It‘s a small 18th century world: was just reading a bit about Warren Hastings‘ trial in the G3 biography. Also Feuchtwanger wrote a drama (as in play) about Warren Hastings, so I know tidbits of his story. Did Price publish these five letters before, during or after the trial?
Anyway, LOL about Tido the wannabe Casanova. I‘m intrigued by the phrasing he sought intimacy „with Duchesses and Lady Marys“ - given „our“ Lady Mary was a prominent figure in her life time and chances are someone interested in the East had read her Embassy Letters, so do you think Price makes an allusion to her here? I mean, not in the sense that Tido was trying to get it on with her, obviously she was dead and had been for many years at that point, in the sense that he uses „Lady Mary“ as a stand in for „English aristocratic lady who travels abroad and writes about it“ because Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was still the most famous Englishwoman wo have done so at this point?
Basra I know mainly from the 1001 nights story where the main character wants to avoid literal Death who waits for him in Basra and asks Haroun Al Rashid for help.
Anyway, it looks like Tido‘s true career should have been that of a pirate….
Did Price publish these five letters before, during or after the trial?
Before: the trial was in 1787.
Lady Mary was a prominent figure in her life time and chances are someone interested in the East had read her Embassy Letters, so do you think Price makes an allusion to her here?
I was wondering about that! It's possible.
I mean, not in the sense that Tido was trying to get it on with her
She was dead when Joseph Price wrote this, but so was Tido (1780). She was alive during Tido's lifetime, and they were even both in northern Italy in the early 1740s! Lady Mary didn't die until 1762, at which point Tido has disappeared (last known-to-us whereabouts in 1744), so who knows where he went and what he did and who he attempted to get it on with. The impression I have is that Basra was one of the earlier places Tido went to, because he had many adventures after that (as described by Price).
Anyway, she wasn't in the Middle East when Tido was there, which is the more relevant point. So yes, I suspect she's become a byword for "lady traveler in the Middle East"!
Anyway, it looks like Tido‘s true career should have been that of a pirate….
Tido is a character. First he satirizes Fritz so effectively he gets arrested, then he escapes, then he wanders Europe trying to get himself killed by having adventures, tries and fails twice to get to America, threatens suicide all over the place, joins the Second Silesian War, ends up somehow in Basra and Jakarta, and either does the things Price says or becomes the kind of person of whom these stories are told!
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timeasmymeasure
Re: A Knyphausen Abroad
Date: 2025-01-16 09:34 am (UTC)Anyway, LOL about Tido the wannabe Casanova. I‘m intrigued by the phrasing he sought intimacy „with Duchesses and Lady Marys“ - given „our“ Lady Mary was a prominent figure in her life time and chances are someone interested in the East had read her Embassy Letters, so do you think Price makes an allusion to her here? I mean, not in the sense that Tido was trying to get it on with her, obviously she was dead and had been for many years at that point, in the sense that he uses „Lady Mary“ as a stand in for „English aristocratic lady who travels abroad and writes about it“ because Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was still the most famous Englishwoman wo have done so at this point?
Basra I know mainly from the 1001 nights story where the main character wants to avoid literal Death who waits for him in Basra and asks Haroun Al Rashid for help.
Anyway, it looks like Tido‘s true career should have been that of a pirate….
Re: A Knyphausen Abroad
Date: 2025-01-16 10:04 am (UTC)Before: the trial was in 1787.
Lady Mary was a prominent figure in her life time and chances are someone interested in the East had read her Embassy Letters, so do you think Price makes an allusion to her here?
I was wondering about that! It's possible.
I mean, not in the sense that Tido was trying to get it on with her
She was dead when Joseph Price wrote this, but so was Tido (1780). She was alive during Tido's lifetime, and they were even both in northern Italy in the early 1740s! Lady Mary didn't die until 1762, at which point Tido has disappeared (last known-to-us whereabouts in 1744), so who knows where he went and what he did and who he attempted to get it on with. The impression I have is that Basra was one of the earlier places Tido went to, because he had many adventures after that (as described by Price).
Anyway, she wasn't in the Middle East when Tido was there, which is the more relevant point. So yes, I suspect she's become a byword for "lady traveler in the Middle East"!
Anyway, it looks like Tido‘s true career should have been that of a pirate….
Tido is a character. First he satirizes Fritz so effectively he gets arrested, then he escapes, then he wanders Europe trying to get himself killed by having adventures, tries and fails twice to get to America, threatens suicide all over the place, joins the Second Silesian War, ends up somehow in Basra and Jakarta, and either does the things Price says or becomes the kind of person of whom these stories are told!
Never a dull moment...