Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20




A man of some real intellect and melody; some, by no means much;
who was of amiable meek demeanor; studious to offend nobody, and to
do whatever good he could by the established methods;--and who,
what was the great secret of his success, was of orthodoxy perfect
and eminent. Whom, accordingly, the whole world, polite Saxon
orthodox world, hailed as its Evangelist and Trismegistus.
Essentially a commonplace man; but who employed himself in
beautifying and illuminating the commonplace of his clay and
generation:--infinitely to the satisfaction of said generation.
"How charming that you should make thinkable to us, make vocal,
musical and comfortably certain, what we were all inclined to
think; you creature plainly divine!" And the homages to Gellert
were unlimited and continual, not pleasant all of them to an idlish
man in weak health.

Mitchell and Quintus Icilius, who are often urging on the King that
a new German Literature is springing up, of far more importance
than the King thinks, have spoken much to him of Gellert the
Trismegistus;--and at length, in the course of a ten days from
Friedrich's arrival here, actual Interview ensues. The DIALOGUE,
though it is but dull and watery to a modern palate, shall be given
entire, for the sake of one of the Interlocutors. The Report of it,
gleaned gradually from Gellert himself, and printed, not long
afterwards, from his manuscripts or those of others, is to be taken
as perfectly faithful. Gellert, writing to his inquiring Friend
Rabener (a then celebrated Berlin Wit), describes, from Leipzig,
"29th January, 1760," or about six weeks after the event: "How, one
day about the middle of December, Quintus Icilius suddenly came to
my poor lodging here, to carry me to the King." Am too ill to go.
Quintus will excuse me to-day; but will return to-morrow, when no
excuse shall avail. Did go accordingly next day, Thursday, 18th
December, 4 o'clock of the afternoon; and continued till a quarter
to 6. "Had nothing of fear in speaking to the King. Recited my
MALER ZU ATHEN." King said, at parting, he would send for me again.
"The English Ambassador [Mitchell], an excellent man, was probably
the cause of the King's wish to see me. ... The King spoke
sometimes German, sometimes French; I mostly German."
[ Gellert's Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius,
herausgegeben von F. A. Ebert (Leipzig, 1823),
pp. 629, 631.] As follows:--

RING. "Are you (ER) the Professor Gellert?"

GELLERT. "Yea, IHRO MAJESTAT."

KING. "The English Ambassador has spoken highly of you to me.
Where do you come from?"

GELLERT. "From Hainichen, near Freyberg."

KING. "Have not you a brother at Freyberg?"

GELLERT. "Yea, IHRO MAJESTAT."

KING. "Tell me why we have no good German Authors."

MAJOR QUINTUS ICILIUS (puts in a word). "Your Majesty, you see here
one before you;--one whom the French themselves have translated,
calling him the German La Fontaine!"

KING. "That is much. Have you read La Fontaine?"

GELLERT. "Yes, your Majesty; but have not imitated: I am original
(ICH BIN EIN ORIGINAL)."

KING. "Well, this is one good Author among the Germans; but why
have not we more?"

GELLERT. "Your Majesty has a prejudice against the Germans."

KING. "No; I can't say that (Nein; das kann ich nicht sagen)."

GELLERT. "At least, against German writers."

KING. "Well, perhaps. Why have we no good Historians? Why does no
one undertake a Translation of Tacitus?"

GELLERT. "Tacitus is difficult to translate; and the Frenoh
themselves have but bad translations of him."

KING. "That is true (DA HAT ER RECHT)."

GELLERT. "And, on the whole, various reasons may be given why the
Germans have not yet distinguished themselves in every kind of
writing. While Arts and Sciences were in their flower among the
Greeks, the Romans were still busy in War. Perhaps this is the
Warlike Era of the Germans:--perhaps also they have yet wanted
Augustuses and Louis-Fourteenths!"

KING. "How, would you wish one Augustus,then, for all Germany?"

GELLERT. "Not altogether that; I could wish only that every
Sovereign encouraged men of genius in his own country."

KING (starting a new subject). "Have you never been out of Saxony?"

GELLERT. "I have been in Berlin."

KING. "You should travel."

GELLERT. "IHRO MAJESTAT, for that I need two things,--health
and means."

KING. "What is your complaint? Is it DIE GELEHRTE KRANKHEIT
(Disease of the Learned," Dyspepsia so called)? "I have myself
suffered from that. I will prescribe for you. You must ride daily,
and take a dose of rhubarb every week."

GELLERT. "ACH, IHRO MAJESTAT: if the horse were as weak as I am, he
would be of no use to me; if he were stronger, I should be too weak
to manage him." (Mark this of the Horse, however; a tale hangs
by it.)

KING. "Then you must drive out."

GELLERT. "For that I am deficient in the means."

KING. "Yes, that is true; that is what Authors (GELEHRTE) in
Deutschland are always deficient in. I suppose these are bad times,
are not they?"

GELLERT. "JA WOHL; and if your Majesty would grant us Peace (DEN
FRIEDEN GEBEN WOLLTEN)--"

KING. "How can I? Have not you heard, then? There are three of them
against me (ES SIND JA DREI WIDER MICH)!"

GELLERT. "I have more to do with the Ancients and their History
than with the Moderns."

KING (changing the topic). "What do you think, is Homer or Virgil
the finer as an Epic Poet?"

GELLERT. "Homer, as the more original."

KING. "But Virgil is much more polished (VIEL POLIRTER)."

GELLERT. "We are too far removed from Homer's times to judge of
his language. I trust to Quintilian in that respect, who
prefers Homer."

KING. "But one should not be a slave to the opinion of
the Ancients."

GELLERT. "Nor am I that. I follow them only in cases where, owing
to the distance, I cannot judge for myself."

MAJOR ICILIUS (again giving a slight fillip or suggestion). "He,"
the Herr Professor here, "has also treated of GERMAN LETTER-
WRITING, and has published specimens."

KING. "So? But have you written against the CHANCERY STYLE, then"
(the painfully solemn style, of ceremonial and circumlocution;
Letters written so as to be mainly wig and buckram)?

GELLERT. "ACH JA, that have I, IHRO MAJESTAT!"

KING. "But why doesn't it change? The Devil must be in it (ES IST
ETWAS VERTEUFELTES). They bring me whole sheets of that stuff, and
I can make nothing of it!"

GELLERT. "If your Majesty cannot alter it, still less can I. I can
only recommend, where you command."

KING. "Can you repeat any of your Fables?"

GELLERT. "I doubt it; my memory is very treacherous."

KING. "Bethink you a little; I will walk about [Gellert bethinks
him, brow puckered. King, seeing the brow unpucker itself].
Well, have you one?"

GELLERT. "Yes, your Majesty: THE PAINTER." Gellert recites (voice
plaintive and hollow; somewhat PREACHY, I should doubt, but not
cracked or shrieky);--we condense him into prose abridgment for
English readers; German can look at the bottom of the page:
[(Gellert's WERKE: Leipzig, 1840; i. 135.)]--

"'A prudent Painter in Athens, more intent on excellence than on
money, had done a God of War; and sent for a real Critic to give
him his opinion of it. On survey, the Critic shook his head: "Too
much Art visible; won't do, my friend!" The Painter strove to think
otherwise; and was still arguing, when a young Coxcomb [GECK, Gawk]
stept in: "Gods, what a masterpiece!" cried he at the first glance:
"Ah, that foot, those exquisitely wrought toenails; helm, shield,
mail, what opulence of Art!" The sorrowful Painter looked
penitentially at the real Critic, looked at his brush; and the
instant this GECK was gone, struck out his God of War.'"

KING. "And the Moral?"

GELLERT (still reciting):

"'When the Critic does not like thy Bit of Writing, it is a bad
sign for thee; but when the Fool admires, it is time thou at once
strike it out.'"


"Ein kluger Maler in Athen,
Der minder, weil man ihn bezhalte,
Als weil er Ehre suchte, malte,
Liess einen Kenner einst den Mars im Bilde sehn,
Und bat sich seine Meinung aus.
Der Kenner sagt ihm fiei heraus,
Dass ihm das Bild nicht ganz gefallen wollte,
Und dass es, um recht schon zu sein,
Weit minder Kunst verrathen sollte.
Der Maler wandte vieles ein;
Der Kenner stritt mit ihm aus Grunden,
Und konnt ihn doch nicht uberwinden.
Gleich trat ein junger Geck herein,
Und nahm das Bild in Augenschein.
'O,' rief er, 'bei dem ersten Blicke,
Ihr Gotter, welch ein Meisterstucke!
Ach, welcher Fuss! O, wie geschickt
Sind nicht die Nagel ausgedruckt!
Mars lebt durchaus in diesem Bilde.
Wie viele Kunst, wie viele Pracht
Ist in dem Helm und in dem Schilde,
Und in der Rustung angebracht!'
Der Maler ward beschamt geruhret,
Und sah den Kenner klaglich an.
'Nun,' sprach er, 'bin ich uberfuhret!
Ihr habt mir nicht zu viel gethan.'
Der junge Geck war kaum hinaus,
So strich er seinen Kriegsgott aus."


MORAL.


"Wenn deine Schrift dem Kenner nicht gefallt,
So ist es schon ein boses Zeichen;
Doch, wenn sie gar des Narren Lob erhalt,
So ist es Zeit, sie auszustreichen."


KING. "That is excellent; very fine indeed. You have a something of
soft and flowing in your verses; them I understand altogether.
But there was Gottsched, one day, reading me his Translation of
IPHIGENIE; I had the French Copy in my hand, and could not
understand a word of him [a Swan of Saxony, laboring in vain that
day]! They recommended me another Poet, one Peitsch [Herr Peitsch
of Konigsberg, Hofrath, Doctor and Professor there, Gottsched's
Master in Art; edited by Gottsched thirty years ago; now become a
dumb idol, though at one time a god confessed]; him I flung away."

GELLERT. "IHRO MAJESTAT, him I also fling away."

KING. "Well, if I continue here, you must come again often;
bring your FABLES with you, and read me something."

GELLERT. "I know not if I can read well; I have the singing kind of tone, native to the Hill Country."

KING. "JA, like the Silesians. No, you must read me the FABLES
yourself; they lose a great deal otherwise. Come back soon."
[ Gellert's Briefwechsel mit Demoiselle Lucius
(already cited), pp. 632 et seq.] (EXIT GELLERT.)

KING (to Icilius, as we learn from a different Record). "That is
quite another man than Gottsched!" (EXUENT OMNES.)

The modest Gellert says he "remembered Jesus Sirach's advice, PRESS
NOT THYSELF ON KINGS,--and never came back;" nor was specially sent
for, in the hurries succeeding; though the King never quite forgot
him. Next day, at dinner, the King said, "He is the reasonablest
man of all the German Literary People, C'EST LE PLUS RAISONNABLE DE
TOUS LES SAVANS ALLEMANDS." And to Garve, at Breslau, years
afterwards: "Gellert is the only German that will reach posterity;
his department is small, but he has worked in it with real
felicity." And indeed the King had, before that, as practical
result of the Gellert Dialogue, managed to set some Berlin
Bookseller upon printing of these eligible FABLES, "for the use of
our Prussian Schools;" in which and other capacities the FABLES
still serve with acceptance there and elsewhere. [Preuss, ii. 274.]

In regard to Gellert's Horse-exercise, I had still to remember that
Gellert, not long after, did get a Horse; two successive Horses;
both highly remarkable. The first especially; which was Prince
Henri's gift: "The Horse Prince Henri had ridden at the Battle of
Freyberg" (Battle to be mentioned hereafter);--quadruped that must
have been astonished at itself! But a pretty enough gift from the
warlike admiring Prince to his dyspeptic Great Man. This Horse
having yielded to Time, the very Kurfurst (grandson of Polish
Majesty that now is) sent Gellert another, housing and furniture
complete; mounted on which, Gellert and it were among the sights of
Leipzig;--well enough known here to young Goethe, in his College
days, who used to meet the great man and princely horse, and do
salutation, with perhaps some twinkle of scepticism in the corner
of his eye. [DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT, Theil ii. Buch 6 (in Goethe's
WERKE, xxv. 51 et seq).] Poor Gellert fell seriously ill in
December, 1769; to the fear and grief of all the world: "estafettes
from the Kurfurst himself galloped daily, or oftener, from Dresden
for the sick bulletin;" but poor Gellert died, all the same (13th
of that month); and we have (really with pathetic thoughts, even
we) to bid his amiable existence in this world, his bits of glories
and him, adieu forever.


DIALOGUE WITH GENERAL SALDERN (in the Apel House,
Leipzig, 21st January, 1761).

Four or five weeks after this of Gellert, Friedrich had another
Dialogue, which also is partly on record, and is of more importance
to us here: Dialogue with Major-General Saldern; on a certain
business, delicate, yet profitable to the doer,--nobody so fit for
it as Saldern, thinks the King. Saldern is he who did that
extraordinary feat of packing the wrecks of battle on the Field of
Liegnitz; a fine, clear-flowing, silent kind of man, rapid and
steady; with a great deal of methodic and other good faculty in
him,--more, perhaps, than he himself yet knows of. Him the King has
sent for, this morning; and it is on the business of Polish
Majesty's Royal Hunting-Schloss at Hubertsburg,--which is a thing
otherwise worth some notice from us.

For three months long the King had been representing, in the proper
quarters, what plunderings, and riotous and even disgusting
savageries, the Saxons had perpetrated at Charlottenburg,
Schonhausen, Friedrichsfeld, in October last, while masters there
for a few days: but neither in Reichs Diet, where Plotho was
eloquent, nor elsewhere by the Diplomatic method, could he get the
least redress, or one civil word of regret. From Polish Majesty
himself, to whom Friedrich remonstrated the matter, through the
English Resident at Warsaw, Friedrich had expected regret; but he
got none. Some think he had hoped that Polish Majesty, touched by
these horrors of war, and by the reciprocities evidently liable to
follow, might be induced to try something towards mediating a
General Peace: but Polish Majesty did not; Polish Majesty answered
simply nothing at all, nor would get into any correspondence:
upon which Friedrich, possibly a little piqued withal, had at
length determined on retaliation.

Within our cantonments, reflects Friedrich, here is Hubertsburg
Schloss, with such a hunting apparatus in and around it;
Polish Majesty's HERTZBLATT ("lid of the HEART," as they call it;
breastbone, at least, and pit of his STOMACH, which inclines to
nothing but hunting): let his Hubertsburg become as our
Charlottenburg is; perhaps that will touch his feelings!
Friedrich had formed this resolution; and, Wednesday, January 21st,
sends for Saldern, one of the most exact, deft-going and
punctiliously honorable of all his Generals, to execute it.
Enter Saldern accordingly,--royal Audience-room "in the APEL'SCHE
HAUS, New Neumarkt, No. 16," as above;--to whom (one Kuster, a
reliable creature, reporting for us on Saldern's behalf) the King
says, in the distinct slowish tone of a King giving orders:--

KING. "Saldern, to-morrow morning you go [ER, He goes) with a
detachment of Infantry and Cavalry, in all silence, to Hubertsburg;
beset the Schloss, get all the furnitures carefully packed up and
invoiced. I want nothing with them; the money they bring I mean to
bestow on our Field Hospitals, and will not forget YOU in disposing
of it."

Saldern, usually so prompt with his "JA" on any Order from the
King, looks embarrassed, stands silent,--to the King's great
surprise;--and after a moment or two says:--

SALDERN. "Forgive me, your Majesty: but this is contrary to my
honor and my oath."

KING (still in a calm tone). "You would be right to think so if I
did not intend this desperate method for a good object. Listen to
me: great Lords don't feel it in their scalp, when their subjects
are torn by the hair; one has to grip their own locks, as the only
way to give them pain." (These last words the King said in a
sharper tone; he again made his apology for the resolution he had
formed; and renewed his Order. With the modesty usual to him, but
also with manliness, Saldern replied:)--

SALDERN. "Order me, your Majesty, to attack the enemy and his
batteries, I will on the instant cheerfully obey: but against
honor, oath and duty, I cannot, I dare not!"

The King, with voice gradually rising, I suppose, repeated his
demonstration that the thing was proper, necessary in the
circumstances; but Saldern, true to the inward voice,
answered steadily:--

SALDERN. "For this commission your Majesty will easily find another
person in my stead."

KING (whirling hastily round, with an angry countenance, but, I
should say, an admirable preservation of his dignity in such
extreme case). "SALDERN, ER WILL NICHT REICH WERDEN,--Saldern, you
refuse to become rich." And EXIT, leaving Saldern to his own stiff
courses. [Kuster, Charakterzuge des General-Lieutenant v.
Saldern (Berlin, 1793), pp. 39-44.]

Nothing remained for Saldern but to fall ill, and retire from the
Service; which he did: a man honorably ruined, thought everybody;--
which did not prove to be the case, by and by.

This surely is a remarkable Dialogue; far beyond any of the Gellert
kind. An absolute King and Commander-in-Chief, and of such a type
in both characters, getting flat refusal once in his life (this
once only, so far as I know), and how he takes it:--one wishes
Kuster, or somebody, had been able to go into more details!--
Details on the Quintus-Icilius procedure, which followed next day,
would also have been rather welcome, had Kuster seen good. It is
well known, Quintus Icilius and his Battalion, on order now given,
went cheerfully, next day, in Saldern's stead. And sacked
Hubertsburg Castle, to the due extent or farther: 100,000 thalers
(15,000 pounds) were to be raised from it for the Field-Hospital
behoof; the rest was to be Quintus's own; who, it was thought, made
an excellent thing of it for himself. And in hauling out the
furnitures, especially in selling them, Quintus having an
enterprising sharp head in trade affairs, "it is certain," says
Kuster, as says everybody, "various SCHANDLICHKEITEN (scandals)
occurred, which were contrary to the King's intention, and would
not have happened under Saldern." What the scandals particularly
were, is not specified to me anywhere, though I have searched up
and down; much less the net amount of money realized by Quintus.
I know only, poor Quintus was bantered about it, all his life
after, by this merciless King; and at Potsdam, in years coming, had
ample time and admonition for what penitence was needful.

"The case was much canvassed in the Army," says poor Kuster;
"it was the topic in every tent among Officers and common Men.
And among us Army-Chaplains too," poor honest souls, "the question
of conflicting duties arose: Your King ordering one thing, and your
own Conscience another, what ought a man to do? What ought an Army-
Chaplain to preach or advise? And considerable mutual light in
regard to it we struck out from one another, and saw how a prudent
Army-Chaplain might steer his way. Our general conclusion was, That
neither the King nor Saldern could well be called wrong.
Saldern listening to the inner voice; right he, for certain.
But withal the King, in his place, might judge such a thing
expedient and fit; perhaps Saldern himself would, had Saldern been
King of Prussia there in January, 1761."

Saldern's behavior in his retirement was beautiful; and after the
Peace, he was recalled, and made more use of than ever:
being indeed a model for Army arrangements and procedures, and
reckoned the completest General of Infantry now left, far and near.
The outcries made about Hubertsburg, which still linger in Books,
are so considerable, one fancies the poor Schloss must have been
quite ruined, and left standing as naked walls. Such, however, we
by no means find to be the case; but, on the contrary, shall
ourselves see that everything was got refitted there, and put into
perfect order again, before long.


THERE ARE SOME WAR-MOVEMENTS DURING WINTER; GENERAL
FINANCIERING DIFFICULTIES. CHOISEUL PROPOSES PEACE.

February 15th, there fell out, at Langensalza, on the Unstrut, in
Gotha Country, a bit of sharp fighting; done by Friedrich's people
and Duke Ferdinand's in concert; which, and still more what
followed on it, made some noise in the quiet months. Not a great
thing, this of Langensalza, but a sudden, and successfully done;
costing Broglio some 2,000 prisoners; and the ruin of a
considerable Post of his, which he had lately pushed out thither,
"to seize the Unstrut," as he hoped. A Broglio grasping at more
than he could hold, in those Thuringen parts, as elsewhere!
And, indeed, the Fight of Langensalza was only the beginning of a
series of such; Duke Ferdinand being now upon one of his grand
Winter-Adventures: that of suddenly surprising and exploding
Broglio's Winter-quarters altogether, and rolling him back to
Frankfurt for a lodging. So that, since the first days of February,
especially since Langensalza day, there rose suddenly a great deal
of rushing about, in those regions, with hard bits of fighting, at
least of severe campaigning;--which lasted two whole-months;--
filling the whole world with noise that Winter; and requiring
extreme brevity from us here. It was specially Duke Ferdinand's
Adventure; Friedrich going on it, as per bargain, to the
Langensalza enterprise, but no farther; after which it did not much
concern Friedrich, nor indeed come to much result for anybody.

"Strenuous Ferdinand, very impatient of the Gottingen business and
provoked to see Broglio's quarters extend into Hessen, so near
hand, for the first time, silently determines to dislodge him.
Broglio's chain of quarters, which goes from Frankfurt north as far
as Marburg, then turns east to Ziegenhayn; thence north again to
Cassel, to Munden with its Defiles; and again east, or southeast,
to Langensalza even: this chain has above 150 miles of weak length;
and various other grave faults to the eye of Ferdinand,--especially
this, that it is in the form, not of an elbow only, or joiner's-
square, which is entirely to be disapproved, but even of two
elbows; in fact, of the PROFILE OF A CHAIR [if readers had a Map at
hand]. FOOT of the chair is Frankfurt; SEAT part is from Marburg to
Ziegenhayn; BACK part, near where Ferdinand lies in chief force, is
the Cassel region, on to Munden, which is TOP of the back,--still
backwards from which, there is a kind of proud CURL or overlapping,
down to Langensalza in Gotha Country, which greedy Broglio has
likewise grasped at! Broglio's friends say he himself knew the
faultiness of this zigzag form, but had been overruled.
Ferdinand certainly knows it, and proceeds to act upon it.

"In profound silence, namely, ranks himself (FEBRUARY lst-12th) in
three Divisions, wide enough asunder; bursts up sudden as
lightning, at Langensalza and elsewhere; kicks to pieces Broglio's
Chair-Profile, kicks out especially the bottom part which ruins
both foot and back, these being disjointed thereby, and each
exposed to be taken in rear;--and of course astonishes Broglio not
a little; but does not steal his presence of mind.

"So that, in effect, Broglio had instantly to quit Cassel and warm
lodging, and take the field in person; to burn his Magazines;
and, at the swiftest rate permissible, condense himself, at first
partially about Fulda (well down the leg of his chair), and then
gradually all into one mass near Frankfurt itself;--with
considerable losses, loss especially of all his Magazines, full or
half full. And has now, except Marburg, Ziegenhayn and Cassel, no
post between Gottingen and him. Ferdinand, with his Three
Divisions, went storming along in the wild weather, Granby as
vanguard; pricking into the skirts of Broglio. Captured this and
that of Corps, of Magazines that had not been got burnt; laid siege
to Tassel, siege to Ziegenhayn; blocked Marburg, not having guns
ready: and, for some three or four weeks, was by the Gazetteer
world and general public thought to have done a very considerable
feat;--though to himself, such were the distances, difficulties of
the season, of the long roads, it probably seemed very questionable
whether, in the end, any feat at all.

"Cassel he could not take, after a month's siege under the best of
Siege-Captains; Ziegenhayn still less under one of the worst.
Provisions, ammunitions, were not to be had by force of wagonry:
scant food for soldiers, doubly scant the food of Sieges;"--"the
road from Beverungen [where the Weser-boats have to stop, which is
30 miles from Cassel, perhaps 60 from Ziegenhayn, and perhaps 100
from the outmost or southern-most of Ferdinand's parties] is paved
with dead horses," nor has even Cassel nearly enough of
ammunition:--in a word, Broglio, finding the time come, bursts up
from his Frankfurt Position (March 14th-21st) in a sharp and
determined manner; drives Ferdinand's people back, beats the
Erbprinz himself one day (by surprisal, 'My compliment for
Langensalza'), and sets his people running. Ferdinand sees the
affair to be over; and deliberately retires; lucky, perhaps, that
he still can deliberately: and matters return to their old posture.
Broglio resumes his quarters, somewhat altered in shape, and not
quite so grasping as formerly; and beyond his half-filled
Magazines, has lost nothing considerable, or more considerable than
has Ferdinand himself." [Tempelhof, v. 15-45; Mauvillon, ii.
135-148.]

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