the author has already quoted letters to several recipients where he's using du/tu - Wilhelmine (that I knew; from my recollection of their correspondance, they keep switching between tu and vous), Keyserling and in one case (the "You're my heir if I kick it in this battle" letter) August Wilhelm, though it's strictly vous with August W. on other occasions.
Oh, interesting, thank you so much! That's what I get for spot-checking. Awesome.
18th century nobility throughout Europe was Vous/Ihr/Sie all the way, at least in writing, when talking to their nearest and dearest; Maria Theresia wrote "Vous" to Marie Antoinette throughout, and so did Joseph, though several anecdotes have it they used "du" when actually talking to her, for example.
I had noticed the predominance of vous/Sie in writing, and I had been wondering (for the purposes of my fic) how much people would code-switch their formality according to circumstance: public vs. private, written vs. spoken. It's good to know I wasn't totally off base there.
I also wondered how much to trust all the "Fritz"ing and "du"ing Katte does in Zeithain (especially given the execution scene, where all our sources report "vous" and "Katte", not "du" and "Hans"). Is my idea plausible that 18th century Katte, far enough along in their relationship, might be invited to speak that way to Crown Prince Friedrich in private, intimate moments, but would still be "vous/Your Royal Highness"ing him in all other contexts, including the execution with 150 witnesses?
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Re: Fredersdorf
Date: 2019-09-03 04:17 pm (UTC)Oh, interesting, thank you so much! That's what I get for spot-checking. Awesome.
18th century nobility throughout Europe was Vous/Ihr/Sie all the way, at least in writing, when talking to their nearest and dearest; Maria Theresia wrote "Vous" to Marie Antoinette throughout, and so did Joseph, though several anecdotes have it they used "du" when actually talking to her, for example.
I had noticed the predominance of vous/Sie in writing, and I had been wondering (for the purposes of my fic) how much people would code-switch their formality according to circumstance: public vs. private, written vs. spoken. It's good to know I wasn't totally off base there.
I also wondered how much to trust all the "Fritz"ing and "du"ing Katte does in Zeithain (especially given the execution scene, where all our sources report "vous" and "Katte", not "du" and "Hans"). Is my idea plausible that 18th century Katte, far enough along in their relationship, might be invited to speak that way to Crown Prince Friedrich in private, intimate moments, but would still be "vous/Your Royal Highness"ing him in all other contexts, including the execution with 150 witnesses?