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Frederick the Great discussion post 12
Every time I am amazed and enchanted that this is still going on! Truly DW is the Earthly Paradise!
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rheinsberg :)
All the good stuff continues to be archived at
rheinsberg :)
Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Bischof points out that Luccheisini, being a Italian Marchese, was of different social rank than Catt from the get go and hence rates invitations to the fabled Sanssouci suppers in addition to hanging out with the King a deux. Reading the translation, I feel I didn't do too badly going by the footnotes in the original edition. Additional info:
- Lucchesini seems to have really liked Fritz' poetry; at first I thought he was pretending, but then he started to snark about Fritz' utter lack of scientific know how beyond the most superficial level while of course pretending to be an expert, so he has no problem writing down when he disagrees with Fritz on something or thinks Fritz is talking rubbish
- which Fritz does a lot; when Lucchesini calls him out on two stories he tells of the two Medici queens in France, Catherine and Maria, which happen to be utterly wrong (yours truly having occupied herself with both eras somewhat, I'm in a position to know), Fritz defends himself by saying he has super secret sources for both anecdotes and so he KNOWS it's true, which is typical
- contempt for German literature, check, then he adds fine, a beginning has been made, who, asks Lu, and Fritz says "Canitz", a poet in his grandmother's time. Yep, that's the author De La Literature Allemande, alright. I bet he was proud he could at least remember one writer.
- Lu also note that it shows Fritz only knows the great Latin writers like Horace and Cicero in French translations, which can't capture the sheer linguistic beauty of Horace's odes, or the wit of Cicero
- Lu, as opposed to Fritz, and like the Duc de Croy, is actually interested in contemporary exploration and mentions Georg Forster's book on travelling with James Cook (remember #saveJamesCook?) to Tahiti; Georg Forster wrote his travel reports in German, which at leat supports Zimmerman's claim that Lu could read it.
- Fritz' Gluck dislike is based on having the first act of Orphee performed on an arrangement for Cello, piano and violin. That's it. Totally qualifies him.
- lots and lots of positive Algarotti mentions, perhaps Lu reminds Fritz of the last Italian he spend a lot of time with? Anyway, Algarotti is very fondly remembered. The only vaguely critical thing Fritz says is that he tried to please everyone. Otherwise it's praise for his knowledge and memory ("he travelled with his library in his head, always accessible") and his charm all the way.
- if you're wondering how Fritz handles dead Voltaire: Voltaire was the worst! The WORST! Let me read this letter of Voltaire again, and mine to him to you out loud, because there's some fine poetry in it. Also, here's a story of Voltaire being witty. We haven't read Voltaire enough recently. Did I mention he was THE WORST?
- re: Fritz appropriating complete credit for Poland, it did occur to me that 1780/81 was when he and Heinrich had their record one and a half year of not talking or writing to each other. AW gets edited out of the trip to Strasbourg again when Fritz says he was there only with Algarotti.
(BTW, Jessen has a letter from Fritz to Heinrich when Fritz checks out his new territories (won, you know, without a drop of blood) actually containing the phrase "this land, which I received through your hand".)
- at one point they talk about vampires, I kid you not; Fritz of course calls them a total superstition and wonders that there are people who are otherwise sound sceptics who still believe in that stuff, which makes Lu think Fritz might be one of those people after all. (Basis for a vampire AU?)
- no mention of Katte, or Küstrin, even when Fritz is going there; FW mentioned only once or twice, Lu notes that Fritz talks of him with much respect and gives him all the credit for building the basis for his, Fritz' power.
- Fritz the amazingly wrong predicter: future menace ViennaJoe will conquer Rome, make the pope his patriarch and Christianity will splinter even more and decline; England is over and done with, a power on the downward slide ever since the end of the Seven Years War, when Bute, totally bribed by the Austrians (with what money?), stopped subsidizing Fritz and Holderness let himself outnegotiated by the French (this is not how the French would see it)
- seriously, Fritz has not forgiven the English for stopping the subsidies; mind you, the insistence that England is an exhausted and one with power might at least partially hail from them losing to their American colonists, but they also gained Canada from the French, and the British Empire hasn't reached its zenith yet since complete control over India is yet to come; it still shows Fritz has zero idea of non-European politics and economics, and how much Britain florishes based on all the incoming money from the colonies
- I can see why Lu never achieved Catt's popularity, though; not nearly as much personal stories (true or made up), no extreme danger and extreme glory situation as in the 7 Years War, and Lu notes down Fritz repeating anecdotes, as old people do, and holds forth on subjects he's just not informed on.
- nothing homoerotic I could spott, not even in code, aside from the Algarotti and Voltaire stuff.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Wow, SOMEBODY is paying attention to Koser! It's about time.
So did he include the whole Lucchesini diary, then? And only selections from Catt because Catt can't be trusted?
Did Fredersdorf learn French behind Fritz' back?
Of course he did. And then pretended he couldn't possibly read the Palladion because it wasn't in German. :P
Less speculatively, it probably wouldn't have been that hard to locate an interpreter?
- lots and lots of positive Algarotti mentions, perhaps Lu reminds Fritz of the last Italian he spend a lot of time with? Anyway, Algarotti is very fondly remembered. The only vaguely critical thing Fritz says is that he tried to please everyone.
Awww. Yeah, Algarotti was the master of the amicable unofficial breakup. <3
That's interesting about the people pleasing. I had, as you know, seen a comment that "contemporaries agreed that his most pronounced characteristic was his desire to please," but I hadn't seen it attributed to anyone specific. Interesting that Fritz was one!
- if you're wondering how Fritz handles dead Voltaire:
So same way he handled live Voltaire, gotcha. I could have guessed. :P
(BTW, Jessen has a letter from Fritz to Heinrich when Fritz checks out his new territories (won, you know, without a drop of blood) actually containing the phrase "this land, which I received through your hand".)
I guess when he's in a good mood, he can give credit where credit is due? 1780/1781 being when Heinrich and Fritz are on the outs, that makes sense. Thanks for the chronology reminder. (See, sometimes I need chronology reminders too,
AW gets edited out of the trip to Strasbourg again when Fritz says he was there only with Algarotti.
Wow. Poor AW. It's interesting to see Lucchesini verifying some of Catt's anecdotes, though.
- nothing homoerotic I could spott, not even in code, aside from the Algarotti and Voltaire stuff.
Yeah, we figured. Zimmermann says or implies that he got it from word of mouth from Fritz's favorite, right?
As always, thanks for the summary!
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
So did he include the whole Lucchesini diary, then? And only selections from Catt because Catt can't be trusted?
Yes and yes.
Less speculatively, it probably wouldn't have been that hard to locate an interpreter?
No, but at this point Fritz wants Voltaire intimidated into doing his bidding, not gone. The status-conscious ancien regime time being what it is, it's one thing if the King's right hand man carries the message, and another if yet another person is involved, possibly a servant. (That's why Wilhelmine isn't so much shocked that SD and Charlotte trash talk EC than that they do so in front of the servants.)
Incidentally, like you, I'm infinitely curious how Fritz imagined the post war botherfree rare Voltaire visits to go. Not that I would consider it impossible to imagine a scenario where they meet again, but no way would have that have been on Prussian soil. If Fritz came to Switzerland, I doubt Voltaire would have been able to resist. Mayyyybe neutral territory, like Brussels, though not once Fritz' niece is Queen there. Aachen then? But not Prussia. Nope.
Also, both Luchesini and Catt have Fritz recounting that Voltaire told him the realm of the mind is a republic, which is as good a summing up of one key problem there as any, to wit: Voltaire, all flattery aside, did see himself as an equal, if not a superior by virtue of being a genius.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Yes and yes.
Oh, good, so you did get to go through the whole Lucchesini diary, then! I was hoping that was the case. And it's good the Italian is out there too, in case we ever need to look something up. I like having access to these texts in both the original and a language at least one of us is fluent in.
The status-conscious ancien regime time being what it is, it's one thing if the King's right hand man carries the message, and another if yet another person is involved, possibly a servant.
Very true. Fredersdorf was probably holding back, then!
Btw, didn't Münchow say he understood more of what was going on than the other pages/servants because he understood French?
I'm infinitely curious how Fritz imagined the post war botherfree rare Voltaire visits to go.
One thing to consider is that the context for the "Voltaire will visit, it would be rare, and I would prevent any bother," is the hypothetical scenario in which Fritz retires voluntarily. I think that says a lot about his fantasies: "I'll give up power of my own free will! And Voltaire and I won't fight!" The likelihood of those two things being about equal.
With FW2 as king, though, and Fritz somehow the kind of person who would pull a Diocletian (maybe a head injury incurred during the war leads to a personality change?), do you think Voltaire would come to Rheinsberg to visit his no-longer-king ex?
It's kind of hard for me to reason about this AU, because it requires *such* an OOC Fritz.
Voltaire, all flattery aside, did see himself as an equal, if not a superior by virtue of being a genius.
Agreed.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Btw, didn't Münchow say he understood more of what was going on than the other pages/servants because he understood French?
I'd have to look it up again. Can't right now.
I think that says a lot about his fantasies: "I'll give up power of my own free will! And Voltaire and I won't fight!" The likelihood of those two things being about equal.
Very true. But if somehow Fritz were to give up power, couldn't he then be induced to finally travel again?
Or: here's one scenario where I can imagine Voltaire coming to Fritz. Fritz doesn't just lose power. He's taken captive. He's put on trial in front of the diet for invading Saxony and, while we're at it, Silesia! And presto! Voltaire's inner campaigner for justice and hopeless causes unites with his Fritz attraction. Not to mention the irony of being Fritz being held in Frankfurt, also irresistable. This scenario offers the chance to gloat and to help at the same time. And to piss off everyone else by writing pamphlets on how the other powers definitely were hoping Fritz would invade and were totally planning for such a scenario, and were guilty of war crimes themselves, etc. This is Voltaire we're talking about. He would NOT be able to resist.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
He would NOT be able to resist.
He would not! And it would feed into the love-hate relationship, as Fritz is never able to forgive Voltaire for rescuing him and thus getting the upper hand.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
Re: The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
Re: The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
Re: The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
Unfun interluding footnote: Seydlitz
Re: Unfun interluding footnote: Seydlitz
Re: Unfun interluding footnote: Seydlitz
Re: The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
Re: The Very Secret Plans of European Royalty
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Zero evidence for this, but: is there anything you can think of preventing him from having actually sent AW?
1) AW is the natural mediator.
2) He's plenty high-ranking enough for it not to be an insult.
3) He speaks French.
4) He isn't on Fritz's bad side yet.
5) Fritz likes editing AW out of stories later in life.
Profit?
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
AW would actually have been a good choice, though maybe Fritz thought he was too nice and Voltaire would totally be able to talk circles around him and not sign the damn pledge after all? (Given, you know, the 1749 "you blindly believe anything Heinrich tells you!" argument.) Heinrich, btw, would have been an even better choice, between on the one hand a Voltairian Francophile himself and on the other definitely not too nice when he needs something done. Alas, though, he's also Fritz' least favourite brother in 1752/1753, and hasn't proven yet he's the other big military (and negotiating) talent in the family. (A few skirmishes in Silesia 2 don't count.) Fritz probably would suspect Heinrich would instead want to subscribe to Voltaire's newsletter.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Exactly what I was thinking. If you're editing AW out, you might forget who you edited *in* last time.
though maybe Fritz thought he was too nice and Voltaire would totally be able to talk circles around him and not sign the damn pledge after all?
Hmm, true. Agree that he's not sending 1752/1753 Heinrich, though!
Fritz probably would suspect Heinrich would instead want to subscribe to Voltaire's newsletter.
Hahahaha. Fritz, we all want to subscribe to the Voltaire newsletter. Even you, admit it. :P
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
I've been wanting to respond to this for a while, but my access to E-Enlightenment was messed up - Oxford University Press was having problems or something.
So this is a bit of a puzzle! Strap in because it's going to be a long analysis.
We have two possibilities: that Voltaire knew enough German to speak to Fredersdorf in the latter's native language, or that Fredersdorf knew enough French to speak to Voltaire in the latter's native language. Of course, the extent of one's conversational grasp of a language can't be gleaned entirely from looking at their written correspondence; it is often easier for early learners to write and understand language in written form than to understand it spoken aloud and spontaneously converse. But correspondences do give us some clues. So let's Enlighten ourselves.
Assessing the extent to which Fredersdorf can understand French:
Voltaire wrote a single letter to Fredersdorf on the 1st of January 1753 (the same day he wrote to Friedrich and a few others announcing his resignation from the Prussian court) entirely in French. Clearly, Voltaire thought that Fredersdorf would be able to understand it. Either Fredersdorf actually knows enough French to read this rather long, complex letter, or it's just an assumption on Voltaire's part that Fredersdorf knows enough to do so; Voltaire does not know Fredersdorf personally, and could be assuming that his command of French is similar to most in the King's company (that is, good enough to read the letter unassisted), or alternatively that he could have somebody read and translate it to him, if he in fact only knows German and Voltaire is aware of this.
There are no letters from Fredersdorf to Voltaire surviving, if he wrote any at all (and there's no indication that he did). All of Fredersdorf's surviving correspondence to Freytag etc in 1753 about the Voltaire Incident in Frankfurt is in German. I'll emphasise here that ALL of Fredersdorf's surviving correspondence is in German, and from here onwards, we're talking about letters that do not survive but are mentioned in others that do by French speakers.
We know that Fredersdorf sent two letters to Madame Denis: once on the 3rd of July 1753, in response to a letter sent to him by her on the 23rd of June, and once, apparently unprompted, on the 12th of August from Potsdam. As I said before, the manuscripts for these letters, including the one from Madame Denis, do not survive. Their original language is unknown, or even whether they were personally written or dictated to somebody else to write.
First, for the July 1753 response letter; he sent this letter to Voltaire and not to Denis directly. We only know about the response because Voltaire quotes from it in a surviving letter to Denis, since of course he needs to relay the message to her somehow. Voltaire's writing on the matter was dictated to a secretary and not written in his own hand. I'll be using the original text for all of these letters:
'Ma chère enfant, Je soufre en paix mes maux, et mes disgrâces, toujours dans le même endroit, et attendant de vos nouvelles. J'ai reçu, il y a trois jours, une lettre de Fredersdorff, premier valet de chambre du Roi de Prusse, qui vous était adressée; elle est du 3 juillet; en voici les propres mots:
‘Madame, J'ai eu l'honneur de recevoir vôtre lettre du 23 juin. J'ai aussi connu le triste sort dont vous étiez tout à fait fâchée. J'espère que tout sera redressé à votre satisfaction; mais il me faut avoüer que je suis étonné d'aprendre que Mr. de Voltaire est mon ennemi, et cela pour les civilités que je lui ai faites, ce qu'il reconnaitra aisément quand il lui plaira éxercer son esprit au sujet de moi; avec cela je ne cesserai de vous éstimer, étant, avec beaucoup de considération, etc.’
Ce stile (et je ne parle pas de la pureté du stile) est aussi vandale que votre avanture.'
Here's an interesting question - why include a quotation and not just enclose Fredersdorf's letter alongside Voltaire's own, if it was addressed directly to Denis in legible French? The answer is that the quote is, of course, in clear French, but that does not necessarily mean that Fredersdorf's original letter was. Tellingly, Voltaire snarks about the 'pureté du stile' of the original letter (note: 'stile' is not deliberately misspelled to make fun of Fredersdorf's own spelling - Voltaire always spelt 'style' that way). If it was written in German, then Voltaire's secretary could be translating for the sake of Denis. If it was written in French, it was evidently in a quite poor style. Based on Voltaire's comment about the 'pureté du stile', with my knowledge of French being very limited, I'm going to tentatively suggest that Fredersdorf wrote in poor French that has been cleaned up for the sake of clarity. Or somebody wrote in French on his behalf, and it was translated from Fredersdorf's German, hence the awkward style.
We know much less about the August letter. This one was actually addressed directly to Denis. She quotes an extract from it (not the whole letter this time) in a letter to Voltaire written on the 26th of August:
'Mais voici ce que le sieur Federsdorff m'écrit de Potsdam, le 12 août: Je déclare que j'ai toujours honoré m. de Voltaire comme un père, toujours prêt à lui servir. Tout ce qui vous est arrivé à Francfort a été fait par ordre du roi; finalement je souhaite que vous jouissiez toujours d'une prospérité sans pareille, étant avec respect &c.'
Voltaire's response to this on the 1st of October is: 'Fredersdorff vous a écrit une drôle de lettre. C'est un plaisant que cet homme là.'
Again, we have no way of knowing whether this quote was verbatim (very unlikely), cleaned up, or translated from a German letter. If he is writing in French, then he's not trying to keep his knowledge of French a secret from Friedrich. Many letters, especially letters in the volatile time of 1753 addressed to either Voltaire or Denis, will be unsealed and checked before they are sent off by anybody affiliated with the King.
Conclusion: His only surviving correspondence is in German. Letters addressed to Madame Denis could possibly have been written in French; if they were, it would point to Fredersdorf being able to write (not necessarily speak) some at least passable French, and that he's not keeping this a secret from Friedrich. But without the manuscripts surviving, it's impossible to tell the original language or syntax.
Assessing the extent to which Voltaire can understand German:
This is significantly easier to analyse since there are actually surviving letters featuring Voltaire's literally transcribed written German from around 1750 to 1753. His writing indicates that he knew more than how to order meals or ask for directions, albeit in a grammatically incorrect way and not with the same level of familiarity as with his English or Italian, but that his professions to 'not understand a word of German' are an exaggeration.
I'll go through his German chronologically in the three years he was at Friedrich's court.
He sends a letter to Friedrich written in German (he probably wasn't pleased about this!) on the 13th of February 1751:
'Allerdurchlauchtigster Grossmächtigster König
Allergnädigster König und Herr,
Es hat zwar der Gegner seiner Schluss Schrift verschiedene nova eingerücket, ja sogar neue Beylagen annectiret, ich will aber um die Sache nicht noch länger aufzuhalten darauf (jedoch ohne alles præjudicirliche Einräumen) nicht weiter antworten, sondern nur Ew. Königl: May: allerunterthänigst bitten auf dasjenige was ex adverso wieder die Ordnung neuerlich angebracht ist in Sententionando nicht zu reflectiren und nunmehro ad Publicationem Sententiæ einen baldigen Terminum allergerechtest præfigiren zu lassen
wofür ersterbe
Ew. Königl. Majestæt
allerunterthänigster
de Voltaire'
From here on he very occasionally likes to include some German in his mostly French correspondence to random Germans, depending on the context.
He thanks Johann Christof Gottsched for sending him a German grammar book for French people on the 25th of April 1753, but he doesn't intend to learn it further: 'Er habt mir mit ein geschench wereheret, welches ich nicht werth bin. Ich bin zu alt um zu lern eine sprache welche si so gut lehren.'
He signs off a letter in April 1753 to Christoph Otto von Schönaich: 'Ich bin ohne Umstand sein gehorsamer Diener - Voltaire.'
Actual correspondence between Voltaire and his temporary jailer Freytag in Frankfurt:
Voltaire on the 22nd of June 1753 (in French): I can't have said anything unpleasant to your lackey, since I don't know German.
Voltaire, literally two days later: 'Messieurs!
Ich habe befolget was Sie vor eine Commission von Ihrem König an mich gehabt. Sie haben mich auch die Wache bis auf 2 Mann abgehen lassen, da mir nun diese noch ein embaras sind, so ersuche ich die Herrn, Sie wollen mir diese 2 Mann auch noch abgehen lassen, damit ich wegen meinen Schwächlichen Umständen die frische Luft geniessen möge. Ich verspreche nebst den allschon auf-gesetzten Billet mich annoch hierdurch zu engagiren das wann ich über kurtz oder lang noch einige pieces welche Seiner Majestaet zustehen finden solte als ein honnet homme an allerhöchst dieselben geträulich ausliefern, ich versehe mich dessen, und bin
Messieurs.'
Would Voltaire have been able to carry a conversation in German with this knowledge...?
Conclusion: Voltaire is not confident in his use of German, but shows some familiarity with the language by 1751. His knowledge of German is much easier to establish than Fredersdorf's potential use of French. How well could he speak it? Not a clue, but his pronunciation would be rather terrible. His written English is far better than his written German, but he was still noted to have a thick French accent by English visitors at Ferney.
My own speculations: If Voltaire and Fredersdorf were to have a conversation, it would probably have taken place in German, but if Voltaire started substituting French words when he didn't know the corresponding German word, it's possible that Fredersdorf would be able to understand.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
My own speculations: If Voltaire and Fredersdorf were to have a conversation, it would probably have taken place in German, but if Voltaire started substituting French words when he didn't know the corresponding German word, it's possible that Fredersdorf would be able to understand.
Makes sense to me. Also, his own command of French aside, Fredersdorf might have been used to this kind of code-switching from Fritz already?
Tellingly, Voltaire snarks about the 'pureté du stile' of the original letter
Fredersdorf, I would have avoided venturing into French in this unforgiving environment as well.
(note: 'stile' is not deliberately misspelled to make fun of Fredersdorf's own spelling - Voltaire always spelt 'style' that way)
Linguistic note: it's not misspelled at all. It's the historically correct spelling in both English and French, since it comes from Latin stilus. The 'y' spelling is more recent, and is a "misspelling" due to a folk etymology: the belief that it's somehow related to the Greek word στῦλος.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
My bad. I had at first assumed that Voltaire's use of 'stile' was similar to his (apocryphal) use of 'poëshie' to make fun of Freytag's French, but checked by search and it's in lots of his letters. That's an interesting linguistic history!
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
Annoyed at this bad faith, and carried away by a movement of anger, I had this diatribe burned. After the burning, I was sorry for it, as I was sorry in what followed for having mixed myself up with the literary and academic disputes of these two madmen. To repair a little of the evil done and to appease Voltaire, I sent the Abbé de Prades to him. I commanded the abbé to say pleasant things to him, and to report to me how he had taken them. The abbé arrived; Voltaire came up to him with a furious expression, which became still more furious when the abbé gave him my compliments. ‘ What, burn me! What, prefer to me that rogue and that Laplander, aupertuis,
to me who was on such good terms with the King of France, my master, and who so stupidly preferred to him this vandal King who sends you! Ah, the b——, the b——, the Archduke Joseph will avenge me!’
The abbé, who came to me immediately after this fine scene, described it to me without missing anything; and I laughed with my whole soul. On the following day, I sent the abbé to ask news of the health of my faithless poet, who knew or suspected that the abbé would come again. What did the author of Mérope then do ? He ordered a bath, had put in it the potherbs destined for his soup, and when the abbé arrived : ‘ Come here, sir, come; see what this man has reduced me to! He is killing me, M. l’Abbé, and I loved him, was faithful to him, corrected his insipid prose and his prosy verses, but he will not escape me, the wretch.’
This second scene, which was rendered to me exactly, made me laugh still more, as you may imagine. There is nothing more comical, my dear sir, than this Voltaire before an illness or the idea of death. My imbecile is then the plaything of panic terrors. He paints for himself a thousand devils waiting ready to seize him. You will certainly hear said, when he is on the point of death, that he had all the confessors and all the priests come to him. He will dishonour us all; never was there a man less consistent than he.
Leaving aside the conculdung Fritzian obsession with Voltaire caving at death's door (which did not happen, but, as Mildred has pointed out, might owe something to the example(s) in Fritz' life who did give into religion at death's door), I can see why de Catt substituted de Prades here. Fritz sending his reader to Voltaire to make nice while getting the message across? Sure. Good choice. Sending his right hand man who supposedly doesn't speak French and at any rate is bound to be seen as an enforcer of the royal will rather than a diplomat? Not so much, if Fritz really did want to make nice at this point. So without Bischoff pointing out the substitution, I wouldn't have guessed, but he's right, for lo and behold, the Catt diary entry this long scene is apparantly mainly based on:
Frédéricdorf (sic) heard: ›Ah, the bugger, the Archduke Joseph will avenge me.‹ He answered: ›There is no ointment for the burn.‹
Quite. (And that's it with this particular entry.) BTW, if that's Fredersdorf answering "there's no ointment to the burn", in whichever language, he apparantly is up to making snarky comments himself.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
I would expect nothing less from Mike!
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
I don't think Voltaire was holding out on him necessarily, because he sent that German language letter directly to him early in 1751, I'm assuming to demonstrate his knowledge so soon after coming to Prussia...?
Sending his right hand man who supposedly doesn't speak French and at any rate is bound to be seen as an enforcer of the royal will rather than a diplomat? Not so much, if Fritz really did want to make nice at this point.
Yeah, Fritz was definitely counting on Fredersdorf's presence impressing on Voltaire to act in whatever way. Expanding a bit on Fred's role in the resignation business -
From the resignation letter Voltaire sent to Friedrich on January 1st:
"Mr. Federsdoff [sic] who comes to console me in my disgrace makes me hope that your majesty would deign to listen to the goodness of your character towards me, and that it could repair by its benevolence (if possible) the stigma with which it showered me.
He sent this resignation letter at half past 3, then Fredersdorf is sent to his room at 4. From Voltaire's letter later on the 1st of Jan to Charles Nicolas de La Touche, who he had apparently made his advocate:
"He sent me Federsdoff at four to tell me to do nothing, that he would fix everything, that I write him another letter. I wrote to him, but without denying the first, and I will take no resolution without your kindness and without your advice. As I had the honor of taking you to witness my feelings in my first letter, and as the king knows that according to my duty I have entrusted my procedures to you, it will be up to you to be an arbitrator. You are currently a Minister of Peace, we are proposing it, dictate the conditions."
Fredersdorf had returned the chamberlain's key and Pour le Mérite to Voltaire after he had first tried to give them back to Friedrich, enclosed with his resignation letter, so he could leave Prussia. Voltaire recounts on the 13th of January 1753 to Denis:
"I sent back to the Solomon of the North his New Year's gifts, the bells and the hobby horse that he had given me, and that you reproached me for so much. I wrote him a very respectful letter, and I asked him for my leave. Do you know what he did? He sent me his large/tall/great [could be any of these for grand] Federsdoff factotum, who brought back my brimborions. He wrote to me that he preferred to live with me, than with Maupertuis. What is certain is that I do not want to live with one or the other. I know it is difficult to get out of here, but there are still hippogriffs to escape from Madame Alcine. I absolutely want to leave, that's all I can tell you, my dear child. I have been saying it for three years now, and I should have done it. I told Federsdoff that my health did not allow me to live in such a dangerous climate any longer."
Friedrich seems accustomed to using Fredersdorf's presence as "encouragement" by March 1753, though whether the following event happened is noted by the E-Enlightenment editor as dubious ("was this a verbal message? or is the text of [Fritz letter] incomplete? or is this merely a little flourish?"):
"The King of Prussia sent me cinchona during my illness; that is not what I need: it is my leave. He wanted me to go back to Potsdam. I asked for his permission to go to Plombières: I give you a hundred to guess the answer. He made me write by his factotum that there were excellent waters at Glatz, towards Moravia."
Not sure if Fredersdorf was a physically imposing person, but his position certainly was.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
cinchona
For
Not sure if Fredersdorf was a physically imposing person
We've always seen him described as tall. Our headcanon is that he was just short enough not to be recruited by FW as a Potsdam giant, but much taller and he would have been.
His height is a plot point in the absolutely delightful excerpt from his secret diary crackfic that
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I know it is difficult to get out of here, but there are still hippogriffs to escape from Madame Alcine
That's the Orlando-Furioso (or Händel's opera based on Orlando) referring comparison Voltaire also employs in his memoirs, i.e. Fritz as the bewitching sorceress Alcina.
He made me write by his factotum that there were excellent waters at Glatz, towards Moravia
Glatz is a fortress where Prussian prisoners are locked up. As, for example, Trenck, the first time around.
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Voltaire on the 22nd of June 1753 (in French): I can't have said anything unpleasant to your lackey, since I don't know German.
Voltaire, literally two days later: Ich habe...
HEE. Oh, Voltaire.
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Heinrich, after a glass of wine that evening: Das will ich Ihnen noch sagen...
Wilhelmine: Brother Voltaire!
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Fritz defends himself by saying he has super secret sources for both anecdotes and so he KNOWS it's true, which is typical
LOL
then he adds fine, a beginning has been made, who, asks Lu, and Fritz says "Canitz", a poet in his grandmother's time.
HAHAHAHAHA oh Fritz, never change.
- Fritz' Gluck dislike is based on having the first act of Orphee performed on an arrangement for Cello, piano and violin. That's it. Totally qualifies him.
This is the bit where I just kind of choked. I... what? Fritz! You're a musician! I expected better of you! I could also totally see Gluck's charm not coming through at all in a trio arrangement, omg.
- if you're wondering how Fritz handles dead Voltaire: Voltaire was the worst! The WORST! Let me read this letter of Voltaire again, and mine to him to you out loud, because there's some fine poetry in it. Also, here's a story of Voltaire being witty. We haven't read Voltaire enough recently. Did I mention he was THE WORST?
...speaking of Fritz never changing!
- at one point they talk about vampires, I kid you not; Fritz of course calls them a total superstition and wonders that there are people who are otherwise sound sceptics who still believe in that stuff, which makes Lu think Fritz might be one of those people after all. (Basis for a vampire AU?)
So I think you meant "those people" to mean the people who still believe in that stuff, but the first time I read it I parsed it as "Fritz might be a vampire." Which I guess doesn't exactly fit (he goes out in the daytime, he probably liked garlic) but would definitely make for a hilarious AU.
MT: All right, generals, prepare to move out. Everyone got their standard-issue silver bullets?
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That is absolutely how I parsed it on the first two reads. That's still how I prefer to parse it, let's be real.
MT: All right, generals, prepare to move out. Everyone got their standard-issue silver bullets?
ROFL. Maria Theresia, Vampire Hunter!
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
There is actually a story out there, in the fandom of the BBC's Merlin series and a historical Merlin/Arthur AU, in which young Maria Theresia sends reincarnated now an Austria officer Arthur vampire hunting in Transylvania. Sadly, Fritz isn't involved, either as Dracula or in another capacity. That AU is still to be written.