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Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 20
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!)
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!)
Alcmene and the vault
Ooooohh! See, we were thinking there was no report of dog bones in 1991, but we didn't know about the earlier cave-ins! Well, this is sounding more and more likely.
He gives a source for his dog information, Manger, from 1789, who does indeed have a half-sentence saying that the favourite dogs were buried next to and the last one inside the vault, but there's no mention of his source for that and no name for the dog.
Okay, this makes it even more likely, as we've researched Manger before, and he would be in a position to--well, I wouldn't say he's 100% in a position to know personally, but if he says so, *and* there were two cave-in attestations, *and* Büsching says so (and names Alcmene)...
I think Alcmene was actually buried with Fritz and my fic was historically accurate in that respect! Wooot!
Oh, and that's interesting if he says the *last* favorite was buried inside the vault. That would mean it wasn't the Seven Years' War Alcmene who died in 1763, as I'd thought, but the 1770s and 1780s Alcmene.
Actually, wait, since the Alcmene of the vault was supposed to have died while Fritz was away on the Silesian maneuvers, and the Alcmene of the Seven Years' War was dying in October 1763, when Fritz was in Potsdam, of course it was the other Alcmene. I should have put two and two together.
And he's got the wrong death date for Thysbe (1770 instead of 1775), unless Fritz had two of... oh, wait, he did. Fritz, using the same name for multiple dogs?
Yep, he definitely did! Two Alcmenes as well, as indicated above. And two Dianes.
The names on the tombstones according to a 19th century visitor: Alcmene, Thisbe, Diane, Phillis, Thisbe, Alcmene, Biche, Diane, Pax, Superbe, Amourette.
Really not helpful for research purposes.
Totally convenient for the fic-writer, though, who can cheerfully reuse names. :D
ETA: Oh, and he must have had more than one Superbe, at least if the reports that the dog that was in the room when he died (his final order was for a servant to cover her up, as IGs have low body fat and get cold easily, and she was shivering) was named Superbe are to be believed.
Re: Alcmene and the vault
Anyway, if the bones were there in 1860 but calcified, I'm assuming they were entirely gone by 1991.
Folichon would like to point out he was the one and only Folichon in Wilhelmine's life, and she never used the name again. She also built him a tomb of his own, to wit:
But he would have been happy to share it with Biche!
Re: Alcmene and the vault
Secondly, while I don't mind someone taking one of Alcmene II's bones as a souvenir as much as I mind people doing the same to Katte's skeleton, I have to day, 19th century tourists really have no shame in that regard, do they?
What I was thinking! Though 18th century tourists had no shame when it came to looting works of art and archaeological remains: I enjoyed Wilhelmine cozying up to the Pope's people so they would look the other way while she illegally removed piece after piece from Italy. ;)
Anyway, if the bones were there in 1860 but calcified
I'm wondering what it means that they were calcified: I thought bones *were* calcified, like, by definition?
If he means they were already starting to visibly break up, then yeah, they were probably gone 130 years later.
Re: Alcmene and the vault
Re: Alcmene and the vault