cahn | 18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 36

Starting a couple of comments earlier than usual to mention there are a couple of new salon fics! These probably both need canon knowledge.

felis ficlets on siblings!

Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:

Three Fills for the 2022 Three Sentence Ficathon.

Chapter One: Protective Action / Babysitting at Rheinsberg (Frederick/Fredersdorf, William+Henry+Ferdinand)
Chapter Two: Here Be Lions (Wilhelmine)

Unsent Letters fic by me:

Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:

Just because one's king and brother is dead doesn't mean one has to stop writing to him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

selenak

Algarotti dedicated his "lettere sopra la scienze militare" in 1759 to Heinrich. [personal profile] selenak, this made me think of your RMSE request!

So it should, since my request was at least partly inspired by discovering Algarotti dedicated a book to Heinrich in the collection of Algarotti essays I reviewed for salon a year or so ago. :)

Brühl: also the J.R. Ewing character in Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria, the trashy East German tv series from the 80s reviewed and screencaped by your faithful correspondent.

I had forgotten he went to Vienna in 1743! And I compiled a chronology of his travels from the dissertation on him and his networking. But now that I'm looking for it specifically, I see that it's mentioned in passing in a way that's very easy to miss.

Besides, the dissertation writer didn't seem to have clocked that the "Queen of Hungary" Algarotti is later producing some exquisite porcellain kitchenware for in Saxony is MT, remember? (I don't expect writers of disserations about any 18th century figure to know all of MT's many titles, but "Queen of Hungary" (and/or "Queen of Bohemia") are a must, given the Prussian use of it as a put down.

Also, "Monsieur l'Italien polonais" reminds me greatly of the "YOUR FRIEND the Queen of Hungary" letter to Wilhelmine.

LOL, so it does. "Most flighty of swans" definitely sounds nice, though I can't recall whether Fritz actually wrote this or it shows up in fanfiction.

The connection of Old Dessauer kicking the bucket, as Fredersdorf and Fritz put it in their letters, and Algarotti getting cashh is new to me, too.

Never because Fritz was getting on his nerves or he was watching the Fritz/Voltaire explosion with horror.

I mean, that's just our theory, but there's some evidence for it! (I think his health played a role, but I also don't think Fritz was his dream boss.)

There's also Voltaire's letter to him post explosion suggesting a meeting between two now free men. (Algarotti nicely said no. I don't blame him. If you're in bad health, the trip to Switzerland would have been hard, and also, I think Algarotti had even less intention of involving himself in the Fritz/Voltaire saga post break up than before.) And Algarotti's letter to his brother about the worst road leading back to Prussia, or some such.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

So it should, since my request was at least partly inspired by discovering Algarotti dedicated a book to Heinrich in the collection of Algarotti essays I reviewed for salon a year or so ago. :)

I figured you'd encountered this and remembered it better than I did!

Oh, wait, I just checked, and your write-up says "Algarotti did this during his time in Prussia," and mine is from 1759 (and since the summary says it refers to the 1759 battle of Maxen, was probably not the same thing).

So two dedications, it tentatively looks like. Slash away!

Brühl: also the J.R. Ewing character in Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria, the trashy East German tv series from the 80s reviewed and screencaped by your faithful correspondent.

Yep, and I have a post on that coming up too, just a little more research required. (Rome was not built in a day, and an entire book in German was also not read by me in a day.)

Besides, the dissertation writer didn't seem to have clocked that the "Queen of Hungary" Algarotti is later producing some exquisite porcellain kitchenware for in Saxony is MT, remember?

Yep, I remember that!

LOL, so it does. "Most flighty of swans" definitely sounds nice, though I can't recall whether Fritz actually wrote this or it shows up in fanfiction.

That one's real! It goes: "Oh most fickle and lightest swan in the world."

And Algarotti's letter to his brother about the worst road leading back to Prussia, or some such.

Yes, I was thinking of that, buuuut, I don't have the full letter, just the excerpt, and I think even the dissertation author acknowledges that *might* have been a double entendre. The actual, literal roads were notoriously abysmal in/around Prussia even by the already low 18th century standards. And if Algarotti was suffering from rheumatism, he might well have been just complaining about the constant jolting. In other words, I can't, strictly speaking, take that as ambiguity about returning to Fritz. (If we had no other evidence of mixed feelings, you could just as easily take that as evidence of what he's willing to suffer to be with Fritz!)

There's also Voltaire's letter to him post explosion suggesting a meeting between two now free men.

And as for this, there's no question that *Voltaire* left because of conflicts with Fritz, and he could be projecting.

But given Algarotti's inability to stay in one place and Fritz's tendency to drive people away by being emotionally demanding and financially stingy...it's a fair hypothesis, at least.

Edited Date: 2022-06-10 08:16 pm (UTC)

From:

selenak

One dedicated book may be a polite gesture, two look like a one night stand! :)

Canonical proof of mixed feelings: on the one hand, there's Algarotti playing host for Wilhelmine when she's in Venice and praising Fritz a lot while at it. There's Algarotti greeting Fritz' initial streak of success in the 7 Years War (specifically the battle of Prague, I think) with the Caesar beating Pompey at Pharsalus. (Which must have felt really awkward with Fritz' first big defeat following none too much later.) On the other, one of the Lady Mary biographers, I forget which one, said he also wrote an MT ode just in case, and I still want that crack fic where Algarotti sends Fritz and MT by mistake the odes intended for the other.

Also, for what it's worth, there's the Marquis' d'Argens take as reported by Nicolai (and yours truly here): Algarotti, a very subtle man and very subtle politician, was pleased by Friedrich's company because the later was a King and a man of wit. The King held him in high regard and loved him very much for his good qualities; but Algarotti was more concerned with the esteem he gained by the King's friendship and did not love the King, which the later eventually realized.

Now, D'Argens with his insistence that he's the one True Intellectual Friend of Fritz who was into Fritz for Fritz and not for crude gain is hardly unbiased, and would also eventually leave Prussia. But at the same time, his being biased doesn't necessarily translate into him being entirely wrong. Fritz being emotionally exhausting and easier to love from afar seems to have been a conclusion shared by a lot of people.

From:

cahn

One dedicated book may be a polite gesture, two look like a one night stand! :)

LOLOLOLOL! Okay, I'm sold :D

and I still want that crack fic where Algarotti sends Fritz and MT by mistake the odes intended for the other.

YES PLEASE

Ah, thank you for the link back to d'Argens' take, and the explanation!

Fritz being emotionally exhausting and easier to love from afar seems to have been a conclusion shared by a lot of people.

Seems very legit!

From:

cahn

There's also Voltaire's letter to him post explosion suggesting a meeting between two now free men.

Wait whaaaaat? Oh, Voltaire. Never change.

and also, I think Algarotti had even less intention of involving himself in the Fritz/Voltaire saga post break up than before

Lolololol that would be extremely in-character!

From:

selenak

Voltaire: to quote from my review of the Algarotti essays:

Our essay writer also points out that correspondingly to the ongoing Fritz/Voltaire implosion, Algarotti prepares his own Frexit by increasingly mentioning his bad health in his letters to Fritz. Conversely, when he did leave Potsdam, Voltaire congratulated him, and as late as 1759 invited him for a visit to his then finally found home in Switzerland, writing, in English: "Let a free man visit a free man."

(Algarotti: no, I'm really sick now. But thanks.)