Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 20

[cahn]

Yuletide signups so far:
3 requests for Frederician RPF, 2 offers
2 requests for Circle of Voltaire RPF, 3 offers !! :D :D

(I am so curious as to who the third person is!)

Comments

Re: Boswell in Prussia: All Things Fritz

[mildred_of_midgard]

then waited on Mr. Catt Reader to the King to whom I had a letter from M. de Zuyl He was sick & could not go out with me; but he was civil. I found him dry & even insipid.

Heee. He's in good company in this opinion!

In the Antichamber were a good many books ,but our conductor would not allow us to lift any of them, for, he said, the King knew the exact place of every one of them.

Headcanon that it's because they would see that most of the pages have been cut out. :P Also headcanon that this is the reason they won't let us into the library at Sanssouci.

Qu'est-ce que

I can't see this now without thinking of little "Quecke". ;)

Now I would say that Blancho clearly reads anonymous trashy pamphlets

If so, I don't know which one! Because we had a whole discussion about why STD + surgery + impotence is in the memoirs but not the 1752 pamphlet. 1764, as of the Boswell diaries, is now the earliest date I'm aware of for this rumor. When betaing the incest porn fic, I told cahn that if she wanted to allude to Fritz STD+impotence rumors in 1758, it was fine in fiction, but I didn't have any historical evidence for it yet (though no counterevidence either).

but if I recall correctly the one in question while drawing the STD in his youth => now has to bottom, not top correlation does not claim brothels as well as ladies of the court for young Fritz.

All the memoirs say is "amours de passade", where the editor translates "de passade" as "of once and away." Which is not an expression I've heard before (lol, ignotum per ignotius), but the internet is telling me "once and away" means "occasionally" in British English.

But, in any case, no, no explicit brothel mentions.

This strictly het version, which is exactly the one Zimmermann will provide after Fritz' death

With the slight difference that Zimmermann says he avoided ladies of the court, at least according to your write-up. But yes, the brothels are clearly already making the rounds in the rumor mill.

When Boswell arrives at Dresden, he is well and truly shocked by the scars from the war, and his Fritz opinion plunges downwards.

Funny, the same thing happened to Andrew Mitchell. Oh, Fritz.

Re: Boswell in Prussia: All Things Fritz

[selenak]

Oh right! We did have that discussion re: pamphlet vs memoirs when it comes to STD + surgery = impotence. *facepalms* Okay, that makes Boswell's journal entry then the earliest recording of the rumor I've seen so far. Considering Boswell hears it when hanging out with the Swedish ambassador, a few months before his meeting(s) with Voltaire, I would speculate that maybe Voltaire heard about this rumor this way, except no, because Boswell's record of his Voltaire encounters is pretty thorough, and other than that Johnson quote, Fritz doesn't come up. Still, if the Swedes have heard it, who weren't even represented in Berlin during the war due to being on the other side, it must have been making the rounds for a while already. (BTW: has Ulrike heard?)

With the slight difference that Zimmermann says he avoided ladies of the court, at least according to your write-up. But yes, the brothels are clearly already making the rounds in the rumor mill.

True, not just ladies of the court, though - any "good" woman, because Zimmerann's Fritz is so deeply shocked by what happened to (definitely not a court lady, but a middle class lass) Doris Ritter that from this point onwards, he won't endanger any "good" woman anymore, and it's whores, whores, whores all the way.

Incidentally, other than Orzelska and Wreech, do we know of any noble lady rumor tied to young Fritz?

Funny, the same thing happened to Andrew Mitchell. Oh, Fritz.

Mitchell, of course, experienced it "live", so to speak, which must have been even worse, but he also experienced it after several years of campaigning, which supposedly hardens people.And yet. For Boswell, this and the other reminders of the recent wra, like the destroyed buildings in Wittenberg, were a first, since he was born in 1740, and was a lowland Scot, which means he didn't see such stark visual results of warfare before this journey. He had a glamorized idea of what being a soldier meant until then, too. (One entry I didn't copy was Boswell watching as a soldier gets punished the Prussian way and going !!!!!!) (Not, I hasten to add, that he couldn't have seen the same thing in the British marine, but he wasn't romantisizing sailors before.)

Re: Boswell in Prussia: All Things Fritz

[mildred_of_midgard]

(BTW: has Ulrike heard?)

Didn't you say that Ulrike was the one who told him about the Erlangen journalist Gross? And you said she must have quite the spy network? I'm betting she's heard!

True, not just ladies of the court, though - any "good" woman

Right, exactly.

Incidentally, other than Orzelska and Wreech, do we know of any noble lady rumor tied to young Fritz?

Not that I can think of. There was that other lady in Dresden, the one August got him to take in favor of leaving Orzelska alone (until she came to Berlin), but since her name is just given as Formera, I can't tell. The internet is giving me Gräfin Formera, so a countess, but only for recent sources. In lieu of further evidence, I speculate that they're transferring Orzelska's title to her. The only primary source I can find is Wilhelmine, who just says "the beautiful Formera," which made me think she was non-noble, but could go either way. Ah, Carlyle says "Formera her name, of Opera-singer kind," though with no citation given. Atm, I trust Carlyle over the 20th/21st century unscholarly-looking sources that I think are all blindly copying each other.

Other than that...? No, nothing's coming to mind. I'm guessing "Sabine" the alleged local Rheinsberg girl wasn't a noble. Hans Hermann von Katte the daughter of Hans Heinrich disguised as a son? :P (That was one crazy conspiracy theory, btw.)

Re: Boswell in Prussia: All Things Fritz

[selenak]

Ulrike having heard: yes, I'm guessing so, too. Btw: Dashkova mentions in her travels coming across Gustav's younger brother Carl, who according to her has no love for either Gustav or his mother, and is sure he'll be King one day because Gustav "isn't likely to sire a child". Now, leaving aside Dashkova writes this at a point where Carl had become King (and Gustav's son was disregarded because Reasons), so there's the hindsight factor, there's no reason for her to invent Carl having it in for mother Ulrike. Given Carl managed to successfully transfer blame on Ulrike entirely for the big soap opera scandal spreading out, I'm now considering Heinrich might have been onto something when he blamed Carl as well as Gustav for his sister's fate towards Lehndorff. (Who correctly pointed out to himself, if not to Heinrich, that Ulrike shares some blame, too.)

I'm guessing "Sabine" the alleged local Rheinsberg girl wasn't a noble.

Nope. According to the tale the Rheinsberg staff guy spun for the tourists, Fritz was touring the surrounding countryside with Fredersdorf, both of them ravishing country girls, until true love Sabine showed up.