I feel like I will forever find hilarious that Fritz/Voltaire had this crackship going that NO ONE understands :D
Same here. And it's really a universal reaction, no matter whether it's Mitchell in his 7 Years War reports or modern biographers. I think people can just about understand their mutual motives until the big breakup in 1753. It's the fact they then went back to writing each other that slays everyone.
Not gonna lie, I had Voltaire on the brain when I wrote this! He went to Mass any number of times.
So he did, and even built a church. ("To God, from Voltaire", wasn't that the dedication?) And let's not forgot the "I'm sorry if you're insulted" repentenance document to penned on his deathbed (which was accepted by the first priest to have a go at him but not by the indignant Archbishop of Paris).
Same. No matter whether the phrase comes from New Brunswick Ambassador, Wartensleben or Manteuffel himself, it's well put, well put indeed. :)
That's why part of me wants it to have originated with Voltaire! Lol.
On the one hand: this is like later 19th century historians deciding unilaterally that the "she cried, but she took" etc. crack about MT and the first Partitioning of Poland was too good to hail from some minor figur and had to come from Fritz, and nearly every biographer until this day following suit.
On the other hand: Not very scientific, I know! But...Wartensleben overhears it in Cleves, conveys it in his report via super-fast courier to Manteuffel, Manteuffel is Anonymous after all? :P
Sold! Especially since I very much doubt that Voltaire reads anonymous reports sent from Mantteuffel (whoever wrote it) to Brühl and thereafter lingering in the Saxon State Archive. (If you want an argument against Voltaire picking up the bonmot from someone else.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Voltairean Matters
Date: 2021-02-21 07:36 am (UTC)Same here. And it's really a universal reaction, no matter whether it's Mitchell in his 7 Years War reports or modern biographers. I think people can just about understand their mutual motives until the big breakup in 1753. It's the fact they then went back to writing each other that slays everyone.
Not gonna lie, I had Voltaire on the brain when I wrote this! He went to Mass any number of times.
So he did, and even built a church. ("To God, from Voltaire", wasn't that the dedication?) And let's not forgot the "I'm sorry if you're insulted" repentenance document to penned on his deathbed (which was accepted by the first priest to have a go at him but not by the indignant Archbishop of Paris).
Same. No matter whether the phrase comes from New Brunswick Ambassador, Wartensleben or Manteuffel himself, it's well put, well put indeed. :)
That's why part of me wants it to have originated with Voltaire! Lol.
On the one hand: this is like later 19th century historians deciding unilaterally that the "she cried, but she took" etc. crack about MT and the first Partitioning of Poland was too good to hail from some minor figur and had to come from Fritz, and nearly every biographer until this day following suit.
On the other hand:
Not very scientific, I know! But...Wartensleben overhears it in Cleves, conveys it in his report via super-fast courier to Manteuffel, Manteuffel is Anonymous after all? :P
Sold! Especially since I very much doubt that Voltaire reads anonymous reports sent from Mantteuffel (whoever wrote it) to Brühl and thereafter lingering in the Saxon State Archive. (If you want an argument against Voltaire picking up the bonmot from someone else.)