"She had fought against this meeting for a long time, probably before it ever entered Joseph's head."
I like MT being one step ahead, like a good mother and smart woman.
"Nobody makes their parents into their heroes, Mitz."
Haha, literally what my dad said to my mom when they visited my college dorm and saw pictures of people who were not them (fortunately not their worst enemies, though).
Also, MT and EC should sit down and have a commiserate session over Joseph having Fritz's portrait in his bedroom and Fritz having MT's in his! "Oh, they're both crazy, let's just get them married them off to each other. Then they can drive each *other* crazy."
"her know-it-all son had declared."
Look. If you're trying to emulate Fritz and you're not expressing opinions about things you have no idea about, you're doing it wrong!
"How is the King to take me seriously if I bring my mother along like a callow school boy?"
Oh, ViennaJoe.
"You are not bringing your mother. The Empress has decided to join a meeting of monarchs. A meeting, so you kept telling me, that somehow will be quintessential for the future peace and prosperity of everyone's realms."
MT wouldn't have survived this long if she didn't have a quick mind.
I love all her mental " - stolen -" commentary!
"But of course presenting him with it was the result of another calculation as well. It was hard to keep up an image of Spartan masculine dignity while simultaneously putting delicious melting pastry in one's mouth."
Niiiiice. And it is an image, as you noted with "wearing a simple uniform in public." Which was a neat historical touch.
"If he'd been alone, undoubtedly Joseph would have rushed upstairs to meet him, never mind imperial decorum."
Since she wasn't present at the real thing, do we know if he did?
"the blue eyes that were perhaps the one attribute they shared"
I like how both this and chapter one end in MT and Fritz recognizing themselves in each other's eyes. And of course, MT finding reason to go on, and finding it in an act of sharing a meal with her enemy. "Keep your enemies closer" indeed.
Among Joseph's staggering 700 reform laws per year after his mother had died, there was indeed a corset law; as you so rightly say, know-it-all-ness was indeed the mark of emulating Fritz. :)
Adolph Menzel certainly depicted Joseph rushing upstairs in his famous painting of the occasion, following Franz Kugler's description in "Geschichte Friedrichs des Großen" of 1840. It has to be said, though, that for his earlier book illustration, Menzel had sketched Joseph and Fritz walking side by side. Also following historical descriptions, this meant Fritz is a head shorter than Joseph. This would not do for a Prussian audience. So Menzel solved the problem in his painting by placing Joseph in a position where Fritz, courtesy of the stairs, is still towering above him.
MT and Fritz being both blue-eyed and several of the contemporary descriptions of them honing in on that was a god-given for this story/stories, I admit.
Comment on Five Ways in which Frederick the Great and Maria Theresia did not meet
mildred_of_midgard on Chapter 4 Sat 28 Dec 2019 04:57AM UTC
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Selena on Chapter 4 Sat 28 Dec 2019 02:16PM UTC
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