Friedrich, after some farther pause in Berlin, till things were got
ready for him, went to Ruppin. This is in the Spring of 1732; [Still in
Berlin, 6th March; dates from NAUEN (in the Ruppin neighborhood) for
the first time, 25th April, 1732, among his LETTERS yet extant: Preuss,
_OEuvres de Frederic, _ xxvii. part lst, p. 4; xvi. 49.] and he contin
his residence there till August, 1736. Four important years of young
life; of which we must endeavor to give, in some intelligible condition,
what traces go hovering about in such records as there are.
Ruppin, where lies the main part of the Regiment Goltz, and where the
Crown-Prince Colonel of it dwells, is a quiet dull, little Town, in that
northwestern region; inhabitants, grown at this day to be 10,000, are
perhaps guessable then at 2,000. Regiment Goltz daily rolls its drums in
Ruppin: Town otherwise lifeless enough, except on market-days: and
the grandest event ever known in it, this removal of the Crown-Prince
thither,--which is doubtless much a theme, and proud temporary miracle,
to Ruppin at present. Of society there or in the neighborhood, for such
a resident, we hear nothing.
Quiet Ruppin stands in grassy flat country, much of which is natural
moor, and less of it reclaimed at that time than now. The environs,
except that they are a bit of the Earth, and have a bit of the sky over
them, do not set up for loveliness. Natural woods abound in that region,
also peat-bogs not yet drained; and fishy lakes and meres, of a dark
complexion: plenteous cattle there are, pigs among them;--thick-soled
husbandmen inarticulately toiling and moiling. Some glass-furnaces,
a royal establishment, are the only manufactures we hear of. Not a
picturesque country; but a quiet and innocent, where work is cut out,
and one hopes to be well left alone after doing it. This Crown-Prince
has been in far less desirable localities.
He had a reasonable house, two houses made into one for him, in the
place. He laid out for himself a garden in the outskirts, with what they
call a "temple" in it,--some more or less ornamental garden-house,--from
which I have read of his "letting off rockets" in a summer twilight.
Rockets to amuse a small dinner-party, I should guess,--dinner of
Officers, such as he had weekly or twice a week. On stiller evenings
we can fancy him there in solitude; reading meditative, or musically
fluting;--looking out upon the silent death of Day: how the summer
gloaming steals over the moorlands, and over all lands; shutting up the
toil of mortals; their very flocks and herds collapsing into silence,
and the big Skies and endless Times overarching him and them. With
thoughts perhaps sombre enough now and then, but profitable if he face
them piously.
His Father's affection is returning; would so fain return if it durst.
But the heart of Papa has been sadly torn up: it is too good news to be
quite believed, that he has a son grown wise, and doing son-like! Rumor
also is very busy, rumor and the Tobacco-Parliament for or against; a
little rumor is capable of stirring up great storms in the suspicious
paternal mind. All along during Friedrich's abode at Ruppin, this is a
constantly recurring weather-symptom; very grievous now and then; not to
be guarded against by any precaution;--though steady persistence in the
proper precaution will abate it, and as good as remove it, in course of
time. Already Friedrich Wilhelm begins to understand that "there is much
in this Fritz,"--who knows how much, though of a different type from
Papa's?--and that it will be better if he and Papa, so discrepant in
type, and ticklishly related otherwise, live not too constantly together
as heretofore. Which is emphatically the Crown-Prince's notion too.
I perceive he read a great deal at Ruppin: what Books I know not
specially: but judge them to be of more serious solid quality than
formerly; and that his reading is now generally a kind of studying
as well. Not the express Sciences or Technologies; not these, in any
sort,--except the military, and that an express exception. These he
never cared for, or regarded as the noble knowledges for a king or man.
History and Moral Speculation; what mankind have done and been in this
world (so far as "History" will give one any glimpse of that), and what
the wisest men, poetical or other, have thought about mankind and
their world: this is what he evidently had the appetite for; appetite
insatiable, which lasted with him to the very end of his days.
Fontenelle, Rollin, Voltaire, all the then French lights, and gradually
others that lay deeper in the firmament:--what suppers of the gods
one may privately have at Ruppin, without expense of wine! Such an
opportunity for reading he had never had before.
In his soldier business he is punctual, assiduous; having an interest to
shine that way. And is, in fact, approvable as a practical officer and
soldier, by the strictest judge then living. Reads on soldiering withal;
studious to know the rationale of it, the ancient and modern methods
of it, the essential from the unessential in it; to understand it
thoroughly,--which he got to do. One already hears of conferences,
correspondences, with the Old Dessauer on this head: "Account of the
Siege of Stralsund," with plans, with didactic commentaries, drawn up by
that gunpowder Sage for behoof of the Crown-Prince, did actually
exist, though I know not what has become of it. Now and afterwards
this Crown-Prince must have been a great military reader. From Caesar's
COMMENTARIES, and earlier, to the Chevalier Folard, and the Marquis
Feuquiere; [_Memoires sur la Guerre_ (specially on the Wars of Louis
XIV., in which Feuquiere had himself shone): a new Book at this time
(Amsterdam, 1731; first COMPLETE edition is, Paris, 1770, 4 vols.
4to); at Ruppin, and afterwards, a chief favorite with Friedrich.]
from Epaminondas at Leuctra to Charles XII. at Pultawa, all manner of
Military Histories, we perceive, are at his finger-ends; and he has
penetrated into the essential heart of each, and learnt what it had to
teach him. Something of this, how much we know not, began at Ruppin; and
it did not end again.
On the whole, Friedrich is prepared to distinguish himself henceforth
by strictly conforming, in all outward particulars possible, to the
paternal will, and becoming the most obedient of sons. Partly from
policy and necessity, partly also from loyalty; for he loves his
rugged Father, and begins to perceive that there is more sense in his
peremptory notions than at first appeared. The young man is himself
rather wild, as we have seen, with plenty of youthful petulance and
longings after forbidden fruit. And then he lives in an element of
gossip; his whole life enveloped in a vast Dionysius'-Ear, every word
and action liable to be debated in Tobacco-Parliament. He is very scarce
of money, too, Papa's allowance being extremely moderate, "not above
6,000 thalers (900 pounds)," says Seckendorf once. [Forster, iii. 114
(Seckendorf to Prince Eugene).] There will be contradictions enough
to settle: caution, silence, every kind of prudence will be much
recommendable.
In all outward particulars the Crown-Prince will conform; in the inward,
he will exercise a judgment, and if he cannot conform, will at least
be careful to hide. To do his Commandant duties at Ruppin, and avoid
offences, is much his determination. We observe he takes great charge of
his men's health; has the Regiment Goltz in a shiningly exact condition
at the grand reviews;--is very industrious now and afterwards to get
tall recruits, as a dainty to Papa. Knows that nothing in Nature is
so sure of conciliating that strange old gentleman; corresponds,
accordingly, in distant quarters; lays out, now and afterwards, sums far
too heavy for his means upon tall recruits for Papa. But it is good
to conciliate in that quarter, by every method, and at every
expense;--Argus of Tobacco-Parliament still watching one there; and
Rumor needing to be industriously dealt with, difficult to keep down.
Such, so far as we can gather, is the general figure of Friedrich's life
at Ruppin. Specific facts of it, anecdotes about it, are few in those
dim Books; are uncertain as to truth, and without importance whether
true or not. For all his gravity and Colonelship, it would appear the
old spirit of frolic has not quitted him. Here are two small incidents,
pointing that way; which stand on record; credible enough, though vague
and without importance otherwise. Incident FIRST is to the following
feeble effect; indisputable though extremely unmomentous: Regiment
Goltz, it appears, used to have gold trimmings; the Colonel Crown-Prince
petitioned that they might be of silver, which he liked better. Papa
answers, Yes. Regiment Goltz gets its new regimentals done in silver;
the Colonel proposes they shall solemnly BURN their old regimentals.
And they do it, the Officers of them, SUB DIO, perhaps in the Prince's
garden, stripping successively in the "Temple" there, with such degree
of genial humor, loud laughter, or at least boisterous mock-solemnity,
as may be in them. This is a true incident of the Prince's history,
though a small one.
Incident SECOND is of slightly more significance; and intimates, not
being quite alone in its kind, a questionable habit or method the
Crown-Prince must have had of dealing with Clerical Persons hereabouts
when they proved troublesome. Here are no fewer than three such Persons,
or Parsons, of the Ruppin Country, who got mischief by him. How the
first gave offence shall be seen, and how he was punished: offences
of the second and the third we can only guess to have been perhaps
pulpit-rebukes of said punishments: perhaps general preaching against
military levities, want of piety, nay open sinfulness, in thoughtless
young men with cockades. Whereby the thoughtless young men were again
driven to think of nocturnal charivari? We will give the story in Dr.
Busching's own words, who looks before and after to great distances,
in a way worth attending to. The Herr Doctor, an endless Collector and
Compiler on all manner of subjects, is very authentic always, and does
not want for natural sense: but he is also very crude,--and here and
there not far from stupid, such his continual haste, and slobbery
manner of working up those Hundred and odd Volumes of his:--[See his
Autobiography, which forms _Beitrage,_ B. vi. (the biggest and last
volume).]
"The sanguine-choleric temperament of Friedrich," says this Doctor,
"drove him, in his youth, to sensual enjoyments and wild amusements of
different kinds; in his middle age, to fiery enterprises; and in his old
years to decisions and actions of a rigorous and vehement nature; yet
so that the primary form of utterance, as seen in his youth, never
altogether ceased with him. There are people still among us (1788) who
have had, in their own experience, knowledge of his youthful pranks;
and yet more are living, who know that he himself, at table, would gayly
recount what merry strokes were done by him, or by his order, in those
young years. To give an instance or two.
"While he was at Neu-Ruppin as Colonel of the Infantry Regiment
there, the Chaplain of it sometimes waited upon him about the time of
dinner,--having been used to dine occasionally with the former Colonel.
The Crown-Prince, however, put him always off, did not ask him to
dinner; spoke contemptuously of him in presence of the Officers. The
Chaplain was so inconsiderate, he took to girding at the Crown-Prince
in his sermons. 'Once on a time,' preached he, one day, 'there was Herod
who had Herodias to dance before him; and he,--he gave her John
the Baptist's head for her pains!'" This HEROD, Busching says, was
understood to mean, and meant, the Crown-Prince; HERODIAS, the merry
corps of Officers who made sport for him; JOHN THE BAPTIST'S HEAD was no
other than the Chaplain not invited to dinner! "To punish him for such
a sally, the Crown-Prince with the young Officers of his Regiment went,
one night, to the Chaplain's house," somewhere hard by, with cow's-grass
adjoining to it, as we see: and "first, they knocked in the windows of
his sleeping-room upon him [HINGE-windows, glass not entirely broken,
we may hope]; next there were crackers [SCHWARMER, "enthusiasts," so
to speak!] thrown in upon him; and thereby the Chaplain, and his poor
Wife," more or less in an interesting condition, poor woman, "were
driven out into the court-yard, and at last into the dung-heap
there;"--and so left, with their Head on a Charger to that terrible
extent!
That is Busching's version of the story; no doubt substantially correct;
of which there are traces in other quarters,--for it went farther than
Ruppin; and the Crown-Prince had like to have got into trouble from
it. "Here is piety!" said Rumor, carrying it to Tobacco-Parliament. The
Crown-Prince plaintively assures Grumkow that it was the Officers, and
that they got punished for it. A likely story, the Prince's!
"When King Friedrich, in his old days, recounted this after dinner, in
his merry tone, he was well pleased that the guests, and even the pages
and valets behind his back, laughed aloud at it." Not a pious old King,
Doctor, still less an orthodox one! The Doctor continues: "In a like
style, at Nauen, where part of his regiment lay, he had--by means of
Herr von der Groben, his First-Lieutenant," much a comrade of his, as
we otherwise perceive--"the Diaconus of Nauen and his Wife hunted out of
bed, and thrown into terror of their lives, one night:"--offence of the
Diaconus not specified. "Nay he himself once pitched his gold-headed
stick through Salpius the Church Inspector's window,"--offence again not
specified, or perhaps merely for a little artillery practice?--"and the
throw was so dexterous that it merely made a round hole in the glass:
stick was lying on the floor; and the Prince," on some excuse or other,
"sent for it next morning." "Margraf Heinrich of Schwedt," continues the
Doctor, very trustworthy on points of fact, "was a diligent helper in
such operations. Kaiserling," whom we shall hear of, "First-Lieutenant
von der Groben," these were prime hands; "Lieutenant Buddenbrock [old
Feldmarschall's son] used, in his old days, when himself grown high
in rank and dining with the King, to be appealed to as witness for the
truth of these stories." [Busching, _Beitrage zu der Lebensgeschichte
denkwurdiger Personen,_ v. 19-21. Vol. v.--wholly occupied with _Friedrich
II. King of Prussia_ (Halle, 1788),--is accessible in French and other
languages; many details, and (as Busching's wont is) few or none not
authentic, are to be found in it; a very great secret spleen against
Friedrich is also traceable,--for which the Doctor may have had his
reasons, not obligatory upon readers of the Doctor. The truth is,
Friedrich never took the least special notice of him: merely employed
and promoted him, when expedient for both parties; and he really was a
man of considerable worth, in an extremely crude form.]
These are the two Incidents at Ruppin, in such light as they have. And
these are all. Opulent History yields from a ton of broken nails these
two brass farthings, and shuts her pocket on us again. A Crown-Prince
given to frolic, among other things; though aware that gravity would
beseem him better. Much gay bantering humor in him, cracklings,
radiations,--which he is bound to keep well under cover, in present
circumstances.