Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21




Foreign Visitors there are in plenty; now and then something
brilliant going. But the old Generals seem to be mainly what the
King has for company. Dinner always his bright hour; from ten to
seven guests daily. Seidlitz, never of intelligence on any point
but Soldiering, is long since dead; Ziethen comes rarely, and falls
asleep when he does; General Gortz (brother of the Weimar-Munchen
Gortz); Buddenbrock (the King's comrade in youth, in the Reinsberg
times), who has good faculty; Prittwitz (who saved him at
Kunersdorf, and is lively, though stupid); General and Head-Equerry
Schwerin, of headlong tongue, not witty, but the cause of wit;
Major Graf von Pinto, a magniloquent Ex-Austrian ditto ditto: these
are among his chief dinner-guests. If fine speculation do not suit,
old pranks of youth, old tales of war, become the staple
conversation; always plenty of banter on the old King's part;--who
sits very snuffy (says the privately ill-humored Busching) and does
not sufficiently abhor grease on his fingers, or keep his nails
quite clean. Occasionally laughs at the Clergy, too; and has little
of the reverence seemly in an old King. The truth is, Doctor, he
has had his sufferings from Human Stupidity; and was always fond of
hitting objects on the raw. For the rest, as you may see, heartily
an old Stoic, and takes matters in the rough; avoiding useless
despondency above all; and intent to have a cheerful hour at dinner
if he can.

Visits from his Kindred are still pretty frequent; never except on
invitation. For the rest, completely an old Bachelor, an old
Military Abbot; with business for every hour. Princess Amelia takes
care of his linen, not very well, the dear old Lady, who is herself
a cripple, suffering, and voiceless, speaking only in hoarse
whisper. I think I have heard there were but twelve shirts, not in
first-rate order, when the King died. A King supremely indifferent
to small concerns; especially to that of shirts and tailorages not
essential. Holds to Literature, almost more than ever;
occasionally still writes; [For one instance: The famous Pamphlet,
DE LA LITTERATURE ALLEMANDE (containing his onslaught on
Shakspeare, and his first salutation, with the reverse of welcome,
to Goethe's GOTZ VON BERLICHINGEN);--printed, under stupid
Thiebault's care, Berlin, 1780. Stands now in OEuvres de
Frederic, vii. 89-122. The last Pieces of all are
chiefly MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS of a practical or official nature.]
has his daily Readings, Concerts, Correspondences as usual:--
readers can conceive the dim Household Picture, dimly reported
withal. The following Anecdotes may be added as completion of it,
or at least of all I have to say on it:--

YOU GO ON WEDNESDAY, THEN?--"Loss of time was one of the losses
Friedrich could least stand. In visits even from his Brothers and
Sisters, which were always by his own express invitation, he would
say some morning (call it Tuesday morning): 'You are going on
Wednesday, I am sorry to hear' (what YOU never heard before)!--
'Alas, your Majesty, we must!' 'Well, I am sorry: but I will lay no
constraint on you. Pleasant moments cannot last forever!' And
sometimes, after this had been agreed to; he would say: 'But cannot
you stay till Thursday, then? Come, one other day of it!'--'Well,
since your Majesty does graciously press!' And on Thursday, not
Wednesday, on those curious terms, the visit would terminate.
This trait is in the Anecdote-Books: but its authenticity does not
rest on that uncertain basis; singularly enough, it comes to me,
individually, by two clear stages, from Friedrich's Sister the
Duchess of Brunswick, who, if anybody, would know it well!"
[My informant is Sir George Sinclair, Baronet, of Thurso; his was
the distinguished Countess of Finlater, still remembered for her
graces of mind and person, who had been Maid-of-Honor to
the Duchess.]

DINNER WITH THE QUEEN.--The Queen, a prudent, simple-minded, worthy
person, of perfect behavior in a difficult position, seems to have
been much respected in Berlin Society and the Court Circles.
Nor was the King wanting in the same feeling towards her; of which
there are still many proofs: but as to personal intercourse,--what
a figure has that gradually taken! Preuss says, citing those who
saw: "When the King, after the Seven-Years War, now and then, in
Carnival season, dined with the Queen in her Apartments, he usually
said not a word to her. He merely, on entering, on sitting down at
table and on leaving it, made the customary bow; and sat opposite
to her. Once, in the Seventies [years 1770, years now past], the
Queen was ill of gout; table was in her Apartments; but she herself
was not there, she sat in an easy-chair in the drawing-room.
On this occasion the King stepped up to the Queen, and inquired
about her health. The circumstance occasioned, among the company
present, and all over Town as the news spread, great wonder and
sympathy (VERWUNDERUNG UND THEILNAHME). This is probably the last
time he ever spoke to her." [Preuss, iv. 187.]

THE TWO GRAND-NEPHEWS.--"The King was fond of children; liked to
have his Grand-Nephews about him. One day, while the King sat at
work in his Cabinet, the younger of the two, a boy of eight or nine
[who died soon after twenty], was playing ball about the room;
and knocked it once and again into the King's writing operation;
who twice or oftener flung it back to him, but next time put it in
his pocket, and went on. 'Please your Majesty, give it me back!'
begged the Boy; and again begged: Majesty took no notice;
continued writing. Till at length came, in the tone of indignation,
'Will your Majesty give me my ball, then?' The King looked up;
found the little Hohenzollern planted firm, hands on haunches, and
wearing quite a peremptory air. 'Thou art a brave little fellow;
they won't get Silesia out of thee!' cried he laughing, and
flinging him his ball." [Fischer, ii. 445 ("year 1780").]

Of the elder Prince, afterwards Friedrich Wilhelm III. (Father of
the now King), there is a much more interesting Anecdote, and of
his own reporting too, though the precise terms are irrecoverable:
"How the King, questioning him about his bits of French studies,
brought down a LA FONTAINE from the shelves, and said, 'Translate
me this Fable;' which the Boy did, with such readiness and
correctness as obtained the King's praises: praises to an extent
that was embarrassing, and made the honest little creature confess,
'I did it with my Tutor, a few days since!' To the King's much
greater delight; who led him out to walk in the Gardens, and, in a
mood of deeper and deeper seriousness, discoursed and exhorted him
on the supreme law of truth and probity that lies on all men, and
on all Kings still more; one of his expressions being, 'Look at
this high thing [the Obelisk they were passing in the Gardens], its
UPRIGHTness is its strength (SA DROITURE FAIT SA FORCE);' and his
final words, 'Remember this evening, my good Fritz; perhaps thou
wilt think of it, long after, when I am gone.' As the good
Friedrich Wilhelm III. declares piously he often did, in the storms
of fate that overtook him." [R. F. Eylert, Charakterzuge
und historische Fragmente aus dem Leben des Konigs von Preussen
Friedrich Wilhelm III. (Magdeburg, 1843), i. 450-456.
This is a "King's Chaplain and Bishop Eylert:" undoubtedly he heard
this Anecdote from his Master, and was heard repeating it; but the
dialect his Editors have put it into is altogether tawdry, modern,
and impossible to take for that of Friedrich, or even, I suppose,
of Friedrich Wilhelm III.]

Industrial matters, that of Colonies especially, of drainages,
embankments, and reclaiming of waste lands, are a large item in the
King's business,--readers would not guess how large, or how
incessant. Under this head there is on record, and even lies at my
hand translated into English, what might be called a Colonial DAY
WITH FRIEDRICH (Day of July 23d, 1779; which Friedrich, just come
home from the Bavarian War, spent wholly, from 5 in the morning
onward, in driving about, in earnest survey of his Colonies and
Land-Improvements in the Potsdam-Ruppin Country); curious enough
Record, by a certain Bailiff or Overseer, who rode at his
chariotside, of all the questions, criticisms and remarks of
Friedrich on persons and objects, till he landed at Ruppin for the
night. Taken down, with forensic, almost with religious exactitude,
by the Bailiff in question; a Nephew of the Poet Gleim,--by whom it
was published, the year after Friedrich's death; [Is in
Anekdoten und Karakterzuge, No. 8 (Berlin, 1787),
pp. 15-79.] and by many others since. It is curiously authentic,
characteristic in parts, though in its bald forensic style rather
heavy reading. Luckier, for most readers, that inexorable want of
room has excluded it, on the present occasion! [Printed now (in
Edition 1868, for the first time), as APPENDIX to this Volume.]

No reader adequately fancies, or could by any single Document be
made to do so, the continual assiduity of Friedrich in regard to
these interests of his. The strictest Husbandman is not busier with
his Farm, than Friedrich with his Kingdom throughout;--which is
indeed a FARM leased him by the Heavens; in which not a gate-bar
can be broken, nor a stone or sod roll into the smallest ditch, but
it is to his the Husbandman's damage, and must be instantly looked
after. There are Meetings with the Silesian manufacturers (in
Review time), Dialogues ensuing, several of which have been
preserved; strange to read, however dull. There are many scattered
evidences;--and only slowly does, not the thing indeed, but the
degree of the thing, become fully credible. Not communicable, on
the terms prescribed us at present; and must be left to the languid
fancy, like so much else.

Here is an Ocular View, here are several such, which we yet happily
have, of the actual Friedrich as he looked and lived. These, at a
cheap rate, throw transiently some flare of illumination over his
Affairs and him: these let me now give; and these shall be all.


PRINCE DE LIGNE, AFTER TEN YEARS, SEES FRIEDRICH A SECOND TIME;
TIME; AND REPORTS WHAT WAS SAID.

In Summer, 1780, as we mentioned, Kaiser Joseph was on his first
Visit to the Czarina. They met at Mohilow on the Dnieper, towards
the end of May; have been roving about, as if in mere galas and
amusements (though with a great deal of business incidentally
thrown in), for above a month since, when Prince de Ligne is
summoned to join them at Petersburg. He goes by Berlin, stays at
Potsdam with Friedrich for about a week; and reports to Polish
Majesty these new Dialogues of 1780, the year after sending him
those of Mahrisch-Neustadt of 1770, which we read above. Those were
written down from memory, in 1785; these in 1786,--and "towards the
end of it," as is internally evident. Let these also be welcome to
us on such terms as there are.

"Since your Majesty [Quasi-Majesty, of Poland] is willing to lose
another quarter of an hour of that time, which you employ so well
in gaining the love of all to whom you deign to make yourself
known, here is my Second Interview. It can be of interest only to
you, Sire, who have known the King, and who discover traits of
character in what to another are but simple words. One finds in few
others that confidence, or at least that kindliness (BONHOMIE),
which characterizes your Majesty. With you, one can indulge in
rest; but with the King of Prussia, one had always to be under
arms, prepared to parry and to thrust, and to keep the due middle
between a small attack and a grand defence. I proceed to the matter
in hand, and shall speak to you of him for the last time.

"He had made me promise to come to Berlin. I hastened thither
directly after that little War [Potato-War], which he called 'an
action where he had come as bailiff to perform an execution.'
The result for him, as is known, was a great expense of men, of
horses and money; some appearance of good faith and
disinterestedness; little honor in the War; a little honesty in
Policy, and much bitterness against us Austrians. The King began,
without knowing why, to prohibit Austrian Officers from entering
his Territories without an express order, signed by his own hand.
Similar prohibition, on the part of our Court, against Prussian
Officers and mutual constraint, without profit or reason. I, for my
own part, am of confident humor; I thought I should need no
permission, and I think still I could have done without one.
But the desire of having a Letter from the great Friedrich, rather
than the fear of being ill-received, made me write to him.
My Letter was all on fire with my enthusiasm, my admiration, and
the fervor of my sentiment for that sublime and extraordinary
being; and it brought me three charming Answers from him. He gave
me, in detail, almost what I had given him in the gross; and what
he could not return me in admiration,--for I do not remember to
have gained a battle,--he accorded me in friendship. For fear of
missing, he had written to me from Potsdam, to Vienna, to Dresden,
and to Berlin. [In fine, at Potsdam I was, SATURDAY, 9th JULY,
1780, waiting ready;--stayed there about a week.] ["9th (or 10th)
July, 1780" (Rodenbeck, iii. 233): "Stayed till 16th."]

"While waiting for the hour of 12, with my Son Charles and M. de
Lille [Abbe de Lille, prose-writer of something now forgotten;
by no means lyrical DE LISLE, of LES JARDINS], to be presented to
the King, I went to look at the Parade;--and, on its breaking up,
was surrounded, and escorted to the Palace, by Austrian deserters,
and particularly from my own regiment, who almost caressed me, and
asked my pardon for having left me.

"The hour of presentation struck. The King received me with an
unspeakable charm. The military coldness of a General's Head-
quarters changed into a soft and kindly welcome. He said to me, 'He
did not think I had so big a Son.'

EGO. "'He is even married, Sire; has been so these twelve months.'

KING. "'May I (OSERAIS-JE) ask you to whom?' He often used this
expression, 'OSERAIS-JE;' and also this: 'If you permit me to have
the honor to tell you, SI VOUS ME PERMETTES D'AVOIR L'HONNEUR DE
VOUS DIRE.'

EGO. "'To a Polish-Lady, a Massalska.'

KING (to my Son). "'What, a Massalska? Do you know what her
Grandmother did?'

"'No, Sire,' said Charles.

KING. "'She put the match to the cannon at the Siege of Dantzig
with her own hand; [February, 1734, in poor Stanislaus Leczinski's
SECOND fit of Royalty: supra vi. 465.] she fired, and made others
fire, and defended herself, when her party, who had lost head,
thought only of surrendering.'

EGO. "'Women are indeed undefinable; strong and weak by turns,
indiscreet, dissembling, they are capable of anything.' 'Without
doubt,' said M. de Lille, distressed that nothing had yet been said
to him, and with a familiarity which was not likely to succeed;
'Without doubt. Look--' said he. The King interrupted him. I cited
some traits in support of my opinion,--as that of the woman
Hachette at the Siege of Beauvais. [A.D. 1472; Burgundians storming
the wall had their flag planted; flag and flag-bearer are hurled
into the ditch by Hachette and other inspired women,--with the
finest results.] The King made a little excursion to Rome and to
Sparta: he liked to promenade there. After half a second of
silence, to please De Lille, I told the King that M. de Voltaire
died in De Lille's arms. That caused the King to address some
questions to him; he answered in rather too long-drawn a manner,
and went away. Charles and I stayed dinner." This is day first
in Potsdam.

"Here, for five hours daily, the King's encyclopedical conversation
enchanted me completely. Fine arts, war, medicine, literature and
religion, philosophy, ethics, history and legislation, in turns
passed in review. The fine centuries of Augustus and of Louis XIV.;
good society among the Romans, among the Greeks, among the French;
the chivalry of Francois I.; the frankness and valor of Henri IV.;
the new-birth (RENAISSANCE) of Letters and their revolution since
Leo X.; anecdotes about the clever men of other times, and the
trouble they give; M. de Voltaire's slips; susceptibilities of
M. de Maupertuis; Algarotti's agreeable ways; fine wit of Jordan;
D'Argens's hypochondria, whom the King would send to bed for four-
and-twenty hours by simply telling him that he looked ill;--and, in
fine, what not? Everything, the most varied and piquant that could
be said, came from him,--in a most soft tone of voice; rather low
than otherwise, and no less agreeable than were the movements of
his lips, which had an inexpressible grace.

"It was this, I believe, which prevented one's observing that he
was, in fact, like Homer's heroes, somewhat of a talker (UN PEU
BABILLARD), though a sublime one. It is to their voices, their
noise and gestures, that talkers often owe their reputation as
such; for certainly one could not find a greater talker than the
King; but one was delighted at his being so. Accustomed to talk to
Marquis Lucchesini, in the presence of only four or five Generals
who did not understand French, he compensated in this way for his
hours of labor, of study, of meditation and solitude. At least,
said I to myself, I must get in a word. He had just mentioned
Virgil. I said:--

EGO. "'What a great Poet, Sire; but what a bad gardener!'

KING. "'Ah, to whom do you tell that! Have not I tried to plant,
sow, till, dig, with the GEORGICS in my hand? "But, Monsieur," said
my man, "you are a fool (BETE), and your Book no less; it is not in
that way one goes to work." Ah, MON DIEU, what a climate! Would you
believe it, Heaven, or the Sun, refuse me everything? Look at my
poor orange-trees, my olive-trees, lemon-trees: they are
all starving.'

EGO. "'It would appear, then, nothing but laurels flourish with
you, Sire.' (The King gave me a charming look; and to cover an
inane observation by an absurd one, I added quickly:) 'Besides,
Sire, there are too many GRENADIERS [means, in French, POMEGRANATES
as well as GRENADIERS,--peg of one's little joke!] in this Country;
they eat up everything!' The King burst out laughing; for it is
only absurdities that cause laughter.

"One day I had turned a plate to see of what, porcelain it
was. 'Where do you think it comes from?' asked the King.

EGO. "'I thought it was Saxon; but, instead of two swords [the
Saxon mark], I see only one, which is well worth both of them.'

KING. "'It is a sceptre.'

EGO. "'I beg your Majesty's pardon; but it is so much like a sword,
that one could easily mistake it for one.' And such was really the
case. This, it, is known, is the mark of the Berlin china. As the
King sometimes PLAYED KING, and thought himself, sometimes,
extremely magnificent while taking up a walking-stick or snuffbox
with a few wretched little diamonds running after one another on
it, I don't quite know whether he was infinitely pleased with my
little allegory.

"One day, as I entered his room, he came towards me, saying, 'I
tremble to announce bad news to you. I have just heard that Prince
Karl of Lorraine is dying.' [Is already dead, "at Brussels, July
4th;" Duke of Sachsen-Teschen and Wife Christine succeeded him as
Joint-Governors in those parts.] He looked at me to see the effect
this would have; and observing some tears escaping from my eyes,
he, by gentlest transitions, changed the conversation; talked of
war, and of the Marechal de Lacy. He asked me news about Lacy; and
said, 'That is a man of the greatest merit. In former time, Count
Mercy among yourselves [killed, while commanding in chief, at the
Battle of Parma in 1733], Puysegur among the French, had some
notions of marches and encampments; one sees from Hyginus's Book
[ancient Book] ON CASTRAMETATION, that the Greeks also were much
occupied with the subject: but your Marechal surpasses the
Ancients, the Moderns and all the most famous men who have meddled
with it. Thus, whenever he was your Quartermaster-General, if you
will permit me to make the remark to you, I did not gain the least
advantage. Recollect the two Campaigns of 1758 and 1759;
you succeeded in everything. I often said to myself, 'Shall I never
get rid of that man, then?' You yourselves got me rid of him;
and--[some liberal or even profuse eulogy of Lacy, who is De
Ligne's friend; which we can omit].

"Next day the King, as soon as he saw me, came up; saying with the
most penetrated air: 'If you are to learn the loss of a man who
loved you, and who did honor to mankind, it will be better that it
be from some one who feels it as deeply as I do. Poor Prince Karl
is no more. Others, perhaps, are made to replace him in your heart;
but few Princes will replace him with regard to the beauty of his
soul and to all his virtues.' In saying this, his emotion became
extreme. I said: 'Your Majesty's regrets are a consolation; and you
did not wait for his death to speak well of him. There are fine
verses with reference to him in the Poem, SUR L'ART DE LA GUERRE.'
My emotion troubled me against my will; however, I repeated them
to him.
[ "Soutien de mes rivaux, digne appui de ta reine,
Charles, d'un ennemi sourd aux cris de la haine
Recois l'eloge" ... (for crossing the Rhine
in 1744): ten rather noble lines, still worth reading; as indeed
the whole Poem well is, especially to soldier students (L'ART DE LA
GUERRE, Chant vi.: OEuvres de Frederic,
x. 273).] The Man of Letters seemed to appreciate my knowing them
by heart.

KING. "'His passage of the Rhine was a very fine thing;--but the
poor Prince depended upon so many people! I never depended upon
anybody but myself; sometimes too much so for my luck. He was badly
served, not too well obeyed: neither the one nor the other ever was
the case with me.--Your General Nadasti appeared to me a great
General of Cavalry?' Not sharing the King's opinion on this point,
I contented myself with saying, that Nadasti was very brilliant,
very fine at musketry, and that he could have led his hussars to
the world's end and farther (DANS L'ENFER), so well did he know how
to animate them.

KING. "'What has become of a brave Colonel who played the devil at
Rossbach? Ah, it was the Marquis de Voghera, I think?--Yes, that's
it; for I asked his name after the Battle.'

EGO. "'He is General of Cavalry.'

KING. "'PERDI! It needed a considerable stomach for fight, to
charge like your Two Regiments of Cuirassiers there, and, I
believe, your Hussars also: for the Battle was lost before
it began.'

EGO. "'Apropos of M. de Voghera, is your Majesty aware of a little
thing he did before charging? He is a boiling, restless, ever-eager
kind of man; and has something of the good old Chivalry style.
Seeing that his Regiment would not arrive quick enough, he galloped
ahead of it; and coming up to the Commander of the Prussian
Regiment of Cavalry which he meant to attack, he saluted him as on
parade; the other returned the salute; and then, Have at each other
like madmen.'

KING. "'A very good style it is! I should like to know that man;
I would thank him for it.--Your General von Ried, then, had got the
devil in him, that time at Eilenburg [spurt of fight there, in the
Meissen regions, I think in Year 1758, when the D'Ahremberg
Dragoons got so cut up], to let those brave Dragoons, who so long
bore your Name with glory, advance between Three of my Columns?'--
He had asked me the same question at the Camp of Neustadt ten years
since; and in vain had I told him that it was not M. de Ried; that
Ried did not command them at all; and that the fault was Marechal
Daun's, who ought not to have sent them into that Wood of
Eilenburg, still less ordered them to halt there without even
sending a patrol forward. The King could not bear our General von
Ried, who had much displeased him as Minister at Berlin; and it was
his way to put down everything to the account of people
he disliked.

KING. "'When I think of those devils of Saxon Camps [Summer,
1760],--they were unattackable citadels! If, at Torgau, M. de Lacy
had still been Quartermaster-General, I should not have attempted
to attack him. But there I saw at once the Camp was ill chosen.'

EGO. "'The superior reputation of Camps sometimes causes a desire
to attempt them. For instance, I ask your Majesty's pardon, but I
have always thought you would at last have attempted that of
Plauen, had the War continued.'

KING. "'Oh, no, indeed! There was no way of taking that one.'

EGO. "'Does n't your Majesty think: With a good battery on the
heights of Dolschen, which commanded us; with some battalions,
ranked behind each other in the Ravine, attacking a quarter of an
hour before daybreak [and so forth, at some length,--excellent for
soldier readers who know the Plauen Chasm], you could have flung us
out of that almost impregnable Place of Refuge?'

KING. "'And your battery on the Windberg, which would have scourged
my poor battalions, all the while, in your Ravine?'

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