Frederick the Great discussion post 9
Jan. 13th, 2020 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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
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
Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians
Date: 2020-01-19 11:15 am (UTC)Also, I found the Fritz letter replying to Wilhelmine's passionate outburst when she didn't hear from him for a while (the "if you only write "my sister I love you, I love you my sister" it would be enough" one), which the German scholar who included it in her speech had said was unpublished. Well, Fritz' reply is published, so we do have a date. (20th January 1737.)
My dearest sister,
You should attribute my silence only to the lack of news. We lead a life too close for us to learn much from these cantons, and I have reason to believe that if I wrote every day: My dear sister, I love you, or: I love you, my dear sister, such letters would annoy you very much. So do not wish, my very dear sister, with regard to me, to transform you into stone; you would lose too much, and this spirit which I love and which everyone admires is so well housed in your body, that it would be a sin to bring it out. Never measure friendship by the yardstick, and believe me, my very dear sister, please, with all the tenderness, all the attachment and all possible esteem, my very dear sister, etc.
Look, Fritz, I've read your own complaints when someone doesn't pay not enough attention to you and doesn't express enough devotion. Face it, you two have no chill when it comes to that.
(Sidenote: of course they don't. More seriously, I do think it's the result of having had parents who made love to one of them a zero sum game, of having been each other's primary sources for affection in their horrid childhood, Sonsine and Keyszerlingk not withstanding, and SD in regards to Fritz.)
I found an intriguing letter from Fritz in the year 1739. Now I knew from the audio letters that FW's moods went up and down with him in the 1730s as well, though never again as extreme as 1730, obviously. What I hadn't known was that apparantly there was gossip as late as 1739 that FW might consider disowning him in favour of AW. At least that's how I interpret this letter, which is also interesting as it provides us with Fritz' (positive) opinion of young AW in a letter not to AW himself. (And thus probably the real deal.) Bear in mind Wilhelmine hasn't seen kid AW since the awful winter of 1732/1733 family holidays, nor did they correspond; she'll only get to know him again (as a near adult) when Fritz takes him along on the 1740 trip.
My dearest sister,
The share that you take in the sorrows that I suffered consoles me completely. For six weeks I was the object of the King's bitter jokes and the target of his anger. It is very unusual to attack people whose fear and respect deprive them of the freedom to defend themselves and to complain.
(Imagine anyone later to be familiar with King Fritz getting a mighty coughing fit here.)
Such speeches are poisoned by the dignity of the one who speaks, and by the malignant and flattering approval of those who listen, courtiers always more eager to condescend to the feeling of the master than they are attached to frankness and to the truth by defending innocence falsely accused. A conflict of different reasons caused the violent irritation in which the King was against me; I spoke firmly to some people, I wrote truths to others, I threatened those I knew capable of being cowed, and I, if not extinguished, at least dampened the flare-up that was going to come on.
The news you are being told about my brother is not at all founded; it is a city noise, which owes its birth to the empty head of our coffee politicians. Reconciliation with England may have given rise to it; imagination invented the rest. My brother has the best character in the world, he has an excellent heart, a just mind, feelings of honor and is full of humanity; he has the will to do well, which gives me a lot of hope for him. His face conceals nothing, his eyes can not only spell; his manners are ingenuous rather than polite, and in all his maintenance there is a certain je ne sais quoi of embarrassment which does not warn in his favor, but which does not deceive those who prefer the solidity of merit to a brilliant facade. I love him very much, and I can only praise myself for the friendship and attachment he has for me. He does me all the little services he can do, and shows me on all occasions the feelings that are only found in real friends. You can count on what I write to you about him; I write without prevention and without envy what all those who know him particularly will have noticed in him.
Thoughts? I'm always torn on how much or little Fritz in his much, much later behavior was influenced by AW having been FW's favourite. I do believe he tells Wilhelmine what he thinks and feels on that occasion, but if there was talk as late as freaking 1739 about a possible change in the order of succession - no matter how unfounded, which it was, if FW would have done it, it would have been in 1730/1731, not later than that - , it might have sunk into his subconscious. Not to mention that it provides fodder for his life long practice of keeping his potential successors - both AW and future FW2 - away from any serious position of power or involvement in the government.
Lastly: " He does me all the little services he can do" - calming Dad down?
When Fritz invades Silesia for the first time, there's one letter from Wilhelmine where she makes a geek joke that I thought I had to share.
You must admit that you have benefited marvelously from the lessons of Maupertuis. He rounded up the earth, and you rounded up your country. They say you calculate fairer and easier than him. Would I dare to beg you to communicate to me your method, which would do an unequaled good for our country, and, by flattening it, would more often bring me the happiness of presenting myself to you? However, it is not the mountains that will stop me; no obstacle, however rough it may be, will stop me, as soon as it comes to seeing all that I hold dearest in the world.
On to another matter. Mildred pointed out that Algarotti didn't get to observe the Fritz/Voltaire spectacle with the same popcorn-munching glee as the rest of Europe since Algarotti, unlike the rest of Europe, was in a position called "I could be next". If so, he wouldn't have been entirely paranoid. Here are some Algarotti remarks from Fritz:
in 1747: I have here Algarotti, who finally fixes his condition, and commits to my service. The acquisition is good, and gives me all kinds of amenities for me individually.
Speaks the sultan of his latest concubine. Seems the sultan has also heard Algarotti
would have liked to design more statutes for the Queen of Hungarymight have made the teensiest weensiest criticism of the Salomon of the North while he was working for the Saxons, but no matter:I believe, as you say, that envy has bitten Algarotti a little, and that we have magnified or falsified things that he may have said very innocently. He is engaged here as a chamberlain, and I am very happy.
What things, enquiring minds want to know?
Re: Temple of Friendship, that is actually a phrase Fritz uses in a poem he writes to Wilhelmine in the 1730s, which the audio selection had in fact taken its title from "As long as we are two in our temple of friendship". Ten years later, in a letter from July 26th 1749 (sidenote: this is when he engaged in the latest round of Bringing Heinrich To Heel and for the first time arguing with AW for that reason), he names exactly the friendship pairs he'll later put in the temple as being impossible examples. Trier doesn't provide the Wilhelmine letter this is a reply to, and the audio didn't either, so I don't know whether these "sad reflections" were in any context about his simultanous quarelling with the younger sibs, or whether it was caused by Wilhelmine's own situation in Bayreuth (Marwitz was gone, but the Margrave did have the occasional one night stand), or whether the mail simply had been late again.
My dearest sister,
Your letters are so obliging that they fill me with confusion. I am a little surprised by some sad reflections I found there on the subject of friendship, and it seems to me, my dear sister, that these heroes of friendship of which the Fable tells us are only there. There are many capable people in the world; however, this seraglio is mistaken as to demand from them such great proofs as were given by Orestes and Pylades, Nisus and Euryales. You have to take the world as it is. To imagine that virtue divides the inhabitants of the earth is the dream of a Platonic; to suppose that all men are criminals and worthy of being burned forever is to consider the universe as a misanthrope. But to say that the globe we inhabit is a mixture of good and bad things, and that our species is a compound of vices and virtues, is, it seems to me, to see things as they are and to judge them reasonably. We must bear the faults of our fellow men in favor of their good qualities, as we ourselves also need their support on many occasions. When you think that way, my dear sister, you make your life sweeter than when you surrender to sad ideas that always darken over time.... Deign to continue your precious friendship with me, and do not doubt that if I am not quite a Pirithoos, I will do my best at becoming one, in order to convince you of tenderness, esteem and all feelings with whom I am, my very dear sister, etc.
Note: (Theseus and) Pirithous are the only mythological pair named which won't end up in the Temple of Friendshiph at Sanssouci. As with Fritz making himself Pylades, not Orestes in the letter to Suhm, it's fascinating that he names himself Pirithous, not Theseus. Also: the two of them as prisoners in the underworld, having tried to abduct a goddess (until Heracles frees Theseus) is my main association here.
Fritz stays in a mythological mood, it seems. When Wilhelmine announces she's off to be with her daughter (remember, Duchess of Würtemberg, living in Stuttgart, which is also in the Würtembergian part of Swabia) to assist in the birth of her first (and as it will turn out, only) grandchild, he writes back, which is a great example of the type of lighthearted geeky teasing each other these two also engage in between dramatic declarations:
My dearest sister,
I was pleased to receive two of your letters. You are still a deity to me; but as you have so many attributes, I invoke you one day under the name of Minerva, another under that of Calliope; sometimes you deign to manifest yourself as Polymnia, then you show yourself to mortals in the form of Urania; today you will allow me to adore you under the attractions of Lucina. I have no doubt that if you go to Stuttgart, our niece will happily give birth under your auspices. You will gift the newborn child, and it will be the wonder of future centuries. I found in some old book of mythology that Lucina was dressed in a gray linen and white veil. As I imagine that, having its attributes, you will want to follow its uses, I take the liberty to offer you this fabric as the beginnings of our manufacture, and when I address my wishes to the gods, I dare to say to them: Divinities of Olympus, if you deign to favor Swabia with your presence, grant one day the same favors to Prussia!
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians
Date: 2020-01-19 03:03 pm (UTC)I immediately thought WHAT? because I was *sure* they had included both. I remembered linking
It wasn't the Trier guys' or Preuss's fault! It was my script not being prepared to handle dog letters, lol.
I will get on that pronto. But first I have to finish reading your impressive write-ups.
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians
Date: 2020-01-19 04:53 pm (UTC)Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians
Date: 2020-01-19 11:01 pm (UTC)Sidenote: of course they don't. More seriously, I do think it's the result of having had parents who made love to one of them a zero sum game, of having been each other's primary sources for affection in their horrid childhood, Sonsine and Keyszerlingk not withstanding, and SD in regards to Fritz.
Sadly, I agree. Both these children got emotionally damaged in different ways. Ugh. :(
(Imagine anyone later to be familiar with King Fritz getting a mighty coughing fit here.)
Before I saw your comment, I started having my own coughing fit. More seriously, some people do the opposite of what was done to them; some repeat history.
"He does me all the little services he can do" - calming Dad down?
Calming Dad down, possibly; passing on information, possibly; asking for favors or even money, possibly.
What things, enquiring minds want to know?
Gossipy sensationalists need to know!
Re: Temple of Friendship, that is actually a phrase Fritz uses in a poem he writes to Wilhelmine in the 1730s, which the audio selection had in fact taken its title from "As long as we are two in our temple of friendship". Ten years later, in a letter from July 26th 1749 (sidenote: this is when he engaged in the latest round of Bringing Heinrich To Heel and for the first time arguing with AW for that reason), he names exactly the friendship pairs he'll later put in the temple as being impossible examples.
Oh, wow, did not know either of these things! *mental note*
As with Fritz making himself Pylades, not Orestes in the letter to Suhm, it's fascinating that he names himself Pirithous, not Theseus. Also: the two of them as prisoners in the underworld, having tried to abduct a goddess (until Heracles frees Theseus) is my main association here.
Agreed, and same. I think what's going on here is Fritz trying to reassure his loved ones he won't forget them, just because he's king or lives very far away. Because that's the context in which he writes Suhm about Pylades ("Dad's dying but I will love you just as faithfully as ever when I'm king"), and we know being forgotten is Wilhelmine's number one fear.
It's a rare example of Fritz putting himself in someone else's shoes, realizing they have needs, and trying to meet those needs. He normally doesn't have the emotional maturity to deal with people having the exact same needs he has. As the beginning of this comment showed, with "Look, Fritz, I've read your own complaints when someone doesn't pay not enough attention to you and doesn't express enough devotion."
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians
Date: 2020-01-20 01:31 pm (UTC)*Nods* Sounds all plausible. You know, it would be really interesting to make a study of the varying ways FW & SD impacted their children. Fritz and Wilhelmine have the most overt damage, both as the oldest (i.e. most exposure), and Ferdinand as the youngest the least, but the ones in between offer a lot of varation. AW had a positive feedback loop with FW, but this being used from early days (read: toddler made to ask for soldier not to be hanged seems to have left him with the conviction it was his job and responsibility to achieve family harmony. (Not, say, SD's, as opposed to the cliché of the mother as the reconciliator. Note that when Fritz and Wilhelmine have their fallout, SD immediately and unhesitatingly sides with Fritz and writes angry "repent, you foolish girl!" missives to Bayreuth.)
Mysterious "innocent" things said by Algarotti misconstrued or magnified by Fritz: Gossipy sensationalists need to know!
Absolutely! We don't suppose Fritz had Algarotti's personal mail read, do we? (Because of the "the worst road: the road back to Prussia" remark in 1747.)
BTW, just recalled that while Fredersdorf does not comment on the ongoing Voltaire desaster at all, he does point out to Fritz Algarotti hasn't cashed in his Prussian Chamberlain salary, so probably does not intend to come back after Algarotti's (as it turns out) final Departure.
It's a rare example of Fritz putting himself in someone else's shoes, realizing they have needs
True. I also can't help but observe that Theseus eventually makes it out of the underworld. Pirithous remains trapped. Fritz the Galley slave again?
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians
Date: 2020-01-20 03:54 pm (UTC)This is an excellent point. As you point out, the position was open!
We don't suppose Fritz had Algarotti's personal mail read, do we? (Because of the "the worst road: the road back to Prussia" remark in 1747.)
Oooh. I mean, it was quite normal for mail to be opened and read by several royal spies on its way to its recipient, is my impression of the 18th century. Voltaire complains that when he gets Fritz's poem on the Rossbach disaster, he can tell it's been opened, and he's furious at Fritz because people are going to think that he, Voltaire, had something to do with this poem.
Crackfic Fredersdorf: I can see how you might accidentally end up in bed with Voltaire thinking he was your boss. :P
But did Fritz have Algarotti's mail read? I don't know. While Fritz of course had spies at foreign courts (and I swear I read somewhere that he was spying on his own court), I never got the impression he had a particularly impressive spy network and he was often caught off guard by events. Largely, if you ask me, because his MO was always "isolate, entrench, and fight" not "take other people into account."
Maybe Ulrike had Algarotti's mail read, though, you think?
I also can't help but observe that Theseus eventually makes it out of the underworld. Pirithous remains trapped. Fritz the Galley slave again?
:-(
Oh, Fritz. (The only one enslaving you is you! Come on, you can do it. Cast off those chains!)
Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians
Date: 2020-01-23 05:39 am (UTC)Yeah. Like you say, both hilarious and heartbreaking.
if there was talk as late as freaking 1739 about a possible change in the order of succession - no matter how unfounded, which it was, if FW would have done it, it would have been in 1730/1731, not later than that - , it might have sunk into his subconscious.
Wow! That makes a lot of sense to me. Ugh, FW.
You must admit that you have benefited marvelously from the lessons of Maupertuis. He rounded up the earth, and you rounded up your country. They say you calculate fairer and easier than him. Would I dare to beg you to communicate to me your method, which would do an unequaled good for our country, and, by flattening it, would more often bring me the happiness of presenting myself to you? However, it is not the mountains that will stop me; no obstacle, however rough it may be, will stop me, as soon as it comes to seeing all that I hold dearest in the world.
This is really endearing. I love Wilhelmine when she's in an amused mood <3
As I imagine that, having its attributes, you will want to follow its uses, I take the liberty to offer you this fabric as the beginnings of our manufacture, and when I address my wishes to the gods, I dare to say to them: Divinities of Olympus, if you deign to favor Swabia with your presence, grant one day the same favors to Prussia!
Fritz and Wilhelmine are so cute, omg <3