the arguments and fallouts.
Yes. After. The least bit of encouragement from Voltaire, and he would have been *gone*.
Why waste money for something that you'll get for free anyway?
MT is smart. Why buy the cow when the milk is free?
More seriously: what do we think Voltaire saw in Fritz?
This is a good question, and I don't know Voltaire nearly as well as I know Fritz. Reading at least a good chunk of their correspondence is on my list of things to do.
I will say that I suspect Voltaire's head was probably turned by all the praise, as he says it was. Fritz did start it, after all. It's quite possible some component of the "can't live without" was Voltaire mirroring Fritz's intense homoromantic energy, which never slackened, during or after the fights and breakup fallout. I agree Voltaire was straight, but he was intense, and Fritz was intense, and being in the middle of that intense energy flow must have been something, even if it wasn't sustainable at close range.
I think Voltaire genuinely respected Fritz's intelligence and versatility even while the personality drove him crazy. (Passionate Minds author gives Fritz far less credit than Voltaire does even in his Fritz-trashing memoirs.) His love-hate relationship with Fritz reminds me of Heinrich's, and it doesn't necessarily need to have been homoromantic...but there is all that homoromantic language. I still need to find the source for that marriage analogy, though, but even Alcina is a pretty heady comparison.
I suspect Voltaire and Heinrich's inability to keep away from Fritz was fed by Fritz's inability to keep away from them, and the feeling of looking in a mirror and arguing with yourself (your other self).
Fritz also had a hell of a lot of charisma, and a lot of good points. People who broke up with him in whatever sense frequently came back, especially if they could do so as pen pals.
Finally, I want to say that Voltaire's ability to live with Fritz after the Silesian wars despite his principles is part of the reason I think FW's attitude toward Frederick the Great would have been much like Fritz's toward FW: "A+ job overall, notwithstanding all the cringeworthy parts that are totally opposed to all my values." Even if FW didn't mention Silesia in his 1722 political testament.
I still want to find that letter where Voltaire, post-Seven Years' War, supposedly told Fritz he hoped he was granted a long life in which to rule his kingdom.
I'm burning with curiosity about the intertextual crossreferencing of seven primary sources.
I'm dying to get your input, as I'm sure there are things I've missed or gotten wrong, and also because I want a second opinion to say: "Wow, you're onto something!" or "I think you're overinterpreting the evidence." (Btw, I'm stretching "primary" to include both "author was present at the event" and "author knew at least one person present at the event" sources.)
But there's something to be said for slowing down a bit so
I don't know, you guys tell me. When should I start unloading my huge textual criticism info dump?
Glasow
Date: 2019-12-26 12:57 pm (UTC)Refresher on who Glasow is:
- Fritz's batman.
- Went with him to the Netherlands on the incognito trip.
- Lehndorff really wanted to go with Fritz on the Netherlands trip.
- Lehndorff said Fredersdorf retired because he was jealous of Glasow.
- We're not sure about Fredersdorf, but pretty sure Lehndorff is jealous of Glasow.
- Imprisoned for something, historians debate what.
- Maybe attempting to poison Fritz.
- Maybe unauthorized use of his seal.
- So basically another Marwitz or Trenck, possibly less exciting (but possibly very exciting if only we had more data).
Anyone who wanted to write crackfic that included Glasow, Marwitz, *and* Trenck would have a lot of material to work with. :P Lehndorff's head would explode from all the envy. "Why does he keep picking these charismatic bastards when he could have meeee?"
Attn Lehndorff: You have to make cow eyes at siblings *after* you start working for Fritz, not before.
Re: Glasow
Date: 2019-12-26 04:45 pm (UTC)the most adorable of heroesTHE Princea sibling? I never would have used poison or stolen a seal or spied for the Austrians! And I may not have been able to be a batman through no fault of mine but that of a clumsy midwife, but I could be a reader! I love reading and discussing books!Heinrich and I read a lot of books together. His reading of CYRUS ALONE...I am fluent in French! Why the King keeps looking abroad for readers instead to his loyal subjects is beyond me. And now you must excuse me. I am meeting a friend at the opera. It is a good thing that I am a philosopher now, for he will probably bring along some tall, handsome and dastardly mannered creature as well.Not Lehndorff: How long did Glasow stay imprisoned for whatever it was? And does Catt say anything about him?
no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 02:44 am (UTC)I don't know anyone like that :P
But all right, since everyone else is busy and I'm the only one who doesn't celebrate.
Well, I mean, part of this is celebrating Yuletide, which I realize you can't really do ideally right now :(
Reading at least a good chunk of their correspondence is on my list of things to do.
Excellent! Voltaire is one of those people I've always meant to read, in general, and now I have the impetus to do so :D
I'm burning with curiosity about the intertextual crossreferencing of seven primary sources.
ME TOO. I'm just worried about being able to keep up with you guys, lol. Though (except for a couple of days in early Jan) although I'm relatively low on free time, I'm not going to be quite as low as I was the last, er, month, so maybe I can do it :D
When should I start unloading my huge textual criticism info dump?
Well, I will definitely be able to be more engaged after the 5th, but I realize I am holding you guys back, so... go ahead if you want and I'll try to catch up :)
And maybe I won't do a separate Fritzmas reveal post, we can just keep on with this one :) Any opinions about that?
no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 02:46 am (UTC)Holstein Pete and P(Russian) Pete
Date: 2019-12-27 04:23 am (UTC)Re: Glasow
Date: 2019-12-27 06:23 am (UTC)You're no Voltaire, Lehndorff, in good ways or bad.Glasow: All I have is this. No primary sources. "He was seized, judicially interrogated in the presence of the king, and dispatched the following day in chains to Spandau, where he was immured in a dungeon in solitary confinement, and in a short time after ended his days. It appeared so necessary to the king, to keep secret the names of all the persons connected with this crime, that he would not allow him even to be attended by a physician, in his last moments."
Um, hi, Trenck-lite? I guess Fritz does this from time to time. No mention of being chained to a wall or made to sit on his own gravestone, though.
I don't remember Catt mentioning him, but my memory is Swiss cheese for things I wasn't looking for when I read something. Will keep an eye out whenever I revisit Catt, now that Glasow is of interest to us. (That's how I've been picking out the Voltaire quotes. "Oh, yeah, Catt said that too!")
Re: Holstein Pete and P(Russian) Pete
Date: 2019-12-27 06:44 am (UTC)Re: Holstein Pete and P(Russian) Pete
Date: 2019-12-27 07:38 am (UTC)I don't think we told you all of this, which I was writing up when
Peter III was born Karl Peter Ulrich in Holstein, which was a duchy in the HRE at the time, and today is part of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, just south of Denmark. His mother was a daughter of Peter the Great. She died after giving birth to him. His father claimed the the Swedish throne but never managed to sit on it. Dad more successfully managed to be duke of Holstein, but, alas, lost Schleswig to the Danes. So when Peter was born, he was duke of Holstein (and Gottorp, which doesn't enter into this story). There were wars, there were treaties, territories changed hands, it's complicated.
Anyway, Peter grows up a German-speaking prince in a Germany duchy. This is relevant to his story.
Elizaveta (sorry, her name is etched in my brain in this form), daughter of Peter the Great and aunt of young Karl Peter Ulrich, becomes Tzarina of Russia. She's the one who haaaates Fritz's guts, fairly so as he also hates her. They will end up fighting the Seven Years' War against each other, and her troops will hand him his worst defeat at Kunersdorf. (After which he handed over command to one of his generals, talked about abdicating and letting Heinrich run things, and considered suicide. Through a combination of control issues and terrier personality, Fritz was back in sole command in a week or two.)
Anyway, back in Holstein. When he's 11, Peter Karl Ulrich's dad dies and he becomes Duke of Holstein. But if you think that's exciting, wait until he turns fourteen.
Finland: Congratulations, Karl Peter Ulrich, you're king!
Sweden: Congratulations, Karl Peter Ulrich, you're heir presumptive!
Russia: Congratulations, Karl Peter Ulrich, you're heir presumptive! Elizaveta may or may not have a secret husband and may or may not have secret kids, but she sure hasn't produced any heirs to the throne.
Finland, Sweden, Russia: *catch up on the news*
Finland, Sweden, Russia: ...Wait a minute! You can't be all those things!
Sweden: Takesy-backsies!
Sweden and Russia: Ha, no, what were we thinking, letting the Finns have a king. Finland belongs to Sweden, which definitely does not belong to Karl Peter Ulrich.
Russia: Hey, Karl Peter Ulrich, what kind of weirdo foreign name is that? Your name is Pyotr Fyodorovich, you're moving to St. Petersburg, and you're Orthodox now. Congratulations, Grand Duke Pyotr, you're now heir presumptive to your aunt Elizaveta! I hope you like Russia.
And so it was that HolsteinPete became RussianPete. But RussianPete did not like Russia so much, and in his heart he was still German, hence (P)RussianPete. And if you're German, who's the coolest? Fritz is the coolest, that's who.
Fritz: *has just conquered Silesia for the first time*
ViennaJoe: *is one year old*
Evidently (working off DW and tumblr write-ups here), young Karl Peter is separated from his BFF Christian August von Brockdorff, who is not allowed to accompany him to Russia, on grounds of being a bad influence. But Brockdorff is a persistent BFF. After being turned away at the Russian border, he manages to slip in incognito, make it to St. Petersburg, and be welcomed by Peter and made chamberlain. The slashers go wild.
A few years later, Fritz arranges for one of his general's daughters, Sophie Friederike, to move to St. Petersburg to marry Grand Duke Pyotr, in hopes that after Elizaveta dies, Russia will become (P)Russia. When she's on her way to Russia, that episode happens that we told you about, where she's young and nervous and sitting next to Fritz at dinner, and Fritz charms her, and they have a nice conversation about music and such.
But young Sophie Friederike moves to St. Petersburg, changes her name to Catherine, becomes Orthodox, and sees which way the wind is blowing. She becomes fluent in Russian (albeit with a German accent), and embraces her new religion instead of speaking German and making fun of Orthodoxy. When she was deeply ill and lying on her sickbed facing the possibility of death, she's said to have refused Lutheran religious comfort and sent for an Orthodox priest, thus making all the Russians happy with their new Grand Duchess.
When Elizaveta dies, (P)RussianPete decides his first moves as Tsar Peter III will be to:
1) Tell Fritz he is the coolest.
2) Switch sides in the war and basically place his army at Fritz's disposal, instead of attacking him all the time and making him consider suicide.
3) Return to Prussia all the Prussian lands that the Russian army had conquered under Elizaveta. For free. Just because "OMG Fritz I'm SO SORRY about my predecessor."
4) Institute a bunch of reforms in imitation of Fritz. (Russia was in desperate need of reforms, I kid you not.)
5) Try to get Schleswig back from the Danes, because *clearly* what is most important to Russia is some minor German principality. And this principality is totally worth pissing off the Danes over, right after you've handed over recently conquered Russian territory to the Prussians.
Re (5), I have read that even Fritz suggested to Peter that this might not be the best idea ever, in that it might not go over so well with the Russians.
To summarize: HolsteinPete proved that he was nominally RussianPete but really PrussianPete, or at the very least StillExtremelyGermanPete.
Well, the Russians are indeed not too thrilled about all this, and there are a few more of them in Russia than Peter's German buddies, and they speak Russian with their Russian-speaking Grand Duchess (well, I suppose now that Elizaveta's dead, she's Empress Consort), with the result that 6 months later, former Grand Duchess/Empress Consort is reigning Tzarina/Empress Catherine the soon-to-be-Great, and Peter III is twiddling his thumbs in prison for about a week, before he dies of Extremely Natural and Not At All Suspicious Causes. (Historians debate.)
And since AnhaltSophie, the cow who didn't even get Fritz's autograph for (P)RussianPete at that dinner, has become RussianCatherine, the pro-German foreign policy ends, and she gets to stay Tzarina for more than
5 minutes6 months. She will undo Peter's reforms, then re-issue a bunch of them in her own name because they were such obviously good ideas to any product of the Enlightenment, plus add in a bunch more reforms, and she will fangirl Voltaire (although not stage Semiramis for him) and be very sad when he dies. Like Fritz, though, the longer she hangs onto absolute power, the more conservative she becomes.Catherine: Idk, maybe freeing the serfs is a noble cause for an enlightened monarch.
Serfs: *riot*
Catherine: On second thought, that sounds scary.
So that is the story of HolsteinPete, AnhaltSophie, (P)RussianPete, and RussianCatherine. :)
External links
Date: 2019-12-27 07:48 am (UTC)The fics in our fandom are popular!
Newcomers love crackfic!
This person is clearly one of us, and I am trying to get them to join us, and also Selena commented so then this happened.
Italian Greyhounds
Date: 2019-12-27 08:11 am (UTC)A week later, Friedrich’s replacement flute wasn't up to par any more than Eichel's replacement was
LOL Have I mentioned Oh Fritz lately?!
Fictional detail is historically accurate! We have a letter from Fritz complaining that the new flute was "nicht recht gut," and he wanted a different one. As for Eichel, I have no data, but I assume no replacement could live up to him on his first day on the job; the man could out-work Fritz and Fredersdorf.
Another historically accurate detail is that we don't know exactly on what day the dogs were returned, but the letter complaining about the flute dates to October 9, as does a letter to EC. (It is in fact, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad* condolence letter about her brother's death.) I like the author's implication that Fritz was killing time by writing to her. :P
* In case our native of Germany is not familiar, this is an allusion to a children's book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Thanks to my wife, I have learned that no matter how up on American popular culture you are, you may still miss the children's book references.
Re: External links
Date: 2019-12-27 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 01:24 pm (UTC):D
I'm just saying, there's precedent from our antiheroes!
Well, I mean, part of this is celebrating Yuletide, which I realize you can't really do ideally right now :(
True. :( I am definitely struggling to read the things I want to read, and certainly to comment. Non-fiction research is easier.
And maybe I won't do a separate Fritzmas reveal post, we can just keep on with this one :) Any opinions about that?
Hmmm. I'm in favor of a reveal post, though! I'm definitely planning on doing one myself. We should reveal the wonders of our fandom's YT accomplishments! There's no rule that says all our posts have to have hundreds of comments. :P Alternatively, once we overload this one, as I'm sure we will, we'll have a new one ready and waiting without you having to create it. :)
Well, I will definitely be able to be more engaged after the 5th, but I realize I am holding you guys back, so... go ahead if you want and I'll try to catch up :)
Okay, I've decided on this compromise: I will occupy myself with other things as long as I can hold out, to give you two as much time as you can for your lives outside of Fritz fandom (of which I obviously have none at this time :P), but at some point I will break down, and it will almost certainly be well before the 5th. Hopefully my two new Fritzian friends will be able to distract me with chitchat (and custom-ordered fic writing!!) for a bit. :D
Voltaire
Date: 2019-12-28 12:23 pm (UTC)First impressions: mutual admiration society indeed. They lay it on so thick with "you're the greatest!" "no, you're the greatest!" that one is relieved when they talk about subjects other than themselves (Peter I., whether free will is possible when there's a God, Machiavelli) instead. Entertaining as those accolades are, they get tiring after a while, especially coming from people who at this stage haven't met yet. However, I would like to note Voltaire starts with the flirting. As in, when Fritz compares him to Socrates, "if I am Socrates, you are my Alcibiades, for you have his good qualities without his bad ones", equalling his relationships with Emilie and Fritz - "What do I care about the great Nothing, as long as divus Federicus et diva Emilia love me!" and, when news arrives that FW is just about to kick it, starting a letter with "I dream of my Prince the way one dreams of a mistress". (Pleschinski, who ought to know and is no homophobe (as well as gay himself), translates "einer Geliebten", not "einem Geliebten", i.e. Voltaire uses the female form.)
As for young Fritz, if one already starts in ultimate fanboy mode to the Greatest Living Writer (tm), one has to get really inventive to keep up the accolades without repetition. He takes to much care to always include Emilie in his greetings and to pay compliments to her even in the poems he writers to Voltaire - "le savoir d'Emilie et l'ésprit de Voltaire" are mankind's sublime graces, etc., - that one almost doesn't notice the one thing he pointedly does not do: issue a double invitation in all those "come to
mePrussia, why don't you, we would treasure you fare more than those ungrateful French!" urgings, despite Voltaire heavily hinting at one. Divus Fredericus is more of an Old Testament than a pagan god, and he would like to rule alone, thank you very much. Once he becomes King, it's mask off in that regard, and he writes point blank: "As for the divine Emilie, for all her divinity she is no more than the arm decoration of the Newtonian Apollo" whom he'd like to meet alone. (That's the last letter I've read so far.)Hilariously and also interesting in hindsight is the Peter the Great stuff. They both start out mostly admiring him, though Voltaire warns Fritz is to be inspired by him solely as a monarch, not as a human being. Then Fritz gets his hands on some memoirs detailing the whole gory Alexeji business and some other ruthless and gory acts. This may or may not have resonated on a personal level, but at any rate he shares the book with Voltaire. Who is all (paraphrasing, not quoting now) "okay, that's changed my image of Peter totally, but I'm still stumped, how can a man be a great reformer dragging his people forward into the modern age while at the same time being responsible for the deaths of so many of them? How can someone be a progressive spirit and yet such a petty tyrant at the same time!" You're about to find out, Voltaire.
Fritz is already badmouthing Machiavelli early on in the correspondance - cmplaining Voltaire lists him as one of the great minds of his age - so one assumes the Anti-Machiavel wasn't entirely out of calculation. He's also badmouthing Grandpa F1 and talking up Dad as a monarch, which could be both from sincere conviction and due to the possibility his letters could be read.
You're probably familiar with the passage where he praises Algarotti? (Whom he also rhymes with (Michelangelo) Buonarotti in a - separate - poem.)
Voltaire: one smooth beta reader. When correcting Fritz' French, he tells him it's far better than his, Voltaire's Latin, it's totally amazing, but just as he himself has to be corrected, there's just this tiny thing here and this little comma there, etc.
Re: Italian Greyhounds
Date: 2019-12-28 12:33 pm (UTC)Re: Voltaire
Date: 2019-12-28 12:36 pm (UTC)Once again,
mutual admiration society indeed. They lay it on so thick with "you're the greatest!" "no, you're the greatest!" that one is relieved when they talk about subjects other than themselves
I had browsed through just enough of the earliest letters to get this impression, yes. Had not gotten as far as the Peter I stuff, neat!
one almost doesn't notice the one thing he pointedly does not do: issue a double invitation... Once he becomes King, it's mask off in that regard
Yep, and yep. That fits what I had picked up on from quotations: she was lucky to have him, didn't deserve him, etc. Friiiitz! (I was going to say something about misogyny here, but...one wonders if romantic jealousy is also a factor.)
How can someone be a progressive spirit and yet such a petty tyrant at the same time!
You sweet summer child.
one assumes the Anti-Machiavel wasn't entirely out of calculation
One does, unless one is 15-yo me, or the author of Passionate Minds. Voltaire certainly said he believed it was genuine. 36-yo me buys it.
You're probably familiar with the passage where he praises Algarotti?
I probably am, but it's not coming to mind just now, and our gracious hostess (who runs our salon) certainly isn't, so...help us out?
Voltaire: one smooth beta reader.
I see how he gets hired! Catt also had this skill, per his memoirs.
Thank you once again for your lovely and informative write-ups of books we cannot (easily) read!
Re: Italian Greyhounds
Date: 2019-12-28 12:38 pm (UTC)* As noted, we're not actually sure he did complain about the dogs to Fredersdorf, because Biche isn't mentioned, and Annemarie and Champion may not have been dogs.
Re: Voltaire
Date: 2019-12-28 01:27 pm (UTC)Young Algarotti, whom you know, has endeared himself to me above and beyond. He has promised me to return as soon as possible. We talked a lot about you, about geometry, poetry, all the sciences, also about God and the world. He's fiery, vivacious and sensitive, and nothing could please me more. He's written a cantata which we have set to music at once, and he was very satisfied by the result. We took leave of each other with the greatest regret, and I fear I won't meet another man as amiable in this country for a long, long while.
(This apropos of Algarotti leaving for the first time, since Fritz is still crown prince and not yet able to offer state pensions.)
I was going to say something about misogyny here, but...one wonders if romantic jealousy is also a factor.
One can stop wondering. He admits it in a letter from June 1740 where he goes from prose into poetry and back, which after "come to meeeeee!" goes
When Orpheus saw Eurydice in the underworld/he can't have felt more joy/than our happy first encounter will make me feel/but I fear Pluto less than Émilie/Her charms have chained up your life for all time/Love has more power over your heart/than the Styx could have about Eurydice/and the way back to the light.
My apologies to Madame du Chatelet; it is permitted that I envy her one of her possessions which I would gladly exchange with the many which now have become mine.
Do I have to explain Orpheus & Eurydice, or for that matter Socrates & Alcibiades? (Not asking rethorically. I didn't know about the reference below, either.)
Émilie: would she have traded Voltaire for Prussia, one wonders? :)
Re: Voltaire
Date: 2019-12-28 01:42 pm (UTC)AU where they elope to London or Lappland! Bonus points if they go to Lappland with Maupertuis and Algarotti. (Voltaire said he would go if he'd been invited, if it weren't so cold. And we know Fritz would go if Voltaire wanted to elope, so...AU!) Émilie can come too, and we can have love...polygons.
[ETA: We could have a love chain-link with Maupertuis - Émilie - Voltaire - Fritz - Algarotti (and Lady Mary could show her dedication by stalking Algarotti to the Arctic!).]
Do I have to explain Orpheus & Eurydice, or for that matter Socrates & Alcibiades?
Not to me: I made it as far as lecturer (one step below professor) in the Classics department at my university before leaving academia. And charismatic bastard Alcibiades is a particular favorite of mine. (I like Fritz; this was predictable, no? :P)
Didn't Voltaire write some verse comparing Algarotti to Alcibiades too?
Émilie: would she have traded Voltaire for Prussia, one wonders? :)
Good question! Who was it, though, who when Fritz asked him what he would do with if he were King of Prussia, said he would sell it and buy a nice estate in France? I know I've seen that anecdote, but I can't remember who it was, and I'm on my way to bed now. Will look it up when I'm back if you don't know it off the top of your head. [ETA: the Marquis d'Argens!]
Re: Voltaire
Date: 2019-12-29 01:55 am (UTC)Ohhhh. Wow. (And indeed this is the sort of thing I would not notice.) "As for the divine Emilie, for all her divinity she is no more than the arm decoration of the Newtonian Apollo" whom he'd like to meet alone. FRITZ!
"okay, that's changed my image of Peter totally, but I'm still stumped, how can a man be a great reformer dragging his people forward into the modern age while at the same time being responsible for the deaths of so many of them? How can someone be a progressive spirit and yet such a petty tyrant at the same time!"
AHAHAHHAHA
Voltaire: one smooth beta reader.
Hee! (I do like when a beta reader points out the good parts as well as the flaws, I must admit.)