That sketch of James Keith's corpse is eerily fascinating. I'm reminded again that most of the Katte bodies except Hans Hermann's got mummified, and his didn't because of the sheer combination of averse factors - standing on the ground, in the spot where all the water collects, after a month in the Küstrin cemetery and cross country transport. (Whereas James Keith as far as I recall was put in the nearby chapel and identified quickly, so could get transported back to Berlin right away.) Looks like in crypts in our climate, mummification happens not that rarely if you're in a crypt?
I was first a bit surprised that Menzel could immediately tell it was James K. from the idealized portraits he was familiar with, given that, say, Fritz' death mask look nothing like his youthful Pesne portraits, but then I looked at the James Keith portrait Pesne made and there you actually can see the resemblence:
Oh, and as felis reminded us some months ago, Wilhelmine met James Keith when he lead the Russian troops in 1735 through Bayreuth (en route to the Polish War of Succession) and was very positively impressed.
About Menzel: came a cross a minor Fontane poem celebrating his 70th birthday (On the stairs to Sanssouci, in which he imagines making a winter stroll and encountering Fritz' ghost, who asks what's up with this "Menzelfest", who is Menzel? The poem's "I" explains (praising the huge variety of Menzel's paintings, from social realism to Fritzian illustrations), and Fritz is impressed and decides to offer as his present to Menzel a place in his table round, not right now, of course, but when Menzel wants to have it, he can take as much time as he wants. There's one place free now anyway since Voltaire has left in 1870, being French. (cahn, that's the date of the Franco-Prussian War which led to the founding of the Empire in Versailles (which led to the WWI peace treaty in Versailles, in more than one way.) Menzel can have Voltaire's place among Fritz' companions! That's the end of the poem:
Nur Herr von Voltaire fehlt seit Anno 70;
Franzose, rapplig. Dieser Platz ist frei.
Den reservier' ich ihm. Bestell' Er's. Hört Er?
Ich bin Sein gnäd'ger König. Serviteur!«
When I read that, I thought both that Fontane totally would go for that bodyswitch crack fic, and also, what is it about RPF writers breaking Fritz and Voltaire up in the Hereafter? (Remember, Boie also did that in the "Totengespräche" fic that Bronisch mentions at the end of his dissertation, where Fritz tells Wolff he's been Wolff's padawan, gets introduced to Lessing at last and ditches Voltaire.) I mean, I get wanting to give Menzel the ultimate fanboy reward, and to be sure, the Fritz the 19th century imagined was at least as much formed by Menzel's depictions as by Kugler's and Preuss' writings, but any Fritz (in whichever ghostly state) who's ready to give up Voltaire for good is ooc for me. :)
also, what is it about RPF writers breaking Fritz and Voltaire up in the Hereafter? [...] any Fritz (in whichever ghostly state) who's ready to give up Voltaire for good is ooc for me. :)
Lol! How I imagine Fritz in all of these afterlife RPFs:
Fritz: Good riddance to that conceited bastard. These other writers are way more awesome, anyway! [Five minutes later]: Lessing and Menzel, let me read you this thing Voltaire wrote. Isn't he the absolute WORST? [shouts through the ether] Hey Voltaire, you know you can come back anytime!
Yes indeed! BTW, Menzel was less than thrilled to receive a poem speculating about his death on his 70th birthday, getting Voltaire's seat at Fritz' table round or not. Which in turn surprised Fontane (hey, he'd written "not now, after as many year as he wants"! Also, who wouldn't want to spend the afterlife with Fritz & friends!)
Algarotti: I'm already spending part of my afterlife with Lady Mary and Lord Hervey, courtesy of that Hervey biographer. These trips to the free thrinking Franco-Prussian sector of hte afterlife are exhausting!
Algarotti: I'm already spending part of my afterlife with Lady Mary and Lord Hervey, courtesy of that Hervey biographer. These trips to the free thrinking Franco-Prussian sector of hte afterlife are exhausting!
Pff. Says the man whose life took him from Venice to Rome to Venice to Bologna to Venice to Padua to Bologna to Florence to Rome to Paris to Cirey to London to Cirey to Venice to to Paris to London to St. Petersburg to Danzig to Dresden to Leipzig to Potsdam to Berlin to Rheinsberg to Hamburg to London to Berlin to Turin to Berlin to Silesia to Dresden to Berlin to Dresden to Venice to Berlin to Bologna to Berlin to Venice to Bologna, before finally moving to Pisa to die. :P I imagine he's traveling all over the afterlife!
Looks like in crypts in our climate, mummification happens not that rarely if you're in a crypt?
Apparently! Though how much of this is embalming? Your climate is the last one I would expect to lead to spontaneous mummification. Though I guess if the tomb is really, really airtight...
but then I looked at the James Keith portrait Pesne made and there you actually can see the resemblence
You can! Also, if he was buried with the Order of the Black Eagle, that would help with the identification.
Thank you for the Fontane poem, that was fascinating. I can see why Menzel was disgruntled, but I can also see why Fontane was surprised and thought it would be a great gift.
Fritz/Voltaire, though! If France and Prussia being at war were such an obstacle, then what's with them *reviving* their correspondence right after Prussia got its butt kicked for the first time? And "hero-poet-philosopher-warrior-mischievous-singular-brilliant-proud-modest king" coming 2 months after Rossbach? :P
If Voltaire is leaving the round table, it's for personal reasons. And cahn is right, anyone who stays is going to have to hear about him, at length, repeatedly. :D
Question. If Émilie had lived a few years longer (*sob*), and Voltaire had come to Prussia in 1755 or even 1756, what do you think would have happened when the war started?
Fritz/Voltaire, though! If France and Prussia being at war were such an obstacle, then what's with them *reviving* their correspondence right after Prussia got its butt kicked for the first time? And "hero-poet-philosopher-warrior-mischievous-singular-brilliant-proud-modest king" coming 2 months after Rossbach? :P
Indeed. Whatever problems they had with each other, hurt patriotism on either side, let alone modern style nationalism, didn't come into it. (That was something Pleschinski said as well when telling me about reading a selecton of their letters together with a French writer in front of the European Parliament.)
Question. If Émilie had lived a few years longer (*sob*), and Voltaire had come to Prussia in 1755 or even 1756, what do you think would have happened when the war started?
Hmmmmm. Difficult to say. I mean they would have found reasons to argue even with Maupertuis in France for health reasons and König who knows where, because they were Fritz and Voltaire. But if Voltaire hasn't been there for even a year before the war starts, the honeymoon isn't quite over. Then again: Fritz in war modus, or preparing war mode, has notably less time for les beaux arts, and would he assume Voltaire tries to spy again or not?
The French intellectuals who actually did have to make a choice aren't really good comparisons. Maupertuis was in France for completely different reasons when the war started, and it was a real problem for him because on the one hand he was surrounded by people who expected him not to go back, and/or resign his post as President of the Academy as a patriotic gesture, but on the other his wife was in Prussia, he knew Fritz wouldn't forgive him if he resigned now, and he actually hadn't planned on quitting anyway. In the event, his health was deterioating, not improving, so he was spared a direct choice about returning or remaining in France. For all his hypochondriac ways, I doubt Voltaire would have been in a comparable situation.
The Marquis d'Argens, otoh, was in Prussia when the war started and remained in Prussia as far as I know - though again, his wife was there, and he had an income and security there he might not have been able to expect in France at that time. Also, unlike Maupertuis, he seems to have made connections to the local intellectuals beyond the Academy - see him knowing Nicolai, Mendelssohn, and hiring a local to learn Hebrew from. I'm not saying his friendship with Fritz wasn't strong or wasn't his main motive for remaining, just pointing out he had additional motivations which would not have been true for Voltaire.
If Voltaire would have chosen to remain in Prussia, he'd have been stuck with Berlin depleted of most people he actually knew, notably Fritz himself. Yes, their correspondence might have been faster than the very tricky corresponding across war lines, but they still would have seen each other only in winter. And where's Madame Denis in all of this? Because her, I can't see voluntarily remaining in Prussia for the duration of the war. (Even without anything comparable to the Frankfurt experience.) Possibly Voltaire could have gone to Wilhelmine at Bayreuth as long as she still lived - it would have provided intellectual conversation with someone he liked and who liked him, in comfortable surroundings, and they could have tried to organize a secret channel for Fritz to negotiate with the French together much as they did in rl - but that also would have only been a temporary solution. So he might have decided to move to Switzerland in such a secenario as well. What I really can't see is Voltaire sticking it out with Lehndorff and EC at Magdeburg...
What I really can't see is Voltaire sticking it out with Lehndorff and EC at Magdeburg...
Ha, yes. And I really can't see him doing what d'Argens did either. His feelings about the "hero" version of Fritz were ambiguous enough from afar, I don't think they'd have gotten any better up close, honeymoon or not.
(One other French person who was still there: De Prades. Who got arrested for spying IIRC.)
Speaking of, though. I read a few Voltaire letters, because I was missing some "Voltaire totally doesn't care about Fritz anymore, why would you think that??" in my life. All of these are from early in the war and of course written with break-up/Frankfurt hindsight, but still.
To Darget, October 5th, 1757: We did not expect, my dear friend, when we were in Potsdam, that the Russians would come to Koenigsberg with a hundred pieces of heavy cannon, and that M. de Richelieu would be at the gates of Magdeburg at the same time. What may still surprise you, is that the King of Prussia is writing to me today, and that I am busy consoling him. Here we are all scattered. Do you remember it was between you and Algarotti who was going to run off first? [...] I flatter myself that yours [i.e. his life] is happy, that your job leaves you free, and that you do not regret having left the banks of the Spree. There is nothing left but poor d'Argens; I pity him, but I pity his master even more. My garden is much nicer than the one in Potsdam, and luckily there is no parade there.
To D'Argental, November 8th: I am not sorry that my Solomon du Nord has some supporters in Paris, and that it is seen that I did not praise a fool. I am interested in his glory for self-esteem, and at the same time I am glad, for reason and fairness, that he is being punished a little. I want to see if adversity will bring him back to philosophy. I swear to you that a month ago he was hardly a philosopher; despair won; it is not a disagreeable role for me to have given him very fatherly advice on this occasion. This anecdote is curious. His life and, reverently speaking, mine are pleasant contrasts; but anyway he admits that I'm happier than him: that's a great point and a fine lesson.
And on December 2nd: It is true that I have a very singular correspondence, but it certainly does not change my feelings; and, at my age, lonely, crippled, I have and must have no other idea than to end my life quietly in a very sweet retirement. If I was twenty-five and in good health, I would take care not to base the lightest hope on a prince who, after having torn me from my country, after having forced me, by unheard-of seductions, to attach myself to him, treated me and my niece in such a cruel way.
(... unheard-of seductions you say?)
And on January 5th, 1758: There is a comedy by the King of Prussia called The Fashion Monkey; we could play it well, while he causes such terrible tragedies in Germany. The disaster was somewhat expected: you would not have said, the 1st of October, he would crush everything, when others took him for crushed, and he wrote me that he was lost and wanted to die, and when I wiped away his tears from afar that I no longer want to wipe up close. You only have to live to see wonders.
Woooow those letters. Those are amazing. Mixed feelings, much? Why is every letter between Fritz and Voltaire or by one about the other pure gold? Wow.
Do you remember it was between you and Algarotti who was going to run off first?
Lol, I had a job once where we were making bets as to who was going to leave in what order. :P
It is true that I have a very singular correspondence
Singular is one way to describe it!
because I was missing some "Voltaire totally doesn't care about Fritz anymore, why would you think that??" in my life.
Do you remember it was between you and Algarotti who was going to run off first?
Lol, I had a job once where we were making bets as to who was going to leave in what order. :P
Nicolai: This why they were all unworthy. Only D'Argens was worthy!
BTW, who did run off first, Darget or Algarotti? (Not counting Algarotti's first bolter to the fleshpots of Saxony.)
I can imagine the table round having a secret pool on this question, absolutely. The Keith brothers, being Jacobite exiles, have no intention of leaving their gainful employment so aren't candidates, but I'm sure they placed bets!
(BTW, ever since you told us the Ice Palace Wedding tale, I can see why James Keith, his excellent position in the Russian army not withstanding, might have concluded Fritz was a better monarch to serve than a Czarina who might take it into her head to marry him off next....
According to Trier, it was Darget. He left in March 1752 (for health reasons, tried and true I guess), and while Algarotti apparently started to ask for permission to leave around the same time, he only got it in 1753. (Not that Fritz thought Darget wouldn't return, Darget only got his official leave in 1753 as well. Also, Fritz ends quite a few of his letters to Darget with "piss well", which probably tells you what the health reasons were. :P He also gossips about Voltaire (from he's the meanest madman I've ever met in 1752 to tell me everything and anything you hear about him! in 1754), just like Voltaire gossips about Fritz to Darget a couple years later.)
might have concluded Fritz was a better monarch to serve than a Czarina who might take it into her head to marry him off next
Ah, but that Czarina died in 1740, and Keith only left in 1747.
(Which I remember because I came across it recently, when I looked into our other Lt.Col. Keith, Robert, spouse of Suhm's daughter. Who, by the way, was with his cousin James in Russian service and followed him to Prussia a bit later, in 1748. Which also means that any references to a Lt.Col. Keith in Berlin before 1748 = definitely not Robert. He apparently stayed until 1758, though, when James died, and then left (in the middle of the war no less!) to become a colonel and later a general in Danish service.)
Which also means that any references to a Lt.Col. Keith in Berlin before 1748 = definitely not Robert.
Exxxxcellent, then we can start including the Peter & Knobelsdorff cooperation into the official chronology.
Do we have memoirs from Darget, btw? If so, I haven't come across them yet. His pov on everything from showing up in The Palladion to Valory to the entire Fritz/Voltaire saga ought to be fascinating.
Also, was Voltaire the only one whose official reason for leaving weren't "health reasons"?
Exxxxcellent, then we can start including the Peter & Knobelsdorff cooperation into the official chronology.
It's on my list for this weekend! Both rheinsberg and the chronology need the latest Peter findings incorporated.
Do we have memoirs from Darget, btw?
OH MAN I HOPE SO. I've had a hard time tracking anything on him down, though; though admittedly last time I tried was over a year ago, when we had fewer sources for tracking people down. Perhaps Detective felis will find something!
Also, was Voltaire the only one whose official reason for leaving weren't "health reasons"?
I'm pretty sure that was Voltaire's reason too. Fritz was like, "You don't have to lie, you can go any time you want."
He may quit my service whenever he chooses, he doesn’t need to use the pretext of taking the waters in Plombières, but might he have the goodness to return to me before he leaves, his contract, the key, the cross, and the volume of poetry I lent him; I should have been content had he and König merely attacked my works, I am happy to offer them up to those who enjoy denigrating the reputation of others; I have none of the lunacy or vanity of authors, and the cabals of literary folk seem to me the very pinnacle of vileness
re: Darget - I've never encountered any mention of Darget memoirs, only references to his correspondence with various people. Trier doesn't list any in the bibliographical notes for his letters either, so I'm inclined to say there aren't any. :(
According to Trier, it was Darget. He left in March 1752 (for health reasons, tried and true I guess), and while Algarotti apparently started to ask for permission to leave around the same time, he only got it in 1753.
Sweet, my memory was correct! I was going to say this, but with the caveat that it was from memory and I don't remember where I read this.
Ah, but that Czarina died in 1740, and Keith only left in 1747.
Now this I was going to say with far more confidence, or at least that the chronology only sort of works. Because the chronology, per Wikipedia, goes like this:
1730-1740: Anna Ivanovna Czarina. 1740, February: Ice palace wedding. 1740, October: Anna Ivanovna dies. Ivan VI becomes Czar and Anna Leopoldovna regent. 1741: James Keith participates in the coup that puts Elizaveta in power. 1741-1743: James Keith one of the main commanders in the Russo-Swedish war, occupies Finland, meets his mistress Eva Merthen. 1747: James Keith joins Fritz.
Now, I really wish I had a reliable source on what was going on in Russia at the time, because German wiki says:
Keith enjoyed the favor of the Empress Anna Ivanovna, who distinguished him several times and appointed general of the infantry. After the death of his patroness in 1740, his luck turned. In order to avoid the stalking [" Nachstellungen"--is she hitting on him?] of her successor Elisabeth and the intrigues of her Chancellor Alexei Pyotrovich Bestuschew, he finally asked for his release, which he was granted in July 1747.
, while English wiki has such howlers as
Frederick also travelled incognito with Keith throughout Germany and Hungary.
and
Frederick commemorated Keith on the Rheinsberg Obelisk
alongside interesting remarks as
Keith developed a game of chess for Frederick, life-sized, that the two would play
which I would like to know if they were true. (If he was incognito in Hungary, then he was *really* incognito, because I for one don't recall any incognito Fritz-in-Hungary stories, and we've seen how bad he is at incognito! Supposedly even in the Netherlands he was outed, although not as badly as Strasbourg.
German wiki predictably gets Heinrich as the creator of the Rheinsberg monument right, but I'm not sure how reliable it is on Elizaveta stalking James and Bestuschev's intriguing as James' motives for leaving, since German wiki relies on a 19th century German source (von Ense) as usual. (James' memoirs, remember, only go up to ~1735.) Btw, does Nachfolgerin mean "next successor but one"? Because German wiki is skipping Ivan. Understandably, but they are telescoping.
Anyway, contemporary Russian sources and modern scholarship comparable to what we've collected for Prussia would be greatly interesting to me. Did James Keith help put Elizaveta on the throne? I would like a better source on that.
To go back to our original topic, the reason I say the chronology only "sort of" works is that James may well have, after witnessing/hearing about the Ice Wedding, have been a little unnerved at the fact that the Russian czarinas had this much power over people. Elizaveta famously never executed anyone during her reign, but, a few years into her reign, nobody knows what she's going to do.
Also, speaking of James, I can't remember if I mentioned it when I first encountered it, but I recently ran into it again: the Prussian archives have a "manner of living of the King of Prussia" manuscript authored by James Keith. That's something I'd like to see!
Nachstellungen: yes, my first interpretation would be that she's hitting on him. But you're right, 19th century sources are less than reliable especially when it comes to female monarchs. Though I suppose sooner or later, I'll have work my way through Varnhagen von Ense's numerous Prussian biographies, though I am really interested only in the one about his wife, Rahel, who was one of the most compelling of Berlin salonnieres of her time.
LOL on Fritz commemorating anyone on the Rheinsberg Monument. And travelling through Hungary. Hey, this is a way for him getting captured that I haven't considered at all until now! I mean, sure, presumably these tours would have taken place between wars, not in war time, but wellllll....
See, Andrew Bisset, since you were such a James Keith fanboy, you should have written his biography as well, then we'd know more!
These letter excerpts are all golden. Fritz/Voltaire: the ship where canon is better than anything fanfiction can come up with, and I say that as someone who's written about them!
There is a comedy by the King of Prussia called The Fashion Monkey;
There literally is, and it's fascinating Voltaire remembers, because he wasn't there at the time it got performed. (And I doubt there were any later performances.) It recently came up in the Manteuffel & Wolff dissertation, because Fritz wrote it to diss his Rheinsberg court preader and Wolff fan Dechamps who'd dissed Voltaire. (Reminder for cahn from my write up: In 1741, (Dechamps) attempts to strike out against Voltaire in a major way and gets busy writing Cours abrégé de la philosophie wolffiene en formé de lettres, in which he says that Voltaire was just a rude religion mocker with the ability of making some neat verses, and an ugly, grimacing dwarf of a man to boot. Also, the works of the great Wolff naturally can't be understood by such a creature. Dechamps dedicates this to his two students and sends a copy directly to Fritz as soon as it's printed. The reaction doesn't take long. On November 1742, a one act play gets performed in Charlottenburg, Le singe de la Mode, in which a stupid provincial nobleman is looking for books to feel the shelves of his new library with. He discovers that the volumes best suited for this purpose are hundreds of copies of Dechamps' Cours abregé, which he can get to a bargain price since no one wanted to buy or read them. The author of this play: Fritz. How does Dechamps find out? From little Ferdinand.
As you, felis, pointed out, the play was performed on the occasion of Keyserlingk's wedding. For Voltaire, who wasn't there and only heard about it via mail, to still recall something Fritz wrote to satirize someone else on his behalf nearly two decades later is something else again. :)
after having forced me, by unheard-of seductions, to attach myself to him
I am dying.
Die some more when recalling the guy he writes this to is the same D'Argental who as far as I recall was the recipient of Émilie's "it's a pretty rivalry we have" letter re: Fritz and his attempts to steal Voltaire from her. I'm imagining D'Argental reading this and going "as I remember, you were not exactly an unwilling virgin; more like a two timing coquette!"
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Corpse portraits
Date: 2021-03-27 06:36 am (UTC)I was first a bit surprised that Menzel could immediately tell it was James K. from the idealized portraits he was familiar with, given that, say, Fritz' death mask look nothing like his youthful Pesne portraits, but then I looked at the James Keith portrait Pesne made and there you actually can see the resemblence:
Oh, and as
About Menzel: came a cross a minor Fontane poem celebrating his 70th birthday (On the stairs to Sanssouci, in which he imagines making a winter stroll and encountering Fritz' ghost, who asks what's up with this "Menzelfest", who is Menzel? The poem's "I" explains (praising the huge variety of Menzel's paintings, from social realism to Fritzian illustrations), and Fritz is impressed and decides to offer as his present to Menzel a place in his table round, not right now, of course, but when Menzel wants to have it, he can take as much time as he wants. There's one place free now anyway since Voltaire has left in 1870, being French. (
Nur Herr von Voltaire fehlt seit Anno 70;
Franzose, rapplig. Dieser Platz ist frei.
Den reservier' ich ihm. Bestell' Er's. Hört Er?
Ich bin Sein gnäd'ger König. Serviteur!«
When I read that, I thought both that Fontane totally would go for that bodyswitch crack fic, and also, what is it about RPF writers breaking Fritz and Voltaire up in the Hereafter? (Remember, Boie also did that in the "Totengespräche" fic that Bronisch mentions at the end of his dissertation, where Fritz tells Wolff he's been Wolff's padawan, gets introduced to Lessing at last and ditches Voltaire.) I mean, I get wanting to give Menzel the ultimate fanboy reward, and to be sure, the Fritz the 19th century imagined was at least as much formed by Menzel's depictions as by Kugler's and Preuss' writings, but any Fritz (in whichever ghostly state) who's ready to give up Voltaire for good is ooc for me. :)
Re: Corpse portraits
Date: 2021-03-28 12:32 am (UTC)Lol! How I imagine Fritz in all of these afterlife RPFs:
Fritz: Good riddance to that conceited bastard. These other writers are way more awesome, anyway!
[Five minutes later]: Lessing and Menzel, let me read you this thing Voltaire wrote. Isn't he the absolute WORST? [shouts through the ether] Hey Voltaire, you know you can come back anytime!
Re: Corpse portraits
Date: 2021-03-28 12:58 am (UTC)This is the best and exactly what is happening as we speak!
Utterly bother-free visits in the afterlife. :D
Re: Corpse portraits
Date: 2021-03-28 06:02 am (UTC)Algarotti: I'm already spending part of my afterlife with Lady Mary and Lord Hervey, courtesy of that Hervey biographer. These trips to the free thrinking Franco-Prussian sector of hte afterlife are exhausting!
Re: Corpse portraits
Date: 2021-03-28 12:52 pm (UTC)Pff. Says the man whose life took him from Venice to Rome to Venice to Bologna to Venice to Padua to Bologna to Florence to Rome to Paris to Cirey to London to Cirey to Venice to to Paris to London to St. Petersburg to Danzig to Dresden to Leipzig to Potsdam to Berlin to Rheinsberg to Hamburg to London to Berlin to Turin to Berlin to Silesia to Dresden to Berlin to Dresden to Venice to Berlin to Bologna to Berlin to Venice to Bologna, before finally moving to Pisa to die. :P I imagine he's traveling all over the afterlife!
(Man, our chronology doc is great. :D)
Re: Corpse portraits
Date: 2021-03-28 12:35 pm (UTC)Apparently! Though how much of this is embalming? Your climate is the last one I would expect to lead to spontaneous mummification. Though I guess if the tomb is really, really airtight...
but then I looked at the James Keith portrait Pesne made and there you actually can see the resemblence
You can! Also, if he was buried with the Order of the Black Eagle, that would help with the identification.
Thank you for the Fontane poem, that was fascinating. I can see why Menzel was disgruntled, but I can also see why Fontane was surprised and thought it would be a great gift.
Fritz/Voltaire, though! If France and Prussia being at war were such an obstacle, then what's with them *reviving* their correspondence right after Prussia got its butt kicked for the first time? And "hero-poet-philosopher-warrior-mischievous-singular-brilliant-proud-modest king" coming 2 months after Rossbach? :P
If Voltaire is leaving the round table, it's for personal reasons. And
Question. If Émilie had lived a few years longer (*sob*), and Voltaire had come to Prussia in 1755 or even 1756, what do you think would have happened when the war started?
Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-28 03:51 pm (UTC)Indeed. Whatever problems they had with each other, hurt patriotism on either side, let alone modern style nationalism, didn't come into it. (That was something Pleschinski said as well when telling me about reading a selecton of their letters together with a French writer in front of the European Parliament.)
Question. If Émilie had lived a few years longer (*sob*), and Voltaire had come to Prussia in 1755 or even 1756, what do you think would have happened when the war started?
Hmmmmm. Difficult to say. I mean they would have found reasons to argue even with Maupertuis in France for health reasons and König who knows where, because they were Fritz and Voltaire. But if Voltaire hasn't been there for even a year before the war starts, the honeymoon isn't quite over. Then again: Fritz in war modus, or preparing war mode, has notably less time for les beaux arts, and would he assume Voltaire tries to spy again or not?
The French intellectuals who actually did have to make a choice aren't really good comparisons. Maupertuis was in France for completely different reasons when the war started, and it was a real problem for him because on the one hand he was surrounded by people who expected him not to go back, and/or resign his post as President of the Academy as a patriotic gesture, but on the other his wife was in Prussia, he knew Fritz wouldn't forgive him if he resigned now, and he actually hadn't planned on quitting anyway. In the event, his health was deterioating, not improving, so he was spared a direct choice about returning or remaining in France. For all his hypochondriac ways, I doubt Voltaire would have been in a comparable situation.
The Marquis d'Argens, otoh, was in Prussia when the war started and remained in Prussia as far as I know - though again, his wife was there, and he had an income and security there he might not have been able to expect in France at that time. Also, unlike Maupertuis, he seems to have made connections to the local intellectuals beyond the Academy - see him knowing Nicolai, Mendelssohn, and hiring a local to learn Hebrew from. I'm not saying his friendship with Fritz wasn't strong or wasn't his main motive for remaining, just pointing out he had additional motivations which would not have been true for Voltaire.
If Voltaire would have chosen to remain in Prussia, he'd have been stuck with Berlin depleted of most people he actually knew, notably Fritz himself. Yes, their correspondence might have been faster than the very tricky corresponding across war lines, but they still would have seen each other only in winter. And where's Madame Denis in all of this? Because her, I can't see voluntarily remaining in Prussia for the duration of the war. (Even without anything comparable to the Frankfurt experience.) Possibly Voltaire could have gone to Wilhelmine at Bayreuth as long as she still lived - it would have provided intellectual conversation with someone he liked and who liked him, in comfortable surroundings, and they could have tried to organize a secret channel for Fritz to negotiate with the French together much as they did in rl - but that also would have only been a temporary solution. So he might have decided to move to Switzerland in such a secenario as well. What I really can't see is Voltaire sticking it out with Lehndorff and EC at Magdeburg...
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-28 09:47 pm (UTC)Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-28 10:01 pm (UTC)Ha, yes. And I really can't see him doing what d'Argens did either. His feelings about the "hero" version of Fritz were ambiguous enough from afar, I don't think they'd have gotten any better up close, honeymoon or not.
(One other French person who was still there: De Prades. Who got arrested for spying IIRC.)
Speaking of, though. I read a few Voltaire letters, because I was missing some "Voltaire totally doesn't care about Fritz anymore, why would you think that??" in my life. All of these are from early in the war and of course written with break-up/Frankfurt hindsight, but still.
To Darget, October 5th, 1757:
We did not expect, my dear friend, when we were in Potsdam, that the Russians would come to Koenigsberg with a hundred pieces of heavy cannon, and that M. de Richelieu would be at the gates of Magdeburg at the same time. What may still surprise you, is that the King of Prussia is writing to me today, and that I am busy consoling him. Here we are all scattered. Do you remember it was between you and Algarotti who was going to run off first?
[...] I flatter myself that yours [i.e. his life] is happy, that your job leaves you free, and that you do not regret having left the banks of the Spree. There is nothing left but poor d'Argens; I pity him, but I pity his master even more. My garden is much nicer than the one in Potsdam, and luckily there is no parade there.
To D'Argental, November 8th:
I am not sorry that my Solomon du Nord has some supporters in Paris, and that it is seen that I did not praise a fool. I am interested in his glory for self-esteem, and at the same time I am glad, for reason and fairness, that he is being punished a little. I want to see if adversity will bring him back to philosophy. I swear to you that a month ago he was hardly a philosopher; despair won; it is not a disagreeable role for me to have given him very fatherly advice on this occasion. This anecdote is curious. His life and, reverently speaking, mine are pleasant contrasts; but anyway he admits that I'm happier than him: that's a great point and a fine lesson.
And on December 2nd:
It is true that I have a very singular correspondence, but it certainly does not change my feelings; and, at my age, lonely, crippled, I have and must have no other idea than to end my life quietly in a very sweet retirement. If I was twenty-five and in good health, I would take care not to base the lightest hope on a prince who, after having torn me from my country, after having forced me, by unheard-of seductions, to attach myself to him, treated me and my niece in such a cruel way.
(... unheard-of seductions you say?)
And on January 5th, 1758:
There is a comedy by the King of Prussia called The Fashion Monkey; we could play it well, while he causes such terrible tragedies in Germany. The disaster was somewhat expected: you would not have said, the 1st of October, he would crush everything, when others took him for crushed, and he wrote me that he was lost and wanted to die, and when I wiped away his tears from afar that I no longer want to wipe up close. You only have to live to see wonders.
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-28 10:24 pm (UTC)Do you remember it was between you and Algarotti who was going to run off first?
Lol, I had a job once where we were making bets as to who was going to leave in what order. :P
It is true that I have a very singular correspondence
Singular is one way to describe it!
because I was missing some "Voltaire totally doesn't care about Fritz anymore, why would you think that??" in my life.
:DDDD
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-29 05:28 am (UTC)Lol, I had a job once where we were making bets as to who was going to leave in what order. :P
Nicolai: This why they were all unworthy. Only D'Argens was worthy!
BTW, who did run off first, Darget or Algarotti? (Not counting Algarotti's first bolter to the fleshpots of Saxony.)
I can imagine the table round having a secret pool on this question, absolutely. The Keith brothers, being Jacobite exiles, have no intention of leaving their gainful employment so aren't candidates, but I'm sure they placed bets!
(BTW, ever since you told us the Ice Palace Wedding tale, I can see why James Keith, his excellent position in the Russian army not withstanding, might have concluded Fritz was a better monarch to serve than a Czarina who might take it into her head to marry him off next....
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-30 10:17 am (UTC)According to Trier, it was Darget. He left in March 1752 (for health reasons, tried and true I guess), and while Algarotti apparently started to ask for permission to leave around the same time, he only got it in 1753. (Not that Fritz thought Darget wouldn't return, Darget only got his official leave in 1753 as well. Also, Fritz ends quite a few of his letters to Darget with "piss well", which probably tells you what the health reasons were. :P He also gossips about Voltaire (from he's the meanest madman I've ever met in 1752 to tell me everything and anything you hear about him! in 1754), just like Voltaire gossips about Fritz to Darget a couple years later.)
might have concluded Fritz was a better monarch to serve than a Czarina who might take it into her head to marry him off next
Ah, but that Czarina died in 1740, and Keith only left in 1747.
(Which I remember because I came across it recently, when I looked into our other Lt.Col. Keith, Robert, spouse of Suhm's daughter. Who, by the way, was with his cousin James in Russian service and followed him to Prussia a bit later, in 1748. Which also means that any references to a Lt.Col. Keith in Berlin before 1748 = definitely not Robert. He apparently stayed until 1758, though, when James died, and then left (in the middle of the war no less!) to become a colonel and later a general in Danish service.)
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-30 11:03 am (UTC)Exxxxcellent, then we can start including the Peter & Knobelsdorff cooperation into the official chronology.
Do we have memoirs from Darget, btw? If so, I haven't come across them yet. His pov on everything from showing up in The Palladion to Valory to the entire Fritz/Voltaire saga ought to be fascinating.
Also, was Voltaire the only one whose official reason for leaving weren't "health reasons"?
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-30 12:13 pm (UTC)It's on my list for this weekend! Both
Do we have memoirs from Darget, btw?
OH MAN I HOPE SO. I've had a hard time tracking anything on him down, though; though admittedly last time I tried was over a year ago, when we had fewer sources for tracking people down. Perhaps Detective
Also, was Voltaire the only one whose official reason for leaving weren't "health reasons"?
I'm pretty sure that was Voltaire's reason too. Fritz was like, "You don't have to lie, you can go any time you want."
He may quit my service whenever he chooses, he doesn’t need to use the pretext of taking the waters in Plombières, but might he have the goodness to return to me before he leaves, his contract, the key, the cross, and the volume of poetry I lent him; I should have been content had he and König merely attacked my works, I am happy to offer them up to those who enjoy denigrating the reputation of others; I have none of the lunacy or vanity of authors, and the cabals of literary folk seem to me the very pinnacle of vileness
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-30 01:33 pm (UTC)Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-30 12:11 pm (UTC)Sweet, my memory was correct! I was going to say this, but with the caveat that it was from memory and I don't remember where I read this.
Ah, but that Czarina died in 1740, and Keith only left in 1747.
Now this I was going to say with far more confidence, or at least that the chronology only sort of works. Because the chronology, per Wikipedia, goes like this:
1730-1740: Anna Ivanovna Czarina.
1740, February: Ice palace wedding.
1740, October: Anna Ivanovna dies. Ivan VI becomes Czar and Anna Leopoldovna regent.
1741: James Keith participates in the coup that puts Elizaveta in power.
1741-1743: James Keith one of the main commanders in the Russo-Swedish war, occupies Finland, meets his mistress Eva Merthen.
1747: James Keith joins Fritz.
Now, I really wish I had a reliable source on what was going on in Russia at the time, because German wiki says:
Keith enjoyed the favor of the Empress Anna Ivanovna, who distinguished him several times and appointed general of the infantry. After the death of his patroness in 1740, his luck turned. In order to avoid the stalking [" Nachstellungen"--is she hitting on him?] of her successor Elisabeth and the intrigues of her Chancellor Alexei Pyotrovich Bestuschew, he finally asked for his release, which he was granted in July 1747.
, while English wiki has such howlers as
Frederick also travelled incognito with Keith throughout Germany and Hungary.
and
Frederick commemorated Keith on the Rheinsberg Obelisk
alongside interesting remarks as
Keith developed a game of chess for Frederick, life-sized, that the two would play
which I would like to know if they were true. (If he was incognito in Hungary, then he was *really* incognito, because I for one don't recall any incognito Fritz-in-Hungary stories, and we've seen how bad he is at incognito! Supposedly even in the Netherlands he was outed, although not as badly as Strasbourg.
German wiki predictably gets Heinrich as the creator of the Rheinsberg monument right, but I'm not sure how reliable it is on Elizaveta stalking James and Bestuschev's intriguing as James' motives for leaving, since German wiki relies on a 19th century German source (von Ense) as usual. (James' memoirs, remember, only go up to ~1735.) Btw, does Nachfolgerin mean "next successor but one"? Because German wiki is skipping Ivan. Understandably, but they are telescoping.
Anyway, contemporary Russian sources and modern scholarship comparable to what we've collected for Prussia would be greatly interesting to me. Did James Keith help put Elizaveta on the throne? I would like a better source on that.
To go back to our original topic, the reason I say the chronology only "sort of" works is that James may well have, after witnessing/hearing about the Ice Wedding, have been a little unnerved at the fact that the Russian czarinas had this much power over people. Elizaveta famously never executed anyone during her reign, but, a few years into her reign, nobody knows what she's going to do.
Also, speaking of James, I can't remember if I mentioned it when I first encountered it, but I recently ran into it again: the Prussian archives have a "manner of living of the King of Prussia" manuscript authored by James Keith. That's something I'd like to see!
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-30 12:27 pm (UTC)LOL on Fritz commemorating anyone on the Rheinsberg Monument. And travelling through Hungary. Hey, this is a way for him getting captured that I haven't considered at all until now! I mean, sure, presumably these tours would have taken place between wars, not in war time, but wellllll....
See, Andrew Bisset, since you were such a James Keith fanboy, you should have written his biography as well, then we'd know more!
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-29 05:40 am (UTC)There is a comedy by the King of Prussia called The Fashion Monkey;
There literally is, and it's fascinating Voltaire remembers, because he wasn't there at the time it got performed. (And I doubt there were any later performances.) It recently came up in the Manteuffel & Wolff dissertation, because Fritz wrote it to diss his Rheinsberg court preader and Wolff fan Dechamps who'd dissed Voltaire. (Reminder for
As you,
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-29 08:36 pm (UTC)Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-03-29 08:44 pm (UTC)Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-04-01 04:42 am (UTC)I read a few Voltaire letters, because I was missing some "Voltaire totally doesn't care about Fritz anymore, why would you think that??" in my life.
Hee, I totally laughed :D
What may still surprise you, is that the King of Prussia is writing to me today, and that I am busy consoling him.
Ha, yes, Voltaire, that was indeed surprising to everyone else :D
I am interested in his glory for self-esteem, and at the same time I am glad, for reason and fairness, that he is being punished a little.
Oh Voltaire.
after having forced me, by unheard-of seductions, to attach myself to him
I am dying.
Re: Voltaire: will you stay or will you go?
Date: 2021-04-01 08:21 am (UTC)I am dying.
Die some more when recalling the guy he writes this to is the same D'Argental who as far as I recall was the recipient of Émilie's "it's a pretty rivalry we have" letter re: Fritz and his attempts to steal Voltaire from her. I'm imagining D'Argental reading this and going "as I remember, you were not exactly an unwilling virgin; more like a two timing coquette!"