No, you're not misremembering. It's hard to find info on Darget, but I've turned up this letter from Voltaire to Madame Denis, dated October 9, 1751:
You must know that his Majesty, in his after-dinner stories, has insinuated a number of little things about his secretary, Darget, at which the secretary is horrified. He makes him play a very odd role in his poem, the Palladium: and the poem is in print. It is true, there are very few copies to be had.
What shall I say? That there is no need to be inconsolable if the great love the nobodies though they laugh at them? But suppose they laugh at them and do not love them--what then? We must laugh in our turn, in our sleeves, and leave them not the less. I must have a little time to remove the money I have invested in the funds here. I shall devote this time to work and patience: and the rest of my life to you.
I also remember us talking about this before, about how Darget was *not* happy about his poem, but Algarotti seems to have been. At least he stayed on good terms with Fritz afterward, as far as I can tell.
Now, Voltaire may not be the most reliable of sources when it comes to trashing Fritz, but I totally buy that Darget wasn't happy. Writing about how you had great sex with a woman (at least nominally) is not the same thing as writing about how you got repeatedly raped by men and/or had close calls with the same.
And Algarotti was regaling Fritz with bawdy songs and poems (admittedly not about Fritz) during that same trip on which the orgasm poem got written. Pending further evidence, I think they just sexually bantered a lot. This might actually have contributed to emotionally tone-deaf Fritz thinking that Darget would be perfectly happy with a royal poem about his imaginary sex life! After all, Algarotti was happy with his! Darn ungrateful readers.
(Aren't you glad you're a royal reader of the 21st century and not at Fritz's court?)
Re: Algarotti's STD and Fritz's sexuality
You must know that his Majesty, in his after-dinner stories, has insinuated a number of little things about his secretary, Darget, at which the secretary is horrified. He makes him play a very odd role in his poem, the Palladium: and the poem is in print. It is true, there are very few copies to be had.
What shall I say? That there is no need to be inconsolable if the great love the nobodies though they laugh at them? But suppose they laugh at them and do not love them--what then? We must laugh in our turn, in our sleeves, and leave them not the less. I must have a little time to remove the money I have invested in the funds here. I shall devote this time to work and patience: and the rest of my life to you.
I also remember us talking about this before, about how Darget was *not* happy about his poem, but Algarotti seems to have been. At least he stayed on good terms with Fritz afterward, as far as I can tell.
Now, Voltaire may not be the most reliable of sources when it comes to trashing Fritz, but I totally buy that Darget wasn't happy. Writing about how you had great sex with a woman (at least nominally) is not the same thing as writing about how you got repeatedly raped by men and/or had close calls with the same.
And Algarotti was regaling Fritz with bawdy songs and poems (admittedly not about Fritz) during that same trip on which the orgasm poem got written. Pending further evidence, I think they just sexually bantered a lot. This might actually have contributed to emotionally tone-deaf Fritz thinking that Darget would be perfectly happy with a royal poem about his imaginary sex life! After all, Algarotti was happy with his! Darn ungrateful readers.
(Aren't you glad you're a royal reader of the 21st century and not at Fritz's court?)