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: AW readthrough

[selenak]

I didn't know AW and Maupertuis had that exchange of letters! It was actually really interesting to read. And I liked how they related their opinions on the role of passion to their opinions of theater censorship.

There's a vid on YouTube where people have staged a discussion between Maupertuis, Émilie and La Mettrie based on their respective writing. (I.e. with actors playing the roles but speaking solely in quotes by the real deals.) I haven't had the time to wach more than the start yet, but the Maupertuis bits sound as if they could have come from this exchange, though of course I bet he was repeating himself in his correspondances.

"The stupidest lady should go first" is one of my AP's favourite Fritz stories. He will be crushed to learn Fritz borrowed the quip from Charles V. Whom is the letter addressed to?

Suggesting that bad health might have been contributing to his bad mood in April 1746, the month of Marwitz (and also continuing to lose it at Wilhelmine).

None of this excuses his behavior, but in much the same way that I agree with numerous historians that FW's wretched health contributed to his perennial bad mood, you can probably pick out some statistically significant correlation in Fritz's life as well.

Oh, absolutely. And unfortunately, if you're on top of the hacking order, you have ways to share and vent your misery a normal patient does not.

re: Inbreeding - worth pointing out that for all the Habsburg related jokes there, another reason why MT was an aberration from the norm and lucked out with FS was that she - who must have had an iron constitution, as we've repeatedly said - was the product of a Habsburg marrying a Protestant (and of course converting) Braunschweig princess he wasn't related to instead of doing the usual cousin marrying, and to find shared ancestors between MT and FS, you have to go back enough generations to make it irrelevant. Presto, relatively healthy children and not one mad one among them (looking at you, Spanish Habsburgs).

Re: AW readthrough

[mildred_of_midgard]

He will be crushed to learn Fritz borrowed the quip from Charles V.

The latest in a series of blows from your salon participation. :)

Whom is the letter addressed to?

So that one is actually addressed to the Comte de Solms-Sonnewalde, who I think was the Russian envoy. 1780. So different from the one Ziebura refers to (in person to the Oberkammerherr von Loos, per Lehndorff) which means Fritz, as he so often does (and as I do and Maupertuis no doubt also did), repeats his favorite anecdotes and historical references.

The Lehndorff volume Ziebura cites, btw, is volume 4, so right around the time of 1780, plus or minus a few years. Clearly Fritz had hit on a winning formula for "I don't give a fuck."

worth pointing out that for all the Habsburg related jokes there, another reason why MT was an aberration

Yep, I was thinking of her! (Back when I was ~15-17, I spent hoooours on this one massive European royal genealogy site, tracing out the family trees of everyone I knew, and one of my hobbies was finding out how spouses were related. I remember being quite pleased that I connected Fritz and EC on the first try just by guessing (and that was a few generations back!) and was very much BAD IDEA! about FW and SD. I remember nodding approvingly at MT's parents and her marriage.

My mother, our family genealogist, could never get me to show the slightest interest in our own family tree, though. :P)