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: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version II - OMG Voltaire!

[mildred_of_midgard]

is instructable

Fritz's number one criterion for people he interacted with: will let him tell them what to do and how to do it. Can you say "control issues", Fritz?

"that I buy his mind for two florins, and that I enjoy his works without exposing myself to his wickedness."

Uh huh. Remember that in a few years, Fritz, when you're all "Greetings and letters do not replace Voltaire if one has once has had him in persona" to W's daughter.

Presumably it's also the one Catt describes Fritz as "devouring with his eyes"

Alas, Catt doesn't start working for Fritz until March 1758, so it's a little too late to be the October 1757 one. (We know Fritz did this to like EVERY SINGLE letter from Voltaire, right?)

Also, having gone back and reread your quote from this letter, it looks like Preuss excised the "I, too, would have been in a mood to die when I lost my country because of you and my niece was dragged through the streets of Frankfurt on your orders" bit. Does not make Fritz look good, I guess?

Also, wow that is one shade-throwing, needling letter to talk Fritz out of suicide. "Think of all the awful things they'll say about you after your death, and also remember that you're no angel, and we've all survived *your* mistreatments." It's basically a challenge to live.

...Do you think Wilhelmine anticipated this when she asked Voltaire to write to Fritz?

Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version II - OMG Voltaire!

[selenak]

Fritz's number one criterion for people he interacted with: will let him tell them what to do and how to do it.

See, this is why simultanously finding people willing to emotionally top and take the initiative is a bit tricky. Voltaire, of course, would totally be willing to emotionally top, but no dice with the being told what to do and how to do it. (Unless you're Émilie and in possession of the key.)

We know Fritz did this to like EVERY SINGLE letter from Voltaire, right?

Naturally! With the possible exception of the letter in attempted German to Fredersdorf.

it looks like Preuss excised the "I, too, would have been in a mood to die when I lost my country because of you and my niece was dragged through the streets of Frankfurt on your orders" bit. Does not make Fritz look good, I guess?

Indeed. I mean, I just read the first sentence of the Preuss Magnum Opus of a biography because I really don't have the time, but good Lord. Der einzige König, natch, but also the greatest of all time, the most wonderful, the *insert hyperventilating attribute here*

Also, wow that is one shade-throwing, needling letter to talk Fritz out of suicide.

Well, yes. In less Voltairian language, I'd phrase it as "Stop with with the 'Woe is me!' already. If you die now, you won't be regarded as a dead hero, Europe will dance on your grave. Do you want that? Guess what, the rest of us have depressions, too, occasionally whenn you've been an asshole towards us, and we muddle through them. Also, even in case you lose and become an ex-king: are you seriously telling me you wouldn't be able to cut it as a private citizen? You? Get a hold on yourself, and prove to me all that talk about how you're a philosopher wasn't just that, all talk! P.S. Write back."

...Do you think Wilhelmine anticipated this when she asked Voltaire to write to Fritz?

Whatever works? More seriously, no, I guess she expected something more on the lines of "you're still my favourite insufferable Monarch, I do love you, and I'd never write another word if you died, so please survive?"

Then again: In 1757, Wilhelmine knew that she herself was most likely not going to live for so many years more, whether or not she expected to make it through the next year. And there weren't that many people left whom Fritz could be guaranteed to not ignore but take into account what they said (whether or not they listened).

And also: as pointed out above, Voltaire is the only one of her brother's boyfriends men he's intellectually in love with whom Wilhelmine not only likes but seems to be actively rooting for (as in, wanting the two getting back together again). (Figures she'd pick the only shady one of the lot. She's a Hohenzollern.) (Yes, she likes Algarotti, too, but you don't see her forwarding letters there, do you.)

Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version II - OMG Voltaire!

[mildred_of_midgard]

See, this is why simultanously finding people willing to emotionally top and take the initiative is a bit tricky.

EXACTLY. That's why my headcanon is that aspect was missing from the Fredersdorf relationship. I'm sure that erring on the side of control issues was what accounted for his great and lasting success, but what Fritz needs and what Fritz insists on are often at crosspurposes. (I think you're quite right that Katte's ability to do some emotional topping would have come at the cost of not satisfying King Fritz's control issues nearly as well as Fredersdorf the Cautious.)

I mean, I just read the first sentence of the Preuss Magnum Opus of a biography because I really don't have the time, but good Lord. Der einzige König, natch, but also the greatest of all time, the most wonderful, the *insert hyperventilating attribute here*

AHAHAHAA, man. That's exactly what happened with me and reading the first sentence of 1926!Editor because my German + chronic pain weren't up for more. I'M ALREADY GETTING THE PETER III VIBE HERE, EDITOR!

But, I mean, would *you* put together 9 volumes (plus other volumes! He wrote other books about Fritz!) about someone you didn't think was the most wonderful of all time?

Speaking of Einzige! I found another instance. I don't have a date of composition, but the poet Gleim composed some epitaphs for Fritz after his death, so sometime 1786-1803, and one of them goes like this:

Auf Ihm die Grabschrift? — kurz und klug?—
'Hier liegt der Einzige!' das, mein' ich, ist genug!

And there weren't that many people left whom Fritz could be guaranteed to not ignore but take into account what they said (whether or not they listened).

I was exactly thinking that she must have been thinking that at least when Voltaire talks, Fritz listens, even if only to argue. (Heinrich too, but asking him for a letter would have risked: "Yes! Please! Just do it already and give the rest of us some peace, for fuck's sake." :P)

(Figures she'd pick the only shady one of the lot. She's a Hohenzollern.)

But problematic faves are the best! (Okay, I have the sense to keep mine at a safe distance, but then, I'm not a Hohenzollern.)