cahn | Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 21

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From:

felis

Ahaha, I thought about answering with this, too. :D

Additionally, I wondered if Fritz' line might be a very veiled Voltaire reference, because in the "are the talents of the mind not preferable?" letter to Duhan from 1736, I left out that Fritz changed a couple of verses of the Henriade to express a similar sentiment (minus the self-complimentary exaggeration):

I owe you everything, master, I must admit it;
And if for a little virtue Europe praises me,
It's to you, dear Duhan, to you that I owe it, etc.

(Henriade: I owe him everything, madame, I must admit it:
And if for a little virtue Europe praises me,
If Rome has even often esteemed my exploits,
It is to you, illustrious shadow, to you that I owe it.)

--
The way the opinionated (and intensely Fritz fannish) German translator keeps arguing with the French editor he's translating via footnote is indeed hilarious

Right? They are both quite opinionated really, which makes it fun.

Editor: Introduction*
*Translator: Here I'm sparing you some comments on vanity and the transigence of glory which have nothing to do with anything.

Editor, second sentence of the introduction: In this book you'll see an example of the king's orginal character before his correspondence with Voltaire and d'Alembert changed him irrevocably!*
*Translator: Totally disagree, d'Alembert only became a thing after the 7 Years War, can be disregarded, and Voltaire only changed the king's literary taste and character.

Also, the rumours: There seems to have been one going around that Seckendorff helped get Hanau (the secret library librarian) out of exile after only a few months? I don't know anything about this, but:
Editor: This totally shows that Seckendorff did his utmost to help the Crown Prince's cause!*
*Translator: I think this was only a rumour, Friedrich himself wrote that Seckendorff caused lots of trouble for him!
Editor: It is therefore quite strange that the King wrote about Seckendorff as he did.*
*Translator: It's even stranger that the editor feels the need to accuse the king of ungratefulness. Total bullshit.

Finally, I couldn't help but smile at this quote from the editor: The way the King called for Duhan right after he ascended the throne is incomparable.
Algarotti in retrospect: Weeell....

From:

selenak

Seckendorff's biographer completely agrees with the editor (and then some, what with "the so-called Philosopher of Sanssouci" phrase - which reminds me of "die sogenannte DDR" as our worst rag, the Bildzeitung, used to all the GDR), and thinks Fritz was an ungrateful lying wretch when it came to Seckendorff.

Seckendorff himself, while imprisoned by Fritz in Magdeburg, to Lehndorff: "As for him calling me an ursurer" - which Fritz did in the Histoire de la Maison de Brandenburg - "I haven't been one to him, as I never saw anything of the XXXXX Taler I gave him again".

My own take: Seckendorff, once he'd decided FW would not actually execute Fritz, did push for reconciliation and was indeed ready and willing to donate Austrian money to both Fritz and Wilhelmine, all as an investment into the future, of course. Fritz and Wilhelmine were ready to accept this money without ever intending to do something for the Austrians in return; as Seckendorff and Grumbkow previously had done a lot to widen the rift between FW and SD, and as a consequence between FW and them, I doubt they felt as much as a flicker of gratitude. The Fritz-worshipping crowd near the end of 18th Century, otoh, would never have believed their heroic Prussian hero would ever have accepted money from two men he despised (Seckendorff and Grumbkow), even if he didn't intend to do something for it. Not the stalwart fighter against corruption!

So you have in the 1790s Fritz fans who not only utterly believe Fritz when it comes to Seckendorff in general but blame the Küstrin fiasco almost entirely on him and declare it was all an attempt to force heroic Protestant Fritz to marry Catholic MT (or her sister), since no one has access to the letters between Seckendorff and Prince Eugene, or Grumbkow and Fritz, which make it very clear this was Fritz' idea and that the Austrians, far from being enthused at the prospect, went all "yeah, no!" Zimmermann is the sole early Fritzologue who proposes the idea Fritz might have wanted to marry MT, but of course he goes over the top with it and has this adventurous spin where Fritz doesn't intend to flee to England or France at all but to Austria to marry MT, and this, quoth Zimmermann, is why Seckendorff and the Emperor pleaded for mercy later with FW.

Another outlier is the Seckendorff biographer, who doesn't appear ot have had access to the Austrian state archives with the Eugene letters, either, but who champions Seckendorff the misunderstood hero in general.

In other news, kudos to you for the Henriade catch. I'm reminded of the biographer who points out that with the start of the 7 Years War, Fritz changes his usual goodbye to a direct Henri IV quote from the Henriade - which implicitly casts all his opponents as the bigotted League and himself as the most popular of French monarchs - and I think one can never go wrong assuming he had Voltaire on the brain in some fashion if he's older than 16...

From:

felis

Ah, yes, the ~~beginnings of the Mafia AU~~ money thing. I recently came across the 1732 letter exchange that seems to have started it and was very amused, both by the way Seckendorff writes - "well, since I'm very invested in a good relationship between you and your father, we don't want him to find out about the new debt, do we? here's a detailed instruction on how to receive and spend the money. please destroy this letter and sent me proof" - and by the fact that Fritz apparently didn't destroy it and debuted (?) his 'secret code' of 'books' and 'poems' in his reply.

re: The Henriade catch, just to be clear, it was mentioned in a footnote on the letter, I just applied it to the eulogy.

From:

cahn

ahahahah I am totally loving the editor/translator wars (though I guess I can't call it that when the translator always gets the last word?)

Finally, I couldn't help but smile at this quote from the editor: The way the King called for Duhan right after he ascended the throne is incomparable.
Algarotti in retrospect: Weeell....

HEE!