Frederick the Great discussion post 9

[cahn]

...I leave you guys alone for one weekend and it's time for a new Fritz post, lol!

I'm gonna reply to the previous post comments but I guess new letter-reading, etc. should go in this one :)

Frederick the Great links

Comments

Re: The Very Secret Travel Correspondance of Prince August Wilhelm

[cahn]

AHAHAHAHA this is awesome, and poor sweet AW! (Narrators not quite getting what they are narrating is my jam! why I love Lehndorff so much, although you are making a good case that he knows more than he lets on)

oh man this was just so hilarious, I'm going to try really hard not to just quote every line. the hot lady-in-waiting, omg THE MARWITZ STRIKES AGAIN

We’re all criminals now, which is cool.

HEE

at least I think that’s what he was doing with his hand under Algarotti’s cloak.

lololololol omg

Yes, we were totally busted by a Potsdam Giant.

OF COURSE YOU WERE. And also lol to AW's suggestion to write to Wilhelmine, awwwww.

I thought maybe he meant some naked girls, like they have in Dresden

HAHAHAHAHA

Then he opened his mouth, and it was all „My Alcibiades, it is I, your Socrates!“, and seriously, I thought that it would be really weird to first get recognized in France and then get mistaken for someone else in our own territory!

I laughed so hard at this!

Also once or twice their own, since they did it so often and kept talking in between and got confused.

And this! HEEEEEEE.

<33333333 this was amazing!

(uh.... okay, I have to say I didn't get the swan thing or the Principe thing either, is this from Algarotti's letters?)

Re: The Very Secret Travel Correspondance of Prince August Wilhelm

[mildred_of_midgard]

"Swan" was one of Algarotti's nicknames. He was called the swan of Padua (and also some other Italian cities, because he moved around a lot) by both Voltaire and Fritz. You'll see him called "my swan" in the opening scene of "Pulvis et Umbra" for that reason.

I was taking "Principe" as Italian Algarotti making an allusion to the Anti-Machiavel, which Fritz originally wanted Algarotti to handle the publication of (before switching to Voltaire, who, at the time of this fic, is only one month away from publishing it, so it's fresh on everyone's minds), but I admit I'm not 100% sure on this one either. Will let our wonderful author clarify. :)

Re: The Very Secret Travel Correspondance of Prince August Wilhelm

[selenak]

  I live to please! (Though not as much as Algarotti.). Actual first lines from Fritz‘ letters to Algarotti:

My dear swan from Padua, I received your letters with great pleasure; but I admit that I still have ten times more eagerness to see you yourself


My dear swan, you were born, I believe, to see the arrival of great events in your days.

My dear swan from Padua, Voltaire arrived sparkling with new beauties

Oh most fickle and lightest swan in the world!

(The last one is from when Algarotti has hightailed it out of Prussia for the first time because he‘s tired of waiting around for Fritz to conquer Silesia and instead becomes August III.‘s art collector in Dresden. While also designing porcellain figurines for MT‘s table decoration at least once, as I‘ve discovered through the dissertation about him, and hoping she‘ll ask him for more. The best thing is that the writer of the dissertation doesn‘t seem to get the implication, as it‘s all in one line and a footnote about how Esterhazy (one of the top Hungarian nobles) ordered the figurines for „the Queen of Hungary and Bohemia“, and Algarotti hopes there will be more from „the Queen of Hungary and Bohemia“. Whom said author doesn‘t equate with the woman mentioned a few pages earlier as „in 1740, Maria Theresia followed her father“ etc.).

„Principe“ - Mildred got it!

Re: The Very Secret Travel Correspondance of Prince August Wilhelm

[mildred_of_midgard]

I live to please! (Though not as much as Algarotti.)

Probably wise. :)

The best thing is that the writer of the dissertation doesn‘t seem to get the implication

I am delighted that you caught this and pointed it out, because I had missed it.

it's fresh on everyone's minds

Except AW's, naturally!