Sounds like a perfect Fritz/Voltaire day indeed. Incidentally, since we agree that Voltaire got 50% more interested when nice Crown Prince Fritz turned out to be wily bastard Fritz as King, what did Fritz think Voltaire was like before meeting him in person? And did he feel let down or not when it turned out the modern Homer/Sophocles/Sokrates/Apollo/etc. was also a shady customer who didn't just have it in for the forces of oppression but could just as ruthlessly turn against artistic competition?
To wit: did he think he would be getting someone like Suhm, personality wise? Of course Voltaire was a satirist, not a diplomat, but still, young Fritz could have assumed, like a good fanboy, that Voltaire only turned his pen against people and institutions who deserved it. And was of course above shady business deals, or the vanity of demanding medals.
All the later "Voltaire is scum - OMG I want him so badly!" - how much of that is "I want him so much because he's such a shady character, as opposed to "I want him inspite of him being such a shady character"?
On a non-Voltairian matter, I reread your "who tops" essay, and suddenly when I come across Algarotti and Fritz travelling in the carriage west in 1740, complete with petting, err, Algarotti treated like a mistress, it makes "ping" in my mind: west as in Straßburg via Bayreuth? That trip? The very one where young AW is also present the entire time? Or are we talking about another trip? Because if it's the same, this demands the follow up question: did Fritz and Algarotti have a spectator kink? Because I doubt Fritz paid for another carriage for his younger brother.
Re: Toppings of all types, continued
To wit: did he think he would be getting someone like Suhm, personality wise? Of course Voltaire was a satirist, not a diplomat, but still, young Fritz could have assumed, like a good fanboy, that Voltaire only turned his pen against people and institutions who deserved it. And was of course above shady business deals, or the vanity of demanding medals.
All the later "Voltaire is scum - OMG I want him so badly!" - how much of that is "I want him so much because he's such a shady character, as opposed to "I want him inspite of him being such a shady character"?
On a non-Voltairian matter, I reread your "who tops" essay, and suddenly when I come across Algarotti and Fritz travelling in the carriage west in 1740, complete with petting, err, Algarotti treated like a mistress, it makes "ping" in my mind: west as in Straßburg via Bayreuth? That trip? The very one where young AW is also present the entire time? Or are we talking about another trip? Because if it's the same, this demands the follow up question: did Fritz and Algarotti have a spectator kink? Because I doubt Fritz paid for another carriage for his younger brother.