I read it differently because I forgot about the marriage happening only two weeks later, so out of context it came across as a present-day matter-of-fact condition, not a future one.
I don't blame you, I do this often with quotes, too, but in this case I think context is key, because FW was always sentimental about his daughters around their weddings. (See Stratemann's description of him dancing with Wilhelmine at her wedding and then with all the other girls, despite his bad physical condition.)
Speaking of context, browsing through the "So lange wir zu zweit sind" edition suddenly made me realise that Stratemann's May 1730 report about FW being so considerate a husband to highly pregnant SD, reconciling with Wilhelmine, telling her to look after Heinrich etc.... that all of these family anecdotes reported by our Braunschweig envoy happen in the very same weeks - May 1730 - that Guy Dickens reports FW discovered that Fritz had written to Queen Caroline he'd only marry her daughter, which led to him losing it, going after Fritz with cane and fist and abusing him in public. Not a peep of any of this in Stratemann.
In conclusion: two different realities in reporting are nothing new in the world...
I could see arguments for both, what with Voltaire being put on the spot by someone he actually liked, but also having a talent for being weasely when necessary. Given that Fritz said he would sent someone to retrieve it, I'm also wondering who that might have been.
Not Fredersdorf, given Fredersdorf didn't go to Frankfurt, either, he just sent someone. But of course Frankfurt and Bayreuth are very different circumstances. Otoh you don't want to sent someone like Pöllnitz who'd be more likely to team up with Voltaire. So probably some nonedecript official.
I could see arguments for both, too, and of course it would depend on how badly Voltaire wants to keep those poems in order to embarass Fritz. But he did like Wilhelmine, and he might have thought it would be good to keep her in a friendly dispostion towards himself, not anger her by refusing to return the book. Especially if he still wanted her to hire people he recced for her court. Conversely, Wilhelmine wouldn't have made the mistake of arresting him and/or having Madame Denis menaced by thugs, as the overzealous Freytag in Frankfurt did.
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Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2020-11-07 02:03 pm (UTC)I don't blame you, I do this often with quotes, too, but in this case I think context is key, because FW was always sentimental about his daughters around their weddings. (See Stratemann's description of him dancing with Wilhelmine at her wedding and then with all the other girls, despite his bad physical condition.)
Speaking of context, browsing through the "So lange wir zu zweit sind" edition suddenly made me realise that Stratemann's May 1730 report about FW being so considerate a husband to highly pregnant SD, reconciling with Wilhelmine, telling her to look after Heinrich etc.... that all of these family anecdotes reported by our Braunschweig envoy happen in the very same weeks - May 1730 - that Guy Dickens reports FW discovered that Fritz had written to Queen Caroline he'd only marry her daughter, which led to him losing it, going after Fritz with cane and fist and abusing him in public. Not a peep of any of this in Stratemann.
In conclusion: two different realities in reporting are nothing new in the world...
I could see arguments for both, what with Voltaire being put on the spot by someone he actually liked, but also having a talent for being weasely when necessary. Given that Fritz said he would sent someone to retrieve it, I'm also wondering who that might have been.
Not Fredersdorf, given Fredersdorf didn't go to Frankfurt, either, he just sent someone. But of course Frankfurt and Bayreuth are very different circumstances. Otoh you don't want to sent someone like Pöllnitz who'd be more likely to team up with Voltaire. So probably some nonedecript official.
I could see arguments for both, too, and of course it would depend on how badly Voltaire wants to keep those poems in order to embarass Fritz. But he did like Wilhelmine, and he might have thought it would be good to keep her in a friendly dispostion towards himself, not anger her by refusing to return the book. Especially if he still wanted her to hire people he recced for her court. Conversely, Wilhelmine wouldn't have made the mistake of arresting him and/or having Madame Denis menaced by thugs, as the overzealous Freytag in Frankfurt did.