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cahnAnd including Emperor Joseph II!
from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:
Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.
(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)
from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:
Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.
(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)
Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-01-29 10:16 pm (UTC)Whether or not they're in Volz or anywhere else, I cannot say. But I've finally gotten them Google translated and uploaded here, so we can find out. I haven't read them yet, but just from preparing the translation, I can tell you that the editor is VERY emotional. She fangirls Fritz and Wilhelmine like there's no tomorrow, with words like "noble," tragic," and even "sacred." Opinions on their contemporaries are about what you'd expect, given that.
The original scan, complete with facsimiles, is here. A handful of the pages, especially the facsimiles, are upside down, because my scanner gets confused easily. If that's a problem for anyone, I can easily fix it.
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-01-30 10:41 am (UTC)The Writer, who went to visit her Tomb, came in by chance on a curious congregation of Jews, Buddhists, Infidels and Heretics (oh for her fine hand to describe them!) - few of any of the Faithful - attending the Requiem Mass for Franz Liszt.
The scans of the actual letters illustrate what both biographers and Fritz in one of his last letters to her meant about her handwriting as dropsy and gout, that twin inheritance from FW, crippled her more and more. BTW, they also, like the scans from earlier letters up at the Wilhelmine Travelling website, illlustrate she signs herself Wilhelmine, not "Wilhelmina", Nancy Goldstone. (Also not "Guillaumette", as one novel has her doing. I mean, I have no doubt Voltaire might have referred to her that way. But she signs "Wilhelmine".
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-01-30 04:26 pm (UTC)Yeah, figured that book whose title I can never remember was another contender. But it was my bounden duty to get these letters translated and uploaded in case there was something new to us. :)
Jews, Buddhists, Infidels and Heretics: I saw that!! I was planning to quote it, but then it was getting late and I didn't want to be ranting instead of doing the things I needed to do before bed. I figured if I linked you to it, you would pick up on that line, and lo, you did not disappoint. :)
And yeah, getting worked up about heretics in the late nineteenth century was really...something. Anti-Semitism and what I assume is Islamophobia are, alas, to be expected.
But she signs "Wilhelmine".
I was thinking of that, as Google translate relentlessly renders every "Wilhelmine" into a "Wilhelmina" in English. Lol, google.
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-01-31 06:20 am (UTC)Oof. But thank you for the context!
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-11 09:08 pm (UTC)Otherwise, as you guys said, opinionated editor and quite a few letters that have shown up before in bits and pieces. (Don't know how much is in Volz since I still haven't had the chance to read that one.)
It's also a genuinely sad experience to read these many Wilhelmine letters from her last years in a row, knowing exactly where things would lead and that she and Fritz would never see each other again. :(((
This bit from June 1756 made me smile, is very Wilhelmine, and the context for the sentence about peace I'd quoted before:
I acquired a little donkey that I named Rosinante on which I ride as gravely as The Knight de La Triste Figure, unable to walk without weakening. One of my Ladies, mounted like me, follows me. You will learn from the first day on of my prowess my dear brother. For I have no doubt that my valor will one day frighten away some turkey or other such fearsome animal. But I am abusing your patience by talking to you about these minutiae. Trifles are my province While you only have big business, and you decide on peace and war. Although set up as Dom Quixote, I think like Sancho who was a very peaceful creature, and I would very much like to be set up as a Doctor to put an end to the Carnage and the Fury that we have to destroy ourselves. I remember very appropriately that he often annoyed with his rigmarole, and I realize that I fall into the same inconvenience. I therefore end by reiterating to you, my very dear Brother, the Tenderness and the deep respect etc etc
Earlier that year, she'd compared herself to Biche:
While you are working for the tranquility and the peace of the Europe, you have the kindness to think of a health and a life that does not deserve to cause you the slightest worry. I am worth as much as the late Biche: she loved you, she was only attached to you, and she was faithful to you, this is my portrait. But she had one quality more than me, that she had the happiness of amusing you with her Antics, and I have the misfortune to be good for nothing to you. My Health is still very languishing. I believe that will only change in Spring.
In response, Fritz thinks Europe would be fine without him (I'm sure Europe is glad to hear it six months before the war :P):
I would sooner lose the idea of my existence than the memory of a Dear Sister whom I adore, your Health my dear sister affects me more than Europe, the latter would be fine without me, The World Governing Itself as well, The madmen who meddle in directing it do more harm than good; so don't think that I'm mad enough about politics to stifle in myself feelings of tenderness and friendship which are engraved in my heart from childhood.
I'd forgotten that 1756 was also the year of Ulrike's attempted coup, which has Wilhelmine worried as well: I hope, my dear brother, that your advice will get her out of trouble.
Fritz: I tried, she wouldn't listen, it's not my fault, her liveliness ran away with her and now she's sending me Great Jeremiads.
Before and during the war, Wilhelmine sends along everything she hears about troop movements (not just to Fritz but to Heinrich as well) and political machinations from all sides, plus reports on public opinion and religious propaganda. (if I wanted to laugh I would say that you are going to get a great place in Heaven as Defender of Faith)
She also has to deal with Bayreuth trying to stay neutral but being caught between all sides and suffering. They are trying to get away with not sending troops for the Imperial Army and are hoping that the Austrian/Imperial Army won't play "the same trick [...] on us as you played on the Saxons", i.e. strategic occupation.
Complicated letter writing (July 1757): I'm under much suspicion here. They spy on all my steps Despite my precautions, they learned that I had sent couriers. They even complained about it to the Margrave as well as that I had sent you some Deserters. The Austrian Huzards which are seen from time to time on the borders are a continuation of this. I took every step imaginable to deceive them.
By April 1758 it's so bad that she thanks the school of FW for her endurance of scarcity skills (this one is actually in the Solange... compilation, but I think it's worth quoting):
Here is to my regret perhaps the Last letter which I will have the honor to write to you. They're going to form a camp here in Bayreuth, our fortress is no longer ours. We are treated with all possible indignities and ruined from top to bottom. All of this is not so noticeable to me as the grief into which I will fall at no longer receiving your dear news and at not being able to write to you or be useful to you. I am in despair of speaking to you of my sorrows. I cannot entrust my situation to the pen, it is terrible.
However, my courage would not abandon me if they did not deprive me of the only Consolation which has still sustained me. No, my dear Brother, I am not too enamored with the goods of fortune for their loss to cause me the slightest grief. I'm obligated to the late King and to my upbringing, as I am able to be satisfied with little and live away from the world and its trappings. I know that one cannot debase what is not low, and I assure you that I'm above all the sorrows that can be caused to me on this side of things, and that I know how to make myself worthy of being your Sister by the firmness with which I will endure them. But alas, I am attacked at the sensitive place which is that of the Heart. I will only hear of you from your enemies. I will tremble for your life, for your health, finally, for the reverses of fortune, a state worse than that of the Damned.
And of course, there are her efforts for peace talks with France.
Wilhelmine: I will conduct this affair in such a way that you are not exposed, and that you can give me a nose if it does not succeed.
Fritz: You know all the consideration that I need in this affair, and how little I ought to appear in it: the slightest wind of it in England might ruin everything. [...] Anyway, I rely on you. To whom could I better entrust the interests of a country that I must make happy than to a sister whom I adore, and who, although much more accomplished, is un autre moi-même?
[Heinrich: !?]
Now and again, there are also updates from Voltaire: She sends on new works he sent her (not without stating that while all of Europe is at war, Voltaire would be just delighted to make peace with Fritz - I'm sure those are Voltaire's exact words, Wilhelmine) and comments that he's living like a little King, spending money with both hands. Plus, this gem from February 19th, 1757:
I have received the attached letter from Voltaire that I take the liberty of sending you, my dear Brother, in relation to The Relation [the undercover talks with France]. I have lost the PS in which he asks me to beg you in light of the graces you have had for him on other occasions to send him seeds of melons for his garden, which he had not had the courage to ask of you. One of my Cavaliers who comes from Geneva tells me that he is no longer the same man. He must be infinitely gentle, very prodigal, and measured in his speeches. He speaks of you as a lover of his mistress, and recognizes that he has failed. He was granted permission to return to France.
And as you guys already mentioned as well, the facsimile of the last letter she wrote herself, July 1758 (p. 135), makes it immediately obvious why Fritz is so shocked by it - "My God, what writing! You must return from the tomb, for surely you must have been a hundred times worse than I was told." - and it's rather heartbreaking that even in that one she's still trying to get war-related information to him. :((
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 10:11 am (UTC)Not that Scherben des Glücks is a stellar novel, but I can understand the author's impulse of letting dying Wilhelmine and about-to-lose-a-battle Fritz meet in a shared dream one last time.
The Don Quixote-Sancho-Pansa passage is lovely, as is her calling her mule Rosinante. Incidentally: is Don Quixote among the books listed for Sanssouci? (I'm also curious whether Wilhelmine and Fritz read it as adults or whether they managed as teenagers.)
I'd forgotten that 1756 was also the year of Ulrike's attempted coup, which has Wilhelmine worried as well: I hope, my dear brother, that your advice will get her out of trouble.
Fritz: I tried, she wouldn't listen, it's not my fault, her liveliness ran away with her and now she's sending me Great Jeremiads.
As I recall from Ziebura's AW biography, once the war had started Ulrike could not resist an "I told you so" letter where she pointed out that if Fritz had supported her attempt to become absolute Queen, she could have prevented Sweden from entering the league against him.
Fritz: You know all the consideration that I need in this affair, and how little I ought to appear in it: the slightest wind of it in England might ruin everything. [...] Anyway, I rely on you. To whom could I better entrust the interests of a country that I must make happy than to a sister whom I adore, and who, although much more accomplished, is un autre moi-même?
[Heinrich: !?]
LOL. Thrifty Fritz, reuser of accolades, strikes again! (See also him writing the same letter to Algarotti and Duhan when becoming King.)
Voltaire: given her attitude towards other Fritzian boyfriends, it never fails to amuse me how much of a shipper Wilhelmine is re Fritz/Voltaire, complete with telling both guys the other one is truly sorry, is pining for him and has turned over a new leaf, honest!
He speaks of you as a lover of his mistress,
We all noticed, Wilhelmine! And since this is an undoctored letter, the comparison is all the more valuable.
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 11:39 am (UTC)It shows up in the catalogue twice, one 1733 edition and the other one from 1741. Crown Prince Fritz definitely uses Don Quichotte references in various letters during the 1730s and while I suspect it was well-known enough to be used as a reference without having read it, I'd still wager they both did so pretty early.
how much of a shipper Wilhelmine is re Fritz/Voltaire
Ha, yes. I guess it helped that she and Voltaire had their own relationship as well, that Voltaire seemed to genuinely like her for her, visited and entertained her both in Bayreuth and when she was in Berlin at the same time, and just generally made her laugh, which is something she did not get enough of I'd say.
We all noticed, Wilhelmine!
:D I'm also amused by the casting, what with Fritz getting the mistress role.
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 12:19 pm (UTC)Voltaire: Well, even in my memoirs, I cast him as the sorceress Alcina!
Ha, yes. I guess it helped that she and Voltaire had their own relationship as well, that Voltaire seemed to genuinely like her for her, visited and entertained her both in Bayreuth and when she was in Berlin at the same time, and just generally made her laugh, which is something she did not get enough of I'd say.
True. All the other boyfriends weren't people she was friends with, or interested in on their own account.
(I do regret Voltaire didn't manage to persuade Francoise de Graffigny to go to Bayreuth and become Wilhelmine's intellectual lady in residence there!)
Don Quixote: ah, thank you. You know, these days I would assume anynone referring to the Don and to Sancho is either going by pop culture osmosis or by virtue of the musical The Man of La Mancha, but in the 18th century, my money is more on actual reading.
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 07:41 pm (UTC)I'm not planning to read it. You know how I am about literature. ;)
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 07:38 pm (UTC)Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-13 07:56 am (UTC)Thinking back to other Fritz references of literary characters as himself, there is of course Orpheus, also in the 7 Years War, and in 1743 when Voltaire leaves him to meet up with Émilie again, Dido (with voltaire as Aeneas, something I would have missed if you hadn't pointed out the Virgil quote). And speaking of Voltaire, then there's the time he compared himself to Jupiter and voltaire to Danae when pushing him to show up already in 1750, and Voltaire wrote back "your aged Danae loves Jupiter and his his gold".
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 06:29 pm (UTC)Yes, thank you, it's always worth quoting things multiple times to me :)
I'm obligated to the late King and to my upbringing, as I am able to be satisfied with little and live away from the world and its trappings.
:(
nd who, although much more accomplished, is un autre moi-même?
[Heinrich: !?]
Ha, this was my reaction as well! Though lol to
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 08:01 pm (UTC)Yeah, such is the nature of Google translate, alas. Until one of us becomes fluent in French, it'll have to do.
which is not always easy to notice because the original has punctuation and capitalization issues of its own.
Indeed. And the editor went for a diplomatic transcription, so they all had to be passed in as the raw input to the API, which no doubt confused poor Google even more.
I'm obligated to the late King and to my upbringing, as I am able to be satisfied with little and live away from the world and its trappings.
Oh, wow. Now I understand!
Because once upon a time,
but she also was capable of writing "I am my father's daughter, I can face anything" early in the 7 Years War, i.e. retrospectively classifying those years of abuse as something she's currently drawing strength from in her miserable state.
Cahn and I both took that to be a near-verbatim quote and parsed it as "My dad proved his endurance through years of physical sufferings, and I can do no less." And we were skeptical that this was Wilhelmine crediting the abuse as something that didn't kill her and made her stronger. That was actually where I drew "I am my father's daughter" from in "Yet They Grind."
But if the actual quote was what you've provided here, then Selena was right!
Wow.