Entry tags:
Yuletide Reveals
My assignment this year was also my first Star Trek: Discovery story. As my recipient's prompt had only been "anything about Michael Burnham and L'Rell interacting, other than non-con", I first was planning on a future fic set in the TOS era or after, but quickly backed away from that idea. The chance of getting thoroughly jossed by new canon within weeks of posting was simply too big for me. As I rewatched the L'Rell heavy episodes in s1, it occured to me that all Michael knows about L'Rell comes from Tyler, both the earlier negative (the story of torture and rape) and the later positive (true believer in T'Kuvma's ideal of Klingon unity, she and Voq were in love), which makes a certain decision Michael makes in the s1 finale regarding L'Rell an incredible gamble. This, in turn, made me decide to give them some missing scenes of direct interaction leading up to this decision of Michael's, but from L'Rell's pov, exploring the parallels and contrasts between them.
Catalyst (3783 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: L'Rell & Michael Burnham, L'Rell/Ash Tyler | Voq, Katrina Cornwell & L'Rell, Michael Burnham/Ash Tyler | Voq
Characters: L'Rell (Star Trek), Michael Burnham
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Character Study, Yuletide, Misses Clause Challenge, Complicated Relationships
Summary:
Due to rl business, I hadn't planned on writing a treat. But otoh, a post of![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cahn's had started a conversation about Schiller's (versus Verdi's, and also by itself) Don Carlos between us, which made me think about the play again; in school, and later in college, it had been very present in my life, and talking about it for the first time since decades reminded me of much, including my wish to provide the two prominent female characters in it with a fix-it. (BTW, this seems to be my lot in fannish life. Don Carlos is a very male centric canon, with intense and/or slashy relationships abounding, not just between Carlos and Posa but also between Posa and Philip. Yet whom am I drawn to? Elisabeth and the Princess Eboli. Reminds me of being a Breaking Bad fan and going for Skyler and Marie) instead of Jesse and Walt.) Since both ladies are alive at the end of the play and in an ambiguous state of liberty, or lack of same, this wasn't impossible. Also, my having written a story about Catherine de' Medici and her daughters a while ago meant I had my facts re: the historical Elisabeth de Valois at hand, though they were only of limited use in terms of my story, since good old Schiller took his usual great liberties. (Starting, of course, with Carlos himself, who was very different in rl. But also the type of marriage historical Philip and Elisabeth had; in rl, it had of course been a political arrangment as well but worked out so well that he remained at her side even when she had smallpox, no small risk, and not something the Philip of Schiller's play would have done.)
Anyway, the Elisabeth of this story is most definitely Catherine de' Medici's daughter but also, hopefully, recognizably Schiller's Queen (who is one of the smartest and most politically minded of Schiller's female characters while also being emotionally insightful). And thus I found myself writing Schiller fanfiction. What would my university professors say!
Queen‘s Gambit (4382 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Don Carlos - Friedrich Schiller, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Élisabeth de Valois & Princess Eboli, Élisabeth de Valois/Philip II of Spain, La princesse Eboli | La Principessa Eboli/Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain, Phillippe II of Spain/Ridrigue (Don Carlos), Carlos/Élisabeth de Valois, Élisabeth de Valois/Rodrigo
Characters: Élisabeth de Valois | Elisabetta di Valois, La princesse Eboli | La Principessa Eboli, Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Character Study, Complicated Relationships, Post-Canon, Unrequited Love, Survival, Yuletide, Yuletide Treat
Summary:
Catalyst (3783 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: L'Rell & Michael Burnham, L'Rell/Ash Tyler | Voq, Katrina Cornwell & L'Rell, Michael Burnham/Ash Tyler | Voq
Characters: L'Rell (Star Trek), Michael Burnham
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Character Study, Yuletide, Misses Clause Challenge, Complicated Relationships
Summary:
Michael Burnham changed L'Rell's life twice without meaning to. This is the story of how it happened for a third time.
Due to rl business, I hadn't planned on writing a treat. But otoh, a post of
cahn's had started a conversation about Schiller's (versus Verdi's, and also by itself) Don Carlos between us, which made me think about the play again; in school, and later in college, it had been very present in my life, and talking about it for the first time since decades reminded me of much, including my wish to provide the two prominent female characters in it with a fix-it. (BTW, this seems to be my lot in fannish life. Don Carlos is a very male centric canon, with intense and/or slashy relationships abounding, not just between Carlos and Posa but also between Posa and Philip. Yet whom am I drawn to? Elisabeth and the Princess Eboli. Reminds me of being a Breaking Bad fan and going for Skyler and Marie) instead of Jesse and Walt.) Since both ladies are alive at the end of the play and in an ambiguous state of liberty, or lack of same, this wasn't impossible. Also, my having written a story about Catherine de' Medici and her daughters a while ago meant I had my facts re: the historical Elisabeth de Valois at hand, though they were only of limited use in terms of my story, since good old Schiller took his usual great liberties. (Starting, of course, with Carlos himself, who was very different in rl. But also the type of marriage historical Philip and Elisabeth had; in rl, it had of course been a political arrangment as well but worked out so well that he remained at her side even when she had smallpox, no small risk, and not something the Philip of Schiller's play would have done.) Anyway, the Elisabeth of this story is most definitely Catherine de' Medici's daughter but also, hopefully, recognizably Schiller's Queen (who is one of the smartest and most politically minded of Schiller's female characters while also being emotionally insightful). And thus I found myself writing Schiller fanfiction. What would my university professors say!
Queen‘s Gambit (4382 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Don Carlos - Friedrich Schiller, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Élisabeth de Valois & Princess Eboli, Élisabeth de Valois/Philip II of Spain, La princesse Eboli | La Principessa Eboli/Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain, Phillippe II of Spain/Ridrigue (Don Carlos), Carlos/Élisabeth de Valois, Élisabeth de Valois/Rodrigo
Characters: Élisabeth de Valois | Elisabetta di Valois, La princesse Eboli | La Principessa Eboli, Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Character Study, Complicated Relationships, Post-Canon, Unrequited Love, Survival, Yuletide, Yuletide Treat
Summary:
How Elisabeth de Valois escapes her doom, with some help from the Princess Eboli.
no subject
Anyway, the Elisabeth of this story is most definitely Catherine de' Medici's daughter but also, hopefully, recognizably Schiller's Queen (who is one of the smartest and most politically minded of Schiller's female characters while also being emotionally insightful).
Yes -- I sort of said this in my comment, but anyway, one of the things I really loved about the fic is how you draw Schiller's Queen as arising naturally from being Catherine de' Medici's daughter. <3 And I'm impressed that you got historical!Philip to fit as well as he did, well, at least, the way he felt about everything but Elisabeth, hee.
I will confess that Eboli as a character draws me in less than Elisabeth (what can I say, I really like extremely thoughtful, canny characters, and Eboli, like Posa, has annoying blind spots) but I do like the way the relationship is drawn in the play.
Don Carlos is a very male centric canon, with intense and/or slashy relationships abounding, not just between Carlos and Posa but also between Posa and Philip. Yet whom am I drawn to? Elisabeth and the Princess Eboli.
And every time I read your fic (which I've done several times already) I'm amazed at how Elisabeth makes those intense male relationships work for her, how in this fic they serve the female characters and their arcs :)
Thank you again for writing this for me <3
no subject
Re: Eboli, teenage me felt sorry for her, older me was more able to see those annoying blind spots you mention, and the historical original was an interesting person, with a swashbuckling movie of her very own. But in any case I think Schiller's soft spot for mistress characters in historicals shows as, untypical for the era, they usually make it out of his plays alive, and while they don't get the hero of the play, they at the very least impress him. See also Lady Milford in Kabale und Liebe. Not having watched Verdi's Luisa Miller which is based on it - I think Verdi did as much Schiller as he did Shakespeare, no? -, I have no idea how much of Lady Milford makes it into the opera version, but in the play, her part goes thusly:
Villainous aristocratic father of hero: no more of that sentimental wooing of a non-noble. You're going to marry our duke's mistress as a favour to him and thus further your and my career.
Hero: ZOMG I will not! And she's English, too! I am a German youth of honor and will shame her! *storms off to meet the Duke's mistress*
Lady Milford: *has one of the most famous scenes in the play with a servant who brings her more jewelry from the duke, in which he mentions entire regiments of drafted/gang-pressed soldiers were sold to the Brits in the American war of Independence to Finance said jewelry; this scene was key for getting young Schiller kicked out of Wurttemberg* Ugh, I hate being a mistress and am looking forward to retiring into marriage with our hero whom I truly love.
Hero: *shows up, determined to slut-shame, but hardly gets two sentences out before*
Lady Milford: Here's how I came to be a mistress. *sums up life of orphan with no cash* What would you have done?
Hero: Um. You know, I think I misjudged you. You are clearly a noble spirit.
Lady Milford: I'm glad you think so. Let's marry.
Hero: No can do. I'm in love with the heroine. Let me tell you all my secrets about this. Surely a noble soul such as yourself will understand and tell dad you don't want to marry me?
Lady Milford: No can do. I'm not that noble, and I really want to get out of my mistress career.
Hero: *storms off*
*various scenes of intrigue by other parties later*
Lady M: Okay, time to be a realist. This marriage thing won't happen, but I still am sick of being the duke's mistress, so I'll take my chances elsewhere. Goodbye, conspiciously unnamed German principality which is of course not Wurttemberg, no way! I'm leaving behind my jewelry and starting a new life under my real name in England.
See what I mean?
Back to Don Carlos:
And every time I read your fic (which I've done several times already) I'm amazed at how Elisabeth makes those intense male relationships work for her
Aw, thank you. I feel I'm on reasonably firm canonical ground here, because Elisabeth actually has a pretty good reading on Philip; in their first scene together, when technically she's guilty of exactly what he suspects (having dismissed her ladies in order to meet a man who loves her, if not an actual lover), she outmanoeuvres him effortlessly and shames him in front of the court. And while as a reader/viewer I do have the impression she isn't immune to the allure of Posa herself (that detail of him having worn her colors at the tournament in France comes straight out of the play, btw, it's brought up in hers and Posa's first conversation), and shares some of his political goals, she sees him clearer than either Carlos or Philip re: his martyr streak and one-track-mindedness.
Incidentally, this year's Yuletide also has two Fritz/Katte stories (we talked about the non-Spanish historical inspiration for Schiller) which deliver on the tragic prince/beloved friend murdered by tyrannical king front. Unfortunately, here it was a problem for me that I actually knew something of the history; there are some glaring avoidable errors in them (King Friedrich Wilhelm was nowhere near Katte's execution, or indeed the place where future Friedrich II was kept prisoner, and didn't see his son between the arrest and their reconcilialtion years later at all, for example, and Katte's own father wasn't dead but alive and well). That's why they didn't end up on my rec lists, but purely as stories, they're deftly done.
no subject
Oh yes, absolutely!
while I'm glad for historical Elisabeth that she had a far better marriage than Schiller's Version, that meant I couldn't use some of the more endearing/humanising stuff about historical Philip like him staying with Elisabeth through the smallpox.
Yes, Philip/Elisabeth in Schiller is just... it doesn't seem like it can coexist in the same universe as historical Philip/Elisabeth, does it.
But in any case I think Schiller's soft spot for mistress characters in historicals shows as, untypical for the era, they usually make it out of his plays alive, and while they don't get the hero of the play, they at the very least impress him.
Yes - Eboli isn't as awesome as Elisabeth, but that can be said of everyone else in the play. And I find her less sheerly frustrating than Posa, heh. It is interesting to me that Posa is so dead set against her -- sometimes correctly, of course, but sometimes not so much.
I haven't seen Luisa Miller either, so I couldn't tell you, but Lady Milford sounds awesome :D
I feel I'm on reasonably firm canonical ground here, because Elisabeth actually has a pretty good reading on Philip... she sees [Posa] clearer than either Carlos or Philip re: his martyr streak and one-track-mindedness.
Oh yes! This is one of the things I love best about her, that she reads everyone around her really well. My favorite bit is when Alva and Domingo try to convince her she should be listening to them and she's all, "Hmm, I didn't realize you guys were such good friends of mine!" I also like to think she finds Posa attractive (that last scene!), but she is far too intelligent and sensible to do anything about it. Opera!Elisabeth, I like to think, doesn't contradict any of that (opera!Elisabeth certainly realizes the implications of Carlo's actions when Carlo doesn't) but opera!Elisabeth is much more weepy and we certainly don't ever see her effortlessly executing those social-emotional maneuvers like play!Elisabeth.
I saw those Fritz/Katte stories! Hah, only knowing about it from your recap (and subsequent Wikipedia reading), I didn't know enough for any historical inconsistencies to bother me. (Wow, that's an even more emotionally fraught story if his father didn't see him for years!)
Kabale und Liebe
Servant: His highness the Duke reccomends himself to your ladyship and sends you these diamonds as a gift for impending nuptials. They’ve been recently brought from Venice.
Lady M: *opens the casket and is shocked* Good lord! How much did your duke pay for these stones?
Servant (with a sinister expression): He didn’t pay a dime.
Lady: What? Are mad? Nothing? *steps away from him* You’re looking at me as if you want to stab me through the heart – nothing for these incredibly precious gems?
Servant: Yesterday, seventhousand of the country’s youth were shipped off to America – they pay for everything.
Lady: *puts down the jewelry* You’re crying, fellow.
Servant: *wipes his eyes with a terrible expression, trembling* Gems like these – some of them are my sons.
Lady: *takes his hand* Not gangpressed?
Servant: *laughs horribly* Oh God! – No – all volunteers! Oh sure, some mouthy chaps stepped out and asked the colonels for how much money our prince sells a dozen human beings these days. But our most gracious sovereign let all regiments march on parade square and shoot these loudmouths. We heard the guns thunder, saw their brains on the cobblestone, and the entire army shouted: Hooray! Hooray for America! –
Lady: *sits down with horror* God! God! – And I heard nothing? Noticed nothing?
Servant: Well, your grace, did you have to go hunting bears with our master when they drummed marching orders? Shouldn’t have missed such a splendid sight, should you, how the drums told us it’s time, and crying orphans ran after living fathers, and a mad mother held her child against the bayonets, brides and grooms separated by the sword and grey beards standing around in despair, throwing their crutches after the boys at last as they went to the New World – oh, and always drumming, so the Almighty wouldn’t hear us pray –
Lady: *rises, violently moved* Away with these stones – they are sparkling with hell flames. *more softly to the servant* Be comforted, poor old man. They will return. They will see their fatherland again.
Servant: *warmly* Heaven knows, they will! At the city gate they turned back and shouted – „God be with you, wife and children! – Long live the father of our country! - We’ll be back for Last Judgment!“ –
Lady: *paces up and down* Despicable! Horrible! – And I was flattered, told I had dried the tears of the country – my eyes are wide open now – Go – Tell your master – I will personally thank him! *as the servent turns to go, she presses a purse into his hands* And this is for you, for telling me the truth!
Servant: *throws it on her desk with contempt* Put it to the others. *Exits*
And that would be why Schiller was made an honorary citizen of revolutionary France post 1789. Of course, by the time his citizen’s document reached him, most of the signatures were from people who, themselves, been beheaded, but that’s another story.
Re: Kabale und Liebe
…
Yeah, clearly the focus of this scene is anti British feeling, and it's a hilarious parody. Seriously, who writes these things?
(A lot of the German Princes - most notoriously the Duke of Wurttemberg and the Prince of Hesse-Kassel - did sell whole regiments to the Hannover Cousins on the British throne in order to fund their luxuries. This is why when I come across US media where there are evil German soldiers (usually, but not always, from Hesse) of both the mortal and the immortal kind about in the US war of Independence, my mind automatically goes back to this contemporary written scene.)
Re: Kabale und Liebe
Re: Kabale und Liebe
Präsident: *to Miller* He’s the father?
Miller: Town musician Miller.
Präsident: *to Mrs. Miller* She’s the mother?
Wife: Oh yes, the mother!
Ferdinand *to Miller*: Father, he should take his daughter away to safety – she’s unwell.
Präsident: Superfluos coddling! I’ll get colour in her cheeks again. *to Luise* How long has she been familiar with the Präsident’s son?
Luise: I never was interested in the Präsident’s son. Ferdinand von Walter has been visiting me since November.
Ferdinand: He adores her.
Präsident *to Luise*: Did she receive promises?
Ferdinand: Just moments ago, the most holy in the eyes of God.
Präsident *angrily to his son* You’ll get to confess your follies soon enough. *to Luise* I’m waiting for a reply.
Luise: He swore his love to me.
Ferdinand: And will keep his oath.
Präsident: Do I have to order you to shut up? – Did she accept his vow?
Luise *tenderly*: I returned it.
Ferdinand *with firm voice*: Our union has been made.
Präsident: I’ll have the echo thrown out. *Maliciously to Luise* He’s paying her in cash, though, is he?
Luise *attentively*: I do not understand this question.
Präsident *with biting amusement*: She doesn‘t? Well! I’m simply referring to the fact that any craft has its golden rewards – I do hope she hasn’t given her favours without recompense – or was she content with written cheques? Well?
Ferdinand *rises*: What the hell? (note from the translator – yes, he really says the modern sounding „Hölle! Was war das?“)
Luise *dignified to Ferdinand*: Major von Walter, you are free now.
Ferdinand: Father! Virtue must be respected even when wearing a beggar’s clothing!
Präsident *laughs* A droll imposition. The father’s supposed to respect his son’s whore.
Luise *falls* Heavens and earth!
Ferdinand *drawing his sword against the Präsident and letting it fall again* Father! I once owed a life to you – it’s been paid. My childish duty is no more –
Miller:: *has stood aside intimidated at first, but has shown rising rage along with fear* Your excellency – a child is a father’s work – if it pleases your grace – he who calls a child a bitch slaps the father, and an eye for an eye – that’s custom with us – if it pleases your grace.
Wife: God help us! Now the old man loses his temper! We’ll be undone.
Präsident *paying only half attention to them* Is the pimp getting upset? We’ll be talking in a moment, pimp.
Miller: If it pleases your grace, my name is Miller. If you want to listen to an Adagio, I’m there – but I don’t deal in whores and whoresons. As long as the court has ample supply, they don’t need us burghers for that. If it pleases your grace.
Präsident: *white of anger* What? What was that? *steps closer*
Miller: Simply my opinion, Sir. If it pleases your grace.
Präsident: *on fire* Ha, villain! Your impertinent opinion qualifies you for prison – away! Summon guards. *several of his servants depart; the Präsident starts to pace through the room* The father’s to be jailed, the mother pilloried, and that slut of a daughter with her! Let justice borrow her arms to my outrage. Such scum should wreck havoc on my plans and set son against father without punishment?
Ferdinand: *steps between the Millers and his father, standing tall* Be without fear. I am here. *to the Präsident, respectfully* Do not be hasty, Father! If you love yourself, do not use force! There is a region in my heart where the word „father“ has never been spoken! – Do not push towards it.
Präsident: Worthless fool, be silent! Don’t enrage me any further!
Miller: *emerges from his shock* Look after your child, wife. I’m going to the Duke – that bellyache over there – that’s what God is telling me! – I’ll teach that bellyache how to play. The Duke won’t fail to help me if I petition him. *he wants to leave*
Präsident: The Duke, you say? Have you forgotten that I’m the threshold anyone must cross or break their neck? The Duke, you fool? Try it, when you’re a living corpse buried in prison, where night is ogling hell and sound and light back away. Make music with your chains and whine: I have been mistreated.
(I’m now skipping some dialogue, the guards arrive, take Miller and are about to take Luise and her mother when Ferdinand finally hits on a good idea re: dealing with his father)
Ferdinand: Almighty, you are my witness! I’ve tread every human method – now I have to use a fiendish one – go on, drag her away to be pilloried, while I *he steps to his father and whispers in his ear* will inform the entire court how one advances to become Präsident. *leaves*
Präsident *as if struck by lightning*: What? Ferdinand – *to the guards* Let her go. *runs after the Major*
Sadly, this stroke of intelligence is Ferdinand’s last. (Also, the fact that he knows about some of his father’s unsavoury schemes to the top of the principality is interesting in that he’s otherwise a very naive Sturm und Drang hero.) His dad’s next move, together with his secretary Wurm, the other villain of the play, is to cook up a scheme to make Ferdinand believe Luise is cheating on him. Since Miller is still arrested, Wurm blackmails Luise into writing a love letter to social butterfly Hofmarschall von Kalb in order to save her father’s life, and arranges for Ferdinand to find the letter. Ferdinand goes all Othello on Luise (who also had to swear to Wurm to confirm she wrote the letter and meant it in order to save her father’s life), and the play ends in the obvious tragedy. (For everyone but Lady Milford, who called it quits earlier and let the Duke and the Dukedom behind in order to start a new life back home in England.) The play is young Schiller with all the advantages and flaws, and a great contemporary look at Europe just before the French Revolution. (Well, a German look – for a far more cynical French look, see Les Liasons Dangereuses.)
Re: Kabale und Liebe
Hmmm, should I read Les Liasons Dangereuses?
Re: Kabale und Liebe
Are you familiar with any of the adaptions (movies, stage play etc. - there even is an opera!)?
no subject
Re: Opera!Elisabeth vs Play!Elisabeth - also, Opera!Elisabeth is unambiguously in love with Carlos, not least due to the prelude which isn't in the play at all. With the play, you can justify productions where she's not in love with him, though she still has strong affection and compassion for him. (And of course productions where she is in love but represses it until the final scene.)
Re: the greater weepiness, typical for the transition from plays to opera in general for female characters, alas. (Meanwhile, the males weep less. Good old Carlos, being a Sturm-und-Drang male youth written before the 19th century made it a virtue for men no to weep, bursts into tears a lot.) I noticed it with Gounoud's version of Werther as well - Goethe's Lotte is a no-nonsense practical woman who has friendship and some attraction for our hero, but in love with him, she's not. Meanwhile, Gounoud's Charlotte is a tormented opera heroine given to tears and breakdown who of course is hopelessly in love with our hero.
Re: Friedrich Wilhelm not seeing his son post arrest until their reconciliation - you know, much as I joke that Friedrich Wilhelm is a slash writer's dream, fulfilling all the homophobic mean dad criteria, you can as easily woobify him as you can Philip II. His father, Friedrich I., had been a typical baroque party boy of a prince, leaving behind a tiny principality which was absolutely broke. Friedrich Wilhelm was a reformer who was as harsh on himself as he was on anyone else in order to get the state going again, giving himself a very small salary for personal means and demanding the same for the rest of the royal family and the courtiers, weeding out corruption and becoming famously the only German prince of his time not to have a mistress, despite how bad his marriage got, because that would have been a sin. He made it law that children of all classes had to attend schools, and his changing the army from something mostly consisting of hired mercenaries from outside into a professional army consisting of Prussians not only was key to getting the country's economics going again but responsible for changing Prussia from broke joke to top contender for most important German principality in rivalry with Saxony and with the Habsburgs in Austria. When he saw that his oldest son and heir grew into someone loving music, French culture and really not into religion, he must have thought this was his irresponsible dad reborn, and all his life's work would be in vain as soon as Fritz ascended to the throne, and so he fatally did all to ensure this wouldn't happen by using everything to change his son into a Worthy Successor.
Also, for all that he gave the cruel order of making his son watch the execution, it's also worth pointing out another order, i.e. what he said should be told to Katte when Katte learned about his death sentence: "When the war tribunal informs Katte of his sentence, he's to be told that his royal majesty is sorry; but that it is better for him to die than for justice to leave the world." (Original phrasing: »Wenn das Kriegs-Recht dem Katten die Sentence publiciret, so soll ihm gesagt werden, daß es Sr. Königlichen Majestät leid thäte; es wäre aber besser, daß er stürbe, als daß die Justiz aus der Welt käme.« ) Now you can accuse FW of hypocrisy in as much as he himself had rejected the war tribunal's first sentence, which had been life imprisonment for Katte, but there, his argument (in his reply letter to the tribunal) had "fiat justitia aut pereat mundus" as well, adding: "As said Katte has plotted treason with the future sun, has conspired with foreign ministers and agents, has not kept his oath towards his majesty which should have compelled him to inform the throne of such conspirations, his majesty cannot understand with which reasons the tribunal avoids the death sentence according to the statutes of law."
Do I think Friedrich Wilhelm was kidding himself re: this not being personal for him and not being about his feelings re: his son, but solely about the law? Sure. But I also think he needed to believe it, and ordering Katte to be told that "his royal majesty is sorry" is about as far from the gleeful sadist villain one could imagine as it was possible to get.
This being said, the only writer I can think of who wrote woobie!Friedrich Wilhelm fic was Jochen Klepper, though his example is another famous and tragic one. Jochen Klepper was like Friedrich Wilhelm someone who took his Protestant faith very seriously. (In today's song books of the Lutheran German Church, his texts for songs are the ones most used after Luther's.) But he didn't live in 18th century Prussia, he lived in the first half of the 20th century. His novel about Friedrich Wilhelm, "The Father", which describes FW as a tragic hero who is flawed but also desperately lonely and trying all his life to serve the greater good, was one of the last books Klepper was allowed to publish in the 1930s, since he lived in Germany, and his wife was Jewish, as were his stepdaughters (hers from a previous marriage; one of them managed to leave Germany in time and survive); he refused to divorce her. Because "The Father" became a big bestseller in Germany despite its author being not allowed to publish anymore, the pressure to divorce was even higher than for the avarage non-Jewish German married to a Jewish German, because it would have been a propaganda coup. Klepper tried to get his other stepdaughter out of the country, in vain. Then he was told all "Mischehen" (i.e. marriages between Jews and "Aryan") would be dissolved by the state and that his wife and daughter would be deported to a camp. Upon which Klepper gave his unpublished manuscripts and diary to a friend and committed suicide with his family.
no subject
Ooh. I hadn't thought about it like that, but yes, I like that.
And note that if Eboli denounces Elisabeht and Carlos to Philip without of course mentioning her own interest in Carlos, Posa in his initial reaction to Philip confiding in him never tells Philip about his friendship with Carlos, either, and spins a story as well re: Elisabeth and Carlos.
*nods* This makes perfect sense. Heh, I'd figured out that Eboli and Posa were mirror images in the opera (somewhat differently than in the play, of course), but I hadn't thought to apply similar logic to the play and the plotting therein. This is fascinating.
(BTW, "the Queen is ambitious and frustrated you didn't give her any actual power in Spain, so she's just interested in Carlos for his future political use" is the type of lie-with-some-truth - Elisabeth IS into politics and frustrated - that also is revealing about the teller (Posa's the one who is acutely aware of Carlos' political potential and who tries to use him for his political cause).
Ohh, that's a really good point and one I hadn't thought of in relation to Posa's lie about the Queen, even though I have always thought exactly that about Posa's motivations re: Carlos.
With the play, you can justify productions where she's not in love with him, though she still has strong affection and compassion for him. (And of course productions where she is in love but represses it until the final scene.)
Well -- subject to translation bogeymen, I feel like
QUEEN.
I love no longer!
CARLOS.
Because your heart forbids it, or your oath?
QUEEN.
Leave me; nor never touch this theme again.
CARLOS.
Because your oath forbids it, or your heart?
QUEEN.
Because my duty—but, alas, alas!
reads very much to me like at the very least she was once in love with him, but certainly she has been making the best of a bad situation and isn't going around all melancholy and mooning about like opera!Elisabeth :)
Hee, opera!Carlo weeps a lot too, seems like to me, or at least Rodrigo seems to comment on it a lot, but yes, although I adore Verdi so madly I am also so done with weepy tragic Verdi heroines. (I mean, there are a couple of villains in there like Lady Macbeth, and I guess Amelia/Maria Boccanegra isn't as weepy, I think? but for the most part they are so weepy.) ...right, Goethe's Werther is also going to have to go on my list (argh, I still haven't read Faust, but this discussion did remind me I'd forgotten to order it, so now it's on its way, yes!) especially if/when I manage to pick up the opera.
Re: Friedrich Wilhelm: everything you say about these people makes them more and more fascinating, and I would say I want all the FW-Fritz-Katte angst-woobiness ever, but I suppose (as you said when you first told me about them) Schiller and Verdi between them have basically done it, haven't they! (Well, okay, I still want it. Woobified angsty rulers making many good decisions and a couple of Very Bad Decisions because of their own personal bad experiences and thinking they're doing the right thing is my jam!)
I... did not know about Klepper before. :(((((((
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Though rereading the play for my story has reminded me of the backstory of their friendship which I had forgotten - i.e. that when they were in school together young Posa, because he didn't want to serve princes, repeatedly rejected young Carlos' various overtures of friendship until Carlos took the blame for something Posa had done and got whipped for it, upon which young Posa knelt (crying, note, because as mentioned before 18th century written males get to weep a lot) at his feet in repentance about having been standoffish and declared his love - but also "I will pay you back when you are King". (With what, one wonders? Loyalty? Good advice?) Anyway, it's not that the play ever leaves you in doubt Posa does love Carlos - if he simply wanted political influence, he'd go with Philip and ditch Carlos entirely, instead of dying for him -, but I also, as I think I said in our first discussion about the play - doubt he's thinking of Carlos the person completely separate from Carlos the future ruler at any point of the play, because ultimately Posa/Free Netherlands, Reformed Spain & Freedom of Thought = OTP. So his very real love for Carlos also always carries that element of future of the realm and Europe calculation in it.
Speaking of loving Carlos: I didn't want to imply that Elisabeth had never loved him, and yes, that dialogue makes it clear she did (though there's no "alas alas" in the original), just that depending on the production, you can play it ambiguously of how much in (romantic) love with him she is in the present. Mind you, Schiller when giving us their engagement backstory is careful not to mention anything other than letters and to leave it open when exactly they met, since in reality Carlos never left Spain and Elisabeth didn't get there until after her marriage to Philip. (Certainly when I read the play as a girl in school I assumed they had met and had gone through an openly in love period before Philip switched engagements, but after I learned about the rl history I checked, and like I said, Schiller is careful not to give us any details other than the letters.)
Jochen Klepper: one of his late diary entries is the gutwrenching: "God knows that I cannot endure it to let Hanni and the child go into this cruelest and most brutal of all deportations. He knows that I cannot promise this to him, as Luther was able to do: “Should they take body, good, honor, child and wife, let it all go –.” Body, good, honor – yes! Yet God also know that I want to accept everything from him in trial and judgment, if only I know Hanni and the child to be somewhat protected. … If Hanni and the child died, God knows that nothing in me would resist his will. But not this." (BTW, this also shows Klepper, a German citizen without military or political connections to provide him with special information, in 1942 had no doubt as to what would happen to his wife and daughter in a concentration camp. One can take meagre comfort in his diary being used during the Eichmann trial as testimony, because Eichmann had personally refused to grant a visa to Klepper's stepdaughter.)
But even aside from this tragic author story, his novel about Friedrich Wilhelm is one of the best written on the subject, which is why it's still in print in Germany so many decades later (his characterisations of young Friedrich and Wilhelmine are very good, too, and he doesn't shy away from their father having been abusive to them, no matter how good Friedrich Wilhelm's intentions). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available in English. That goes for fictional depictions of Friedrich II at any stage of his life, too - as young crown prince or as king - too, unless you count media where he has bit parts, like a British tv miniseries about Catherine II of Russia where he shows up in old age played by Maximilian Schell as an antagonist.
Part of this is probably due to the impact of two world wars and the way the Nazis fetishized Frederick the Great (who, for what it's worth, at his most cynical and ruthless would have been appalled, ideologies about racial superiority and genocide based on same being about as anti-Voltairian philosophy as you can get). If you go back to the 19th century, Thomas Carlyle's "History of Frederick the Great" is probably the work which formed Friedrich's image in the English speaking world before the 20th century baggage, and that one is available online here. It's of course an 19th century look at an 18th century character, and historical research since then has contributed a lot Carlyle didn't know, but there's a reason why that biography became a classic.
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Yes, and as we mentioned in that conversation, although he does love Carlos, if Carlos hadn't been reform-minded, well, perhaps Posa wouldn't have felt nearly as strongly about him.
I think that even if Elisabeth isn't in love with Carlos, that passage seems to me to indicate that she understands she could be if she let herself. But, huh, coming to it from the opera I'd assumed that they'd met before!
Klepper: :((((( That bit about Luther... I'm familiar with that from the hymn (my husband's Lutheran) and, ugh, we sing that without... having to ever really contemplate doing it.
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Then we have Martin Kettle making me weep with envy by mentioning "a definitevely conflicted Derek Jacobi as King Philip" in a 2005 Don Carlos, Nicholas Hytner who directed both Schiller's and Verdi's Don Carlos about both here, and Kate Maltby disliking the most recent London production (October 2018) here, but intriguing me by mentioning Tom Burke in it plays both Posa and the Grand Inquisitor. Oooooh! Now there's a double casting that hadn't occured to me before but which makes a disturbing, fascinating sense.
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I especially liked the Hytner article. (Hytner's Verdi production was my first and the one I've imprinted on.) I hadn't really thought of Verdi as a pessimist before (and, I mean, play!Philip kind of crushes Posa's dream in a way it's not totally and viciously clear opera!Philip is going to do, like it is in the play) (now that I've written that, I hav this vague feeling it might have been in the origional version of the opera) but I've certainly been frustrated in just how awful things are for Verdi protagonists in general. I mean, in DC, if you're adding a freaking EMPEROR GHOST to your adaptation, it seems to me the least you could do is let Carlo escape...
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Incidentally, of course the Terreur and then the transformation of the French Republic into an Empire was one of several reasons why Schiller got more cautious and moderate as the years went by, but he didn't lose his optimism about historical developments in general. Wilhelm Tell is a late play and still "yay!" about the Swiss shaking off Habsburg rule and becoming an independent republic. (It also has a scene where our hero, having assassinated Geßler the tyrannical governor, meets another assassin on the run, the parricidal son of the Emperor whom said son has just killed, and Tell then makes a Schillerian observation of no, killing someone for being a bloody tyrant to liberate one's people and killing someone as part of a royal family feud and power struggle is not the same, so bye, prince.)
Though I'm not sure how much of Verdi's misery for his protagonists is due to the switch in genre and the censorship problem. I mean, his protagonists can't help being primarily motivated by their passions because they're in an opera and not allowed any political relevance, and that's bound to mean dooom more often than not. Then again, Verdi and Wagner were exact contemporaries, and so was Karl Marx; Shaw was far from the only one who matched Wagner's Ring to Marxism and a "capitalism nay!" statement.
...You know, I suddenly remembered Verdi did tackle a non-tragic play and subject - Falstaff! (Not tragic because it's Merry Wives of Windsor Falstaff, not "I know thee not old man" Falstaff.) But I only know one aria from that opera, so I don't know how that worked out for him.
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re: AIDA, having seen it a) in Verona, and b) in Egypt, in front of Hatshepsut's temple at Deir-el-Bahri, I must say I've had the ultimate big production experiences. Also, it has one of Verdi's best soprano-bariton/daughter-father combinations, imo, and I love the recording with young Maria Callas as Aida.