HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA
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FREDERICK THE GREAT

by THOMAS CARLYLE



FREDERICK THE GREAT.

Book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
1712.

Chapter I.

PROEM: FRIEDRICH'S HISTORY FROM THE DISTANCE WE ARE AT.

About fourscore years ago, there used to be seen sauntering on the
terraces of Sans Souci, for a short time in the afternoon, or you
might have met him elsewhere at an earlier hour, riding or driving
in a rapid business manner on the open roads or through the
scraggy woods and avenues of that intricate amphibious Potsdam
region, a highly interesting lean little old man, of alert though
slightly stooping figure; whose name among strangers was King
FRIEDRICH THE SECOND, or Frederick the Great of Prussia, and at
home among the common people, who much loved and esteemed him,
was VATER FRITZ,--Father Fred,--a name of familiarity which had
not bred contempt in that instance. He is a King every inch of
him, though without the trappings of a King. Presents himself in
a Spartan simplicity of vesture: no crown but an old military
cocked-hat,--generally old, or trampled and kneaded into absolute
SOFTNESS, if new;--no sceptre but one like Agamemnon's, a walking-
stick cut from the woods, which serves also as a riding-stick
(with which he hits the horse "between the ears," say authors);--
and for royal robes, a mere soldier's blue coat with red facings,
coat likely to be old, and sure to have a good deal of Spanish
snuff on the breast of it; rest of the apparel dim, unobtrusive in
color or out, ending in high over-knee military boots, which may
be brushed (and, I hope, kept soft with an underhand suspicion of
oil), but are not permitted to be blackened or varnished; Day and
Martin with their soot-pots forbidden to approach.

The man is not of godlike physiognomy, any more than of imposing
stature or costume: close-shut mouth with thin lips, prominent
jaws and nose, receding brow, by no means of Olympian height;
head, however, is of long form, and has superlative gray eyes in
it. Not what is called a beautiful man; nor yet, by all
appearance, what is called a happy. On the contrary, the face
bears evidence of many sorrows, as they are termed, of much hard