Frederick the Great discussion post 12
Feb. 26th, 2020 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnEvery 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 :)
Re: Volz
Date: 2020-03-01 06:05 am (UTC)This is perfect. Btw, when I went through the original Italian Lucchesini I thought I spotted Fritz telling Lu that he should have married Ulrike to Peter (III) and Catherine to the Swedes, but when I checked the relevant German passage, alas that's not what he was saying, he just says that Peter wanted to marry Urike. (Which isn't even true, as the footnote diligently tells us; what this is based on was that the Holsteins were offering for Amalie for a while, but Fritz: "I don't want to throw my sisters at people." (Unless I get something out of it.) Apparantly at this point little Peter didn't rate a daughter of the House of Brandenburg and Anhalt Sophie was good enough for him.
Volz "Gespräche mit Friedrich dem Großen" does include the description of the teenage Catherine and Fritz encounter by Catherine herself. It says it's from her memoirs. But the memoirs that are up at Gutenberg start with her arrival in Russia. Now I know Catherine, like Wilhelmine, never finished her memoirs, and also son Paul got the manuscript into his hands after her death so who knows what he censored, but it looks like she's another case of Thiébault and Trenck where some editor cuts out passages of later editions. If so: why the Fritz encounter`?! That's a great story!
Meanwhile, in Volz, one of the later French visitors talks with Fritz about Catherine, in a conversation that starts with Voltaire.
Fritz: Miraculously does not say "The worst!", but instead opens with: Total genius of the ages, Voltaire.
French visitor: Gotta admit, am glad to hear you say that. He'd have deserved to lose your favour, of course, but he's my intellectual hero and our national treasure even after his death, so I'm glad you're still keen on him.
Fritz: Always will be. I'm a calm and generous mind and totally forgave him for the many wrongs he did me. Even when he started to cheat on me with CATHERINE, whom he never said a single mean thing about just because she always kept praising him.
French visitor: Speaking of Catherine: that woman does have some genius, what with ruling a nation of cuththroats with her throat uncut and her on top of things for decades now after starting out as a foreign import loathed by her husband. Something of a problematic start, though, what with the, err, uncertain causes of death of the husband.
Fritz: That guy was a let down, he let himself be dethroned like a child. As for Catherine, she doesn't deserve either blame or credit for getting into power. She was a helpless uncertain woman totally dominated by the Orlovs at that point who had no idea what was going on. They were the ones orchestrating the coup and killing Peter. She didn't realise until after the fact, and then she had no choice but to promote the Orlovs if she didn't want to be killed as well.
French Visitor: Phew. Now I can admire her without rooting for a husband murderess.
Fritz: I don't think you've gotten my point, which is that I'm cooler than Catherine. Who is such a flighty woman that ONE VISIT by Joseph was enough for her to ally with him as well. Prussia/Russia was supposed to be exclusive, dammit!
Maybe I should have sent Heinrich a third time.Re: Volz
Date: 2020-03-01 02:32 pm (UTC)Oh, Fritz. Never stop making me laugh.
it looks like she's another case of Thiébault and Trenck where some editor cuts out passages of later editions. If so: why the Fritz encounter`?! That's a great story!
Good news: I can get a 2-volume German translation that has the encounter into the library, I'll just need our royal patron's help.
French Visitor: Phew. Now I can admire her without rooting for a husband murderess.
Fritz: I don't think you've gotten my point, which is that I'm cooler than Catherine.
Hahahaha. *pats Fritz on the head*
Prussia/Russia was supposed to be exclusive, dammit!
I guess she didn't get the "Der einzige" memo. :P
This is such a great encounter. Who's the French visitor and what's Volz's source?
Re: Volz
Date: 2020-03-01 05:36 pm (UTC)Re: Volz
Date: 2020-03-01 05:39 pm (UTC)Volz is good with his footnotes.
Go Volz! Volz was a good find.
Re: Volz
Date: 2020-03-02 05:43 pm (UTC)HAHAHAHAHA um, ok Fritz!
Fritz: I don't think you've gotten my point, which is that I'm cooler than Catherine.
FRIIIITZ! *dies laughing*