It occurs to me he'd also appreciate near-rhyming with "satirists" two lines up. And invading Saxony in the next line. (Oh, Fritz.)
I'm also tickled about "Giant soldier–mania" - so FW did find his way into your version!
He did! You took Voltaire-mania, and I was pleased when I remembered FW, then was able to make the meter work by dint of using "giant" instead of "tall". (So many good ideas I had to discard because of uncooperative meter or rhyme.)
BTW, as what do we count Henri de Catt?
Good question. Fictionalized but not fake memoirs, maybe?
Yay for Emma Hamilton (and thus painter Romney) showing up in this version!
Yeah, it was a two-for-one deal, and I knew you'd like it! :D
I felt a bit guilty about not being able to work any of the Hervey stuff in
I feel guilty about not working in Maria Theresia! I tried in the first draft, but her name just doesn't match meter very well, nor is it a particularly good rhyme, nor is she recognizable with "Maria" or "Theresia" alone, "Queen of Hungary" is an insult (though I might include it in a Fritzian one, since him insulting her is part of their story), and "Holy Roman Empress" is way too vague. I tried, MT! Sorry your husband made it in and you didn't!
That makes me realize that I lost Catherine, too, and she's actually a better meter fit than "Potemkin" to replace "Saladin", and she's more significant. I think I might go ahead and make that substitution.
I will say that Franklin shows up in mine, too, in the sole other line dealing with USian matters (in addition to the one about tax dodging). :)
Indeed! You have some US references and I have some Prussian references (quite a few, actually, more than I realized). But I was actually out walking yesterday and listening to the bardcore version, while mentally composing replies to your and cahn's comments, and the line "Gustav at the opera" popped into my head as a possible replacement for "Franklin's Philadelphia." It doesn't rhyme with "soldier–mania" quite as well, but it is more salon-relevant, and gets us more representation of an under-represented country. You notice I managed to work in Charles the Twelfth, Poltava, and Hats and Caps, Gustav's assassination would round out the Swedish 18th century nicely. Though I guess technically it was a masked ball at the Opera House, not an actual opera? Do we know if any operas were performed/scheduled to be performed that night?
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Re: We didn't start the fire, 18th century version
It occurs to me he'd also appreciate near-rhyming with "satirists" two lines up. And invading Saxony in the next line. (Oh, Fritz.)
I'm also tickled about "Giant soldier–mania" - so FW did find his way into your version!
He did! You took Voltaire-mania, and I was pleased when I remembered FW, then was able to make the meter work by dint of using "giant" instead of "tall". (So many good ideas I had to discard because of uncooperative meter or rhyme.)
BTW, as what do we count Henri de Catt?
Good question. Fictionalized but not fake memoirs, maybe?
Yay for Emma Hamilton (and thus painter Romney) showing up in this version!
Yeah, it was a two-for-one deal, and I knew you'd like it! :D
I felt a bit guilty about not being able to work any of the Hervey stuff in
I feel guilty about not working in Maria Theresia! I tried in the first draft, but her name just doesn't match meter very well, nor is it a particularly good rhyme, nor is she recognizable with "Maria" or "Theresia" alone, "Queen of Hungary" is an insult (though I might include it in a Fritzian one, since him insulting her is part of their story), and "Holy Roman Empress" is way too vague. I tried, MT! Sorry your husband made it in and you didn't!
That makes me realize that I lost Catherine, too, and she's actually a better meter fit than "Potemkin" to replace "Saladin", and she's more significant. I think I might go ahead and make that substitution.
I will say that Franklin shows up in mine, too, in the sole other line dealing with USian matters (in addition to the one about tax dodging). :)
Indeed! You have some US references and I have some Prussian references (quite a few, actually, more than I realized). But I was actually out walking yesterday and listening to the bardcore version, while mentally composing replies to your and