Wit: Voltaire and Frederick the Great
Voltaire
Frederick the Great
Voltaire and Frederick the Great were friends and conversed in French, as all European aristocrats did at the time. And they were witty.
One day, Frederick invited Voltaire to come join him at his castle, Sanssouci, in Potsdam, by writing the following note (Caution: This may not display properly in an RSS reader):
_p__ à _ci__
venez sans
Voltaire did not miss a beat and replied with his own note:
G a
And they both began to look forward to their next meeting!
Solution:
Voltaire immediately understood Frederick’s note to mean “venez souper à Sanssouci“–ie, come dine at Sanssouci. The word venez is “sous” (under) the letter p. The word sans is “sous” the word ci.
So he replied by saying J’ai grand appétit: Capital G = “Gé grand”; lower-case a = “a petit”.
OMG, that’s funny! I wonder if Voltaire went so far as to LOL. I think I’m out of my depth, again. I’m going to go back to watching cat videos on youtube. (no, I’ve never texted, either). Sarcasm is not only a low form of humor, it is also a manifestation of one’s insecurity.
I only just read your comment now, Mr Crotchety–I was busy watching dog videos on YouTube…
LOL
venir D esprits!
1
Un souvenir grand d’esprit.
(Right?)
Hmmm, let me try this again. Sorry, I’m experimenting with HTML on your blog.
Maybe this will be better:
venir DDD esprits
1
Thanks for humoring me. So close to what I meant. I’m trying for: Un souvenir des grands esprits!
stood
____
I
I think Voltaire also said, in his reply
p
_
A
Since he had grand appetit it would have to be à grand souper
PS LOL in French is sometimes shown as “mdr” – mourir de rire, but I think most French speakers go for LOL these days…..
Thanks for playing, David.
Good to learn the French web-argot…. from an Englishman.
I have seen it like:
P/1 a 6/100
Un soous P a cent sous six….?
Oh, that’s even better, Henning! That must be the true version.
brilliant!