I figured Macaulay must have edited Fredersdorf out of Fritz' life, but this particular list is not a little ridiculous. For starters, where's the totally unsuspected of any erotic attachment Eichel? Where's Podewils, recipient of Fritz' "Be like MT in the first Silesian War, have courage!" letter?
Yes, that's 8; no, I don't know who the 9th is.
Fritz himself?
So, Fritz probably did give him a hard time in Potsdam, but much of the evidence seems to come from the time period when d'Argens was trying to leave.
*nods* I checked the Trier website with its big D'Argens subsection again, and it says that when Fritz summoned D'Argens to him in the 7 Years War (the second time, not the early visit to Dresden), he explicitly said in the letter that Madame d'Argens could come as well. Which she did. So whether or not Fritz had been okay with the marriage when it happened, at this point not only was he okay with it, but the former Barbe Cochois was so much in favor that she was that rarity, a female person he (at least implicitly) wanted to see. I'm also reminded of the fact this lady wrote EC a condolence letter after Fritz' death, and EC wrote a very nice letter back, without any snobbery against former ballerinas. All of which points to her having been an acknowledged part D'Argens' life at the Prussian court(s). Since she really did co write some of his later books with him and had learned Greek (which Fritz never did), she must have been very clever, and so maybe she was one of his "honorary men" exceptions.
Monument: the Trier website says it was partially destroyed in the French Revolution, so presumably the angel is all what's left. So maybe there was an inscription with Fritz' name in giant letters.
but maybe that was because Fritz liked flirting but not getting married?
Could be. The short story author who totally wasted her "ghosts Fritz and MT meet" premise on a "ghosts MT and Fritz talk via ghost Catt, whom MT tells to call her Resi" execution also had Fritz displeased about the marriage, so maybe this is mentioned somewhere - Thiebault? As for Darget, Voltaire could or could not have invented him being annoyed by the "Palladion", but the thing is: Darget was an avid correspondant with Heinrich and (while he lived) AW. Usually people who hung out with Fritz' brothers a lot had at the very least a not completely positive view of Fritz. So who knows, maybe there was some mutual iritation when he left, over the marriage and the Palladion respectively.
Contemporary evidence for Fritz not liking people to get married (err, other than the obvious, i.e. Barbarina and Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling Mara): the anecdote book published shortly after Fritz' death, the one which has the tale about the later life husar committing suicide and Fritz kicking (some) servants, also mentions the staff attending him at Sanssouci was strictly forbidden to marry.
Oh, could be. I was thinking of him as Apollo, since he liked to make that equation. :P But yes, you might be right.
Monument: the Trier website says it was partially destroyed in the French Revolution, so presumably the angel is all what's left. So maybe there was an inscription with Fritz' name in giant letters.
Ooh, that makes sense. :P All I found was that the church survived 1945 but the monument itself is now in a museum.
Usually people who hung out with Fritz' brothers a lot had at the very least a not completely positive view of Fritz. So who knows, maybe there was some mutual iritation when he left, over the marriage and the Palladion respectively.
That would make a lot of sense, especially since he didn't stay all that long.
so maybe this is mentioned somewhere - Thiebault?
Maybe, though I don't consider Thiebault a primary source for much. :P
(err, other than the obvious, i.e. Barbarina and Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling Mara)
also mentions the staff attending him at Sanssouci was strictly forbidden to marry.
Contemporary source of unknown reliability, then. *nod*
(Though, you know, with the standards we've been holding Fritzian historiography to, and the extent to which we have our previously held beliefs turned upside down regularly, I sometimes wonder how anyone does ancient history at all!)
As for Darget, Voltaire could or could not have invented him being annoyed by the "Palladion", but the thing is: Darget was an avid correspondant with Heinrich and (while he lived) AW. Usually people who hung out with Fritz' brothers a lot had at the very least a not completely positive view of Fritz. So who knows, maybe there was some mutual iritation when he left, over the marriage and the Palladion respectively.
I just got to Darget in the AW bio, and apparently he married the sister of Heinrich's secretary (didn't Catt marry the sister of AW's secretary?), and then she died shortly thereafter, and that was when he quit his job and went back to France. Fritz and his brothers and everyone were upset and tried to get him to come back, or at least write from France, which he was too depressed to do.
Maybe he's depressed just because of his wife, maybe his non-dream boss before that had something to do with it, it's not clear.
But I didn't realize that after he left, AW, Heinrich, and Ferdinand ended up in correspondence with Diderot and/or ghostwriter Grimm, because Darget was too depressed to report on the literary scene in Paris. So he recommended a guy that Prades thought was mediocre (I admit I've never heard of him), and Prades was like, "No, Diderot's way better for the same price!")
Oh, random interesting thing that Google did:
Wilhelm lobte Darget gegenuber Guerton's eleganten Stil und bestellte sich gleich ein Buch, das dieser empfohlen hatte.
Google actually decided to try to figure out who "dieser" referred to, and substitute a proper name for the pronoun in the translation, and it came up with: "and immediately ordered a book that Darget had recommended." From context, I would think that Guerton had done the recommending, but I'm impressed that Google was sophisticated enough to even try.
Btw, for a while now I've had a Kindle sample of a Diderot bio on my phone, but the odds of me getting to it any time soon are minimal, so I haven't actually bought it yet. One day, maybe I'll be a royal co-reader.
Google actually decided to try to figure out who "dieser" referred to
That's one ambitious algorithm. Though I agree, to me it reads as Guerton having done the recommending.
didn't Catt marry the sister of AW's secretary?
Not quite. He married the sister-in-law of AW's secretary (i.e. Hainchelin and Catt married sisters), who, btw, was also Hainchelin's cousin. Because family marriage is not just for royals!
Diderot is one of those Enlightenment figures who shows up in everyone's biographies; I've read one his essays, but definitely not what he's most famous for, the dictionary.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Macaulay - Fritzian friends and family
Date: 2020-09-05 11:50 am (UTC)Yes, that's 8; no, I don't know who the 9th is.
Fritz himself?
So, Fritz probably did give him a hard time in Potsdam, but much of the evidence seems to come from the time period when d'Argens was trying to leave.
*nods* I checked the Trier website with its big D'Argens subsection again, and it says that when Fritz summoned D'Argens to him in the 7 Years War (the second time, not the early visit to Dresden), he explicitly said in the letter that Madame d'Argens could come as well. Which she did. So whether or not Fritz had been okay with the marriage when it happened, at this point not only was he okay with it, but the former Barbe Cochois was so much in favor that she was that rarity, a female person he (at least implicitly) wanted to see. I'm also reminded of the fact this lady wrote EC a condolence letter after Fritz' death, and EC wrote a very nice letter back, without any snobbery against former ballerinas. All of which points to her having been an acknowledged part D'Argens' life at the Prussian court(s). Since she really did co write some of his later books with him and had learned Greek (which Fritz never did), she must have been very clever, and so maybe she was one of his "honorary men" exceptions.
Monument: the Trier website says it was partially destroyed in the French Revolution, so presumably the angel is all what's left. So maybe there was an inscription with Fritz' name in giant letters.
but maybe that was because Fritz liked flirting but not getting married?
Could be. The short story author who totally wasted her "ghosts Fritz and MT meet" premise on a "ghosts MT and Fritz talk via ghost Catt, whom MT tells to call her Resi" execution also had Fritz displeased about the marriage, so maybe this is mentioned somewhere - Thiebault? As for Darget, Voltaire could or could not have invented him being annoyed by the "Palladion", but the thing is: Darget was an avid correspondant with Heinrich and (while he lived) AW. Usually people who hung out with Fritz' brothers a lot had at the very least a not completely positive view of Fritz. So who knows, maybe there was some mutual iritation when he left, over the marriage and the Palladion respectively.
Contemporary evidence for Fritz not liking people to get married (err, other than the obvious, i.e. Barbarina and Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling Mara): the anecdote book published shortly after Fritz' death, the one which has the tale about the later life husar committing suicide and Fritz kicking (some) servants, also mentions the staff attending him at Sanssouci was strictly forbidden to marry.
Re: Macaulay - Fritzian friends and family
Date: 2020-09-05 10:02 pm (UTC)Fritz himself?
Oh, could be. I was thinking of him as Apollo, since he liked to make that equation. :P But yes, you might be right.
Monument: the Trier website says it was partially destroyed in the French Revolution, so presumably the angel is all what's left. So maybe there was an inscription with Fritz' name in giant letters.
Ooh, that makes sense. :P All I found was that the church survived 1945 but the monument itself is now in a museum.
Usually people who hung out with Fritz' brothers a lot had at the very least a not completely positive view of Fritz. So who knows, maybe there was some mutual iritation when he left, over the marriage and the Palladion respectively.
That would make a lot of sense, especially since he didn't stay all that long.
so maybe this is mentioned somewhere - Thiebault?
Maybe, though I don't consider Thiebault a primary source for much. :P
(err, other than the obvious, i.e. Barbarina and Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling Mara)
Well...double standards for women all the way!
also mentions the staff attending him at Sanssouci was strictly forbidden to marry.
Contemporary source of unknown reliability, then. *nod*
(Though, you know, with the standards we've been holding Fritzian historiography to, and the extent to which we have our previously held beliefs turned upside down regularly, I sometimes wonder how anyone does ancient history at all!)
Re: Macaulay - Fritzian friends and family
Date: 2020-09-06 11:22 pm (UTC)I just got to Darget in the AW bio, and apparently he married the sister of Heinrich's secretary (didn't Catt marry the sister of AW's secretary?), and then she died shortly thereafter, and that was when he quit his job and went back to France. Fritz and his brothers and everyone were upset and tried to get him to come back, or at least write from France, which he was too depressed to do.
Maybe he's depressed just because of his wife, maybe his non-dream boss before that had something to do with it, it's not clear.
But I didn't realize that after he left, AW, Heinrich, and Ferdinand ended up in correspondence with Diderot and/or ghostwriter Grimm, because Darget was too depressed to report on the literary scene in Paris. So he recommended a guy that Prades thought was mediocre (I admit I've never heard of him), and Prades was like, "No, Diderot's way better for the same price!")
Oh, random interesting thing that Google did:
Wilhelm lobte Darget gegenuber Guerton's eleganten Stil und bestellte sich gleich ein Buch, das dieser empfohlen hatte.
Google actually decided to try to figure out who "dieser" referred to, and substitute a proper name for the pronoun in the translation, and it came up with: "and immediately ordered a book that Darget had recommended." From context, I would think that Guerton had done the recommending, but I'm impressed that Google was sophisticated enough to even try.
Btw, for a while now I've had a Kindle sample of a Diderot bio on my phone, but the odds of me getting to it any time soon are minimal, so I haven't actually bought it yet. One day, maybe I'll be a royal co-reader.
Re: Macaulay - Fritzian friends and family
Date: 2020-09-07 07:05 am (UTC)That's one ambitious algorithm. Though I agree, to me it reads as Guerton having done the recommending.
didn't Catt marry the sister of AW's secretary?
Not quite. He married the sister-in-law of AW's secretary (i.e. Hainchelin and Catt married sisters), who, btw, was also Hainchelin's cousin. Because family marriage is not just for royals!
Diderot is one of those Enlightenment figures who shows up in everyone's biographies; I've read one his essays, but definitely not what he's most famous for, the dictionary.