18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 38

[cahn]

Gonna go ahead and make this post even though Yuletide is coming...

But in the meantime, there has been some fic in the fandom posted!

Holding His Space (2503 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Characters: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Protectiveness, Domestic, Character Study
Summary:

Five times Fredersdorf has to stay behind - and one time Friedrich doesn't leave.

Using People (3392 words) by prinzsorgenfrei
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Hans Hermann von Katte
Additional Tags: Fluff, Idiots in Love, reading plays aloud while gazing into each others eyes
Summary:

Friedrich had started to talk to him because he had thought of him as a bit of a ditz.
And now here he was. Here he was months later, bundled up in this very same man’s blankets with a cup of hot coffee in front of him, its scent mixing with that of Katte’s French perfume.
_
Fluffy One Shot about one traitorous Crown Prince and the sycophant he accidentally fell for.

Comments

Fritz and Latin, Catt and Büsching

[mildred_of_midgard]

Continuing with tonight's findings...

I was looking for FW beating Fritz up over studying Latin. And I found we have two sources on that: Catt, and Büsching.

Büsching, you may or may not recall, authored one of those posthumous anecdote collections after Fritz's death. Selena commented a couple years ago that some of his anecdotes so closely match unpublished anecdotes by other sources that she wondered if he might have talked to Catt in the process of putting this together.

I've turned up another possible example.

Catt's diary has one line saying Fritz wasn't allowed to study Latin as a child.

Catt's memoirs have this more elaborate account of Fritz and his tutor getting beaten up:

"I was still a child, learning a little Latin, and was declining mensa, ae, dominus, i, ardor, is, with my master, when suddenly my father entered the room. ‘What are you doing there?’ — ‘Papa, I am declining mensa, ae,’ I said in a childish voice which should have touched him. ‘Ah, rogue, Latin to my son! Get out of my sight,’ and he gave him a volley of kicks and blows with his stick, accompanying him in this cruel manner into the inner room. Frightened by these blows and by the enraged looks of my father, and shivering with fear, I hid under the table, thinking that I should there be in safety. I saw my father come up to me, after having done execution; I shuddered still more. He took me by the hair, pulled me from under the table, and dragged me thus into the middle of the room, finishing by smacking my face several times: ‘ If I catch you again at your mensa, I will let you know what is what."

Büsching has this anecdote of Fritz's tutor getting beaten up.

He sometimes recounted how in his first youth he had a tutor who wanted to instruct him in the Latin language. His lord father had come by, when said tutor was having him translate something from the Golden Bull [important 1356 constitutional document for the Holy Roman Empire, cahn], and since he heard some bad Latin expressions, he said to the tutor, "You villain, what are you doing with my son?" "Your Majesty, I'm explaining the auream bullam to the the Prince." The King had raised his stick and said, "I'll auream bullam you, villain," had chased him away, and the Latin had stopped.

As you can see, the details are different, but the outline is the same: FW walks in on some forbidden Latin studies, overhears snatches of Latin, starts beating people up with his stick, no more Latin. And Catt and Büsching are the only two sources Koser cites for Fritz and the FW-imposed Latin ban.

I do think you're right, selenak. If they didn't talk to each other, they heard some of the same stories.

Re: Fritz and Latin, Catt and Büsching

[selenak]

“He sometimes recounted” does make it sound as if it was one of those stories he kept repeating in his old age, as per the testimony of the Second Hussar and Luccessini, and we know Büsching talked to the Second Hussar, so he’s another possible source. Otoh Catt is still a suspect, and it’s classic Catt to elaborate from the one sentence in the diary to a lengthy monologue in the memoirs, presumably based on the story how he heard it on later occasions, but wanting to create the impression with the readers that Fritz confided all of this to him instantly.

And Catt and Büsching are the only two sources Koser cites for Fritz and the FW-imposed Latin ban

Of course, unlike Catt and Büsching, we know FW himself hated the Latin he had to learn as a kid and therefore put it off the teaching schedule for his sons, which would have enraged him even further. Here he is, trying to do something nice for Fritz, and Fritz doesn’t appreciate it but backstabs him by WANTING to learn Latin! What do you mean, one child is not like the other?

Re: Fritz and Latin, Catt and Büsching

[mildred_of_midgard]

“He sometimes recounted” does make it sound as if it was one of those stories he kept repeating in his old age

I was thinking exactly this!

we know Büsching talked to the Second Hussar,

Oh, I had forgotten that, interesting.

it’s classic Catt to elaborate from the one sentence in the diary to a lengthy monologue in the memoirs, presumably based on the story how he heard it on later occasions, but wanting to create the impression with the readers that Fritz confided all of this to him instantly.

Yeah, I think the memoirs are exactly "lots of things Catt heard for two decades compressed into two years," plus, of course, all the things he heard and read from sources that are not Fritz himself.

What do you mean, one child is not like the other?

All children are THE SAME!!! #FW is his own warning.

Re: Fritz and Latin, Catt and Büsching

[cahn]

and it’s classic Catt to elaborate from the one sentence in the diary to a lengthy monologue in the memoirs, presumably based on the story how he heard it on later occasions, but wanting to create the impression with the readers that Fritz confided all of this to him instantly.

ha, true!

Here he is, trying to do something nice for Fritz, and Fritz doesn’t appreciate it but backstabs him by WANTING to learn Latin!

FW! >:(