Though I think it's more likely Pöllnitz was the Ur-source for W and T.
From external evidence you'd think so, but look more closely at the linguistic similarities exclusively between W and T. They pretty much never have different things in common with P that they don't have with each other, and aside from the fact that P and T but not W talk about Katte's family here, T never has things in common with P that he doesn't have with W. But T and W are overwhelmingly similar to each other.
Look especially at the description of Fritz's reaction to Katte's death, at the end of the "W/T shared innovations" comment, and tell me how W and T can be independently drawing on P.
The comparative method tells me that T and W are more closely related to each other than either is to P. And I agree that going purely from external facts, that is a surprising conclusion. It was definitely surprising to me when I sat down and typed up every passage word for word.
W consulting P and them more or less independently creating their memoirs from a shared agreement of what the facts were makes sense, both from linguistic and external evidence. But the stronger similarities between T and W still have to be accounted for.
Your hypothesis that maybe T knew about the memoirs but Fritz didn't is interesting. The timing definitely works, since crazy uncle Christian inherited in 1763, and T started to work for Fritz in 1765.
I could also see how there could be unanimity among everyone who took one look at that manuscript on the subject of: "Uh, maybe don't tell Fritz. By which I mean, definitely don't tell Fritz. In fact, voluntarily rip out your own tongue and eyes with hot pincers before you tell Fritz." In 1763, Wilhelmine was only 4, 5 years dead, he'd just come out of a long war that had ruined his physical and mental health, and his country's economy wasn't in the greatest state.
It's possible that T heard about W secretly in the 1760s, and then when he was writing his memoirs (I don't know when he composed them, but he left Fritz in 1784 to return to France, and the memoirs weren't published until 1804), got a copy of the manuscript.
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Re: Katte Textual Criticism: Discussion (REPLY HERE)
Date: 2020-01-04 02:47 pm (UTC)From external evidence you'd think so, but look more closely at the linguistic similarities exclusively between W and T. They pretty much never have different things in common with P that they don't have with each other, and aside from the fact that P and T but not W talk about Katte's family here, T never has things in common with P that he doesn't have with W. But T and W are overwhelmingly similar to each other.
Look especially at the description of Fritz's reaction to Katte's death, at the end of the "W/T shared innovations" comment, and tell me how W and T can be independently drawing on P.
The comparative method tells me that T and W are more closely related to each other than either is to P. And I agree that going purely from external facts, that is a surprising conclusion. It was definitely surprising to me when I sat down and typed up every passage word for word.
W consulting P and them more or less independently creating their memoirs from a shared agreement of what the facts were makes sense, both from linguistic and external evidence. But the stronger similarities between T and W still have to be accounted for.
Your hypothesis that maybe T knew about the memoirs but Fritz didn't is interesting. The timing definitely works, since crazy uncle Christian inherited in 1763, and T started to work for Fritz in 1765.
I could also see how there could be unanimity among everyone who took one look at that manuscript on the subject of: "Uh, maybe don't tell Fritz. By which I mean, definitely don't tell Fritz. In fact, voluntarily rip out your own tongue and eyes with hot pincers before you tell Fritz." In 1763, Wilhelmine was only 4, 5 years dead, he'd just come out of a long war that had ruined his physical and mental health, and his country's economy wasn't in the greatest state.
It's possible that T heard about W secretly in the 1760s, and then when he was writing his memoirs (I don't know when he composed them, but he left Fritz in 1784 to return to France, and the memoirs weren't published until 1804), got a copy of the manuscript.