Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 19

[cahn]

Yuletide nominations:

18th Century CE Federician RPF
Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria
Voltaire
Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff
Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Anna Amalie von Preußen | Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787)
Catherine II of Russia
Hans Hermann von Katte
Peter Karl Christoph von Keith
Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758)

Circle of Voltaire RPF
Emilie du Chatelet
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour)
John Hervey (1696-1743)
Marie Louise Mignot Denis
Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu (1696-1788)
Francesco Algarotti

Comments

Re: Reading more Fritz/Voltaire letters (1740-42)

[selenak]

Me: Well, that didn't take long. Guys, you haven't even spent two weeks in each other's company, calm down?

Not to mention that in between writing these love messages, Fritz kept bitching about Voltaire wanting him to pay his travel expenses and wrote that icy "no court fool was ever so expensive" line to one of his other correspondants, which is Fritz at his most Son-of-FW-like.

And yes, Pleschinski ships them. I spend a couple of days with him last year in a workshop, and he says they totally deserved each other. Mind you, Orieux - who doesn't ship them, because he'd rather have Voltaire had that kind of relationship with French monarch - uses romantic language as well, what with describing Fritz' plan to make Voltaire having to flee France by faking a poem and leaking letters and concluding "then he'd be forced to fall in the arms, or rather paws of his royal admirer".

Incidentally, if you have Audible, there's a one hour special on Fritz and Voltaire Radio Bandenburg did using Pleschinski's edition as the text source (Christian Brückner speaks Voltaire). This is also Pleschinski approved, as opposed to the Walter Jens-Loriot version, about which he has issues.

At first, the specifics confused me a bit - Fritz insinuates sex, Voltaire gets all huffy

In addition to what was going on re: Émilie and Madame Denis, there's another factor to consider here, because the way it came across to me, Fritz was insinuating sex with Émilie was the main reason why Voltaire remained with her instead of moving to Prussia to be with Fritz. Hence Voltaire's reaction.

As you might recall from our various write-ups, Fritz still gossips about Émilie's sex life yeas after her death, and after his breakup with Voltaire, in the middle of the 7 Years War, with the Marquis d'Argens. (When he insists that surely, Émilie/Maupertuis was at the source of Voltaire's turning against Maupertuis.) And of course there's the letter after his first meeting with Voltaire where he's confident he'll woo Voltaire away from her because "my purse is more filled than the Marquise's". (Which shows you how little Fritz knew about who contributed what to the Émilie and Voltaire household; while Voltaire had benefited from Émilie and her husband giving him shelter back when he would have been arrested for a third time, he'd put actually more money into Cirey than the du Chatelets did. That he wanted Fritz to pay his travel expenses was another issue - he had the not unfounded opinion a King could afford this. But Voltaire was that rarity, a wealthy writer, and he had taken care to be not dependent on any single patron for this.)

Anyway, my point here is, Fritz attempting to explain Voltaire/Émilie by sex or money or both shows a frustrated jealous rival.

Re: Reading more Fritz/Voltaire letters (1740-42)

[felis]

(Oh, hey, Christian Brückner! Loved his Sayers' audiobooks back in the day.)

because the way it came across to me, Fritz was insinuating sex with Émilie was the main reason why Voltaire remained with her instead of moving to Prussia to be with Fritz. Hence Voltaire's reaction.

Oh, absolutely, I got that vibe from Fritz as well, and so initially, Voltaire's reaction seemed to make some sense, except then he went all "no sex with Émilie at all, how dare you, and anyway, I'm too old for that now" which made me call BS and so I went and checked the records, i.e. rheinsberg. :D

Re: Reading more Fritz/Voltaire letters (1740-42)

[mildred_of_midgard]

went and checked the records, i.e. rheinsberg. :D

I love this. :D

Also, one time cahn wanted to call BS on something she was reading (or at least question it), and she checked a fic of mine, because she knew I would have put what she was looking for in the author's notes, and sure enough, it was there. I'm still proud that my AO3 author's notes are a historical reference!