Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 48

[cahn]

Some awesome historical RPF candyheartsex stories for meeeeee (or by me, in one tiny case) with historical characters! I'm just going to note whom the stories are about here. They are all so good!!

Anne Boleyn/Catherine of Aragorn
Frances Howard and Frances Coke (or: James I's court was basically a HOTBED of scandal, omg)

And two that are also historical RPF but also consistent with the Jude Morgan novel The King's Touch, which is an excellent historical novel narrated by James ("Jemmy") Scott, Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's illegitimate son.

Princess Henrietta of England (Charles II's sister and wife of Philippe I duc d'Orleans)
James of Monmouth/William/Mary

Comments

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3, take 2 - Revised translation

[selenak]

Same here. BTW, I was wavering between “in the Fredersdorf fashion”, “in the Fredersdorf manner”, and “in the Fredersdorf way” - whatever sounds idiomatically most fluent in English, I suppose. And on second thought, perhaps instead of “good and bad words” it should be “soft and harsh words” in English?

Anyway, something that unites the first three guys we’re seeing writing to Fredersdorf in 1757 - Leining, Fredersdorf’s secretary Gentz and later Anderson - is that they all come across as looking up to him and not just professing their friendship but wanting advice, signalling some kind of mentor relationship. It occurs to me that they are all probably younger than him (except for Anderson, I mean, I have no idea whether or not he is younger, but I guess job wise he could be of the same age) , and of course given the different positions he had, he really could have worked as a role model for each of them.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3, take 2 - Revised translation

[cahn]

I think "in the Fredersdorf fashion" is the one that I like the most (as wording, not as a translation), although it's a bit idiosyncratic -- I suppose "in the Fredersdorf manner" is idiomatically smoother. "Soft and harsh words" is probably better in English, yes.

is that they all come across as looking up to him and not just professing their friendship but wanting advice, signalling some kind of mentor relationship.

I like thinking about Fredersdorf also being a good teacher/mentor! :D

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3, take 2 - Revised translation

[mildred_of_midgard]

I think "in the Fredersdorf fashion" is the one that I like the most (as wording, not as a translation), although it's a bit idiosyncratic -- I suppose "in the Fredersdorf manner" is idiomatically smoother. "Soft and harsh words" is probably better in English, yes.

Yeah, either "fashion" or "manner" works for me; "way" isn't wrong, per se, but it's definitely markedly more casual. "In the Fredersdorf tradition" would also work for me.

Agree about "soft and harsh words," that's probably something I would have changed if I were polishing this up for Rheinsberg (which I intend to do if we make it through the rest of the letters--which I hope we do!).