Potsdam.
We have been here about a fortnight. His Majesty arrived at the new
palace of Sans-Souci about the same time that we came to Potsdam. The
Princess Amelia, who is mistress of the ceremonies, was there to receive
him. The company I formerly mentioned are all lodged in the palace, I
will give you a short sketch of what has passed.
There has been a theatrical entertainment every second or third day.
His Grace and I attend at Sans-Souci on these days only. We drive from
Potsdam about five in the evening. The company assemble in one of the
apartments of the palace about that time, and walk to the playhouse
a little before six. The theatre is very well contrived for the
accommodation of a small audience. There are neither boxes nor pit; but
semicircular benches in the front of the stage. The foremost bench is
upon the floor; the others rise gradually behind, that all the spectators
may see equally well.
A few minutes after the company are placed, the Royal Family arrive.
The Princess Amelia is led in by Prince Frederick of Brunswick, and the
Princess of Hesse by the King. The Duchess of Wurtemberg, and the other
Princesses, are led in after; they, and the ladies their attendants,
sit in the first rows. The King generally seats himself in the third or
fourth. The piece then begins, and is usually finished about nine, after
which all the company return to the large apartment, where the King
remains conversing in a familiar manner till supper is ready. He then
retires, and goes to bed at ten.
Those whom the Princess Amelia orders to be invited, stay to supper; and
there is generally a pretty numerous company.—We have been at this repast
three or four times, and usually get to our lodgings at Potsdam about
midnight.
Hitherto there have been no comedies acted, and I understand there are to
be none, because Le Kain never acts in comedy; and for another reason,
which is equivalent to a thousand,—his Majesty loves tragedy better.
Le Kain has already appeared in some of his principal characters.—You
need not doubt of his exerting all his powers before such an audience.—I
might have said, such an auditor. The King seemed pleased with his
acting, and of consequence the courtiers were in raptures, and vied with
each other who should praise him most.
The tragedy of Oedipus is his Majesty’s favourite piece. This has been
represented twice, and he seemed to enjoy it very much on both occasions;
particularly when the following speech against priests was pronounced:
Tandis que par vos soins vous pouvez tout apprendre,
Quel besoin que le Ciel ici se fasse entendre?
Ces Dieux, dont le pontife a promis le secours,
Dans leus temples, Seigneur, n’habitent pas toujours;
On ne voit point leur bras si prodigue en miracles;
Ces antres, ces trépieds, qui rendent leurs oracles,
Ces organes d’airain que nos mains ont formés,
Toujours d’un souffle pur ne sont point animés.
Ne nous endormons point sur la foi de leurs prêtres;
Au pied du sanctuaire il est souvent des traîtres,
Qui nous asservissant sous un pouvoir sacré,
Font parler les destins, les font taire à leur gré.
Voyez, examinez, avec un soin extrême,
Philoctète, Phorbas, & Jocaste elle-même.
Ne nous fions qu’à nous, voyons tout par nos yeux,
Ce sont là nos trépieds, nos oracles, nos Dieux.
And afterwards, when Jocasta pours forth another tirade of the same kind,
which terminates with these lines:
Nos Prêtres ne sont point ce qu’un vain peuple pense;
Notre crédulité fait toute leur science.
I happened to sit next to the Abbé Bastiani, and, while the actress spoke
this, the king started up, coughed, and laughed, with very significant
gestures, to the ecclesiastic.
But though these passages, and some others, seem at first sight to be
severe against priests, the tragedy of Oedipus, upon the whole, does them
great honour. For all that is said against them, turns out to be unjust,
and it appears that the oracle, which had been treated in such severe
terms, was true, and that the high priest had acted throughout like an
honest and virtuous man. It surprises me, therefore, that Voltaire should
have taken the plot of his play from the Greek tragedy on this subject,
which has constrained him, like Balaam the son of Barak, to do honour
to those whom he would have been better pleased to have cursed.—And the
King on his part (if I may presume to say it) could not have pitched upon
a tragedy less à-propos, if his intention was to turn the clergy into
ridicule.
I have no objection to this piece, on account of the honour done to the
clergy; because I cannot help forming an opinion of men from my own
experience: And I have known so many good men of that profession, that I
should respect it on their account, exclusive of other reasons.
But I own I have the misfortune not to follow this great monarch, and
many other respectable critics, in their admiration of the tragedy
of Oedipus.—The fable, in my poor opinion, is too horrible.—The
circumstance of Oedipus being married to his mother, and having children
by her, is highly disgusting; and the idea it gives of Providence and
the conduct of the gods, cannot have a good effect on the mind. Nothing
could be more unjust, than that Heaven should send a plague among the
inhabitants of Thebes, and pour such vengeance on poor Oedipus and
Jocasta, for crimes of which it knew them to be innocent. We cannot help
admitting the justice of Oedipus’s reproaches against the gods, when he
says,
Le voilà donc rempli cet oracle exécrable,
Dont ma crainte a pressé l’effet inévitable:
Et je me vois enfin, par un mélange affreux,
Inceste, & parricide, & pourtant vertueux.
Miserable vertu, nom stérile & funeste,
Toi par qui j’ai réglé des jours que je déteste,
A mon noir ascendant tu n’as pû resister:
Je tombais dans le piége, en voulant l’éviter.
Un dieu plus fort que moi m’entraînait vers le crime;
Sous mes pas fugitifs il creusait un abîme;
Et j’etais, malgré moi, dans mon aveuglement,
D’un pouvoir inconnu l’esclave & l’instrument.
Voilà tous mes forfaits, je n’en connais point d’autres.
Impitoyables dieux, mes crimes sont les vôtres,
Et vous m’en punissez.…
We must suspect, however, that Jocasta has mistaken in the opinion she
utters in the concluding lines of the tragedy.
Prêtres, & vous Thébains, qui futes mes sujets,
Honorez mon bucher, & songez à jamais,
Qu’au milieu des horreurs du destin qui m’opprime,
J’ai fait rougir les dieux, qui m’ont forcée au crime.
For those, who could force innocent people to commit criminal actions,
and then punish them on that account, were not capable of blushing for
any thing. A French tragedy and Italian opera are represented at this
theatre alternately; the King attends the latter as punctually as the
former, and displays in his countenance that extreme sensibility to
music, which forms part of his character. I imagine this Prince would
succeed better in any thing than in simulation, if he should ever think
it worth his while to attempt that part of hypocrisy,—his features are
so expressive of his feelings, that the first would be constantly in
danger of betraying the other. When there is no representation at the
theatre, his Majesty has a private concert in his own apartment, where
he himself performs on the German flute, in which instrument he has
attained the highest degree of excellence.—To these concerts no stranger
is admitted.