Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 21
Nov. 13th, 2020 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnMuch slower because of world-events/Life-in-general/Yuletide/holidays, but still going!
End of Yuletide signups:
4 requests for Frederician RPF :D :D 2 offers
2 requests for Circle of Voltaire RPF, 2 offers (I hope we did not scare you off, third offer!)
End of Yuletide signups:
4 requests for Frederician RPF :D :D 2 offers
2 requests for Circle of Voltaire RPF, 2 offers (I hope we did not scare you off, third offer!)
Versailles
Date: 2020-11-14 09:40 am (UTC)Water fountains as the big challenge to engineers: okay, this made me look up Herrenchiemsee, aka the palace Bavarian King Ludwig II. (yes, the one from Neuschwanstein, the Wagner fanboy) built in late imitation of Versailles. Turns out the waterworks were practically the only thing about it finished and working when he died. But given Herrenchiemsee is build on an island in the middle of the largest Bavarian lake - large as in nearly as large as American lakes - , the water supply was no problem!
Louis the patient, wry-humored in the endearing anecdotes: I think that's one reason why Louis XIV.' working schedule worked for Louis, and for none of his successors. He was a despot, but for all his love of opulence a hard-working one, and one able to submit himself to the micromanagement of his time and the incredible amount of etiquette he himself had created instead of freaking out and venting the pressure by making life hell for those serving him, or not working at all and making someone else do it.
Early Education
Date: 2020-11-14 10:07 am (UTC)Quite. It's telling of how little FW knew whom he was married to that the possibility that he and his wife might want different things from their children never occured to him. In fairness, now that I've read up on the simultanous Hannover family dysfunction: cousin G2 who was Hervey observes was quite similar to FW in many ways had a Queen who while presumably no more in love with her husband than SD was made it her policy to knock herself out to please him and change his mind via persuasion and manipulation, and she always presented a united front with the kids. Interestingly, FW's own mother, otoh, did clash with her husband's advisors early on, just like SD would later, but F1 didn't have the temperament for marital warfare, and ended up choosing her over the advisors.
funny enough, this whole part was then followed by a provision stating that if Fritz was disobedient, they (= Finkenstein and Kalkstein) should always threaten him with the Queen's reaction, never with FW's ("müssen sie Ihn mit [der Königin] alle Zeit schrecken, mit Mir aber niemahlen").
I think what it comes down to is that what only child of his parents FW didn't understand that different children have different reactions, and also that if you want to play good cop, bad cop, with you as the good cop, you can't simultanously want to be thought of as the highest authority. I mean, a lot of fathers in biographies I've read pulled off the later smoothly, wether or not they intended it, by being the fun parent, with the others being stuck with the thankless role of disclipline-giving parent. This usually came with the fathers being absent a lot, though. FW, by contrast, made himself ever present in Fritz' life.
But seriously, the earlier point is key, imo. FW assumed Fritz would be just like him. He had hated having to learn Latin, Greek and Roman history, dancing etc. - let's not forget his mother's biography informed me Tiny Terror FW danced ballet in in public to his grandmother's delight! -, so he thought he'd spare his son(s) this and that they'd be happy about it and grateful, as he himself would have been. And when Fritz wasn't and loved just what FW had hated as a kid, it confused and hurt him, he started to feel rejected and responded badly, thereby starting a vicious circle. Whereas little AW responded positively to not having to learn Latin etc. and loved playing with guns and fireworks, so FW felt accepted and loved and started a positive cycle of affectionate reinforcement. (That AW actually didn't turn out like him at all, either, neither in temper nor inclinations, is another matter; he was able to blind himself about their very different attitudes to sex, for starters, by never finding out about them in his life time. And within FW's lifetime, all the kids still prayed, visited services and were careful not to show any scepticism, of course.)
I'm with Mildred: bring on the quotes! None of us has read it so far.
Re: Versailles
Date: 2020-11-14 03:43 pm (UTC)Indeed! Also, Ludwig lived in the second half of the 19th century, which is when engineers finally developed the technology to get the fountain at Sanssouci working. So he had a number of advantages over Louis and Fritz. I also wonder about the elevation of his gardens relative to his abundant water supply--that was a problem both at Versailles and Sanssouci.
Louis: But Louis the chill of those anecdotes was Louis XV. The author goes on to give illustrations of Louis XIV reprimanding his courtiers for lack of etiquette, including one guy (a prince de Turenne, evidently this one, not the famous one) being banished after a series of repeat offenses culminated in him accidentally hitting Louis in the face with the fringe of his glove, because he hadn't removed his gloves before handing the King his shirt. No citation given, though, unlike the Louis XV anecdotes. The author also doesn't say whether these two sets of anecdotes were representative of how the respective monarchs handled etiquette violations.
Re: Early Education
Date: 2020-11-14 03:51 pm (UTC)Yep, this is what I mean by "not understanding child psychology, not even a little bit." "Good cop/bad cop" is all very well, but you can't play good cop by acting like a bad cop, if you terrorize your children they will be terrified, and also children have different personalities!
Agree with you, as you know, about how the dynamics came into being, and the vicious cycle vs. virtuous cycle.
Re: Early Education
Date: 2020-11-14 07:37 pm (UTC)Hee, did not know the ballet detail, but otherwise, yes, and in the same vein, I also noted the instruction that morals should always be taught through examples and short maxims, because this "won't cause disgust or frustration, unlike extensive systems of ethics and morality". Which tells you something about the way FW liked to learn things and about his assumptions regarding the way Fritz' mind would and should work.
Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-14 09:23 pm (UTC)Ha, I knew there was a double of Algarotti's summons, but didn't remember it was Duhan. Also, I did a slight mental double-take at "in-laws" because I'd been thinking of it as "with his sister", since he repeatedly mentions her in the letters and took advantage of her visits to get them to Duhan safely. But either way, he seems to have been on good terms with the duke as well (not so much with the duchess). No idea how exactly he accomplished Duhan's change of living conditions, though, and who helped him with that, because going by his pre-1740 letters, it seems to have been quite risky to even write to him (see below).
In parallel with the French originals at Trier, I've been checking out this German edition of their correspondence from 1791, which itself is a translation of an earlier French edition. [With the result that the German translator writes opinionated footnotes about the French editor's strange opinions on Fritz.] Both Trier and this edition have the same 25 letters from Fritz (some of them rather short) and 2 letters from Duhan, so it's not very extensive. (The state archive seems to have two or three more from Duhan, but all from 1745, which makes me wonder if his pre-1740 letters might have been destroyed by Fritz for safety reasons. The book edition also includes the two versions of Duhan's eulogy, one written by Formey (I assume? if he was writing academy eulogies in 1745 already) and one by Fritz himself.)
The correspondence starts with an endearing one-liner you probably know, 15-year-old!Fritz's letter from 1727, when his education was deemed finished and they had to part ways: I promise you that, when I have my own money in hand, I will give you two thousand four hundred ecus annually, and I will always love you a little more than at this hour, if this is possible. [Signed "Frideric Pr.R. (L.S.)" and I have no idea what the L.S. stands for...]
After that, the letters are basically split in two halves, pre- and post-1740, with the post ones all written when Fritz was away during wartime, and mostly in 1745. As with other people, there's a tonal change, and particularly the 1745 letters are clingy "write me more often!" ones, so much so that I was a bit surprised, until Fritz mentioned that Jordan and Keyserlingk had just died, and I remembered that he was also on the outs with Wilhelmine and Voltaire during that time.
The 1730s letters are very affectionate, with lots of promises to do more for Duhan once he's able to, full of encouragement (it sounds like Duhan was struggling a bit in exile, possibly with depression), but also occasionally quite cryptic when referencing past events. Case in point, the marble quote in context, July 15th, 1733, because I have to admit, without Mildred's comment, I would not necessarily have made that connection:
It was not for want of will but of opportunity that I could not assure you, my dear, of my constant friendship. I purposely pass by the times when fate persecuted us both equally, and I believe that in these kinds of cases one must think of a happy future, and forget all that was disastrous and unfortunate in the past. However, my dear friend, I can assure you that your misfortunes have affected me more than my own; and since you know that when I am a friend, I am so truly, you can judge what I have suffered on your behalf. But let us break away from a matter as odious as it is distressing, and return to the present. You know my situation has changed a lot to my advantage; but you do not know, perhaps, that one cuts very deeply into marble, and that it always remains. I don't need to tell you more, because from there you can roughly understand the state of what concerns us. As far as I'm concerned, you can count on my esteem, my friendship, and my assistance. I still have the feelings towards you that I had of old. I hope that a time will come that will open up opportunities for me to prove this to you.
[...]
Attach yourself to the bearer of this letter, who is my very faithful friend.
No footnote telling me who the faithful friend was, unfortunately. But it shows that the letter writing had to happen secretly, which keeps being the case, so Charlotte becomes a go-between:
March 19th, 1734, written in Berlin: You know the risk you run when you can only do things while trembling. This is why I have only been able to answer you now, having a good opportunity through my sister. She will tell you everything I think about you. I am still the same, but similar to a mirror, which is obliged to mirror all the objects in front of it. I mean to say, not daring to be what nature made it, it is unfortunately subjected to the sad need to conform to the bizareness of the objects that present themselves --- --- I say too much, and I would say even more when speaking to a faithful friend, if I did not remember the principle of the wise man, who wants a seal to be put on his tongue. Farewell, my dear, until the time when I can see you again and speak to you without fear and without anxiety, and when I will reiterate to you the assurance of my perfect esteem, and how I am all yours.
October 2nd, 1736, he has things to say about Duhan vs. FW: Unless I have such sure opportunities as this, I don't dare to write to you. I hope you know me well enough not to suspect me of superficiality, nor to believe me capable of forgetting the gratitude I owe to a man of honor and integrity, who has employed all the wisdom of his mind to raise and educate me. I constantly remember the illustrious testimony that Alexander the Great gave to his teacher, in declaring that he was, in a certain sense, more indebted to him than to his father himself. I recognize myself as much inferior to this great prince, but I do not think it unworthy to imitate his good traits. So allow me, my dear Duhan, to tell you the same thing. My father only gave me life; are the talents of the mind not preferable?
[...]
I confess that I would very much like to see you again; but, knowing too well the disposition of minds, I can't flatter myself to have this satisfaction any time soon. When one indulges blindly in one's prejudices, and without examining things thoroughly, one is often prone to be seriously mistaken; hence most of the mistakes that men make. This is why it would be hoped that Father Malebranche's treatise 'The Search after Truth' was better known and read. Blood ties impose silence on me on a subject where I could explain myself more clearly, and where the subtle distinction between hating a bad deed and loving the one who commits it might vanish. These are the occasions when respect commands us to give bad things a twist that makes them less odious, and when charity wants us to paint the faults of the fellow man in the best colors we can.
March 13th, 1737 - Duhan's father has died and Fritz writes a condolence letter...
It is certain that the most severe tests, which we are obliged to pass in this world, are when we lose people forever who are dear to us. Constancy, steadfastness, and reason seem little help to us in these sad circumstances, and we only listen to our pain in these moments. I feel sorry for you with all my heart, seeing you in such a situation. [...] What is more common than being born and dying? However, we are always astonished at death, as if it were something foreign to us, and uncommon.
Console yourself, my dear Duhan, as best you can. Consider that there is a necessity which determines all events, and that it is impossible to fight what is resolved. We only make ourselves unhappy, without changing anything in our condition, and we spread bitterness over the happiest days of our life, the brevity of which should invite us not to grieve so much with unhappiness.
There is nothing more flattering to me than the confidence you show in me and the recourse you want to have in me. [...] How happy I would be if I could lessen your pain and find a proper balm to heal the wound this sorrow caused you! If my friendship can be of any help to you, please count on it and make use of the feelings I have for you.
We are about fifteen friends, retired here, who taste the pleasures of friendship and the sweetness of rest. It seems to me that I would be perfectly happy if you could come and join us in our solitude. We know no violent passions, and we only apply ourselves to making use of life. [...]
June 22nd, 1737, Fritz and his eternal enemy: ingratitude ;) - Ingratitude is a vice to which I feel an aversion of temperament, and I dare say, without hurting the laws of modesty, that gratitude has always been my favorite virtue.
May a happy fate join us, after a certain action [i.e. FW's death] has passed! I'm in your debt, and I'm dying to pay it off.
October 9th has the poem dedicated to Duhan, in which Fritz praises him as a mentor and as someone he should have listened to earlier instead of seeking pleasures in his youth, and then calls him his "seul père":
I owe you more, finally, than the author of my days:
He gave me life in his young love;
But he who teaches me, whose reason enlightens me,
He is my nurturer, and my only father.
February 10th, 1738, still secret letters, plus improving himself:
I neither could nor dared to answer your penultimate letter. All I can say about it is that the verses are charming, that they breathe freedom, playfulness and grace. If you write more, don't be stingy; send some fragments to me; but use my sister's intermediary, and do not risk any letter by post.
I am buried among books more than ever. I run after the time that I wasted so thoughtlessly in my youth, and I amass, as much as I can, a store of knowledge and truth. You will not condemn, I hope, the pains I am giving myself; they are a result of the knowledge that I have of myself. We must make up for all the faults of nature; we must take art for help, and draw even from the most remote antiquity to rectify what we find faulty in ourself.
The 1740 summons was quoted already, so let's skip to March 18th, 1744, from Breslau, Fritz keeps making good on his debts and his gratitude: You ask me what is your job as director of the Liegnitz Academy. It is to calmly draw your pension, to love me, and to enjoy yourself. These are duties which I hope you will not deny yourself, and which will be all the less painful to you as they are all that is required of you. Live happily in Berlin, dear Duhan, and enjoy, in age, the advantages owed to your merits, which fate denied you in your youth.
An example of the aforementioned 1745 letters, from Neisse: He starts with a poem lamenting Jordan and then says: I make no reparation to you, for you do not deserve it; and I will call you ungrateful, fickle and treacherous, until the moment when I will enjoy your pleasant company more often, and when I will see that, living in the same city, you will not live as if you were separated by a hundred miles from me. Jordan did not do so, and the friendship he had for me was sociable and bonding. I saw him every day, and when he was not sick, we lived together constantly.
Farewell, my dear Duhan; correct yourself, and become less sedentary.
September 24th, 1745, grieving Fritz: Think how unfortunate I am to have lost, almost at the same time, my poor Jordan and my dear Keyserlingk. They were my family, and I think I am now a widower, an orphan, and in a mourning of heart more dismal and more serious than that of black clothes.
[...]
Keep your health, and think that you are now almost the only old friend of mine I have left; and, if it doesn't ruin you on ink and paper, write to me more often. I will beg you again to be willing to accept errands for books and such things which I need sometimes. I believe my friends think like me, so I never dream of being able to bother them.
On the topic of errands, immediately after Soor - I'm completely plundered - he sends Duhan a list of the books he lost and asks him to send replacements, mostly from Jordan's library, which makes him cry over them in the next letter.
Nov 22nd, 1745, the first of the two available Duhan letters shows how religious he was, which kind of surprised me tbh (although it's kind of hard to judge tone when there are only two very short letters to go by):
Believing Your Majesty to be on the eve of some battle, I confess to him that I do not have enough peace of mind to write to him philosophically, as he had ordered me. My whole philosophy now consists in praying to God to lead YM, to protect him from any accident, and to grant him such advantages over his enemies, that they are obliged to ask him for peace. I am convinced, Sire, that YM implores with all his soul the assistance of his Creator, that he begs him to forgive the errors into which he may have fallen, and that, in a firm resolution to cling to him, YM will give his orders with his usual intrepidity, and will expect everything from heaven's blessing.
Forgive me, Sire, for the brevity of this letter. I will write to you as a philosopher when you are victorious; now I can only speak as a Christian [...]
The second one, Nov 30th, contains a couple of thoughts on glory and virtue, but [...] I will admit to him that I find it difficult to speak alone of morality while the world speaks only of your exploits; and further, would it be possible that YM was thinking of philosophy while taking on the Austrians?
Fritz' last letter is a response to that from December 7th, in which he ruminates on the topic Duhan mentioned:
[...] You are so laconic, my dear Duhan, in your morals, that you only indicate sentences on which the ignorant and I can write commentaries. [...] Among men of merit, the first are, without a doubt, those who do good for the love of good itself, who follow virtue and justice out of sentiment, and whose actions in life are the most consistent; and those of a lower order do great deeds out of vanity. Their virtue is less certain than that of the former: but, however impure this source may be, if the public good results from it, they can be granted a place among great men. Cato was of this first order, Cicero, of the second; so we see that the soul of the stoic is infinitely superior to the soul of the academician.
But I do not know why I amuse myself with giving you a great moral sermon, you, to whom I should only speak of the esteem which your virtue inspires in me, always equal and always certain. I hope to assure you of this soon myself, when, once heaven allows me to end the horrors of war, I may, in the bosom of my homeland and my family, enjoy the sweetness of company with my friends, and give the sciences the moments that I do not owe to the state.
Farewell, dear Duhan: be sure that I love you with all my heart.
And then Duhan died not even a month later. :(
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 01:09 am (UTC)going by his pre-1740 letters, it seems to have been quite risky to even write to him (see below).
Wow, yeah! I knew Duhan was in trouble, but I had no idea it was this difficult to write to him.
which makes me wonder if his pre-1740 letters might have been destroyed by Fritz for safety reasons.
Entirely possible.
The book edition also includes the two versions of Duhan's eulogy, one written by Formey (I assume? if he was writing academy eulogies in 1745 already)
Indeed, yes, and it's in the same volume in our library as the Peter Keith one. In fact, Formey refers to the Duhan eulogy in his Keith eulogy, saying that he got caught up in the same events of 1730 as those already mentioned (extremely allusively!) in the "Du Han" (Formey's spelling) eulogy.
The correspondence starts with an endearing one-liner you probably know, 15-year-old!Fritz's letter from 1727
I do, and mainly I remember it because one biographer gives him a hard time about talking money with Duhan, and I'm extremely indignant, because Fritz is talking about how he wants to give Duhan money! Surely he should be praised.
[Signed "Frideric Pr.R. (L.S.)" and I have no idea what the L.S. stands for...]
Googling suggests maybe "locus sigilli": place for the seal.
particularly the 1745 letters are clingy "write me more often!" ones, so much so that I was a bit surprised, until Fritz mentioned that Jordan and Keyserlingk had just died, and I remembered that he was also on the outs with Wilhelmine and Voltaire during that time.
Yep. I found the "widower (that again!) and orphan" bit, which I had seen quoted elsewhere, very touching.
The 1730s letters are very affectionate, with lots of promises to do more for Duhan once he's able to, full of encouragement (it sounds like Duhan was struggling a bit in exile, possibly with depression)
:/
Case in point, the marble quote in context, July 15th, 1733, because I have to admit, without Mildred's comment, I would not necessarily have made that connection:
Yeah, I wouldn't have either, or at least it wouldn't have been obvious. I'm following MacDonogh's interpretation, which seems reasonable to me. Especially in light of that mirror quote, which I've seen not only in MacDonogh but also elsewhere. :/
MacDonogh's exact translation: 'You know that my situation has greatly improved, but what you possibly don’t realise is that they have cut deeply into the marble, and that stays for ever.'
My father only gave me life; are the talents of the mind not preferable?
I owe you more, finally, than the author of my days:
He gave me life in his young love;
But he who teaches me, whose reason enlightens me,
He is my nurturer, and my only father.
WOW. This is so great! I always wondered how Fritz felt at this age about having a surrogate father, and I'm pleased to find he was favorably disposed toward the idea. (This is relevant for my fix-it fic WIP, where not only does Duhan show up in French exile, but Fritz ultimately gets adopted by French Comte Rottembourg.)
Duhan's father has died and Fritz writes a condolence letter...
Aww, good job with the condolence letter, Fritz. I think Fritz writes the best condolence letters when he had no emotional involvement with the person who died. When he does...watch out.
Ingratitude is a vice to which I feel an aversion of temperament
Austrians: *start coughing madly*
October 9th has the poem dedicated to Duhan, in which Fritz praises him as a mentor and as someone he should have listened to earlier instead of seeking pleasures in his youth
Ooh, interesting. Because Wilhelmine, in her memoirs, says that once Duhan left, Fritz started leading a dissipated life, which wouldn't have happened if Duhan was there. I was wondering to what extent she was struggling to come to terms with the fact that Fritz was growing up and away from her
and had boyfriends now, but considering this is also the time of the Dresden trip, and Fritz was a teenage boy living in a very repressive environment, the lure of the forbidden may have been strong.I still headcanon that Fritz did some experimenting when he was a teenager, discovered that he wasn't really into women sexually, and eventually that even with men, sex was overrated. But who knows.
when I will see that, living in the same city, you will not live as if you were separated by a hundred miles from me.
Fritz continues to have zero chill when he feels neglected. Also, this reminds me oddly of the letter in 1746 to Heinrich about living in the same house/palace as him and managing to avoid him with astonishing success.
Nov 22nd, 1745, the first of the two available Duhan letters shows how religious he was, which kind of surprised me tbh (although it's kind of hard to judge tone when there are only two very short letters to go by):
Doesn't actually surprise me; a number of Fritz's friends were, and let's not forget Duhan was appointed by FW who thought he would be a good role model. Also, he's a few weeks from dying (January 3, 1746, per Wikipedia), and I notice Suhm and Fritz's discourse gets more religious whenever Suhm thinks he's about to die.
And then Duhan died not even a month later. :(
:(
MacDonogh tells me not only Fritz but his younger brothers got to see Duhan one last time before he died, immediately after they returned to Berlin from the Second Silesian War on December 28, 1745 (peace was made in the Treaty of Dresden on December 25, 1745):
Frederick, with all three of his brothers, rode straight round to Duhan’s house. 'It was a noble sight, to see a dying man surrounded by princes, and by a triumphant monarch, who in the midst of the incessant clamour of exultation, sought only to alleviate the sick man’s pains.' Frederick was indeed touchingly fond of the man who, despite the most fervent opposition imaginable, had first incited his love of art, poetry and philosophy. Duhan died the next day and Frederick agreed to look after his old teacher’s family. His sister was given a pension, married a French nobleman, and lived next door to Princess Amalia on the Linden.
Re: Early Education
Date: 2020-11-15 01:13 am (UTC)Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 07:35 am (UTC)Charlotte smuggling Fritz/Duhan letters: this is fascinating, since Charlotte has as good a claim as any of the daughters to being FW's favourite. It varied, but Charlotte always bounced back to the No.1 spot. I've seen several biographers declare one reason for this is that Charlotte had the best sense of humor in the family and thus was able to take, say, his "another girl? We should drown them like kittens" type of statements as jokes, even reporting the arrival of her daughter Anna Amalie in the same manner. (Which Anna Amalie somehow found out later and did not take as a joke. Since she went on to become the Duchess of Weimar, the mother of Carl August and Goethe's patroness, her decision to raise her kid exactly NOT like her mother (and her mother's parents) had done was to have far reaching consequences.) While Charlotte's status as family clown is something Fritz mentions favourably now and then - as in the Mantteuffel/Seckendorff report in the mid 1730s (on the same occasion, he does say Charlotte's husband is his favourite brother-in-law, so much for you, BayreuthFriedrich) - I can't help but recall that the most prominent joke of hers we know, from Wilhelmine's memoirs, is that malicious crack about EC during the infamous 1732/1733 holidays, made in a context designed to gain SD's approval. So my impression was that Charlotte was one for playing it safe, punching downwards and submitting upwards. Which is why I'm intrigued she played courier for Fritz and Duhan. Of course, the personal risk for her isn't that great - she's not financially dependent on FW the way Wilhelmine still is, Braunschweig is a duchy with blood ties to the Habsburgs as well as the Hohenzollern, so if FW finds out, he's not able to harm her or her husband as a consequence - and since Fritz will be the next King, it could be a way to cement her standing with him.
the 1745 letters are clingy "write me more often!" ones, so much so that I was a bit surprised, until Fritz mentioned that Jordan and Keyserlingk had just died, and I remembered that he was also on the outs with Wilhelmine and Voltaire during that time.
Good point. I mean, he still had SD as a source of parental love and admiration, but while he undoubtedly loved her, I never had the impression he confided in her, either before or after ascending to the throne.
All the "you're my true father" insistence is fascinating. And maybe one reason why FW was so much harder on Duhan than on Finkenstein et al. He wasn't one to suffer competition lightly, anymore than his son would be. But he who teaches me, whose reason enlightens me,/He is my nurturer, and my only father. also almost literally matches something Voltaire's biographer Orieux when discussing Voltaire's 1746 (!) praise of his (Jesuit) school teachers: His father never had a right to such a proof of his gratitude - his true fathers were those who nourished his mind; the other - or others, since he declared three candidates for his biological father - not worth talking about!
(The phrasing is almost identical, but it's Orieux' phrasing, not Voltaire's. Orieux, by his bibliography, didn't even read a single Fritz biography - it's always "Frederic and Louis XV", "Frederic and Voltaire" etc. by French authors -, so I bet he wasn't familiar with Fritz' letter to Duhan. Must be coincidence, then.)
Fritz being plundered at Soor: Now I'm curious: Austrian Trenck mentions the war chest, Eichel, the clothing and the dogs, but I don't think he mentions the books, though I have to look it up again to be sure. In any event, given that Eichel & Biche were returned, how come the books weren't?
Duhan sounds like a kind, good man, and Fritz was lucky to have him.
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 07:51 am (UTC)Austrians: *start coughing madly*
Peter Keith: feels a constricted throat coming up.
Doris Ritter: bursts into tears
Ooh, interesting. Because Wilhelmine, in her memoirs, says that once Duhan left, Fritz started leading a dissipated life, which wouldn't have happened if Duhan was there. I was wondering to what extent she was struggling to come to terms with the fact that Fritz was growing up and away from her
and had boyfriends now, but considering this is also the time of the Dresden trip, and Fritz was a teenage boy living in a very repressive environment, the lure of the forbidden may have been strong.It would also mean those "he debauched himself in his youth, picked up STDS and now is impotent" rumors Boswell gets told about in 1764 have at least the "wild youth" part with a bit of a foundation in truth. Mind you, a) we're talking about two years, right? (1728 - 1730), and b) which prince (FW always excepted, and also future Louis XVI, husband of Marie Antoinette) of the 18th century isn't reported to have had a lot of sex in his late teens/early 20s?
Fritz continues to have zero chill when he feels neglected. Also, this reminds me oddly of the letter in 1746 to Heinrich about living in the same house/palace as him and managing to avoid him with astonishing success.
Clearly early proof of Heinrich's strategic abilities. :) True enough about the odd parallel. Though it just brings home to me how odd the Heinrich complaint is: I mean, Duhan is the beloved teacher/mentor/Good Dad Figure, of course Fritz would want to see him as often as possible. But Heinrich is the bratty younger brother notable only at this point for having fallen for the same hot page Fritz may or may not have had his eye on himself.
Awwwwwwwwwww on Fritz & brothers visiting Duhan on his death bed and getting there in time. Btw, if he took his brothers along, does that mean Duhan taught AW, too? (He can't have taught Heinrich or Ferdinand, given the date of his getting fired.)
Re: Early Education
Date: 2020-11-15 08:25 am (UTC)Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 01:51 pm (UTC)Yeah, extremely allusively = "the storm that came over the Crown Prince and almost everyone close to him". In his own eulogy, Fritz describes Duhan's exile and its reasons as follows: Constant and lasting happiness is not the prerogative of humanity. Mr. Duhan was relegated to Prussia. But the cause for which he suffered, far from robbing him of public esteem or causing him remorse, could on the contrary have excited his vanity and animated his hopes. He loved the cause of his sorrows too much to complain about it, and he always retained the tranquility inseparable from good conduct, which, in the different situations of life, can be regarded as the touchstone of true philosophy.
I remember it because one biographer gives him a hard time about talking money with Duhan
Aw, that's quite the bad faith interpretation. He wants to make sure that Duhan is cared for during the rest of his days, how is that not endearing?
By the way, German translator has a very different issue at this point, his footnote in paraphrase: "It's always been strange to me that people are so interested in the king's bad spelling, but here we are, so let me show you what was deemed "finished education" and who's therefore to fault for said spelling. Original letter: Mon cher Duhan, Je vous promais que, quand j'aurez mon propre argent en main, je vous donnerez enuelement 2400 ecu par an, et je vous aimerais toujour encor un peu plus qu'asteure sil me l'est posible. Frideric Pr.R. (L.S.)"
All phonetic, and I admit, asteure would have stumped me. Oh, and Translator also mentions the difference in Fritz' handwriting.
Googling suggests maybe "locus sigilli": place for the seal.
Makes sense, though strange that it was worth transcribing.
I found the "widower (that again!) and orphan" bit, which I had seen quoted elsewhere, very touching.
Yeah, same.
The 1730s letters are very affectionate, with lots of promises to do more for Duhan once he's able to, full of encouragement (it sounds like Duhan was struggling a bit in exile, possibly with depression)
:/
Indeed. And I actually left out the letter that was clearest on this, from August 14th, 1738:
[...] Make the situation your destiny has placed you in bearable, as much as possible. Erase my memory from your mind, if it is an obstacle to your rest, and think only of making yourself as happy as you can imagine; it is the choice of wisdom, and it must be yours. Ban, for this purpose, any idea of exile, of fatherland and of penate[?] gods; talk a lot with books, and not with people of the world. As you can find this ancient company anywhere, you won't notice the change of location so much as you would without their help. Finally, lift your thoughts above anything that can make them melancholy or hypochondriac. [...]
Also has the "calm yourself to calm me" figure at the end - which, as you pointed out before, seems to have been the family's go-to for encouragement - despite the "erase me" here. :)
MacDonogh's exact translation: 'You know that my situation has greatly improved, but what you possibly don’t realise is that they have cut deeply into the marble, and that stays for ever.'
Looks like he changed pronoun and tense of the original "que l'on grave", which directs the interpretation a bit to make it clearer.
Aww, good job with the condolence letter, Fritz.
Heh, I thought about saying that, but decided to add a little suspense. ;) But yeah, it's much better than some others. Also, in the light of his own recent history, I found his thoughts on death and grief quite poignant.
Because Wilhelmine, in her memoirs, says that once Duhan left, Fritz started leading a dissipated life, which wouldn't have happened if Duhan was there.
Interesting! And possibly on point - here's the relevant part of the poem:
Ah! if, always following your scholarly lessons,
I had been able to get away from my distractions!
But this monster, rival of a wise intention,
To make it fail, endlessly disguises itself.
In a siren's voice and an impostor's tone,
It fills our minds with a flattering lie;
And when, without knowing it, its bait sweeps us away,
Foolishly, our care is wasted, and our study is in vain.
Therefore, my dear Duhan, in the age of pleasures
I was the vile toy of impetuous desires.
In the summer of my days, grown stronger,
Minerva should be the guide of my steps;
But unfortunately! wisdom is seldom the fruit
Of an overwhelming competition of tumult and noise.
That's why, withdrawn in the shadow of silence,
I seek, albeit late, virtue and science.
let's not forget Duhan was appointed by FW who thought he would be a good role model
Weeell. FW's judgement and all that. Also, it's fascinating to me that Duhan quite deliberately went against FW's clear instructions when it came to teaching Fritz things.
But this reminds me, I think some of FW's ire (and subsequently the danger in Fritz writing to Duhan) was probably due to predestination again? I remember reading that FW might have ended up blaming Duhan for Fritz' knowledge of it in 1730, even though Fritz tried to exonerate him on that front.
MacDonogh tells me not only Fritz but his younger brothers got to see Duhan one last time before he died,
Yeah, Fritz, in his eulogy, mentions that he went to him as soon as he returned from war, though not that his brothers were there as well, so the source for that must be something different.
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 02:16 pm (UTC)(Did she join the "let's chastise Wilhelmine for the MT meeting" club that Ulrike and SD formed? I don't remember.)
And maybe one reason why FW was so much harder on Duhan than on Finkenstein et al.
Possibly, if Fritz was obvious about his favouritism (which I think would be in character for teenage Fritz). My other thought was once again the predestination thing, see my reply to Mildred above.
re: the books at Soor - maybe they weren't actually stolen but destroyed? I seem to remember descriptions of destruction and fire.
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 02:46 pm (UTC)That did occur to me!
Btw, if he took his brothers along, does that mean Duhan taught AW, too? (He can't have taught Heinrich or Ferdinand, given the date of his getting fired.)
Hmm. Seems unlikely, since AW was not yet 5 years old when Fritz's letter was written. I would guess that during the first two Silesian Wars, when the younger brothers were hanging out with Bielfeld, they also spent time with Duhan (either of their own initiative or Fritz's), and he earned their respect and affection.
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 03:21 pm (UTC)Right? Give Fritz a break here.
By the way, German translator has a very different issue at this point, his footnote in paraphrase: "It's always been strange to me that people are so interested in the king's bad spelling, but here we are, so let me show you what was deemed "finished education" and who's therefore to fault for said spelling.
Hahaha, Carlyle considers the subject of Fritz's spelling in this letter *very* *important*:
Fritz learned to write a fine, free-flowing, rapid and legible business-hand; "Arithmetic" too, "Geography," and many other Useful Knowledges that had some geniality of character, or attractiveness in practice, were among his acquisitions; much, very much he learned in the course of his life; but to *spell*, much more to punctuate, and subdue the higher mysteries of Grammar to himself, was always an unachievable perfection. He did improve somewhat in after life; but here is the length to which he had carried that necessary art in the course of nine years' exertion, under Duhan and the subsidiary preceptors; it is in the following words and alphabetic letters that he gratefully bids Duhan farewell,— who surely cannot have been a very strict drill-sergeant in the arbitrary branches of schooling!
"Mon cher Duhan Je Vous promais (promets) que quand j'aurez (j'aurai) mon propre argent en main, je Vous donnerez (donnerai) enuelement (annuellement) 2400 ecu (ecus) par an, et je vous aimerais (aimerai) toujour encor (toujors [mildred: sic] encore) un peu plus q'asteure (qu'a cette heure) s'il me l'est (m'eest) posible (possible)."
The Document has otherwise its beauty; but such is the spelling of it. In fact his Grammar, as he would himself now and then regretfully discern, in riper years, with some transient attempt or resolution to remedy or help it, seems to have come mainly by nature; so likewise his "stylus" both in French and German,— a very fair style, too, in the former dialect:— but as to his spelling, let him try as he liked, he never came within sight of perfection.
I'm guessing that Fritz's handwriting, like that of many people, varied widely depending on how much of a hurry he was in.
Erase my memory from your mind, if it is an obstacle to your rest, and think only of making yourself as happy as you can imagine
Awwwwww. <3
penate[?] gods
Classics alert! The Penates are the Roman household gods, and metonymously used for the household. Most often used today in "lares and penates," where "Lares" are another set of protective Roman gods, and can also mean "household goods" by extension.
Looks like he changed pronoun and tense of the original "que l'on grave", which directs the interpretation a bit to make it clearer.
Yeah, and I would say he didn't "change the pronoun" so much as translate it fluently, because the French use "on" impersonally far beyond what English speakers, even British ones, do. Furthermore, "on" is a way I've seen Fritz, and later his siblings and subjects, write about the King, especially when they're talking about the King as abuser and/or potential abuser.
The tense *is* interesting. MacDonogh doesn't actually say "Katte and Küstrin," that was my interpretation given the past tense (what recent event could be described as cutting deeply into the marble?), and Fritz may actually be referring to, or at least including, his marriage. (Note the date: July 15, 1733 for the letter, June 12, 1733 for the wedding.)
Weeell. FW's judgement and all that. Also, it's fascinating to me that Duhan quite deliberately went against FW's clear instructions when it came to teaching Fritz things.
Oh, yeah. We've discussed before how FW focused on superficials and was very poor at actually reading people, including both his sons, and the people he hired to instruct his sons. But in addition to his courage in battle, which is what brought Duhan to FW's attention (Fritz later quipped that it was unusual to engage a tutor in a siege trench), Duhan may have come across as suitably pious, FW not realizing that for some people, religion and freethinking philosophy were compatible.
And yeah, FW totally dropped the ball on identifying Duhan as a potential teacher of forbidden subjects (at great risk to himself) and collector of the forbidden secret library. Go Duhan.
Given everything I've read about Keyserlingk, I have to wonder how on earth *he* appealed to FW as a governor of Fritz, even superficially.
I remember reading that FW might have ended up blaming Duhan for Fritz' knowledge of it in 1730, even though Fritz tried to exonerate him on that front.
Ooh, that's interesting. That's not ringing a bell, so I either never encountered it, or it has been erased from my memory. Likely the latter.
Yeah, Fritz, in his eulogy, mentions that he went to him as soon as he returned from war, though not that his brothers were there as well, so the source for that must be something different.
Yes, it must be, given the 'It was a noble sight, to see a dying man surrounded by princes, and by a triumphant monarch, who in the midst of the incessant clamour of exultation, sought only to alleviate the sick man’s pains.' quote. For all the Caesarian precdent, I don't think that's how Fritz wrote about himself. My guess was Bielfeld, and sure enough, the citation given is Bielfeld. The full passage:
[A triumphant Fritz has just ridden through Berlin and been hailed as "the Great" for the first time, when...]
His majesty was scarce seated when news was brought, that his old preceptor, M. Duhan von Jandun, lay at the point of death. As the king had an uncommon regard for this truly venerable person, founded on a long familiarity, and a sense of real obligation, the news affected him greatly; and his majesty expressd a strong desire to see him, and to give him the greatest comfort which it was possible, for a man who was on the threshold of life, to receive; and which the sight of his roial pupil, a prudent conqueror, and a philosophic hero, who brought back peace to his country and was at that moment in the midst of a glorious triumph, must necessarily afford.
By six in the evening the whole city was illuminated. The king went into his coach, attended by the prince of Prussia, and prince Henry: prince Ferdinand followed him. His majesty orderd the- pages to conduct him to M. Duhans, who livd in a sort of court, the houses, of which were so crowded with lamps, that they were obligd to open the windows of the chambers where the sick lay, to prevent their being suffocated by the heat. It was a noble sight, to see a dying man surrounded by princes, and by a triumphant monarch, who in the midst of the incessant clamor of exultation, sought only to alleviate the sick mans pangs; participating of his distress; and reflecting on the vanity of all human fame and grandeur. When his majesty had taken a tender adieu of M. Duhan, who livd but till the next day, he went again into his coach, and completed the tour of the city.
Now, Bielfeld is supposed to have (re)written his letters after the fact as a sort of memoir (we've seen some precedents), and the chronology doesn't quite work here, as Fritz arrived on December 28, according to my other sources (and if he was in Dresden on the 25th, that checks out) and Duhan died on the 6th, so Fritz can't literally have arrived, been feted, walked into his palace, sat down, gotten news that Duhan was dying, visited him, and Duhan died the next day. But, you can see what Bielfeld's getting at here by compressing the chronology, because he opens the passage with the moral of the story:
It should seem as if, in the highest enjoyments of human life, there were still some mixture of bitterness: for on this day of supreme festivity, the king could not prevent, anxiety and grief from stealing in upon him. His majesty was scarce seated...
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-15 03:38 pm (UTC)Wouldn't surprise me--I said much the same thing to and about my beloved mentor when I was a teenager, albeit less poetically. It's the kind of thing I think a number of people with intellectual priorities have independently come up with in the context of abusive parents.
In any event, given that Eichel & Biche were returned, how come the books weren't?
My guess is that the plunder had already made their way into the possession of individual Pandurs and were probably well on their way to being sold, while living beings were returned out of a sense of humanity. I don't recall ever reading anything about any of the many inanimate objects being returned. Plus, as
Duhan sounds like a kind, good man, and Fritz was lucky to have him.
Hear, hear. He seems to be one of the many reasons Fritz came out of his abusive childhood as intact as he did.
Re: Versailles
Date: 2020-11-15 08:30 pm (UTC)The first thing to note is that Saint-Simon is the Versailles equivalent of Lehndorff and Hervey, i.e., a courtier who left vivid and detailed (several thousand pages) memoirs that are a treasure trove for court life of the period (1691-1723). I notice that he has at least one chapter named after him in Horowski, which I haven't yet read but intend to.
So, remember when I talked about how protocol around seating was a Big DealTM at Versailles? In the words of Spawforth, the author of the Versailles book I'm reading, The pages of Saint-Simon are full of incidents that hinged, as it were, on doors or stools. Today they seem funny or simply baffling, like a report by an anthropologist from a faraway land. But for Saint-Simon these episodes were no laughing matter.
Three examples:
Anecdote 1: Some women of the Lorraine family try to sit above the duchesses by arriving there first, but one duchess beats them to it. One of the Lorraine women physically wrestles the duchess off her seat. They then bitch at Saint-Simon's wife, a duchess, for sitting above them. Saint-Simon, when he finds out, complains to the king, which was not something one did casually.
Anecdote 2: Madame de Léon is trying to move up the social ladder. She plans a maneuver in which she will pay a visit to one of the royal princesses and enter the room with two higher ranked women, so that when the princess rises to greet the other two, it'll look like she rose for Madame de Léon.
But the usher forces the three women to enter the room separately, thus giving the princess the opportunity to remain "firmly seated" when the Madame de Léon arrives. Foiled!
Anecdote 3: For context, the Duchess d'Orleans is the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, and she's the wife of her first cousin the Regent (Philippe d'Orleans, son of famously gay husband of Liselotte by the same name). So she's not exactly a nobody. But, she's technically illegitimate. This will become a plot point.
One day, as she's entering a room, the usher accidentally opens *both* doors to her. Now, this is something you're only supposed to do for legitimate children of the monarch. Illegitimate offspring only merit one door open.
The duchess of Berry, the daughter of the Duchess d'Orleans, "weeping with rage," demands that the usher be sacked for accidentally showing her mother too much honor.
Because...what is filial piety compared to court etiquette, I guess.
So all this is the context in which Wilhelmine and the pre-MT empress can't meet until their people spend a whole day negotiating seating arrangements.
Wilhelmine: I am the daughter of a king and expect to be treated like it.
Empress: But you're in town incognito specifically so you can avoid all the duties of a margravine.
Wilhelmine: But I want to have my cake and eat it too!
Empress: I will have the least fancy chair I can get away with, and you will have the fanciest chair I can give you, with a high back, but my chair will have arms and yours won't, sorry, that's how it's gonna be.
Wilhelmine: FINE.
Also, per Horowski, this was a thing at court in London as well: in the first gathering with his family and new wife, Fritz of Wales gave his wife a chair with arms and his "astonished" sisters only chairs with backs but no arms. The sisters, iirc, had their servants bring better chairs, but they left before coffee, because they'd been warned that even worse insults of precedence were to come.
My wife, hearing these stories: These people need a hobby!
Me: I think this is their hobby
or possibly their religion.My wife: They need a less toxic hobby!
On a lighter note, this dirty joke:
Perhaps the knack when speaking frankly to royalty was to do so in such a way that the monarch could not be sure whether or not he should be offended. Once, at one of Louis XVI’s suppers at Versailles, the young Marie-Antoinette was playfully pelting the monarch with bread. Turning to the comte de Saint-Germain (not to be confused with the supposedly immortal alchemist), an old soldier, the king asked him how he would comport himself on campaign if under attack from projectiles. “Sire, I would spike the cannon” came the brusque reply.
Louis kept smiling. But others present were sure they had just heard a none-too-veiled reference to the childless state of the royal marriage.
The Comte de Saint-Germain is presumably this one, not to be confused with the more famous supposedly immortal alchemist.
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-16 02:54 pm (UTC)Now, to be fair: Charlotte also had undoubted good qualities. For starters, she had her shair of the family brains, what with translating Wolff into French on her lonesome (Fritz needed Suhm for that), and she was independently minded enough to keep an open mind about German literature and be curious about same (not just by hiring Lessing as a librarian), to the point where famously her and Anna Amalie's visit to Fritz inspired him to publish "De La Literature Allemande" as a counter argument because both ladies seem to have positioned themselves fervently pro German writings. Also, even in Wilhelmine's angry description of Charlotte's behavior in 1732 she mentions Charlotte used to be her favourite sister back in the day, and Fritz generally sounds positive about her both in second hand testimony (i.e. those Austrian reports on "Junior") and in his letters.
Then again: Yes, as far as I recall, Charlotte joined the "how could you?" club re: the MT lunch. I also don't recall her doing anything during the year of AW's disgrace, either. And other than Ulrike, Charlotte really had the best, safest position of any of the sisters from which to take a stand. All of which leads me to the conclusion that she was probably good company on a social level, but that her instinct was to cater to the given authority on the top, and to discard you if you lost any political advantage, so as an ally, she was only of questionable value, hence my somewhat cynical speculation that her help for Fritz and Duhan came with the awareness that Fritz was the future King.
Predestination: could be, but yes, teenage Fritz wasn't subtle about whom he liked and didn't like. Given how much FW was attached to the idea of himself as a beloved father and how very insulted he was that his oldest children didn't give him the feeling that he was this, AND given FW's explicit instructions during the Küstrin year to give Fritz the idea everyone, including his mother, didn't love him anymore and had forgotten all about him, I'm going with paternal jealousy as a primary motive.
Re: Versailles
Date: 2020-11-16 03:11 pm (UTC)Some women of the Lorraine family
Which ones, enquiring minds want to know? Given that FS' mother (Liselotte's daughter) was the Duchess of Lorraine, I mean. Of course, Lorraine is a very special case anyway, since it it used to be an independent realm only intermittently belonging to France.
The Duchess of Berry is the same woman whom young Voltaire in the satire/pamphlet that got him locked up in the Bastille for the first time claims to have had an affair with her father the Regent, so her putting etiquette before consideration for her mother might not be quite such a surprise...
Another thing in this context of etiquette to consider is teenage Marie Antoinette's famous refusal to speak to Dubarry, and the reason why Dubarry kept insisting that she would, why this was so important to her.
Re: Versailles
Date: 2020-11-17 05:15 am (UTC)One of the Lorraine women physically wrestles the duchess off her seat.
LOL omg!
She plans a maneuver in which she will pay a visit to one of the royal princesses and enter the room with two higher ranked women, so that when the princess rises to greet the other two, it'll look like she rose for Madame de Léon.
Heeee. I... kind of don't get this, honestly. I mean, I get the idea of it, there is just this visceral disconnect for me that this could make any sense whatsoever, lol.
“Sire, I would spike the cannon” came the brusque reply.
HAHAHAHA
Re: Versailles
Date: 2020-11-17 05:16 am (UTC)Oooooh, right! I remember when you explained this to me <3 I don't think I really got why it was so important at the time, though it was still an awesome story.
Re: Early Education
Date: 2020-11-17 05:27 am (UTC)"Children [don't] have different personalities" is a misconception I see around a lot, and in fact had to a certain degree myself before having kids and being around other people's kids a lot. It's certainly pretty natural to do the "...but I would have LOVED this when I was your age, what's your problem?!" and I got a lot of that when I was a kid, although of course a modern parent would try hard not to fall too hard into that fallacy (I've thought it to myself, to be honest! though hopefully I didn't give any external sign of it :) )
Re: Early Education
Date: 2020-11-17 06:19 am (UTC)What keeps stunning me is the irony of FW, once he sees all the ways Fritz isn't like him and takes great offense at thta, keeps missing all the ways Fritz is. And I don't just mean the obvious - the terrier like take no prisoners stubbornness - or the negatives (the vengefulness, the capacity for humiliating and abusing people). I wasn't kidding when in my Stratemann writeup noting that FW on SD's sickbed as reported by Stratemann sounds remarkably like Fritz (to be specific, Fritz in the Fredersdorf letters) in his concern for her health, complete with "let me be your doctor".
Even post Küstrin, when FW most of the time sees Fritz as successfully remade in a proper crown prince image, even when uttering "There stands one who will avenge me!" declarations, I don't think he sees that. He thinks he has the new improved version of Fritz who won't ruin the kingdom - except on those occasions when he still thinks Fritz will ruin the kingdom, usually when he's in especially bad health - but I think this is in a "best that could be done under the circumstances" manner, not in a "huh, we're similar after all" manner.
Meanwhile, the "I have to be a mirror" quote
Re: Fritz-Duhan Follow-Up
Date: 2020-11-17 06:44 am (UTC)You'd think so, and you'd be right in this particular case, but I have now browsed through the preface and the Fritzian eulogy of the German edition
Here's the literal text:
Fritz: "The heroic virtues and the glamorous qualities all of Europe loves and admires in his noble student are proof of how much the later knew how to use (Duhan's) teachings."
French editor, footnote: "As the King is talking about himself here, this comes across as a bit, strong, but undoubtedly he counted on his secretary getting credited for this passage."
German translator, footnote to footnote: "Being conscious of his excellent greatness was something a young King was entitled to who in his few years of government had done so much already, and had just concluded a second war victoriously. One lets vanity pass even in certain old writers!!"
My conclusion: yep, that's the state of mind The Great was in when writing the Marwitz letters and tells Wilhelmine the ways of how she's betrayed him, alright.
Re: Versailles
Date: 2020-11-17 06:50 am (UTC)I'm only familiar with Saint-Simon via quotes in other people's works, but based on other people's assessment and said quotes, the answer is probably "very readable, and an incredible snob". As for endearing, I have to point to the other French diarist/memoir writer at Versailles, a generation younger than Saint-Simon, to wit, the Duc de Croy, because remember: #saveJamesCook! (Seriously, I remain charmed by the fact old Croy reads of Cook's exploits and in the middle of the American War of Independence decides he needs to ensure the good (British) Captain will be able to continue exploring unbothered by writing to the French Admiralty and besieging envoy Benjamin Franklin so the Americans promise not to harm a hair on Cook's head, either.