So, I'browsing through the memoirs of the Princess Dashkova because reasons, and what do I find but the following passage. Context: our memoir writer is the younger sister of (P)Russian Pete's mistress, Elisabeth Woronzowa, but also a friend of his wife Catherine, and will take an important part in the coup against (P)Russian Pete, with the result of her father and brother not talking to her for years. (Since they thought her sister had a genuine shot at beoming Czarina, if, that is, Peter divorced Catherine. Since Peter I. had done just this with his first wife, it certainly wouldn't have been unprecedented.)
Anyway, Dashkova talking, "he" is Peter, at this point still Grandduke, but his aunt is in ill health: He astonished me with a remark very characteristic of the simplicity of his head and of the goodness of his heart, but which, bye the bye, was expressed with so much more point than was found in the usual tenor of his conversation, that I never ceased to wonder, until I chanced to discover the person who had adroitly inserted it in to his brain for the occasion. "My child," said he, "you would do well to recollect that it is much safer to deal with honest blockheads, like your sister and myself, than with great wits who squeeze the juice out of the orange, and then throw away the rind." I affected neither to understand the import nor the application of his words, and merely reminded him, in reply, how distinctly his aunt, the empress, had signified her wishes that we should play no less attention to the grand duchess as to his imperial highness. Here I must take an opportunity of rendering justice to my sister the Countess Elizabeth, who sufficiently understood our differences of character never to expect those attentions from me which her situation procued her from the rest of the court.
Well! On the one hand, it would be just like (P)Russian Pete the fanboy to learn a Fritz quote by heart and use it in conversation, which would indicate that by the early 1760s, which is when this conversation takes place, the story of Fritz having said this about Voltaire was making the rounds through Europe and beyond. This would predate the publication of Voltaire's memoirs and is of course completly independent from his rewriting of his letters to Madame Denis. Which would argue that at least the rumor of Fritz having said this was nothing something Voltaire had to invent from the letters and the memoirs.
On the other hand: Princess Dashkova does not write this story down when it happened, she recounts it decades later when Catherine, Voltaire, Fritz et al are already dead. By which time, of course, Voltaire's memoirs were published, and being an eager reader of Voltaire (who met him later and felt let down by Denis being "an ordinary woman, and this the niece of Voltaire!"), she certainly must have read them.
Which means the answer as to whether Peter actually said this to a young Dashkova, thereby using a quip attributed to his hero, is... maybe?
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Return of the Orange Peel (in unexpected places)
Date: 2020-10-28 01:05 pm (UTC)Anyway, Dashkova talking, "he" is Peter, at this point still Grandduke, but his aunt is in ill health: He astonished me with a remark very characteristic of the simplicity of his head and of the goodness of his heart, but which, bye the bye, was expressed with so much more point than was found in the usual tenor of his conversation, that I never ceased to wonder, until I chanced to discover the person who had adroitly inserted it in to his brain for the occasion.
"My child," said he, "you would do well to recollect that it is much safer to deal with honest blockheads, like your sister and myself, than with great wits who squeeze the juice out of the orange, and then throw away the rind."
I affected neither to understand the import nor the application of his words, and merely reminded him, in reply, how distinctly his aunt, the empress, had signified her wishes that we should play no less attention to the grand duchess as to his imperial highness. Here I must take an opportunity of rendering justice to my sister the Countess Elizabeth, who sufficiently understood our differences of character never to expect those attentions from me which her situation procued her from the rest of the court.
Well! On the one hand, it would be just like (P)Russian Pete the fanboy to learn a Fritz quote by heart and use it in conversation, which would indicate that by the early 1760s, which is when this conversation takes place, the story of Fritz having said this about Voltaire was making the rounds through Europe and beyond. This would predate the publication of Voltaire's memoirs and is of course completly independent from his rewriting of his letters to Madame Denis. Which would argue that at least the rumor of Fritz having said this was nothing something Voltaire had to invent from the letters and the memoirs.
On the other hand: Princess Dashkova does not write this story down when it happened, she recounts it decades later when Catherine, Voltaire, Fritz et al are already dead. By which time, of course, Voltaire's memoirs were published, and being an eager reader of Voltaire (who met him later and felt let down by Denis being "an ordinary woman, and this the niece of Voltaire!"), she certainly must have read them.
Which means the answer as to whether Peter actually said this to a young Dashkova, thereby using a quip attributed to his hero, is... maybe?