18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 34

[cahn]

And 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)

Comments

Re: AITA, Rokoko Style

[selenak]

Hervey who took me surprisingly long to figure out! Because I was thinking of a different guy by the same name with exciting future job prospects and trying to make this fit Manteuffel.

LOL. Well, Manteuffel is less suited for this meme because a) he's far older than Hervey, and while ending his life as the mentor of a King would be nice, he's had a good run, he's respected not just in his professional field but by scholars and is still mentally alert and curious enough to return to college for his 50th graduation anniversary, so while Fritz kicking him out undoubtedly felt like a let down, he had a lot of other things to look forward to for his final years, and b) he's generally far thicker skinned. Hervey is decades younger when all goes down and if, as he undoubtedly imagined, Fritz of Wales becomes King in a decade or so, he could have essentially graduated to Walpole's job as PM and ruled Britain. Moreover, he's a gay or bisexual with strong gay leanings man who has been ridiculed as such by some of his peers to the point of a duel while shit in Holland is going down. He needs to be respected and admired for more intensely than Manteuffel. But I shall try a Manteuffel version of this meme at the end of this reply.


We marvel about how Algarotti found the time for his love life, but clearly he got a few pointers on schedule management from his fling Hervey!

Truly. That's another thing that always cracks me up: at the same time Hervey is going OH THE BETRAYAL about the Fritz of Wales/Miss Vane fling, he has all these other entanglements going on. However, see above.

Now, the Manteuffel version:

Here I, m64, was, enjoying my retirement as a PRIVATE CITIZEN, mentoring a few promising young people both in my state of residence and state of (former) employement, when it occured to me that takingon one more young fellow as a protegé might result in a general improvement of affairs for a great many people due to the kid's future job prospects. Now I was intensely familiar with people in his future line of work and let me tell you, most of these are jerks, with a lot of people suffering for it. His father was one of the worst. Any improvement there was enough of an incentive to lure me out of my retirement. Now I might have used a few questionable methods at first, but those prostitutes could use the money, so could various male friends in his social circle, and also, the competitition did the same thing. For a while, we seemed to hit it off and he expanded his intellectual horizon by listening to my reading tips, but unfortunately, the combination of other influences and an admittedly ill advised photobombing let to an enstragement. Well, at least I got a golden knob for a walking stick out of it, but when the kid, once on the job, immediately initiated a hostile takeover of the worst type, I couldn't help but wonder: could I have prevented this? was I the asshole there?