"Your miser [i.e. Voltaire] will drink the dregs of his insatiable desire to make money; he is going to get 1300 thalers. His six-day appearance is going to cost me 550 thalers per diem. That is a lot to pay a lunatic; no court jester was ever paid such wages."
No, but I think ballerinas and soprano singers will make more. ;) Mind you, that kind of statement makes the "squeezed orange" quote sound authentic, and also fits with father FW's attitude towards intellectuals, see below. Not that Voltairei can't bite back, and then some, but I think this is where the "can't live with" part of the ship comes in.
This one is interesting because Gundling was FW's court jester/fool
Not precisely. He was certainly treated by FW as one. But the poor man was actually a scholar. He was the one who introduced systematic source research to German scholarship; he started out as a top historian before FW humiliated him into treating him court-jesterly, and started years and years of abuse. English wiki has some, but check out German wiki for more of it. He tried to escape twice, was brought back and ended up drinking himself to death. And even then FW did not relent: Gundling died in Potsdam in 1731 from the effects of his stomach ulcers. At the instigation of the king, he was buried in an unworthy ceremony, even blasphemous in the judgment of some of his contemporaries. For years he had had to spend the nights in his room next to a wine barrel that had been transformed into a coffin. In this container his body, grotesquely costumed, was first exhibited in public. The writer David Faßmann, his greatest enemy at the court, gave the sermon on the corpse – the responsible evangelical clergy had refused to take part in the spectacle. Eight tailors then carried the barrel to the city limits (according to other sources the barrel was pulled by pigs), from there it went in the cattle cart to Bornstedt near Potsdam. Gundling was buried in a tomb of the village church there. Later, Frederick William I tried to dispel the suspicion that he had disregarded principles of religion by official depictions of the case. The rebellious clergy were strictly interrogated, but ultimately not punished. Jacob-von-Gundling-Straße in Potsdam is named after him.
So if I were Maupertuis, I'd probably have been way more sceptical before agreeing to work for any son of FW's.
The temerity! In a few years, Ulrica's even going to have the temerity to ask him to pay her dowry! Can you believe it? "Optimism" is more the word I would use.
No kidding. Why am I not surprised McDonogh has it in for the sibs? Incidentally, if he'd checked Ulrike's letters, then he could not have claimed that:
MacDonogh, as we know, claims that Fritz was disapproving, but I turned up that article on how Fritz was actually playing along, and having read the poems, I agree.
Me too, because I did read that letter in addition to the poems. An Ulrike who writes to Fritz, apropos that poem:
M. de Voltaire will not regret having started a correspondence with me, when he receives the charming reply in verse for which I cannot thank your majesty enough. If he could believe that I was its author, though, his heart would fail him most dreadfully; but he has too much discernment not to know which Apollo inspired me. It is a consolation for the Marquise that I would not always dare to have recourse to this god, since only thus she is sure of keeping her reign.
Is clearly not writing in a situation where Fritz disapproves, but one where he eagerly used the chance to write love poetry to Voltaire. Pity Edmond de Rostand lived after Voltaire, because "Cyrano de Bergerac" comes to mind. *veg*
He knew that business remained unsettled between him and Maria Theresa even despite the guarantees of his ownership of Silesia meted out at the Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle, but he never descended to personal insult, beyond speculating on who might wear the trousers in that ménage.
Hmm. You seem to be missing out on the vast amounts of personal insult Fritz descended to, MacDonogh. But good job whitewashing.
I'm speechless. How it is possible for anyone doing the slightest bit of research to miss all the insults he slung at her before her death is beyond me.
I don't have enough data to express an opinion, but Blanning tells me Darget considered this an inadequate apology. If so, one can hardly blame him!
Re: MacDonogh Reread II
No, but I think ballerinas and soprano singers will make more. ;) Mind you, that kind of statement makes the "squeezed orange" quote sound authentic, and also fits with father FW's attitude towards intellectuals, see below. Not that Voltairei can't bite back, and then some, but I think this is where the "can't live with" part of the ship comes in.
This one is interesting because Gundling was FW's court jester/fool
Not precisely. He was certainly treated by FW as one. But the poor man was actually a scholar. He was the one who introduced systematic source research to German scholarship; he started out as a top historian before FW humiliated him into treating him court-jesterly, and started years and years of abuse. English wiki has some, but check out German wiki for more of it. He tried to escape twice, was brought back and ended up drinking himself to death. And even then FW did not relent: Gundling died in Potsdam in 1731 from the effects of his stomach ulcers. At the instigation of the king, he was buried in an unworthy ceremony, even blasphemous in the judgment of some of his contemporaries. For years he had had to spend the nights in his room next to a wine barrel that had been transformed into a coffin. In this container his body, grotesquely costumed, was first exhibited in public. The writer David Faßmann, his greatest enemy at the court, gave the sermon on the corpse – the responsible evangelical clergy had refused to take part in the spectacle. Eight tailors then carried the barrel to the city limits (according to other sources the barrel was pulled by pigs), from there it went in the cattle cart to Bornstedt near Potsdam. Gundling was buried in a tomb of the village church there. Later, Frederick William I tried to dispel the suspicion that he had disregarded principles of religion by official depictions of the case. The rebellious clergy were strictly interrogated, but ultimately not punished.
Jacob-von-Gundling-Straße in Potsdam is named after him.
So if I were Maupertuis, I'd probably have been way more sceptical before agreeing to work for any son of FW's.
The temerity! In a few years, Ulrica's even going to have the temerity to ask him to pay her dowry! Can you believe it? "Optimism" is more the word I would use.
No kidding. Why am I not surprised McDonogh has it in for the sibs? Incidentally, if he'd checked Ulrike's letters, then he could not have claimed that:
MacDonogh, as we know, claims that Fritz was disapproving, but I turned up that article on how Fritz was actually playing along, and having read the poems, I agree.
Me too, because I did read that letter in addition to the poems. An Ulrike who writes to Fritz, apropos that poem:
M. de Voltaire will not regret having started a correspondence with me, when he receives the charming reply in verse for which I cannot thank your majesty enough. If he could believe that I was its author, though, his heart would fail him most dreadfully; but he has too much discernment not to know which Apollo inspired me. It is a consolation for the Marquise that I would not always dare to have recourse to this god, since only thus she is sure of keeping her reign.
Is clearly not writing in a situation where Fritz disapproves, but one where he eagerly used the chance to write love poetry to Voltaire. Pity Edmond de Rostand lived after Voltaire, because "Cyrano de Bergerac" comes to mind. *veg*
He knew that business remained unsettled between him and Maria Theresa even despite the guarantees of his ownership of Silesia meted out at the Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle, but he never descended to personal insult, beyond speculating on who might wear the trousers in that ménage.
Hmm. You seem to be missing out on the vast amounts of personal insult Fritz descended to, MacDonogh. But good job whitewashing.
I'm speechless. How it is possible for anyone doing the slightest bit of research to miss all the insults he slung at her before her death is beyond me.
I don't have enough data to express an opinion, but Blanning tells me Darget considered this an inadequate apology. If so, one can hardly blame him!
Quite! No wonder he eventually quit.