"If Voltaire came to see me, it would be rare, and I would prevent any bother."
And how would you do that, exactly, Fritz? Do tell. :P Because your track record doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
I'm leaving the Latin, btw, because it cracks me up. "Well, do it, mi frater!" and all.
Yeah, Catt's random forays into Latin, Greek, and English in his diaries are weird and hilarious. I would totally get it if it were entire sentences, but he goes word by word, and that's just bizarre.
The two MT mentions are great, and as opposed to the memoirs version, come without "at leaset she hates whores", which makes me wonder whether de Catt isn't the one who has an anti sex worker bias?
You know, I think he might be. Check out this passage:
Before dinner I went to the King...He found that men were unjust towards women; that we allowed ourselves to be disturbed and that we did not suffer from them. - »I know that I will never make laws: but those for women are not fair. An infidelity of the husband exempts the wife from being constant. "- I denied it. "Everyone has his ideas."
So one, it sounds like Catt has way less sympathy for women having sex than Fritz. Two, I have now found yet *another* occasion on which Fritz is supposed to have said that if his father forced him to get married, he could do what he wanted, and it would be fair because he'd let her do the same. Now, as you pointed out, would he have done it if it came down to his reputation? Maybe, maybe not. But there are now four occasions, decades apart, on which he's espoused the belief that if the man cheats first, the woman is off the hook.
And here it's Catt who's got less liberal, more standard ideas. So maybe that MT backhanded compliment was more Catt than Fritz. Fritz is straightforwardly, if grudgingly, giving her her due in the diary.
Oh, speaking of Catt and women, I mentioned that the Seven Years' War is like his tour through the female population of Central Europe? If, per Paul, it's better to marry than to burn, I get the impression this guy is burning, and according to Wikipedia, he's going to marry in 1761.
Given, you know, Heinrich's copy of it with hand written comments was supposedly so incendiary that it got disappeared from the state archives:
Hahaha. Also the comment about how he had to put up an obelisk to honor the real heroes of the war, "about whom his fucking memoirs say nothing."
And lastly, one more Voltaire statement. Can't tell whether this one is meant as a diss or an endearing story:
Voltaire, on leaving, gave three copies of Louis XIV to the cook and the servants.
I'm not certain either, but reading the entire entry, Fritz seems to be talking about the importance of applying yourself to philosophy and learning things yourself, not just accepting what you're told. And he starts talking in particular about women: women who study philosophy, women who have intrigues but decently (which he seems to find acceptable). And if you put this into context with one of Fritz's writings on how society and parents let women down by not having them be educated as a matter of course, which results in them spending all their time on love affairs and their appearance...maybe he's saying, "Look, even Voltaire thinks women and/or lower class individuals should educate themselves."
Émilie, at least per Bodanis, had the same observation that the women at court who were frivolous and shallow were so only because they weren't given better options. Obviously, she was more sympathetic to the women than Fritz, but he was at least on the right track.
Re: Henri de Catt Unplugged - II
And how would you do that, exactly, Fritz? Do tell. :P Because your track record doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
I'm leaving the Latin, btw, because it cracks me up. "Well, do it, mi frater!" and all.
Yeah, Catt's random forays into Latin, Greek, and English in his diaries are weird and hilarious. I would totally get it if it were entire sentences, but he goes word by word, and that's just bizarre.
The two MT mentions are great, and as opposed to the memoirs version, come without "at leaset she hates whores", which makes me wonder whether de Catt isn't the one who has an anti sex worker bias?
You know, I think he might be. Check out this passage:
Before dinner I went to the King...He found that men were unjust towards women; that we allowed ourselves to be disturbed and that we did not suffer from them. - »I know that I will never make laws: but those for women are not fair. An infidelity of the husband exempts the wife from being constant. "- I denied it. "Everyone has his ideas."
So one, it sounds like Catt has way less sympathy for women having sex than Fritz. Two, I have now found yet *another* occasion on which Fritz is supposed to have said that if his father forced him to get married, he could do what he wanted, and it would be fair because he'd let her do the same. Now, as you pointed out, would he have done it if it came down to his reputation? Maybe, maybe not. But there are now four occasions, decades apart, on which he's espoused the belief that if the man cheats first, the woman is off the hook.
And here it's Catt who's got less liberal, more standard ideas. So maybe that MT backhanded compliment was more Catt than Fritz. Fritz is straightforwardly, if grudgingly, giving her her due in the diary.
Oh, speaking of Catt and women, I mentioned that the Seven Years' War is like his tour through the female population of Central Europe? If, per Paul, it's better to marry than to burn, I get the impression this guy is burning, and according to Wikipedia, he's going to marry in 1761.
Given, you know, Heinrich's copy of it with hand written comments was supposedly so incendiary that it got disappeared from the state archives:
Hahaha. Also the comment about how he had to put up an obelisk to honor the real heroes of the war, "about whom his fucking memoirs say nothing."
And lastly, one more Voltaire statement. Can't tell whether this one is meant as a diss or an endearing story:
Voltaire, on leaving, gave three copies of Louis XIV to the cook and the servants.
I'm not certain either, but reading the entire entry, Fritz seems to be talking about the importance of applying yourself to philosophy and learning things yourself, not just accepting what you're told. And he starts talking in particular about women: women who study philosophy, women who have intrigues but decently (which he seems to find acceptable). And if you put this into context with one of Fritz's writings on how society and parents let women down by not having them be educated as a matter of course, which results in them spending all their time on love affairs and their appearance...maybe he's saying, "Look, even Voltaire thinks women and/or lower class individuals should educate themselves."
Émilie, at least per Bodanis, had the same observation that the women at court who were frivolous and shallow were so only because they weren't given better options. Obviously, she was more sympathetic to the women than Fritz, but he was at least on the right track.
There's a Lehndorff mention in the camp gossip!
I noticed! Lehndorff *and* Countess Bentinck!