ETA: Oh, hey, I only just realized that the German translator added "der Einzige" to the title. *facepalm*
Hahaha, that's hilarious. You may have noticed we're always making "der Einzige" jokes in this salon. :D
So if you want to know which book and chapter he was reading to Fritz on any given day between November 1784 and July 1786, this is your source.
Yes! Yes, this is what I've always wanted! Thank you.
He reports that Fritz had a lot to say about pronunciation, kept correcting him and generally had his own ideas on the topic.
If one sentence about Fritz was ever in character, this is it.
If Fritz himself wasn't sure how to pronounce certain words, he tried to say them quietly to himself at first [...].
To be fair, there are plenty of words in English I don't know how to pronounce because I've only seen them in writing! And my instinct for where to put the stress is consistently wrong, gdi.
I was surprised that the King didn't let go of a wrong pronunciation of certain words once he'd settled on it
You were surprised? In 1784-1786?? Dear lord. In the words of Selena, "I have two words for you. Quintus Icilius." Also what do you think the Seven Years' War was all about? In the words of Macaulay on the Treaty of Hubertusburg, "The king ceded nothing. The whole Continent in arms had proved unable to tear Silesia from that iron grasp." HE DOESN'T LET GO. That's what he does! That's who he is!
he couldn't remember the author of a book he wanted to read, Dantal suggested the right one but Fritz didn't hear/register and therefore grumpily dismissed it, then sent Dantal, who didn't dare to mention it again, away to do research. Dantal had just reached the city gate, when he was called back because Fritz had remembered the name at last and all was right with the world: "Now he was completely content again and the gentle tone with which he said "c'est fort bien", gave me back the trust/confidence [Zutrauen], which the critical moment had taken away before."
Ooh, this is surprisingly like and unlike the story of Fritz and Catt not being able to think of the name of an opera and going crazy over it. Specifically, it's rather more like the doctored version Catt tells in his memoirs in which Fritz is in the wrong, than in the diary where he comes across much more positively. The two versions of the anecdote, if anyone needs a reminder. (Thank goodness for Rheinsberg!)
Dantal also mentions the order that was kept in Fritz' libraries, and that they were sorted by content, not looks, i.e. without regard for different sizes next to each other, which some owners of libraries care for the most (ha)
Ha indeed! Now that's the mark of a serious reader. :D
(with the letters on the covers - "S" for the New Palais (the Palace of Sanssouci) for example, and of course Sanssouci had a "V" because Fritz always called it Vignes) and also mentiones that nobody was allowed to move the books in Fritz' room.
Oooh, so I new they had the letters on the covers, and I knew that he often referred to what we think of as Sanssouci as his "vineyard", but I didn't realize that extended as far as thinking of it as V and the New Palace as S! Huh.
the speech in which Isocrates is trying to convince Philippos to wage war against the barbarians [the Persians I think] to free Greece
The Persians, yes. Isocrates had a bee in his bonnet about crusading against the Persians for the sake of uniting the squabbling Greek city-states. ("Free Greece" is...well, I see it's a direct translation of Dantal, but we'll call it a euphemism for "aggressive war for ulterior motives couched as freeing Ionia, a gambit which Philip declined but Alexander took up, not because he gave a shit about Greece, but because it gave the first stage of his Rendezvous with fame a veneer of respectability, a la freeing the Silesian Protestants something something :P").
Though I believe it was a letter rather than a speech--ah, I see the French has "harangue" and the German translator has chosen to translate it "Rede". Which I guess can mean "address" as well as "speech", but I see why "speech" was the obvious choice. The thing about Isocrates is that none of his works, even the ones today called "speeches", were ever delivered orally. He was a written rhetorician only, in contrast to people like Demosthenes and Aeschines. (Was 4th century Athenian oratory what I was in the middle of studying in 2019 when I got sucked into full-time Fritz? You bet it was! :'D)
Oh, and skimming through Dantal, I see Fritz has opinions on the pronunciation of Greek names like Epaminondas, and he and Dantal don't always want to stress them on the same syllables. I mean, that's fair! Even English today usually has at least two different widely accepted pronunciations of polysyllabic Greek names, usually differing in stress placement.
Fritz' very own theory on Socrates death: It's the sculptors' fault! They feared for their income because Socrates spoke against polytheism, so they accused him of various political offenses and got him killed.
Points for creativity! I'm not sure I've encountered that before.
an asthma attack (that's what "Steckfluss" is, right? I'm not sure how the fact that he got an emetic plays into it, though)
Either asthma or pulmonary edema, aka water in the lungs. Since Fritz had dropsy (edema, water retention) at the end and a severe cough in that last year, I think he had congestive heart failure, his lungs were filled with fluid, and the enema might have been intended to drain some of the water.
Because when I read the following words - [about animals not being capable of reasoning] - the King turned to his favourite dog and said: "Do you hear, my mignonne, they are talking about you and claiming that you don't have reason [esprit], but you do have it, my little mignonne!"
Ah, that's where that anecdote comes from! I had shared it before, but never known the source or if it was reliable.
Good to know it was near the end and that Arsinoé might have been the final favorite!
During the last months, they go back to a lot of Voltaire, mostly the history works (Louis XIV and XV)
I had always read that the last thing Fritz had read to him in July, before he was in too much pain/too little consciousness, was Voltaire. I now, thanks to you, see that it was an account of Damiens, aka the gruesomely executed mentally ill guy who tried to assassinate Louis XV.
...What a note to go out on.
During the last weeks, Fritz often fell asleep while Dantal was reading - by then, he would be wearing his nightclothes already so he could just stay asleep if he wanted - and Dantal therefore stayed until 10 at night
Awww, this whole last paragraph is so exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know, thank you. <33 I might add this book to my reading list once my German is up to it. And then bonus points for having it in French and German, because I plan to start reading a lot of things in French that I've already read in English or German or both.
Re: Dantal: Dog Name, Reading, and other Details (1784-86)
ETA: Oh, hey, I only just realized that the German translator added "der Einzige" to the title. *facepalm*
Hahaha, that's hilarious. You may have noticed we're always making "der Einzige" jokes in this salon. :D
So if you want to know which book and chapter he was reading to Fritz on any given day between November 1784 and July 1786, this is your source.
Yes! Yes, this is what I've always wanted! Thank you.
He reports that Fritz had a lot to say about pronunciation, kept correcting him and generally had his own ideas on the topic.
If one sentence about Fritz was ever in character, this is it.
If Fritz himself wasn't sure how to pronounce certain words, he tried to say them quietly to himself at first [...].
To be fair, there are plenty of words in English I don't know how to pronounce because I've only seen them in writing! And my instinct for where to put the stress is consistently wrong, gdi.
I was surprised that the King didn't let go of a wrong pronunciation of certain words once he'd settled on it
You were surprised? In 1784-1786?? Dear lord. In the words of Selena, "I have two words for you. Quintus Icilius." Also what do you think the Seven Years' War was all about? In the words of Macaulay on the Treaty of Hubertusburg, "The king ceded nothing. The whole Continent in arms had proved unable to tear Silesia from that iron grasp." HE DOESN'T LET GO. That's what he does! That's who he is!
he couldn't remember the author of a book he wanted to read, Dantal suggested the right one but Fritz didn't hear/register and therefore grumpily dismissed it, then sent Dantal, who didn't dare to mention it again, away to do research. Dantal had just reached the city gate, when he was called back because Fritz had remembered the name at last and all was right with the world: "Now he was completely content again and the gentle tone with which he said "c'est fort bien", gave me back the trust/confidence [Zutrauen], which the critical moment had taken away before."
Ooh, this is surprisingly like and unlike the story of Fritz and Catt not being able to think of the name of an opera and going crazy over it. Specifically, it's rather more like the doctored version Catt tells in his memoirs in which Fritz is in the wrong, than in the diary where he comes across much more positively. The two versions of the anecdote, if anyone needs a reminder. (Thank goodness for Rheinsberg!)
Dantal also mentions the order that was kept in Fritz' libraries, and that they were sorted by content, not looks, i.e. without regard for different sizes next to each other, which some owners of libraries care for the most (ha)
Ha indeed! Now that's the mark of a serious reader. :D
(with the letters on the covers - "S" for the New Palais (the Palace of Sanssouci) for example, and of course Sanssouci had a "V" because Fritz always called it Vignes) and also mentiones that nobody was allowed to move the books in Fritz' room.
Oooh, so I new they had the letters on the covers, and I knew that he often referred to what we think of as Sanssouci as his "vineyard", but I didn't realize that extended as far as thinking of it as V and the New Palace as S! Huh.
the speech in which Isocrates is trying to convince Philippos to wage war against the barbarians [the Persians I think] to free Greece
The Persians, yes. Isocrates had a bee in his bonnet about crusading against the Persians for the sake of uniting the squabbling Greek city-states. ("Free Greece" is...well, I see it's a direct translation of Dantal, but we'll call it a euphemism for "aggressive war for ulterior motives couched as freeing Ionia, a gambit which Philip declined but Alexander took up, not because he gave a shit about Greece, but because it gave the first stage of his Rendezvous with fame a veneer of respectability, a la freeing the Silesian Protestants something something :P").
Though I believe it was a letter rather than a speech--ah, I see the French has "harangue" and the German translator has chosen to translate it "Rede". Which I guess can mean "address" as well as "speech", but I see why "speech" was the obvious choice. The thing about Isocrates is that none of his works, even the ones today called "speeches", were ever delivered orally. He was a written rhetorician only, in contrast to people like Demosthenes and Aeschines. (Was 4th century Athenian oratory what I was in the middle of studying in 2019 when I got sucked into full-time Fritz? You bet it was! :'D)
Oh, and skimming through Dantal, I see Fritz has opinions on the pronunciation of Greek names like Epaminondas, and he and Dantal don't always want to stress them on the same syllables. I mean, that's fair! Even English today usually has at least two different widely accepted pronunciations of polysyllabic Greek names, usually differing in stress placement.
Fritz' very own theory on Socrates death: It's the sculptors' fault! They feared for their income because Socrates spoke against polytheism, so they accused him of various political offenses and got him killed.
Points for creativity! I'm not sure I've encountered that before.
an asthma attack (that's what "Steckfluss" is, right? I'm not sure how the fact that he got an emetic plays into it, though)
Either asthma or pulmonary edema, aka water in the lungs. Since Fritz had dropsy (edema, water retention) at the end and a severe cough in that last year, I think he had congestive heart failure, his lungs were filled with fluid, and the enema might have been intended to drain some of the water.
Because when I read the following words - [about animals not being capable of reasoning] - the King turned to his favourite dog and said: "Do you hear, my mignonne, they are talking about you and claiming that you don't have reason [esprit], but you do have it, my little mignonne!"
Ah, that's where that anecdote comes from! I had shared it before, but never known the source or if it was reliable.
Good to know it was near the end and that Arsinoé might have been the final favorite!
During the last months, they go back to a lot of Voltaire, mostly the history works (Louis XIV and XV)
I had always read that the last thing Fritz had read to him in July, before he was in too much pain/too little consciousness, was Voltaire. I now, thanks to you, see that it was an account of Damiens, aka the gruesomely executed mentally ill guy who tried to assassinate Louis XV.
...What a note to go out on.
During the last weeks, Fritz often fell asleep while Dantal was reading - by then, he would be wearing his nightclothes already so he could just stay asleep if he wanted - and Dantal therefore stayed until 10 at night
Awww, this whole last paragraph is so exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know, thank you. <33 I might add this book to my reading list once my German is up to it. And then bonus points for having it in French and German, because I plan to start reading a lot of things in French that I've already read in English or German or both.