1. Tiny thing I got stuck on: Algarotti making a hole in the moon. selenak quotes the passage from 1755 in her Trier write-up, the bit where Fritz is quite on his own because d'Argens is in bed and Voltaire in Switzerland and, well, Algarotti made a hole in the moon. The German translation on the other hand says that Algarotti "secretly ran off". Which makes me suspect that the moon line is a reference or an old saying I don't know, but also wonder if "faire un trou à la lune" actually means "making a nest on the moon", because apparently "trou" means both hole and nest. Either way, the expression amused me.
2. Fritz, writing from the war camp in Heidelberg on September 25th, 1734, with more cold to endure, but also with more dorkiness from him: It's horribly cold here. One freezes [solid] inside the tents. Which is why I'll move into a palace I had build. [...] Gold and marble are missing entirely. Plain simplicity is its whole decoration. Mud replaces marble and straw slate. My tent is used for the wall covering and furniture covers for the roof. [...] And three days later: ... yesterday Prince Eugen dined in my magic castle...
(Meanwhile, FW is getting sicker and sicker, and the way the siblings talk about this almost-death throughout was interesting. Fritz goes from not caring because I'm convinced that I won't have any good days while he's alive over We can't help but cry when we see him like this and I swear to you that I never thought I loved him this much. back to He's in a horrible mood, he hits, scratches, and abuses anyone who comes near him, and speaks badly about everyone except himself. [...] Sophie is now the favourite, but only because she's so different from her married sisters. Charlotte is in disgrace like the others. Wilhelmine seems more steadily ambiguous - I know he treated us like shit, but he's also our father and the one who gave us life, so one can't help but feel sad - but also very concerned that FW might harm Fritz because he's in such a bad mood.)
3. My note for this was "mocking as a coping method". Fritz, March 19th, 1734: The king's mood is unbearable, he hates me like sin, and the standing of the crown princess is almost gone. Despite this, I mock everything and am in good spirits. I don't distress myself and only pity the king for being unable to get over himself and show affection to his children. (Wilhelmine's response: I feel you, I was totally in the same situation a year ago.)
4. Two details I didn't know: Wilhelmine met James Keith in August 1735 already, when the Russians moved through Bayreuth. And the fire in January 1753 was all new to me, too.
5. Fritz gets painted, March 10th, 1736: Pesne summons all his skill to create a good painting of me, as you ordered. I always ask him not to put so much emphasis on the facial features but to express my feelings towards you, so they'll always be present for you. Herr von Brandt [who is that?] is keeping me company and both of them are telling me about you to make me look more graceful than usual. "Come on, Your Highness," says Pesne, "think of your Madame sister. Ah! now the mouth is right; now you look content." I answer: "If my sister were here, things would be different, but her name and her memory already make me content." The book includes a photo of the painting in question and when I went looking for a digital version, I at first thought, hey, what a difference a different photo can make and only by the third version did I realize that there were multiple copies made. The book has the first one as the original, no idea if that's true.
6. Right after that passage, Suhm mention: Little Suhm is my usual companion and La Chétardie the unusual one. We philosophize to our heart's content. In her reply, Wilhelmine calls Suhm little as well, "little Diablotin" in fact (is there any other source for that nickname, or a reason why it was given?), so I'd guess that he was rather short?
7. I realized that Fritz' illness, which he complains to Voltaire about in his physics experiment/fanfic letter, was likely the result of another really shitty time in Berlin at the beginning of 1739. Once he's back in Rheinsberg, he writes this to Wilhelmine: Finally I'm able to write to you from my peaceful solitude, without agitation, without fear, without pain. [...] If people were rational, as they should be, nobody would be foolish enough to distress themselves, especially once they know that they are being persecuted on purpose. But I think differently about human beings. We are easily susceptible to impressions all our lives and therefore far from the quietism of modern stoics. We couldn't be what we are without a plethora of passions that make us feel joy, sadness, love, hate, desire, disgust etc. These passionate emotions are so natural, even necessary, that a human being missing them would be a liveless stone. Therefore rationality is just a nice phrase of vanity. [...] After this confession you hopefully will not find it astonishing that I the bad treatment I was subjected to distressed me [...] which resulted in this painful illness that almost killed me. Shared sibling trait = stress-related illnesses. Also, failure of stoicism continues to be a thing that bugs him.
8. I didn't know that Wilhelmine actually told Fritz what she'd also written in her memoirs: that she found him changed and not the brother she knew. You guys know all the verbatim stuff here of course, but I have to say, I'm almost impressed that they managed this kind of direct, air-clearing conversation. Here's a list of all the shit I'm angry about! Thanks for telling me, here's a list of all the reasons why you shouldn't be! And then the Fritzian, well, heart over head and all of this is annoying the heck out of me anyway, let's never talk about it again.
9. Another thing I didn't realize: that Voltaire apparently entertained the idea of going to Bayreuth when he left in 1753, even wrote a letter from Leipzig to inquire if he would be welcome. Wilhelmine asks Fritz what the deal is and what she should do, Fritz tells her his side of the story and says It wouldn't be unwelcome if he came to Bayreuth; with your permission I'd send someone to get the key and the ordre pour le mérite back. No mention of the book, heh. Voltaire obviously thought better of that idea. (Or worse, given that his experience in Bayreuth might have been a lot better than in Frankfurt...) Also, Wilhelmine's description of her meeting with him in 1754 amused me, for the obvious reason, but also because her "aww" reaction is one I had often enough while reading his letters and his poor Voltaire self-descriptions.
[By the way, I'm also amused that google continues to translate "vers" as "worms". For the duration of a couple of Voltaire letters, I thought Fritz was calling his poems "worms" indeed, which would have been in character! Obviously I realized what was happening at some point.]
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Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2020-11-07 01:17 am (UTC)2. Fritz, writing from the war camp in Heidelberg on September 25th, 1734, with more cold to endure, but also with more dorkiness from him:
It's horribly cold here. One freezes [solid] inside the tents. Which is why I'll move into a palace I had build. [...] Gold and marble are missing entirely. Plain simplicity is its whole decoration. Mud replaces marble and straw slate. My tent is used for the wall covering and furniture covers for the roof. [...]
And three days later: ... yesterday Prince Eugen dined in my magic castle...
(Meanwhile, FW is getting sicker and sicker, and the way the siblings talk about this almost-death throughout was interesting. Fritz goes from not caring because I'm convinced that I won't have any good days while he's alive over We can't help but cry when we see him like this and I swear to you that I never thought I loved him this much. back to He's in a horrible mood, he hits, scratches, and abuses anyone who comes near him, and speaks badly about everyone except himself. [...] Sophie is now the favourite, but only because she's so different from her married sisters. Charlotte is in disgrace like the others. Wilhelmine seems more steadily ambiguous - I know he treated us like shit, but he's also our father and the one who gave us life, so one can't help but feel sad - but also very concerned that FW might harm Fritz because he's in such a bad mood.)
3. My note for this was "mocking as a coping method". Fritz, March 19th, 1734: The king's mood is unbearable, he hates me like sin, and the standing of the crown princess is almost gone. Despite this, I mock everything and am in good spirits. I don't distress myself and only pity the king for being unable to get over himself and show affection to his children.
(Wilhelmine's response: I feel you, I was totally in the same situation a year ago.)
4. Two details I didn't know: Wilhelmine met James Keith in August 1735 already, when the Russians moved through Bayreuth. And the fire in January 1753 was all new to me, too.
5. Fritz gets painted, March 10th, 1736: Pesne summons all his skill to create a good painting of me, as you ordered. I always ask him not to put so much emphasis on the facial features but to express my feelings towards you, so they'll always be present for you. Herr von Brandt [who is that?] is keeping me company and both of them are telling me about you to make me look more graceful than usual. "Come on, Your Highness," says Pesne, "think of your Madame sister. Ah! now the mouth is right; now you look content." I answer: "If my sister were here, things would be different, but her name and her memory already make me content."
The book includes a photo of the painting in question and when I went looking for a digital version, I at first thought, hey, what a difference a different photo can make and only by the third version did I realize that there were multiple copies made. The book has the first one as the original, no idea if that's true.
6. Right after that passage, Suhm mention: Little Suhm is my usual companion and La Chétardie the unusual one. We philosophize to our heart's content. In her reply, Wilhelmine calls Suhm little as well, "little Diablotin" in fact (is there any other source for that nickname, or a reason why it was given?), so I'd guess that he was rather short?
7. I realized that Fritz' illness, which he complains to Voltaire about in his physics experiment/fanfic letter, was likely the result of another really shitty time in Berlin at the beginning of 1739. Once he's back in Rheinsberg, he writes this to Wilhelmine: Finally I'm able to write to you from my peaceful solitude, without agitation, without fear, without pain. [...] If people were rational, as they should be, nobody would be foolish enough to distress themselves, especially once they know that they are being persecuted on purpose. But I think differently about human beings. We are easily susceptible to impressions all our lives and therefore far from the quietism of modern stoics. We couldn't be what we are without a plethora of passions that make us feel joy, sadness, love, hate, desire, disgust etc. These passionate emotions are so natural, even necessary, that a human being missing them would be a liveless stone. Therefore rationality is just a nice phrase of vanity. [...] After this confession you hopefully will not find it astonishing that I the bad treatment I was subjected to distressed me [...] which resulted in this painful illness that almost killed me.
Shared sibling trait = stress-related illnesses. Also, failure of stoicism continues to be a thing that bugs him.
8. I didn't know that Wilhelmine actually told Fritz what she'd also written in her memoirs: that she found him changed and not the brother she knew. You guys know all the verbatim stuff here of course, but I have to say, I'm almost impressed that they managed this kind of direct, air-clearing conversation. Here's a list of all the shit I'm angry about! Thanks for telling me, here's a list of all the reasons why you shouldn't be! And then the Fritzian, well, heart over head and all of this is annoying the heck out of me anyway, let's never talk about it again.
9. Another thing I didn't realize: that Voltaire apparently entertained the idea of going to Bayreuth when he left in 1753, even wrote a letter from Leipzig to inquire if he would be welcome. Wilhelmine asks Fritz what the deal is and what she should do, Fritz tells her his side of the story and says It wouldn't be unwelcome if he came to Bayreuth; with your permission I'd send someone to get the key and the ordre pour le mérite back. No mention of the book, heh. Voltaire obviously thought better of that idea. (Or worse, given that his experience in Bayreuth might have been a lot better than in Frankfurt...)
Also, Wilhelmine's description of her meeting with him in 1754 amused me, for the obvious reason, but also because her "aww" reaction is one I had often enough while reading his letters and his poor Voltaire self-descriptions.
[By the way, I'm also amused that google continues to translate "vers" as "worms". For the duration of a couple of Voltaire letters, I thought Fritz was calling his poems "worms" indeed, which would have been in character! Obviously I realized what was happening at some point.]