cahn | Frederick the Great discussion post 12

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From:

gambitten

What this doesn't tell me, though, is: in which language did Voltaire and Fredesdorf converse? Because while as I said many an entry before, I don't doubt Voltaire did pick up some every day German to order his meals or ask for the way, I doubt it was enough to have the dialogue Catt says Fritz said they had. Did Fredersdorf learn French behind Fritz' back?

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.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Masterful analysis! I love the attention to detail. Also, I knew this salon needed E-Enlightenment access!

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.

selenak, you were spot on.

(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.

From:

gambitten

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.

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!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

The PhD in historical linguistics comes in handy once in a blue moon. :D

From:

selenak

This is another bit of fantastic scholarly analysis! I agree with your conclusions, though I would say that if what Catt has Fritz tell him did indeed happen this way, Fritz would have had to know that either Fredesdorf or Voltaire were holding out on him re: their linguistic knowledge. Behold the scene from the memoirs, in which the messenger is the Abbé de Prades:

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.

Edited Date: 2020-03-04 09:25 am (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

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.

I would expect nothing less from Mike!

From:

gambitten

Fritz would have had to know that either Fredesdorf or Voltaire were holding out on him re: their linguistic knowledge.

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.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Thank you for this! I've been meaning to ask you: How many letters between Fritz and Fredersdorff are there in the database? We've gotten our hands on a couple volumes published a hundred or more years ago, and we know we're missing some of the correspondence, but we don't know how much. Of course, we also don't know how much was censored from individual letters, but we'll start with "are there entire missing letters?"

cinchona

For

cahn: the bark was used to treat malaria. And possibly other things, but malaria's what I associate it with. We know Fritz had malaria in 1740--he was having a flare-up when Voltaire reports first meeting him and taking his pulse in his sickbed (god knows if this story is true, I'm so cynical about memoirs now, and never more than Voltaire with an agenda). So if Fritz is sending him cinchona and Voltaire is telling the truth at all in his memoirs, there's a haunting symmetry to their first and last meeting. (Fritz having malaria that week is canon and externally attested; Voltaire meeting him at his sickbed may be made up. But something to consider for fiction, at the very least.)

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

cahn wrote. (

cahn, ILU!) It's based largely on Wilhelmine's account of her visit to Berlin for Christmas of 1732.

From:

selenak

re: sickbed first meeting, true or not, it occurs to me that Fritz or Algarotti (if he was still around for the meeting) might have mentioned how that went down in their letters to third parties, ditto for Voltaire writing home to Émilie or Parisian friends, since this was a big event in their mutual lives and advertised to all and sundry.

Mind you, given their rethoric at the time, the descriptions could just say "I met the Apollo from Prussia, the Salomon of the North" and "The Sage of the Ages, the Greatest Star of the Enlightenment, I met him at last!" with no useful details like sick bed and pulse taking mentioned.

On the side of "at least plausible": Voltaire in 1740 is already a tried and true hypochondriac knowing all the illnesses. He meets the guy who spent the last four years courting him via letter in the most glowing terms, and whom he thinks might be the philosopher king he's hoping for, with him in the flattering role of pacifist Aristoteles. At any rate, he's a potentially very useful royal patron and protector. And the man is sick. Pulse checking would be a psychologically plausible gesture for Voltaire.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Good thinking. I was looking through the Wilhelmine letters, and I haven't found a mention of Voltaire, but I did find this reference to his fever:

No, my dear sister, I don't take cinchona nor febrifuge; I only use the most innocent remedies.

But he has no problem advising Voltaire to take it in the 1750s, interesting.

Also, lol, his "I'm going to Strasbourg" letter goes like this: "An essential business trip takes me to Strasbourg." Uh huh. Well, in 300 years, Fritz, no one's been able to figure out any business besides sightseeing that I'm aware of.

Pulse checking would be a psychologically plausible gesture for Voltaire.

It's definitely plausible, in much the same way that Trenck being locked up three months later than he was was plausible, but Voltaire might not have met Fritz until Fritz was capable of sitting up and receiving him.

Will keep my eye out for other mentions in correspondence. Anyone with access to E-Enlightenment is encouraged to do so as well (as time permits), hint hint! :)

From:

gambitten

Will keep my eye out for other mentions in correspondence. Anyone with access to E-Enlightenment is encouraged to do so as well (as time permits), hint hint! :)

Friedrich writes to Jordan about Voltaire's visit. No useful descriptions here, but lots of Jordan worship, on the 24th of September 1740:

Very respectable inspector of the poor, disabled, orphans, madmen, and small houses, I read with ripe meditation, the very deep Jordanian letter which I have just received, and I resolved to bring in [Google Translate is struggling here] your scholar stuffed with Greek, Syriac and Hebrew. Write to Voltaire that although I had refused, I changed my mind, and that I wanted his little Fourmont [referring to Etienne Fourmont, a librarian/reader Voltaire had recommended to Fritz during his stay]. I saw this Voltaire whom I was so curious to know, but I saw him having a quartan fever and my mind was as confused as my body was weakened. Finally with people of his kind you must not be sick, you must even be very well, and be better than usual if you can. He has the eloquence of Cicero, the sweetness of Pliny, and the wisdom of Agrippa. In a word, he brings together what it takes to combine the virtues and talents of three of the greatest men of antiquity. His mind is constantly working, each drop of ink is a stroke of esprit from his pen.

He proclaimed Muhammad I to us, an admirable tragedy he did. He transported us out of ourselves, and I could only admire him and remain silent.

La du Châtelet is very happy to have him, because of the good things which escape him, a person who does not think, and who has only memory, could compose a brilliant work of [his table talks].

[He snarks about Emile's writing and then...]

I'm waiting for my fever tomorrow. I am a little exhausted from the trip, without having lost the desire to chat. You will find me very talkative on my return, but remember that I saw two things that have always been very close to my heart, namely Voltaire, and French troops. If I had not had a fever, I would have been in Antwerp & in Brussels, I would have seen Brabant, this Emilie so amiable and so learned. We spoke highly of her, and what I say, not looking at her book, which she could have spared.

Write the time of my arrival. Friend, I appreciate it, because I worked, and I will still work as a Turk, or as a Jordan.

Farewell, very educated, very learned, very deep Jordan, or rather very gallant, very kind & very jovial Jordan. I greet you by assuring you of all these old feelings that you know how to inspire in all those who know you like me. Vale.

Voltaire mentions that he's seen the King of Prussia to Nicolas Claude Thieriot, and laments that his recommended librarian lad wasn't accepted (but Fritz changed his mind), but that's pretty much it.

Voltaire briefly mentions the first visit to Wilhelmine, after having visited Friedrich another time, in a letter dated the 26th of September 1742:

The King, your most august and most amusing brother, ordered me not long ago to pay him court in Aachen. I saw him, madame, carrying himself like a hero, making fun of the doctors and taking baths for his amusement. I found nothing changed in him except his face which I had seen, two years ago, made thinner by the quartan fever, and which has now grown quite round, which well becomes a crown of laurels; two more victories have made him neither less human nor less affable.

Those are the only mentions I can find. No info, except Friedrich was thinner in 1740 than he was in 1742.

From:

selenak

These are great quotes, no matter the lack of pulse feeling, also, they definitely establish Fritz was visibly sick when Voltaire saw first saw him, which is why I think that gesture would have in ic.

Finally with people of his kind you must not be sick, you must even be very well, and be better than usual if you can. He has the eloquence of Cicero, the sweetness of Pliny, and the wisdom of Agrippa. In a word, he brings together what it takes to combine the virtues and talents of three of the greatest men of antiquity. His mind is constantly working, each drop of ink is a stroke of esprit from his pen.

Fritz feeling he’s been at less than his best on that longed for occasion: how much of that is true, and how much a preemptive disclaimer just in case Voltaire was less than impressed, I wonder? Also: „sweetness of Pliny“? Pliny the elder, the naturalist who died while evacuating people from Pompeji, never struck me as „sweet“ in any fashion (I haven‘t read all, but I did read some; very informative, very matter of factly, utterly unsentimental). Pliny the younger, the nephew, I know only via some of his letters - one about how his uncle died, which is famous for its description of Pompeiji, and one about his country villa, which is also famous because it‘s one of the most detailed descriptions of how a Roman villa looked that we have. But „sweet“, he‘s also not. I dare say Fritz is a) employing a popular figure of speech, same way as „the eloquence of Cicero“ is an established trope , and b) getting his Romans confused. The one referred to as „sweet“ is usually Ovid. (Wouldn‘t call Ovid that, either, but it is a popular description among the humanists.)

I saw two things that have always been very close to my heart, namely Voltaire, and French troops.

LOL. I‘m reminded again of Voltaire‘s Roßbach-caused „now he‘s fulfilled his life goals: impress the French, mock the French, beat the French“ oneliner.

The Émilie snark: and he won‘t be over this jealousy even years after she‘s dead....

From:

gambitten

How many letters between Fritz and Fredersdorff are there in the database?

Literally none. Fritz' correspondence on E-Enlightenment is not comprehensive at all. Right now, it is mostly focused around Voltaire; as in, the letters he sent directly to Voltaire, the letters to his friends concerning Voltaire, etc. Because Project Voltaire is all about making the most comprehensive collection of correspondence for Voltaire, straight from the manuscripts where possible. There's never been any large-scale effort like that for Fritz. Katrin Kohl, Fellow and Tutor in German and Professor of German Literature at Oxford, notes that there are probably loads of his letters in libraries across Europe that have never been digitized. And that's not including the letters that have been digitized but possibly censored, and that MULTITUDES of letters that have not been transcribed, but have had all spelling and grammar corrected (aka all of Preuss). She started a Frederick the Great E-Enlightenment project to compliment the Voltaire Project on the 300th anniversary of his birth (2012), but only the first half(?) of the beginnings of the project was completed. Which included this letter from 1732 that had never been published before cause it was stuck in the Bodelian library:

My very dear Brother,

I was most sorry to learn from your ensign Full that you were ill my very dear Brother, I fear it may be some kind of venereal disease and as you can count on my friendship and on my discretion I beg you to let me know I will make sure you have all the necessary medicine from Dr Miraux of Potsdam no-one will know a word, and I assure you that you can confide your secret to me, I am going to Potsdam on Tuesday, and to Berlin on Wednesday if you have some order to give to the Whores of Berlin you have only to let me know I am keeping ful until tomorrow I hope you will not take it amiss in consideration of the esteem and of the perfect friendship with which I am,

My very dear Brother
Your most faithful
brother and servant
Frederick [in French]

I have received a recruit from your garrison. Just ask Fuhl about this. [in German]

Context: a fellow officer in Fritz' regiment has venereal disease from a brothel - editor's note: "Frederick’s concern to provide medical advice is characteristic of a lifelong interest in diseases and their cures". He spells the name of the ensign three different ways in the same letter (Full, ful, Fuhl) :/

Of course the project is pretty much dead at this point.

I do wish there was a bit of funding or interest to go through and digitize at least the correspondence to and between his siblings.

I could have sworn that I read in a biography or something that after Fredersdorf died, Friedrich sent a letter to his widow asking for their correspondence to be returned. His widow returned most of the letters, which were burned, but secretly kept some for herself, which now survive in the archives. I can't remember where that information comes from or if it's accurate? Any ideas?

Maybe there's more correspondence in here? Or not?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Literally none. Fritz' correspondence on E-Enlightenment is not comprehensive at all. Right now, it is mostly focused around Voltaire

Ah, okay, didn't realize it was so Voltaire-focused.

have had all spelling and grammar corrected (aka all of Preuss)

You know, I should have guessed this. It's too regular. Well, thanks, I guess, Preuss? On principle, I prefer diplomatic editions, but seeing as how we're relying on Google translate, silent corrections have probably been a godsend.

I do wish there was a bit of funding or interest to go through and digitize at least the correspondence to and between his siblings.

So say we all!

I could have sworn that I read in a biography or something that after Fredersdorf died, Friedrich sent a letter to his widow asking for their correspondence to be returned. His widow returned most of the letters, which were burned, but secretly kept some for herself, which now survive in the archives. I can't remember where that information comes from or if it's accurate? Any ideas?

Yep, that came up in our discussion here!

We've obtained the Richter correspondence from 1926, which was "lightly censored", and an additional letter in Burchardt, and that's all. Too bad E-Enlightenment doesn't have more.

Maybe there's more correspondence in here? Or not?

I've actually been meaning to ask

selenak to check that out and tell us whether it's any good or not. It's at Stabi. The only reason I haven't asked is that I've been requesting she read about 1000 books per day, so I have this backlog of things I haven't requested yet. ;) But might as well do it now!

selenak, there's this 2016 book on Fritz and Fredersdorf that may be terrible or gold or consist only of things we already know, only one way to find out!

Next question for your gracious self,

gambitten: does E-Enlightenment have the complete Lady Mary Wortley Montagu correspondence as recently published in 3 volumes?

From:

gambitten

does E-Enlightenment have the complete Lady Mary Wortley Montagu correspondence as recently published in 3 volumes?

It does not - it has about 20 letters from her. You can find her complete correspondence on Oxford Scholarly Editions Online here. Well, to be more exact, here. I can access it! Are there any particular letters you're interested in?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Sigh. That makes E-Enlightenment less interesting to me. So that's good to know.

Thank you kindly for your offer, but sadly, I don't have particular letters in mind (I've already scanned the Algarotti ones), and was just hoping to be able to read, because from what I saw when skimming through the volumes at the time I had them checked out (for Algarotti), she looked pretty interesting. But alas, it looks like I'm waiting until I can spend $150 on physical copies and then scan them so I can read them.

From:

selenak

Thank you for all these quotes. In addition to what Mildred said:

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.

From:

cahn

This is amazing! :D Thank you for this awesome analysis.

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.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Heinrich: German? No, I don't speak German. Not a word.

Heinrich, after a glass of wine that evening: Das will ich Ihnen noch sagen...

Wilhelmine: Brother Voltaire!