18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

[cahn]

In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

Comments

Re: Colonel John O'Sullivan's memoirs

[luzula]

My thought was that perhaps the memoirs were in third person because someone else commissioned the narrative, and he wanted them to sound less personal. I've read/skimmed several other 18th c memoirs or diaries in English, and I've never seen one in third person before.

Yes, 18th c English is quite easy to read! I read a 1690's book and that was easy too. The main differences I've seen are:
- capitalization of nouns (could there be an influence from German??)
- partly different contractions ('tis, 'twill, 'twould, but I'll and you'll etc are also very common. Contractions seem to get less common in writing in the early 19th c? Austen doesn't use them even in dialogue, while I often see them used in non-fiction published texts in the 18th c.)
- sometimes but not always use of the long s
- occasional differences in spelling
- differences in apostrophe use (walk'd, tho')
- shortened forms of words/names (Wm for William, etc, often with the last letter raised up)