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Frederick the Great discussion post 9
...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
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
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
The thing about Valori is that my sources say Darget was his secretary during the time the poem was set, so if you're writing the poem about Darget, Valori is a logical inclusion, if not a necessary one.
The part I don't understand is why write this poem about someone you want to stay on good terms with. But I haven't read the poem nor do I have enough details about Darget's reaction to have an informed opinion. For example, was Darget's reaction "You WHAT?!" or "This is funny as long as no one else reads it and starts rumors about me, but you surely don't think you can keep this a secret forever, right?--Oh, shit, you just gave Voltaire a copy."
Darget: should have risked being Fritz's Émilie when Fredersdorf was busy having higher priorities, like not antagonizing Fritz.
So, clearly everything would be better if I read this poem, but the chances of me doing that any time soon are low. But! There does seem to be a two-volume German translation (with French original included) plus commentary from 1985. Das Palladion : ein ernsthaftes Gedicht in sechs Gesängen / Friedrich der Grosse ; Kommentarband herausgegeben und erläutert von Jürgen Ziechmann, "Text of poem in French; commentary vol. in German, incl. German translation."
If you ever wanted to see if you could grab that from a library, say. :)
Gossipy sensationalists with scholarly instincts!
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
BTW, Google also tells me that there was a recitation in Neuruppin in 2016. See, they still love you there, Fritz. To the point of reciting your poetry.
Valori shows up quite a lot in Lehndorff's diaries (unsurprisingly, since he was friends with the princes), and our diarist likes him a lot. Must check whether there are any comments about the poem.
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
BTW, Google also tells me that there was a recitation in Neuruppin in 2016. See, they still love you there, Fritz. To the point of reciting your poetry.
Awww. Also, wow, *that* poem. Verily, tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.
Must check whether there are any comments about the poem.
Please do! Lehndorff's take on this would be amazing, if he has one.
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
Lehndorff on August 10th, 1753: Darget gets his dismissal from the King. He was a man of low birth who had made his name through a beautiful deed when being the secretary of the French envoy Valori. When the envoy was staying in Bohemia in a small town, he was supposed to be arrested by a troop of Austrian husars. As soon as they arrived, Darget threw himself on the bed of his master after having hidden the most important papers away, and claimed to be the envoy himself. He was duly taken prisoner, and only when he was brought in front of Prince Charles - de Lorraine, younger brother of FS - the truth came out. Valori had hidden himself away in a small room and thus escaped a long imprisonment. His Majesty the King who always rewards valiant deeds took him into his service and made him his reader. He has held this position for seven years until his bad state of health made it necessary for him to return to his country. He was a man of wit and of all the Frenchmen at our court the least impudent.
So - his majesty sometimes rewards valiant deeds by writing satiric-erotic poetry about them?
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
Fritz: What's not to like? Everyone should be so lucky as to have a satiric-erotic poem written about their valiant deeds by the King!
Fritz: Just wait until you find the manuscript that contains my take on the Heinrich/Marwitz affair!
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
Speak of holy grails of gossipy sensationalists. :)
Re: Darget and sensationalist gossip, though, I see Trier archive has this to say about him and the Marquis D‘Argent:
D'Argens had a tense relationship with the secretary of the French ambassador, who also worked as a reader from 1749 to 1756 (in this function he followed Lamettrie and was replaced by the Abbé de Prades), secretary and literary agent of Frederick II. Mainvillers reports that Darget in Berlin frequented the house of the Cochois family of actors, which had become a popular meeting place for the theater world, and kept an eye on the third youngest daughter, Marionette (who died of smallpox in 1745). Darget took it into his head to critisize the short-lived magazine L'Observateur Hollandois and Mainvillers Plume sournoise, edited by d'Argens in Berlin. Whereupon D‘Argents responded with a replique in the anonymously published pamphlet Le Galimathias, in which he outed Darget as the author of one of Voltaire's name published Ode To Frederick II. At the same time he worked on Marionette to spoil Darget‘s chances with her. Successfull,y because she then turned to the dancer Novert, who was prettier than Darget and also wanted to marry her. Marionette's brother did his best to end the liaison between his sister and Darget and put Darget out the door. A certain competitive relationship between the two men (Darget and D’Argents) cannot be ruled out.
You think, Trier archive, you think? Also, clearly Voltaire vs Maupertuis was not a the only case of literati feuds at Fritz‘ court, though clearly without Voltaire getting involved, Fritz didn‘t get involved, either. Also, I‘m not clear on whether the implication here is that Darget writing an ode to Fritz and publishing it as supposedly written by Voltaire was a) on Darget‘s own initiative, b) on Fritz‘ orders, or c) because Voltaire was supposed to write it and turned the task over to Darget? (The last I don‘t think is likely because of authorial vanity. Voltaire had too high an opinion of his own talents to allow a ghostwriter to publish verses under his name.).
May I ask what your source is for the story of the French supposedly intending Darget to become a Fritz boytoy and spy on him only to be foiled by either Fritz keeping fondness for good looking men and work apart or Darget being loyal to the King or both? Because it‘s a bit tricky to square it the reason for his hiring as reported by Lehndorff, unless the idea is that Valori and Darget faked the incident in question? Also, what, if anything, DID Fritz think of his pal D‘Argens unmasking his personal reader as the author of an ode to him supposedly written by Voltaire? Isn‘t that, err, a bit embarrassing?
ETA: Also, while Boswell didn‘t manage to get a Fritz audience during his Grand Tour, it looks like he got this on D‘Argens from none other than Lord Marischal, aka Old And Last Surviving Keith: "In the afternoon my Lord was very chatty. He told me that the Marquis d’Argens was a good-natured, amiable man, and much liked by the King of Prussia. He is now old. He has married an actress, whom he keeps in great subjection. He has made her learn Greek, and I don’t know how many things, merely to make her of use to him in studies. He is a miserable being, for he is hypochondriac and terrified for death. He had worn a flannel under-waistcoat four years and durst not take it off for fear of catching cold. The King drove out one fear by another, and told him that if he persisted to wear that waistcoat, his perspiration would be entirely stopped, and he must inevitably die. The marquis agreed to quit his waistcoat. But it had so fixed itself upon him that pieces of his skin came away with it." (Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1764. Edited by Frederick A. Pottle. Melbourne [u.a.]: Heinemann Ltd, S. 15-16)
...these people are all nuts.
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
Speak of holy grails of gossipy sensationalists. :)
I mean, he did say he was going to write their love story! And his erotic poetry has disappeared before, only to turn up later! :D
Darget and D'Argens, sheesh. I don't know enough about the details to have an opinion of my own. I have more questions than answers at this point.
A certain competitive relationship between the two men (Darget and D’Argents) cannot be ruled out.
*blink*
What exactly do they think is a competitive relationship, if not this?
Also, I‘m not clear on whether the implication here is that Darget writing an ode to Fritz and publishing it as supposedly written by Voltaire was a) on Darget‘s own initiative, b) on Fritz‘ orders, or c) because Voltaire was supposed to write it and turned the task over to Darget?
It would help greatly to know what year this was. Also how complimentary vs. snarky the ode was (I trust these people not at all). Agree that (c) is the least likely, because Voltaire.
May I ask what your source is for the story of the French supposedly intending Darget to become a Fritz boytoy and spy on him only to be foiled by either Fritz keeping fondness for good looking men and work apart or Darget being loyal to the King or both? Because it‘s a bit tricky to square it the reason for his hiring as reported by Lehndorff, unless the idea is that Valori and Darget faked the incident in question?
Source is Blanning, who I think is less of an idiot than MacDonogh but I still don't trust him. But I don't think the two stories are irreconcilable, because it goes like this.
According to Blanning, the following are facts:
- Darget was the secretary of Valori.
- Darget got captured by the Austrians pretending to be Valori.
- Fritz requested the French let him have Darget as librarian.
- The French sent Darget as envoy to Fritz in late 1745.
- Darget joined Fritz's court permanently in early 1746.
According to Blanning, the following is an open question:
- Why send a mere secretary on such an important mission to a king, if you're trying not to insult him?
Blanning's headcanon:
- Fritz had already demonstrated that he was attracted to Darget by requesting his transfer to his own court. The French hoped Darget could influence him in ways a more high-ranking but less attractive-to-Fritz official couldn't.
Blanning reports that Fritz refused to stay in the war for the French but kept Darget.
So he's not claiming that the French had Darget infiltrate Fritz's court, just that they used Fritz's pre-existing interest in him. Nothing Blanning says is inconsistent with Lehndorff's story that Fritz was impressed by Darget's loyalty.
But the part about why the French sent Darget as their ambassador is the purest speculation on Blanning's part, which is why I call it a headcanon. If we weren't all gossipy sensationalists looking for homosexual relationships, you could just as easily say that they sent Darget because Fritz had already requested his transfer and the French knew Darget and Fritz were on good terms. Or, if the French political documentation didn't contradict it, that they were very ticked off at the Margrave of Brandenburg, didn't think there was much chance of getting him to not break his word yet again, and sent a secretary on purpose. I mean if Fritz can send a Jacobite envoy to piss off his British relatives...
And as for all the rest of the Darget/d'Argens/Fritz/Voltaire/Palladion madness, I need more facts and more dates before I can venture opinions.
...these people are all nuts.
Have seen this quote, had it bookmarked on my backlog of things to share! In his defense, it's the 18th century, medicine is terrible, nobody has the least idea how disease works, everyone is trying every random thing they can think of to try to stay alive. It's a very common human fallacy (and often not an unreasonable one) to not want to change something you're doing in case that's what's working and not doing it has horrendous consequences.
But as stories go, it's hilarious.
D‘Argens according to Giacomo Casanova
The next day I asked about the Marquis d'Argens and found out that he was in the country with his brother, the President of the Parliament, Marquis d'Eguilles. I went there. The Marquis, who became more famous through the constant friendship of the late Frederick II than through his works that no one reads today, was already old at the time. The Marquis d'Argens lived with the actress Cochois, whom he had married and who knew how to show herself worthy of this honor. As his wife, she felt obliged to be her husband's first servant. The Marquis himself had a thorough knowledge of the Greek and the Hebrew language; he was gifted with a wonderful memory and consequently grafted with scholarship. He received me very well because he remembered what his friend, the Lord Marshal, had written to him about me. He introduced me to his wife and his rather wealthy brother, the President d'Eguilles and a member of parliament in Aix. The later was a friend of literature. He lived a strictly moral way of life, and that was more due to his character than his religious belief. That says a lot; for he was truly pious even though he was a smart man. He was very close to the Jesuits and was even one himself, one of those who were called the short-skinned Jesuits; he loved his brother tenderly and lamented him; but he still hoped that sooner or later the effect of grace would lead him back to the lap of the church. His brother encouraged him to hope and laughed at the same time. Neither could avoid annoying the other with words about religion. (...)
When I had fully regained my strength, I went to the Marquis d'Argens at the President d'Eguilles to say goodbye. After lunch I spent three hours with the learned old gentleman, who told me a hundred stories about the private life of the Prussian king, all of which could be published as anecdotes as soon as I had the time and the desire. He was a ruler with great qualities and big mistakes, like almost all important men; but the entirety and severity of his mistakes were less.
The murdered King of Sweden found pleasure in provoking and defying hatred by following his inclinations. He was born a despot and had to be a despot in order to satisfy his passions, which were dominating him: namely, to talk about himself and be considered a great man. That is why his enemies had dedicated themselves to death to rob him of life. The king should have foreseen his end, for his acts of violence had long driven the oppressed to despair. The Marquis d'Argens gave me all of his works. I asked him if I could really boast of owning all of them and he replied: "Yes, with the exception of part of my life story, which I wrote in my youth and which I printed at that time; now I regret having it written."
„Why?"
"Because I had the enthusiasm of just telling the truth and thereby made myself immortally ridiculous. If you ever feel tempted, dismiss it. I can assure you that you will regret it; because as a man of honor you could only write the truth and as a truth-loving rapporteur you would not only be obliged not to keep silent, but you should not even be cowardly indulgent with the mistakes you made, and as a true philosopher you would then have to list your good deeds as well. You would be obliged to blame and praise yourself alternately... Believe me, dear friend, if a person is not allowed to speak of himself, he is much less permitted to write about himself(. ...)Listen to me, never make the mistake and write down your memoirs. "
Convinced by his wise speeches, I promised him never to commit such foolishness; nevertheless, I have not been doing anything else for seven years, and it has gradually become a necessity for me to finish this, although I already regret starting it. But I write in the hope that my story will never be published; I am sure that during my last illness I will finally be sensible enough to have all my notebooks burned in my presence. If this should not be the case, I count on the indulgence of my readers, and they will not withhold it from me when they learn that writing down my memories was the only cure for me so as not to go mad or die angry at the inconvenience that the villains have given me in the castle of the Count of Waldstein in Dux. By writing ten or twelve hours a day, I prevented the gloomy annoyance from killing me or robbing me of my reason. We'll talk about it in due course.
Re: D‘Argens according to Giacomo Casanova
This reader is deeply glad you wrote your memoirs and they were published, Casanova! Will promise to read them with indulgence. ;)
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
Truly. I see I missed a trick in my Yuletide Madness fluff - because you just know Fritz would have a pseudonymous RPF writers account. (Though the fact he uses this ID to follow Voltaire at his blog and argues in the comments kind of gives it away.)
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version IV - More Things Between Heaven and Earth...
The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel
FrankfurtHans: You checked out the comments, didn't you.
F2: I checked out the comments.
FrankfurtHans: Just tell me you didn't link anything that could lead to me. I mean, I live in a free city outside of Prussian territory, but that's never stopped anyone before.
F2: Hey, what do you take me for? No way. It's just... See, when I posted my historical Fritz/Katte AU, I went and checked out the competition. As you do. And in the "Prussian Royalty and Friends RPF" section, there was this guy who had put up some really weird poetry. I mean, the language and metaphors were pretty blah, but it was all RPF. One about what's his name, the Italian has-been, and the other, get this, about how the King's former lector Darget got buggered into gayness. Pretty gross.
FrankfurtHans: Imagine my eyeroll. Look, I've written some explicit stuff myself. It's fine that you don't want to, but some of us dig it.
F2: Thanks for the condescension. Way beside the point. I've read your explicit stuff, if you must know. If you think that poem about how you can't understand Greek and Roman art without having lots of sex is going to cut it... anyway. So this poetry guy has a handle. "Alcibiades", I kid you not. And in addition to the poetry, he's also written some prose RPF about Prince Heinrich and some page. We're talking real names here, man, not AU like me. Some novel called "Henri and the Beautiful Marwitz: An Education for Today's Youth".
FrankfurtHans: I don't get it. I mean, I'm all for fleshing outo supporting characters, but if you are mad enough to write RPF about one of the Hohenzollern using their real names, why Heinrich ? I've seen pictures.
F2: Sometimes I wonder about you, FrankfurtHans.
FranfurtHans: What pleases is permitted. (Erlaubt is, was gefällt.)
F2: If you say so. Aaaaanyway. You know how I'm about to invent the mystery genre for German literature? My sense of said mystery tingled. I thought: who does that? Also, the "Alcibiades" handle sounded familiar, and not from the last time I've read Plato. So I went back to the Ferney_Philosophe blog, and sure enough, some user named Alcibiades is by far the most frequent commenter. Despite being banned by the moderator a couple of times. Though for some reason they keep readmiting him. At that point I smelled a rotten apple.
FrankfurtHans: Are you thinking what I'm thinking...?
F2: Well, if there's another conclusion, I'd like to hear it. And now I'm thinking of taking down my own RPF, because I'm just not cool with all that fourth wall breaking. I like my royals fictional. Or constitutionally fenced in. You-know-who is neither.
FrankfurtHans: Firstly, no way you're taking down that play. It's a masterpiece. And I spent about a million hours beta-reading it. Secondly, for someone who's about to invent the German mystery genre, you're missing one big logical point.
F2: Which is?
FrankfurtHans: You're writing in German. Which means you're totally safe. He's never going to read a single line of your stuff.
F2: ....You know what, you're right. Phew. Okay, gotta go now, duty calls. I can't wait till I'm out of Würtemberg for good!
*F2 has left the Chat*
FrankfurtHans: *uploads "Shakespeare Rocks" Manifesto, "The German Novel: A Primer" Manifesto, "French Drama: Ancient and Outdated" Manifesto* , *German Poetry: A Model of Our Own* Manifesto*
FrankfurtHans: *attaches uploads to email*
FrankfurtHans: *writes Email to FanfictionWriter "Alcibiades": Dear Alcibiades, congrats on the originality of your RPF. Anyone can write about the top dogs; way to go for the bottoms! I'm a fan. However, you might want to branch out, in the interest of reaching a wider readership. Seriously, most users these days just aren't that into French anymore. See documents attached. Hopefully, we'll read your first German story or poem soon! Yours, FrankfurtHans*
FrankfurtHans: *hits *send*
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel
I mean, I live in a free city outside of Prussian territory, but that's never stopped anyone before.
One about what's his name, the Italian has-been
Oh nooo! Awww, poor Algarotti, doomed to being an obscure footnote in the stories of Fritz and Voltaire/Émilie. I love how you worked that in. I love you worked SO MANY things in.
Some novel called "Henri and the Beautiful Marwitz: An Education for Today's Youth".
AHAHAHAHAAA
OH FRITZ
Still waiting for this manuscript to turn up.why Heinrich ? I've seen pictures.
F2: Sometimes I wonder about you, FrankfurtHans.
Lehndorff, who hopefully doesn't follow this, would beg to differ. :P This is SO GREAT.
I like my royals fictional. Or constitutionally fenced in. You-know-who is neither.
With you on that, F2. I like mine 200+ years dead and mostly fictional. :P
You're writing in German. Which means you're totally safe. He's never going to read a single line of your stuff.
LOL FOREVER
FrankfurtHans: *uploads "Shakespeare Rocks" Manifesto, "The German Novel: A Primer" Manifesto, "French Drama: Ancient and Outdated" Manifesto* , *German Poetry: A Model of Our Own* Manifesto*
O.M.G. Way to have your friend's back! (And I do mean that literally and not sarcastically: this is a guaranteed way to ensure complete safety of all German literature from Fritz's, I mean Alcibiades', eyes.)
"French Drama: Ancient and Outdated" Manifesto*"
The only thing that comes to mind is "Them's fightin' words."
Also, the Alcibiades to Voltaire's Socrates, that was another total gem.
Okay, I *really* need to get back to Heinrich correspondence--getting closer!--but then I will go catch up on comments.
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel
Hee, true! *sparkly hearts*
O.M.G. Way to have your friend's back! (And I do mean that literally and not sarcastically: this is a guaranteed way to ensure complete safety of all German literature from Fritz's, I mean Alcibiades', eyes.)
:D Hee!
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel
FrankfurtHans: You checked out the comments, didn't you.
F2: I checked out the comments.
HAHAHAHAHA
One about what's his name, the Italian has-been
Heeeeeee this made me laugh
Look, I've written some explicit stuff myself. It's fine that you don't want to, but some of us dig it.
All these guys really map way too well on fandom, don't they?
If you think that poem about how you can't understand Greek and Roman art without having lots of sex is going to cut it
Gossipy sensationalisticInquiring but sadly not-literate-enough minds want to know!why Heinrich ? I've seen pictures.
HAHAHAHAHA this was my favorite line!
some user named Alcibiades is by far the most frequent commenter. Despite being banned by the moderator a couple of times. Though for some reason they keep readmiting him.
Heeeeeee! This is sooooo hilarious <3
Hopefully, we'll read your first German story or poem soon! Yours, FrankfurtHans*
FrankfurtHans: *hits *send*
Alcibiades: *spams Twitter, AO3 meta, and all other social media platforms with resulting rant* :D
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel
OMG, I meant to quote this one too and forgot! I had to stop reading, I laughed so hard.
You know, this is an excellent time to bring up Aristophanes' line in the Frogs about Athens' relationship with historical Alcibiades: "She longs for him, but hates him, and yet she wants him back."
Fritz and Voltaire much?
Athens: for some reason they keep readmitting Alcibiades. :P
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel - the literary footnotes
Well, you asked! That was a silly allusion to the most famous of the „Roman Elegies“, aka the series of (erotic) poems Goethe wrote in the aftermath of his journey to Italy to the great scandal of Weimar when he returned. (See my Carl August and Goethe write up reposted at Rheinsberg.)
Roman Elegy V
I feel I’m happily inspired now on Classical soil:
The Past and Present speak louder, more charmingly.
Here, as advised, I leaf through the works of the Ancients
With busy hands, and, each day, with fresh delight.
But at night Love keeps me busy another way:
I become half a scholar but twice as contented.
And am I not learning, studying the shape
Of her lovely breasts: her hips guiding my hand?
Then I know marble more: thinking, comparing,
See with a feeling eye: feel with a seeing hand.
If my darling is stealing the day’s hours from me,
She gives me hours of night in compensation.
We’re not always kissing: we often talk sense:
When she’s asleep, I lie there filled with thought.
Often I’ve even made poetry there in her arms,
Counted hexameters gently there on my fingers
Over her body. She breathes in sweetest sleep,
And her breath burns down to my deepest heart.
Amor trims the lamp then and thinks of the times
When he did the same for his three poets of love.
(Translation not mine but from this site which also has further context and a good portrait of Goethe by Angelika Kauffmann: http://thaumazein-albert.blogspot.com/2010/10/goethe-roman-elegy-v.html )
Incidentally, the manifestos have all some actual Goethe equivalent, too; He didn‘t just make one but several „Shakespeare Rocks“ speeches as a young man - remember, this wasn‘t yet a standard take in a culture majorly inflluenced by the French model , this was the very point where it shifted towards good old Will instead) , he wrote an article about what a future German novel could be like before writing Werther, and years later, when Germaine de Stael came to Weimar, he had this exchange with her:
Madame de Stael: I think German verse feels clumsy.
Goethe: I think French verse feels like tapeworm
(It should be added that Goethe was anything but nationalistic and actually quite fond of French and French literature, starting with his boyhood when Frankfurt, during the wars that someone kept starting in Central Europe, was at times occupied by the French and the Goethes had a French officer living in their house who however was polite and got along with the kids - Goethe and his sister Cornelia - very well. Goethe lived in to the nationalistic 19th century and was not a little appalled when post Napoleonic Wars everyone started to become more and more nationalistic in the German states. Which was when he put on the medal Napoleon had given him to the consternation of many a visitor to Germany‘s Greatest Poet (tm) and said „why should I scorn the French? I was educated in their language, and it and their literature have always given me great pleasure“. But that was in the last decade of his life, in a world so very different from his youth when abandoning the rules of classic French Drama in favour of Shakespearan free for all and writing poetry that didn‘t draw on French examples anymore had felt incredibly liberating.)
...but mainly this was my trying to find something to get the social media equivalant of „De La Literature Allemande“ out of Alcibiades. ;)
The „I smelled a rotten apple“ otoh was a Schiller joke. Supposedly Schiller kept some rotten apples at hand because the smell helped him concentrating.
„Erlaubt ist, was gefällt“ - from Goethe‘s play „Torquato Tasso“. This is actually what the characters in the scene argue about.
ETA: Was only just reminded of this again when googling whether I can find more on the Roman Elegies in English for you, and Elegy X actually has a Fritz and Heinrich allusion:
From the same website:
Alexander, and Cæsar, and Henry, and Frederick, the mighty,
On me would gladly bestow half of the glory they earn’d,
Could I but grant unto each one night on the couch where I’m lying;
But they, by Orcus’s night, sternly, alas! are held down.
Therefore rejoice, O thou living one, bless’d in thy love-lighted homestead,
Ere the dark Lethe’s sad wave wetteth thy fugitive foot."
And here‘s the Gutenberg trranslation:
All of those greats: Alexander, Caesar and Henry and Fredrick,
Gladly would share with me half of their hard fought renown,
Could I but grant them my bed for one single night, and its comfort,
But the poor wretches are held stark in cold Orkian grip.
Therefore, ye living, rejoice that love keeps you warm for a while yet,
Until cold Lethe anoints, captures your foot in its flight
(Original:
"Alexander und Cäsar und Heinrich und Friedrich, die Großen,
Gäben die Hälfte mir gern ihres erworbenen Ruhms,
Könnt ich auf eine Nacht dies Lager jedem vergönnen;
Aber die Armen, sie hält strenge des Orkus Gewalt.
Freue dich also, Lebendger, der lieberwärmeten Stätte,
Ehe den fliehenden Fuß schauerlich Lethe dir netzt."
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel - the literary footnotes
Madame de Stael: I think German verse feels clumsy.
Goethe: I think French verse feels like tapeworm
ahahahaha! this totally made me laugh.
...but mainly this was my trying to find something to get the social media equivalant of „De La Literature Allemande“ out of Alcibiades. ;)
Hee, yes, I was admiring how you wrote this and put up the relevant
Alexander, and Cæsar, and Henry, and Frederick, the mighty,
On me would gladly bestow half of the glory they earn’d,
Could I but grant unto each one night on the couch where I’m lying;
...this is giving me a lot of Feelings.
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel - the literary footnotes
but mainly this was my trying to find something to get the social media equivalant of „De La Literature Allemande“ out of Alcibiades
I could just see Alcibiades quipping: What do I think of German literature? I think it would be a good idea. :P
Elegy X actually has a Fritz and Heinrich allusion:
Heinrich as in our Heinrich? Brother of Fritz? Or Heinrich der Große as in Henri IV of France? Wait, I just checked Goethe's dates, and the elegies were written 1788-1790, when our Heinrich was still alive. So you must have meant the other Heinrich, which makes more sense anyway if the line is going in chronological order.
I don't know whether he actually said he wanted every peasant to have a chicken in the pot on Sunday (i.e. financial stability for everyone during his reign), but it's one of those lines that always gets associated with him. It may be apocryphal, though, and I'm way too behind on posts to look that up. :P
ETA: Another note for
1786: Fritz dies.
1786-1788: Goethe goes to Italy.
1788-1790: Goethe writes the Roman Elegies.
1795: Elegies published (most of them, including X).
So when Goethe is writing about Fritz being dead, Fritz has just recently gone from being der einzige König, celebrity of Europe, to just another shade.
(I'm also, now that I've had a chance to think about it, confused why you would mention "Fritz and Heinrich" in the same phrase like that if you meant Henri IV, so maybe I'm wrong and you *did* mean he was talking about our Heinrich,
Re: The Very Secret Chat Transcripts: The Sequel - the literary footnotes