Is not Grumkow worth his
pension?
Thomas Carlyle
org/access_use#pd-google
? 68
DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book V.
1726.
CHAPTER VIII.
seckendorf's retort to her majesty.
The Treaty of Wusterhausen was not yet known
to Queen Sophie, to her Father George, or to any
external creature: but that open flinching, and gradual
withdrawal, from the Treaty of Hanover was too well
known; and boded no good to her pet project. Female
sighs, male obduracies, and other domestic phenomena,
are to be imagined in consequence. "A grand Britan-
nic Majesty indeed; very lofty Father to us, Madam,
ever since he came to be King of England. Stalking
along there, with his nose in the air; not deigning the
least notice of us, except as of a thing that may be
got to fight for him! And he does not sign the Double-
Marriage Treaty, Madam; only talks of signing it, --
as if we were a starved coach-horse, to be quickened
along by a wisp of hay put upon the coach-pole, close
ahead of us always! " -- "Jarni-bleuI" snuffles Seck-
endorf with a virtuous zeal, or looks it; and things are
not pleasant at the royal dinner-table.
Excellenz Seckendorf, we find at this time, "often
has his Majesty to dinner:" and such dinners; fitting
one's tastes in all points, -- no expense regarded
(which indeed is the Kaiser's, if we knew it)! And in
return, Excellenz is frequently at dinner with his Ma-
jesty; where the conversation, if it turn on England,
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? CHAP, vm. ] SECKENDOBP PROMISES HEIt MAJESTY. 69
1726.
which often happens, is more and more an offence to
Queen Sophie. Seckendorf studies to be polite, reserved
before the Queen's Majesty at her own table; yet some-
times he lisps-out, in his vile snuffling tone, half-insinua-
tions, remarks on our Royal Kindred, which are irri-
tating in the extreme. Queen Sophie, the politest of
women, did once, says Pollnitz, on some excessive
pressure of that lisping snuffling unendurability, lose
her royal patience, and flame out. With human frank-
ness, and uncommonly kindled eyes, she signified to
Seckendorf, That none who was not himself a kind of
scoundrel could entertain such thoughts of Kings and
gentlemen! Which hard saying kindled the stiffbacked
rieumatic soul of Seckendorf (Excellenz had withal a
temper in him, far down in the deeps); who answered:
"Your Majesty, that is what no one else thinks of me.
"That is a name I have never permitted any one to
"give me with impunity. " And verily, he kept his
threat in that latter point, says Pollnitz. *
At this stage, it is becoming, in the nature of things,
unlikely that the projected Double-Marriage, or any
union with England, can ever realise itself for Queen
Sophie and her House. The Kaiser has decreed that
it never shall. Here is the King already irritated,
grown indisposed to it; here is the Kaiser's Seckendorf,
with preternatural Apparatus, come to maintain him in
that humour. To Queen Sophie herself, who saw only
* ii. 244.
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? 70 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book V.
1726.
the outside of Seckendorf and his Apparatus, the matter
doubtless seemed big with difficulties; but to us, who
see the interior, the difficulties are plainly hopeless.
Unless the Kaiser's mind change, unless many fixed
things change, the Double-Marriage is impossible.
One thing only is a sorrow, and this proved an
immeasurable one: That they did not, that Queen
Sophie did not, in such case, frankly give it up.
Double-Marriage is not a law of Nature; it is only a
project at Hanover that has gone-off again. There will
be a life for our Crown-Prince, and Princess, without
a marriage with England! -- It is greatly wise to
recognise the impossible, the unreasonably difficult,
when it presents itself: but who of men is there, much
more who of women, that can always do it?
Queen Sophie Dorothee will have this Double-
Marriage, and it shall be possible. Poor Lady, she
was very obstinate; and her Husband was very arbitrary.
A rough bear of a Husband, yet by no means an un-
loving one; a Husband who might have been managed.
She evidently made a great mistake in deciding not to
obey this man, as she had once vowed. By perfect,
prompt obedience, she might have had a very tolerable
life with the rugged Orson fallen to her lot; who was
a very honest-hearted creature. She might have done
a pretty stroke of female work, withal, in taming her
Orson; might have led him by the muzzle far enough
in a private way, -- by obedience.
But by disobedience, by rebellion open or secret?
Friedrich Wilhelm was a Husband; Friedrich Wilhelm
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? CHAP. vin. ] SECKENDORF PROMISES HER MAJESTV. 71
1726.
was a King; and the most imperative man then breath-
ing. Disobedience to Friedrich Wilhelm was a thing
which, in the Prussian State, still more in the Berlin
Schloss and vital heart of said State, the laws of Heaven
and of Earth had not permitted, for any man's or any
woman's sake, to be. The wide overarching sky looks
down on no more inflexible Sovereign Man than him
in the red-collared blue coat and white leggings, with
the bamboo in his hand. A peaceable, capacious, not
ill-given Sovereign Man, if you will let him have his
way. But to bar his way; to tweak the nose of his
sovereign royalty, and ignominiously force him into
another way: that is an enterprise no man or devil, or
body of men or devils, need attempt. Seckendorf and
Grumkow, in Tobacco-Parliament, understand it better.
That attempt is impossible, once for all. The first
step in such attempt will require to be assassination of
Friedrich Wilhelm; for you may depend on it, royal
Sophie, so long as he is alive, the feat cannot be done.
0 royal Sophie, 0 pretty Pheekin, what a business you
are making of it!
This year 1726 was throughout a troublous one
to Queen Sophie. Seckendorfs advent; King George's
manifestoing; alarm of imminent universal War, nay
sputters of it actually beginning (Gibraltar invested by
the Spaniards, ready for besieging, it is said): nor was
this alL Sophie's poor Mother, worn to a tragic Me-
gaera, locked so long in the Castle of Ahlden, has
taken-up wild plans of outbreak, of escape by means
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? 72
DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED [BOOK. T.
1726.
of secretaries, moneys in the Bank of Amsterdam, and
I know not what; with all which Sophie, corresponding
in double and triple mystery, has her own terrors and
sorrows, trying to keep it down. And now, in the
depth of the year, the poor old Mother suddenly dies. *
Burnt out, she collapses into ashes and long rest; closing
so her nameless tragedy of thirty-years continuance:
-- what a Bluebeard chamber in the mind of Sophie!
Nay there rise quarrels about the Heritage of the
Deceased, which will prove another sorrow.
* 13th Nov. 1726: Memoirs of Sophia Dorothea, Consort of George I.
(1. 386),-- where also some of her concluding Letters ("edited" as if by the
Nightmares) can be road, but next to no sense made of them.
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? BOOK VI.
DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, AND CROWN-PRINCE,
GOING ADRIFT UNDER THE STORM-WINDS.
1727-1730.
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? 1727.
CHAPTER L
FI1TH CRISIS IN THE KAISER'S SPECTRE-HUNT.
The Crown-Prince's young Life being, by perverse
chance, involved and as it were absorbed in that foolish
question of his English Marriage, we have nothing for
it but to continue our sad function; and go on pain-
fully fishing out, and reducing to an authentic form,
what traces of him there are, from that disastrous beg-
garly element, -- till once he got free of it, either dead
or alive. The winds (partly by Art-Magic) rise to the
hurricane pitch, upon this Marriage Project and him;
and as for the sea, or general tide of European Po-
litics -- But let the reader look with his own eyes.
In the spring of 1727, War, as anticipated, breaks
out; Spaniards actually begin battering at Gibraltar;
Kaiser's Ambassador at London is angrily ordered to
begone. Causes of war were many: 1". Duke do
Ripperda, -- tumbled-out now, that illustrious diplo-
matic bulldog, at Madrid, -- sought asylum in the English Ambassador's house; and no respect was had
to such asylum: that is one cause. 2? . Then, you
English, what is the meaning of these war-fleets in the
West-Indies; in the Mediterranean, on the very coast
of Spain? We demand that you at once take them
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? 7C DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT [book vI.
1727.
home again: -- which cannot be complied with. 3". But
above all things, we demand Gibraltar of you; -- which
can still less be complied with. Termagant Elizabeth
has set her heart on Gibraltar: that, in such oppor-
tunity as this unexpected condition of the Balances now
gives her, is the real cause of the War.
Cession of Gibraltar: there had been vague promises, years ago, on the Kaiser's part; nay George
himself, raw to England at that date, is said to have
thought the thing might perhaps be done. -- "Do it at
once, then! " said the Termagant Queen, and repeated,
with ever more emphasis; -- and there being not the
least compliance, she has opened parallels before the
place, and begun war and ardent firing there;* preceded
by protocols, debates in Parliament, and the usual
phenomena. It is the Fifth grand Crisis in the Kaiser's
spectre-huntings; fifth change in the colour of the world-
lobster getting boiled in that singular manner; -- Second
Sputter of actual War.
Which proved futile altogether; and amounts now,
in the human memory, to flat zero, -- unless the fol-
lowing infinitesimally small fraction be countable again:
"Sputtering of War; that is to say, Siege of Gibraltar.
"A Siege utterly unmemorable, and without the least interest
"for existing mankind with their ungrateful humour,-- if it
"be not, once more, that the Father of Tristram Shandy was
"in it: still a Lieutenant of foot, poor fellow; brisk, small,
* 22d Feb. 1727 (Schb'll, II. 212). Salmon, Chronological Historian
(London, 1747; a very incorrect dark Book, useful only in defect of better),
ii, 173. Cose, Memoirs of Walpole, i. 260, 261; ii. 498-515.
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? CHAP. I. ] FIFTH CRISIS IN THE SPECTKE-HUNT. 77
1727.
"hot-tempered, loving, 'liable to be cheated ten times a-day
"if nine will not suffice you. ' He was in this Siege; shipped
"to the Rock to make stand there; and would have done so
"with the boldest,-- only he got into duel (hot-tempered,
"though of lamb-like innocence), and was run-through the
"body; not entirely killed, but within a hairsbreadth of it;
"and unable for service while this sputtering went on. Little
"Lorry is still living; gone to school in Yorkshire, after
"pranks enough, and misventures,-- half-drowning 'in the
"mill-race at Annamoe in Ireland,' for one. * The poor
"Lieutenant Father died, soldiering in the West Indies,
"soon after this; and we shall not mention him again. But
"History ought to remember that he is 'Uncle Toby,' this
"poor Lieutenant, and take her measures! -- The Siege of
"Gibraltar, we still see with our eyes, was in itself Nothing. "
Truly it might well enough have grown to universal
flame of War. But this always needs two parties; and
pacific George would not be second party in it. George,
guided by pacific Walpole, backed by pacific Fleury,
answers the ardent firing by phlegmatic patience and
protocolling; not by counterfiring, except quite at his
convenience, from privateers, from war-ships here and
there, and in sulky defence from Gibraltar itself.
Probably the Termagant, with all the fire she has,
will not do much damage upon Gibraltar? Such was
George's hope. Whereby the flame of war, ardent
only in certain Spanish batteries upon the point of San
Roque, does not spread hitherto, -- though all mortals,
and Friedrich Wilhelm as much as any, can see the
* Laurence Sterne's Autobiography (cited above).
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? 78 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book vI.
1727.
imminent likelihood there is. In such circumstances,
what a stroke of policy to have disjoined Friedrich
Wilhelm from the Hanover Alliance, and brought him
over to our own!
Is not Grumkow worth his pension?
"Grumkow serves honourably. " Let the invaluable
Seckendorf persevere.
Crown-Prince seen in Dryasdust's glass, darkly.
To know the special figure of the Crown-Prince's
way of life in those years, who his friends, companions
were, what his pursuits and experiences, would be
agreeable to us; but beyond the outline already given,
there is little definite on record. He now resides habi-
tually at Potsdam, be the Court there or not; attending
strictly to his military duties in the Giant Regiment;
it is only on occasion, chiefly perhaps in "Carnival
time," that he gets to Berlin, to partake in the gaieties
of society. Who his associates there or at Potsdam
were? Suhm, the Saxon Resident, a cultivated man of
literary turn, famed as his friend in time coming, is
already at his diplomatic post in Berlin, post of diffi-
culty just now; but I know not whether they have yet
any intimacy. * This we do know, the Crown-Prince
begins to be noted for his sprightly sense, his love of
literature, his ingenuous ways; in the Court or other
circles, whatsoever has intelligence attracts him, and is
attracted by him. The Roucoulles Soirees, -- gone all
to dim buckram for us, though once so lively in their
* Preuss: Friedrich mil seinen Verwandlen und Fi emden, p. 24.
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? CHAP. I. ] FIFTH CRISIS IN THE SPECTRE-HUNT, 79
1727.
high periwigs and speculations, -- fall on Wednesday.
When the Finckenstein or the others fall, -- no doubt
his Royal Highness knows it. In the Tabaks-Collegium, there also, driven by duty, he sometimes appears; but,
like Seckendorf and some others, he only affects to
smoke, and his pipe is mere white clay. Nor is the
social element, any more than the narcotic vapour
which prevails there, attractive to the young Prince, --
though he had better hide his feelings on the subject.
Out at Potsdam, again, life goes very heavy; the
winged Psyche much imprisoned in that pipeclay ele-
ment, a prey to vacancy and many tediums and longings.
Daily return the giant drill-duties; and daily, to the
uttermost of rigorous perfection, they must be done: --
"This, then, is the sum of one's existence, this? " Pa-
tience, young "man of genius," as the Newspapers
would now call you; it is indispensably beneficial
nevertheless! To swallow one's disgusts, and do faith-
fully the ugly commanded work, taking no council with
flesh and blood: know that "genius," everywhere in
Nature, means this first of all; that without this, it
means nothing, generally even less. And be thankful
for your Potsdam grenadiers and their pipeclay! --
Happily he has his Books about him; his flute:
Duhan, too, is here, still more or less didactic in some
branches; always instructive and companionable to him.
The Crown-Prince reads a great deal; very many
French Books, new and old, he reads; -- among the
new, we need not doubt, the Henriade of M. Arouet
Junior (who now calls himself Voltaire), which has
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? 80 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [bOOK vI.
1727.
risen like a star of the first magnitude in these years. *
An incomparable piece, patronised by Royalty in Eng-
land; the delight of all kindred Courts. The light
dancing march of this new "Epic," and the brisk clash
of cymbal music audible in it, had, as we find after-
wards, greatly captivated the young man. All is not
pipe-clay, then, and torpid formalism; aloft from the
murk of commonplace rise glancings of a starry splen-
dour, betokening -- 0 how much!
Out of Books, rumours and experiences, young ima-
gination is forming to itself some Picture of the World
as it is, as it has been. The curtains of this strange
life-theatre are mounting, mounting, -- wondrously as
in the case of all young souls; but with what spe-
cialties, moods or phenomena of light and shadow, to
this young soul, is not in any point recorded for us.
The "early Letters to Wilhelmina, which exist in great
numbers," from these we had hoped elucidation: but
these the learned Editor has "wholly withheld as use-
less," for the present . Let them be carefully preserved,
on the chance of somebody's arising to whom they may
have uses! --
The worst feature of these years is Friedrich Wil-
helm's discontent with them. A Crown-Prince sadly out
of favour with Papa. This has long been on the
growing hand; and these Double-Marriage troubles, not
to mention again the newfangled French tendencies
* London, 1723; by subscription (King, Prince and Princess ofWales
at the top of it), which yielded 8,000j. : see Voltaire, (Emres Complete$,
xiii- 408.
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? CHAP. I. ] FIFTH CEISIS IN THE SPECTRE-HUNT,
81
1727.
(Blitz Franzosen! ), much aggravate the matter, and ac-
celerate its rate of growth. Already the paternal coun-
tenance does not shine upon him; flames often, and
thunders, to a shocking degree; -- and worse days
are coming.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great- III,
8
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? 82 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT. [BOOK vI,
1727
CHAPTEE H.
DEATH OF GEORGE I.
Gibraltar still keeps sputtering; ardent ineffectual
bombardment from the one side, sulky, heavy blast of
response now and then from the other: but the fire does
not spread; nor will, we may hope. It is true, Sweden
and Denmark have joined the Treaty of Hanover, this
spring; and have troops on foot, and money paid them.
But George is pacific, Gibraltar is impregnable: let the
Spaniards spend their powder there.
As for the Kaiser, he is dreadfully poor; inapt for
battle himself. And in the end of this same May 1727,
we hear, his principal ally, Czarina Catherine, has
died; -- poor brown little woman, Lithuanian house-
maid, Russian Autocrat, it is now all one; -- dead she,
and can do nothing. Probably the Kaiser will sit
still? The Kaiser sits still; with eyes bent on Gibral-
tar, or rolling in grand Imperial inquiry and anxiety
round the world; war out-looks much dimmed for him
since the end of May.
Alas, in the end of June, what far other Job's-post
is this that reaches Berlin and Queen Sophie? That
George L, her royal Father, has suddenly sunk dead!
With the Solstice, or summer Pause of the Sun, 21st
or 22d June, almost uncertain which, the Majesty of
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? CHAP. n. ] DEATH OF GEORGE I. 83
21st June 1727.
George I. did likewise pause, -- in his carriage, on the
road to Osnabriick, -- never to move more. Where-
upon, among the simple People, arose rumours of
omens, preternaturalisms, for and against: How his de-
sperate MegEera of a Wife, in the act of dying, had
summoned him (as was presumable) to appear along
with her at the Great Judgment-Bar within year and
day; and how he has here done it. On the other hand,
some would have it noted, How "the nightingales in
"Herrenhausen Gardens had all ceased singing for the
"year, that night he died," -- out of loyalty on the
part of these little birds, it seemed presumable. *
What we know is, he was journeying towards
Hanover again, hopeful of a little hunting at the
Gohrde; and intended seeing Osnabriick and his Bro-
ther the Bishop there, as he passed. That day, 21st
June 1727, from some feelings of his own, he was in
great haste for Osnabriick; hurrying along by extra-
post, without real cause save hurry of mind. He had
left his poor old Maypole of a Mistress on the Dutch
Frontier, that morning, to follow at more leisure. He
was struck by apoplexy on the road, -- arm fallen
powerless, early in the day, head dim and heavy; ob-
viously an alarming case. But he refused to stop any-
where; refused any surgery but such as could be done
at once. "Osnabriick, Osnabriick! " he reiterated,
growing visibly worse. Two subaltern Hanover Offi-
cials, "Privy-Councillor von Hardenberg, Kammerherr
"(Chamberlain) von Fabrice, were in the carriage with
* SceKBhler: MimibclnsUgmgen, x. 88.
6*
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? 84 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [bOOK vI.
22d Jane 1727.
"him;"* King chiefly dozing, and at last supported in
the arms of Fabrice, was heard murmuring, "C'est fait
de mot ('Tis all over with me)! " And "Osnabriick!
Osnabriick! " slumberously reiterated he: To Osnabriick,
where my poor old Brother, Bishop as they call him,
once a little Boy that trotted at my knee with blithe
face, will have some human pity on me! So they
rushed along all day, as at the gallop, his few atten-
dants and he; and when the shades of night fell, and
speech had now left the poor man, he still passionately
gasped some gurgle of a sound like "Osnabriick;" -- hanging in the arms of Fabrice, and now evidently in
the article of death. What a gallop t sweeping through
the slumber of the world: To Osnabriick, Osnabriick!
In the hollow of the night (some say, one in the
morning), they reach Osnabriick. And the poor old
Brother, -- Ernst August, once youngest of six brothers,
of seven children, now the one survivor, has human
pity in the heart of him, full surely. But George is
dead; careless of it now. ** After sixty-seven years of
it, he has flung his big burdens, -- English crowns,
Hanoverian crownlets, sulkinesses, indignations, lean
women and fat, and earthly contradictions and confu-
sions, -- fairly off him; and lies there.
* Gottfried: Hislorische Chronik (Frankfurt, 1759), iii. 872. Boyer:
The Political State of Great Britain, vol, xxxiii. pp. 545, 546.
** Coxe (I. 266) is "indebted to his friend Nathaniel Wraxall" for these
details, -- the since famous Sir Nathaniel, in whose Memoirs (vague, but
not mendacious, not unintelligent) they are now published more at large.
See his Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Dresden, Ac. (London, 1799),
i. 35-40; also Historical Memoirs (London, 1836), iv. 516-518.
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? CHAP. II. ] DEATH OF GEORGE I. 85
1727.
The man had his big burdens, his honours so-called,
absurd enough some of them, in this world; but he
bore them with a certain gravity and discretion: a man
of more probity, insight and general human faculty,
than he now gets credit for. His word was sacred to
him. He had the courage of a Welf, or Lion-Man;
quietly royal in that respect at least. His sense of
equity, of what was true and honourable in men and
things, remained uneffaced to a respectable degree; --
and surely it had resisted much. Wilder puddle of
muddy infatuations from without and from within, if
we consider it well, -- of irreconcilable incoherences,
bottomless universal hypocrisies, solecisms bred with him
and imposed on him, -- few Sons of Adam had hitherto
lived in.
He was, in one word, the First of our Hanover
Series of English Kings; that hitherto unique sort,
who are really strange to look at in the History of the
World. Of whom, in the English annals, there is
hitherto no Picture to be had; nothing but an empty
blur of discordant nonsenses, and idle, generally angry
flourishings of the pen, by way of Picture. The Eng-
lish Nation, having flung its old Puritan, Sword-and-
Bible Faith into the cesspool, -- or rather having set
its old Bible-Faith, minus any Sword, well up in the
organ-loft, with plenty of revenue, there to preach and
organ at discretion, on condition always of meddling
with nobody's practice farther, -- thought the same
(such their mistake) a mighty pretty arrangement; but
found it hitch before long. They had to throw out
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? 86 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book vI.
1727.
their beautiful Nell-Gwyn Defenders of the Faith; fling
them also into the cesspool; and were rather at a loss
what next to do. "Where is our real King, then?
Who is to lead us Heavenward, then; to rally the noble
of us to him, in some small measure, and save the rest
and their affairs from running Devilward? " -- The
English Nation being in some difficulty as to Kings,
the English Nation clutched up the readiest that came
to hand; "Here is our King! " said they, -- again
under mistake, still under their old mistake. And, what
was singular, they then avenged themselves by mocking,
calumniating, by angrily speaking, writing and laughing
at the poor mistaken King so clutched! -- It is high
time the English were candidly asking themselves,
with very great seriousness indeed, What it was they
had done, in the sight of God and man, on that and
the prior occasion? And above all, What it is they
will now propose to do in the sequel of it! Dig gold-
nuggets, and rally the ? '<raoble of us? --
George's poor lean Mistress, coming on at the usual
rate of the road, was met, next morning, by the sad
tidings. She sprang from her carriage into the dusty
highway; tore her hair (or head-dress), half frantic; de-
clared herself a ruined woman; -- and drove direct to
Berlin, there to compose her old mind. She was not
ill seen at Court there; had her connexions in the
world. Fieldmarshal Schulenburg, who once had the
honour of fighting (not to his advantage) with
Charles XH. , and had since grown famous by his
Anti-Turk performances in the Venetian service, is a
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? CHAP. II. ]
87
DEATH OF GEORGE I.
J727.
? 68
DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book V.
1726.
CHAPTER VIII.
seckendorf's retort to her majesty.
The Treaty of Wusterhausen was not yet known
to Queen Sophie, to her Father George, or to any
external creature: but that open flinching, and gradual
withdrawal, from the Treaty of Hanover was too well
known; and boded no good to her pet project. Female
sighs, male obduracies, and other domestic phenomena,
are to be imagined in consequence. "A grand Britan-
nic Majesty indeed; very lofty Father to us, Madam,
ever since he came to be King of England. Stalking
along there, with his nose in the air; not deigning the
least notice of us, except as of a thing that may be
got to fight for him! And he does not sign the Double-
Marriage Treaty, Madam; only talks of signing it, --
as if we were a starved coach-horse, to be quickened
along by a wisp of hay put upon the coach-pole, close
ahead of us always! " -- "Jarni-bleuI" snuffles Seck-
endorf with a virtuous zeal, or looks it; and things are
not pleasant at the royal dinner-table.
Excellenz Seckendorf, we find at this time, "often
has his Majesty to dinner:" and such dinners; fitting
one's tastes in all points, -- no expense regarded
(which indeed is the Kaiser's, if we knew it)! And in
return, Excellenz is frequently at dinner with his Ma-
jesty; where the conversation, if it turn on England,
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? CHAP, vm. ] SECKENDOBP PROMISES HEIt MAJESTY. 69
1726.
which often happens, is more and more an offence to
Queen Sophie. Seckendorf studies to be polite, reserved
before the Queen's Majesty at her own table; yet some-
times he lisps-out, in his vile snuffling tone, half-insinua-
tions, remarks on our Royal Kindred, which are irri-
tating in the extreme. Queen Sophie, the politest of
women, did once, says Pollnitz, on some excessive
pressure of that lisping snuffling unendurability, lose
her royal patience, and flame out. With human frank-
ness, and uncommonly kindled eyes, she signified to
Seckendorf, That none who was not himself a kind of
scoundrel could entertain such thoughts of Kings and
gentlemen! Which hard saying kindled the stiffbacked
rieumatic soul of Seckendorf (Excellenz had withal a
temper in him, far down in the deeps); who answered:
"Your Majesty, that is what no one else thinks of me.
"That is a name I have never permitted any one to
"give me with impunity. " And verily, he kept his
threat in that latter point, says Pollnitz. *
At this stage, it is becoming, in the nature of things,
unlikely that the projected Double-Marriage, or any
union with England, can ever realise itself for Queen
Sophie and her House. The Kaiser has decreed that
it never shall. Here is the King already irritated,
grown indisposed to it; here is the Kaiser's Seckendorf,
with preternatural Apparatus, come to maintain him in
that humour. To Queen Sophie herself, who saw only
* ii. 244.
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? 70 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. [book V.
1726.
the outside of Seckendorf and his Apparatus, the matter
doubtless seemed big with difficulties; but to us, who
see the interior, the difficulties are plainly hopeless.
Unless the Kaiser's mind change, unless many fixed
things change, the Double-Marriage is impossible.
One thing only is a sorrow, and this proved an
immeasurable one: That they did not, that Queen
Sophie did not, in such case, frankly give it up.
Double-Marriage is not a law of Nature; it is only a
project at Hanover that has gone-off again. There will
be a life for our Crown-Prince, and Princess, without
a marriage with England! -- It is greatly wise to
recognise the impossible, the unreasonably difficult,
when it presents itself: but who of men is there, much
more who of women, that can always do it?
Queen Sophie Dorothee will have this Double-
Marriage, and it shall be possible. Poor Lady, she
was very obstinate; and her Husband was very arbitrary.
A rough bear of a Husband, yet by no means an un-
loving one; a Husband who might have been managed.
She evidently made a great mistake in deciding not to
obey this man, as she had once vowed. By perfect,
prompt obedience, she might have had a very tolerable
life with the rugged Orson fallen to her lot; who was
a very honest-hearted creature. She might have done
a pretty stroke of female work, withal, in taming her
Orson; might have led him by the muzzle far enough
in a private way, -- by obedience.
But by disobedience, by rebellion open or secret?
Friedrich Wilhelm was a Husband; Friedrich Wilhelm
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? CHAP. vin. ] SECKENDORF PROMISES HER MAJESTV. 71
1726.
was a King; and the most imperative man then breath-
ing. Disobedience to Friedrich Wilhelm was a thing
which, in the Prussian State, still more in the Berlin
Schloss and vital heart of said State, the laws of Heaven
and of Earth had not permitted, for any man's or any
woman's sake, to be. The wide overarching sky looks
down on no more inflexible Sovereign Man than him
in the red-collared blue coat and white leggings, with
the bamboo in his hand. A peaceable, capacious, not
ill-given Sovereign Man, if you will let him have his
way. But to bar his way; to tweak the nose of his
sovereign royalty, and ignominiously force him into
another way: that is an enterprise no man or devil, or
body of men or devils, need attempt. Seckendorf and
Grumkow, in Tobacco-Parliament, understand it better.
That attempt is impossible, once for all. The first
step in such attempt will require to be assassination of
Friedrich Wilhelm; for you may depend on it, royal
Sophie, so long as he is alive, the feat cannot be done.
0 royal Sophie, 0 pretty Pheekin, what a business you
are making of it!
This year 1726 was throughout a troublous one
to Queen Sophie. Seckendorfs advent; King George's
manifestoing; alarm of imminent universal War, nay
sputters of it actually beginning (Gibraltar invested by
the Spaniards, ready for besieging, it is said): nor was
this alL Sophie's poor Mother, worn to a tragic Me-
gaera, locked so long in the Castle of Ahlden, has
taken-up wild plans of outbreak, of escape by means
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? 72
DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED [BOOK. T.
1726.
of secretaries, moneys in the Bank of Amsterdam, and
I know not what; with all which Sophie, corresponding
in double and triple mystery, has her own terrors and
sorrows, trying to keep it down. And now, in the
depth of the year, the poor old Mother suddenly dies. *
Burnt out, she collapses into ashes and long rest; closing
so her nameless tragedy of thirty-years continuance:
-- what a Bluebeard chamber in the mind of Sophie!
Nay there rise quarrels about the Heritage of the
Deceased, which will prove another sorrow.
* 13th Nov. 1726: Memoirs of Sophia Dorothea, Consort of George I.
(1. 386),-- where also some of her concluding Letters ("edited" as if by the
Nightmares) can be road, but next to no sense made of them.
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? BOOK VI.
DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, AND CROWN-PRINCE,
GOING ADRIFT UNDER THE STORM-WINDS.
1727-1730.
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? 1727.
CHAPTER L
FI1TH CRISIS IN THE KAISER'S SPECTRE-HUNT.
The Crown-Prince's young Life being, by perverse
chance, involved and as it were absorbed in that foolish
question of his English Marriage, we have nothing for
it but to continue our sad function; and go on pain-
fully fishing out, and reducing to an authentic form,
what traces of him there are, from that disastrous beg-
garly element, -- till once he got free of it, either dead
or alive. The winds (partly by Art-Magic) rise to the
hurricane pitch, upon this Marriage Project and him;
and as for the sea, or general tide of European Po-
litics -- But let the reader look with his own eyes.
In the spring of 1727, War, as anticipated, breaks
out; Spaniards actually begin battering at Gibraltar;
Kaiser's Ambassador at London is angrily ordered to
begone. Causes of war were many: 1". Duke do
Ripperda, -- tumbled-out now, that illustrious diplo-
matic bulldog, at Madrid, -- sought asylum in the English Ambassador's house; and no respect was had
to such asylum: that is one cause. 2? . Then, you
English, what is the meaning of these war-fleets in the
West-Indies; in the Mediterranean, on the very coast
of Spain? We demand that you at once take them
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? 7C DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT [book vI.
1727.
home again: -- which cannot be complied with. 3". But
above all things, we demand Gibraltar of you; -- which
can still less be complied with. Termagant Elizabeth
has set her heart on Gibraltar: that, in such oppor-
tunity as this unexpected condition of the Balances now
gives her, is the real cause of the War.
Cession of Gibraltar: there had been vague promises, years ago, on the Kaiser's part; nay George
himself, raw to England at that date, is said to have
thought the thing might perhaps be done. -- "Do it at
once, then! " said the Termagant Queen, and repeated,
with ever more emphasis; -- and there being not the
least compliance, she has opened parallels before the
place, and begun war and ardent firing there;* preceded
by protocols, debates in Parliament, and the usual
phenomena. It is the Fifth grand Crisis in the Kaiser's
spectre-huntings; fifth change in the colour of the world-
lobster getting boiled in that singular manner; -- Second
Sputter of actual War.
Which proved futile altogether; and amounts now,
in the human memory, to flat zero, -- unless the fol-
lowing infinitesimally small fraction be countable again:
"Sputtering of War; that is to say, Siege of Gibraltar.
"A Siege utterly unmemorable, and without the least interest
"for existing mankind with their ungrateful humour,-- if it
"be not, once more, that the Father of Tristram Shandy was
"in it: still a Lieutenant of foot, poor fellow; brisk, small,
* 22d Feb. 1727 (Schb'll, II. 212). Salmon, Chronological Historian
(London, 1747; a very incorrect dark Book, useful only in defect of better),
ii, 173. Cose, Memoirs of Walpole, i. 260, 261; ii. 498-515.
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? CHAP. I. ] FIFTH CRISIS IN THE SPECTKE-HUNT. 77
1727.
"hot-tempered, loving, 'liable to be cheated ten times a-day
"if nine will not suffice you. ' He was in this Siege; shipped
"to the Rock to make stand there; and would have done so
"with the boldest,-- only he got into duel (hot-tempered,
"though of lamb-like innocence), and was run-through the
"body; not entirely killed, but within a hairsbreadth of it;
"and unable for service while this sputtering went on. Little
"Lorry is still living; gone to school in Yorkshire, after
"pranks enough, and misventures,-- half-drowning 'in the
"mill-race at Annamoe in Ireland,' for one. * The poor
"Lieutenant Father died, soldiering in the West Indies,
"soon after this; and we shall not mention him again. But
"History ought to remember that he is 'Uncle Toby,' this
"poor Lieutenant, and take her measures! -- The Siege of
"Gibraltar, we still see with our eyes, was in itself Nothing. "
Truly it might well enough have grown to universal
flame of War. But this always needs two parties; and
pacific George would not be second party in it. George,
guided by pacific Walpole, backed by pacific Fleury,
answers the ardent firing by phlegmatic patience and
protocolling; not by counterfiring, except quite at his
convenience, from privateers, from war-ships here and
there, and in sulky defence from Gibraltar itself.
Probably the Termagant, with all the fire she has,
will not do much damage upon Gibraltar? Such was
George's hope. Whereby the flame of war, ardent
only in certain Spanish batteries upon the point of San
Roque, does not spread hitherto, -- though all mortals,
and Friedrich Wilhelm as much as any, can see the
* Laurence Sterne's Autobiography (cited above).
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? 78 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book vI.
1727.
imminent likelihood there is. In such circumstances,
what a stroke of policy to have disjoined Friedrich
Wilhelm from the Hanover Alliance, and brought him
over to our own!
Is not Grumkow worth his pension?
"Grumkow serves honourably. " Let the invaluable
Seckendorf persevere.
Crown-Prince seen in Dryasdust's glass, darkly.
To know the special figure of the Crown-Prince's
way of life in those years, who his friends, companions
were, what his pursuits and experiences, would be
agreeable to us; but beyond the outline already given,
there is little definite on record. He now resides habi-
tually at Potsdam, be the Court there or not; attending
strictly to his military duties in the Giant Regiment;
it is only on occasion, chiefly perhaps in "Carnival
time," that he gets to Berlin, to partake in the gaieties
of society. Who his associates there or at Potsdam
were? Suhm, the Saxon Resident, a cultivated man of
literary turn, famed as his friend in time coming, is
already at his diplomatic post in Berlin, post of diffi-
culty just now; but I know not whether they have yet
any intimacy. * This we do know, the Crown-Prince
begins to be noted for his sprightly sense, his love of
literature, his ingenuous ways; in the Court or other
circles, whatsoever has intelligence attracts him, and is
attracted by him. The Roucoulles Soirees, -- gone all
to dim buckram for us, though once so lively in their
* Preuss: Friedrich mil seinen Verwandlen und Fi emden, p. 24.
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? CHAP. I. ] FIFTH CRISIS IN THE SPECTRE-HUNT, 79
1727.
high periwigs and speculations, -- fall on Wednesday.
When the Finckenstein or the others fall, -- no doubt
his Royal Highness knows it. In the Tabaks-Collegium, there also, driven by duty, he sometimes appears; but,
like Seckendorf and some others, he only affects to
smoke, and his pipe is mere white clay. Nor is the
social element, any more than the narcotic vapour
which prevails there, attractive to the young Prince, --
though he had better hide his feelings on the subject.
Out at Potsdam, again, life goes very heavy; the
winged Psyche much imprisoned in that pipeclay ele-
ment, a prey to vacancy and many tediums and longings.
Daily return the giant drill-duties; and daily, to the
uttermost of rigorous perfection, they must be done: --
"This, then, is the sum of one's existence, this? " Pa-
tience, young "man of genius," as the Newspapers
would now call you; it is indispensably beneficial
nevertheless! To swallow one's disgusts, and do faith-
fully the ugly commanded work, taking no council with
flesh and blood: know that "genius," everywhere in
Nature, means this first of all; that without this, it
means nothing, generally even less. And be thankful
for your Potsdam grenadiers and their pipeclay! --
Happily he has his Books about him; his flute:
Duhan, too, is here, still more or less didactic in some
branches; always instructive and companionable to him.
The Crown-Prince reads a great deal; very many
French Books, new and old, he reads; -- among the
new, we need not doubt, the Henriade of M. Arouet
Junior (who now calls himself Voltaire), which has
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? 80 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [bOOK vI.
1727.
risen like a star of the first magnitude in these years. *
An incomparable piece, patronised by Royalty in Eng-
land; the delight of all kindred Courts. The light
dancing march of this new "Epic," and the brisk clash
of cymbal music audible in it, had, as we find after-
wards, greatly captivated the young man. All is not
pipe-clay, then, and torpid formalism; aloft from the
murk of commonplace rise glancings of a starry splen-
dour, betokening -- 0 how much!
Out of Books, rumours and experiences, young ima-
gination is forming to itself some Picture of the World
as it is, as it has been. The curtains of this strange
life-theatre are mounting, mounting, -- wondrously as
in the case of all young souls; but with what spe-
cialties, moods or phenomena of light and shadow, to
this young soul, is not in any point recorded for us.
The "early Letters to Wilhelmina, which exist in great
numbers," from these we had hoped elucidation: but
these the learned Editor has "wholly withheld as use-
less," for the present . Let them be carefully preserved,
on the chance of somebody's arising to whom they may
have uses! --
The worst feature of these years is Friedrich Wil-
helm's discontent with them. A Crown-Prince sadly out
of favour with Papa. This has long been on the
growing hand; and these Double-Marriage troubles, not
to mention again the newfangled French tendencies
* London, 1723; by subscription (King, Prince and Princess ofWales
at the top of it), which yielded 8,000j. : see Voltaire, (Emres Complete$,
xiii- 408.
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? CHAP. I. ] FIFTH CEISIS IN THE SPECTRE-HUNT,
81
1727.
(Blitz Franzosen! ), much aggravate the matter, and ac-
celerate its rate of growth. Already the paternal coun-
tenance does not shine upon him; flames often, and
thunders, to a shocking degree; -- and worse days
are coming.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great- III,
8
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? 82 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT. [BOOK vI,
1727
CHAPTEE H.
DEATH OF GEORGE I.
Gibraltar still keeps sputtering; ardent ineffectual
bombardment from the one side, sulky, heavy blast of
response now and then from the other: but the fire does
not spread; nor will, we may hope. It is true, Sweden
and Denmark have joined the Treaty of Hanover, this
spring; and have troops on foot, and money paid them.
But George is pacific, Gibraltar is impregnable: let the
Spaniards spend their powder there.
As for the Kaiser, he is dreadfully poor; inapt for
battle himself. And in the end of this same May 1727,
we hear, his principal ally, Czarina Catherine, has
died; -- poor brown little woman, Lithuanian house-
maid, Russian Autocrat, it is now all one; -- dead she,
and can do nothing. Probably the Kaiser will sit
still? The Kaiser sits still; with eyes bent on Gibral-
tar, or rolling in grand Imperial inquiry and anxiety
round the world; war out-looks much dimmed for him
since the end of May.
Alas, in the end of June, what far other Job's-post
is this that reaches Berlin and Queen Sophie? That
George L, her royal Father, has suddenly sunk dead!
With the Solstice, or summer Pause of the Sun, 21st
or 22d June, almost uncertain which, the Majesty of
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? CHAP. n. ] DEATH OF GEORGE I. 83
21st June 1727.
George I. did likewise pause, -- in his carriage, on the
road to Osnabriick, -- never to move more. Where-
upon, among the simple People, arose rumours of
omens, preternaturalisms, for and against: How his de-
sperate MegEera of a Wife, in the act of dying, had
summoned him (as was presumable) to appear along
with her at the Great Judgment-Bar within year and
day; and how he has here done it. On the other hand,
some would have it noted, How "the nightingales in
"Herrenhausen Gardens had all ceased singing for the
"year, that night he died," -- out of loyalty on the
part of these little birds, it seemed presumable. *
What we know is, he was journeying towards
Hanover again, hopeful of a little hunting at the
Gohrde; and intended seeing Osnabriick and his Bro-
ther the Bishop there, as he passed. That day, 21st
June 1727, from some feelings of his own, he was in
great haste for Osnabriick; hurrying along by extra-
post, without real cause save hurry of mind. He had
left his poor old Maypole of a Mistress on the Dutch
Frontier, that morning, to follow at more leisure. He
was struck by apoplexy on the road, -- arm fallen
powerless, early in the day, head dim and heavy; ob-
viously an alarming case. But he refused to stop any-
where; refused any surgery but such as could be done
at once. "Osnabriick, Osnabriick! " he reiterated,
growing visibly worse. Two subaltern Hanover Offi-
cials, "Privy-Councillor von Hardenberg, Kammerherr
"(Chamberlain) von Fabrice, were in the carriage with
* SceKBhler: MimibclnsUgmgen, x. 88.
6*
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? 84 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [bOOK vI.
22d Jane 1727.
"him;"* King chiefly dozing, and at last supported in
the arms of Fabrice, was heard murmuring, "C'est fait
de mot ('Tis all over with me)! " And "Osnabriick!
Osnabriick! " slumberously reiterated he: To Osnabriick,
where my poor old Brother, Bishop as they call him,
once a little Boy that trotted at my knee with blithe
face, will have some human pity on me! So they
rushed along all day, as at the gallop, his few atten-
dants and he; and when the shades of night fell, and
speech had now left the poor man, he still passionately
gasped some gurgle of a sound like "Osnabriick;" -- hanging in the arms of Fabrice, and now evidently in
the article of death. What a gallop t sweeping through
the slumber of the world: To Osnabriick, Osnabriick!
In the hollow of the night (some say, one in the
morning), they reach Osnabriick. And the poor old
Brother, -- Ernst August, once youngest of six brothers,
of seven children, now the one survivor, has human
pity in the heart of him, full surely. But George is
dead; careless of it now. ** After sixty-seven years of
it, he has flung his big burdens, -- English crowns,
Hanoverian crownlets, sulkinesses, indignations, lean
women and fat, and earthly contradictions and confu-
sions, -- fairly off him; and lies there.
* Gottfried: Hislorische Chronik (Frankfurt, 1759), iii. 872. Boyer:
The Political State of Great Britain, vol, xxxiii. pp. 545, 546.
** Coxe (I. 266) is "indebted to his friend Nathaniel Wraxall" for these
details, -- the since famous Sir Nathaniel, in whose Memoirs (vague, but
not mendacious, not unintelligent) they are now published more at large.
See his Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Dresden, Ac. (London, 1799),
i. 35-40; also Historical Memoirs (London, 1836), iv. 516-518.
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? CHAP. II. ] DEATH OF GEORGE I. 85
1727.
The man had his big burdens, his honours so-called,
absurd enough some of them, in this world; but he
bore them with a certain gravity and discretion: a man
of more probity, insight and general human faculty,
than he now gets credit for. His word was sacred to
him. He had the courage of a Welf, or Lion-Man;
quietly royal in that respect at least. His sense of
equity, of what was true and honourable in men and
things, remained uneffaced to a respectable degree; --
and surely it had resisted much. Wilder puddle of
muddy infatuations from without and from within, if
we consider it well, -- of irreconcilable incoherences,
bottomless universal hypocrisies, solecisms bred with him
and imposed on him, -- few Sons of Adam had hitherto
lived in.
He was, in one word, the First of our Hanover
Series of English Kings; that hitherto unique sort,
who are really strange to look at in the History of the
World. Of whom, in the English annals, there is
hitherto no Picture to be had; nothing but an empty
blur of discordant nonsenses, and idle, generally angry
flourishings of the pen, by way of Picture. The Eng-
lish Nation, having flung its old Puritan, Sword-and-
Bible Faith into the cesspool, -- or rather having set
its old Bible-Faith, minus any Sword, well up in the
organ-loft, with plenty of revenue, there to preach and
organ at discretion, on condition always of meddling
with nobody's practice farther, -- thought the same
(such their mistake) a mighty pretty arrangement; but
found it hitch before long. They had to throw out
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:16 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7h Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 86 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT GOING ADRIFT, [book vI.
1727.
their beautiful Nell-Gwyn Defenders of the Faith; fling
them also into the cesspool; and were rather at a loss
what next to do. "Where is our real King, then?
Who is to lead us Heavenward, then; to rally the noble
of us to him, in some small measure, and save the rest
and their affairs from running Devilward? " -- The
English Nation being in some difficulty as to Kings,
the English Nation clutched up the readiest that came
to hand; "Here is our King! " said they, -- again
under mistake, still under their old mistake. And, what
was singular, they then avenged themselves by mocking,
calumniating, by angrily speaking, writing and laughing
at the poor mistaken King so clutched! -- It is high
time the English were candidly asking themselves,
with very great seriousness indeed, What it was they
had done, in the sight of God and man, on that and
the prior occasion? And above all, What it is they
will now propose to do in the sequel of it! Dig gold-
nuggets, and rally the ? '<raoble of us? --
George's poor lean Mistress, coming on at the usual
rate of the road, was met, next morning, by the sad
tidings. She sprang from her carriage into the dusty
highway; tore her hair (or head-dress), half frantic; de-
clared herself a ruined woman; -- and drove direct to
Berlin, there to compose her old mind. She was not
ill seen at Court there; had her connexions in the
world. Fieldmarshal Schulenburg, who once had the
honour of fighting (not to his advantage) with
Charles XH. , and had since grown famous by his
Anti-Turk performances in the Venetian service, is a
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:16 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7h Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. II. ]
87
DEATH OF GEORGE I.
J727.
