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cahnLast post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.
Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-21 07:20 pm (UTC)So I read what was available of the Poniatowski and Anglophilia book on Google books preview, and it pointed me to what it said was the most accessible and comprehensive English-language treatment of 18th century Poland-Lithuania, Liberty's Folly, and that I was able to get a hold of. I'm not up for summarizing 18th century Poland-Lithuania (though I have plans for how I might someday become up to it), but the descriptions of various characters was entertaining.
Stanislaw Leszczynski, first appointed king by Karl XII:
Possessor of a great magnate name and immense personal wealth, he lacked his dead father’s determination or personal following. With no strength of character and little sense of self-respect, but dazzled by the Swedish king, he fitted the bill exactly.
Brühl:
Heinrich Brühl, a man whose reputation for financial corruption in Poland was exceeded only by his reputation for the same in Saxony.
Fritz:
That thinking man's thug.
(I laughed.)
Augustus III:
One of the factors in his favour was his apparent stupidity. Augustus III had been taught Polish, but was reluctant to use it. His poor grasp of Latin did not facilitate communication with his new subjects. His conversion to Catholicism in 1717 was less cynical than his father’s. The energy which Augustus II had put into sex and drink his son put into piety and gluttony.
The author of this book: maybe this is a stereotype, we're not sure. He patronized J.S. Bach, he must have had *some* good qualities! Anyway,
By the end of the reign the initial bitter hostility which Augustus III had met had given way to a widespread affection. Clad in his ceremonial robes his corpulent body exuded a kind of majesty. He had long abandoned any effort to tamper with Golden Liberty. He had become what the szlachta [Polish nobles] wanted in a king.
Fun times with the author of this book. I look forward to his descriptions of characters later in the 18th century.
Also, he finally explained something that had been bugging me for a long time now. I know I've mentioned more than once that FW wanted to partition Poland already, but the time was not deemed right by other European powers. But I had *no* details, just like a single sentence in a footnote. I finally have details, and they make sense!
Turns out, *August the Strong* wanted to partition Poland. Now, wasn't August the king of Poland, you ask? Why would he want to partition his own country? And yes, he was, but he was an elective monarch. And we've discussed why his neighbors wanted to keep the Polish monarchy elective, for the same reason they later wanted to keep the Swedish monarchy elective and the Swedish constitution of 1720 in effect.
What August wanted was to break off pieces of Poland to give to his neighbors, in return for making Poland a hereditary monarchy in the Wettin family.
FW was all for it. I assume he wanted Royal Prussia, the part of Poland that Fritz would later get as a result of Heinrich's machinations.
But around the time of 1720, during and after the Great Northern War, when August is making these plans, Peter the Great deems it in Russia's best interests to have a sprawling, weak Poland on his border, not a smaller and stronger Poland. So Peter consistently vetoes the Poland partitionining project. So August's plans for a hereditary monarchy come to naught.
Re partitioning plans, the book also tells me Fritz told his successors (in the political testaments, I assume?) that Poland must be eaten like an artichoke, leaf by leaf. I couldn't not share this analogy!
Also in this book is the factoid that 39% of East Prussia's population died of the plague between 1707 and 1711, 270,000 deaths out of a population of 692,000. I knew it was a lot, and that FW had to repopulate East Prussia by soliciting immigrants, but I don't think I knew it was 39%. In the 18th century! And in other parts of Poland, it was this bad or worse.
This book also tells me that August the Strong made a number of unsuccessful (and unspecified by the author) attempts on Stanislaw Leszczynski's life, between his ousting of Stanislaw during the Great Northern War and the start of the War of the Polish Succession. We haven't seen a ton of assassination attempts in the 18th century, so this surprised me. Though from my reading in various places, August had a reputation for duplicity as bad as or worse than Fritz's, so if there's anyone I would believe it of, it would be him (or maybe Victor Amadeus). I'm still holding out for evidence, though. (No footnotes, 90% of all bibliographic sources in Polish, as noted.)
In a completely different book, the Struensee bio that I continue to chip away at, were some interesting passages.
One of the Danish royal ladies-in-waiting, Frau von Plessen, was a devotee of the very old-fashioned etiquette, and admired Richardson's Pamela, "a sensitive epistolary novel that was so popular in the mid-eighteenth century as a didactic 'marriage mirror' that it was considered by ladies as a criminal omission not to know the book."
Based on the Pamela school of thought, Frau von Plessen told Caroline Mathilde that if she wanted Christian to stop neglecting her and sleeping around, she had to
"force her vicious husband "through coy abstinence" into the role of a sighing lover who, kneeling, must express his joy and gratitude for the slightest favor and, for fear of losing it, must have no other will than hers. As reigning queen who is to give the dynasty the heirs, she is such a high and holy person that even the king must not approach her without deference."
The punchline: As a result of this advice, Christian completely neglected his wife. When her childbirth was approaching, he was hanging out with the prostitute Boot Catherine, who, as we've seen, indulged his masochistic desires. (I did mention that? Frederik was apparently a sexual sadist (at least judging by one memoirist's report of gossip in the city); his son Christian a masochist, with somewat more evidence.) Winkle also agrees with Barz that the fact that Christian liked the very masculine Catherine was because he had repressed homosexual tendencies, though Winkle, unlike Barz, doesn't pathologize this.
I mean, it's entirely possible he just liked strong, dominant women, there is some diversity amongst heterosexual men's tastes, but yeah, he could also have been repressed gay/bi in this society. People need to stop drawing such firm conclusions.
Anyway! I was entertained by the punchline. Comedy is tragedy plus time. Also by the mention of Pamela, which brings back memories of a fanwork by that name. ;)
Voltaire: I'm usually as straight as they come, but something about Fritz irresistibly compels me to draw analogies with Alcina, Pamela, and the like.
Btw, Frau von Plessen ended up getting banned, and when Christian was in England, one of the English royals, I forget who, tried interceding to get her readmitted to court. CHristian said that was not impossible, but then he would have to leave court himself, because he had taken an oath never to be in the same place as her. Christian was known for having his moments of wit: there was also a time, when he was supposed to be putting his signature on a document to approve a bunch of title grants (Danish society was obsessed with titles), he commented, "Didn't Caligula make his horse a senator?" I've seen this quoted at least 3 places, it's one of everyone's favorite stories about him.
Continuing with fun anecdotes in this book, when Christian was in England, he really enjoyed the theater, and especially David Garrick. Now, Garrick was known for being the best mimic ever, like really just set a new standard for theater (which was admittedly quite stilted in those days). Every facial expression, every muscle perfect. According to a footnote, there was a time when he was watching aother professional pretend to be drunk, and he called, "Your feet are too sober!"
Finally, I learned how to say "evil stepmother" in Danish from Hans Christian Andersen: "ond stedmoder." Or, as it appears in "The Wild Swans": "den onde stedmoder", the evil stepmother. :D If I manage to persevere, we may get more 18th century Danish history in the next year.
ETA: Also, I meant to mention that the 2023 season of the History of the Germans is apparently going back to the beginning (Charlemagne) and talking about events in the north and east. While I was very much looking forward to the Black Death, Avignon Papacy, and Golden Bull, I am delighted that we're getting more Brandenburg and surrounding regions! It was something I was disappointed he didn't cover more of. But now that I see he was focusing on the south and west to tell a coherent tale, and he's going back to cover events elsewhere in more detail, I approve of the decision and am delighted. Though I'm still impatient to learn about the 14th century!
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-22 01:06 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, this claim in Liberty's Folly was news to me:
Frederick the Great had begun to issue his own counterfeit Polish coins as early as 1751. Like his Saxon confrères he worked through Jewish trading connections to exchange debased for better quality currency.
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-22 01:35 pm (UTC)Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-23 02:53 pm (UTC)I have the bloody virus again
Oh NOOO! Get well soon!
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-24 08:09 am (UTC)I was glad to get a Russian perspective from Anisimov, and ditto for Poland, but the reason I want both is to compensate for bias in one direction with bias in the other direction, not that I think either side is bias-free
That is a very sense-making approach. And I'm still grateful Hahn pointed us towards Poniatowski's detailed take on Fritzian economic warfare vis a vis Poland and Saxony.
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-24 10:30 pm (UTC)That is a very sense-making approach.
I'm also of the opinion that much detail of the history of Russia will be too obscure to make it into English sources, and ditto Polish, and Danish. (Honestly, you should all be impressed at my self-restraint in not setting out to learn Russian and Polish, but I know my limits. :P) I was reading Norman Davies' intro to his history of Poland yesterday, and he says the same thing: that there's much material that he, as a Brit, is handicapped in writing about Poland.
And I'm still grateful Hahn pointed us towards Poniatowski's detailed take on Fritzian economic warfare vis a vis Poland and Saxony.
As are we, and grateful to you for reading both Hahn (whom Blanning pointed us to in turn), and Poniatowski!
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-23 04:18 pm (UTC)Also: I'm so sorry! I hope it's mild! <3
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-22 01:44 pm (UTC)"The Thinking Man's Thug" is an awesome decription. Not sure about the artichoke quote, though, that one sounds apocryphal. Don't we have the political testaments in the libraries anyway to check?
Pamela: Well, with it and "Clarissa", Richardson pretty much invented the trope of the (noble) Rake having unsavoury designs on the (bourgois) virgin and ending up being reformed by her virtue and the true love in his heart which was endlessly copied and expanded upon in novels through the centuries. One of the many things to crack me up re: Voltaire using that name for his little project is that he implicitly casts himself as the bourgois virgin there. At least in the case of Alcina, he's the knight and Fritz is the sorceress. :) (Meanwhile, Fritz, as you pointed out back in the day when I reviewed their correspondence, casts himself as Dido and Voltaire as Aeneas.)
On a less amusing note, expecting that trope to work in rl certainly was terrible advice....
Artichokes and other quotes
Date: 2023-03-25 01:49 am (UTC)Only abridged ones. I had to track down the unabridged version published by Volz. And voila, in the 1752 testament:
I do not believe that the way of arms is the best way to add this province to the kingdom, and I would be tempted to tell you what Victor Amadeus, King of Sardinia, repeated to Charles Emanuel: "My son, we must eat the Milanese like an artichoke: leaf by leaf." Poland is an elective kingdom; at the death of its kings it is constantly disturbed by factions. This is what it is necessary to take advantage of and gain, by its neutrality, sometimes a city, sometimes another district, until everything is eaten up.
Of *course* he's quoting Victor Amadeus! (Norman Davies told me this just now, and I was compelled to go look it up.) Haha, he also includes it in "Histoire de mon temps." Not in regards to Poland, just as a Victor Amadeus quote.
Other quotes from Norman Davies that may be apocryphal (he naturally includes "she cried and she took," but he also got the artichoke one correct!):
The wags of the Enlightenment sharpened their wits on Poland's misfortunes. Frederick II of Prussia, a Protestant prince and one of the principal meddlers, boasted that he 'partook eucharistically of Poland's body.' Voltaire uttered his famous wisecrack: 'One Pole--a charmer, two Poles--a brawl; three Poles--ah, that's the Polish Question.'
No citation. I know I've seen the Voltaire one before, but I've also seen "She cried and she took"!
Another Augustus III description: according to Davies, he's "been compared to a pudding: soft, sweet, and inert."
I mean, it's hard to argue with that. Every time I've encountered him, he's been pretty chill!
Suhm: Can I leave Saxon service and go be with my royal love?
Augustus: Sure.
Lynar: I know you *just* lost your last ambassador to St. Petersburg less than a year ago, but can I leave Saxon service too and go be with my royal love (Anna Leopoldovna)?
Augustus: The turnover on this job sure is high. Yeah, why not.
Algarotti: I know you're my boss and I'm supposed to ask your permission to go be with my royal love, but Fritz wants me back, so just FYI, I'm asking forgiveness instead. *waves from Prussia*
Augustus: I forgive you. Congrats. *waves back*
Meanwhile, Fritz: If I don't get to escape, no one gets to!
- Confiscates the Venetian ambassador's luggage because Barbarina has a contract with him, and by gum, she's going to keep it.
- Tells the envoy to Denmark, "You want to take the waters? At your age? People have been imprisoned for less!"
- Makes Lehndorff cry.
- Et cetera.
So yeah. Augustus is a pudding in comparison, and possibly your dream boss.
Re: Artichokes and other quotes
Date: 2023-03-25 03:16 pm (UTC)All hail to the Royal Detective. Victor Amadeus fanboying it was!
Augustus is a pudding in comparison, and possibly your dream boss
Brühl: I can confirm that, or at least the pop culture image of me can, since Selena hasn't read a biography yet.
Re: Artichokes and other quotes
Date: 2023-03-25 10:26 pm (UTC)Things like this are why I really need to get my French reading speed up! There's so much we still haven't read.
Instead, I can now read 2 Danish fairy tales per day, barring a particularly bad day, with increasingly little reference to the translation.
Brühl: I can confirm that, or at least the pop culture image of me can, since Selena hasn't read a biography yet.
Haha. I'll be curious if the "Medici, Richelieu, and Rothschild" image of him has anything to offer salon, or if it's too enamored of its subject to have redeeming value.
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-25 01:54 am (UTC)Yes, I'm super looking forward to the Hanseatic League, which is a real gap in my knowledge base! And given how busy I am (learning Danish and French and working with Prinzsorgenfrei on archival material) this year, I'm okay with putting off the 14th century until next year.
(Meanwhile, Fritz, as you pointed out back in the day when I reviewed their correspondence, casts himself as Dido and Voltaire as Aeneas.)
Oh, lol, that's right! Thank you for the reminder.
These two. :D
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-04-11 05:32 am (UTC)Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-24 10:22 pm (UTC)Of course, this theater only vaguely resembled the theater of today. Strictly bound by the dogmas of Classicism with its mandatory five acts, unities of place and time, and exalted language, it might appear to us pretentious, boring, and ridiculous. The actor's behavior, according to a contemporary textbook for the art of acting, was in no way supposed to resemble people's natural behavior. An actor was forbidden to put his hands in his pockets or form a fist, except when portraying simple folk, who were allowed to use such crude and unattractive gestures.
Here are the most important recommendations to an actor going on stage: expressing disgust, one should "turn the head to the left side, extend the arms and slightly raise them in the opposite direction as if pushing away the odious object." Expressing surprise, "one should raise both hands and place them on the upper part of the chest, palms turned toward the audience." "In great grief or sorrow it is possible and even praiseworthy and attractive to bow completely, cover the face for some time by pressing both hands or the elbow to it and in this position to mutter some words to oneself into one's elbow, even though the public might not make them out-the force of the grief will be understood by all this mumbling, which is more eloquent than words."
Having read this, try to reproduce at least one such figure before your unsuspecting family members and observe the resulting effect--it will no doubt be rather strong. But do not think that audiences during Elizabeth's times would react the same way. The language of their theater was as normal for them as the language of our theater is for us, and probably ours will be just as strange for future generations.
It also gives you a good idea of Anisimov's authorial voice, distinctive even through translation.
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-25 09:33 am (UTC)There's also the factor that every young actor, and more rarely, actress, is credited with performing more naturally when they get their star turn - after Garrick, it was Edmund Kean's time to be praised for his naturalness and for Garrick's era to be seen as stylized. A bit similarly to how Garrick was praised for bringing Shakespeare back to the British stage in the original form, except well, not as we'd see it today - he still worked with self written changes like letting Juliet wake up before Romeo dies (but after he's already drunk the poison) so that they can talk one last time, or the famous "Richard is himself again!" line he added to Richard III which became so entrenched in British performance practice for centuries that it's still in the Olivier movie) - but he certainly used way way more of the original text than was the custom before. (And no more happy ending for Lear!) It's always a matter of contemporary context.
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-03-29 01:50 am (UTC)Noch genauer aber führt der Verfasser des »Głos wolny« aus: »Sacro sancte tedy chcąc liberum veto in omni authoritate konserwować, o to się tylko starać należy, żeby nie dać żadnej okazyi ani pretextu do szkodliwej kontradykcyi...« das liberum veto werde »per abusus« verwechselt mit der » potestas sistendi activitatem«--das liberum veto sei »>fundamentum status nostri«, das »Hemmen« aber eine »despotica potestas«, die der freien Nation widerrechtlich die »authoritas der Beratung« einschränke; denn »przyznam się, że wertując konstytucje, zda mi się, że nie znalazłem żadnej a condita republica, żeby wolno było zerwać sejm [...] albo sistere activitatem«
Furthermore, I discovered something about 17th century Poles. I knew that Latin was their language of administration long after most of Europe had moved on, but what I didn't know was that they intermingled Latin and Polish like other Seckendorff does French and German, or Catt does with random languages. Meaning it's hard to even ask Google what it means, because Google's only meant to handle one language at at ime. Example:
» ... Akt teraźnieyszy consensu Omnium ordinum w Seym obracamy. Formam Reipublicae ad antiquum Statum przywracamy, jako to Seymy, Seymiki, Izbę Poselską, libertatem sentiendi jus vetandi przy prawie ...«
Guys, I'm trying to learn about Polish constitutional history, but it's hard. I can handle the French, I've got about 90% of the Latin, but I've only got like 4 Polish words at my disposal, plus whatever obvious cognates there are. And that's not nearly enough for Berlin in 1983, it seems.
So far, I've learned a couple of things: the author says that the liberum veto, the right of any Polish nobleman to veto anything during the meeting of the Sejm (parliament), was actually just a right to point out that some proposal was unconstitutional, not a right to say "I don't like it." It was certainly not a right, either legally or in people's minds, to break up any meeting without anything getting done just because. That was the "liberum rumpo", which was at least theoretically different. If your colleagues felt like you were vetoing in support of your special interests, that was a big no-no. At least so far; we've talked mostly about the 17th and early 18th century in the part I've read. I'm not sure if that changes when you get later in the 18th century and closer to the partitions. I'll let you know if I manage to read further and learn anything about how that evolved.
He's also said that if the common perception of the liberum veto as the reason nothing got done were correct, you would expect every Sejm that attempted a reform during the reign of Augustus III to be broken up that way, but actually only two were, under special circumstances.
That's pretty much all I've got so far. But one day I intend to learn more about 18th century Polish history, one way or another!
Re: Snark and other miscellanea
Date: 2023-04-11 05:32 am (UTC)AHAHAHA I love the "J.S. Bach: yea or nay?" approach to history!
39% of East Prussia's population died of the plague between 1707 and 1711, 270,000 deaths out of a population of 692,000.
WOW. That is A LOT.
"force her vicious husband "through coy abstinence" into the role of a sighing lover"... The punchline: As a result of this advice, Christian completely neglected his wife.
Yeah, this doesn't really work when the husband has the freedom to take lovers, does it? Though I guess if you were just as happy if he left you alone...