Frederick the Great discussion post 12

[cahn]

Every time I am amazed and enchanted that this is still going on! Truly DW is the Earthly Paradise!

All the good stuff continues to be archived at rheinsberg :)

Comments

Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1777- A

[mildred_of_midgard]

If you're wondering, the original word Mara uses is "canaille"

I was wondering, but failed to ask. Thank you for picking up my slack!

THERAPY FOR EVERYONE

But then we would probably never heard about any of them!

Therapy in their reincarnated-as-private-citizens-in-the-21st-century-where-there-are-proper-therapists lives, obviously. :P

Herr du Rosey: I suppose he fell into the category "getting greatly humbled"? Especially if his estates are in East Prussia as well, because then chances are the Russians were there a couple of times.

Ooh, that's an excellent guess. I've tried to find the Roseys before, but they're very elusive.

*some time later*

No, still elusive, although there is a Die Familie Rolaz du Rosey und ihre Vorfahren Rolaz book that hasn't been digitized.

Royal favour? Your guess is as good as mine.

That was my only guess. Lol, that reminds me of this anecdote from Catt (which may or may not be totally fabricated, as I don't remember it from the diary):

A Swiss officer, named M. de Holland, had left the Dutch service...in order to enter the King's as an artillery officer...[Regarding] his betrothed, whom he had left in Holland, he begged me to ask His Majesty for permission to go and marry the lady. Although the moment was not a favourable one, I spoke to the King, who refused. I took advantage of a moment of gaiety in which I found the King to return to the charge. He granted the major's request, but on the condition that this marriage should not take place until the end of the war. I reported this consent and the condition to the major, who thought the latter was very reasonable ; but the lady, a rich heiress, thinking that peace might still be a very long way off, too long perhaps for her desires, and being courted by another worshipper who was at hand and immediately ready, gave herself to him, and dismissed the poor major, who had to bear with the thing in patience. I told the King of this misadventure.

"How did he take it?"

"Very well, Sire, and with all the more resignation in that he builds all his hopes on Your Majesty."

"I will recompense him for his loss."

I gave this good news to the major.

The King drew up on this subject a rough sketch, of which he showed me the beginning, which ran thus:

Dans ces beaux jours ou renalt la nature,
Ou l'air pesant de ses frimas s'epure.

['In these fine days when nature is reborn, when the heavy air is purified of its frosts.']

...

I arrived at the hour stated ; the King was...finishing the piece he had spoken to me about the day before.

"Here are my Amours suisses finished. You see that I have worked pretty hard. I will correct them again, and you will give them to your Swiss. This piece will not be altogether bad; it may serve to console him and recompense him for the loss of his lady which he has sustained. What do you think?"

"I believe, Sire, that he will think the piece pretty, that it will amuse him, that he will be sensible of the trouble you have taken to sing his unfortunate love affairs, but-"

"I do not want any of your 'buts'; you may be sure he will be pleased."

The recompense which His Majesty had promised amounted to this jest.

Maybe Lehndorff's schadenfreude is because all the royal favor the du Roseys got for marrying their heiress into the family of the King's late tragic boyfriend took the form of Fritzian love poetry. :P

Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1777- A

[selenak]

Therapy in their reincarnated-as-private-citizens-in-the-21st-century-where-there-are-proper-therapists lives, obviously. :P

Gotcha. So Fritz' siblings get reincarnated as well?

Also, ROTFLOL on the Catt memoirs story, fictional or not. I'm definitely on board with the du Roseys getting Fritzian poetry as their expression of royal favour. (Mind you, when visiting Potsdam while evacuating Berlin, courtesy of the Queen of Hungary's troops, Lehndorff does take the opportunity to have a look at the Philosophe de Sanssouci's personal edition of his works and, loyal subject that he is, pronounces them deep and moving.)

Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1777- A

[mildred_of_midgard]

Gotcha. So Fritz' siblings get reincarnated as well?

I mean, there's nothing stopping us from saying so! So far I've only personally considered Wilhelmine, but the only real constraint is that the vast majority of them have to be reincarnated as not-siblings, otherwise it defeats the therapeutic purpose.

loyal subject that he is, pronounces them deep and moving

Of course he does. On the other hand, Lucchesini seems to have meant it, so maybe Lehndorff did too!