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Last 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.

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

It's off to Dresden with the guy who does not speak a word of German and still brushing up his French, but scoffs at other people's pretense at education.

Oh, Brits.

George I: *cough*

Dresden, as a city, finds his approval except for the "early" time of 11 pm when everyone retires.

I had a feeling that Elizaveta stayed up later, and indeed, flipping through Anisimov, I see supper is starting at 11 pm. Now, that's more up H-W's alley! I have a feeling that was a regular thing. Let me see if I can find it.

According to the court record book, this is how Elizabeth spent January 1751: January 1st--a New Year celebration, 2nd--a masquerade, 3rd--visiting Aleksandr Buturlin, 4th--Christmas Eve, 6th--a French tragedy, 7th--a French comedy, 8th--a court masquerade, 9th--a carriage ride and visit to Sumarokov, 13th--a liturgy at the church, Courtag at the Palace, 15th--a court ball, 18th--a public masquerade, 20th--Courtag, a French comedy, 22nd--a court masquerade, 24th--a Russian tragedy, 25th--a French comedy, 28th and 29th--courtiers' weddings.

Aha, Montefiore is what I'm remembering:

She often partied until 6 a.m., sleeping till midday and sending for jewellers and ministers in the middle of the night. “Nobody ever knew the hour Her Imperial Majesty would deign to have dinner,” recalled Catherine, “and it often happened that the courtiers having waited playing cards till 2 a.m. and gone to sleep were awakened to attend Her Majesty’s supper.” If they were too sleepy to speak, they were likely to get a slap.

I put it to you that H-W was in a better mood in Russia and thus more inclined to look on the young people fondly and want to mentor them.

He is extremely polite and civil, but his civility is without distinction, which destroys the merit of it.

(I.e. he's nice to everyone, not just H-W.)

Hahaha, this is great. Wasn't that one of MT's good points according to visitors, that she was uniformly gracious? Yeah, last paragraph here.

Perhaps H-W didn't notice this trait of hers when he was praising her. :P

but I was hoping to find out how Williams saw the developing relationship without the virtue of hindsight

Aww, yeah, that's too bad.

And as persons of small fortunes that have no equipages, walk out in a morning wihtout any attendances, those of higer station have imagined that tis more easy and agreeable to walk out unattended than attended...And should a man of quality in Italy see you walking in the streets without a footman, it would not be an easy matter to persuade him afterwards that you was really the Earl of Essex.

I keep saying this, but I'm loving these little insights into contemporary thinking, which are useful for fanfic too!

From:

selenak

Quite, which is why I included the bit at the start of the Augustus Hervey quotes about dancing with the servants.

Incidentally, H-W while in Saxony was put in charge of Philip Stanhope the son of Chesterfield to whom the famous letters regarding gentlemanly behaviour are adressed to. Apparantly "he's good with young people" was an opinion already among his aquaintances before he left Britain. Though I also think you're right and he performed best as an envoy in Russia because the lifestyle at Elizaveta's court suited him best.

Perhaps H-W didn't notice this trait of hers when he was praising her. :P

Or she was one of those politicians who manage to make you feel special to them no matter how many other hands they shake, and Brühl was not? But I suspect the difference lies in H-W meeting Brühl before his Prussia experience, at the start of his time in Saxony, when his ego is intact and he expects to be made a great fuss about because that's what is owed to his rank as GB's envoy and to himself. Whereas he meets MT post Prussia, where he's utterly failed to impress anyone other than young Poniatowski (who was a lonely visitor like himself), has on the contrary ended up ostracized by pretty much everyone and thinks even a "Tartar" envoy (racism alert) has been treated with greater distinction not just by the monarch but by Berlin high society. And while he can and does blame Fritz for this, there still has to be a voice at the back of his mind where he thinks maybe, just maybe, he fucked up as well and isn't as cool as he always thought he was. And then he's in Vienna, where they might be all backwards haughty Catholics but hey, not only do the VIPs throw parties and receptions for him but MT (who outranks the Margrave of Brandenburg as even an Englishman knows and is in fact the highest positioned female in Europe both by rank and bloodline) is gracious to him! Had to be balm on the soul - for the first reception, until they started to talk business.

Oh, and regarding his little ditty about Fritz of Wales and brother Cumberland, I forgot to add, in case you're wondering: the line of what will happen when "Our Mon- rots with C- the great" presumably means when "Our Monarch rots with Caroline the Great" , though why he bothers in a realm where far worse things about the royals get into print, I don't know.