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.
Googling tells me it's a French saying that means "abscond without paying your creditors" or more generally "disappear suddenly." The meaning really appears to be "hole", not "nest", and while I couldn't find an etymology I definitely trust, the most plausible-looking one I found in a cursory search was on this site, which says the expression started as "make a hole in the air" (through which to disappear), then "make a hole in the night" (the better to not be seen), then "make a hole in the moon" (with "moon" used metonymously for "night").
For those who could use a refresher on dates, this letter is 1755, Algarotti executed his Frexit in 1753 (the same year as Voltaire), and Fritz has only just, in 1754, accepted that he's not coming back any time soon and cut off his salary. He will never, until Algarotti's death in 1764, accept that Algarotti's not coming back at all. His last letter, written after Algarotti died but before Fritz got the news, was "Please come back! We have good doctors here. We'll take care of you and it'll be fun times between you and me again." :(
So this is the context for "everyone is leaving me!"
Wilhelmine met James Keith in August 1735 already, when the Russians moved through Bayreuth.
That rings a bell; I think it was in Oster. I wonder if it's in Keith's memoirs; I think they stop mid-1730s, but I can't remember when.
"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."
SO MANY AWWWWs to this whole passage. <33
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.
Ugh, and yes. The dilemma of stoicism is something that he will wrestle with all his life.
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.
What date is this?
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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Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2020-11-07 05:50 pm (UTC)Googling tells me it's a French saying that means "abscond without paying your creditors" or more generally "disappear suddenly." The meaning really appears to be "hole", not "nest", and while I couldn't find an etymology I definitely trust, the most plausible-looking one I found in a cursory search was on this site, which says the expression started as "make a hole in the air" (through which to disappear), then "make a hole in the night" (the better to not be seen), then "make a hole in the moon" (with "moon" used metonymously for "night").
For those who could use a refresher on dates, this letter is 1755, Algarotti executed his Frexit in 1753 (the same year as Voltaire), and Fritz has only just, in 1754, accepted that he's not coming back any time soon and cut off his salary. He will never, until Algarotti's death in 1764, accept that Algarotti's not coming back at all. His last letter, written after Algarotti died but before Fritz got the news, was "Please come back! We have good doctors here. We'll take care of you and it'll be fun times between you and me again." :(
So this is the context for "everyone is leaving me!"
Wilhelmine met James Keith in August 1735 already, when the Russians moved through Bayreuth.
That rings a bell; I think it was in Oster. I wonder if it's in Keith's memoirs; I think they stop mid-1730s, but I can't remember when.
"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."
SO MANY AWWWWs to this whole passage. <33
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.
Ugh, and yes. The dilemma of stoicism is something that he will wrestle with all his life.
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.
What date is this?
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.
Same!