cahn | Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 20

Ahaha, oh, man, the deja-vus!

Citation: letter from Voltaire to the Count de Tressan on February 13, 1758.

While I do not have access to E-Enlightenment, the letter can be found here - and while he mentions Diderot, I do not see that it says what it's supposed to say about Potsdam, but my French is rather rudimentary, so maybe I'm missing something.

ETA: Given that I ended up in these parts because I wrote about being charmed by Fritz' physics experiments, Voltaire's explanation for why he gave up on physics in this very letter is quite funny to me, though. :D

Edited 2020-10-26 12:11 (UTC)

Ah, thank you for that. I thought about checking to see if I could find it outside E-Enlightenment, but I settled in favor of posting before bed, and also going to bed on time. Which is no small amount of self-discipline from me!

I do not see that it says what it's supposed to say about Potsdam, but my French is rather rudimentary, so maybe I'm missing something.

No, I don't see it either. In that case, it's uncited (the footnote leading to the citation of this letter was actually the sentence prior to the one referring to Potsdam, but I was hoping from the way he wrote it that it was all from one letter instead of the subsequent sentences being TOTALLY UNSOURCED, which unfortunately would be totally in character for this author).

Well, in that case, I'm not accepting that Voltaire told Diderot et al. to go to Potsdam in 1758 unless I see some evidence. Thanks again for checking!

Yeah, as far as I can tell, even the banding together is all in the context of the Encyclopédie, i.e. all of them should stop working on it because some of them are getting in trouble for their contributions. Voltaire writes something similar to D'Alembert on the same day (previous letter at the link) and tells him that he'd asked Diderot to send back everything Voltaire had already written for it.

That said, browsing some of the surrounding letters, I am kind of wondering if the idea was floated by someone else in some way, or maybe earlier, because in his letter to Tressan on March 3rd, Voltaire writes:

Je vais planter aux Délices; de là je reviens à Lausanne pour nos spectacles; cela est plus sensé que d’aller en Allemagne, Je ne regrette aucun roi, aucun prince;

The "is more sensible than going to Germany" is an odd phrasing if somebody hadn't presented it as an option at some point, isn't it? ...or he's just commenting on his own history, who knows.

To D'Alembert on March 7th:

Comptez qu’on ne vaut pas mieux à Berlin qu’à Paris, et qu’il n’y a de bon que la liberté.

and on March 25th:

J’ai reçu depuis peu une lettre du cacouac roi de Prusse ; mais j’ai renoncé à lui comme à Paris, et je m’en trouve à merveille.

The German wiki article on the Encyclopédie says that Fritz offered to have it printed in Berlin and invited D'Alembert to do just that - unsourced and without a specific date attached, but I'd think that should have been years earlier?

Comptez qu’on ne vaut pas mieux à Berlin qu’à Paris, et qu’il n’y a de bon que la liberté.

Uh, yeah, that sounds like Voltaire's saying *not* to go to Berlin. I'm side-eyeing the Diderot biographer!

J’ai reçu depuis peu une lettre du cacouac roi de Prusse ; mais j’ai renoncé à lui comme à Paris, et je m’en trouve à merveille.

For those who, like me, might be wondering, French Wikipedia tells me:

Cacouac is an anti-enlightenment term coined around 1757 by the opponents of the Enlightenment philosophers, with a view to mocking more particularly the authors of the Encyclopedia. This neologism combines the Greek adjective kakos (bad) and the word quack, and means wicked...Delighted with this opportunity to exercise their sense of derision, the Encyclopedists were quick to take up the term for themselves.

They were indeed, since Wikipedia tells me "the word made its first appearance in October 1757," and Voltaire's letter is from March 1758!

A bit more context from Voltaire's letter:

All the cacouacs should compose a pack; but they separate, and the wolf eats them. I recently received a letter from the cacouac King of Prussia; but I have given up on him like Paris, and I am very happy with that.

Again, sounds like he's saying not to go to Prussia (but is giving Fritz membership in the pack of scorned Enlightenment proponents, aww).

The Diderot biographer definitely seems to have gotten the wrong end of the stick there! And both LOL and aw at Voltaire's statements.

Again, sounds like he's saying not to go to Prussia (but is giving Fritz membership in the pack of scorned Enlightenment proponents, aww).

Not to mention: if he's given up on Fritz like he's given up on Paris, that means he's not given up at all. :) Not just because he'll return to Paris at the end of his life, but because, as Orieux notes, Voltaire had a habit of writing "we in Paris" years and years after he had left it, and at the time with no prospect of seeing it again. Orieux: "He is both the most cosmopolitan and the most Parisian" of French enlightenment writers, and his hometown formed part of who he was.

Not to mention: if he's given up on Fritz like he's given up on Paris, that means he's not given up at all. :)

But we already knew that. :)

More seriously: "can't live with you, can't live without you" seems to describe his relationship to both.

Not to mention: if he's given up on Fritz like he's given up on Paris, that means he's not given up at all. :)

Heh, yes! Some of these had quite the "I'm trying to convince myself" vibe.

And apropos giving him up, Darget apparently asked him how it happened that they are talking again, and Voltaire has this to say (January 8th, 1758):
You ask me, my dear and former companion from Potsdam, how Cinéas reconciled with Pyrrhus. It is, first, that Pyrrhus made an opera of my tragedy of Merope, and sent it to me [in 1756]; it is that afterwards he was kind enough to offer me his key, which is not that of paradise, and all his favors, which no longer suit my age; it is that one of his sisters, who has always preserved his kindness to me, has been the link of this small trade which is sometimes renewed between the hero-poet-philosopher-warrior-cunning/malicious-singular-brilliant-proud-modest, etc., and the Swiss Cinéas retired from the world.

WOW these guys. It never ceases to amaze me as I watch them be madly in love with each other after the disillusionment and then divorce, and watch the mental gymnastics they both go through as they try to deal with their equally strong, equally conflicting feelings.

Made for each other, indeed.

They really are an Albee-esque couple, these two: Fritz as Martha, Voltaire as George?

Anyway, that is a golden quote, and I love every word of it. The multiword description of Fritz most of all, but then the detail of the opera.

The multiword description of Fritz most of all

Yes, that was amaaaazing. Voltaire's way with words is second to none.

Given that I ended up in these parts because I wrote about being charmed by Fritz' physics experiments, Voltaire's explanation for why he gave up on physics in this very letter is quite funny to me, though. :D

un jour, en soufflant mon feu, je me mis à songer pourquoi du bois faisait de la flamme ; personne ne me l’a pu dire, et j’ai trouvé qu’il n’y a point d’expérience de physique qui approche de celle-là.

I'm sorry, it is impossible for me to read this as anything but "So I was supposed to write this essay on Fire and I just could not make head or tail of how it worked at all, to the extent that Émilie had to write her own contribution just to point out how ludicrous my science was!" :)

Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 20

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Voltaire giving up on Fritz ... or not

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