History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 07Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 07
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
been very strange! To this unmentionable Duke of Mecklenburg she has
left one Daughter, a Princess Elizabeth-Catherine, who will be called
Princess ANNE, one day: whose fortunes in the world may turn out to be
tragical. Potential heiress of all the Russias, that little Elizabeth or
Anne. Heiress by her wily aunt, Anne of Courland,--Anne with the swollen
cheek, whom Moritz, capable of many things, and of being MARECHAL DE
SAXE by and by, could not manage to fall in love with there; and who
has now just quitted Courland, and become Czarina: [Peter II., her
Cousin-german, died January, 1730 (Mannstein's _Russia_).]--if Aunt Anne
with the big cheek should die childless, as is likely, this little Niece
were Heiress. WAS THUT'S, What matter!--
In the train of King August are likewise splendors of a sort, if we had
time for them. Dukes of Sachsen-Gotha, Dukes of Meiningen, most of the
Dukes that put Sachsen to their name;--Sachsen-Weimar for one; who is
Grandfather of Goethe's Friend, if not otherwise distinguished.
The Lubomirskis, Czartoryskis, and others of Polish breed, shall be
considered as foreign to us, and go unnoticed. Nor are high Dames
wanting, as we see: vast flights of airy bright-hued womankind,
Crown-Princess at the head of them, who lodges in Tiefenau with her
Crown-Prince,--and though plain-looking, and not of the sweetest temper,
is a very high Lady indeed. Niece of the present Kaiser Karl, Daughter
of the late Kaiser, Joseph of blessed memory;--for which reason August
never yet will sign the Pragmatic Sanction, his Crown-Prince having
hereby rights of his own in opposition thereto. She is young; to her
is Tiefenau, northward, on the edge of the Gorisch Heath, probably the
choicest mansion in these circuits, given up: also she is Lady of
"the Bucentaur," frigate equal to Cleopatra's galley in a manner; and
commands, so to speak, by land and water. Supreme Lady, she, of this
sublime world-foolery regardless of expense: so has the gallantry of
August ordered it. Our Friedrich and she will meet again, on occasions
not like this!--What the other Princesses and Countesses, present
on this occasion, were to Crown-Prince Friedrich, except a general
flower-bed of human nature,--ask not; nor even whether the Orzelska was
so much as here! The Orzelska will be married, some two months
hence, [10th August, 1730 (Sir T. Robinson: Despatch from Dresden; in
State-Paper Office).] to a Holstein-Beck; not to Holstein PLATE, but
to his Brother the unfortunate Saxon Major-General: a man surely not of
nice tastes in regard to marriage;--and I would recommend him to keep
his light Wife at home on such occasions. They parted, as we said, in
a year or two, mutually indignant; and the Orzelska went to Avignon,
to Venice and else-whither, and settled into Catholic devotion in
cheap countries of agreeable climate. [See Pollnitz ( _Memoirs,_ &c.),
whoever is curious about her.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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