Sept.-Dec. 1773. 'He gave the card to the Princess, who embraced and kissed ' him for it.'23 Voltaire to Friedrich (a fortnight after). "Ferney, 22d September 1773. "I must tell you that I have felt, in these late days, in spite "of all my past caprices, how much I am attached to your Majesty "and to your House. Madame the Duchess of Würtemberg hav"ing had, like so many others, the weakness to believe that health "is to be found at Lausanne, and that Dr. Tissot gives it if one pay him, has, as you know, made the journey to Lausanne; “and I, who am more veritably ill than she, and than all the "Princesses who have taken Tissot for an Esculapius, had not "the strength to leave my home. Madame of Würtemberg, "apprised of all the feelings that still live in me for the memory of Madame the Margravine of Baireuth her Mother, has "deigned to visit my hermitage, and pass two days with us. I "should have recognised her, even without warning; she has the "turn of her Mother's face with your eyes. "You Hero-people who govern the world don't allow your"selves to be subdued by feelings; you have them all the same 66 as we, but you maintain your decorum. We other petty mor"tals yield to all our impressions: I set myself to cry, in speak"ing to her of you and of Madame the Princess her Mother; "and she too, though she is Niece of the first Captain in Europe, "could not restrain her tears. It appears to me that she has "the talent (esprit) and the graces of your House; and that "especially she is more attached to you than to her Husband" (I should think so!). "She returns, I believe, to Baireuth,”— -(No Mother, no Father, there now: foolish Uncle of Anspach died long ago, '3d August 1757;' Aunt Dowager of Anspach gone to Erlangen, I hope, to Feuchtwang, Schwabach or Schwaningen, or some Widow's-Mansion (Wittwensitz) of her own;24 reigning Son, with his French-Actress equipments, being of questionable figure),— -"returns, I believe, to Baireuth; where she will find another 23 Vehse, Geschichte der Deutschen Höfe (Hamburg, 1853), xxv. 252, 253. 24 Lived, finally at Schwaningen, in sight of such vicissitudes and follies round her, till 4th February 1784' (Rödenbeck, iii. 304). Sept.-Dec. 1773. "Princess of a different sort; I mean Mademoiselle Clairon, who "cultivates Natural History, and is Lady Philosopher to Mon"seigneur the Margraf,"-high-rouged Tragedy-Queen, rather tyrannous upon him, they say; a young man destined to adorn Hammersmith by and by, and not go a good road. * * "I renounce my beautiful hopes of seeing the Maho"metans driven out of Europe, and Athens become again the "Seat of the Muses. Neither you nor the Kaiser are”—are inclined in the Crusading way at all. * "The old sick man "of Ferney is always at the feet of your Majesty; he feels very sorry that he cannot talk of you farther with Madame "the Duchess of Würtemberg, who adores you.-Le Vieux "Malade."25 66 66 To which Friedrich makes answer: "If it is forevermore "forbidden me to see you again, I am not the less glad that the "Duchess of Würtemberg has seen you. I should certainly "have mixed my tears with yours, had I been present at that touching scene! Be it weakness, be it excess of regard, I have "built for her lost Mother, what Cicero projected for his Tullia, "a TEMPLE OF FRIENDSHIP: her Statue occupies the back"ground, and on each pillar stands a mask (mascaron) contain"ing the Bust of some Hero in Friendship: I send you the drawing of it."26 Which again sets Voltaire weeping, and will the Duchess when she sees it.27 We said there hitherto was nearly nothing anywhere discoverable as History of this high Lady but the dates only; these we now give. She was born, 30th August 1732,'-her Mother's and Father's one Child; -four years older than her Anspach Cousin, who inherited Baireuth too, and finished off that genealogy. She was 'wedded, 26th September 1748;' her age then about 16; her gloomy Duke of Würtemberg, age 20, all 25 Euvres de Voltaire, xcii. 390. 26 Potsdam, 24th October 1773: Euvres de Frédéric, xxiii. 259;'Temple' was built in 1768 (Ibid. p. 259 n.). 27 Voltaire's next Letter: Euvres de Voltaire, xcii. 434. Sept.-Dec. 1773. sunshine and goodness to her then: she was 'divorced, in 1757' 'died, 6th April 1780,'-Tradition says, 'in great poverty' (great for her rank, I suppose, proud as she might be, and above complaining),-'at Neustadton-the-Aisch' (in the Nurnberg region), whither she had retired, I know not how long after her Papa's death and Cousin's accession. She is bound for her Cousin's Court, we observe, just now; and, considering her Cousin's ways and her own turn of mind, it is easy to fancy she had not a pleasant time there. Tradition tells us, credibly enough, 'She was very like her Mother: beautiful, much the lady (von feinem Ton), and of energetic character;' and adds, probably on slight foundation, but very cold and proud towards 'the People.'28 Many Books will inform you how, 'On 'first entering Stuttgart, when the reigning Duke and 'she were met by a party of congratulatory Peasant 'Women, dressed in their national costume, she said to her Duke,' being then only sixteen, poor young soul, and on her marriage-journey, "Was will das Geschmeis (Why does that rabble bore us)!" This is probably the main foundation. That 'her Ladies, 'on approaching her, had always to kiss the hem of 'her gown,' lay in the nature of the case, being then the rule to people of her rank. Beautiful Unfortunate, adieu; and be Voltaire thanked, too! It is long since we have seen Voltaire before:-a prosperous Lord at Ferney these dozen years ('the only man in France that lives like a grand Seigneur,' says Cardinal Bernis to him once29); doing great things for the Pays 28 Vehse, xxv. 251. 29 Their Correspondence, really pretty of its kind, used to circulate as a separate Volume, in the years then subsequent. Sept.-Dec. 1773. de Gex, and for France, and for Europe; delivering the Calases, the Sirvens, and the Oppressed of various kinds; especially ardent upon the Infâme, as the real business Heaven has assigned him in his Day, the sunset of which, and Night wherein no man can work, he feels to be hastening on. "Couldn't we, the few Faithful, go to Cleve in a body?" thinks he at one time: "To Cleve; and there, as from a safe place, under the Philosopher King, shoot out our fiery artilleries with effect?" The Philosopher King is perfectly willing, "provided you don't involve me in Wars with my neighbours." Willing enough he; but they the Faithful-alas, the Patriarch finds that they have none of his own heroic ardour, and that the thing cannot be done. Upon which, struck with sorrow, he writes nothing to Friedrich for two years.30 The truth is, he is growing very old; and though a piercing radiance, as of stars, bursts occasionally from the central part of him, the outworks are getting decayed and dim; obstruction more and more accumulating, and the immeasurable Night drawing nigh. Well does Voltaire himself, at all moments, know this; and his bearing under it, one must say, is rather beautiful. There is a tenderness, a sadness, in these his later Letters to Friedrich; instead of emphasis or strength, a beautiful shrill melody, as of a woman, as of a child; he grieves unappeasably to have lost Friedrich; never will forgive Maupertuis:-poor old man! Friedrich answers in a much livelier, more robust tone: friendly, encouraging, communicative on small matters;-full of praises, in fact, sincerely glad to have such a transcendant genius still alive with him in this world. Praises to the most liberal pitch everything of Vol 30 'Nov. 1769,' recommences (Euvres de Frédéric, xxiii. 140, 139). Sept.-Dec. 1773. taire's, except only the Article on War, which occasionally (as below) he quizzes a little, to the Patriarch or his Disciple. As we have room for nothing of all this, and perhaps shall not see Voltaire again,-there are Two actual Interviews with him, which, being withal by Englishmen, though otherwise not good for much, we intend for readers here. In these last twenty years, D'Alembert is Friedrich's chief Correspondent. Of D'Alembert to the King, it may be or may not, some opportunity will rise for a specimen; meanwhile here is a short Letter of the King's to D'Alembert, through which there pass so many threads of contemporaneous flying events (swift shuttles on the loud-sounding Loom of Time), that we are tempted to give this, before the two Interviews in question. Date of the Letter is two months after that apparition of the Duchess of Würtemberg at Ferney. Of 'Crillon,' an ingenious enough young Soldier, rushing ardently about the world in his holiday time, we have nothing to say, except that he is Son of that Rossbach Crillon, who always fancies to himself that once he perhaps spared Friedrich's life (by a glass of wine judiciously given) long since, while the Bridge of Weissenfels was on fire, and Rossbach close ahead.31 Colonel 'Guibert' is another Soldier, still young, but of much superior type; greatly an admirer of Friedrich, and subsequently a Writer upon him.32 In regard to the 'Landgravine of Darmstadt,' notice these points. First, that her eldest Daughter is Wife, second Wife, to the dissolute Crown Prince of Prussia; and then, that she has Three other Daughters, one of whom has just been disposed of in an important way; wedded to the Czarowitch Paul of Russia, namely. By Friedrich's means and management, as Friedrich informs us.33 The Czarina, he says, had sent out a confidential Gentleman, one Asseburg, who was Prussian by birth, to seek a 31 Suprà, v. 193. 32 Of Guibert's visit to Friedrich (June 1773), see Preuss, iv. 214; Rödenbeck, iii. 80. 33 Euvres de Frédéric (Mémoires de 1763 jusqu'à 1775), vi. 57. |