Frederick the Great, discussion post 16

[cahn]

We have slowed down a lot, but are still (sporadically) going! And somehow filled up the last post while I wasn't looking!

...I was asked to start a new thread so that STDs could be discussed. Really! :D

Comments

Re: Voltaire's Fabricated Letters

[mildred_of_midgard]

Can I just say I love the amount of research you put into your contributions? This was an amazing write-up, thank you so much!

My absolute favorite part of this fandom is the constant breaking news: either finding the answer to something we've been wondering about, or discovering something we thought was true has just been turned on its head.

I had on my list of things to talk about (which is unfortunately getting quite long, as my computer time is limited by health--I hope you're having more luck with your health problems) the letters that we can no longer use as evidence, which include, among others:
- marriage to the King of Prussia
- dirty laundry
- orange peel
- Darget being unhappy about the Palladion

About the dirty laundry, though, Jessen reports MT using the phrase in a letter to Joseph in 1766, so while Voltaire was still alive, i.e. before the posthumous publications of his memoirs and letters. So word of this phrase being used in regards to Fritz's terrible spelling must have been making the rounds in Europe, however it originated.

his French-language analysis in Dossier Voltaire en Prusse (1750-1753)

Man, I admit I would love to read this. Need to work on my French after German!

Voltaire is also being dramatic here, wanting to introduce a sense of irony, since he of course knows how the 'marriage' will end up.

You know, I did think that line was odd, but I wrote it off as the fact that he'd spent 10 years reluctant to commit. It makes infinitely more sense now.

Voltaire speaks directly to posterity, as he seeks to claim the authority to write about himself, to create and control his image.

Well, one thing I learned (from a source of unknown reliability!) was that in the bard-dominated ancient/medieval Irish culture, even the kings were warned about pissing off bards, because an angry bard will compose a satire against you.

Unfortunately for Voltaire, Fritz is made of teflon (or was until mid-20th century), and anyone who didn't want to believe Fritz was gay wrote it off as "just a Voltairean canard."

Also, Voltaire, speaking from the POV posterity, I already knew Fritz was gay, all lines like "my heart beat nervously at the altar" accomplish is making you come across as Gay for Fritz^TM. :P

Oh, the "can't live without you, can't live with you" letter, that was from Voltaire to Fritz and is still authentic as far as we know, right?

It also means that the events aptly summarised by [personal profile] selenak in her fanfic probably didn't happen

Yeah, the longer we stay in this fandom, the more inaccurate all our fics look. :D Prussian Trenck fooled me into including him as batman at Soor! Now there's an author's note at the end of my fic saying, "If he gets to write fiction, so do I."

We can say the same for Voltaire: if he gets to write fiction, so do we!

both you and the writer have been fooled by Voltaire across time.

And Catt is still fooling scholars, some 150 years after Koser took his credibility apart. After Trenck and Catt, I guess it was Voltaire's turn! He is the resident trickster of our fandom, after all.

So I'm glad I picked up Davidson, but how did you run across this? Looks like we were both making this discovery around the same time (although you went a lot deeper than I did).

Re: Voltaire's Fabricated Letters

[selenak]

Oh, the "can't live without you, can't live with you" letter, that was from Voltaire to Fritz and is still authentic as far as we know, right?

Yep, because it's from the Prussian State Archive. How's this for irony: both Fritz and Voltaire didn't hesitate to falsify evidence about each other, but with their correspondance, they couldn't do that because the other party kept the receipts, so to speak. Also reply letters will mention things in the previous letter etc. (For example, the letter where Voltaire makes the rat/lion comparison for himself and Fritz (complete with signing off "the rat kisses your paws"), which I also love, has a reply letter from Fritz where he picks up the metaphor and runs with it. You can bet that if Voltaire had altered or rewritten any letters there, Preuss et all would have pounced.