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: Philippe and Liselotte gossip

[luzula]

She had allowed her ladies to indulge in gallantries

I love this phrasing! I mean, most often you would read phrasing like that applied to men, so I'm glad women get to use it as well.

It really seems like the word "gallant/galant" as applied to love affairs or sleeping around (with various other connotations as well) is a very 18th century thing, in a lot of languages! English, French, German and Swedish have it, though I don't know enough about German and French to know if it's a specifically 18th century thing there? It definitely is in Swedish. Some use of Google translate shows that the word exists in Spanish, Romanian and Russian too, though obviously I don't know its cultural history there.

ETA: I just asked my Spanish flatmate, and it's the same there...

Re: Philippe and Liselotte gossip

[selenak]

"Galante Abenteuer" is a 17th and 18th century kind of thing in German, too, yes, as is "Galanterie". Re: application towards women, I seem to recall it used specifically for Liselotte's contemporary Ninon de Lenclos, whom it fitted very well, and that was the first time I saw it used as a child, too!