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cahnMore diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
Lehndorff replies
Date: 2022-07-17 06:04 am (UTC)I think Heinrich really wrote it just for emotional release, and either later destroyed it himself, or it was confiscated by Hohenzollern censorship after his death. Totally fits with my Unwritten Letters present!
It does! :D
But Mildred, naturally he's in heaven, sees the error of his Voltaire loving ways and hangs out with the greats of German literature instead. We know because various pamphlets tell us so!
Selena, this was hilarious and I kept laughing every time I reread this comment, even BEFORE Cahn came along and took it from hilarious to downright hysterical.
Caaaaahn! I may be a nonreligious American now, but I was raised mainstream American Christian, and I know this song well from my childhood. I'M DYING. :'DDDDD
Wow, Amalie. I didn't realize she had an eye removed!
I think a distorted version of this shows up in Thiébault; didn't he claim she plucked her eyes out for love of Trenck? Or was that one of the later writers?
I don't remember this at all! I'm also not seeing it when searching through salon, though salon is BIG so I may be missing it.
Because I've still got a very thin grasp of chronology -- one day I'll get it straight! -- I always assume now that it's probably someone else with the same name because EVERYONE HAS THE SAME NAME, ahem :P
But they also have three or four different names each, so I spend a lot of time thinking people are different people when they are the same, and equal time thinking people are the same (*cough* Friedrich von Marschall) when they are different!
It's a pity I'm unlikely to become famous, because future salongoers would not have this problem: I have a highly unusual first name, even more unusual last name, and unique combination!
(Still agree with Selena that Melchior Guy-Dickens is just asking for fanfic. ;))
Ah, I didn't realize that was what that meant, thank you!
Oh good, glad it helped! The idea of French gardens was to highlight how, just as Louis XIV dominated France and France dominated Europe, he also dominated nature. (This is why the fountain failures were especially galling, and why Louis XIV was so offended after visiting his minister Fouquet and finding he had a better garden than Louis did!)
I saw quite a few English gardens before I saw any French gardens, and I was shocked the first time I came across a French garden! I'm with Amalie, English gardens are nicer :) (I realize you're saying it was also the style, but also!)
I agree! Haha, though Googling tells me that what I thought was my first disappointing in-person French garden (Hofgarten in Munich) was actually based on the Italian Renaissance garden style, which influenced the French formal garden style but was not the same. Clearly I don't know my garden styles very well!
The Munich English Garden is super great, though, and I was a fan. <3
Re: Lehndorff replies
Date: 2022-07-17 10:35 am (UTC)Selena, this was hilarious and I kept laughing every time I reread this comment, even BEFORE Cahn came along and took it from hilarious to downright hysterical.
I'm chortling on my side of the Atlantic, too, at the reading of the filk. Also because, let's face it, spending eternity with no Voltaire and German writing writers would be Fritz' idea of hell...
Re: French gardens, here's the ultimate Italian-French combo, not Versailles but the Renaissance gardens of Villandry (one of the Loire chateaus):
Which I found very pretty indeed, but yes, I prefer the English style, too. For some photos of the Munich English Garden in autumnm, see here.
Incidentally, FW2 changing the garden style at Sanssouci from French to English may or may not have been just for aesthetic reasons, of course....
Re: Lehndorff replies
Date: 2022-07-17 12:03 pm (UTC)So true. I maintain that no matter where they ended up, though, Voltaire and Fritz would find a way to correspond. I choose to believe.
Also, do the German greats really *want* to hang out with Fritz in the afterlife? That sounds like a case of "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it" to me. ;)
Which I found very pretty indeed, but yes, I prefer the English style, too.
Yes, exactly! My reaction to the Hofgarten and later such gardens was: "It's extremely pretty, but it doesn't speak to me."
Re: Lehndorff replies
Date: 2022-07-25 04:01 am (UTC)German greats, two hours of hanging out with Fritz later: "Actually... you know what, if he really wants to be with Voltaire that much, that's okay, we can find someone else to hang out with."
Fritz: *has been texting with Voltaire the whole time*
Fritz's in heaven, this we know
Date: 2022-07-25 11:52 am (UTC)German greats: *back away slowly*
German greats: *go hang out with Carl August*
Voltaire: The worst part isn't when he reads my poetry out loud and expects you to praise it, it's when it's his own!
Mildred: That's why the most hilarious line of many from your memoirs will always be:
Leaving my palace of Alcina, I went to pass a month with the Dutchess of Saxe-Gotha, the best of Princesses, full of gentleness, discretion, and equanimity, and who, God be thanked, did not make verses.
Selena: "Alcina", Voltaire, really?
Cahn: You mean Pamela. :P
Re: Lehndorff replies
Date: 2022-07-25 03:59 am (UTC)(But if I had to look at it every day, still prefer English. :) )
Gardens
Date: 2022-08-07 06:46 pm (UTC)...the beauty of Versailles, where money has worked greater wonders than nature. If I had to choose, I would prefer St. Cloud.
I was also tickled at Louis ordering his people to prepare the view for her, since the fountains at Versailles didn't go off without preparation. Wikipedia says the fountain at Herrenhausen was the tallest in Europe!
Moral of the story: build your palace near a ready source of water, at an elevation where it can access that water.
Re: Lehndorff replies
Date: 2022-07-25 03:56 am (UTC):DDDDD
For the pamphlets tell us so
Date: 2022-08-07 04:04 pm (UTC)For many years, King Henry IV of France, the beau ideal of politician, statesman, and sovereign, became her hero. Many years later she would write to Voltaire that she dreamed of meeting King Henry in the other world, and I believe these two would have had something to talk about: as conversationalists they are really worthy of each other. One could also imagine Montesquieu and Voltaire, two other idols of Catherine's youth, joining their company
(I predict the ensuing pamphlet war between Montesquieu and Voltaire in this scenario is also a sight to behold; they had some choice remarks to make about each other irl, as I recall.)
Re: For the pamphlets tell us so
Date: 2022-08-08 06:12 am (UTC)Otoh, yes, definitely a pamphlet war between Voltaire and Montesquieu! Even if they just talk about Roman history.