Wretchedly tired today, only a page or so of German. Alternatively, I generously gave cahn a day of not falling further behind. ;)
In lieu of German, have Macaulay. Collecting, copy-pasting, and formatting all my favorite quotes was suitably mindless work for my current state.
In 1842, Macaulay was working on his History of England, a monumental five-volume work that he would publish it a few years later. In the process of researching English history, he apparently ran across enough Fritz to become fascinated and decided he needed to write a short bio to get Fritz out of his system. To his editor, he wrote:
[Fritz's] personal character, manners, studies, literary associates; his quarrel with Voltaire, his friendship for Maupertuis, and his own unhappy métromanie will be will be very slightly, if at all alluded to in a History of England. Yet in order to write the History of England, it will be necessary to turn over all the Memoirs, and the writings of Frederic, connected with us, as he was, in a most important war.
This despite the fact that his history as published doesn't even overlap with Fritz's lifetime. Fritz is just that fascinating! (He really is. :P)
So Macaulay put together a 100-page bio that got reprinted a lot in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It stops with the end of the Seven Years' War, meaning Macaulay explicitly did what many people tacitly do, ignore the second 23 years of a 46-year reign. Carlyle's bio manages 20 books about the first 23 years (1740-1763) and 1 book about the second 23 (1763-1786).
The copy I obtained from Google Books, published in 1882, has a description of the second half of the reign supplied by someone with less amazing prose and wit than Macaulay. When Macaulay's essay comes to an end and the book continues, the editor puts in a footnote:
The reader will not need to be reminded that the narrative of Macaulay ends here. The descent from the sunny uplands of his style is sudden and painful, but there is no help for it. Herr Kohlrausch goes on honestly enough, and we must let him finish the story or go without it altogether. Patience; it will soon be over, and as a sugar-plum for good children, we promise you near the close a gorgeous picture of the great king in his old age, by Carlyle.
I cannot say I disagree: the post-Seven Years' War material by Herr Kohlrausch is unremarkable. But I give you, in a series of thematically grouped subthreads, Macaulay's most quotable moments. I wouldn't read this for facts or opinions, but you can tell this is the author of the Lays of Ancient Rome: very ringing and memorable prose, often quoted by modern biographers (even if only to disagree with the sentiments expressed).
Oh, apparently Macaulay called Carlyle's style gibberish when he started reading Carlyle's multi-volume Fritz bio in 1858, and I agree wholeheartedly. Humorously quotable in small excerpts; I've never managed to penetrate it as a work.
Oh, one very important thing to keep in mind from this, apart from Macaulay's political opinions: he was a nineteenth century British minister, and his biases are way showing.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Macaulay - Life of Frederick the Great
Date: 2020-09-03 02:05 am (UTC)In lieu of German, have Macaulay. Collecting, copy-pasting, and formatting all my favorite quotes was suitably mindless work for my current state.
In 1842, Macaulay was working on his History of England, a monumental five-volume work that he would publish it a few years later. In the process of researching English history, he apparently ran across enough Fritz to become fascinated and decided he needed to write a short bio to get Fritz out of his system. To his editor, he wrote:
[Fritz's] personal character, manners, studies, literary associates; his quarrel with Voltaire, his friendship for Maupertuis, and his own unhappy métromanie will be will be very slightly, if at all alluded to in a History of England. Yet in order to write the History of England, it will be necessary to turn over all the Memoirs, and the writings of Frederic, connected with us, as he was, in a most important war.
This despite the fact that his history as published doesn't even overlap with Fritz's lifetime. Fritz is just that fascinating! (He really is. :P)
So Macaulay put together a 100-page bio that got reprinted a lot in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It stops with the end of the Seven Years' War, meaning Macaulay explicitly did what many people tacitly do, ignore the second 23 years of a 46-year reign. Carlyle's bio manages 20 books about the first 23 years (1740-1763) and 1 book about the second 23 (1763-1786).
The copy I obtained from Google Books, published in 1882, has a description of the second half of the reign supplied by someone with less amazing prose and wit than Macaulay. When Macaulay's essay comes to an end and the book continues, the editor puts in a footnote:
The reader will not need to be reminded that the narrative of Macaulay ends here. The descent from the sunny uplands of his style is sudden and painful, but there is no help for it. Herr Kohlrausch goes on honestly enough, and we must let him finish the story or go without it altogether. Patience; it will soon be over, and as a sugar-plum for good children, we promise you near the close a gorgeous picture of the great king in his old age, by Carlyle.
I cannot say I disagree: the post-Seven Years' War material by Herr Kohlrausch is unremarkable. But I give you, in a series of thematically grouped subthreads, Macaulay's most quotable moments. I wouldn't read this for facts or opinions, but you can tell this is the author of the Lays of Ancient Rome: very ringing and memorable prose, often quoted by modern biographers (even if only to disagree with the sentiments expressed).
Oh, apparently Macaulay called Carlyle's style gibberish when he started reading Carlyle's multi-volume Fritz bio in 1858, and I agree wholeheartedly. Humorously quotable in small excerpts; I've never managed to penetrate it as a work.
Oh, one very important thing to keep in mind from this, apart from Macaulay's political opinions: he was a nineteenth century British minister, and his biases are way showing.
But on to the entertaining parts!