Of Friedrich's childhood, there is not, after all our reading, much that
it would interest the English public to hear tell of. Perhaps not much
of knowable that deserves anywhere to be known. Books on it, expressly
handling it, and Books on Friedrich Wilhelm's Court and History, of
which it is always a main element, are not wanting: but they are mainly
of the sad sort which, with pain and difficulty, teach us nothing, Books
done by pedants and tenebrific persons, under the name of men; dwelling
not on things, but, at endless length, on the outer husks of things: of
unparalleled confusion, too;--not so much as an Index granted you; to
the poor half-peck of cinders, hidden in these wagon-loads of ashes,
no sieve allowed! Books tending really to fill the mind with mere
dust-whirlwinds,--if the mind did not straightway blow them out again;
which it does. Of these let us say nothing. Seldom had so curious a
Phenomenon worse treatment from the Dryasdust, species.
Among these Books, touching on Friedrich's childhood, and treating of
his Father's Court, there is hardly above one that we can characterize
as fairly human: the Book written by his little Sister Wilhelmina,
when she grew to size and knowledge of good and evil; [_Memoires de
Frederique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Bareith_ (Brunswick,
Paris et Londres, l8l2), 2 vols. 8vo.]--and this, of what flighty
uncertain nature it is, the world partly knows. A human Book, however,
not a pedant one: there is a most shrill female soul busy with intense
earnestness here; looking, and teaching us to look. We find it a
VERACIOUS Book, done with heart, and from eyesight and insight; of
a veracity deeper than the superficial sort. It is full of mistakes,
indeed; and exaggerates dreadfully, in its shrill female way; but is
above intending to deceive: deduct the due subtrahend,--say perhaps
twenty-five per cent, or in extreme cases as high as seventy-five,--you
will get some human image of credible actualities from Wilhelmina.
Practically she is our one resource on this matter. Of the strange King
Friedrich Wilhelm and his strange Court, with such an Heir-Apparent
growing up in it, there is no real light to be had, except what
Wilhelmina gives,--or kindles dark Books of others into giving. For
that, too, on long study, is the result of her, here and there. With
so flickery a wax-taper held over Friedrich's childhood,--and the other
dirty tallow-dips all going out in intolerable odor,--judge if our
success can be very triumphant!
We perceive the little creature has got much from Nature; not the big
arena only, but fine inward gifts, for he is well-born in more senses
than one;--and that in the breeding of him there are two elements
noticeable, widely diverse: the French and the German. This is
perhaps the chief peculiarity; best worth laying hold of, with the due
comprehension, if our means allow.
FIRST EDUCATIONAL ELEMENT, THE FRENCH ONE.
His nurses, governesses, simultaneous and successive, mostly of French
breed, are duly set down in the Prussian Books, and held in mind as
a point of duty by Prussian men; but, in foreign parts, cannot be
considered otherwise than as a group, and merely with generic features.
He had a Frau von Kamecke for Head Governess,--the lady whom Wilhelmina,
in her famed _Memoires,_ always writes KAMKEN; and of whom, except the
floating gossip found in that Book, there is nothing to be remembered.
Under her, as practical superintendent, SOUS-GOUVERNANTE and
quasi-mother, was the Dame de Roucoulles, a more important person for
us here. Dame de Roucoulles, once de Montbail, the same respectable
Edict-of-Nantes French lady who, five-and-twenty years ago, had taken
similar charge of Friedrich Wilhelm; a fact that speaks well for the
character of her performance in that office. She had done her first
edition of a Prussian Prince in a satisfactory manner; and not without
difficult accidents and singularities, as we have heard: the like of
which were spared her in this her second edition (so we may call it);
a second and, in all manner of ways, an improved one. The young Fritz
swallowed no shoe-buckles; did not leap out of window, hanging on by the
hands; nor achieve anything of turbulent, or otherwise memorable, in his
infantine history; the course of which was in general smooth, and runs,
happily for it, below the ken of rumor. The Boy, it is said, and is
easily credible, was of extraordinary vivacity; quick in apprehending
all things, and gracefully relating himself to them. One of the
prettiest, vividest little boys; with eyes, with mind and ways, of
uncommon brilliancy;--only he takes less to soldiering than the paternal
heart could wish; and appears to find other things in the world fully as
notable as loud drums, and stiff men drawn up in rows. Moreover, he is
apt to be a little unhealthy now and then, and requires care from his
nurses, over whom the judicious Roucoulles has to be very vigilant.
Of this respectable Madame de Roucoulles I have read, at least seven
times, what the Prussian Books say of her by way of Biography; but it is
always given in their dull tombstone style; it has moreover next to no
importance; and I,--alas, I do not yet too well remember it! She was
from Normandy; of gentle blood, never very rich; Protestant, in the
Edict-of-Nantes time; and had to fly her country, a young widow, with
daughter and mother-in-law hanging on her; the whole of them almost
penniless. However, she was kindly received at the Court of Berlin, as
usual in that sad case; and got some practical help towards living
in her new country. Queen Sophie Charlotte had liked her society; and
finding her of prudent intelligent turn, and with the style of manners
suitable, had given her Friedrich Wilhelm to take charge of. She was at
that time Madame de Montbail; widow, as we said: she afterwards wedded
Roucoulles, a refugee gentleman of her own Nation, who had gone into the
Prussian Army, as was common for the like of him: She had again become a
widow, Madame de Roucoulles this time, with her daughter Montbail still
about her, when, by the grateful good sense of Friedrich Wilhelm, she
was again intrusted as we see;--and so had the honor of governessing
Frederick the Great for the first seven years of his life. Respectable
lady, she oversaw his nurses, pap-boats,--"beer-soup and bread," he
himself tells us once, was his main diet in boyhood,--beer-soups,
dress-frocks, first attempts at walking; and then also his little bits
of intellectualities, moralities; his incipiencies of speech, demeanor,
and spiritual development; and did her function very honestly, there is
no doubt.
Wilhelmina mentions her, at a subsequent period; and we have a glimpse
of this same Roucoulles, gliding about among the royal young-folk, "with
only one tooth left" (figuratively speaking), and somewhat given to
tattle, in Princess Wilhelmina's opinion. Grown very old now, poor
lady; and the dreadfulest bore, when she gets upon Hanover and her
experiences, and Queen Sophie Charlotte's, in that stupendously
magnificent court under Gentleman Ernst. Shun that topic, if you love
your peace of mind! [_Memoires_ (above cited).]--She did certainly
superintend the Boy Fritzkin for his first seven years; that is a
glory that cannot be taken from her. And her pupil, too, we agreeably
perceive, was always grateful for her services in that capacity. Once
a week, if he were in Berlin, during his youthful time, he was sure
to appear at the Roucoulles Soiree, and say and look various pleasant
things to his "CHER MAMAN (dear Mamma)," as he used to call her, and
to the respectable small parts she had. Not to speak of other more
substantial services, which also were not wanting.
Roucoulles and the other female souls, mainly French, among whom the
incipient Fritz now was, appear to have done their part as well as could
be looked for. Respectable Edict-of-Nantes French ladies, with high
head-gear, wide hoops; a clear, correct, but somewhat barren and meagre
species, tight-laced and high-frizzled in mind and body. It is not a
very fertile element for a young soul: not very much of silent piety
in it; and perhaps of vocal piety more than enough in proportion. An
element founding on what they call "enlightened Protestantism," "freedom
of thought," and the like, which is apt to become loquacious, and too
conscious of itself; terming, on the whole, rather to contempt of the
false, than to deep or very effective recognition of the true.
But it is, in some important senses, a clear and pure element withal. At
lowest, there are no conscious semi-falsities, or volunteer hypocrisies,
taught the poor Boy; honor, clearness, truth of word at least; a
decorous dignified bearing; various thin good things, are honestly
inculcated and exemplified; nor is any bad, ungraceful or suspicious
thing permitted there, if recognized for such. It might have been a
worse element; and we must be thankful for it. Friedrich, through life,
carries deep traces of this French-Protestant incipiency: a very big
wide-branching royal tree, in the end; but as small and flexible a
seedling once as any one of us.
The good old Dame de Roucoulles just lived to witness his accession; on
which grand juncture and afterwards, as he had done before, he continued
to express, in graceful and useful ways, his gratitude and honest
affection to her and hers. Tea services, presents in cut-glass and other
kinds, with Letters that were still more precious to the old Lady, had
come always at due intervals, and one of his earliest kingly gifts was
that of some suitable small pension for Montbail, the elderly daughter
of this poor old Roucoulles, [Preuss, _Friedrich der Grosse, eine
Lebensgeschichte_ (5 vols. Berlin, 1832-1834), v. (Urkundenbuch, p. 4).
_OEuvres de Frederic_ (same Preuss's Edition, Berlin, 1846-1850, &c.),
xvi. 184, 191.--The Herr Doctor J. D. E. Preuss, "Historiographer
of Brandenburg," devoted wholly to the study of Friedrich for
five-and-twenty years past, and for above a dozen years busily
engaged in editing the _OEuvres de Frederic,_--has, besides that
_Lebensgeschichte_ just cited, three or four smaller Books, of
indistinctly different titles, on the same subject. A meritoriously
exact man; acquainted with the outer details of Friedrich's Biography
(had he any way of arranging, organizing or setting them forth) as few
men ever were or will be. We shall mean always this _Lebensgeschichte_
here, when no other title is given: and _OEuvres de Frederic_ shall
signify HIS Edition, unless the contrary be stated.] who was just
singing her DIMITTAES as it were, still in a blithe and pious manner.
For she saw now (in 1740) her little nursling grown to be a brilliant
man and King; King gone out to the Wars, too, with all Europe inquiring
and wondering what the issue would be. As for her, she closed her poor
old eyes, at this stage of the business; piously, in foreign parts, far
from her native Normandy; and did not see farther what the issue was.
Good old Dame, I have, as was observed, read some seven times over
what they call biographical accounts of her; but have seven times (by
Heaven's favor, I do partly believe) mostly forgotten them again; and
would not, without cause, inflict on any reader the like sorrow. To
remember one worthy thing, how many thousand unworthy things must a man
be able to forget!
From this Edict-of-Mantes environment, which taught our young Fritz his
first lessons of human behavior,--a polite sharp little Boy, we do
hope and understand,--he learned also to clothe his bits of notions,
emotions, and garrulous utterabilities, in the French dialect. Learned
to speak, and likewise, what is more important; to THINK, in French;
which was otherwise quite domesticated in the Palace, and became his
second mother-tongue. Not a bad dialect; yet also none of the best. Very
lean and shallow, if very clear and convenient; leaving much in poor
Fritz unuttered, unthought, unpractised, which might otherwise have come
into activity in the course of his life. He learned to read very soon,
I presume; but he did not, now or afterwards, ever learn to spell. He
spells indeed dreadfully ILL, at his first appearance on the writing
stage, as we shall see by and by; and he continued, to the last, one
of the bad spellers of his day. A circumstance which I never can fully
account for, and will leave to the reader's study.
From all manner of sources,--from inferior valetaille, Prussian
Officials, Royal Majesty itself when not in gala,--he learned, not less
rootedly, the corrupt Prussian dialect of German; and used the same,
all his days, among his soldiers, native officials, common subjects
and wherever it was most convenient; speaking it, and writing and
misspelling it, with great freedom, though always with a certain
aversion and undisguised contempt, which has since brought him blame in
some quarters. It is true, the Prussian form of German is but rude; and
probably Friedrich, except sometimes in Luther's Bible, never read any
German Book. What, if we will think of it, could he know of his first
mother-tongue! German, to this day, is a frightful dialect for the
stupid, the pedant and dullard sort! Only in the hands of the gifted
does it become supremely good. It had not yet been the language of any
Goethe, any Lessing; though it stood on the eve of becoming such. It
had already been the language of Luther, of Ulrich Hutten, Friedrich
Barbarossa, Charlemagne and others. And several extremely important
things had been said in it, and some pleasant ones even sung in it, from
an old date, in a very appropriate manner,--had Crown-Prince Friedrich
known all that. But he could not reasonably be expected to know:--and
the wiser Germans now forgive him for not knowing, and are even thankful
that he did not.