I dutifully googled, and it turns out that the original manuscript in Algarotti's possession was sent from Italy to Germany in 1895 by someone who wanted to make the new Emperor a nice present. The new Emperor being Wihelm II., aka Willy, this did not result in instant publication and celebration, because as we all know, Willy thought the lesson to learn from Fritz was to piss off all of Europe and fight three front wars, not to write orgasm poems, and promptly disappeared into the Prussian State Archives. Where it was rediscovered only in 2011.
Also: History Today features an English translation by McDonogh whom you, Mildred, have repeatedly described to me as an unreliable biographer who managed to confuse EC the wife of Fritz with EC the wife of FW2, as well as Henricus Minor with Henricus Major, which does not exactly inspire confidence in his French-translating abilities. So I tried to track down the Zeit article which the History Today article says reported the rediscovery of the manuscript and contained the entire poem (in German). I found the article, but not the translated poem. And I can guess why: Copyright! (Of the German translation.) Further googling only led me to an indignant article from a gay magazine referencing the poem in a rant about how Blanning's Fritz biography, which was published in German last year, wasn't gay enough (they grudgingly acknowledge Banning has no doubt of Fritz' general gayness, but Banning is accused of "heterosexualizing" Fritz by accepting the tale of the Dresden/Orzelska sex instead of rejecting it as clearly deriving from Wilhelmine's memoirs and thus being questionable since Wihelmine wasn't along in Dresden and just goes by word of mouth afterwards; to which I say, guys, did none of you experiment in their teenage days? Trying out het sex when young does not make him less gay!).
So McDonogh's English version will have to do, I suppose. Anyway. Leaving aside that Fritz in the poem gives Algarotti a female partner - Chloris is straight from the Augustan poets as a name of a mistress - as simply using a literary trope, he's clearly having fun describing Algarotti in the throws of orgasm. Not that I don't trust him to have an active imagination, but I don't think he'd do that if he hadn't at least once watched the goods delivered, so to speak, because otherwise that's taking a considerable liberty with someone whom you want to stay with you at your court, even taking different concepts of privacy and royal prerogative in the 18th century into account.
Sending it to Voltaire: young Voltaire made his name with a pamphlet claiming the Prince Regent Philippe d'Orleans - son of Liselotte and the very gay Monsieur of the same name, uncle to Franz Stephan - did it with his daughter, and of course at the time Fritz is sending the poem he absolutely wants to have a copy of the Pucelle which has lots of raunchy passages (but won't get one because Émilie is onto him). So I can see Fritz wanting to prove to his favourite writer and soon to be life long addiction that he can be witty about sex, too. That, and maybe make him jealous. :)
Re: Toppings of all types, continued
Also: History Today features an English translation by McDonogh whom you, Mildred, have repeatedly described to me as an unreliable biographer who managed to confuse EC the wife of Fritz with EC the wife of FW2, as well as Henricus Minor with Henricus Major, which does not exactly inspire confidence in his French-translating abilities. So I tried to track down the Zeit article which the History Today article says reported the rediscovery of the manuscript and contained the entire poem (in German). I found the article, but not the translated poem. And I can guess why: Copyright! (Of the German translation.) Further googling only led me to an indignant article from a gay magazine referencing the poem in a rant about how Blanning's Fritz biography, which was published in German last year, wasn't gay enough (they grudgingly acknowledge Banning has no doubt of Fritz' general gayness, but Banning is accused of "heterosexualizing" Fritz by accepting the tale of the Dresden/Orzelska sex instead of rejecting it as clearly deriving from Wilhelmine's memoirs and thus being questionable since Wihelmine wasn't along in Dresden and just goes by word of mouth afterwards; to which I say, guys, did none of you experiment in their teenage days? Trying out het sex when young does not make him less gay!).
So McDonogh's English version will have to do, I suppose. Anyway. Leaving aside that Fritz in the poem gives Algarotti a female partner - Chloris is straight from the Augustan poets as a name of a mistress - as simply using a literary trope, he's clearly having fun describing Algarotti in the throws of orgasm. Not that I don't trust him to have an active imagination, but I don't think he'd do that if he hadn't at least once watched the goods delivered, so to speak, because otherwise that's taking a considerable liberty with someone whom you want to stay with you at your court, even taking different concepts of privacy and royal prerogative in the 18th century into account.
Sending it to Voltaire: young Voltaire made his name with a pamphlet claiming the Prince Regent Philippe d'Orleans - son of Liselotte and the very gay Monsieur of the same name, uncle to Franz Stephan - did it with his daughter, and of course at the time Fritz is sending the poem he absolutely wants to have a copy of the Pucelle which has lots of raunchy passages (but won't get one because Émilie is onto him). So I can see Fritz wanting to prove to his favourite writer and soon to be life long addiction that he can be witty about sex, too. That, and maybe make him jealous. :)