Friedrich Wilhelm's Mother, as we hinted, did not live to see this
marriage which she had forecast in her maternal heart. She died, rather
suddenly, in 1705, [1st February (Erman, p. 241; Forster, i. 114): born,
20th October, 1666; wedded, 28th September 1684; died, 1st February,
1705.] at Hanover, whither she had gone on a visit; shortly after
parting with this her one boy and child, Friedrich Wilhelm, who is then
about seventeen; whom she had with effort forced herself to send abroad,
that he might see the world a little, for the first time. Her sorrow
on this occasion has in it something beautiful, in so bright and gay
a woman: shows us the mother strong in her, to a touching degree. The
rough cub, in whom she noticed rugged perverse elements, "tendencies
to avarice," and a want of princely graces, and the more brilliant
qualities in mind and manner, had given her many thoughts and some
uneasy ones. But he was evidently all she had to love in the world;
a rugged creature inexpressibly precious to her. For days after his
departure, she had kept solitary; busied with little; indulging in
her own sad reflections without stint. Among the papers she had been
scribbling, there was found one slip with a HEART sketched on it, and
round the heart "PARTI" (Gone): My heart is gone!--poor lady, and after
what a jewel! But Nature is very kind to all children and to all mothers
that are true to her.
Sophie Charlotte's deep sorrow and dejection on this parting was the
secret herald of fate to herself. It had meant ill health withal, and
the gloom of broken nerves. All autumn and into winter she had felt
herself indefinitely unwell; she determined, however, on seeing Hanover
and her good old Mother at the usual time. The gloomy sorrow over
Friedrich Wilhelm had been the premonition of a sudden illness which
seized her on the road to Hanover, some five months afterwards, and
which ended fatally in that city. Her death was not in the light style
Friedrich her grandson ascribes to it; [_ Memoires de Brandebourg _
(Preuss's Edition of _ OEuvres, _ Berlin, 1847 et seqq.), i. 112.] she
died without epigram, and though in perfect simple courage, with the
reverse of levity.
Here, at first hand, is the specific account of that event; which, as it
is brief and indisputable, we may as well fish from the imbroglios, and
render legible, to counteract such notions, and illuminate for moments
an old scene of things. The writing, apparently a quite private piece,
is by "M. de la Bergerie, Pastor of the French Church at Hanover,"
respectable Edict-of-Nantes gentleman, who had been called in on the
occasion;--gives an authentic momentary picture, though a feeble and
vacant one, of a locality at that time very interesting to Englishmen.
M. de la Bergerie privately records:--
"The night between the last of January and the first of February, 1705,
between one and two o'clock in the morning, I was called to the Queen of
Prussia, who was then dangerously ill.
"Entering the room, I threw myself at the foot of her bed, testifying to
her in words my profound grief to see her in this state. After which
I took occasion to say, 'She might know now that Kings and Queens are
mortal equally with all other men; and that they are obliged to appear
before the throne of the majesty of God, to give an account of their
deeds done, no less than the meanest of their subjects.' To which her
Majesty replied, 'I know it well (_ Je le sais bien _).'--I went on to
say to her, 'Madam, your Majesty must also recognize in this hour the
vanity and nothingness of the things here below, for which, it may be,
you have had too much interest; and the importance of the things of
Heaven, which perhaps you have neglected and contemned.' Thereupon the
Queen answered, 'True (_ Cela est vrai _)!' 'Nevertheless, Madam,' said
I, 'does not your Majesty place really your trust in God? Do you not
very earnestly (_ bien serieusement_) crave pardon of Him for all the
sins you have committed? Do not you fly (_ n'a-t-elle pas recours _) to
the blood and merits of Jesus Christ, without which it is impossible
for us to stand before God?' The Queen answered, '_ Oui _ (Yes).'--While
this was going on, her Brother, Duke Ernst August, came into the Queen's
room,"--perhaps with his eye upon me and my motions?"As they wished to
speak together, I withdrew by order."
This Duke Ernst August, age now 31, is the youngest Brother of the
family; there never was any Sister but this dying one, who is four
years older. Ernst August has some tincture of soldiership at this time
(Marlborough Wars, and the like), as all his kindred had; but ultimately
he got the Bishopric of Osnabruck, that singular spiritual heirloom, or
HALF-heirloom of the family; and there lived or vegetated without
noise. Poor soul, he is the same Bishop of Osnabruck, to whose house,
twenty-two years hence, George I., struck by apoplexy, was breathlessly
galloping in the summer midnight, one wish now left in him, to be with
his brother;--and arrived dead, or in the article of death. That was
another scene Ernst August had to witness in his life. I suspect him
at present of a thought that M. de la Bergerie, with his pious
commonplaces, is likely to do no good. Other trait of Ernst August's
life; or of the Schloss of Hanover that night,--or where the sorrowing
old Mother sat, invincible though weeping, in some neighboring room,--I
cannot give. M. de la Bergerie continues his narrative:--
"Some time after, I again presented myself before the Queen's bed,
to see if I could have occasion to speak to her on the matter of her
salvation. But Monseigneur the Duke Ernst August then said to me, That
it was not necessary; that the Queen was at peace with her God (_ etait
bien avec son Dieu _)."--Which will mean also that M. de la Bergerie may
go home? However, he still writes:--
"Next day the Prince told me, That observing I was come near the Queen's
bed, he had asked her if she wished I should still speak to her; but she
had replied, that it was not necessary in any way (_ nullement _), that
she already knew all that could be said to her on such an occasion; that
she had said it to herself, that she was still saying it, and that she
hoped to be well with her God.
"In the end a faint coming upon the Queen, which was what terminated
her life, I threw myself on my knees at the other side of her bed, the
curtains of which were open; and I called to God with a loud voice,
'That He would rank his angels round this great Princess, to guard her
from the insults of Satan; that He would have pity on her soul; that He
would wash her with the blood of Jesus Christ her heavenly Spouse; that,
having forgiven her all her sins, He would receive her to his glory.'
And in that moment she expired." [Erman, p. 242.]--Age thirty-six and
some months. Only Daughter of Electress Sophie; and Father's Mother of
Frederick the Great.
She was, in her time, a highly distinguished woman; and has left, one
may say, something of her likeness still traceable in the Prussian
Nation, and its form of culture, to this day. Charlottenburg
(Charlotte's-town, so called by the sorrowing Widower), where she lived,
shone with a much-admired French light under her presidency,--French
essentially, Versaillese, Sceptico-Calvinistic, reflex and
direct,--illuminating the dark North; and indeed has never been so
bright since. The light was not what we can call inspired; lunar rather,
not of the genial or solar kind: but, in good truth, it was the best
then going; and Sophie Charlotte, who was her Mother's daughter in this
as in other respects, had made it her own. They were deep in literature,
these two Royal Ladies; especially deep in French theological polemics,
with a strong leaning to the rationalist side.
They had stopped in Rotterdam once, on a certain journey homewards from
Flanders and the Baths of Aix-la-Chapelle, to see that admirable sage,
the doubter Bayle. Their sublime messenger roused the poor man, in his
garret there, in the Bompies,--after dark: but he had a headache that
night; was in bed, and could not come. He followed them next
day; leaving his paper imbroglios, his historical, philosophical,
anti-theological marine-stores; and suspended his never-ending scribble,
on their behalf;--but would not accept a pension, and give it up.
[Erman, pp. 111, 112. Date is 1700 (late in the autumn probably).]
They were shrewd, noticing, intelligent and lively women; persuaded that
there was some nobleness for man beyond what the tailor imparts to him;
and even very eager to discover it, had they known how. In these very
days, while our little Friedrich at Berlin lies in his cradle, sleeping
most of his time, sage Leibnitz, a rather weak but hugely ingenious old
gentleman, with bright eyes and long nose, with vast black peruke and
bandy legs, is seen daily in the Linden Avenue at Hanover (famed Linden
Alley, leading from Town Palace to Country one, a couple of miles long,
rather disappointing when one sees it), daily driving or walking towards
Herrenhausen, where the Court, where the old Electress is, who will have
a touch of dialogue with him to diversify her day. Not very edifying
dialogue, we may fear; yet once more, the best that can be had in
present circumstances. Here is some lunar reflex of Versailles, which
is a polite court; direct rays there are from the oldest written Gospels
and the newest; from the great unwritten Gospel of the Universe itself;
and from one's own real effort, more or less devout, to read all these
aright. Let us not condemn that poor French element of Eclecticism,
Scepticism, Tolerance, Theodicea, and Bayle of the Bompies versus the
College of Saumur. Let us admit that it was profitable, at least that it
was inevitable; let us pity it, and be thankful for it, and rejoice that
we are well out of it. Scepticism, which is there beginning at the very
top of the world-tree, and has to descend through all the boughs with
terrible results to mankind, is as yet pleasant, tinting the leaves with
fine autumnal red.
Sophie Charlotte partook of her Mother's tendencies; and carried them
with her to Berlin, there to be expanded in many ways into ampler
fulfilment. She too had the sage Leibnitz often with her, at Berlin; no
end to her questionings of him; eagerly desirous to draw water from that
deep well,--a wet rope, with cobwebs sticking to it, too often all she
got; endless rope, and the bucket never coming to view. Which, however,
she took patiently, as a thing according to Nature. She had her learned
Beausobres and other Reverend Edict-of-Nantes gentlemen, famed Berlin
divines; whom, if any Papist notability, Jesuit ambassador or the like,
happened to be there, she would set disputing with him, in the Soiree at
Charlottenburg. She could right well preside over such a battle of the
Cloud-Titans, and conduct the lightnings softly, without explosions.
There is a pretty and very characteristic Letter of hers, still pleasant
to read, though turning on theologies now fallen dim enough; addressed
to Father Vota, the famous Jesuit, King's-confessor, and diplomatist,
from Warsaw, who had been doing his best in one such rencontre before
her Majesty (date March, 1703),--seemingly on a series of evenings, in
the intervals of his diplomatic business; the Beausobre champions
being introduced to him successively, one each evening, by Queen Sophie
Charlotte. To all appearance the fencing had been keen; the lightnings
in need of some dexterous conductor. Vota, on his way homeward, had
written to apologize for the sputterings of fire struck out of him
in certain pinches of the combat; says, It was the rough handling the
Primitive Fathers got from these Beausobre gentlemen, who indeed to me,
Vota in person, under your Majesty's fine presidency, were politeness
itself, though they treated the Fathers so ill. Her Majesty, with
beautiful art, in this Letter, smooths the raven plumage of Vota;--and,
at the same time, throws into him, as with invisible needle-points,
an excellent dose of acupuncturation, on the subject of the Primitive
Fathers and the Ecumenic Councils, on her own score. Let us give some
Excerpt, in condensed state:--
"How can St. Jerome, for example, be a key to Scripture?" she
insinuates; citing from Jerome this remarkable avowal of his method of
composing books; "especially of his method in that Book, _ Commentary on
the Galatians, _ where he accuses both Peter and Paul of simulation and
even of hypocrisy. The great St. Augustine has been charging him with
this sad fact," says her Majesty, who gives chapter and verse; ["Epist.
28*, edit. Paris." And Jerome's answer, "Ibid. Epist. 76*."] "and Jerome
answers: 'I followed the Commentaries of Origen, of'"--five or six
different persons, who turned out mostly to be heretics before Jerome
had quite done with them in coming years!--"'And to confess the honest
truth to you,' continues Jerome, 'I read all that; and after having
crammed my head with a great many things, I sent for my amanuensis, and
dictated to him now my own thoughts, now those of others, without much
recollecting the order, nor sometimes the words, nor even the sense.'
In another place (in the Book itself farther on [_ "Commentary on the
Galatians, _ chap. iii."]), he says: 'I do not myself write; I have an
amanuensis, and I dictate to him what comes into my mouth. If I wish to
reflect a little, to say the thing better or a better thing, he knits
his brows, and the whole look of him tells me sufficiently that he
cannot endure to wait.'"--Here is a sacred old gentleman, whom it is not
safe to depend on for interpreting the Scriptures, thinks her Majesty;
but does not say so, leaving Father Vota to his reflections.
Then again, coming to Councils, she quotes St. Gregory Nazianzen
upon him; who is truly dreadful in regard to Ecumenic Councils of the
Church,--and indeed may awaken thoughts of Deliberative Assemblies
generally, in the modern constitutional mind. "He says, [_ "Greg.
Nazian. de Vita sua." _] No Council ever was successful; so many mean
human passions getting into conflagration there; with noise, with
violence and uproar, 'more like those of a tavern or still worse
place,'--these are his words. He, for his own share, had resolved to
avoid all such 'rendezvousing of the Geese and Cranes, flocking together
to throttle and tatter one another in that sad manner.' Nor had St.
Theodoret much opinion of the Council of Nice, except as a kind of
miracle. 'Nothing good to be expected from Councils,' says he, 'except
when God is pleased to interpose, and destroy the machinery of the
Devil.'"
--With more of the like sort; all delicate, as invisible needle-points,
in her Majesty's hand. [Letter undated (datable "Lutzelburg, March,
1708,") is to be found entire, with all its adjuncts, in _ Erman, _ pp.
246-255. It was subsequently translated by Toland, and published here,
as an excellent Polemical Piece,--entirely forgotten in our time (_ A
Letter against Popery by Sophia Charlotte, the late Queen of Prussia:
Being, _ &c. &c. London, 1712). But the finest Duel of all was probably
that between Beausobre and Toland himself (reported by Beausobre, in
something of a crowing manner, in _ Erman, _ pp. 203-241, "October,
1701"), of which Toland makes no mention anywhere.] What is Father Vota
to say?--The modern reader looks through these chinks into a strange old
scene, the stuff of it fallen obsolete, the spirit of it not, nor worthy
to fall.
These were Sophie Charlotte's reunions; very charming in their time. At
which how joyful for Irish Toland to be present, as was several times
his luck. Toland, a mere broken heretic in his own country, who went
thither once as Secretary to some Embassy (Embassy of Macclesfield's,
1701, announcing that the English Crown had fallen Hanover-wards), and
was no doubt glad, poor headlong soul, to find himself a gentleman and
Christian again, for the time being,--admires Hanover and Berlin very
much; and looks upon Sophie Charlotte in particular as the pink of
women. Something between an earthly Queen and a divine Egeria; "Serena"
he calls her; and, in his high-flown fashion, is very laudatory. "The
most beautiful Princess of her time," says he,--meaning one of the most
beautiful: her features are extremely regular, and full of vivacity;
copious dark hair, blue eyes, complexion excellently fair;--"not
very tall, and somewhat too plump," he admits elsewhere. And then
her mind,--for gifts, for graces, culture, where will you find such a
mind? "Her reading is infinite, and she is conversant in all manner of
subjects;" "knows the abstrusest problems of Philosophy;" says admiring
Toland: much knowledge everywhere exact, and handled as by an artist
and queen; for "her wit is inimitable," "her justness of thought, her
delicacy of expression," her felicity of utterance and management, are
great. Foreign courtiers call her "the Republican Queen." She detects
you a sophistry at one glance; pierces down direct upon the weak point
of an opinion: never in my whole life did I, Toland, come upon a swifter
or sharper intellect. And then she is so good withal, so bright and
cheerful; and "has the art of uniting what to the rest of the world are
antagonisms, mirth and learning,"--say even, mirth and good sense. Is
deep in music, too; plays daily on her harpsichord, and fantasies, and
even composes, in an eminent manner. [_ An Account of the Courts of
Prussia and Hanover, sent to a Minister of State in Holland, _ by Mr.
Toland (London, 1705), p. 322. Toland's other Book, which has reference
to her, is of didactic nature ("immortality of the soul," "origin of
idolatry," &c.), but with much fine panegyric direct and oblique: _
Letters to Serena _ ("Serena" being _ Queen _), a thin 8vo, London,
1704.] Toland's admiration, deducting the high-flown temper and manner
of the man, is sincere and great.
Beyond doubt a bright airy lady, shining in mild radiance in those
Northern parts; very graceful, very witty and ingenious; skilled to
speak, skilled to hold her tongue,--which latter art also was frequently
in requisition with her. She did not much venerate her Husband, nor the
Court population, male or female, whom he chose to have about him: his
and their ways were by no means hers, if she had cared to publish her
thoughts. Friedrich I., it is admitted on all hands, was "an expensive
Herr;" much given to magnificent ceremonies, etiquettes and solemnities;
making no great way any-whither, and that always with noise enough,
and with a dust vortex of courtier intrigues and cabals encircling
him,--from which it is better to stand quite to windward. Moreover, he
was slightly crooked; most sensitive, thin of skin and liable to sudden
flaws of temper, though at heart very kind and good. Sophie Charlotte is
she who wrote once, "Leibnitz talked to me of the infinitely little
(_ de l'infiniment petit): mon Dieu, _ as if I did not know enough of
that!" Besides, it is whispered she was once near marrying to Louis
XIV.'s Dauphin; her Mother Sophie, and her Cousin the Dowager Duchess of
Orleans, cunning women both, had brought her to Paris in her girlhood,
with that secret object; and had very nearly managed it. Queen of France
that might have been; and now it is but Brandenburg, and the dice have
fallen somewhat wrong for us! She had Friedrich Wilhelm, the rough boy;
and perhaps nothing more of very precious property. Her first child,
likewise a boy, had soon died, and there came no third: tedious
ceremonials, and the infinitely little, were mainly her lot in this
world.
All which, however, she had the art to take up not in the tragic way,
but in the mildly comic,--often not to take up at all, but leave lying
there;--and thus to manage in a handsome and softly victorious manner.
With delicate female tact, with fine female stoicism too; keeping all
things within limits. She was much respected by her Husband, much loved
indeed; and greatly mourned for by the poor man: the village Lutzelburg
(Little-town), close by Berlin, where she had built a mansion for
herself, he fondly named _ Charlottenburg _ (Charlotte's-town), after
her death, which name both House and Village still bear. Leibnitz found
her of an almost troublesome sharpness of intellect; "wants to know
the why even of the why," says Leibnitz. That is the way of female
intellects when they are good; nothing equals their acuteness, and their
rapidity is almost excessive. Samuel Johnson, too, had a young-lady
friend once "with the acutest intellect I have ever known."
On the whole, we may pronounce her clearly a superior woman, this Sophie
Charlotte; notable not for her Grandson alone, though now pretty much
forgotten by the world,--as indeed all things and persons have, one day
or other, to be! A LIFE of her, in feeble watery style, and distracted
arrangement, by one _ Erman,_ [Monsieur Erman, Historiographe de
Brandebourg, _ Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de Sophie Charlotte,
Reine de Preusse, las dans les Seances, &c. _ (1 vol. 8vo, Berlin,
1801.)] a Berlin Frenchman, is in existence, and will repay a cursory
perusal; curious traits of her, in still looser form, are also to be
found in _ Pollnitz: _[Carl Ludwig Freiherr von Pollnitz, _ Memoiren
zur Lebens-und Regierungs-Geschichte der vier letzten Regenten des
Preussischen Staats _ (was published in French also), 2 vols. 12mo,
Berlin, 1791.] but for our purposes here is enough, and more than
enough.