Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" BOOK VIII.
Page: 57

madrigals in Leicester House; tending fowards the "West Wickham"
set of Politicians, the Pitt-Lyttelton set; stands ill with Father
and Mother, and will not come to much. August the
Dilapidated-Strong is deep in Polish troubles, in Anti-Kaiser
politics, in drinking-bouts;--his great-toe never mended, never
will mend. Gone to the spectral state all these: here, blooming
with life in its cheeks, is the one practical Fact, our good
Hereditary Prince of Baireuth,--privately our fate all along;--
which we will welcome cheerfully; and be thankful to Heaven that
we have not died in getting it decided for us!--


Wedding was of great magnificence; Berlin Palace and all things
and creatures at their brightest: the Brunswick-Beverns here, and
other high Guests; no end of pompous ceremonials, solemnities and
splendors,--the very train of one's gown was "twelve yards long."
Eschewing all which, the reader shall commodiously conceive it
all, by two samples we have picked out for him: one sample of a
Person, high Guest present; one of an Apartment where the
sublimities went on.

The Duchess Dowager of Sachsen-Meiningen, who has come to honor us
on this occasion, a very large Lady, verging towards sixty; she is
the person. A living elderly Daughter of the Great Elector
himself; half-sister to the late King, half-aunt to Friedrich
Wilhelm; widow now of her third husband: a singular phenomenon to
look upon, for a moment, through Wilhelmina's satirical
spectacles. One of her three husbands, "Christian Ernst of
Baireuth" (Margraf there, while the present Line was but
expectant), had been a kind of Welsh-Uncle to the Prince now
Bridegroom; so that she has a double right to be here. "She had
found the secret of totally ruining Baireuth," says Wilhelmina;
"Baireuth, and Courland as well, where her first wedlock was;"--
perhaps Meiningen was done to her hand? Here is the Portrait of
"my Grand-Aunt;" dashed off in very high colors, not by a
flattering pencil:--

"It is said she was very fond of pleasing, in her youth; one saw
as much still by her affected manners. She would have made an
excellent actress, to play fantastic parts of that kind.