Look at you doing scholarly research! This is amazing! :DDD
(Mildred will at some point, when she's a little less busy, post this in the library.)
Oh right! Thank you for the reminder. I will indeed. This weekend I've decided to devote entirely to book-digitizing in hopes of getting it over with sooner rather than later. Poor Peter Keith's ghost is waiting patiently, and now Wilhelmine's travel diary will have to wait a couple weeks before I can start (it mostly seems to be a list of sights seen, so there may not be much exciting material), but I've added Pamela to my post-digitization todo list as well.
-I would love to read Magnan's writing on this, if Royal Detective can get her hands on it :D
Royal Detective looked into this when we first learned about it and came to the conclusion that it would be doable but not cheap. It's totally on my list for when I finish German and move on to French, though. Do you want it now, or are you willing to wait until next year?
ETA:
...huh, I just reread that bit and you know what he doesn't say?! He doesn't say that the dirty laundry story is false! He just, you know, implies and insinuates that it's false. But he doesn't come out outright and say it. Hmmmmmm.
Yes, one of the Fritz or Voltaire biographers I've read, I forget which, says that Voltaire's objection wasn't that the story was false, but that it was passed onto Fritz.
Yeah, I also haven't forgotten I owe you some FamilySearch lookups, but ironically this will have to wait until I am free of... family obligations :) (This week it's my father-in-law visiting!)
Nah, I'll wait until next year for Magnan!
Yes, one of the Fritz or Voltaire biographers I've read, I forget which, says that Voltaire's objection wasn't that the story was false, but that it was passed onto Fritz.
Yeah... although he certainly wants you to think, in that letter, that the story's false. Listen to this:
Maupertuis discreetly spread the rumor that I found the king's works very bad; he accuses me of conspiring against a dangerous power, which is self-love; he silently says that the king having sent me his verses to correct, I replied: "Will he not tire of sending me his dirty laundry to be laundered?" He holds this strange speech in the ears of ten or twelve people...
The first draft of my comment above actually said that Voltaire said Maupertuis was slandering him, and then I thought, let me read that one more time before I press "post comment" on that, and then I was like... hmm...
The first draft of my comment above actually said that Voltaire said Maupertuis was slandering him, and then I thought, let me read that one more time before I press "post comment" on that, and then I was like... hmm...
:) Yep, it's all a matter of phrasing. (Hey, Voltaire had experience with law suits by then!) At no point does he deny having said it. Incidentally, since La Mettrie was the source Voltaire names for the orange peel quote, I looked up again what Nicolai claims D'Argens told him re: his fellow knights of the Sanssouci Table Round (reminder: in summation, that none of them loved Fritz and were worthy the way D'Argens was) , and it is this:
De La Mettrie wasn't really held in high regard by the King. Instead, (Fritz) regarded him as a clown who could amuse him entre deux vins now and then. De La Mettrie behaved very undignified towards the King; not only did he blab everywhere in Berlin about everything that was talked about at the King's table, he also narrated everything twistedly, with malicious addenda.
Though Nicolai doesn't say so directly, I do suspect that refers to the orange peel quote, and if so, note the La Mettrie put down doesn't claim La Mettrie invented stories, just that he "narrated everything twistedly". And so you don't have to look it up at Rheinsberg, here's D'Argens-via-Nicolai on Maupertuis and Voltaire:
Maupertuis, whom the King esteemed for his scientific abilities and pleasant manners, was full of quirks and pretensions, and envious of everyone for whom the King had as much as a kind word, for he thought he'd lose whatever the other gained. He was never satisfied, and consequently caused great irritation to the King whom he annoyed with his quirks and who would have liked to see him content.
Voltaire, although the greatest writer of them all by far, was the most ungrateful towards the King. He was jealous of everyone whom the King preferred. His utmost bitterness resulted from believing the King didn't distinguish him enough from the other scholarly favourites. Full of pride and petulance, he often when everyone was in great spirits lashed out against the others in the King's company, which displeased the King himself not a few times; two times, when Voltaire had been too insolent, the King had to speak as a King, and Voltaire, as proud as he'd been, was now immediately humbled. But he avenged himself through impudent and partially false stories he spread behind the King's back.
(Footnote from Nicolai here: D'Argens once told me with the vivaciousness of a Provence man about Voltaire: Le Bastard a de l'esprit come trente, mais il est malicious come un vieux singe.)
As I said in my original Nicolai write up - partially false? I note you never enlighten us which parts you and D'Argens think weren't false, Nicolai.
Yeah, I also haven't forgotten I owe you some FamilySearch lookups, but ironically this will have to wait
Yes, please wait! I have at least 2 more weeks of book-digitizing to go! Then you can do all the family searching for me in the world.
Nah, I'll wait until next year for Magnan!
Sounds good! It's definitely high on my list, assuming I manage to get to a good stopping point with German by the time I'm still in this fandom and motivated to study French.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Pamela
(Mildred will at some point, when she's a little less busy, post this in the library.)
Oh right! Thank you for the reminder. I will indeed. This weekend I've decided to devote entirely to book-digitizing in hopes of getting it over with sooner rather than later. Poor Peter Keith's ghost is waiting patiently, and now Wilhelmine's travel diary will have to wait a couple weeks before I can start (it mostly seems to be a list of sights seen, so there may not be much exciting material), but I've added Pamela to my post-digitization todo list as well.
-I would love to read Magnan's writing on this, if Royal Detective can get her hands on it :D
Royal Detective looked into this when we first learned about it and came to the conclusion that it would be doable but not cheap. It's totally on my list for when I finish German and move on to French, though. Do you want it now, or are you willing to wait until next year?
ETA:
...huh, I just reread that bit and you know what he doesn't say?! He doesn't say that the dirty laundry story is false! He just, you know, implies and insinuates that it's false. But he doesn't come out outright and say it. Hmmmmmm.
Yes, one of the Fritz or Voltaire biographers I've read, I forget which, says that Voltaire's objection wasn't that the story was false, but that it was passed onto Fritz.
Re: Pamela
Nah, I'll wait until next year for Magnan!
Yes, one of the Fritz or Voltaire biographers I've read, I forget which, says that Voltaire's objection wasn't that the story was false, but that it was passed onto Fritz.
Yeah... although he certainly wants you to think, in that letter, that the story's false. Listen to this:
Maupertuis discreetly spread the rumor that I found the king's works very bad; he accuses me of conspiring against a dangerous power, which is self-love; he silently says that the king having sent me his verses to correct, I replied: "Will he not tire of sending me his dirty laundry to be laundered?" He holds this strange speech in the ears of ten or twelve people...
(https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Correspondance_de_Voltaire/1752/Lettre_2398)
The first draft of my comment above actually said that Voltaire said Maupertuis was slandering him, and then I thought, let me read that one more time before I press "post comment" on that, and then I was like... hmm...
Re: Pamela
:) Yep, it's all a matter of phrasing. (Hey, Voltaire had experience with law suits by then!) At no point does he deny having said it. Incidentally, since La Mettrie was the source Voltaire names for the orange peel quote, I looked up again what Nicolai claims D'Argens told him re: his fellow knights of the Sanssouci Table Round (reminder: in summation, that none of them loved Fritz and were worthy the way D'Argens was) , and it is this:
De La Mettrie wasn't really held in high regard by the King. Instead, (Fritz) regarded him as a clown who could amuse him entre deux vins now and then. De La Mettrie behaved very undignified towards the King; not only did he blab everywhere in Berlin about everything that was talked about at the King's table, he also narrated everything twistedly, with malicious addenda.
Though Nicolai doesn't say so directly, I do suspect that refers to the orange peel quote, and if so, note the La Mettrie put down doesn't claim La Mettrie invented stories, just that he "narrated everything twistedly". And so you don't have to look it up at Rheinsberg, here's D'Argens-via-Nicolai on Maupertuis and Voltaire:
Maupertuis, whom the King esteemed for his scientific abilities and pleasant manners, was full of quirks and pretensions, and envious of everyone for whom the King had as much as a kind word, for he thought he'd lose whatever the other gained. He was never satisfied, and consequently caused great irritation to the King whom he annoyed with his quirks and who would have liked to see him content.
Voltaire, although the greatest writer of them all by far, was the most ungrateful towards the King. He was jealous of everyone whom the King preferred. His utmost bitterness resulted from believing the King didn't distinguish him enough from the other scholarly favourites. Full of pride and petulance, he often when everyone was in great spirits lashed out against the others in the King's company, which displeased the King himself not a few times; two times, when Voltaire had been too insolent, the King had to speak as a King, and Voltaire, as proud as he'd been, was now immediately humbled. But he avenged himself through impudent and partially false stories he spread behind the King's back.
(Footnote from Nicolai here: D'Argens once told me with the vivaciousness of a Provence man about Voltaire: Le Bastard a de l'esprit come trente, mais il est malicious come un vieux singe.)
As I said in my original Nicolai write up - partially false? I note you never enlighten us which parts you and D'Argens think weren't false, Nicolai.
Re: Pamela
Yes, please wait! I have at least 2 more weeks of book-digitizing to go! Then you can do all the family searching for me in the world.
Nah, I'll wait until next year for Magnan!
Sounds good! It's definitely high on my list, assuming I manage to get to a good stopping point with German by the time I'm still in this fandom and motivated to study French.