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History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 10
T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 10 Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
Nobody, not at first even the Doctors, much heeded this new fit of
illness; which went and came: "changed temper," deeper or less
deep gloom of "bad humor," being the main phenomenon to by-
standers. But the sad truth was, his Majesty never did recover his
sunshine; from Pillau onwards he was slowly entering into the
shadows of the total Last Eclipse; and his journeyings and
reviewings in this world were all done. Ten months hence, Pollnitz
and others knew better what it had been!--
Chapter VII.
LAST YEAR OF REINSBERG: TRANSIT OF BALTIMORE AND OTHER PERSONS AND THINGS.
Friedrich had not been long home again from Trakehnen and
Preussen, when the routine of things at Reinsberg was illuminated
by Visitors, of brilliant and learned quality; some of whom, a
certain Signor Algarotti for one, require passing mention here.
Algarotti, who became a permanent friend or satellite, very
luminous to the Prince, and was much about him in coming years,
first shone out upon the scene at this time,--coming unexpectedly,
and from the Eastward as it chanced.
On his own score, Algarotti has become a wearisome literary man to
modern readers: one of those half-remembered men; whose books seem
to claim a reading, and do not repay it you when given. Treatises,
of a serious nature, ON THE OPERA; setting forth, in earnest, the
potential "moral uses" of the Opera, and dedicated to Chatham;
Neutonianismo per le Donne (Astronomy for
Ladies): the mere Titles of such things are fatally sufficient to
us; and we cannot, without effort, nor with it, recall the
brilliancy of Algarotti and them to his contemporary world.
Algarotti was a rich Venetian Merchant's Son, precisely about the
Crown-Prince's age; shone greatly in his studies at Bologna and
elsewhere; had written Poesies (RIME); written especially that
Newtonianism for the Dames (equal to
Fontenelle, said Fame, and orthodox Newtonian withal, not
heterodox or Cartesian); and had shone, respected, at Paris, on
the strength of it, for three or four years past: friend of
Voltaire in consequence, of Voltaire and his divine Emilie, and a
welcome guest at Cirey; friend of the cultivated world generally,
which was then laboring, divine Emilie in the van of it, to
understand Newton and be orthodox in this department of things.
Algarotti did fine Poesies, too, once and again; did Classical
Scholarships, and much else: everywhere a clear-headed,
methodically distinct, concise kind of man. A high style of
breeding about him, too; had powers of pleasing, and used them:
a man beautifully lucent in society, gentle yet impregnable there;
keeping himself unspotted from the world and its discrepancies,--
really with considerable prudence, first and last.
He is somewhat of the Bielfeld type; a Merchant's Son, we observe,
like Bielfeld; but a Venetian Merchant's, not a Hamburg's; and
also of better natural stuff than Bielfeld. Concentrated himself
upon his task with more seriousness, and made a higher thing of it
than Bielfeld; though, after all, it was the same task the two
had. Alas, our "Swan of Padua" (so they sometimes called him) only
sailed, paddling grandly, no-whither,--as the Swan-Goose of the
Elbe did, in a less stately manner! One cannot well bear to read
his Books. There is no light upon Friedrich to tempt us;
better light than Bielfeld's there could have been, and much of
it: but he prudently, as well as proudly, forbore such topics.
He approaches very near fertility and geniality in his writings,
but never reaches it. Dilettantism become serious and strenuous,
in those departments--Well, it was beautiful to young Friedrich
and the world at that time, though it is not to us!--Young
Algarotti, twenty-seven this year, has been touring about as a
celebrity these four years past, on the strength of his fine
manners and Newtonianism for the Dames.
It was under escort of Baltimore, "an English Milord," recommended
from Potsdam itself, that Algarotti came to Reinsberg; the Signor
had much to do with English people now and after. Where Baltimore
first picked him up, I know not: but they have been to Russia
together; Baltimore by twelve years the elder of the two: and now,
getting home towards England again, they call at Reinsberg in the
fine Autumn weather;--and considerably captivate the Crown-Prince,
Baltimore playing chief, in that as in other points. The visit
lasted five days: [20th-25th September, 1739 ( OEuvres de
Frederic, xiv. p. xiv).] there was copious speech on
many things;--discussion about Printing of the ANTI MACHIAVEL;
Algarotti to get it printed in England, Algarotti to get Pine and
his Engraved HENRIADE put under way; neither of which projects
took effect;--readers can conceive what a charming five days these
were. Here, in the Crown-Prince's own words, are some brief
glimmerings which will suffice us:--
REINSBERG, 25th SEPT. 1739 (Crown-Prince to Papa). ... that
"nothing new has occurred in the Regiment, and we have few sick.
Here has the English Milord, who was at Potsdam, passing through
[stayed five days, though we call it passing, and suppress the
Algarotti, Baltimore being indeed chief]. He is gone towards
Hamburg, to take ship for England there. As I heard that my Most
All-gracious Father wished I should show him courtesy, I have done
for him what I could. The Prince of Mirow has also been here,"--
our old Strelitz friend. Of Baltimore nothing more to Papa. But to
another Correspondent, to the good Suhm (who is now at Petersburg,
and much in our intimacy, ready to transact loans for us,
translate Wolf, or do what is wanted), there is this passage
next day:--
REINSBERG, 26th SEPTEMBER, 1739 (to Suhm). "We have had Milord
Baltimore here, and the young Algarotti; both of them men who, by
their accomplishments, cannot but conciliate the esteem and
consideration of all who see them. We talked much of you [Suhm],
of Philosophy, of Science, Art; in short, of all that can be
included in the taste of cultivated people (HONNETES GENS)."
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xvi. 378.] And again
to another, about two weeks hence:--
REINSBERG, 10th OCTOBER, 1739 (to Voltaire). "We have had Milord
Baltimore and Algarotti here, who are going back to England.
This Milord is a very sensible man (HOMME TRESSENSE);
who possesses a great deal of knowledge, and thinks, like us, that
sciences can be no disparagement to nobility, nor degrade an
illustrious rank. I admired the genius of this ANGLAIS, as one
does a fine face through a crape veil. He speaks French very ill,
yet one likes to hear him speak it; and as for his English, he
pronounces it so quick, there is no possibility of following him.
He calls a Russian 'a mechanical animal.' He says 'Petersburg is
the eye of Russia, with which it keeps civilized countries in
sight; if you took this eye from it, Russia would fall again into
barbarism, out of which it is just struggling.' [Ib. xxi. 326,
327.] ... Young Algarotti, whom you know, pleased me beyond
measure. He promised that he"--But Baltimore, promise or not, is
the chief figure at present.
Evidently an original kind of figure to us, CET ANGLAIS.
And indeed there is already finished a rhymed EPISTLE to
Baltimore; Epitre sur la Liberte (copy goes
in that same LETTER, for Voltaire's behoof), which dates itself
likewise October 10th; beginning,--
"L'esprit libre, Milord, qui regne en Angleterre,"
which, though it is full of fine sincere sentiments, about human
dignity, papal superstition, Newton, Locke, and aspirations for
progress of culture in Prussia, no reader could stand at
this epoch.
What Baltimore said in answer to the EPITRE, we do not know;
probably not much: it does not appear he ever saw or spoke to
Friedrich a second time. Three weeks after, Friedrich writing to
Algarotti, has these words: "I pray you make my friendships to
Milord Baltimore, whose character and manner of thinking I truly
esteem. I hope he has, by this time, got my EPITRE on the English
Liberty of Thought." [29th October 1739, To Algarotti in London
( OEuvres, xviii. 5).] And so Baltimore
passes on, silent in History henceforth,--though Friedrich seems
to have remembered him to late times, as a kind of type-figure
when England came into his head. For the sake of this small
transit over the sun's disk, I have made some inquiry about
Baltimore; but found very little;--perhaps enough:--
"He was Charles, Sixth Lord Baltimore, it appears; Sixth, and last
but one. First of the Baltimores, we know, was Secretary Calvert
(1618-1624), who colonized Maryland; last of them (1774) was the
Son of this Charles; something of a fool, to judge by the face of
him in Portraits, and by some of his doings in the world. He, that
Seventh Baltimore, printed one or two little Volumes "now of
extreme rarity"--cannot be too rare); and winded up by standing an
ugly Trial at Kingston Assizes (plaintiff an unfortunate female).
After which he retired to Naples, and there ended, 1774, the last
of these Milords. [Walpole (by Park), Catalogue of Royal
and Noble Authors (London, 1806), v. 278.]
"He of the Kingston Assizes, we say, was not this Charles; but his
Son, whom let the reader forget. Charles, age forty at this time,
had travelled about the Continent a good deal: once, long ago, we
imagined we had got a glimpse of him (but it was a guess merely)
lounging about Luneville and Lorraine, along with Lyttelton, in
the Congress-of-Soissons time? Not long after that, it is certain
enough, he got appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Prince
Fred; who was a friend of speculative talkers and cultivated
people. In which situation Charles Sixth Baron Baltimore continued
all his days after; and might have risen by means of Fred, as he
was anxious enough to do, had both of them lived; but they both
died; Baltimore first, in 1751, a year before Fred. Bubb
Doddington, diligent laborer in the same Fred vineyard, was much
infested by this Baltimore,--who, drunk or sober (for he
occasionally gets into liquor), is always putting out Bubb, and
stands too well with our Royal Master, one secretly fears!
Baltimore's finances, I can guess, were not in too good order;
mostly an Absentee; Irish Estates not managed in the first style,
while one is busy in the Fred vineyard! 'The best and honestest
man in the world, with a good deal of jumbled knowledge,' Walpole
calls him once: 'but not capable of conducting a party.'"
[Walpole's Letters to Mann (London, 1843),
ii. 175; 27th January, 1747. See ib. i. 82.] Oh no;--and died, at
any rate, Spring 1751: [ Peerage of Ireland
(London, 1768), ii. 172-174.] and we will not mention him farther.
BIELFELD, WHAT HE SAW AT REINSBERG AND AROUND.
Directly on the rear of these fine visitors, came, by invitation,
a pair of the Korn's-Hotel people; Masonic friends; one of whom
was Bielfeld, whose dainty Installation Speech and ways of
procedure had been of promise to the Prince on that occasion.
"Baron von Oberg" was the other:--Hanoverian Baron: the same who
went into the Wars, and was a "General von Oberg" twenty years
hence? The same or another, it does not much concern us. Nor does
the visit much, or at all; except that Bielfeld, being of writing
nature, professes to give ocular account of it. Honest transcript
of what a human creature actually saw at Reinsberg, and in the
Berlin environment at that date, would have had a value to
mankind: but Bielfeld has adopted the fictitious form; and pretty
much ruined for us any transcript there is. Exaggeration,
gesticulation, fantastic uncertainty afflict the reader;
and prevent comfortable belief, except where there is other
evidence than Bielfeld's.
At Berlin the beautiful straight streets, Linden Avenues (perhaps
a better sample than those of our day), were notable to Bielfeld;
bridges, statues very fine; grand esplanades, and such military
drilling and parading as was never seen. He had dinner-
invitations, too, in quantity; likes this one and that (all in
prudent asterisks),---likes Truchsess von Waldburg very much, and
his strange mode of bachelor housekeeping, and the way he dines
and talks among his fellow-creatures, or sits studious among his
Military Books and Paper-litters. But all is loose far-off
sketching, in the style of Anacharsis the Younger; italic> and makes no solid impression.
Getting to Reinsberg, to the Town, to the Schloss, he crosses the
esplanade, the moat; sees what we know, beautiful square Mansion
among its woods and waters;--and almost nothing that we do not
know, except the way the moat-bridge is lighted: "Bridge
furnished," he says, "with seven Statues representing the seven
Planets, each holding in her hand a glass lamp in the form of a
globe;"--which is a pretty object in the night-time. The House is
now finished; Knobelsdorf rejoicing in his success; Pesne and
others giving the last touch to some ceilings of a sublime nature.
On the lintel of the gate is inscribed FREDERICO TRANQUILLITATEM
COLENTI (To Friedrich courting Tranquillity). The gardens, walks,
hermitages, grottos, are very spacious, fine: not yet completed,--
perhaps will never be. A Temple of Bacchus is just now on hand,
somewhere in those labyrinthic woods: "twelve gigantic Satyrs as
caryatides, crowned by an inverted Punch-bowl for dome;" that is
the ingenious Knobelsdorf's idea, pleasant to the mind.
Knobelsdorf is of austere aspect; austere, yet benevolent and full
of honest sagacity; the very picture of sound sense, thinks
Bielfeld. M. Jordan is handsome, though of small stature;
agreeable expression of face; eye extremely vivid; brown
complexion, bushy eyebrows as well as beard are black. [Bielfeld
(abridged), i. 45.]
Or did the reader ever hear of "M. Fredersdorf," Head Valet at
this time? Fredersdorf will become, as it were, Privy-Purse,
House-Friend, and domestic Factotum, and play a great part in
coming years. "A tall handsome man;" much "silent sense, civility,
dexterity;" something "magnificently clever in him," thinks
Bielfeld (now, or else twenty years afterwards); whom we can
believe. [Ib. p. 49.] He was a gift from General Schwerin, this
Fredersdorf; once a Private in Schwerin's regiment, at Frankfurt-
on-Oder,--excellent on the flute, for one quality. Schwerin, who
had an eye for men, sent him to Friedrich, in the Custrin time;
hoping he might suit in fluting and otherwise. Which he
conspicuously did. Bielfeld's account, we must candidly say,
appears to be an afterthought; but readers can make their profit
of it, all the same.
As to the Crown-Prince and Princess, words fail to express their
gracious perfections, their affabilities, polite ingenuities:--
Bielfeld's words do give us some pleasant shadowy conceivability
of the Crown-Princess:--
"Tall, and perfect in shape; bust such as a sculptor might copy;
complexion of the finest; features ditto; nose, I confess,
smallish and pointed, but excellent of that kind; hair of the
supremest flaxen, 'shining' like a flood of sunbeams, when the
powder is off it. A humane ingenuous Princess; little negligences
in toilet or the like, if such occur, even these set her off, so
ingenuous are they. Speaks little; but always to the purpose, in a
simple, cheerful and wise way. Dances beautifully; heart (her
soubrette assures me) is heavenly;--and 'perhaps no Princess
living has a finer set of diaonds.'"
Of the Crown-Princess there is some pleasant shadow traced as on
cobweb, to this effect. But of the Crown-Prince there is no
forming the least conception from what he says:--this is mere
cobweb with Nothing elaborately painted on it. Nor do the
portraits of the others attract by their verisimilitude. Here is
Colonel Keyserling, for instance; the witty Courlander, famous
enough in the Friedrich circle; who went on embassy to Cirey, and
much else: he "whirls in with uproar (FRACAS) like Boreas in the
Ballet;" fowling-piece on shoulder, and in his "dressing-gown"
withal, which is still stranger; snatches off Bielfeld, unknown
till that moment, to sit by him while dressing; and there, with
much capering, pirouetting, and indeed almost ground-and-lofty
tumbling, for accompaniment, "talks of Horses, Mathematics,
Painting, Architecture, Literature, and the Art of War," while he
dresses. This gentleman was once Colonel in Friedrich Wilhelm's
Army; is now fairly turned of forty, and has been in troubles:
we hope he is not LIKE in the Bielfeld Portrait;--otherwise, how
happy that we never had the honor of knowing him! Indeed, the
Crown-Prince's Household generally, as Bielfeld paints it in
flourishes of panegyric, is but unattractive; barren to the modern
on-looker; partly the Painter's blame, we doubt not. He gives
details about their mode of dining, taking coffee, doing concert;
--and describes once an incidental drinking-bout got up
aforethought by the Prince; which is probably in good part
fiction, though not ill done. These fantastic sketchings,
rigorously winnowed into the credible and actual, leave no great
residue in that kind; but what little they do leave is of
favorable and pleasant nature.
Bielfeld made a visit privately to Potsdam, too: saw the Giants
drill; made acquaintance with important Captains of theirs (all in
ASTERISKS) at Potsdam; with whom he dined, not in a too credible
manner, and even danced. Among the asterisks, we easily pick out
Captain Wartensleben (of the Korn's-Hotel operation), and
Winterfeld, a still more important Captain, whom we saw dining on
cold pie with his Majesty, at a barn-door in Pommern, not long
since. Of the Giants, or their life at Potsdam, Bielfeld's word is
not worth hearing,--worth suppressing rather; his knowledge being
so small, and hung forth in so fantastic a way. This transient
sight he had of his Majesty in person; this, which is worth
something to us,--fact being evidently lodged in it, "After
church-parade," Autumn Sunday afternoon (day uncertain, Bielfeld's
date being fictitious, and even impossible), Majesty drove out to
Wusterhausen, "where the quantities of game surpass all belief;"
and Bielfeld had one glimpse of him:--
"I saw his Majesty only, as it were, in passing. If I may judge by
his Portraits, he must have been of a perfect beauty in his young
time; but it must be confessed there is nothing left of it now.
His eyes truly are fine; but the glance of them is terrible:
his complexion is composed of the strongest tints of red, blue,
yellow, green,"--not a lovely complexion at all; "big head; the
thick neck sunk between the shoulders; figure short and heavy
(COURTE ET RAMASSEE)." [Bielfeld, p. 35.]
"Going out to Wusterhausen," then, that afternoon, "October,
1739." How his Majesty is crushed down; quite bulged out of shape
in that sad way, by the weight of time and its pressures:
his thoughts, too, most likely, of a heavy-laden and abstruse
nature! The old Pfalz Controversy has misgone with him: Pfalz, and
so much else in the world;--the world in whole, probably enough,
near ending to him; the final shadows, sombre, grand and mournful,
closing in upon him!
TURK WAR ENDS; SPANISH WAR BEGINS. A WEDDING IN PETERSBURG.
Last news come to Potsdam in these days is, The Kaiser has ended
his disastrous Turk War; been obliged to end it; sudden downbreak,
and as it were panic terror, having at last come upon his
unfortunate Generals in those parts. Duke Franz was passionate to
be out of such a thing; Franz, General Neipperg and others;
and now, "2d September, 1739," like lodgers leaping from a burning
house, they are out of it. The Turk gets Belgrade itself, not to
mention wide territories farther east,--Belgrade without shot
fired;--nay the Turk was hardly to be kept from hanging the
Imperial Messenger (a General Neipperg, Duke Franz's old Tutor,
and chief Confidant, whom we shall hear more of elsewhere), whose
passport was not quite right on this occasion!--Never was a more
disgraceful Peace. But also never had been worse fighting;
planless, changeful, powerless, melting into futility at every
step:--not to be mended by imprisonments in Gratz, and still
harsher treatment of individuals. "Has all success forsaken me,
then, since Eugene died?" said the Kaiser; and snatched at this
Turk Peace; glad to have it, by mediation of France, and on
any terms.
Has not this Kaiser lost his outlying properties at a fearful
rate? Naples is gone; Spanish Bourbon sits in our Naples;
comparatively little left for us in Italy. And now the very Turk
has beaten us small; insolently fillips the Imperial nose of us,--
threatening to hang our Neipperg, and the like. Were it not for
Anne of Russia, whose big horse-whip falls heavy on this Turk, he
might almost get to Vienna again, for anything we could do!
A Kaiser worthy to be pitied;--whom Friedrich Wilhelm, we
perceive, does honestly pity. A Kaiser much beggared, much
disgraced, in late years; who has played a huge life-game so long,
diplomatizing, warring; and, except the Shadow of Pragmatic
Sanction, has nothing to retire upon.
The Russians protested, with astonishment, against such Turk Peace
on the Kaiser's part. But there was no help for it. One ally is
gone, the Kaiser has let go this Western skirt of the Turk;
and "Thamas Kouli Khan" (called also Nadir Shah, famed Oriental
slasher and slayer of that time) no longer stands upon the Eastern
skirt, but "has entered India," it appears: the Russians--their
cash, too, running low--do themselves make peace, "about a month
after;" restoring Azoph and nearly all their conquests; putting
off the ruin of the Turk till a better time.
War is over in the East, then; but another in the West, England
against Spain (Spain and France to help), is about beginning.
Readers remember how Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, Spring gone a year,
in a blazing condition? Here, through SYLVANUS URBAN himself, are
two direct glimpses, a twelve-month nearer hand, which show us how
the matter has been proceeding since:--
"LONDON, 19th FEBRUARY, 1739. The City Authorities,"--laying or
going to lay "the foundation of the Mansion-House" (Edifice now
very black in our time), and doing other things of little moment
to us, "had a Masquerade at the Guildhall this night. There was a
very splendid appearance at the Masquerade; but among the many
humorous and whimsical characters, what seemed most to engage
attention was a Spaniard, who called himself 'Knight of the Ear;'
as Badge of which Order he wore on his breast the form of a Star,
with its points tinged in blood; and on the body of it an Ear
painted, and in capital letters the word JENKINS encircling it.
Across his shoulder there hung, instead of ribbon, a large Halter;
which he held up to several persons dressed as English Sailors,
who seemed in great terror of him, and falling on their knees
suffered him to rummage their pockets; which done, he would
insolently dismiss them with strokes of his halter. Several of
the Sailors had a bloody Ear hanging down from their heads; and on
their hats were these words, EAR FOR EAR; on others, NO SEARCH OR
NO TRADE; with the like sentences." [ Gentleman's Magazine
for 1739, p. 103;--our DATES, as always, are N. 8.]
The conflagration evidently going on; not likely to be damped down
again, by ministerial art!--
"LONDON, 19th MARCH, 1739." Grand Debate in Parliament, on the
late "Spanish Convention," pretended Bargain of redress lately got
from Spain: Approve the Convention, or Not approve? "A hundred
Members were in the House of Commons before seven, this morning;
and four hundred had taken their seat by ten; which is an unheard-
of thing. Prince of Wales," Fred in person, "was in the gallery
till twelve at night, and had his dinner sent to him. Sir Robert
Walpole rose: 'Sir, the great pains that have been taken to
influence all ranks and degrees of men in this Nation--...
But give me leave to'"--apply a wet cloth to Honorable Gentlemen.
Which he does, really with skill and sense. France and the others
are so strong, he urges; England so unprepared; Kaiser at such a
pass; 'War like to be, about the Palatinate Dispute [our friend
Friedrich Wilhelm's]: Where is England to get, allies?'--and hours
long of the like sort. A judicious wet cloth; which
proved unavailing.
For "William Pitts" (so they spell the great Chatham that is to
be) was eloquent on the other side: "Despairing Merchants," "Voice
of England," and so on. And the world was all in an inflamed
state. And Mr. Pulteney exclaimed: Palatinate? Allies? "We need no
allies; the case of Mr. Jenkins will raise us volunteers
everywhere!" And in short,--after eight months more of haggling,
and applying wet cloths,--Walpole, in the name of England, has to
declare War against Spain; ["3d November (23d October), 1739."]
the public humor proving unquenchable on that matter. War; and no
Peace to be, "till our undoubted right," to roadway on the oceans
of this Planet, become permanently manifest to the
Spanish Majesty.
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