Ambassador reports are just such a treasure trove of information. Thank you for the summaries!
This is the first time where SD's obsession with the British marriage project actually comes across as not the sole motivation. Bearing in mind that her own mother (and George's) mother was locked away for life, such a threat would not have sounded like mere rethoric to her.
Wow, yeah. Whenever biographers get on her case for "acting" like she was afraid of her husband, I'm like, "What acting?!! WTF? Do you know what kind of fear of their husbands women live in even when their husbands *aren't* absolute monarchs? SMH."
So yes, that does sound like she's motivated not just by her desire to be a queen but to not end up like Grandma. Wow.
The King now shows much sympathy and compassion for Katte's death. He says: He was a promising young man whose death must have been painful for his entire family. These conversations, he ends every time by asking everyone present whether not the Prince, as the cause of Katte's death, has very much to answer for.
Uh huh. Yeah, he sounds *so* motivated by sympathy for Katte there. From the same guy who's trying to play Fritz and Wilhelmine against each other.
Frau Pannewitz? Do you think you could...maybe get a head start on punching him? Say he was ogling your breasts or something.
You have no idea how vicariously I live through Frau Pannewitz.
Indeed. If Fritz hasn't made it up for whatever reason while talking to Mitchell, I do wonder about SD as yet another possible source. The envoy she was in constant contact with was the British one, granted, but Dickens and Löwenörn talked, so news might have travelled this way, and I could see SD, especially after what FW is quoted saying re: Katte, wanting Fritz to know that Katte's remaining in Berlin had not been his fault but "some girl"'s.
That's a really interesting possibility!
Fritz: Um, thanks? *privately wonders how this is supposed to make him feel better*
Volz' translation and edition of the Fritz/Wilhelmine correspondance has them using "du" all the way, and so does the audio version (which confused me when I started to read Trier with all the vous), with Volz admitting that it has been adjusted for the reader of Volz and the listener of our day because a close brother and sister writing "Sie" would sound really odd for non-historians.
And Volz is writing a hundred years ago! Rococo people: *have to vous/Sie each other while declaring passionate romantic devotion at the drop of a hat*
Krockow, interestingly enough, has Heinrich and Fritz write "Sie" but Ferdinand and Heinrich write "Du", which I could believe, but I'm now sceptical until I see the originals.
Indeed.
Since Lehndorff of course never was alone with Fritz and Wilhelmine, he can't tell us whether they said du to each other in verbal conversation.
No, but he could maybe give us a sense of how common it was for members of the upper classes to "du" or "tu" (and it sounds like the former was much more common than the latter) each other in private when they very carefully use "Sie/vous" in public. You could then apply those social mores to specific relationships on your own.
Re: Katte - Species Facti 2
This is the first time where SD's obsession with the British marriage project actually comes across as not the sole motivation. Bearing in mind that her own mother (and George's) mother was locked away for life, such a threat would not have sounded like mere rethoric to her.
Wow, yeah. Whenever biographers get on her case for "acting" like she was afraid of her husband, I'm like, "What acting?!! WTF? Do you know what kind of fear of their husbands women live in even when their husbands *aren't* absolute monarchs? SMH."
So yes, that does sound like she's motivated not just by her desire to be a queen but to not end up like Grandma. Wow.
The King now shows much sympathy and compassion for Katte's death. He says: He was a promising young man whose death must have been painful for his entire family. These conversations, he ends every time by asking everyone present whether not the Prince, as the cause of Katte's death, has very much to answer for.
Uh huh. Yeah, he sounds *so* motivated by sympathy for Katte there. From the same guy who's trying to play Fritz and Wilhelmine against each other.
Frau Pannewitz? Do you think you could...maybe get a head start on punching him? Say he was ogling your breasts or something.
You have no idea how vicariously I live through Frau Pannewitz.
Indeed. If Fritz hasn't made it up for whatever reason while talking to Mitchell, I do wonder about SD as yet another possible source. The envoy she was in constant contact with was the British one, granted, but Dickens and Löwenörn talked, so news might have travelled this way, and I could see SD, especially after what FW is quoted saying re: Katte, wanting Fritz to know that Katte's remaining in Berlin had not been his fault but "some girl"'s.
That's a really interesting possibility!
Fritz: Um, thanks? *privately wonders how this is supposed to make him feel better*
Volz' translation and edition of the Fritz/Wilhelmine correspondance has them using "du" all the way, and so does the audio version (which confused me when I started to read Trier with all the vous), with Volz admitting that it has been adjusted for the reader of Volz and the listener of our day because a close brother and sister writing "Sie" would sound really odd for non-historians.
And Volz is writing a hundred years ago! Rococo people: *have to vous/Sie each other while declaring passionate romantic devotion at the drop of a hat*
Krockow, interestingly enough, has Heinrich and Fritz write "Sie" but Ferdinand and Heinrich write "Du", which I could believe, but I'm now sceptical until I see the originals.
Indeed.
Since Lehndorff of course never was alone with Fritz and Wilhelmine, he can't tell us whether they said du to each other in verbal conversation.
No, but he could maybe give us a sense of how common it was for members of the upper classes to "du" or "tu" (and it sounds like the former was much more common than the latter) each other in private when they very carefully use "Sie/vous" in public. You could then apply those social mores to specific relationships on your own.