Carlyle,
Frederic
the Great.
Thomas Carlyle
org/access_use#pd-google
? chaP, i. ] feoem: encouragements, discouragements. 23
quickened, or which should be quickened, by the great
and all-absorbing question, How is that same exploded
Past ever to settle down again? Not lost forever, it
would appear: the New Era has not annihilated the old
eras; New Era could by no means manage that; --
never meant that, had it known its own mind (which
it did not): its meaning was and is, to get its own well
out of them; to readapt, in a purified shape, the old
eras, and appropriate whatever was true and not com-
bustible in them: that was the poor New Era's meaning,
in the frightful explosion it made of itself and its pos-
sessions, to begin with!
And the question of questions now is: What part
of that exploded Past, the ruins and dust of which still
darken all the air, will continually gravitate back to
us; be reshaped, transformed, readapted, that so, in
new figures, under new conditions, it may enrich and
nourish us again? What part of it, not being incom-
bustible, has actually gone to flame and gas in the
huge world-conflagration; and is now gaseous, mounting
aloft; and will know no beneficence of gravitation, but
mount, and roam upon the waste winds forever, -- Na-
ture so ordering it, in spite of any industry of Art?
This is the universal question of afflicted mankind at
present; and sure enough it will be long to settle.
On one point we can answer: Only what of the
Past was true will come back to us. That is the one
asbestos which survives all fire, and comes out purified;
that is still ours, blessed be Heaven, and only that.
By the law of Nature nothing more than that; and
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 24
[book I.
BIKTH AND PARENTAGE.
also, by the same law, nothing less than that . Let
Art struggle how it may, for or against, -- as foolish
Art is seen extensively doing in our time, -- there is
where the limits of it will be. In which point of view, may not Friedrich, if he was a true man and King,
justly excite some curiosity again; nay some quite pe-
culiar curiosity, as the last Crowned Reality there was,
antecedent to that general outbreak and abolition? To
many it appears certain there are to be no Kings of
any sort, no Government more; less and less need of
them henceforth, New Era having come. Which is a
very wonderful notion; important if true; perhaps still
more important, just at present, if untrue! My hopes
of presenting, in this Last of the Kings, an exemplar
to my contemporaries, I confess, are not high.
On the whole, it is evident the difficulties to a His-
tory of Friedrich are great and many: and the sad cer-
tainty is at last forced upon me that no good Book can,
at this time, especially in this country, be written on
the subject . Wherefore let the reader put up with an
indifferent or bad one; he little knows how much worse
it could easily have been! -- Alas, the Ideal of History,
as my friend Sauerteig knows, is very high; and it is
not one serious man, but many successions of such, and
whole serious generations of men, that can ever again
build up History towards its old dignity. We must re-
nounce ideals. We must sadly take-up with the mourn-
fullest barren realities; -- dismal continents of Branden-
burg sand, as in this instance; mere tumbled mountains
of marine-stores, without so much as an Index to them!
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? ChAP. i. ] proem: encourAgements, discourAgements. 25
Has the reader heard of Sauerteig's last batch of
Springwurzel, a rather curious valedictory Piece? "All
"History is an imprisoned Epic, nay an imprisoned
"Psalm and Prophecy," says Sauerteig there. I wish,
from my soul, he had disimprisoned it in this instance!
But he only says, in magniloquent language, how grand it
would be if disimprisoned;-- and hurls out, accidentally
striking on this subject, the following rough sentences,
suggestive though unpractical, with which I shall con-
clude:
"Schiller, it appears, at one time thought of writing
"an Epic Poem upon Friedrich the Great, 'upon some
"action of Friedrich's,' Schiller says. Happily Schiller
"did not do it. By oversetting fact, disregarding reality,
"and tumbling time and space topsyturvy, Schiller with
"his fine gifts might no doubt have written a temporary
"'epic poem,' of the kind read and admired by many
"simple persons. But that would have helped little,
"and could not have lasted long. It is not the untrue
"imaginary Picture of a man and his life that I want
"from my Schiller, but the actual natural Likeness,
"true as the face itself, nay truer, in a sense. Which
"the Artist, if there is one, might help to give, and
"the Botcher (Pfuscher) never can! Alas, and the Artist
"does not even try it; leaves it altogether to the Botcher,
"being busy otherwise! --
"Men surely will at length discover again, emerging
"from these dismal bewilderments in which the modern
"Ages reel and stagger this long while, that to them
"also as to the most ancient men, all Pictures that
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 26
[book T.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
"cannot be credited are -- Pictures of an idle nature;
"to be mostly swept out of doors. Such veritably,
"were it never so forgotten, is the law! Mistakes
"enough, lies enough will insinuate themselves into our
"most earnest portrayings of the True: but that we
"should, deliberately and of forethought, rake together
"what we know to be not true, and introduce that in
"the hope of doing good with it? I tell you, such
"practice was unknown in the ancient earnest times;
"and ought again to become unknown except to the
"more foolish classes! " That is Sauerteig's strange
notion, not now of yesterday, as readers know: -- and
he goes then into "Homer's Iliad," the "Hebrew Bible,"
"terrible Hebrew veracity of every line of it;" discovers
an alarming "kinship of Fiction to lying;" and asks,
If anybody can compute "the damage we poor moderns
"have got from our practices of fiction in Literature it-
"self, not to speak of awfully higher provinces? Men
"will either see into all this by and by," continues he;
"or plunge head foremost, in neglect of all this, whither
"they little dream as yet! --
"But I think all real Poets, to this hour, are Psalmists
"and Hiadists after their sort; and have in them a divine
"impatience of lies, a divine incapacity of living among
"lies. Likewise, which is a corollary, that the highest
"Shakspeare producible is properly the fittest Historian
"producible; -- and that it is frightful to seethe Gelehrte
"Dummkopf (what we here may translate, Dryasdust)
"doing the function of History, and the Shakspeare
"and the Goethe neglecting it. 'Interpreting events;'
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PROEM: ENCOURAGEMENTS, DISCOURAGEMENTS. 27
"interpreting the universally visible, entirely indubitable
"Revelation of the Author of this Universe: how can
"Dryasdust interpret such things, the dark chaotic
"dullard, who knows the meaning of nothing cosmic or
"noble, nor ever will know? Poor wretch, one sees
"what kind of meaning he educes from Man's History,
"this long while past, and has got all the world to be-
"lieve of it along with him. Unhappy Dryasdust, thrice
"unhappy world that takes Dryasdust's reading of the
"ways of God! But what else was possible? They
"that could have taught better were engaged in fid-
dling; for which there are good wages going. And our
"damage therefrom, our damage, -- yes, if thou be
"still human and not cormorant, -- perhaps it will
"transcend all Californias, English National Debts, and
"show itself incomputable in continents of Bullion! --
"Believing that mankind are not doomed wholly to
"doglike annihilation, I believe that much of this will
"mend. I believe that the world will not always waste
"its inspired men in mere fiddling to it. That the man
"of rhythmic nature will feel more and more his voca-
"tion towards the Interpretation of Fact; since only in
"the vital centre of that, could we once get thither,
"lies all real melody; and that he will become, he,
"once again the Historian of Events, -- bewildered
"Dryasdust having at last the happiness to be his ser-
"vant, and to have some guidance from him. Which
"will be blessed indeed. For the present, Dryasdust
"strikes me like a hapless Nigger gone masterless:
"Nigger totally unfit for selfguidance; yet without
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 28
[book i.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
"master good or bad; and whose feats in that capacity
"no god or man can rejoice in.
"History, with faithful Genius at the top and faith-
"ful Industry at the bottom, will then be capable of
"being written. History will then actually be written,--
"the inspired gift of God employing itself to illuminate
"the dark ways of God. A thing thrice pressingly
"needful to be done! Whereby the modern Nations
"may again become a little less godless, and again
"have their 'epics' (of a different from the Schiller
"sort), and again have several things they are still
"more fatally in want of at present! " --
So that, it would seem, there will gradually among
mankind, if Friedrich last some centuries, be a real
Epic made of his History? That is to say (presumably),
it will become a perfected Melodious Truth, and duly
significant and duly beautiful bit of Belief, to mankind;
the essence of it fairly evolved from all the chaff, the
portrait of it actually given, and its real harmonies with
the laws of this Universe brought out, in bright and
dark, according to the God's Fact as it was; which
poor Dryasdust and the Newspapers never could get
sight of, but were always far from! --
Well, if so, -- and even if not quite so, -- it is a
comfort to reflect that every true worker (who has blown
away chaff, &c), were his contribution no bigger than
my own, may have brought the good result nearer by
a handbreadth or two. And so we will end these pre-
ludings, and proceed upon our Problem, courteous reader.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CIUP. II. ]
29
fkiedeich's birth.
CHAPTER H.
FRIEDRICn's BIRTH.
Fkeedrich op Brandenburg-Hohenzollern, who
came by course of natural succession to be Friedrich II.
of Prussia, and is known in these ages as Frederick
the Great, was born in the Palace of Berlin, about
noon, on the 24th of January 1712. A small infant,
but of great promise or possibility; and thrice and four
times welcome to all sovereign and other persons in
the Prussian Court, and Prussian realms, in those cold
winter days. His Father, they say, was like to have
stifled him with his caresses, so overjoyed was the
man; or at least to have scorched him in the blaze of
the fire; when happily some much suitabler female
nurse snatched this little creature from the rough
paternal paws, -- and saved it for the benefit of
Prussia and mankind. If Heaven will but please to
grant it length of life! For there have already been
two little Princekins, who are both dead; this Friedrich
is the fourth child; and only one little girl, wise
Wilhelmina, of almost too sharp wits, and not too
vivacious aspect, is otherwise yet here of royal pro-
geny. It is feared the Hohenzollern lineage, which has
flourished here with such beneficent effect, for three
centuries now, and been in truth the very making of
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 30
[book L
BIBTH AND PARENTAGE.
the Prussian Nation, may be about to fail, or pass into
some side branch. Which change, or any change in
that respect, is questionable, and a thing desired by
nobody.
Five years ago, on the death of the first little
Prince, there had surmises risen, obscure rumours and
hints, that the Princess Royal, mother of the lost baby,
never would have healthy children, or even never have
a child more: upon which, as there was but one other
resource, -- a widowed Grandfather, namely, and ex-
cept the Prince Royal no son to him, -- said Grand-
father, still only about fifty, did take the necessary
steps: but they have been entirely unsuccessful; no
new son or child, only new affliction, new disaster has
resulted from that third marriage of his. And though
the Princess Royal has had another little Prince, that
too has died within the year; -- killed some say on
the other hand, by the noise of the cannon firing for
joy over it! * Yes; and the first baby Prince, these
same parties farther say, was crushed to death by the
weighty dress you put upon it at christening time,
especially by the little crown it wore, which had left
a visible black mark upon the poor soft infant's brow!
In short, it is a questionable case; undoubtedly a ques-
tionable outlook for Prussian mankind; and the ap-
pearance of this little Prince, a third trump-card in the
* Fb'rster: Friedrich Wilhelm I. , Kdnig (ion Preutsen (Potsdam, 1834),
i. 126 (who quotes Morgenstern, a contemporary reporter). But see also
Pienss: Friedrich der Grosse mit semen Verwandten und Freunden (Berlin,
1838), pp. 879-80.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chAP. n. ]
31
friedeich's birth.
Hohenzollern game, is an unusually interesting event
.
The joy over him, not in Berlin Palace only, but in
Berlin City, and over the Prussian Nation, was very
great and universal; -- still testified in manifold dull,
unreadable old pamphlets, records official and volunteer,
-- which were then all ablaze like the bonfires, and
are now fallen dark enough, and hardly credible even
to the fancy of this new Time.
The poor old Grandfather, Friedrich I. (the first
King of Prussia), -- for, as we intimate, he was still
alive, and not very old, though now infirm enough,
and laden beyond his strength with sad reminiscences,
disappointments and chagrins, -- had taken much to
Wilhelmina, as she tells us;* and would amuse himself
whole days with the pranks and prattle of the little
child. Good old man: he, we need not doubt, bright-
ened up into unusual vitality at sight of this invalu-
able little Brother of her's; through whom he can look
once more into the waste dim future with a flicker of
new hope. Poor old man: he got his own back half-
broken by a careless nurse letting him fall; and has
slightly stooped ever since, some fifty and odd years
now: much against his will; for he would fain have
been beautiful; and has struggled all his days, very
hard if not very wisely, to make his existence beauti-
ful, -- to make it magnificent at least, and regardless
of expense; -- and it threatens to come to little.
Courage, poor Grandfather: here is a new second edi-
* Memoires de Frederique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de
Bareith, Sceur de Frederic-le-Grand (London, 1812), J. 5.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 32
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
tion of a Friedrich, the first having gone off with so
little effect: this one's back is still unbroken, his life's
seedfield not yet filled with tares and thorns: who
knows but Heaven will be kinder to this one? Heaven
was much kinder to this one. Him Heaven had kneaded
of more potent stuff: a mighty fellow this one, and a
strange; related not only to the Upholsteries and
Heralds' Colleges, but to the Sphereharmonies and the
divine and demonic Powers; of a swift far-darting
nature this one, like an Apollo clad in sun-beams and
in lightnings (after his sort); and with a back which
all the world could not succeed in breaking! -- Yes,
if, by most rare chance, this were indeed a new man
of genius, born into the purblind rotting Century, in
the acknowledged rank of a king there, -- man of
genius, that is to say, man of originality and veracity;
capable of seeing with his eyes, and incapable of
not believing what he sees; -- then truly! -- But as
yet none knows; the poor old Grandfather never knew.
Meanwhile they christened the little fellow, with
immense magnificence and pomp of apparatus; Kaiser
Karl, and the very Swiss Republic being there (by
proxy), among the gossips; and spared no cannon-vol-
lyings, kettle-drummings, metal crown, heavy cloth-of-
silver, for the poor soft creature's sake; all of which,
however, he survived. The name given him was Karl
Friedrich (Charles Frederick); Karl perhaps, and per-
haps also not, in delicate compliment to the chief gos-
sip, the above-mentioned Kaiser, Karl or Charles VI. ?
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CRAP. n. J
33
friedrich's BUtTH.
At any rate, the Karl, gradually or from the first,
dropped altogether out of practice, and went as
nothing: he himself, or those about him, never used it;
nor, except in some dim English pamphlet here and
there, have I met with any trace of it. Friedrich (Rich-
in-Peace, a name of old prevalence in the Hohenzol-
lern kindred), which he himself wrote Frederic in his
French way, and at last even Federio (with a very
singular sense of euphony), is throughout, and was, his
sole designation.
Sunday, 31st January 1712, age then precisely one
week: then, and in this manner, was he ushered on
the scene, and labelled among his fellow-creatures.
We must now look round a little; and see, if possible
by any method or exertion, what kind of scene it was.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. I.
3
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 34
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
CHAPTEE m.
FATHER AND MOTHER: THE HANOVERIAN CONNEXION.
Friedrich Wilhelm , Crown-Prince of Prussia, son
of Friedrich I. , and Father of this little infant who will
one day be Friedrich II. , did himself make some noise
in the world as second King of Prussia; notable not as
Friedrich's father alone; and will much concern us
during the rest of his life. He is, at this date, in his
twenty-fourth year: a thick-set, sturdy, florid, brisk
young fellow; with a jovial laugh in him, yet of solid
grave ways, occasionally somewhat volcanic; much given
to soldiering, and out-of-door exercises, having little
else to do at present. He has been manager, or, as
it were, Vice-King, on an occasional absence of his
Father; he knows practically what the state of business
is; and greatly disapproves of it, as is thought . But
being bound to silence on that head, he keeps silence,
and meddles with nothing political. He addicts him-
self chiefly to mustering, drilling and practical military
duties, while here at Berlin; runs out, often enough,
wife and perhaps a comrade or two along with him,
to hunt, and take his ease, at Wusterhausen (some
fifteen miles* southwest of Berlin), where he has a re-
sidence amid the woody moorlands.
* English miles, -- as always unless the contrary be stated. The
German Meile la about five miles English; German Slutide about three.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chaP, in. ]
FATTIER AND MOTHER.
But soldiering is his grand concern. Six years ago,
summer 1706,* at a very early age, he went to the
wars, -- grand Spanish-Succession War, which was
then becoming very fierce in the Netherlands; Prussian
Troops always active on the Marlborough-Eugene side.
He had just been betrothed, was not yet wedded;
thought good to turn the interim to advantage in that
way. Then again, spring 1709, after his marriage and
after his Father's marriage, "the Court being full of
intrigues," and nothing but silence recommendable there,
a certain renowned friend of his, Leopold, Prince of
Anhalt-Dessau, of whom we shall yet hear a great
deal, -- who, still only about thirty, had already
covered himself with laurels in those wars (Blenheim,
Bridge of Casano, Lines of Turin, and other glories),
but had now got into intricacies with the weaker sort,
and was out of command, -- agreed with Friedrich
Wilhelm that it would be well to go and serve there
as volunteers, since not otherwise. ** A Crown-Prince
of Prussia, ought he not to learn soldiering, of all
things; by every opportunity? Which Friedrich Wil-
helm did, with industry; serving zealous apprenticeship
under Marlborough and Eugene, in this manner; plucking
knowledge, as the bubble reputation, and all else in
that field has to be plucked, from the cannon's mouth.
Friedrich Wilhelm kept by Marlborough, now as for-
? FSrster, i. 116.
? ? Varnhagen von Ense: F&rst Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau (in Biogra-
phische Denkmale, 2d edition, Berlin, 1845), p. 185. Thaten und Leben dcs
weltberbhmten Ftorstens Leopoldi von Anhalt-Dessau (Leipzig, 1742), p. 78.
FBrster, i. 129.
3*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 36
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
merly; friend Leopold being commonly in Eugene's
quarter, who well knew the worth of him, ever since
Blenheim and earlier. Friedrich Wilhelm saw hot ser-
vice, that campaign of 1709; siege of Tournay, and
far more; -- stood, among other things, the fiery Battle
of Malplaquet, one of the terriblest and deadliest feats
of war ever done. No want of intrepidity and rugged
soldier-virtue in the Prussian troops or their Crown-
Prince; least of all on that terrible day, 11th Septem-
ber 1709; -- of which he keeps the anniversary ever
since, and will do all his life, the doomsday of Malpla-
quet always a memorable day to him. * He is more
and more intimate with Leopold, and loves good soldier-
ing beyond all things. Here at Berlin he has al-
ready got a regiment of his own, tallish fine men; and
strives to make it in all points a very pattern of a re-
giment.
For the rest, much here is out of joint, and far
from satisfactory to him. Seven years ago** he lost
his own brave Mother and her love; of which we must
speak farther by and by. In her stead he has got a
fantastic, melancholic, ill-natured Stepmother, with whom
there was never any good to be done; who in fact is
now fairly mad, and kept to her own apartments. He
has to see here, and say little, a chagrined heartworn
Father flickering painfully amid a scene much filled
with expensive futile persons, and their extremely piti-
ful cabals and mutual rages; scene chiefly of pompous
* Fbrster, 1. 188.
** 1st February 1706.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chAP. m. ]
37
FATHER AND MOTHER.
inanity, and the art of solemnly and with great labour
doing nothing. Such waste of labour and of means:
what can one do but be silent? The other year,
Preussen (Prussia Proper, province lying far eastward,
out of sight) was sinking under pestilence and black
ruin and despair: the Crown-Prince, contrary to wont,
broke silence, and begged some dole or subvention for
these poor people; but there was nothing to be had.
Nothing in the treasury, your Royal Highness: --
Preussen will shift for itself; sublime dramaturgy, which
we call his Majesty's Government, costs so much! And
Preussen, mown away by death, lies much of it vacant
ever since; which has completed the Crown-Prince's
disgust; and, I believe, did produce some change of
ministry, or other ineffectual expedient, on the old
Father's part. Upon which the Crown-Prince locks up
his thoughts again. He has confused whirlpools, of
Court-intrigues, ceremonials, and troublesome fantasti-
calities, to steer amongst; which he much dislikes, no
man more; having an eye and heart set on the practical
only, and being in mind as in body something of the
genus robustum, of the genus ferox withal. He has
been wedded six years; lost two children, as we saw;
and now again he has two living.
His wife, Sophie Dorothee of Hanover, is his cousin
as well. She is brother's-daughter of his Mother, So-
phie Charlotte: let the reader learn to discriminate
these two names. Sophie Charlotte, late Queen of
Prussia, was also of Hanover: she probably had some-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 38 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. [bOOK r.
times, in her quiet motherly thought, anticipated this
connexion for him, while she yet lived. It is certain
Friedrich Wilhelm was carried to Hanover in early
childhood: his Mother,--- that Sophie Charlotte, a famed
Queen and lady in her day, Daughter of Electress So-
phie, and Sister of the George who became George I.
of England by and by, -- took him thither; some time
about the beginning of 1693, his age then five; and
left him there on trial; alleging, and expecting, he
might have a better breeding there. And this, in a
Court where Electress Sophie was chief lady, and
Elector Ernst, fit to be called Gentleman Ernst,* the
politest of men, was chief lord, -- and where Leibnitz,
to say nothing of lighter notabilities, was flourishing,
-- seemed a reasonable expectation. Nevertheless, it
came to nothing, this articulate purpose of the visit;
though perhaps the deeper silent purposes of it might
not be quite unfulfilled.
Gentleman Ernst had latety been made "Elector"
(Kurfurst, instead of Herzog), -- his Hanover no longer
a mere Sovereign Duchy, but an Electorate henceforth,
new "Ninth Electorate," by Ernst's life-long exertion
and good luck; -- which has spread a fine radiance,
? "Her Highness" (the Electress Sophie) "has the character of the
"merry debonnaire Princess of Germany; a lady of extraordinary virtues
"and accomplishments; mistress of the Italian. French, High and Low
"Dutch, and English languages, which she speaks to perfection. Her
"husband" (Elector Ernst) "has the title of the Gentleman of Germany; a
graceful and" &c. &c. W. Carr: Remarks of the Governments of the
seterall Pans of Germanie, Denmark, Sueedland (amsterdam, 1C88), p. 147.
See also Ker of Kersland (still more emphatic on this point, sapius).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. III. ]
39
FATHER AND MOTHER.
for the time, over court and people in those parts; and
made Ernst a happier man than ever, in his old age.
Gentleman Ernst and Electress Sophie, we need not
doubt, were glad to see their burly Prussian grandson,
-- a robust, rather mischievous boy of five years old;
-- and anything that brought her Daughter oftener
about her (an only Daughter too, and one so gifted)
was sure to be welcome to the cheery old Electress,
and her Leibnitz and her circle. For Sophie Char-
lotte was a bright presence, and a favourite with sage
and gay.
Uncle George again, "Kurprinz Georg Ludwig"
(Electoral Prince and Heir Apparent), who became
George I. of England; he, always a taciturn, saturnine,
somewhat grim-visaged man, not without thoughts of
his own but mostly inarticulate thoughts, was, just at
this time, in a deep domestic intricacy. Uncle George
the Kurprinz was painfully detecting, in these very
months, that his august Spouse and cousin, a brilliant
not uninjured lady, had become an indignant injuring
one; that she had gone, and was going, far astray in
her walk of life! Thus all is not radiance at Hanover
either, Ninth Elector though we are; but, in the soft
sunlight, there quivers a streak of the blackness of
very Erebus withal. Kurprinz George, I think, though
he too is said to have been good to the boy, could
noi take much interest in this burly Nephew of his
just now!
Sure enough, it was in this year 1693, that the
famed Konigsmark tragedy came ripening fast towards
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 40
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
a crisis in Hanover; and next year the catastrophe ar-
rived. A most tragic business; of which the little Boy,
now here, will know more one day. Perhaps it was
on this very visit, on one visit it credibly was, that
Sophie Charlotte witnessed a sad scene in the Schloss
of Hanover: high words rising, where low cooings had
been more appropriate; harsh words, mutually recrimi-
native, rising ever higher; ending, it is thought, in
things, or menaces and motions towards things (actual
box on the ear, some call it), -- never to be forgotten
or forgiven! And on Sunday 1st of July 1694, Co-
lonel Count Philip Konigsmark, Colonel in the Hano-
ver Dragoons, was seen for the last time in this world.
From that date, he has vanished suddenly underground,
in an inscrutable manner; never more shall the light
of the sun, or any human eye behold that handsome
blackguard man. Not for a hundred and fifty years
shall human creatures know, or guess with the smallest
certainty, what has become of him.
And shortly after Konigsmark's disappearance, there
is this sad phenomenon visible: A once very radiant
Princess (witty, haughty-minded, beautiful, not wise or
fortunate) now gone all ablaze into angry tragic con-
flagration; getting locked into the old Castle of Ahlden,
in the moory solitudes of Liineburg Heath: to stay
there till she die, -- thirty years as it proved, -- and
go into ashes and angry darkness as she may. Old
peasants, late in the next century, will remember that
they used to see her sometimes driving on the Heath,
-- beautiful lady, long black hair, and the glitter of
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHaP. ra. J FATHER AND MOTHER. 41
-
diamonds in it; sometimes the reins in her own hand,
but always with a party of cavalry round her, and
their swords drawn. * "Duchess of Ahlden," that was
her title in the eclipsed state. Born Princess of Zelle;
by marriage, Princess of Hanover (Kurprinzessin); would
have been Queen of England, too, had matters gone
otherwise than they did. -- Her name, like that of a
little Daughter she had, is Sophie Dorothee: she is
Cousin and Divorced Wife of Kurprinz George; di-
vorced, and as it were abolished alive, in this manner.
She is little Friedrich Wilhelm's Aunt-in-law; and her
little Daughter comes to be his Wife in process of
time. Of him, or of those belonging to him, she took
small notice, I suppose, in her then mood, the crisis
coming on so fast. In her happier innocent days she
had two children, a King that is to be, and a Queen;
George H. of England, Sophie Dorothee of Prussia;
but must not now call them hers, or ever see them
again.
This was the Konigsmark tragedy at Hanover; fast
ripening towards its catastrophe while little Friedrich
Wilhelm was there. It has been, ever since, a rumour
and dubious frightful mystery to mankind: but within
these few years, by curious accidents (thefts, discoveries
of written documents, in various countries, and diligent
study of them), it has at length become certainty and
fact, to those who are curious about it. Fact surely of
a rather horrible sort; -- yet better, I must say, than
? Die Herzogin von Ahlden (Leipzig, 1852), p. 22. Divorce was, 28th
December 1694; death, 13th November 1726, -- age then CO.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 42
[boos I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
was suspected: not quite so bad in the state of fact as
in that of rumour. Crime enough is in it, sin and folly
on both sides; there is killing too, but not assassina-
tion (as it turns out); on the whole there is nothing of
atrocity, or nothing that was not accidental, unavoidable;
-- and there is a certain greatness of decorum on the
part of those Hanover Princes and official gentlemen, a
depth of silence, of polite stoicism, which deserves
more praise than it will get in our times. Enough now
of the Konigsmark tragedy;* contemporaneous with
Friedrich Wilhelm's stay at Hannover, but not otherwise
much related to him or his doings there.
? A considerable dreary mass of books, pamphlets, lucubrations, false
all and of no worth or of leas, have accumulated on this dark subject, da-
ring the last hundred-and-fifty years; nor has the process yet stopped,-- aa
it now well might. For there have now two things occurred in regard to
it. First: In the year 1847, a Swedish Professor, named Palmblad, groping
about for other objects in the College Library of Lund (which is in the
country of the Konigsmark connexions), came upon a Box of old Letters,
-- Letters undated, signed only with initials, and very enigmatic till well
searched into, -- which have turned out to be the very Autographs of the
Princess and her Kb'nlgsmark; throwing of course a henceforth indispu-
table light on their relation. Second thing: A cautious exact old gentleman,
of diplomatic habits (understood to be 11 Count von Schnlenburg-Kloster-
rode of Dresden"), has, since that event, uuweariedly gone into the whole
matter; and has brayed it everywhere, and pounded it small; sifting, with
sublime patience, not only those Swedish Autographs, but the whole mass
of lying books, pamphlets, hints and notices, old and recent; and bringing
out (truly In an Intricate and thrice wearisome, but for the first time in an
authentio way) what real evidence there is. In which evidence the facts,
or essential fact. He at last indisputable enough. His Book, thick Pamphlet
rather, is that same Hertogin von Ahlden (Leipzig, 1852) cited above. The
dreary wheelbarrowful of others I had rather not mention again; but leave
Count von Schulenbnrg to mention and describe them, -- which he does
abundantly, so many as had accumulated np to that date of 1852, to the
affliction more or less of sane mankind.
? ?
? chaP, i. ] feoem: encouragements, discouragements. 23
quickened, or which should be quickened, by the great
and all-absorbing question, How is that same exploded
Past ever to settle down again? Not lost forever, it
would appear: the New Era has not annihilated the old
eras; New Era could by no means manage that; --
never meant that, had it known its own mind (which
it did not): its meaning was and is, to get its own well
out of them; to readapt, in a purified shape, the old
eras, and appropriate whatever was true and not com-
bustible in them: that was the poor New Era's meaning,
in the frightful explosion it made of itself and its pos-
sessions, to begin with!
And the question of questions now is: What part
of that exploded Past, the ruins and dust of which still
darken all the air, will continually gravitate back to
us; be reshaped, transformed, readapted, that so, in
new figures, under new conditions, it may enrich and
nourish us again? What part of it, not being incom-
bustible, has actually gone to flame and gas in the
huge world-conflagration; and is now gaseous, mounting
aloft; and will know no beneficence of gravitation, but
mount, and roam upon the waste winds forever, -- Na-
ture so ordering it, in spite of any industry of Art?
This is the universal question of afflicted mankind at
present; and sure enough it will be long to settle.
On one point we can answer: Only what of the
Past was true will come back to us. That is the one
asbestos which survives all fire, and comes out purified;
that is still ours, blessed be Heaven, and only that.
By the law of Nature nothing more than that; and
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 24
[book I.
BIKTH AND PARENTAGE.
also, by the same law, nothing less than that . Let
Art struggle how it may, for or against, -- as foolish
Art is seen extensively doing in our time, -- there is
where the limits of it will be. In which point of view, may not Friedrich, if he was a true man and King,
justly excite some curiosity again; nay some quite pe-
culiar curiosity, as the last Crowned Reality there was,
antecedent to that general outbreak and abolition? To
many it appears certain there are to be no Kings of
any sort, no Government more; less and less need of
them henceforth, New Era having come. Which is a
very wonderful notion; important if true; perhaps still
more important, just at present, if untrue! My hopes
of presenting, in this Last of the Kings, an exemplar
to my contemporaries, I confess, are not high.
On the whole, it is evident the difficulties to a His-
tory of Friedrich are great and many: and the sad cer-
tainty is at last forced upon me that no good Book can,
at this time, especially in this country, be written on
the subject . Wherefore let the reader put up with an
indifferent or bad one; he little knows how much worse
it could easily have been! -- Alas, the Ideal of History,
as my friend Sauerteig knows, is very high; and it is
not one serious man, but many successions of such, and
whole serious generations of men, that can ever again
build up History towards its old dignity. We must re-
nounce ideals. We must sadly take-up with the mourn-
fullest barren realities; -- dismal continents of Branden-
burg sand, as in this instance; mere tumbled mountains
of marine-stores, without so much as an Index to them!
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? ChAP. i. ] proem: encourAgements, discourAgements. 25
Has the reader heard of Sauerteig's last batch of
Springwurzel, a rather curious valedictory Piece? "All
"History is an imprisoned Epic, nay an imprisoned
"Psalm and Prophecy," says Sauerteig there. I wish,
from my soul, he had disimprisoned it in this instance!
But he only says, in magniloquent language, how grand it
would be if disimprisoned;-- and hurls out, accidentally
striking on this subject, the following rough sentences,
suggestive though unpractical, with which I shall con-
clude:
"Schiller, it appears, at one time thought of writing
"an Epic Poem upon Friedrich the Great, 'upon some
"action of Friedrich's,' Schiller says. Happily Schiller
"did not do it. By oversetting fact, disregarding reality,
"and tumbling time and space topsyturvy, Schiller with
"his fine gifts might no doubt have written a temporary
"'epic poem,' of the kind read and admired by many
"simple persons. But that would have helped little,
"and could not have lasted long. It is not the untrue
"imaginary Picture of a man and his life that I want
"from my Schiller, but the actual natural Likeness,
"true as the face itself, nay truer, in a sense. Which
"the Artist, if there is one, might help to give, and
"the Botcher (Pfuscher) never can! Alas, and the Artist
"does not even try it; leaves it altogether to the Botcher,
"being busy otherwise! --
"Men surely will at length discover again, emerging
"from these dismal bewilderments in which the modern
"Ages reel and stagger this long while, that to them
"also as to the most ancient men, all Pictures that
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 26
[book T.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
"cannot be credited are -- Pictures of an idle nature;
"to be mostly swept out of doors. Such veritably,
"were it never so forgotten, is the law! Mistakes
"enough, lies enough will insinuate themselves into our
"most earnest portrayings of the True: but that we
"should, deliberately and of forethought, rake together
"what we know to be not true, and introduce that in
"the hope of doing good with it? I tell you, such
"practice was unknown in the ancient earnest times;
"and ought again to become unknown except to the
"more foolish classes! " That is Sauerteig's strange
notion, not now of yesterday, as readers know: -- and
he goes then into "Homer's Iliad," the "Hebrew Bible,"
"terrible Hebrew veracity of every line of it;" discovers
an alarming "kinship of Fiction to lying;" and asks,
If anybody can compute "the damage we poor moderns
"have got from our practices of fiction in Literature it-
"self, not to speak of awfully higher provinces? Men
"will either see into all this by and by," continues he;
"or plunge head foremost, in neglect of all this, whither
"they little dream as yet! --
"But I think all real Poets, to this hour, are Psalmists
"and Hiadists after their sort; and have in them a divine
"impatience of lies, a divine incapacity of living among
"lies. Likewise, which is a corollary, that the highest
"Shakspeare producible is properly the fittest Historian
"producible; -- and that it is frightful to seethe Gelehrte
"Dummkopf (what we here may translate, Dryasdust)
"doing the function of History, and the Shakspeare
"and the Goethe neglecting it. 'Interpreting events;'
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PROEM: ENCOURAGEMENTS, DISCOURAGEMENTS. 27
"interpreting the universally visible, entirely indubitable
"Revelation of the Author of this Universe: how can
"Dryasdust interpret such things, the dark chaotic
"dullard, who knows the meaning of nothing cosmic or
"noble, nor ever will know? Poor wretch, one sees
"what kind of meaning he educes from Man's History,
"this long while past, and has got all the world to be-
"lieve of it along with him. Unhappy Dryasdust, thrice
"unhappy world that takes Dryasdust's reading of the
"ways of God! But what else was possible? They
"that could have taught better were engaged in fid-
dling; for which there are good wages going. And our
"damage therefrom, our damage, -- yes, if thou be
"still human and not cormorant, -- perhaps it will
"transcend all Californias, English National Debts, and
"show itself incomputable in continents of Bullion! --
"Believing that mankind are not doomed wholly to
"doglike annihilation, I believe that much of this will
"mend. I believe that the world will not always waste
"its inspired men in mere fiddling to it. That the man
"of rhythmic nature will feel more and more his voca-
"tion towards the Interpretation of Fact; since only in
"the vital centre of that, could we once get thither,
"lies all real melody; and that he will become, he,
"once again the Historian of Events, -- bewildered
"Dryasdust having at last the happiness to be his ser-
"vant, and to have some guidance from him. Which
"will be blessed indeed. For the present, Dryasdust
"strikes me like a hapless Nigger gone masterless:
"Nigger totally unfit for selfguidance; yet without
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 28
[book i.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
"master good or bad; and whose feats in that capacity
"no god or man can rejoice in.
"History, with faithful Genius at the top and faith-
"ful Industry at the bottom, will then be capable of
"being written. History will then actually be written,--
"the inspired gift of God employing itself to illuminate
"the dark ways of God. A thing thrice pressingly
"needful to be done! Whereby the modern Nations
"may again become a little less godless, and again
"have their 'epics' (of a different from the Schiller
"sort), and again have several things they are still
"more fatally in want of at present! " --
So that, it would seem, there will gradually among
mankind, if Friedrich last some centuries, be a real
Epic made of his History? That is to say (presumably),
it will become a perfected Melodious Truth, and duly
significant and duly beautiful bit of Belief, to mankind;
the essence of it fairly evolved from all the chaff, the
portrait of it actually given, and its real harmonies with
the laws of this Universe brought out, in bright and
dark, according to the God's Fact as it was; which
poor Dryasdust and the Newspapers never could get
sight of, but were always far from! --
Well, if so, -- and even if not quite so, -- it is a
comfort to reflect that every true worker (who has blown
away chaff, &c), were his contribution no bigger than
my own, may have brought the good result nearer by
a handbreadth or two. And so we will end these pre-
ludings, and proceed upon our Problem, courteous reader.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CIUP. II. ]
29
fkiedeich's birth.
CHAPTER H.
FRIEDRICn's BIRTH.
Fkeedrich op Brandenburg-Hohenzollern, who
came by course of natural succession to be Friedrich II.
of Prussia, and is known in these ages as Frederick
the Great, was born in the Palace of Berlin, about
noon, on the 24th of January 1712. A small infant,
but of great promise or possibility; and thrice and four
times welcome to all sovereign and other persons in
the Prussian Court, and Prussian realms, in those cold
winter days. His Father, they say, was like to have
stifled him with his caresses, so overjoyed was the
man; or at least to have scorched him in the blaze of
the fire; when happily some much suitabler female
nurse snatched this little creature from the rough
paternal paws, -- and saved it for the benefit of
Prussia and mankind. If Heaven will but please to
grant it length of life! For there have already been
two little Princekins, who are both dead; this Friedrich
is the fourth child; and only one little girl, wise
Wilhelmina, of almost too sharp wits, and not too
vivacious aspect, is otherwise yet here of royal pro-
geny. It is feared the Hohenzollern lineage, which has
flourished here with such beneficent effect, for three
centuries now, and been in truth the very making of
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 30
[book L
BIBTH AND PARENTAGE.
the Prussian Nation, may be about to fail, or pass into
some side branch. Which change, or any change in
that respect, is questionable, and a thing desired by
nobody.
Five years ago, on the death of the first little
Prince, there had surmises risen, obscure rumours and
hints, that the Princess Royal, mother of the lost baby,
never would have healthy children, or even never have
a child more: upon which, as there was but one other
resource, -- a widowed Grandfather, namely, and ex-
cept the Prince Royal no son to him, -- said Grand-
father, still only about fifty, did take the necessary
steps: but they have been entirely unsuccessful; no
new son or child, only new affliction, new disaster has
resulted from that third marriage of his. And though
the Princess Royal has had another little Prince, that
too has died within the year; -- killed some say on
the other hand, by the noise of the cannon firing for
joy over it! * Yes; and the first baby Prince, these
same parties farther say, was crushed to death by the
weighty dress you put upon it at christening time,
especially by the little crown it wore, which had left
a visible black mark upon the poor soft infant's brow!
In short, it is a questionable case; undoubtedly a ques-
tionable outlook for Prussian mankind; and the ap-
pearance of this little Prince, a third trump-card in the
* Fb'rster: Friedrich Wilhelm I. , Kdnig (ion Preutsen (Potsdam, 1834),
i. 126 (who quotes Morgenstern, a contemporary reporter). But see also
Pienss: Friedrich der Grosse mit semen Verwandten und Freunden (Berlin,
1838), pp. 879-80.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chAP. n. ]
31
friedeich's birth.
Hohenzollern game, is an unusually interesting event
.
The joy over him, not in Berlin Palace only, but in
Berlin City, and over the Prussian Nation, was very
great and universal; -- still testified in manifold dull,
unreadable old pamphlets, records official and volunteer,
-- which were then all ablaze like the bonfires, and
are now fallen dark enough, and hardly credible even
to the fancy of this new Time.
The poor old Grandfather, Friedrich I. (the first
King of Prussia), -- for, as we intimate, he was still
alive, and not very old, though now infirm enough,
and laden beyond his strength with sad reminiscences,
disappointments and chagrins, -- had taken much to
Wilhelmina, as she tells us;* and would amuse himself
whole days with the pranks and prattle of the little
child. Good old man: he, we need not doubt, bright-
ened up into unusual vitality at sight of this invalu-
able little Brother of her's; through whom he can look
once more into the waste dim future with a flicker of
new hope. Poor old man: he got his own back half-
broken by a careless nurse letting him fall; and has
slightly stooped ever since, some fifty and odd years
now: much against his will; for he would fain have
been beautiful; and has struggled all his days, very
hard if not very wisely, to make his existence beauti-
ful, -- to make it magnificent at least, and regardless
of expense; -- and it threatens to come to little.
Courage, poor Grandfather: here is a new second edi-
* Memoires de Frederique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de
Bareith, Sceur de Frederic-le-Grand (London, 1812), J. 5.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 32
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
tion of a Friedrich, the first having gone off with so
little effect: this one's back is still unbroken, his life's
seedfield not yet filled with tares and thorns: who
knows but Heaven will be kinder to this one? Heaven
was much kinder to this one. Him Heaven had kneaded
of more potent stuff: a mighty fellow this one, and a
strange; related not only to the Upholsteries and
Heralds' Colleges, but to the Sphereharmonies and the
divine and demonic Powers; of a swift far-darting
nature this one, like an Apollo clad in sun-beams and
in lightnings (after his sort); and with a back which
all the world could not succeed in breaking! -- Yes,
if, by most rare chance, this were indeed a new man
of genius, born into the purblind rotting Century, in
the acknowledged rank of a king there, -- man of
genius, that is to say, man of originality and veracity;
capable of seeing with his eyes, and incapable of
not believing what he sees; -- then truly! -- But as
yet none knows; the poor old Grandfather never knew.
Meanwhile they christened the little fellow, with
immense magnificence and pomp of apparatus; Kaiser
Karl, and the very Swiss Republic being there (by
proxy), among the gossips; and spared no cannon-vol-
lyings, kettle-drummings, metal crown, heavy cloth-of-
silver, for the poor soft creature's sake; all of which,
however, he survived. The name given him was Karl
Friedrich (Charles Frederick); Karl perhaps, and per-
haps also not, in delicate compliment to the chief gos-
sip, the above-mentioned Kaiser, Karl or Charles VI. ?
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CRAP. n. J
33
friedrich's BUtTH.
At any rate, the Karl, gradually or from the first,
dropped altogether out of practice, and went as
nothing: he himself, or those about him, never used it;
nor, except in some dim English pamphlet here and
there, have I met with any trace of it. Friedrich (Rich-
in-Peace, a name of old prevalence in the Hohenzol-
lern kindred), which he himself wrote Frederic in his
French way, and at last even Federio (with a very
singular sense of euphony), is throughout, and was, his
sole designation.
Sunday, 31st January 1712, age then precisely one
week: then, and in this manner, was he ushered on
the scene, and labelled among his fellow-creatures.
We must now look round a little; and see, if possible
by any method or exertion, what kind of scene it was.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. I.
3
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 34
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
CHAPTEE m.
FATHER AND MOTHER: THE HANOVERIAN CONNEXION.
Friedrich Wilhelm , Crown-Prince of Prussia, son
of Friedrich I. , and Father of this little infant who will
one day be Friedrich II. , did himself make some noise
in the world as second King of Prussia; notable not as
Friedrich's father alone; and will much concern us
during the rest of his life. He is, at this date, in his
twenty-fourth year: a thick-set, sturdy, florid, brisk
young fellow; with a jovial laugh in him, yet of solid
grave ways, occasionally somewhat volcanic; much given
to soldiering, and out-of-door exercises, having little
else to do at present. He has been manager, or, as
it were, Vice-King, on an occasional absence of his
Father; he knows practically what the state of business
is; and greatly disapproves of it, as is thought . But
being bound to silence on that head, he keeps silence,
and meddles with nothing political. He addicts him-
self chiefly to mustering, drilling and practical military
duties, while here at Berlin; runs out, often enough,
wife and perhaps a comrade or two along with him,
to hunt, and take his ease, at Wusterhausen (some
fifteen miles* southwest of Berlin), where he has a re-
sidence amid the woody moorlands.
* English miles, -- as always unless the contrary be stated. The
German Meile la about five miles English; German Slutide about three.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chaP, in. ]
FATTIER AND MOTHER.
But soldiering is his grand concern. Six years ago,
summer 1706,* at a very early age, he went to the
wars, -- grand Spanish-Succession War, which was
then becoming very fierce in the Netherlands; Prussian
Troops always active on the Marlborough-Eugene side.
He had just been betrothed, was not yet wedded;
thought good to turn the interim to advantage in that
way. Then again, spring 1709, after his marriage and
after his Father's marriage, "the Court being full of
intrigues," and nothing but silence recommendable there,
a certain renowned friend of his, Leopold, Prince of
Anhalt-Dessau, of whom we shall yet hear a great
deal, -- who, still only about thirty, had already
covered himself with laurels in those wars (Blenheim,
Bridge of Casano, Lines of Turin, and other glories),
but had now got into intricacies with the weaker sort,
and was out of command, -- agreed with Friedrich
Wilhelm that it would be well to go and serve there
as volunteers, since not otherwise. ** A Crown-Prince
of Prussia, ought he not to learn soldiering, of all
things; by every opportunity? Which Friedrich Wil-
helm did, with industry; serving zealous apprenticeship
under Marlborough and Eugene, in this manner; plucking
knowledge, as the bubble reputation, and all else in
that field has to be plucked, from the cannon's mouth.
Friedrich Wilhelm kept by Marlborough, now as for-
? FSrster, i. 116.
? ? Varnhagen von Ense: F&rst Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau (in Biogra-
phische Denkmale, 2d edition, Berlin, 1845), p. 185. Thaten und Leben dcs
weltberbhmten Ftorstens Leopoldi von Anhalt-Dessau (Leipzig, 1742), p. 78.
FBrster, i. 129.
3*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 36
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
merly; friend Leopold being commonly in Eugene's
quarter, who well knew the worth of him, ever since
Blenheim and earlier. Friedrich Wilhelm saw hot ser-
vice, that campaign of 1709; siege of Tournay, and
far more; -- stood, among other things, the fiery Battle
of Malplaquet, one of the terriblest and deadliest feats
of war ever done. No want of intrepidity and rugged
soldier-virtue in the Prussian troops or their Crown-
Prince; least of all on that terrible day, 11th Septem-
ber 1709; -- of which he keeps the anniversary ever
since, and will do all his life, the doomsday of Malpla-
quet always a memorable day to him. * He is more
and more intimate with Leopold, and loves good soldier-
ing beyond all things. Here at Berlin he has al-
ready got a regiment of his own, tallish fine men; and
strives to make it in all points a very pattern of a re-
giment.
For the rest, much here is out of joint, and far
from satisfactory to him. Seven years ago** he lost
his own brave Mother and her love; of which we must
speak farther by and by. In her stead he has got a
fantastic, melancholic, ill-natured Stepmother, with whom
there was never any good to be done; who in fact is
now fairly mad, and kept to her own apartments. He
has to see here, and say little, a chagrined heartworn
Father flickering painfully amid a scene much filled
with expensive futile persons, and their extremely piti-
ful cabals and mutual rages; scene chiefly of pompous
* Fbrster, 1. 188.
** 1st February 1706.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chAP. m. ]
37
FATHER AND MOTHER.
inanity, and the art of solemnly and with great labour
doing nothing. Such waste of labour and of means:
what can one do but be silent? The other year,
Preussen (Prussia Proper, province lying far eastward,
out of sight) was sinking under pestilence and black
ruin and despair: the Crown-Prince, contrary to wont,
broke silence, and begged some dole or subvention for
these poor people; but there was nothing to be had.
Nothing in the treasury, your Royal Highness: --
Preussen will shift for itself; sublime dramaturgy, which
we call his Majesty's Government, costs so much! And
Preussen, mown away by death, lies much of it vacant
ever since; which has completed the Crown-Prince's
disgust; and, I believe, did produce some change of
ministry, or other ineffectual expedient, on the old
Father's part. Upon which the Crown-Prince locks up
his thoughts again. He has confused whirlpools, of
Court-intrigues, ceremonials, and troublesome fantasti-
calities, to steer amongst; which he much dislikes, no
man more; having an eye and heart set on the practical
only, and being in mind as in body something of the
genus robustum, of the genus ferox withal. He has
been wedded six years; lost two children, as we saw;
and now again he has two living.
His wife, Sophie Dorothee of Hanover, is his cousin
as well. She is brother's-daughter of his Mother, So-
phie Charlotte: let the reader learn to discriminate
these two names. Sophie Charlotte, late Queen of
Prussia, was also of Hanover: she probably had some-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 38 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. [bOOK r.
times, in her quiet motherly thought, anticipated this
connexion for him, while she yet lived. It is certain
Friedrich Wilhelm was carried to Hanover in early
childhood: his Mother,--- that Sophie Charlotte, a famed
Queen and lady in her day, Daughter of Electress So-
phie, and Sister of the George who became George I.
of England by and by, -- took him thither; some time
about the beginning of 1693, his age then five; and
left him there on trial; alleging, and expecting, he
might have a better breeding there. And this, in a
Court where Electress Sophie was chief lady, and
Elector Ernst, fit to be called Gentleman Ernst,* the
politest of men, was chief lord, -- and where Leibnitz,
to say nothing of lighter notabilities, was flourishing,
-- seemed a reasonable expectation. Nevertheless, it
came to nothing, this articulate purpose of the visit;
though perhaps the deeper silent purposes of it might
not be quite unfulfilled.
Gentleman Ernst had latety been made "Elector"
(Kurfurst, instead of Herzog), -- his Hanover no longer
a mere Sovereign Duchy, but an Electorate henceforth,
new "Ninth Electorate," by Ernst's life-long exertion
and good luck; -- which has spread a fine radiance,
? "Her Highness" (the Electress Sophie) "has the character of the
"merry debonnaire Princess of Germany; a lady of extraordinary virtues
"and accomplishments; mistress of the Italian. French, High and Low
"Dutch, and English languages, which she speaks to perfection. Her
"husband" (Elector Ernst) "has the title of the Gentleman of Germany; a
graceful and" &c. &c. W. Carr: Remarks of the Governments of the
seterall Pans of Germanie, Denmark, Sueedland (amsterdam, 1C88), p. 147.
See also Ker of Kersland (still more emphatic on this point, sapius).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. III. ]
39
FATHER AND MOTHER.
for the time, over court and people in those parts; and
made Ernst a happier man than ever, in his old age.
Gentleman Ernst and Electress Sophie, we need not
doubt, were glad to see their burly Prussian grandson,
-- a robust, rather mischievous boy of five years old;
-- and anything that brought her Daughter oftener
about her (an only Daughter too, and one so gifted)
was sure to be welcome to the cheery old Electress,
and her Leibnitz and her circle. For Sophie Char-
lotte was a bright presence, and a favourite with sage
and gay.
Uncle George again, "Kurprinz Georg Ludwig"
(Electoral Prince and Heir Apparent), who became
George I. of England; he, always a taciturn, saturnine,
somewhat grim-visaged man, not without thoughts of
his own but mostly inarticulate thoughts, was, just at
this time, in a deep domestic intricacy. Uncle George
the Kurprinz was painfully detecting, in these very
months, that his august Spouse and cousin, a brilliant
not uninjured lady, had become an indignant injuring
one; that she had gone, and was going, far astray in
her walk of life! Thus all is not radiance at Hanover
either, Ninth Elector though we are; but, in the soft
sunlight, there quivers a streak of the blackness of
very Erebus withal. Kurprinz George, I think, though
he too is said to have been good to the boy, could
noi take much interest in this burly Nephew of his
just now!
Sure enough, it was in this year 1693, that the
famed Konigsmark tragedy came ripening fast towards
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 40
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
a crisis in Hanover; and next year the catastrophe ar-
rived. A most tragic business; of which the little Boy,
now here, will know more one day. Perhaps it was
on this very visit, on one visit it credibly was, that
Sophie Charlotte witnessed a sad scene in the Schloss
of Hanover: high words rising, where low cooings had
been more appropriate; harsh words, mutually recrimi-
native, rising ever higher; ending, it is thought, in
things, or menaces and motions towards things (actual
box on the ear, some call it), -- never to be forgotten
or forgiven! And on Sunday 1st of July 1694, Co-
lonel Count Philip Konigsmark, Colonel in the Hano-
ver Dragoons, was seen for the last time in this world.
From that date, he has vanished suddenly underground,
in an inscrutable manner; never more shall the light
of the sun, or any human eye behold that handsome
blackguard man. Not for a hundred and fifty years
shall human creatures know, or guess with the smallest
certainty, what has become of him.
And shortly after Konigsmark's disappearance, there
is this sad phenomenon visible: A once very radiant
Princess (witty, haughty-minded, beautiful, not wise or
fortunate) now gone all ablaze into angry tragic con-
flagration; getting locked into the old Castle of Ahlden,
in the moory solitudes of Liineburg Heath: to stay
there till she die, -- thirty years as it proved, -- and
go into ashes and angry darkness as she may. Old
peasants, late in the next century, will remember that
they used to see her sometimes driving on the Heath,
-- beautiful lady, long black hair, and the glitter of
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHaP. ra. J FATHER AND MOTHER. 41
-
diamonds in it; sometimes the reins in her own hand,
but always with a party of cavalry round her, and
their swords drawn. * "Duchess of Ahlden," that was
her title in the eclipsed state. Born Princess of Zelle;
by marriage, Princess of Hanover (Kurprinzessin); would
have been Queen of England, too, had matters gone
otherwise than they did. -- Her name, like that of a
little Daughter she had, is Sophie Dorothee: she is
Cousin and Divorced Wife of Kurprinz George; di-
vorced, and as it were abolished alive, in this manner.
She is little Friedrich Wilhelm's Aunt-in-law; and her
little Daughter comes to be his Wife in process of
time. Of him, or of those belonging to him, she took
small notice, I suppose, in her then mood, the crisis
coming on so fast. In her happier innocent days she
had two children, a King that is to be, and a Queen;
George H. of England, Sophie Dorothee of Prussia;
but must not now call them hers, or ever see them
again.
This was the Konigsmark tragedy at Hanover; fast
ripening towards its catastrophe while little Friedrich
Wilhelm was there. It has been, ever since, a rumour
and dubious frightful mystery to mankind: but within
these few years, by curious accidents (thefts, discoveries
of written documents, in various countries, and diligent
study of them), it has at length become certainty and
fact, to those who are curious about it. Fact surely of
a rather horrible sort; -- yet better, I must say, than
? Die Herzogin von Ahlden (Leipzig, 1852), p. 22. Divorce was, 28th
December 1694; death, 13th November 1726, -- age then CO.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 42
[boos I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
was suspected: not quite so bad in the state of fact as
in that of rumour. Crime enough is in it, sin and folly
on both sides; there is killing too, but not assassina-
tion (as it turns out); on the whole there is nothing of
atrocity, or nothing that was not accidental, unavoidable;
-- and there is a certain greatness of decorum on the
part of those Hanover Princes and official gentlemen, a
depth of silence, of polite stoicism, which deserves
more praise than it will get in our times. Enough now
of the Konigsmark tragedy;* contemporaneous with
Friedrich Wilhelm's stay at Hannover, but not otherwise
much related to him or his doings there.
? A considerable dreary mass of books, pamphlets, lucubrations, false
all and of no worth or of leas, have accumulated on this dark subject, da-
ring the last hundred-and-fifty years; nor has the process yet stopped,-- aa
it now well might. For there have now two things occurred in regard to
it. First: In the year 1847, a Swedish Professor, named Palmblad, groping
about for other objects in the College Library of Lund (which is in the
country of the Konigsmark connexions), came upon a Box of old Letters,
-- Letters undated, signed only with initials, and very enigmatic till well
searched into, -- which have turned out to be the very Autographs of the
Princess and her Kb'nlgsmark; throwing of course a henceforth indispu-
table light on their relation. Second thing: A cautious exact old gentleman,
of diplomatic habits (understood to be 11 Count von Schnlenburg-Kloster-
rode of Dresden"), has, since that event, uuweariedly gone into the whole
matter; and has brayed it everywhere, and pounded it small; sifting, with
sublime patience, not only those Swedish Autographs, but the whole mass
of lying books, pamphlets, hints and notices, old and recent; and bringing
out (truly In an Intricate and thrice wearisome, but for the first time in an
authentio way) what real evidence there is. In which evidence the facts,
or essential fact. He at last indisputable enough. His Book, thick Pamphlet
rather, is that same Hertogin von Ahlden (Leipzig, 1852) cited above. The
dreary wheelbarrowful of others I had rather not mention again; but leave
Count von Schulenbnrg to mention and describe them, -- which he does
abundantly, so many as had accumulated np to that date of 1852, to the
affliction more or less of sane mankind.
? ?
