Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47

[cahn]

We haven't had a new post since before December 25, so obligatory Yuletide link to this hilarious story of Frederick the Great babysitting his bratty little brother, with bonus Fritz/Fredersdorf!

Comments

Re: 1764-1772 Foreign policy: Satire and kidnapping

[selenak]

Le Chant des Confédérés sounds very much like the Palladion, alright. As I observed in my write-up of the later, literally quality or lack of same aside, the problem isn't just that political satires often age out of being comprehensible to a non-contemporary audience, but that a great satire tends to punch upwards, not downwards, and/or satirizes one's own country and people, not someone else's. Hence Byron making fun of the English (politics, manners and literature) and Heine making fun of the Germans (ditto) are funny, and the Palladion (making fun of the Austrians, the Spanish and the French) is not, and why one biographer observed that Fritz who loved Moliere's comedies (which very much make fun of the contemporary to Moliere French society) would have been unable to love Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm (targetting the Prussian military and society, among other things, and the direct aftermath of the 7 Years War), even if he had gotten over himself and read/watched a German play. So I am unsurprised his anti Polish satire was with the sledgehammer and very unfunny.