Lol, that was my reaction too! That's kind of damning with faint praise...
Condemming with faint denial?
But, but, didn't you turn up this evidence of a pretty thorough betaing job?!
I most definitely did. Also, it keeps coming up in their correspondence. Yes, when I read that, I thought, the Marquis does protest too much. (Or Nicolai does, at any rate.) Generally speaking, it's fairly obvious that Voltaire himself, Maupertuis and La Mettrie weren't the only ones who were jealeous of Fritz' time, attention and regard, with D'Argens being a big case in point as well. Still, denying that Voltaire used to be beta Fritz' writings while not denying he's bottoming for the occasional hot page is certainly a choice...
and how Fritz trusted him more than any other
Uh. Well, I guess Fredersdorf and Wilhelmine are dead after 1758, but...Heinrich? Trusted with military and personal confidences! General and therapist rolled into one. :P
Indeed. If D'Argens got letters every second day, Heinrich sometimes got them twice a day, as Ziebura pointed out. Granted, Heinrich couldn't offer gossip about Émilie's love life, but still.
Also, for all that Nicolai emphasizes that D'Argens, unlike SOME PEOPLE, never ever betrayed Fritz' trust by telling stories about him, linking Felis with Casanova has reminded me of this bit in the memoirs from when Casanova is visiting D'Argens in France:
When I had fully regained my strength, I went to see the Marquis d'Argens and President d'Eguilles to say my goodbyes. After lunch I spent three hours with the learned old gentleman, who told me a hundred stories from the private life of the Prussian king, all of which could be published as anecdotes as soon as I have the time and inclination. He was a ruler of great qualities and great flaws, like almost all great men; but the totality and gravity of his faults were less.
Okay, to be fair, "private life" could mean nothing more indiscreet than stories about how Fritz took his coffee, but it also happens to be the title of a certain pamphlet, wasn't it?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: The Sanssouci Table Round (aka Nicolai, Volume I, a)
Condemming with faint denial?
But, but, didn't you turn up this evidence of a pretty thorough betaing job?!
I most definitely did. Also, it keeps coming up in their correspondence. Yes, when I read that, I thought, the Marquis does protest too much. (Or Nicolai does, at any rate.) Generally speaking, it's fairly obvious that Voltaire himself, Maupertuis and La Mettrie weren't the only ones who were jealeous of Fritz' time, attention and regard, with D'Argens being a big case in point as well. Still, denying that Voltaire used to be beta Fritz' writings while not denying he's bottoming for the occasional hot page is certainly a choice...
and how Fritz trusted him more than any other
Uh. Well, I guess Fredersdorf and Wilhelmine are dead after 1758, but...Heinrich? Trusted with military and personal confidences! General and therapist rolled into one. :P
Indeed. If D'Argens got letters every second day, Heinrich sometimes got them twice a day, as Ziebura pointed out. Granted, Heinrich couldn't offer gossip about Émilie's love life, but still.
Also, for all that Nicolai emphasizes that D'Argens, unlike SOME PEOPLE, never ever betrayed Fritz' trust by telling stories about him, linking Felis with Casanova has reminded me of this bit in the memoirs from when Casanova is visiting D'Argens in France:
When I had fully regained my strength, I went to see the Marquis d'Argens and President d'Eguilles to say my goodbyes. After lunch I spent three hours with the learned old gentleman, who told me a hundred stories from the private life of the Prussian king, all of which could be published as anecdotes as soon as I have the time and inclination. He was a ruler of great qualities and great flaws, like almost all great men; but the totality and gravity of his faults were less.
Okay, to be fair, "private life" could mean nothing more indiscreet than stories about how Fritz took his coffee, but it also happens to be the title of a certain pamphlet, wasn't it?