re: joli, it's also what Heinrich uses in his half German, half French letter to little Ferdinand, the first one preserved, when he's writing from the Silesian front - he asks him to be "joli", and I don't have the time right now to look up the entire short text, but I remember being surprised because the German phrase Heinrich uses to express the same thing didn't seem to fit "joli" as used today.
Re: quotes, yes, poor kid Fritz. It definitely sounds like SD (and Wilhelmine) feel the need to reassure FW.
re: AW, future lover of fireworks: writes Stratemann on October 30th 1728: Dienstags den 26. divertierte sich Nachmittags der Prinz August Wilhelm im Thiergarten mit Canonen-Schießen, maßen der junge Herr von Schießen und Soldaten ein großer Liebhaber ist.
In 1728, he'd be six years, so the same age as poor Fritz when SD feels the need to write those reassurances to FW. BTW, that's why I'm sceptical about that 19th century anecdote about toddler Fritz refusing to play with Wilhelmine's girly playthings and wanting to play with drums instead - it was so clearly what FW wanted from a son of his, and everyone knew it. (Btw, I do wonder at which age the children actually understood what soldiers do. I mean, when little AW is pushed to ask for mercy for a deserter, he has to ask what it exactly "hanging" means first, and given the anecdote Stratemann reports in November 1730 of his post Katte's death exchange with FW about not wanting to be a soldier anymore if Dad keeps beheading his officers, I think a case can be made that what attracted kid AW to playing with canons was just the excitement and the noise, without understanding what they were for.
Re: Fritz and fear of gunfire
Re: quotes, yes, poor kid Fritz. It definitely sounds like SD (and Wilhelmine) feel the need to reassure FW.
re: AW, future lover of fireworks: writes Stratemann on October 30th 1728: Dienstags den 26. divertierte sich Nachmittags der Prinz August Wilhelm im Thiergarten mit Canonen-Schießen, maßen der junge Herr von Schießen und Soldaten ein großer Liebhaber ist.
In 1728, he'd be six years, so the same age as poor Fritz when SD feels the need to write those reassurances to FW. BTW, that's why I'm sceptical about that 19th century anecdote about toddler Fritz refusing to play with Wilhelmine's girly playthings and wanting to play with drums instead - it was so clearly what FW wanted from a son of his, and everyone knew it. (Btw, I do wonder at which age the children actually understood what soldiers do. I mean, when little AW is pushed to ask for mercy for a deserter, he has to ask what it exactly "hanging" means first, and given the anecdote Stratemann reports in November 1730 of his post Katte's death exchange with FW about not wanting to be a soldier anymore if Dad keeps beheading his officers, I think a case can be made that what attracted kid AW to playing with canons was just the excitement and the noise, without understanding what they were for.