Have finally finished the reread of the Suhm letters.
1. I found entirely endearing this part where Fritz sends Suhm an ode (because of course he does; I'm only surprised he didn't send more), and Suhm replies firstly that he loved it and not just because Fritz wrote it (but I suspect only because Fritz wrote it :P), and secondly that he doesn't write poetry but wants to send Fritz some poetry in return for his nice ode. So he, Suhm, is borrowing some poetry for the purpose and enclosing it, but he won't lie and pretend it's his.
But also, he writes, "I will not deceive you by giving them to you as my own, as the Latin Poet formerly deceived the Augustus of his time."
Which Latin poet? Do you know, selenak? It might ring a bell if you tell me, but I'm not recalling any Augustan poetry plagiarism scandals off the top of my head.
Also, I notice Suhm is casting Fritz as Augustus here.
2. I was right about Suhm getting a cut from the fundraising! Not until 1739, so two years into it. And I was wrong about the ring; that was a simple gift with Fritz's portrait in 1740, but in 1739, Fritz tells Suhm he can take a 10% cut, and Suhm seems pleased.
3. There's a 6-month gap in their correspondence in the spring and summer of 1738. Suhm apparently wrote a very long letter explaining in detail why he was so busy, which the 1787 editor says he cut out (in general, he says he cuts out a lot whenever Suhm starts to get boring), and since Trier has nothing that the 1787 translation doesn't, apparently Preuss silently cut too!
(Carlyle complains about the letters being boring, though I don't know what edition he might be referring to.)
4. Suhm joins the ranks of people who can't do vivid pen portraits when he depicts Duke Anton Ulrich, whom he portrays in generically positive terms. The only detail that was interesting to me is that Anton has read all of Wolff's works more than once, which "have, without doubt, a little contributed to form his mind, and strengthen his character." My reaction was: read all the philosophy you can now, Anton, you're going to need it!
Oh! cahn, Anton Ulrich is EC's brother who marries into the Russian royal family (Anna Leopoldovna, who had an affair with Saxon envoy Lynar), fathers Ivan VI, ends up imprisoned with his family in remote Russia, and refuses to leave his daughters even when he's given the chance. It was in 1739 that he married Anna, which is why Suhm is doing the pen portrait now: he's telling Fritz what he thinks of his brother-in-law (whom Fritz will later recommend be locked away in the remotest corners of the world).
So I hope all that Wolffian philosophy was helpful!
5. In February 1740, Fritz tells Suhm he's awaiting the events that will allow him to summon Suhm and "perform promises." This makes sense of Suhm's decision to take for granted in June that Fritz wants him and submit his resignation without waiting for a formal invitation.
Also, Fritz is apparently still unsure that it's reciprocated, because his next sentence is: "I hope you are always in the same sentiments in which I have known you, and that you have not forgotten the agreement made the night of our separation." That's why, when he *doesn't* hear anything from Suhm on the subject in June, he gets worried.
This is also when he sends the ring with his portrait to Suhm.
6. Apparently Suhm was in Warsaw not just on his route back, but because he was required to report there for his formal, in-person removal as envoy. But by the time he got there, was so sick that he was exempted from making an appearance at court. :/
7. Remember how the Hohenzollerns didn't use regnal numbers, and so everyone was confused by Friedrich Wilhelm? And that's how Fritz ended up being called Friedrich III, with FW as F2? 1787 editor has him as William I!
8. The editor omits two of the last letters Suhm ever wrote and Fritz's replies, when he's on his way from St. Petersburg. Thank goodness for Preuss!
9. Suhm's last letter but one congratulates Fritz on the death of Charles VI 8 days before:
The warm interest which I take, Sire, in the splendour and felicity of a reign which you promise to your dear subjects, does not permit me to speak of that event, without previously felicitating your Majesty on these great conjectures which will give you an opportunity of augmenting your glory, by endeavoring to promote the interest and happiness of your states.
The editor footnotes this with an observation that the event is the emperor's death, and the conjectures without doubt refer to the claims to Silesia that Fritz is now going to advance.
I thought that was interesting *before* this morning's salon, when we found hints that Suhm's politics might leaned in the anti-Imperial direction. Putting these two together, I'm now even more convinced!
So apparently Suhm, who in his 1740 character portrait said that Fritz cared more about fame than anything, and who in the 1720s was apparently trying to reconcile FW with G2 and may or may not have been hanging around with the English envoy Dubourgay, is now saying that Charles' death will be a great opportunity for Fritz to achieve glory by advancing the interests of his state.
Yeah, so apparently Suhm would have been 100% behind the Silesian invasion. Since he's leaving Saxon service and becoming a Prussian (and turning his kids into Prussians), making his loyalties pretty darn clear, I'm not *sure* how he would have felt about how Fritz treated Saxony in the first Silesian wars (badly enough that it contributed to Saxony switching sides between the first and second), but since neither anywhere near as bad as the Third Silesian War, Suhm might not have had the Algarotti and Maupertuis experience had he lived. Those two both had the expectation that it was going to be Enlightened Academy Times only, and were twiddling their thumbs and getting increasingly frustrated by the sudden emphasis on war (and in one case, captured by Austrians).
Whereas Suhm might have been in for *some* surprises at how Fritz with absolute power turned out, it seems that he would have been less surprised and disappointed than people who knew him less well (Algarotti, Voltaire, etc.). "Go Fritz, invade Silesia! Greatest of all kings! Free those Protestants! :P"
By 1756, the year of the great Saxony invasion and start of the war crime-ridden exploitative occupation, Suhm would have been 65 and, well, we have to assume *much* better health for him to have made it that long, as opposed to the one year of extra health he would have needed in order to witness the whiplash that much of Europe (but not Manteuffel or Superville!) got from Fritz. But I do have to assume that the bombing of Dresden, whether for strategic motives or just spite, would have been a WTF moment even for Suhm.
Note, though, that all his sons were in the Prussian army, and might well have been involved in the occupation. I guess one hopes that they did live in St. Petersburg during the 1736-1740 period, because then they were born in Prussia, raised in Prussia (because even after Suhm stopped being envoy, he remained on a pension in Berlin, presumably with his family, unless he decided to be extra cautious about FW's hanging tendencies), with at most occasional visits to Dresden, and then spent a few years abroad in Russia, so the transition back to Berlin and then into the Prussian army was hopefully not surprising or unusually traumatic (as opposed to the normal traumas of war).
I mean, going native is a thing for envoys. Hoym, long-time Saxon envoy to France, was accused of it when he returned (and thus his pro-France foreign policy surprises me not at all). For all that Suhm didn't fit in very well with FW, after 10 years in Berlin, he clearly went native as a Prussian (hence choosing to stay in Berlin for 6 years as a private citizen, until he needed money, which can't have all been a desire to stay near a Fritz he barely saw).
Whereas Rottembourg was ambassador to Prussia on 3 separate occasions, because every single time he was like, "I need to get the fuck out of here. I mean totally for health reasons! Please recall me before I strangle FW and cause an international incident to a better climate!" :P
Suhm letters III
1. I found entirely endearing this part where Fritz sends Suhm an ode (because of course he does; I'm only surprised he didn't send more), and Suhm replies firstly that he loved it and not just because Fritz wrote it (but I suspect only because Fritz wrote it :P), and secondly that he doesn't write poetry but wants to send Fritz some poetry in return for his nice ode. So he, Suhm, is borrowing some poetry for the purpose and enclosing it, but he won't lie and pretend it's his.
But also, he writes, "I will not deceive you by giving them to you as my own, as the Latin Poet formerly deceived the Augustus of his time."
Which Latin poet? Do you know,
Also, I notice Suhm is casting Fritz as Augustus here.
2. I was right about Suhm getting a cut from the fundraising! Not until 1739, so two years into it. And I was wrong about the ring; that was a simple gift with Fritz's portrait in 1740, but in 1739, Fritz tells Suhm he can take a 10% cut, and Suhm seems pleased.
3. There's a 6-month gap in their correspondence in the spring and summer of 1738. Suhm apparently wrote a very long letter explaining in detail why he was so busy, which the 1787 editor says he cut out (in general, he says he cuts out a lot whenever Suhm starts to get boring), and since Trier has nothing that the 1787 translation doesn't, apparently Preuss silently cut too!
(Carlyle complains about the letters being boring, though I don't know what edition he might be referring to.)
4. Suhm joins the ranks of people who can't do vivid pen portraits when he depicts Duke Anton Ulrich, whom he portrays in generically positive terms. The only detail that was interesting to me is that Anton has read all of Wolff's works more than once, which "have, without doubt, a little contributed to form his mind, and strengthen his character." My reaction was: read all the philosophy you can now, Anton, you're going to need it!
Oh!
So I hope all that Wolffian philosophy was helpful!
5. In February 1740, Fritz tells Suhm he's awaiting the events that will allow him to summon Suhm and "perform promises." This makes sense of Suhm's decision to take for granted in June that Fritz wants him and submit his resignation without waiting for a formal invitation.
Also, Fritz is apparently still unsure that it's reciprocated, because his next sentence is: "I hope you are always in the same sentiments in which I have known you, and that you have not forgotten the agreement made the night of our separation." That's why, when he *doesn't* hear anything from Suhm on the subject in June, he gets worried.
This is also when he sends the ring with his portrait to Suhm.
6. Apparently Suhm was in Warsaw not just on his route back, but because he was required to report there for his formal, in-person removal as envoy. But by the time he got there, was so sick that he was exempted from making an appearance at court. :/
7. Remember how the Hohenzollerns didn't use regnal numbers, and so everyone was confused by Friedrich Wilhelm? And that's how Fritz ended up being called Friedrich III, with FW as F2? 1787 editor has him as William I!
8. The editor omits two of the last letters Suhm ever wrote and Fritz's replies, when he's on his way from St. Petersburg. Thank goodness for Preuss!
9. Suhm's last letter but one congratulates Fritz on the death of Charles VI 8 days before:
The warm interest which I take, Sire, in the splendour and felicity of a reign which you promise to your dear subjects, does not permit me to speak of that event, without previously felicitating your Majesty on these great conjectures which will give you an opportunity of augmenting your glory, by endeavoring to promote the interest and happiness of your states.
The editor footnotes this with an observation that the event is the emperor's death, and the conjectures without doubt refer to the claims to Silesia that Fritz is now going to advance.
I thought that was interesting *before* this morning's salon, when we found hints that Suhm's politics might leaned in the anti-Imperial direction. Putting these two together, I'm now even more convinced!
So apparently Suhm, who in his 1740 character portrait said that Fritz cared more about fame than anything, and who in the 1720s was apparently trying to reconcile FW with G2 and may or may not have been hanging around with the English envoy Dubourgay, is now saying that Charles' death will be a great opportunity for Fritz to achieve glory by advancing the interests of his state.
Yeah, so apparently Suhm would have been 100% behind the Silesian invasion. Since he's leaving Saxon service and becoming a Prussian (and turning his kids into Prussians), making his loyalties pretty darn clear, I'm not *sure* how he would have felt about how Fritz treated Saxony in the first Silesian wars (badly enough that it contributed to Saxony switching sides between the first and second), but since neither anywhere near as bad as the Third Silesian War, Suhm might not have had the Algarotti and Maupertuis experience had he lived. Those two both had the expectation that it was going to be Enlightened Academy Times only, and were twiddling their thumbs and getting increasingly frustrated by the sudden emphasis on war (and in one case, captured by Austrians).
Whereas Suhm might have been in for *some* surprises at how Fritz with absolute power turned out, it seems that he would have been less surprised and disappointed than people who knew him less well (Algarotti, Voltaire, etc.). "Go Fritz, invade Silesia! Greatest of all kings! Free those Protestants! :P"
By 1756, the year of the great Saxony invasion and start of the war crime-ridden exploitative occupation, Suhm would have been 65 and, well, we have to assume *much* better health for him to have made it that long, as opposed to the one year of extra health he would have needed in order to witness the whiplash that much of Europe (but not Manteuffel or Superville!) got from Fritz. But I do have to assume that the bombing of Dresden, whether for strategic motives or just spite, would have been a WTF moment even for Suhm.
Note, though, that all his sons were in the Prussian army, and might well have been involved in the occupation. I guess one hopes that they did live in St. Petersburg during the 1736-1740 period, because then they were born in Prussia, raised in Prussia (because even after Suhm stopped being envoy, he remained on a pension in Berlin, presumably with his family, unless he decided to be extra cautious about FW's hanging tendencies), with at most occasional visits to Dresden, and then spent a few years abroad in Russia, so the transition back to Berlin and then into the Prussian army was hopefully not surprising or unusually traumatic (as opposed to the normal traumas of war).
I mean, going native is a thing for envoys. Hoym, long-time Saxon envoy to France, was accused of it when he returned (and thus his pro-France foreign policy surprises me not at all). For all that Suhm didn't fit in very well with FW, after 10 years in Berlin, he clearly went native as a Prussian (hence choosing to stay in Berlin for 6 years as a private citizen, until he needed money, which can't have all been a desire to stay near a Fritz he barely saw).
Whereas Rottembourg was ambassador to Prussia on 3 separate occasions, because every single time he was like, "I need to get the fuck out of here. I mean totally for health reasons! Please recall me
before I strangle FW and cause an international incidentto a better climate!" :P