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)

[mildred_of_midgard]

Thank you for all the wonderful quotes!

I mean, I'd read about a hundred pages of Voltaire complimenting Fritz by that point and these still stood out.

I actually laughed out loud. ETA: Okay, I just read it again while previewing my comment, and I laughed aloud again. :D

I replied, of course, that my name was Don Quixote, and I enter under this name.

I had run across this anecdote, but had forgotten. Lol!

Algarotti into the conversation as a virtual third person to adress, just to start dissing Italy. (Quite lewdly, too, not least by using the accusation of sodomy as an insult - against the Venetians in this case - so that's certainly one more data point for his consistency in that regard, what with using it against Fritz later.)

Mind sharing the exact quote? I mean, on the one hand, nobody disses Italy more than Algarotti in the 1730s, but considering that Algarotti is a Venetian *and* Voltaire writes a pornographic slash poem to Fritz about Algarotti and the French envoy's secretary Lugeac, comparing them to Socrates and Alcibiades, it's interesting that he breaks it out as an insult on this occasion. This is in 1740, right? The slash porn is from December 1740.

Me: Okay then, Pleschinski! Nobody forced you to phrase it that way I guess. [Yes, okay, he means canopy bed, I just translated too literally. But still.]

As selenak points out, it's not accidental! He's come out as a Fritz/Voltaire shipper!

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

[felis]

This is in 1740, right? The slash porn is from December 1740.

The letter is from December 6th, so I guess he was on a roll? Or did he sent the poem at the same time? It's all in verse, the original French starts here (quote on the next page) and a rough translation of the relevant passage would be:

[Berlin]
Make[s] you forget the fate
of Italy and France.
Of Italy! Algarotti,
How do you find this language?
I see you, struck with outrage,
Look at me as an enemy.
Moderate this boiling courage,
And respond to us as a friend.
[... insults: smelly lagoons, whores, a useless doge, etc]
A soft, weak, infatuated people
Of ignorance and deceit,
Buttocks often chipped[/tattered],
Due to the efforts of the old sin
Which is called sodomy:
Voilá, the sketched portrait
Of the very noble lordship.
Now is this worth, please,
Our adorable Frédéric,
His virtues, his tastes, his homeland?
I make the whole public judge.

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

[mildred_of_midgard]

He must have been on a roll: the Algarotti poem is dated to December 15, 1740.

Translation MacDonogh's, as he gives it in full, and Blanning only a short excerpt (you can guess which one :P):

Mais quand, chez le gros Valori,
Je vois le tendre Algarotti
Dresser d’une vive embrassade
Le beau Lugeac, son jeune ami,
Je crois voir Socrate affermi
Sur la croupe d’Alcibiade;
Non pas le Socrate entêté,
De sophismes faisant parade,
A l’oeil sombre, au nez épaté,
A front large, à mine enfumée;
Mais Socrate Vénitien,
Aux grands yeux, au nez aquilin
Du bon saint Charles Borromée.
Pour moi, très-désintéressé
Dans les affaires de la Grèce.
Pour Frédéric seul empressé
Je quittais l’étude et maîtresse;
Je m’en étais débarrassé;
Si je volais dans son empire,
Ce fut au doux son de sa lyre;
Mais la trompette m’a chassé.

Whenever, with fat Valori
I see tender Algarotti
Stiffen, with an electric pass,
Lugeac, his young friend so pretty,
I seem to see Socrates at last
Clasped to Alcibiades’ arse;
Not that stubborn Socrates whose
Sophisms showed a man of class,
He of somber eye and snub nose,
With forehead broad and defiant pose;
But a Venetian Socrates
With Roman nose and eyes which tease
Like Charles Borromeo’s, they said.
For me, quite disinterested
In the things that went on in Greece,
For King Fredericks sake alone
I quit my love and lost my peace;
I abandoned all that I own;
If I hurried to his empire,
It was to the soft strains of the lyre;
But the trumpet has sent me home.

So yeah, he goes for the "Venetian" line again.

Voltaire is coming across as one of those "Some of my best friends are gay! (but I'm still a homophobe)" types.

For me, quite disinterested
In the things that went on in Greece,
For King Fredericks sake alone

So basically, gay for Fritz. :P

(For those new here, this is a running semi-joke: we don't think they went beyond hand-kissing or that Voltaire suddenly discovered he was sexually into Fritz, but the sexually-charged romance is undeniable. And just as you can have a het romance without sex, you can have a gay one too. Hence "gay for Fritz".

I started saying it once I discovered the "I have been given in marriage to the King of Prussia" line was made up after the fact to trash Fritz, to which I said, "Look, we all know Fritz is gay, Voltaire; this makes *you* look gay. :P :P :P"

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

[selenak]

My own thoughts can be summed up in one sentence: someone is still miffed Algarotti got a "come to me at once!" summon in June 1740 and he did not. :)

(And neither of them knew Fritz' old teacher got exactly the same letter, just like Manteuffel and Voltaire got the same golden Socrates-Alcibiades gift. Fritz: thrifty reuser:)

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

[mildred_of_midgard]

someone is still miffed Algarotti got a "come to me at once!" summon in June 1740 and he did not. :)

AHAHAHAA, yes, you are right!

Fritz is miffed that Voltaire keeps leaving him in the 1740s, Voltaire is miffed he didn't get the immediate invitation, Fritz is miffed Voltaire won't come without Émilie, Voltaire is miffed Fritz won't invite Émilie...

Pleschinski: OTP. They deserve each other.

Fritz: thrifty reuser:)

Fritz: Time is money!