you know, the one which contains among other things the priceless "Fritz dressed in white to spare Austrian feelings" story

That is still priceless. Btw, Asprey says Fritz also abstained from meat for Lent, in deference to Austrian feelings; is that attested in either of these versions?

(BTW, Unger's translation is in the volume Mildred just put up in the library.)

Volumes 1-13 now present as well. We're now just missing 14-16. I've been wondering whether Unger is actually the author or just the publisher of an anonymous author: he's a bookseller and there's more than one collection of anecdotes under his name, and it's looking like he's the publisher. I've turned up one bibliographer saying he'll cite the various collections under the name of their publisher, Unger.

Anyway, I too will cite them as Unger. ;)

However, one couldn't trust him. For often the musicians, upon noticing he'd fallen asleep, skipped several arias in order to finish earlier. No sooner did they try that he opened his eyes and called "But you're leaving something out". Or he called "The aria - is missing" and sang the beginning of this aria." That's how well he knew Händel's operas by heart. But if he didn't notice, the musicians used to play the final choir especially loudly and strongly so that the King had to wake up for the finale.

Oh, god, this is hilarious.

Nicolai furiously defends Fritz from the charge of cowardice (which I don't think Voltaire makes? He just exaggarates how far Fritz retired from the battlefield from for comic effect?)

When you're talking about a king withdrawing from the battlefield, with the military ethos of the time, is there a difference? I absolutely think Voltaire is going for cowardice:

the King, who was not accustomed to stand fire, fled at the first shock

He has to know all of his readers are going to take that as a sign of cowardice. And exaggerating for comic effect on how long Fritz kept fleeing, and saying he had almost made it back into Prussia/Brandenburg, is just emphasizing that.

does say Fritz never forgave Schwerin for having made the suggestion or himself for listening, which strikes me as accurate.

That's what I always heard, and I believe it too.

OTOH: He seems to have left the field at Lobositz (first battle of the Seven Years' War), and no one knows why. Apparently, he never explained himself.

Thank you for the Antinous write-up! I am now free to continue my imaginings of Fritz doing just that while knowing that it's not just headcanon, it's canon!

Serious thoughts were with him even in his most cheerful and high spirited hours, for these were only the spice to his serious ponderings he had PTSD and needed therapy

He then reports that this vault was probably the reason why Fritz called Sanssouci Sanssouci to begin with, and tells the anecdote of Fritz saying to D'Argens "Quand je serai là, je serai Sanssouci". (I.e. this is the original source for that story, mes amies.)

Aha! I'm finding that a lot of these famous stories about Fritz go back to the posthumous anecdote collections.

Also, if I'm remembering correctly, that line is actually engraved on the base of the Flora statue.

Visual in case cahn could use a reminder (and in hopes the images work; if not, I'll do the other thing that I know works). The white statue with naked breasts is Flora. Fritz's grave is the thing with potatoes on it, just above his name. Katte is of course the Antinous statue. ;)





And selenak's shot from the other side, which gives you a better visual of the grave itself.