English readers will scan him with new
* Wilhelmina's acquaintance; wedded, not without difficulty, to a
superfluous Baireuth Sister-in-law by Wilhelmina (Jfemoires de Wilhelmina,
tl.
* Wilhelmina's acquaintance; wedded, not without difficulty, to a
superfluous Baireuth Sister-in-law by Wilhelmina (Jfemoires de Wilhelmina,
tl.
Thomas Carlyle
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 180 AT REINSBERG. [booIX.
Aug. 1736.
solicits of him: "Could not your Royal Highness per-
haps graciously speak to some of those Judicial Bigwigs
in Brabant, and flap them up a little! " Which Fried-
rich, I think, did, by some good means. Happily by
one means or other, Voltaire got the Lawsuit ended,
-- 1740, we might guess, but the time is not specified;
-- and Friedrich had a new claim, had there been
need of new, to be regarded with worship by Madame. *
But the proposed meeting with Madame could never
take effect; not even when Friedrich's hands were free.
Nay I notice at last, Friedrich had privately deter-
mined it never should; Madame evidently an incon-
venient element to him. A young man not wanting
in private power of eyesight; and able to distinguish
chaff from meal! Voltaire and he will meet; meet,
and also part; and there will be passages between them:
-- and the reader will again hear of this Correspond-
ence of theirs, where it has a biographical interest.
We are to conceive it, at present, as a principal light
of life to the young heart at Reinsberg; a cheerful new
fire, almost an altar-fire, irradiating the common dusk
for him there.
Of another Correspondence, beautifully irradiative
for the young heart, we must say almost nothing: the
Correspondence with Suhm. Suhm the Saxon Minister,
whom we have occasionally heard of, is an old Friend
of the Crown-Prince's, dear and helpful to him: it is he
* Record of all this, left, like innumerable other things there, in an In"
trinsically dark condition, lies in Voltaire's Letters, -- not much worth
hunting up into clear daylight, the process being so difficult to a stranger.
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? CHaP. II. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 181
Aug. 1736.
who is now doing those Translations of Wolf, of which
Voltaire lately saw specimen; translating Wolf at large,
for the young man's behoof. The young man, restless
to know the best Philosophy going, had tried reading
of Wolfs chief Book; found it too abstruse, in Wolfs
German: wherefore Suhm translates; sends it to him in
limpid French; fascicle by fascicle, with commentaries;
young man doing his best to understand and admire,
-- gratefully, not too successfully, we can perceive.
That is the staple of the famous Suhm Correspondence;
staple which nobody could now bear to be concerned
with.
Suhm is also helpful in finance difficulties, which
are pretty frequent; works out subventions, loans under
a handsome form, from the Czarina's and other Courts.
Which is an operation of the utmost delicacy; perilous,
should it be heard of at Potsdam. Wherefore Suhm
and the Prince have a covert language for it; and affect
still to be speaking of "Publishers" and "new Volumes,"
when they mean Lenders and Bank-Draughts. All
these loans, I will hope, were accurately paid one day,
as that from GeorgeII. was, in "rouleaus of new gold. "
We need not doubt the wholesome charm and blessing
of so intimate a Correspondence to the Crown-Prince;
and indeed his real love of the amiable Suhm, as
Suhm's of him, comes beautifully to light in these
Letters: but otherwise they are not now to be read
without weariness, even dreariness, and have become a
biographical reminiscence merely.
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? 182
[book X.
AT REIKSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
Concerning Graf von Manteufel, a third Literary
Correspondent, and the only other considerable one,
here, from a German Commentator on this matter, is a
Clipping that will suffice:
"Manteufel was Saxon by birth, long a Minister of August
"the Strong, but quarrelled with August, owing to some frail
"female it is said, and had withdrawn to Berlin a few years
"ago. He shines there among the fashionable philosophical
"classes; underhand, perhaps does a little in the volunteer
"political line withal; being a very busy pushing gentleman.
"Tall of stature, 'perfectly handsome at the age of sixty;'*
"great partisan of Wolf and the Philosophies, awake to the
"Orthodoxies too. Writes flowing elegant French, in a softly
"trenchant, somewhat too all-knowing style. High manners
"traceable in him; but nothing of the noble loyalty, natural
"politeness and pious lucency of Suhm. One of his Letters
"to Friedrich has this slightly impertinent passage; -- Fried-
"rich, just getting settled in Reinsberg, having transiently
"mentioned 'the quantity of fair-sex' that had come about
"him there:
"'Berlin, 26th August 1736 (To the Crown-Prince). * * I
'"am well persuaded your Royal Highness will regulate all
"' that to perfection, and so manage that your fair-sex will be
"' charmed to find themselves with you at Reinsberg, and you
"'charmed to have them there. But permit me, your Royal
'"Highness, to repeat in this place, what I one day took
'"the liberty of saying here at Berlin: Nothing in the world
"'would better suit the present interests of your Royal High-
"' ness and of us all, than some Heir of your Royal Highness's
"'making! Perhaps the tranquil convenience with which
"'your Royal Highness at Reinsberg can now attend to that
* Formey: Souvenirs d'ltn Citoyen, i. 59-45.
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? CHaP. II. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 183
Aug. 1736.
"'object, will be of better effect than all those hasty and
"* transitory visits at Berlin were. At least, I wish it with the
''' best of my heart. I beg pardon, Monseigneur, for intruding
"' thus into everything which concerns your Royal Highness;'
"-- In truth, I am a rather impudent, busy-bodyish fellow,
"with superabundant dashing manner, speculation, utterance;
"and shall get myself ordered out of the Country, by my pre-
sent correspondent, by and by. -- 'Being ever', with the due
"enthusiasm, "'Manteufel. '"*
"To which Friedrich's Answer is of a kind to put a gag
"in the foul mouth of certain extraordinary Pamphleteer-
"ings, that were once very copious in the world; and, in
"particular, to set at rest the Herr Dr. Zimmermann, and
"his poor puddle of calumnies and credulities, got together
"in that weak pursuit of physiology under obscene circum-
"stances;--
"Which is the one good result I have gathered
"from the Manteufel Correspondence," continues our
German friend; whom I vote with! -- Or if the English
reader never saw those Zimmermann or other dog-like
Pamphleteerings and surmisings, let this Excerpt be
mysterious and superfluous to the thankful English
reader.
On the whole, we conceive to ourselves the abun-
dant nature of Friedrich's Correspondence, literary and
other; and what kind of event the transit of that Post-
functionary "from Fehrbellin northwards," with his
leathern bags, "twice a-week," may have been at
Reinsberg, in those years.
* (Enures de Frederic, xxv. 487; --Friedrich's Answer is, Reinsberg,
23d September (lb. 489).
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? 184
[book X. Oot. -Nov. 1736.
AT REINSBERG.
chapter nr.
CROWN-PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL
Thursday, 25th October 1736, the Crown-Prince,
with Lieutenant Buddenbrock and an attendant or two,
drove over into Mecklenburg, to a Village and serene
Schloss called Mirow, intending a small act of neigh-
bourly civility there; on which perhaps an English
reader of our time will consent to accompany him. It
is but some ten or twelve miles off, in a northerly
direction; Reinsberg being close on the frontier there.
A pleasant enough morning's-drive, with the October
sun shining on the silent heaths, on the many-coloured
woods and you.
Mirow is an Apanage for one of the Mecklenburg-
Strelitz junior branches; Mecklenburg-Strelitz being
itself a junior compared to the Mecklenburg-Schwerin
of which, and its infatuated Duke, we have heard so
much in times past. Mirow and even Strelitz are not
in a very shining state, -- but indeed, we shall see
them, as it were, with eyes. And the English reader
is to note especially those Mirow people, as perhaps of
some small interest to him, if he knew it. The Crown-
Prince reports to Papa, in a satirical vein, not un-
genially, and with much more freedom than is usual in
those Reinsberg Letters of his:
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? CHaP. m. J PRINCE MAKES A MORNING: CALL. 185
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
"To his Prussian Majesty (From the Crown-Prince).
"Keinsberg, 26th October 1736.
* * "Yesterday I went across to Mirow. To give my
"Most All-gracious Father an idea of the place, I cannot
"liken it to anything higher thanGross-Kreutz " (term of com-
parison lost upon us; say Garrat, at a venture, or the Clachan
of Aberfoyle): "the one house in it, that can be called a
"house, is not so good as the Parson's there. I made straight
"for the Schloss; which is pretty much like the Gardenhouse
"in Bornim: only there is a rampart round it; and an
"old Tower, considerably in ruins, serves as a Gateway to
"the House.
"Coming on the Drawbridge, I perceived an old stocking-
"knitter disguised as Grenadier, with his cap, cartridge-box
"and musket laid to a side, that they might not hinder him in
"his knitting-work. As I advanced, he asked, 'Whence I
"'came, and whitherward I was going? ' I answered, that
"'I came from the Posthouse, and was going over this
"'Bridge:' whereupon the Grenadier, quite in a passion, ran
"to the Tower; where he opened a door, and called out the
"Corporal. The Corporal seemed to have hardly been out of
"bed; and in his great haste, had not taken time to put on
"his shoes, nor quite button his breeches; with much flurry
"he asked us, 'Where we were for, and how we came to treat
"'the Sentry in that manner? ' Without answering him at
"all, we went our way towards the Schloss.
"Never in my life should I have taken this for a Schloss,
"had it not been that there were two glass lamps fixed at the
"door-posts, and the figures of two Cranes standing in front
"of them, by way of Guards. We made up to the House;
"and after knocking almost half an hour to no purpose, there
"peered out at last an exceedingly old woman, who looked as
"if she might have nursed the Prince of Mirow's father. The
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? 186 AT REIKSBERG. [book X.
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
"poor woman, at sight of strangers, was so terrified, she
"slammed the door to in our faces. We knocked again; and
"seeing there could nothing be made of it, we went round to
"the stables; where a fellow told us, 'The young Prince with
"'his Consort was gone to Neu-Strelitz, a couple of miles off'
(ten miles English); 'and the Duchess his Mother, who lives
'"here, had given him, to make the better figure, all her
'"people along with him; keeping nobody but the old woman
"'to herself. '
"It was still early; so I thought I could not do better than
"profit by the opportunity, and have a look at Neu-Strelitz.
"We took post-horses; and got thither about noon. Neu-
"Strelitz is properly a Village; with only one street in it,
"where Chamberlains, Chancery-men, Domestics all lodge,
"and where there is an Inn. I cannot better describe it to my
"Most All-gracious Father, than by that street in Gumbinnen
"where you go up to the Townhall, -- except that no house
"here is whitewashed. The Schloss is fine, and lies on a
"lake, with a big garden; pretty much like Reinsberg in
"situation.
"The first question I asked here was for the Prince of
"Mirow: but they told me he had just driven off again to a
"place called Kanow; which is only a couple of miles English
"from Mirow, where we had been. Buddenbrock, who is ac-
quainted with Neu-Strelitz, got me, from a chamberlain,
"something to eat; and in the mean while, that Bohme came
"in, who was Adjutant in my Most All-gracious Father's
"Regiment" (not of Goltz, but King's presumably): "Bohme
"did not know me till I hinted to him who I was. He told me,
"'The Duke of Strelitz was an excellent seamster;' fit to be
Tailor to your Majesty in a manner, had not Fate been cruel,
"' and that he made beautiful dressing-gowns(cassaquins) with
"'his needle. ' This made me curious to see him: so we had
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? CHaP. III. ] PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. 187
Oct. ? Not. 1736.
"ourselves presented as Foreigners; and it went off so well
"that nobody recognised me. I cannot better describe the
"Duke than by saying he is like old Stahl" (famed old medi-
cal man at Berlin, dead last year, physiognomy not known
to actual readers), "in a blonde Abbess-periwig. He is ex-
"tremely silly (blode); his Hofrath Altrock tells him, as it
"were, everything he has to say. " About fifty, this poor
Duke; shrunk into needlework, for a quiet life, amid such
tumults from Schwerin and elsewhere.
"Having taken leave, we drove right off toKanow; and
"got thither about six. It is a mere Village; and the Prince's
"Pleasure-House (Lusthaus) here is nothing better than an
"ordinary Hunting-Lodge, such as any Forest-keeper has.
"I called in at the Miller's; and had myself announced" at
the Lusthaus "by his maid: upon which the Major-Domo
"(Haus-Hofmeister) came over to the Mill, and complimented
"me; with whom I proceeded to the Residenz," -- that is,
back again toMirow, "where the whole MirowFamily were
"assembled. The Mother is a Princess of Schwartzburg, and
"still the cleverest of them all," -- still under sixty; good old
Mother, intent that her poor Son should appear to advantage,
when visiting the more opulent Serenities. "His Aunt also,"
mother's sister, "was there. The Lady Spouse is small;
"a Niece to the Prince of Hildburghausen, who is in the Kai-
"ser's service: she was in the family-way; but (aber) seemed
"otherwise to be a very good Princess.
"The first thing they entertained me with was, the sad
"misfortune come upon their best Cook; who, with the cart
"that was bringing the provisions, had overset, and broken
"his arm; so that the provisions had all gone to nothing.
"Privately I have had inquiries made; there was not a word
"of truth in the story. At last we went to table; and, sure
"enough, it looked as if the Cook and his provisions had come
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? 188 AT KEINSBERG. [book I.
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
"to some mishap; for certainly in the Three Crowns at Pots-
"dam" (worst inn, one may guess, in the satirical vein),
"there is better eating than here.
"At table, there was talk of nothing but of all the German
"Princes who are not right in their wits (nicht redd klug)," --
as Mirow himself, your Majesty knows, is reputed to be!
"There was Weimar,* Gotha, Waldeck, Hoym, and the
"whole lot of them, brought upon the carpet: -- and after our
"good Host had got considerably drunk, we rose, -- and he
"lovingly promised me that 'he and his whole Family would
'"come and visit Reinsberg. ' Come he certainly will; but
"how I shall get rid of him, God knows.
"I most submissively beg pardon of my Most All-gracious
"Father for this long Letter; and" -- we will terminate
here. **
Dilapidated Mirow and its inmates, portrayed in
this satirical way, except as a view of Serene High-
nesses fallen into Sleepy Hollow, excites little notice
in the indolent mind; and that little, rather pleasantly
contemptuous than really profitable. But one fact ought
to kindle momentary interest in English readers: the
young foolish Herr, in this dilapidated place, is no
other than our "Old Queen Charlotte's" Father that is
to be, -- a kind of Ancestor of ours, though we little
guessed it!
English readers will scan him with new
* Wilhelmina's acquaintance; wedded, not without difficulty, to a
superfluous Baireuth Sister-in-law by Wilhelmina (Jfemoires de Wilhelmina,
tl. 1S5-I94): Grandfather of Goethe's Friend; -- is nothing like fairly out of
his wits; only has a flea (as we may say) dancing occasionally in the ear of
him. Perhaps it is so with the rest of these Serenities, here fallen upon evil
tongues?
** (Euvret de Frideric, xxvil. part 3d, pp. 104-108.
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? CHaP. III. ] PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. 189
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
curiosity, when he pays that return visit at Reinsberg. Which he does within the fortnight:
"To his Prussian Majesty (From the Crown-Prince).
"Reinsberg, 8th November 1736.
* * "that my Most All-gracious Father has had the gra-
"ciousness to send us some Swans. My Wife also has been
"exceedingly delighted at the fine Present sent her. "
* * "General Prsetorius," Danish Envoy, with whose Court
there is some tiff of quarrel, "came hither yesterday to take
"leave of us; he seems very unwilling to quit Prussia.
"This morning, about three o'clock,' my people woke me,
"with word that there was a Staffette come with Letters," --
from your Majesty or Heaven knowswhom! "Ispringup in
"all haste; and opening the Letter, -- find it is from the
"Prince of Mirow; who informs me that 'he will be here to-
"'day at noon. ' I have got all things in readiness to receive
"him, as if he were the Kaiser in person; and I hope there
"will be material for some amusement to my Most All-gra-
"cious Father, by next post. " -- Next post is half-a-week
hence:
"To his Prussian Majesty (From the Crown-Prince).
"Reinsberg, 11th November.
* * "The Prince of Mirow's visit was so curious, I must
"give my Most All-gracious Father a particular report of it.
"In my last, I mentioned how General Prsetorius had come to
"us: he was in the room, when I entered with the Prince of
"Mirow; at sight of him Prsetorius exclaimed, loud enough
"to be heard by everybody, lVoilh le Prince Cajucal'* Not
"one of us could help laughing; and I had my own trouble to
"turn it so that he did not get angry.
* Nickname out of some Romance, fallen extinct long since.
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? 190 AT KEINSBERG. [booKX.
Oct. -Nov. 17S6.
"Scarcely was the Prince got in, when they came to tell
"me, for his worse luck, that Prince Heinrich," thelllMar- graf, "was come; -- who accordingly trotted him out, in such
"a way that we thought we should all have died with laugh-
ing. Incessant praises were given him, especially for his fine
"clothes, his fine air, and his uncommon agility in dancing.
"And indeed I thought the dancing would never end.
"In the afternoon, to spoil his fine coat," -- a contrivance
of the 111 Margraf's, I should think, -- "we stept out to shoot
'' at target in the rain: he would not speak of it, but one could
"observe he was in much anxiety about the coat. In the
"evening, he got a glass or two in his head, and grew ex- "tremely merry; said at last, 'He was sorry that, for divers
"'state-reasons and businesses of moment, he must of neces-
"'sity return home;' -- which, however, he put off till about
"two in the morning. I think, next day he would not remem-
"ber very much of it.
"Prince Heinrich is gone to his Regiment again;" Praeto- rius too is off; -- and we end with the proper Kow-tow. *
These Strelitzers, we said, are juniors to infatuated
Schwerin; and poor Mirow is again junior to Strelitz:
plainly one of the least opulent of Residences. At
present, it is Dowager Apanage (Wittwen-Sitz) to the
Widow of the late Strelitz of blessed memory: here,
with her one Child, a boy now grown to what man-
hood we see, has the Serene Dowager lived, these
twenty-eight years past; a Schwarzburg by birth, "the
cleverest head among them all. " Twenty-eight years,
in dilapidated Mirow: so long has that Tailoring Duke,
her eldest stepson (child of a prior wife), been Supreme
* QSuvres de Frederic, xvii. part 3d, p. 109.
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? CHAP. III. ] PRINCE MAXES A MORNING CALL. 191
Oct. -Nov. 173*.
Head of Mecklenburg Strelitz; employed with Lis
needle, or we know not how, -- collapsed plainly into
tailoring at this date. There was but one other Son;
this clever Lady's, twenty years junior, -- "Prince of
Mirow" whom we now see. Karl Ludwig Friedrich is
the name of this one; age now twenty-eight gone. He,
ever since the third month of him, when the poor
Serene Father died ("May 1708"), has been at Mirow
with Mamma; getting what education there was, -- not
too successfully, as would appear. Eight years ago,
"in 1726," Mamma sent him off upon his travels; to
Geneva, Italy, France: he looked in upon Vienna, too;
got a Lieutenant Colonelcy in the Kaiser's Service, but
did not like it; soon gave it up; and returned home to
vegetate, perhaps to seek a wife, -- having prospects
of succession in Strelitz. For the Serene Half-Brother
proves to have no children: were his tailoring once
finished in the world, our Prince of Mirow is Duke in
Chief. On this basis he wedded last year: the little
Wife has already brought him one child, a Daughter;
and has (as Friedrich notices) another under way, if it
prosper. No lack of Daughters, nor of Sons by and
by: eight years hence came the little Charlotte, -- sub-
sequently Mother of England: much to her and our
astonishment. *
The poor man did not live to be Duke of Strelitz;
he died, 1752, in little Charlotte's eighth year; Tailor
* Born (at Mirow), I9th May 1744; married (London), 8th September 1761; died, 18th November 1818 (MIehaeUl, ii. 445 , 446; HUbner. t. 19S;
(Ertel, pp. 43, 23).
?
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? 192 AT REISSBERG. [BoOK X.
Oct. -NoY. 1736.
Duke surviving him a few months. Little Charlotte's
Brother did then succeed, and lasted till 1794; after
whom a second Brother, father of the now Serene
Strelitzes; -- who also is genealogically notable. For
from him there came another still more famous Queen:
Louisa of Prussia; beautiful to look upon, as "Aunt
Charlotte" was not, in a high degree; and who showed
herself a Heroine in Napoleon's time, as Aunt Char-
lotte never was called to do. Both Aunt and Niece
were women of sense, of probity, propriety; fairly be-
yond the average of Queens. And as to their early
poverty, ridiculous to this gold-nugget generation, I
rather guess it may have done them benefits which the
gold-nugget generation, in its Queens and otherwise,
stands far more in want of than it thinks.
But enough of this Prince of Mirow, whom Fried-
rich has accidentally unearthed for us. Indeed there
is no farther History of him, for or against. He evi-
dently was not thought to have invented gunpowder,
by the public. And yet who knows but, in his very
simplicity, there lay something far beyond the I11
Margraf to whom he was so quizzable? Poor down-
pressed brother mortal; somnambulating so pacifically
in Sleepy Hollow yonder, and making no complaint!
He continued, though soon with less enthusiasm,
and in the end very rarely, a visitor of Friedrich's
during this Reinsberg time. Patriotic English readers
may as well take the few remaining vestiges too, be-
fore quite dismissing him to Sleepy Hollow. Here they
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? CHaP. HI. J PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. 193
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
are, swept accurately together, from that Correspond-
ence of Friedrich with Papa:
"Reinsberg, 18th November 1736. * * report most submis-
"sively that the Prince of Mirow has again been here, with
"his Mother, Wife, Aunt, Hofdames, Cavaliers and entire
"Household; so that I thought it was the Flight into Egypt.
"I begin to have a fear of these good people, as they assured
"me they would have such pleasure in coming often! "
"Reinsberg, 1st February 1737. " Let us give it in the Ori-
ginal too, as a specimen of German spelling:
"Der Printz von Mihrau ist vohr einigen thagen bier gcwessen
"und haben wier einige Wasser schwermer in der See ihm zu Ehren
"gesmissen, seine frau ist mit einer thoten Printzesin nieder ge-
"Komen. -- Der General schulenburg ist heute Mer gekommen und
"wirdt morgen" -- That is to say:
"The Prince of Mirow was here a few days ago; and we
"let off, in honour of him, a few water-rockets over the Lake:
"his Wife has been brought to bed of a dead Princess.
"General Schulenburg" (with a small s) "came hither today;
"and tomorrow will" * * .
"Reinsberg, 28th March 1737. * * Prince von Mirow was
"here yesterday; and went shooting birds with us: he
"cannot see rightly, and shoots always with help of an
"opera-glass. "
"Reinsberg, 20th October 1737. The Prince of Mirow was "with us last Friday; and babbled much in his high way;"among other things, white-lied to us, that the Kaiserinn "gave him a certain porcelain snuffbox he was handling; but
"on being questioned more tightly, he confessed to me he had "bought it in Vienna. " *
* Briefe an Valer, p. 71 (caret in CEuvres); pp. 85-114. -- See lb. , 6th
November 1737, for faint trace of a visit; and 25th September 1739, for
another still fainter, the last there is.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. V. 13
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? 194 AT KEINSBEBG. [book X.
Oct. -Nor. 1736.
And so let him somnambulate yonder, till the Two
Queens, like winged Psyches, one after the other,
manage to emerge from him.
Friedrich's Letters to his Father are described by
some Prussian Editors as "very attractive, sehr anzie- hende Briefe;" which to a Foreign reader, seems a
strange account of them. Letters very hard to under-
stand completely, and rather insignificant when under-
stood. They turn on Gifts sent to and sent from,
"swans," "hams," with the unspeakable thanks for
them; on recruits of so many inches; on the visitors
that have been; they assure us that "there is no sick-
ness in the Regiment," or tell expressly how much: --
wholly small facts; nothing of speculation, and of cere-
monial pipeclay a great deal. We know already under
what nightmare conditions Friedrich wrote to his
Father! The attitude of the Crown-Prince, sincerely
reverent and filial, though obliged to appear ineffably
so, and on the whole struggling under such mountains
of encumbrance, yet loyally maintaining his equilib-
rium, does at last acquire, in these Letters, silently a
kind of beauty to the best class of readers. But that
is nearly their sole merit . By far the most human of
them, that on the first Visit to Mirow, the reader has
now seen; and may thank us much that we show him
no more of them. *
* Friedrich des Grossen Driefe an seinen Voter (Berlin, 1838). Reduced
in size, by suitable omissions; and properly spelt; but with little other
elucidation for a stranger: In (Euvres, xxvii. part 3d, pp. 1-123 (Berlin,
185G).
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? chap, nr. ]
July-Dec. 1737.
NEWS OF THE DAY.
195CHAPTER IV.
NEWS OF THE DAY.
While these Mirow visits are about their best, and
much else at Reinsberg is in comfortable progress,
Friedrich's first year there just ending, there come ac-
counts from England of quarrels broken out between
the Britannic Majesty and his Prince of Wales. Dis-
crepancies risen now to a height; and getting into the
very Newspapers; -- the Rising Sun too little under
the control of the Setting, in that unquiet Country!
Prince Fred of England did not get to the Rhine
Campaign, as we saw: he got some increase of Revenue,
a Household of his own; and finally a Wife, as he had
requested: a Sachsen-Gotha Princess; who, peerless
Wilhelmina being unattainable, was welcome to Prince
Fred. She is in the family-way, this summer 1737, a
very young lady still; result thought to be due --
When? Result being potential Heir to the British
Nation, there ought to have been good calculation of
the time when! But apparently nobody had well
turned his attention that way. Or if Fred and Spouse
had, as is presumable, Fred had given no notice to the
Paternal Majesty, -- "Let Paternal Majesty, always so
cross to me, look out for himself in that matter. "
Certain it is, Fred and Spouse, in the beginning of
August 1737, are out at Hampton Court; potential
13*
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? 196 AT KEINSBERO. [BooK X.
July-Dec.
? 180 AT REINSBERG. [booIX.
Aug. 1736.
solicits of him: "Could not your Royal Highness per-
haps graciously speak to some of those Judicial Bigwigs
in Brabant, and flap them up a little! " Which Fried-
rich, I think, did, by some good means. Happily by
one means or other, Voltaire got the Lawsuit ended,
-- 1740, we might guess, but the time is not specified;
-- and Friedrich had a new claim, had there been
need of new, to be regarded with worship by Madame. *
But the proposed meeting with Madame could never
take effect; not even when Friedrich's hands were free.
Nay I notice at last, Friedrich had privately deter-
mined it never should; Madame evidently an incon-
venient element to him. A young man not wanting
in private power of eyesight; and able to distinguish
chaff from meal! Voltaire and he will meet; meet,
and also part; and there will be passages between them:
-- and the reader will again hear of this Correspond-
ence of theirs, where it has a biographical interest.
We are to conceive it, at present, as a principal light
of life to the young heart at Reinsberg; a cheerful new
fire, almost an altar-fire, irradiating the common dusk
for him there.
Of another Correspondence, beautifully irradiative
for the young heart, we must say almost nothing: the
Correspondence with Suhm. Suhm the Saxon Minister,
whom we have occasionally heard of, is an old Friend
of the Crown-Prince's, dear and helpful to him: it is he
* Record of all this, left, like innumerable other things there, in an In"
trinsically dark condition, lies in Voltaire's Letters, -- not much worth
hunting up into clear daylight, the process being so difficult to a stranger.
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? CHaP. II. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 181
Aug. 1736.
who is now doing those Translations of Wolf, of which
Voltaire lately saw specimen; translating Wolf at large,
for the young man's behoof. The young man, restless
to know the best Philosophy going, had tried reading
of Wolfs chief Book; found it too abstruse, in Wolfs
German: wherefore Suhm translates; sends it to him in
limpid French; fascicle by fascicle, with commentaries;
young man doing his best to understand and admire,
-- gratefully, not too successfully, we can perceive.
That is the staple of the famous Suhm Correspondence;
staple which nobody could now bear to be concerned
with.
Suhm is also helpful in finance difficulties, which
are pretty frequent; works out subventions, loans under
a handsome form, from the Czarina's and other Courts.
Which is an operation of the utmost delicacy; perilous,
should it be heard of at Potsdam. Wherefore Suhm
and the Prince have a covert language for it; and affect
still to be speaking of "Publishers" and "new Volumes,"
when they mean Lenders and Bank-Draughts. All
these loans, I will hope, were accurately paid one day,
as that from GeorgeII. was, in "rouleaus of new gold. "
We need not doubt the wholesome charm and blessing
of so intimate a Correspondence to the Crown-Prince;
and indeed his real love of the amiable Suhm, as
Suhm's of him, comes beautifully to light in these
Letters: but otherwise they are not now to be read
without weariness, even dreariness, and have become a
biographical reminiscence merely.
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? 182
[book X.
AT REIKSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
Concerning Graf von Manteufel, a third Literary
Correspondent, and the only other considerable one,
here, from a German Commentator on this matter, is a
Clipping that will suffice:
"Manteufel was Saxon by birth, long a Minister of August
"the Strong, but quarrelled with August, owing to some frail
"female it is said, and had withdrawn to Berlin a few years
"ago. He shines there among the fashionable philosophical
"classes; underhand, perhaps does a little in the volunteer
"political line withal; being a very busy pushing gentleman.
"Tall of stature, 'perfectly handsome at the age of sixty;'*
"great partisan of Wolf and the Philosophies, awake to the
"Orthodoxies too. Writes flowing elegant French, in a softly
"trenchant, somewhat too all-knowing style. High manners
"traceable in him; but nothing of the noble loyalty, natural
"politeness and pious lucency of Suhm. One of his Letters
"to Friedrich has this slightly impertinent passage; -- Fried-
"rich, just getting settled in Reinsberg, having transiently
"mentioned 'the quantity of fair-sex' that had come about
"him there:
"'Berlin, 26th August 1736 (To the Crown-Prince). * * I
'"am well persuaded your Royal Highness will regulate all
"' that to perfection, and so manage that your fair-sex will be
"' charmed to find themselves with you at Reinsberg, and you
"'charmed to have them there. But permit me, your Royal
'"Highness, to repeat in this place, what I one day took
'"the liberty of saying here at Berlin: Nothing in the world
"'would better suit the present interests of your Royal High-
"' ness and of us all, than some Heir of your Royal Highness's
"'making! Perhaps the tranquil convenience with which
"'your Royal Highness at Reinsberg can now attend to that
* Formey: Souvenirs d'ltn Citoyen, i. 59-45.
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? CHaP. II. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 183
Aug. 1736.
"'object, will be of better effect than all those hasty and
"* transitory visits at Berlin were. At least, I wish it with the
''' best of my heart. I beg pardon, Monseigneur, for intruding
"' thus into everything which concerns your Royal Highness;'
"-- In truth, I am a rather impudent, busy-bodyish fellow,
"with superabundant dashing manner, speculation, utterance;
"and shall get myself ordered out of the Country, by my pre-
sent correspondent, by and by. -- 'Being ever', with the due
"enthusiasm, "'Manteufel. '"*
"To which Friedrich's Answer is of a kind to put a gag
"in the foul mouth of certain extraordinary Pamphleteer-
"ings, that were once very copious in the world; and, in
"particular, to set at rest the Herr Dr. Zimmermann, and
"his poor puddle of calumnies and credulities, got together
"in that weak pursuit of physiology under obscene circum-
"stances;--
"Which is the one good result I have gathered
"from the Manteufel Correspondence," continues our
German friend; whom I vote with! -- Or if the English
reader never saw those Zimmermann or other dog-like
Pamphleteerings and surmisings, let this Excerpt be
mysterious and superfluous to the thankful English
reader.
On the whole, we conceive to ourselves the abun-
dant nature of Friedrich's Correspondence, literary and
other; and what kind of event the transit of that Post-
functionary "from Fehrbellin northwards," with his
leathern bags, "twice a-week," may have been at
Reinsberg, in those years.
* (Enures de Frederic, xxv. 487; --Friedrich's Answer is, Reinsberg,
23d September (lb. 489).
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? 184
[book X. Oot. -Nov. 1736.
AT REINSBERG.
chapter nr.
CROWN-PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL
Thursday, 25th October 1736, the Crown-Prince,
with Lieutenant Buddenbrock and an attendant or two,
drove over into Mecklenburg, to a Village and serene
Schloss called Mirow, intending a small act of neigh-
bourly civility there; on which perhaps an English
reader of our time will consent to accompany him. It
is but some ten or twelve miles off, in a northerly
direction; Reinsberg being close on the frontier there.
A pleasant enough morning's-drive, with the October
sun shining on the silent heaths, on the many-coloured
woods and you.
Mirow is an Apanage for one of the Mecklenburg-
Strelitz junior branches; Mecklenburg-Strelitz being
itself a junior compared to the Mecklenburg-Schwerin
of which, and its infatuated Duke, we have heard so
much in times past. Mirow and even Strelitz are not
in a very shining state, -- but indeed, we shall see
them, as it were, with eyes. And the English reader
is to note especially those Mirow people, as perhaps of
some small interest to him, if he knew it. The Crown-
Prince reports to Papa, in a satirical vein, not un-
genially, and with much more freedom than is usual in
those Reinsberg Letters of his:
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? CHaP. m. J PRINCE MAKES A MORNING: CALL. 185
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
"To his Prussian Majesty (From the Crown-Prince).
"Keinsberg, 26th October 1736.
* * "Yesterday I went across to Mirow. To give my
"Most All-gracious Father an idea of the place, I cannot
"liken it to anything higher thanGross-Kreutz " (term of com-
parison lost upon us; say Garrat, at a venture, or the Clachan
of Aberfoyle): "the one house in it, that can be called a
"house, is not so good as the Parson's there. I made straight
"for the Schloss; which is pretty much like the Gardenhouse
"in Bornim: only there is a rampart round it; and an
"old Tower, considerably in ruins, serves as a Gateway to
"the House.
"Coming on the Drawbridge, I perceived an old stocking-
"knitter disguised as Grenadier, with his cap, cartridge-box
"and musket laid to a side, that they might not hinder him in
"his knitting-work. As I advanced, he asked, 'Whence I
"'came, and whitherward I was going? ' I answered, that
"'I came from the Posthouse, and was going over this
"'Bridge:' whereupon the Grenadier, quite in a passion, ran
"to the Tower; where he opened a door, and called out the
"Corporal. The Corporal seemed to have hardly been out of
"bed; and in his great haste, had not taken time to put on
"his shoes, nor quite button his breeches; with much flurry
"he asked us, 'Where we were for, and how we came to treat
"'the Sentry in that manner? ' Without answering him at
"all, we went our way towards the Schloss.
"Never in my life should I have taken this for a Schloss,
"had it not been that there were two glass lamps fixed at the
"door-posts, and the figures of two Cranes standing in front
"of them, by way of Guards. We made up to the House;
"and after knocking almost half an hour to no purpose, there
"peered out at last an exceedingly old woman, who looked as
"if she might have nursed the Prince of Mirow's father. The
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? 186 AT REIKSBERG. [book X.
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
"poor woman, at sight of strangers, was so terrified, she
"slammed the door to in our faces. We knocked again; and
"seeing there could nothing be made of it, we went round to
"the stables; where a fellow told us, 'The young Prince with
"'his Consort was gone to Neu-Strelitz, a couple of miles off'
(ten miles English); 'and the Duchess his Mother, who lives
'"here, had given him, to make the better figure, all her
'"people along with him; keeping nobody but the old woman
"'to herself. '
"It was still early; so I thought I could not do better than
"profit by the opportunity, and have a look at Neu-Strelitz.
"We took post-horses; and got thither about noon. Neu-
"Strelitz is properly a Village; with only one street in it,
"where Chamberlains, Chancery-men, Domestics all lodge,
"and where there is an Inn. I cannot better describe it to my
"Most All-gracious Father, than by that street in Gumbinnen
"where you go up to the Townhall, -- except that no house
"here is whitewashed. The Schloss is fine, and lies on a
"lake, with a big garden; pretty much like Reinsberg in
"situation.
"The first question I asked here was for the Prince of
"Mirow: but they told me he had just driven off again to a
"place called Kanow; which is only a couple of miles English
"from Mirow, where we had been. Buddenbrock, who is ac-
quainted with Neu-Strelitz, got me, from a chamberlain,
"something to eat; and in the mean while, that Bohme came
"in, who was Adjutant in my Most All-gracious Father's
"Regiment" (not of Goltz, but King's presumably): "Bohme
"did not know me till I hinted to him who I was. He told me,
"'The Duke of Strelitz was an excellent seamster;' fit to be
Tailor to your Majesty in a manner, had not Fate been cruel,
"' and that he made beautiful dressing-gowns(cassaquins) with
"'his needle. ' This made me curious to see him: so we had
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? CHaP. III. ] PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. 187
Oct. ? Not. 1736.
"ourselves presented as Foreigners; and it went off so well
"that nobody recognised me. I cannot better describe the
"Duke than by saying he is like old Stahl" (famed old medi-
cal man at Berlin, dead last year, physiognomy not known
to actual readers), "in a blonde Abbess-periwig. He is ex-
"tremely silly (blode); his Hofrath Altrock tells him, as it
"were, everything he has to say. " About fifty, this poor
Duke; shrunk into needlework, for a quiet life, amid such
tumults from Schwerin and elsewhere.
"Having taken leave, we drove right off toKanow; and
"got thither about six. It is a mere Village; and the Prince's
"Pleasure-House (Lusthaus) here is nothing better than an
"ordinary Hunting-Lodge, such as any Forest-keeper has.
"I called in at the Miller's; and had myself announced" at
the Lusthaus "by his maid: upon which the Major-Domo
"(Haus-Hofmeister) came over to the Mill, and complimented
"me; with whom I proceeded to the Residenz," -- that is,
back again toMirow, "where the whole MirowFamily were
"assembled. The Mother is a Princess of Schwartzburg, and
"still the cleverest of them all," -- still under sixty; good old
Mother, intent that her poor Son should appear to advantage,
when visiting the more opulent Serenities. "His Aunt also,"
mother's sister, "was there. The Lady Spouse is small;
"a Niece to the Prince of Hildburghausen, who is in the Kai-
"ser's service: she was in the family-way; but (aber) seemed
"otherwise to be a very good Princess.
"The first thing they entertained me with was, the sad
"misfortune come upon their best Cook; who, with the cart
"that was bringing the provisions, had overset, and broken
"his arm; so that the provisions had all gone to nothing.
"Privately I have had inquiries made; there was not a word
"of truth in the story. At last we went to table; and, sure
"enough, it looked as if the Cook and his provisions had come
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? 188 AT KEINSBERG. [book I.
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
"to some mishap; for certainly in the Three Crowns at Pots-
"dam" (worst inn, one may guess, in the satirical vein),
"there is better eating than here.
"At table, there was talk of nothing but of all the German
"Princes who are not right in their wits (nicht redd klug)," --
as Mirow himself, your Majesty knows, is reputed to be!
"There was Weimar,* Gotha, Waldeck, Hoym, and the
"whole lot of them, brought upon the carpet: -- and after our
"good Host had got considerably drunk, we rose, -- and he
"lovingly promised me that 'he and his whole Family would
'"come and visit Reinsberg. ' Come he certainly will; but
"how I shall get rid of him, God knows.
"I most submissively beg pardon of my Most All-gracious
"Father for this long Letter; and" -- we will terminate
here. **
Dilapidated Mirow and its inmates, portrayed in
this satirical way, except as a view of Serene High-
nesses fallen into Sleepy Hollow, excites little notice
in the indolent mind; and that little, rather pleasantly
contemptuous than really profitable. But one fact ought
to kindle momentary interest in English readers: the
young foolish Herr, in this dilapidated place, is no
other than our "Old Queen Charlotte's" Father that is
to be, -- a kind of Ancestor of ours, though we little
guessed it!
English readers will scan him with new
* Wilhelmina's acquaintance; wedded, not without difficulty, to a
superfluous Baireuth Sister-in-law by Wilhelmina (Jfemoires de Wilhelmina,
tl. 1S5-I94): Grandfather of Goethe's Friend; -- is nothing like fairly out of
his wits; only has a flea (as we may say) dancing occasionally in the ear of
him. Perhaps it is so with the rest of these Serenities, here fallen upon evil
tongues?
** (Euvret de Frideric, xxvil. part 3d, pp. 104-108.
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? CHaP. III. ] PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. 189
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
curiosity, when he pays that return visit at Reinsberg. Which he does within the fortnight:
"To his Prussian Majesty (From the Crown-Prince).
"Reinsberg, 8th November 1736.
* * "that my Most All-gracious Father has had the gra-
"ciousness to send us some Swans. My Wife also has been
"exceedingly delighted at the fine Present sent her. "
* * "General Prsetorius," Danish Envoy, with whose Court
there is some tiff of quarrel, "came hither yesterday to take
"leave of us; he seems very unwilling to quit Prussia.
"This morning, about three o'clock,' my people woke me,
"with word that there was a Staffette come with Letters," --
from your Majesty or Heaven knowswhom! "Ispringup in
"all haste; and opening the Letter, -- find it is from the
"Prince of Mirow; who informs me that 'he will be here to-
"'day at noon. ' I have got all things in readiness to receive
"him, as if he were the Kaiser in person; and I hope there
"will be material for some amusement to my Most All-gra-
"cious Father, by next post. " -- Next post is half-a-week
hence:
"To his Prussian Majesty (From the Crown-Prince).
"Reinsberg, 11th November.
* * "The Prince of Mirow's visit was so curious, I must
"give my Most All-gracious Father a particular report of it.
"In my last, I mentioned how General Prsetorius had come to
"us: he was in the room, when I entered with the Prince of
"Mirow; at sight of him Prsetorius exclaimed, loud enough
"to be heard by everybody, lVoilh le Prince Cajucal'* Not
"one of us could help laughing; and I had my own trouble to
"turn it so that he did not get angry.
* Nickname out of some Romance, fallen extinct long since.
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? 190 AT KEINSBERG. [booKX.
Oct. -Nov. 17S6.
"Scarcely was the Prince got in, when they came to tell
"me, for his worse luck, that Prince Heinrich," thelllMar- graf, "was come; -- who accordingly trotted him out, in such
"a way that we thought we should all have died with laugh-
ing. Incessant praises were given him, especially for his fine
"clothes, his fine air, and his uncommon agility in dancing.
"And indeed I thought the dancing would never end.
"In the afternoon, to spoil his fine coat," -- a contrivance
of the 111 Margraf's, I should think, -- "we stept out to shoot
'' at target in the rain: he would not speak of it, but one could
"observe he was in much anxiety about the coat. In the
"evening, he got a glass or two in his head, and grew ex- "tremely merry; said at last, 'He was sorry that, for divers
"'state-reasons and businesses of moment, he must of neces-
"'sity return home;' -- which, however, he put off till about
"two in the morning. I think, next day he would not remem-
"ber very much of it.
"Prince Heinrich is gone to his Regiment again;" Praeto- rius too is off; -- and we end with the proper Kow-tow. *
These Strelitzers, we said, are juniors to infatuated
Schwerin; and poor Mirow is again junior to Strelitz:
plainly one of the least opulent of Residences. At
present, it is Dowager Apanage (Wittwen-Sitz) to the
Widow of the late Strelitz of blessed memory: here,
with her one Child, a boy now grown to what man-
hood we see, has the Serene Dowager lived, these
twenty-eight years past; a Schwarzburg by birth, "the
cleverest head among them all. " Twenty-eight years,
in dilapidated Mirow: so long has that Tailoring Duke,
her eldest stepson (child of a prior wife), been Supreme
* QSuvres de Frederic, xvii. part 3d, p. 109.
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? CHAP. III. ] PRINCE MAXES A MORNING CALL. 191
Oct. -Nov. 173*.
Head of Mecklenburg Strelitz; employed with Lis
needle, or we know not how, -- collapsed plainly into
tailoring at this date. There was but one other Son;
this clever Lady's, twenty years junior, -- "Prince of
Mirow" whom we now see. Karl Ludwig Friedrich is
the name of this one; age now twenty-eight gone. He,
ever since the third month of him, when the poor
Serene Father died ("May 1708"), has been at Mirow
with Mamma; getting what education there was, -- not
too successfully, as would appear. Eight years ago,
"in 1726," Mamma sent him off upon his travels; to
Geneva, Italy, France: he looked in upon Vienna, too;
got a Lieutenant Colonelcy in the Kaiser's Service, but
did not like it; soon gave it up; and returned home to
vegetate, perhaps to seek a wife, -- having prospects
of succession in Strelitz. For the Serene Half-Brother
proves to have no children: were his tailoring once
finished in the world, our Prince of Mirow is Duke in
Chief. On this basis he wedded last year: the little
Wife has already brought him one child, a Daughter;
and has (as Friedrich notices) another under way, if it
prosper. No lack of Daughters, nor of Sons by and
by: eight years hence came the little Charlotte, -- sub-
sequently Mother of England: much to her and our
astonishment. *
The poor man did not live to be Duke of Strelitz;
he died, 1752, in little Charlotte's eighth year; Tailor
* Born (at Mirow), I9th May 1744; married (London), 8th September 1761; died, 18th November 1818 (MIehaeUl, ii. 445 , 446; HUbner. t. 19S;
(Ertel, pp. 43, 23).
?
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? 192 AT REISSBERG. [BoOK X.
Oct. -NoY. 1736.
Duke surviving him a few months. Little Charlotte's
Brother did then succeed, and lasted till 1794; after
whom a second Brother, father of the now Serene
Strelitzes; -- who also is genealogically notable. For
from him there came another still more famous Queen:
Louisa of Prussia; beautiful to look upon, as "Aunt
Charlotte" was not, in a high degree; and who showed
herself a Heroine in Napoleon's time, as Aunt Char-
lotte never was called to do. Both Aunt and Niece
were women of sense, of probity, propriety; fairly be-
yond the average of Queens. And as to their early
poverty, ridiculous to this gold-nugget generation, I
rather guess it may have done them benefits which the
gold-nugget generation, in its Queens and otherwise,
stands far more in want of than it thinks.
But enough of this Prince of Mirow, whom Fried-
rich has accidentally unearthed for us. Indeed there
is no farther History of him, for or against. He evi-
dently was not thought to have invented gunpowder,
by the public. And yet who knows but, in his very
simplicity, there lay something far beyond the I11
Margraf to whom he was so quizzable? Poor down-
pressed brother mortal; somnambulating so pacifically
in Sleepy Hollow yonder, and making no complaint!
He continued, though soon with less enthusiasm,
and in the end very rarely, a visitor of Friedrich's
during this Reinsberg time. Patriotic English readers
may as well take the few remaining vestiges too, be-
fore quite dismissing him to Sleepy Hollow. Here they
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? CHaP. HI. J PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. 193
Oct. -Nov. 1736.
are, swept accurately together, from that Correspond-
ence of Friedrich with Papa:
"Reinsberg, 18th November 1736. * * report most submis-
"sively that the Prince of Mirow has again been here, with
"his Mother, Wife, Aunt, Hofdames, Cavaliers and entire
"Household; so that I thought it was the Flight into Egypt.
"I begin to have a fear of these good people, as they assured
"me they would have such pleasure in coming often! "
"Reinsberg, 1st February 1737. " Let us give it in the Ori-
ginal too, as a specimen of German spelling:
"Der Printz von Mihrau ist vohr einigen thagen bier gcwessen
"und haben wier einige Wasser schwermer in der See ihm zu Ehren
"gesmissen, seine frau ist mit einer thoten Printzesin nieder ge-
"Komen. -- Der General schulenburg ist heute Mer gekommen und
"wirdt morgen" -- That is to say:
"The Prince of Mirow was here a few days ago; and we
"let off, in honour of him, a few water-rockets over the Lake:
"his Wife has been brought to bed of a dead Princess.
"General Schulenburg" (with a small s) "came hither today;
"and tomorrow will" * * .
"Reinsberg, 28th March 1737. * * Prince von Mirow was
"here yesterday; and went shooting birds with us: he
"cannot see rightly, and shoots always with help of an
"opera-glass. "
"Reinsberg, 20th October 1737. The Prince of Mirow was "with us last Friday; and babbled much in his high way;"among other things, white-lied to us, that the Kaiserinn "gave him a certain porcelain snuffbox he was handling; but
"on being questioned more tightly, he confessed to me he had "bought it in Vienna. " *
* Briefe an Valer, p. 71 (caret in CEuvres); pp. 85-114. -- See lb. , 6th
November 1737, for faint trace of a visit; and 25th September 1739, for
another still fainter, the last there is.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. V. 13
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? 194 AT KEINSBEBG. [book X.
Oct. -Nor. 1736.
And so let him somnambulate yonder, till the Two
Queens, like winged Psyches, one after the other,
manage to emerge from him.
Friedrich's Letters to his Father are described by
some Prussian Editors as "very attractive, sehr anzie- hende Briefe;" which to a Foreign reader, seems a
strange account of them. Letters very hard to under-
stand completely, and rather insignificant when under-
stood. They turn on Gifts sent to and sent from,
"swans," "hams," with the unspeakable thanks for
them; on recruits of so many inches; on the visitors
that have been; they assure us that "there is no sick-
ness in the Regiment," or tell expressly how much: --
wholly small facts; nothing of speculation, and of cere-
monial pipeclay a great deal. We know already under
what nightmare conditions Friedrich wrote to his
Father! The attitude of the Crown-Prince, sincerely
reverent and filial, though obliged to appear ineffably
so, and on the whole struggling under such mountains
of encumbrance, yet loyally maintaining his equilib-
rium, does at last acquire, in these Letters, silently a
kind of beauty to the best class of readers. But that
is nearly their sole merit . By far the most human of
them, that on the first Visit to Mirow, the reader has
now seen; and may thank us much that we show him
no more of them. *
* Friedrich des Grossen Driefe an seinen Voter (Berlin, 1838). Reduced
in size, by suitable omissions; and properly spelt; but with little other
elucidation for a stranger: In (Euvres, xxvii. part 3d, pp. 1-123 (Berlin,
185G).
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? chap, nr. ]
July-Dec. 1737.
NEWS OF THE DAY.
195CHAPTER IV.
NEWS OF THE DAY.
While these Mirow visits are about their best, and
much else at Reinsberg is in comfortable progress,
Friedrich's first year there just ending, there come ac-
counts from England of quarrels broken out between
the Britannic Majesty and his Prince of Wales. Dis-
crepancies risen now to a height; and getting into the
very Newspapers; -- the Rising Sun too little under
the control of the Setting, in that unquiet Country!
Prince Fred of England did not get to the Rhine
Campaign, as we saw: he got some increase of Revenue,
a Household of his own; and finally a Wife, as he had
requested: a Sachsen-Gotha Princess; who, peerless
Wilhelmina being unattainable, was welcome to Prince
Fred. She is in the family-way, this summer 1737, a
very young lady still; result thought to be due --
When? Result being potential Heir to the British
Nation, there ought to have been good calculation of
the time when! But apparently nobody had well
turned his attention that way. Or if Fred and Spouse
had, as is presumable, Fred had given no notice to the
Paternal Majesty, -- "Let Paternal Majesty, always so
cross to me, look out for himself in that matter. "
Certain it is, Fred and Spouse, in the beginning of
August 1737, are out at Hampton Court; potential
13*
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? 196 AT KEINSBERO. [BooK X.
July-Dec.
