Especially how she asks him for more tobacco later on :)
Right? Her writing style is entertaining in general, and this is certainly one example.
this meaning started in ~16-17th C (so definitely would have had that connotation by this time)
Okay, that's a useful thing to know.
So yeah, I think a "baiseur" literally might mean "someone to kiss," buuuuut it probably meant "someone to fuck." (But, confusingly, as far as I can tell, "un baiser" really does mean a kiss, and not a fuck.)
Yeah, and while he uses both nouns here, he doesn't use the verb, so ... ambiguity it is I guess.
(Not as sure about Countess Camas right here, honestly, although I guess it's true that she knew her and Fritz didn't...)
ETA: I was just looking through Lehndorff for a different anecdote and he actually talks about a scandal concerning a pregnancy in early 1763 as well! If that's the same one, which would make sense, the scandal horse has definitely left the barn. He is even less complimentary about the person in question, calling her unworthy and detestable, a liar and a gossip, and someone who managed to deceive the Queen and even Countess Camas for a while. He also says the father is an Austrian officer. Huh.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Camas Letters II - Countess Camas Part Two (1760-1763)
Date: 2021-01-22 11:42 am (UTC)Right? Her writing style is entertaining in general, and this is certainly one example.
this meaning started in ~16-17th C (so definitely would have had that connotation by this time)
Okay, that's a useful thing to know.
So yeah, I think a "baiseur" literally might mean "someone to kiss," buuuuut it probably meant "someone to fuck." (But, confusingly, as far as I can tell, "un baiser" really does mean a kiss, and not a fuck.)
Yeah, and while he uses both nouns here, he doesn't use the verb, so ... ambiguity it is I guess.
(Not as sure about Countess Camas right here, honestly, although I guess it's true that she knew her and Fritz didn't...)
That, and she did write to enlist Fritz' compassion/help in the first place, despite not having a good opinion of her. Plus, as a woman at court herself, she might have a more direct grasp of the social and societal realities here, whereas Fritz, male and king, might have the luxury of being a bit more blasé about it?
ETA: I was just looking through Lehndorff for a different anecdote and he actually talks about a scandal concerning a pregnancy in early 1763 as well! If that's the same one, which would make sense, the scandal horse has definitely left the barn. He is even less complimentary about the person in question, calling her unworthy and detestable, a liar and a gossip, and someone who managed to deceive the Queen and even Countess Camas for a while. He also says the father is an Austrian officer. Huh.