ndeed Carlos calls Posa "thou" pretty much constantly but Posa uses "you" until that bit
Mind you, Posa literally couldn't do otherwise by the etiquette in Schiller's life time since Carlos is the higher ranking party. (Incidentally, Carlos and Elisabeth never call each other "Du" throughout the play. Elisabeth as the Queen outranks Carlos, and she doesn't offer.)
I guess a modern English equivalent would have to do with first name use - i.e. Posa switching from "prince" or "your highness" to "Carlos"? Because I can't think of a way to convey the higher degree of intimacy otherwise. And yet it's still not the same, since everyone is so quickly on first names these days.
Incidentally, in modern German, you can call someone by their first name and still use "Sie", not "Du", which is, for example, what bosses often do with their long term employees. (New employees are Herr X and Frau Y and Sie, of course.) At the university, fellow students default to du, but outside that context it's usual that the older party offers "Du" to the younger one, and it would be rude for the younger one to use it unasked first.
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Re: Fredersdorf
Date: 2019-09-04 05:12 am (UTC)Mind you, Posa literally couldn't do otherwise by the etiquette in Schiller's life time since Carlos is the higher ranking party. (Incidentally, Carlos and Elisabeth never call each other "Du" throughout the play. Elisabeth as the Queen outranks Carlos, and she doesn't offer.)
I guess a modern English equivalent would have to do with first name use - i.e. Posa switching from "prince" or "your highness" to "Carlos"? Because I can't think of a way to convey the higher degree of intimacy otherwise. And yet it's still not the same, since everyone is so quickly on first names these days.
Incidentally, in modern German, you can call someone by their first name and still use "Sie", not "Du", which is, for example, what bosses often do with their long term employees. (New employees are Herr X and Frau Y and Sie, of course.) At the university, fellow students default to du, but outside that context it's usual that the older party offers "Du" to the younger one, and it would be rude for the younger one to use it unasked first.