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: Early Fritz letter to Voltaire / Random Thoughts

[felis]

I'm starting to wonder if it's one of those things everyone "knows" about Fritz that ends up being apocryphal

It's certainly something that would make sense as an exaggerated story that has a lot of truth in it - in this case his general attitude towards work/study and his coffee drinking (and his general personality) - but might not have happened exactly the way it's told through the grapevine. On the other hand, it's Fritz, so who knows. Might as well be true to the letter.

re: Doctor Superville [what a name] - didn't Valory say some similar things that early? I seem to remember coming across that. (And Voltaire kind of jokes about the mutual dislike between him and Fritz in one of the letters I read yesterday.)

if you have the word "polutropos" in your vocabulary like the ancient Greeks did, you don't need the word "enigma"

Had to google that (never got past two weeks of Greek), but now I really like it! Also from a meta standpoint, multiple narratives possible.

Heh, I left out the health/fruit part because I assumed that everyone here knew it anyway, given that I learned most of it from rheinsberg in the first place. And thank you for the link to the intro post - I see that your "Fritz as Royal Detective" from a few days ago had a double layer there, ha.

Re: Early Fritz letter to Voltaire / Random Thoughts

[mildred_of_midgard]

It's certainly something that would make sense as an exaggerated story that has a lot of truth in it...On the other hand, it's Fritz, so who knows. Might as well be true to the letter.

Exactly! It's in character, at least.

re: Doctor Superville [what a name] - didn't Valory say some similar things that early? I seem to remember coming across that.

Did he? The famous quotes I'm familiar with from him on Fritz are from 1753. But maybe there are pre-May 31, 1740 ones too.

Doctor Superville [what a name]

I had the same reaction, lol. It keeps calling up Smallville + Superman echoes in my brain, which, to be fair, would not have been the case for contemporaries. :P

Also from a meta standpoint, multiple narratives possible.

Exactly! It applies to Fritz in several different meanings the same way it applies to Odysseus in several different meanings.

Heh, I left out the health/fruit part because I assumed that everyone here knew it anyway, given that I learned most of it from [community profile] rheinsberg in the first place.

The facts, yes, but the hypothesis that it contributed to his longevity is something you and I came up with independently, which is awesome!

I see that your "Fritz as Royal Detective" from a few days ago had a double layer there, ha.

:) Yes, indeed, that was an inside joke aimed at the people who'd been calling me Royal Detective for a year now. And now you're inside the joke too.

Re: Early Fritz letter to Voltaire / Random Thoughts

[felis]

Hmmm, maybe I did misremember the Valory thing. Fritz told Voltaire that he didn't like him the minute he showed up and then Voltaire made a joke about the way Valory saw Fritz, so it's entirely possible that I put the wrong date on the Valory quotes in my head. (It's been a looot of new information in a very short time lately. :D)

re: Superville, I immediately saw him as a comics supervillain with a very on-the-nose name ;)

Re: Early Fritz letter to Voltaire / Random Thoughts

[selenak]

Given Superville met Crown Prince Fritz specifically in his capacity as doctor and given Fritz' opinion of doctors, I don't find it surprising he correctly predicted King Fritz from that encounter. :)

Valory: the most famous description he gave of Fritz which I had translated for Mildred and Cahn last year is from the early 1750s. However, Valory also gave a (less critical) description of Fritz in the early 1740s, when he saw quite a lot of him, since Valory, like Mitchell much later, was with Fritz on campaign now and then in the Silesian Wars. (Hence the plot of Th Palladion.) He also socialized with Fritz' brothers a lot in between. He wasn't the French envoy during all this time - in between, annother Scottish Jcobite exile had that job, Lord Tyrconnel - but he was reappointed French envoy after Tyrconnel's death.