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: Random things

[selenak]

Okay, got my Orieux copy again, and checked the: the Corneille subscriptions. He doesn't use footnotes (there's an extensive bibliograhy at the end, though), alas, but I reread the passage, I could figure out the divergence on Louis XV. and Fritz at least, which was a misunderstanding of mine. In a text about Voltaire in his old age, I automatically tend to assume that "the King" = Fritz if there's no further designation given. But to Orieux the Frenchman, "the King", no further designation given, is automatically "the King of France".

Here's the relevant text passage, literally: The King subscribes 200 copies, Catherine II. imitates him in this, the Empress does the same, Voltaire himself takes a hundred, the Marquise du Pompadour 50, Choiseul likewise. The noble lords don't abstain, their friends follow their example, headed by the English nobility. Voltaire offers to a free copy of one of his to the literati who can't afford to subscribe. He's Voltaire at his best.

(Since he's also been Voltaire at his worst, bickering with Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the previous chapter.)

While this explains Louis and Fritz (who does not get mentioned at all by Orieux if "the King" is Louis), we're still left with Catherine vs Elisaveta. Given the date, I assume the following: whoever Orieux' source was just said "the Czarina", and when doing his write up he assumed this would be Voltaire's declared fan Catherine without keeping in mind she wasn't on the throne yet. After all, events and people outside of France can be his weak spot, see also Fredersdorf as Fritz' secretary, "Marie-Christine" instead of Elisabeth Christine, Lessing (aka great German writer of the enlightenment, playwright and essay writer, who as a young man was Voltaire's translator in the Hirschel trial and got very disilluioned about him) as a subsequently famous for his poetry), staging and acting in Voltaire's plays keeping Fritz' brothers from scheming against him, and so forth.

Re: Random things

[mildred_of_midgard]

In a text about Voltaire in his old age, I automatically tend to assume that "the King" = Fritz if there's no further designation given. But to Orieux the Frenchman, "the King", no further designation given, is automatically "the King of France".

Aahhh. That makes sense. See, I assume "the King" = Louis, unless Voltaire is living in Prussia at the time (or England, I suppose), or unless the subject at hand is Fritz.

Given the date, I assume the following: whoever Orieux' source was just said "the Czarina", and when doing his write up he assumed this would be Voltaire's declared fan Catherine without keeping in mind she wasn't on the throne yet.

Well...he started in 1761, but the work wasn't published until 1764, which means it could be either or both. If I were drumming up money, I would do it as often as I could, and if my fan ascended the throne during the process, I would make a special request just to her.

staging and acting in Voltaire's plays keeping Fritz' brothers from scheming against him, and so forth.

Haha, yes. Somebody's been reading Fritz's Political Testament(s).

Fritz: Didn't work, anyway. Heinrich showing up in St. Petersburg without giving me a chance to micromanage and Fritzplain, tsk. Can you believe it?