cahn | Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 20

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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!)

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From:

selenak

Do we have an example of anyone who liked Catt?

Fritz, evidently. :) I think Thiebault is also sympathetic (though can't resist adding that he's got a better voice than Catt for reading, and of course notes that Heinrich didn't like him). Lehndorff I seem to recall is Catt neutral, i.e. when he hears about Catt's appointment as Prades' successor, he notes down the story of how Catt met Fritz (i.e. it must have been making the rounds in Berlin/Magdeburg already in 1758, despite Catt being at the front), and in it refers to him as a modest, well educated young man, but that's before he meets him. When he meets him post war, it's just "and then I met the King's reader, Henri de Catt", without saying much of anything else about him.

Wait! Zimmermann praises him.(And has heard the VERY VERY SECRET story of Fritz' suicide pills box from him, which only Catt knows, etc.)

He is so cute!

Agreed. By which I mean, I can't help being charmed by Boswell whenever I read one of his journals. And understand why a great many people very different from each other and him were, such as atheist philosopher David Hume, who memorably described him as "a friend of mine, a young gentleman very good-humoured, very agreeable, and very mad". But you can also understand why Burnet wrote to Mitchell that Boswell must not be allowed to meet Fritz. As a reminder, the quote goes: He [Boswell] teases me to get him presented to [the King of Prussia] but I find he makes such absurd Distinctions between Englishmen and Scotchmen (...) that I am certain something very ridiculous would happen on that Occasion. He has told me he must be presented as a Scotchman."

For a James Boswell fanvid, see here.

Edited Date: 2020-10-26 06:39 am (UTC)

From:

felis

a friend of mine, a young gentleman very good-humoured, very agreeable, and very mad

:D

I don't know if you know Keith's description of him, in a letter to Rousseau from January 18th, 1765?

Boswell is a man of some position, but full of hypochondriacal and visionary ideas; he has often seen ghosts. I hope he will not fall into the hands of people who will quite turn his head. He was very pleased with the reception you gave him.

(Source, which is the book I mentioned above. It's a direct quote from his letter, therefore hopefully reliable, unlike the narration, which omits the whole journey and simply says that Boswell - the son of his old friend, the Judge, Lord Auchinleck [...], now twenty-four, clever, gay young will-of-the-wisp, [...] despatched by his father to go through a course of two years' study at the Universities of Utrecht and Leyden; but he had broken loose, and was now starting on the "grand tour" in Europe (here) - came to visit in July 1764. And that both Rousseau and Voltaire received Boswell for Milord's sake, which, huh? This book has some protagonist bias.)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

When he meets him post war, it's just "and then I met the King's reader, Henri de Catt", without saying much of anything else about him.

Which would be totally consistent with "dry" and "insipid"!

I think Thiebault is also sympathetic

I don't remember, but he's on my list for when I get to French. But this is what you said when we discovered his original (unabridged, unrewritten) memoirs:

Quite. It also, in combination with his diss of Catt's voice, makes me wonder whether it wasn't actually Heinrich so much who disliked Catt but Thièbault, for competitive reasons? Because Heinrich is dead when Thièbault is writing this, and so is Catt, so it's not like either of them could comment on this, and it makes Thièbault look better if he says he was cool with Catt of the bad voice, totally not envious, it was the Prince who had something against him.

But this is all speculation; maybe his sympathy was genuine (except for the snark about his voice).

Wait! Zimmermann praises him.(And has heard the VERY VERY SECRET story of Fritz' suicide pills box from him, which only Catt knows, etc.)

So Zimmermann as a character witness just reinforces my opinion of Catt... ;)

From:

cahn

When [Lehndorff] meets him post war, it's just "and then I met the King's reader, Henri de Catt", without saying much of anything else about him.

Heh. But surely if he were at all interesting Lehndorff would say something about him!

Wait! Zimmermann praises him.(And has heard the VERY VERY SECRET story of Fritz' suicide pills box from him, which only Catt knows, etc.)

LOL! I must admit I am side-eyeing this a little :P

But you can also understand why Burnet wrote to Mitchell that Boswell must not be allowed to meet Fritz.

ahahahaha yes.

That fanvid was a great intro to him! Clearly a labor of love <3

From:

mildred_of_midgard

LOL! I must admit I am side-eyeing this a little :P

Side-eye it a lot! We know that lots of people (like Kalckreuth) knew Fritz talked about poisoning himself, even if they presumably hadn't seen the box.

Remember this?

The King had told Prince Heinrich repeatedly that he'd poison himself if the news arrived that the Duke of Bevern was forced to cross the Oder. (...) Returning to the camp I met Cocceji, the AD to Field Marshal Keith, my great friend. I told him the news, and added: "So, how fares Mr. Poison?" Cocceji replied, laughing: "He lost his recipe."