Still going! Still clearing Fritz's valet/chamberlain Fredersdorf's name from the calumny enshrined in wikipedia that he was dismissed for financial irregularities!
More "liederlich" possibility because "slovenly" feels so weird in English, even in a historical text, whereas in German in an 18th century context liederlich does not - how about "sleazy"?
Sleazy works for me! Especially since embezzlement is what he's been doing, it fits perfectly.
I'm starting to get nervous, because Fritz' impending reversal of fortunes from confident "yeah, Prague will be my Pharsalos with me as Caesar and MT as Pompey, and then this war will be essentially over" guy to Kolin breakdown and AW retreat disaster. Yes, there are also Leuthen and Rossbach to wrap the year of on a good note for Fritz (and presumably his immediate environment), but that summer, he must have been bad to be around of. Prepare yourself, Leining, start to aquire emotional teflon armor!
Indeed! I checked, and our letters go up to July 15, so we'll get to see what he writes after Kolin, but AW is just starting the retreat on that day, so no data on that.
Build up that teflon armor!
I mean, decyphering Kurrent is hard
I mean, on the one hand, it made my eyes bleed become painfully inflamed and watery in the mornings for a week (I think we may be past that! *fingers crossed*), but on the other hand, it only took me a week to get to the point of being able to start reading the Leining letters, and I barely even know German! If I had native speaker proficiency, like, say, Fahlenkamp, this would be a million times easier. Or, you know, if it was the same handwriting but in 18th century English.
Plus Wegfraß we know could read Kurrent, she clearly read more than I have!
As for pre-Wegfraß scholars, no, I wasn't blaming them, they had no reason to look this up. It was specifically Wegfraß and Fahlenkamp I was blaming, both of whom are/were native speakers of German, one of whom could clearly read Kurrent, and both of whom were publishing books that were specifically about either Fredersdorf or his role in the Kiekemal episode. Wegfraß I can forgive for not turning this up, but since Fahlenkamp's book was published in 2015, I'm more inclined to think that he could have found this correspondence by searching the Prussian archives online for "Fredersdorf", i.e. the *subject* of his work, and gone, "Oh, hey, there's this whole collection dated 1757 that seems relevant to my interests. Seeing as I am a *native speaker*, it should take me maybe 5 days to be able to start reading it, before I publish my book making claims about Fredersdorf's activities in 1757." :P
Alternatively, not repeating unsourced Wikipedia claims about Fredersdorf's embezzlement was also a valid option!
BTW, I'm still not over Fahlenkamp seriously distorting that description by a very selected quote when he claims that Lehndorff "maliciously" described Fredersdorf as "a common man from the most backward Pommarania without any education"
SAME. It does not incline me to forgive him about using Wikipedia as his source, especially when Wikipedia didn't cite a source.
(Pangels: No contemporary but Voltaire ever insinuated that Fritz was gay! Heinrich wasn't, either, and Lehndorff was shipping Heinrich/Countess Bentinck and was in love with Amalie and certainly not with absolutely straight Heinrich! And of course all this talk about Fredersdorf's pretty face as what Fritz noticed first about him does not happen in whatever version of Lehndorff's diary I claim to have read!)
Argh!
That Fredersdorf despite his illness received Lehndorff at all - who wasn't an old friend, though Fredersdorf presumably knew him from whenever he had to coordinate things with EC, and also, unlike Leining, isn't in dire need of help - also points to him welcoming the destraction of having things to think and talk about that aren't his illness.
Aww, yes, good point. And since that was less than 3 months before his death, it does imply he kept his mind to the end. <3 Fredersdorf.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 1 - Translation
Sleazy works for me! Especially since embezzlement is what he's been doing, it fits perfectly.
I'm starting to get nervous, because Fritz' impending reversal of fortunes from confident "yeah, Prague will be my Pharsalos with me as Caesar and MT as Pompey, and then this war will be essentially over" guy to Kolin breakdown and AW retreat disaster. Yes, there are also Leuthen and Rossbach to wrap the year of on a good note for Fritz (and presumably his immediate environment), but that summer, he must have been bad to be around of. Prepare yourself, Leining, start to aquire emotional teflon armor!
Indeed! I checked, and our letters go up to July 15, so we'll get to see what he writes after Kolin, but AW is just starting the retreat on that day, so no data on that.
Build up that teflon armor!
I mean, decyphering Kurrent is hard
I mean, on the one hand, it made my eyes
bleedbecome painfully inflamed and watery in the mornings for a week (I think we may be past that! *fingers crossed*), but on the other hand, it only took me a week to get to the point of being able to start reading the Leining letters, and I barely even know German! If I had native speaker proficiency, like, say, Fahlenkamp, this would be a million times easier. Or, you know, if it was the same handwriting but in 18th century English.Plus Wegfraß we know could read Kurrent, she clearly read more than I have!
As for pre-Wegfraß scholars, no, I wasn't blaming them, they had no reason to look this up. It was specifically Wegfraß and Fahlenkamp I was blaming, both of whom are/were native speakers of German, one of whom could clearly read Kurrent, and both of whom were publishing books that were specifically about either Fredersdorf or his role in the Kiekemal episode. Wegfraß I can forgive for not turning this up, but since Fahlenkamp's book was published in 2015, I'm more inclined to think that he could have found this correspondence by searching the Prussian archives online for "Fredersdorf", i.e. the *subject* of his work, and gone, "Oh, hey, there's this whole collection dated 1757 that seems relevant to my interests. Seeing as I am a *native speaker*, it should take me maybe 5 days to be able to start reading it, before I publish my book making claims about Fredersdorf's activities in 1757." :P
Alternatively, not repeating unsourced Wikipedia claims about Fredersdorf's embezzlement was also a valid option!
BTW, I'm still not over Fahlenkamp seriously distorting that description by a very selected quote when he claims that Lehndorff "maliciously" described Fredersdorf as "a common man from the most backward Pommarania without any education"
SAME. It does not incline me to forgive him about using Wikipedia as his source, especially when Wikipedia didn't cite a source.
(Pangels: No contemporary but Voltaire ever insinuated that Fritz was gay! Heinrich wasn't, either, and Lehndorff was shipping Heinrich/Countess Bentinck and was in love with Amalie and certainly not with absolutely straight Heinrich! And of course all this talk about Fredersdorf's pretty face as what Fritz noticed first about him does not happen in whatever version of Lehndorff's diary I claim to have read!)
Argh!
That Fredersdorf despite his illness received Lehndorff at all - who wasn't an old friend, though Fredersdorf presumably knew him from whenever he had to coordinate things with EC, and also, unlike Leining, isn't in dire need of help - also points to him welcoming the destraction of having things to think and talk about that aren't his illness.
Aww, yes, good point. And since that was less than 3 months before his death, it does imply he kept his mind to the end. <3 Fredersdorf.