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cahnMore diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
Royal beds
Date: 2022-08-20 10:34 am (UTC)Here's Lehndorff description:
The bed of red velvet, embellished with embroidery, which all strangers admired, and which was the place of their first lying-together for our kings and our princes, is being sold. It is a pity that such monuments, which testify to the splendor and taste of our ancestors, are disappearing. I am sure that if we should come into possession of some furniture which Cleopatra or Livia once used, we should be delighted at the sight of this ancient glory. Likewise, after hundreds of years, posterity will probably have the same interest in the objects of our age.
You're not wrong, Lehndorff!
Well, I read Barbara Beuys' bio of Sophie Charlotte, the one
A magnificent bed for King Friedrich arrived in Berlin from the Netherlands. The Republic of the United Seven Provinces wanted to favor Prussia's king, a key ally. Three days before the performance of Britannicus, to which the Countess was invited, Electress Sophie wrote that a Dutch emissary, Juffer van der Bent, had send "a stately piece of furniture for the King in Prussia, which the lord states are giving to Her Majesty, and one too for the Countess Wartenberg and nothing for the Queen, who has such a good sense of humor that Her Majesty only laughs at her".
For context, it's 1703, and Prussia and the Netherlands are allies in the War of the Spanish Succession, which is breaking out.
If the bed arrived in 1703, it could, at least in theory, have been used for:
- 1706: FW and SD
- 1708: F1 and his third wife, Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (she of the psychotic breakdown, who unintentionally terrified F1 into thinking she was an apparition of the White Lady)
- 1733: Fritz and EC
- 1742: AW and Luise
- 1752: Heinrich and Mina
before being sold in February, 1753.
I think that's old enough and a good enough line-up of usages to impress Lehndorff, especially if the bed was really gorgeous.
Lehndorff: It was used for my dear Heinrich's marriage. Of COURSE it will be of interest to posterity!
Re: Royal beds
Date: 2022-08-21 12:10 pm (UTC)Also, I can so see Lehndorff's reasoning. :)
German grammar lesson time
Date: 2022-08-21 12:37 pm (UTC)But as to what the real answer is, here's where my German is weak and I'm going to let you make that call:
Drei Tage vor der Aufführung des Britannicus, zu der die Gräfin geladen war, schrieb Kurfürstin Sophie, eine holländische Abgesandte, Juffer van der Bent, habe »ein stattlich möbel vor den König in Preussen, so die Herrn Staaten Ihrer Majestät schencken, undt auch ehns vor die Gräfin Wartenberg undt nichts vor die Königin, die von so gutt humor ist, dass Ihre Majestät nur tharüber lachen«.
You tell me! My thoughts are:
"Her": Pragmatically weird, as you point out.
"Your": Also seems seems a little weird pragmatically: who's the addressee? Is she writing to the king of Prussia? It certainly doesn't sound like it.
"Their": Would make far more sense, but I thought the plural "Majesties" was "Majestäten"?
"His": If "Ihrer" can mean "his", please tell me.
Re: German grammar lesson time
Date: 2022-08-21 01:43 pm (UTC)"An impressive piece of furniture whom the gentlemen from the Netherlands presented to His Majesty, and another one for Countess Wartenberg, and nothing for the Queen, who is so full of amusement about this that Her Majesty only laughs about it."
Alternative: "for the Queen, who is so full of amusement about this that His Majesty only laughs about it".
Modern German would say "seine Majestät" if F1 is the one laughing/getting the present, and "ihre Majestät" if it's SC, but old fashioned Baroque German still uses "ihrer" interchangably sometimes, plus, don't forget, Sophie the multilingual grew up in the Netherlands as the daughter of a mostly French speaking Englishwoman and a German who died soon after her birth, with Huguenot teachers - German is one of the languages she learned as a child and spoke as an adult, but it wasn't her first one.
Re: German grammar lesson time
Date: 2022-08-21 01:46 pm (UTC)Modern German would say "seine Majestät" if F1 is the one laughing/getting the present, and "ihre Majestät" if it's SC
I am pleased both that my instincts were at least correct for modern German, and that I'm receiving lessons in Baroque German. Salon is so educational!
Re: German grammar lesson time
Date: 2022-08-23 04:17 am (UTC)Re: Royal beds
Date: 2022-08-23 04:14 am (UTC)Hee, that's our Lehndorff all right!