nently manifest to the Spanish
Majesty.
Such the effect of a small Ear, kept about one in cotton, from ursine
piety or other feelings. Has not Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, with a
vengeance? It has kindled a War: dangerous for kindling other Wars, and
setting the whole world on fire,--as will be too evident in the sequel!
The EAR OF JENKINS is a singular thing. Might have mounted to be a
constellation, like BERENICE'S HAIR, and other small facts become
mythical, had the English People been of poetic turn! Enough of IT, for
the time being.--
This Summer, Anton Ulrich, at Petersburg, did wed his Serene Mecklenburg
Princess, Heiress of all the Russias: "July 14th, 1739,"--three months
before that Drive to Wusterhausen, which we saw lately. Little
Anton Ulrich, Cadet of Brunswick; our Friedrich's Brother-in-Law;--a
noticeably small man in comparison to such bulk of destiny, thinks
Friedrich, though the case is not without example! [A Letter of his to
Suhm; touching on Franz of Lorraine and this Anton Ulrich.]
"Anton Ulrich is now five-and-twenty," says one of my Notebooks;
"a young gentleman of small stature, shining courage in battle, but
somewhat shy and bashful; who has had his troubles in Petersburg
society, till the trial came,--and will have. Here are the stages of
Anton Ulrich's felicity:--
"WINTER, 1732-1733. He was sent for to Petersburg (his Serene Aunt the
German Kaiserinn, and Kaiser Karl's diplomatists, suggesting it there),
with the view of his paying court to the young Mecklenburg Princess,
Heiress of all the Russias, of whom we have often heard. February, 1733,
he arrived on this errand;--not approved of at all by the Mecklenburg
Princess, by Czarina Anne or anybody there: what can be done with
such an uncomfortable little creature? They gave him the Colonelcy of
Cuirassiers: 'Drill there, and endure.'
"SPRING, 1737. Much-enduring, diligently drilling, for four years past,
he went this year to the Turk War under Munnich;--much pleased Munnich,
at Oczakow and elsewhere; who reports in the War-Office high things of
him. And on the whole,--the serene Vienna people now again
bestirring themselves, with whom we are in copartnery in this Turk
business,--little Anton Ulrich is encouraged to proceed. Proceeds;
formally demands his Mecklenburg Princess; and,
"JULY 14th, 1739, weds her; the happiest little man in all the Russias,
and with the biggest destiny, if it prosper. Next year, too, there
came a son a
|