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

Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[felis]

1. Tiny thing I got stuck on: Algarotti making a hole in the moon. selenak quotes the passage from 1755 in her Trier write-up, the bit where Fritz is quite on his own because d'Argens is in bed and Voltaire in Switzerland and, well, Algarotti made a hole in the moon. The German translation on the other hand says that Algarotti "secretly ran off". 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.

2. Fritz, writing from the war camp in Heidelberg on September 25th, 1734, with more cold to endure, but also with more dorkiness from him:
It's horribly cold here. One freezes [solid] inside the tents. Which is why I'll move into a palace I had build. [...] Gold and marble are missing entirely. Plain simplicity is its whole decoration. Mud replaces marble and straw slate. My tent is used for the wall covering and furniture covers for the roof. [...]
And three days later: ... yesterday Prince Eugen dined in my magic castle...

(Meanwhile, FW is getting sicker and sicker, and the way the siblings talk about this almost-death throughout was interesting. Fritz goes from not caring because I'm convinced that I won't have any good days while he's alive over We can't help but cry when we see him like this and I swear to you that I never thought I loved him this much. back to He's in a horrible mood, he hits, scratches, and abuses anyone who comes near him, and speaks badly about everyone except himself. [...] Sophie is now the favourite, but only because she's so different from her married sisters. Charlotte is in disgrace like the others. Wilhelmine seems more steadily ambiguous - I know he treated us like shit, but he's also our father and the one who gave us life, so one can't help but feel sad - but also very concerned that FW might harm Fritz because he's in such a bad mood.)

3. My note for this was "mocking as a coping method". Fritz, March 19th, 1734: The king's mood is unbearable, he hates me like sin, and the standing of the crown princess is almost gone. Despite this, I mock everything and am in good spirits. I don't distress myself and only pity the king for being unable to get over himself and show affection to his children.
(Wilhelmine's response: I feel you, I was totally in the same situation a year ago.)

4. Two details I didn't know: Wilhelmine met James Keith in August 1735 already, when the Russians moved through Bayreuth. And the fire in January 1753 was all new to me, too.

5. Fritz gets painted, March 10th, 1736: Pesne summons all his skill to create a good painting of me, as you ordered. I always ask him not to put so much emphasis on the facial features but to express my feelings towards you, so they'll always be present for you. Herr von Brandt [who is that?] is keeping me company and both of them are telling me about you to make me look more graceful than usual. "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."
The book includes a photo of the painting in question and when I went looking for a digital version, I at first thought, hey, what a difference a different photo can make and only by the third version did I realize that there were multiple copies made. The book has the first one as the original, no idea if that's true.

6. Right after that passage, Suhm mention: Little Suhm is my usual companion and La Chétardie the unusual one. We philosophize to our heart's content. In her reply, Wilhelmine calls Suhm little as well, "little Diablotin" in fact (is there any other source for that nickname, or a reason why it was given?), so I'd guess that he was rather short?

7. I realized that Fritz' illness, which he complains to Voltaire about in his physics experiment/fanfic letter, was likely the result of another really shitty time in Berlin at the beginning of 1739. Once he's back in Rheinsberg, he writes this to Wilhelmine: Finally I'm able to write to you from my peaceful solitude, without agitation, without fear, without pain. [...] If people were rational, as they should be, nobody would be foolish enough to distress themselves, especially once they know that they are being persecuted on purpose. But I think differently about human beings. We are easily susceptible to impressions all our lives and therefore far from the quietism of modern stoics. We couldn't be what we are without a plethora of passions that make us feel joy, sadness, love, hate, desire, disgust etc. These passionate emotions are so natural, even necessary, that a human being missing them would be a liveless stone. Therefore rationality is just a nice phrase of vanity. [...] 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.

8. I didn't know that Wilhelmine actually told Fritz what she'd also written in her memoirs: that she found him changed and not the brother she knew. You guys know all the verbatim stuff here of course, but I have to say, I'm almost impressed that they managed this kind of direct, air-clearing conversation. Here's a list of all the shit I'm angry about! Thanks for telling me, here's a list of all the reasons why you shouldn't be! And then the Fritzian, well, heart over head and all of this is annoying the heck out of me anyway, let's never talk about it again.

9. Another thing I didn't realize: that 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. Wilhelmine asks Fritz what the deal is and what she should do, Fritz tells her his side of the story and says It wouldn't be unwelcome if he came to Bayreuth; with your permission I'd send someone to get the key and the ordre pour le mérite back. No mention of the book, heh. Voltaire obviously thought better of that idea. (Or worse, given that his experience in Bayreuth might have been a lot better than in Frankfurt...)
Also, Wilhelmine's description of her meeting with him in 1754 amused me, for the obvious reason, but also because her "aww" reaction is one I had often enough while reading his letters and his poor Voltaire self-descriptions.

[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.]

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[mildred_of_midgard]

Aaahhh, I need to work on Yuletide before bed, but I just wanted to leave you with Diablotin and Diablotin.

More when I have time!

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[felis]

Oh, thank you for the link, I see you also concluded that he must have been rather short. And digging through some older entries, I also found this thread about the nickname, which makes perfect sense. I was kind of wondering if it was simply based on looks or on things FW might have said about him, but yeah, the Manteuffel connection is the most logical. Love that Fritz seems to have changed it once he got to know him better.
(Funny enough, googling told me that Diablotin was also the name of a French chocolate candy. :P)

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[selenak]

Well, no doubt Suhm was also sweet. :)

Speaking of heights, I just recalled we actually have a statement from Fritz re: EC's height, in his March 1732 letter to Wilhelmine describing her after their first few encounters, and what he says is:

The princess has a very pretty face, but deep set eyes and a very ugly mouth. She walks like a peasant and has a way of looking up from below like that of little Marschall*, an unpleasant laugh, moves like a duck, has bad teeth, is very badly dressed, fearful in conversation and almost always mute. That aside, she has a beautiful complexion, beautiful breasts, a beautiful figure in your size, pretty hands, blond hair, a good heart. She is not capricious but polite but always too much or too little, very modest, very badly educated and without the slightest savoir vivre. Given this portrait, dearest sister, you can guess that she is not to my taste at all and that I'm very angry about this marriage. One can predict that it will be a very bad marriage.

That often hurts me, but what you can't change has to be accepted. My consolation is that I have another one and a half years first. Everyone holds the picture drawn here for true; I can assure you it is impartial. I don't even respect her and I'm very afraid I never will.

Quite. This letter is not at Trier, I don't think (or rather not the uncensored version - I think Trier, which is to the the Preuss mid 19th century edition, has somewhat less detailed - no breasts!, more bland "do not want" statement), but it's both in the Volz edition of their correspondance and in "Solange wir zu zweit sind". Now, since I only know the letter in German (from Volz), I can't say what phrase Fritz uses originally in French, but in German he says "eine schöne Figur in deiner Größe", which can both mean EC and Wilhelmine have the same type of body shape, or it can mean they're the same height. In any case, Wilhelmine wasn't tall. Though she could have had a few centimetres on Fritz for all I know. In any case, he seems to list this as on of EC's few positive attributes, not a negative, and since he's so harsh about much of everything else, I don't think he's being coy.

*Volz thinks "little Marschall" is the daughter of future cabinet minister Samuel vn Marschall

Sophie is now the favourite, but only because she's so different from her married sisters.

My translation says "but only under the condition she's to be different than her married sisters" (since Sophie is not yet married but soon will be, to the ghastly Schwedt cousin; Wilhelmine's letter referencing the news hence uses "so poor Sophie is to be sacrificed" as a way to describe it.

Wilhelmine met James Keith in August 1735 already, when the Russians moved through Bayreuth.

*looks it up* You're right! That means she met him before Fritz did. And had a very positive impression of him, too.

Or worse, given that his experience in Bayreuth might have been a lot better than in Frankfurt...

One would hope Wilhelmine would have found a way to get that book back from him which didn't involve arresting him. Place your bets, though: would he have handed it over, if she asked nicely, or would at he very least a break-in have been necessary?

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[felis]

My translation says "but only under the condition she's to be different than her married sisters" (since Sophie is not yet married but soon will be

Oh, yes, okay. I read it differently because I forgot about the marriage happening only two weeks later, so out of context it came across as a present-day matter-of-fact condition, not a future one.

And you are right, the EC description isn't at Trier. (Which does however have a handkiss letter that isn't even in Volz? Pour ce qui s'agit du baisemain, je vous assure que je ne les lui ai pas baisées, ni ne les lui baiserai, car elles ne sont pas assez belles pour être appétissantes.) I really wish all the French originals were available to double-check things occasionally - there were a couple of lines where I wanted to look up the exact phrasing and found hardly any of the letters I was looking for. Except the moon one. :)

That means she met him before Fritz did. And had a very positive impression of him, too.

Ah, I thought so but wasn't completely sure. Nice little background detail for a later letter, too, where she's in Berlin and writes that Keith, Voltaire, and the Countess de Camas visited her.

Place your bets, though: would he have handed it over, if she asked nicely, or would at he very least a break-in have been necessary?

Hee, I could see arguments for both, what with Voltaire being put on the spot by someone he actually liked, but also having a talent for being weasely when necessary. Given that Fritz said he would sent someone to retrieve it, I'm also wondering who that might have been.

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[selenak]

I read it differently because I forgot about the marriage happening only two weeks later, so out of context it came across as a present-day matter-of-fact condition, not a future one.

I don't blame you, I do this often with quotes, too, but in this case I think context is key, because FW was always sentimental about his daughters around their weddings. (See Stratemann's description of him dancing with Wilhelmine at her wedding and then with all the other girls, despite his bad physical condition.)

Speaking of context, browsing through the "So lange wir zu zweit sind" edition suddenly made me realise that Stratemann's May 1730 report about FW being so considerate a husband to highly pregnant SD, reconciling with Wilhelmine, telling her to look after Heinrich etc.... that all of these family anecdotes reported by our Braunschweig envoy happen in the very same weeks - May 1730 - that Guy Dickens reports FW discovered that Fritz had written to Queen Caroline he'd only marry her daughter, which led to him losing it, going after Fritz with cane and fist and abusing him in public. Not a peep of any of this in Stratemann.

In conclusion: two different realities in reporting are nothing new in the world...

I could see arguments for both, what with Voltaire being put on the spot by someone he actually liked, but also having a talent for being weasely when necessary. Given that Fritz said he would sent someone to retrieve it, I'm also wondering who that might have been.

Not Fredersdorf, given Fredersdorf didn't go to Frankfurt, either, he just sent someone. But of course Frankfurt and Bayreuth are very different circumstances. Otoh you don't want to sent someone like Pöllnitz who'd be more likely to team up with Voltaire. So probably some nonedecript official.

I could see arguments for both, too, and of course it would depend on how badly Voltaire wants to keep those poems in order to embarass Fritz. But he did like Wilhelmine, and he might have thought it would be good to keep her in a friendly dispostion towards himself, not anger her by refusing to return the book. Especially if he still wanted her to hire people he recced for her court. Conversely, Wilhelmine wouldn't have made the mistake of arresting him and/or having Madame Denis menaced by thugs, as the overzealous Freytag in Frankfurt did.

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[mildred_of_midgard]

Per Carlyle (following Varnhagen von Ense), the sequence of events went like this:

April 11: Fredersdorf writes to Freytag to await Voltaire in Frankfurt, obtain the key, the ordre pour le mérite, and the book, and detain and arrest him if necessary.

May 31: Voltaire arrives.

June 1: Freytag has Voltaire's room searched. Voltaire says he doesn't know where the book is, somewhere in Leipzig or Hamburg, but not with him. He gives his word of honor to send for it and not to leave Frankfurt until it arrives and he hands it over.

June 18: Voltaire's luggage arrives, but Freytag's not clear on what exactly Fredersdorf wants him to look for. So he asks Voltaire to wait three days until he can get clarification from Potsdam.

June 20: Voltaire tries to blow town, is caught, this is when things get bad for him and Madame Denis.

July 7: After much kerfluffle, the trunk is obtained by Freytag, Voltaire leaves town.

I do feel like Wilhelmine could have handled this better. And since it's not clear to me that Voltaire refused to hand over the poems in the first place, it's quite possible that this would have been a non-issue.

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[mildred_of_midgard]

Shoot, I thought I had included that in the links. But yes, we think the diminutive is from his height, the "devil" from his predecessor Manteuffel, and that it changed with time--but caveat that this is all speculation.

My even more speculative explanation for "Diaphane" is supported by the description of Keyserlingk's appearance as "the sun breaking through the frosty winter fog." <3

(Funny enough, googling told me that Diablotin was also the name of a French chocolate candy. :P)

I agree with Selena: obviously there's a sweetness connection. ;)

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[mildred_of_midgard]

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.

Same!

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[felis]

Thanks! Also for the Algarotti background, :( indeed.

I think they stop mid-1730s, but I can't remember when.

1734, so one year too early.

What date is this?

Wilhelmine's letter to Fritz (not at Trier or in Volz) is from April 3rd, 1753, so Voltaire must have written pretty much immediately after arriving in Leipzig. He didn't write to her, though, but to Montperny - who I assume is the Marquis de Montperny who worked on the construction of the Eremitage (says wiki) - to inquire how he might be received. Montperny apparently showed the letter to Wilhelmine. (I checked the available Voltaire letters here, but it's not there.)

Re: Holes in the moon and magic castles, or: odds and ends in the Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence

[cahn]

I didn't know that Wilhelmine actually told Fritz what she'd also written in her memoirs: that she found him changed and not the brother she knew. You guys know all the verbatim stuff here of course, but I have to say, I'm almost impressed that they managed this kind of direct, air-clearing conversation.

I didn't realize this either! Wow, that seems... almost emotionally mature of them! :P

For the duration of a couple of Voltaire letters, I thought Fritz was calling his poems "worms" indeed, which would have been in character!

Ha! That is hilarious.