Fredersdorf and French

[mildred_of_midgard]

Write-up by gambitten:

selenak: What this doesn't tell me, though, is: in which language did Voltaire and Fredesdorf converse? Because while as I said many an entry before, I don't doubt Voltaire did pick up some every day German to order his meals or ask for the way, I doubt it was enough to have the dialogue Catt says Fritz said they had. Did Fredersdorf learn French behind Fritz' back?

gambitten:
I've been wanting to respond to this for a while, but my access to E-Enlightenment was messed up - Oxford University Press was having problems or something.

So this is a bit of a puzzle! Strap in because it's going to be a long analysis.


We have two possibilities: that Voltaire knew enough German to speak to Fredersdorf in the latter's native language, or that Fredersdorf knew enough French to speak to Voltaire in the latter's native language. Of course, the extent of one's conversational grasp of a language can't be gleaned entirely from looking at their written correspondence; it is often easier for early learners to write and understand language in written form than to understand it spoken aloud and spontaneously converse. But correspondences do give us some clues. So let's Enlighten ourselves.

Assessing the extent to which Fredersdorf can understand French:

Voltaire wrote a single letter to Fredersdorf on the 1st of January 1753 (the same day he wrote to Friedrich and a few others announcing his resignation from the Prussian court) entirely in French. Clearly, Voltaire thought that Fredersdorf would be able to understand it. Either Fredersdorf actually knows enough French to read this rather long, complex letter, or it's just an assumption on Voltaire's part that Fredersdorf knows enough to do so; Voltaire does not know Fredersdorf personally, and could be assuming that his command of French is similar to most in the King's company (that is, good enough to read the letter unassisted), or alternatively that he could have somebody read and translate it to him, if he in fact only knows German and Voltaire is aware of this.

There are no letters from Fredersdorf to Voltaire surviving, if he wrote any at all (and there's no indication that he did). All of Fredersdorf's surviving correspondence to Freytag etc in 1753 about the Voltaire Incident in Frankfurt is in German. I'll emphasise here that ALL of Fredersdorf's surviving correspondence is in German, and from here onwards, we're talking about letters that do not survive but are mentioned in others that do by French speakers.

We know that Fredersdorf sent two letters to Madame Denis: once on the 3rd of July 1753, in response to a letter sent to him by her on the 23rd of June, and once, apparently unprompted, on the 12th of August from Potsdam. As I said before, the manuscripts for these letters, including the one from Madame Denis, do not survive. Their original language is unknown, or even whether they were personally written or dictated to somebody else to write.

First, for the July 1753 response letter; he sent this letter to Voltaire and not to Denis directly. We only know about the response because Voltaire quotes from it in a surviving letter to Denis, since of course he needs to relay the message to her somehow. Voltaire's writing on the matter was dictated to a secretary and not written in his own hand. I'll be using the original text for all of these letters:

'Ma chère enfant, Je soufre en paix mes maux, et mes disgrâces, toujours dans le même endroit, et attendant de vos nouvelles. J'ai reçu, il y a trois jours, une lettre de Fredersdorff, premier valet de chambre du Roi de Prusse, qui vous était adressée; elle est du 3 juillet; en voici les propres mots:

‘Madame, J'ai eu l'honneur de recevoir vôtre lettre du 23 juin. J'ai aussi connu le triste sort dont vous étiez tout à fait fâchée. J'espère que tout sera redressé à votre satisfaction; mais il me faut avoüer que je suis étonné d'aprendre que Mr. de Voltaire est mon ennemi, et cela pour les civilités que je lui ai faites, ce qu'il reconnaitra aisément quand il lui plaira éxercer son esprit au sujet de moi; avec cela je ne cesserai de vous éstimer, étant, avec beaucoup de considération, etc.’

Ce stile (et je ne parle pas de la pureté du stile) est aussi vandale que votre avanture.'

Here's an interesting question - why include a quotation and not just enclose Fredersdorf's letter alongside Voltaire's own, if it was addressed directly to Denis in legible French? The answer is that the quote is, of course, in clear French, but that does not necessarily mean that Fredersdorf's original letter was. Tellingly, Voltaire snarks about the 'pureté du stile' of the original letter (note: 'stile' is not deliberately misspelled to make fun of Fredersdorf's own spelling - Voltaire always spelt 'style' that way). If it was written in German, then Voltaire's secretary could be translating for the sake of Denis. If it was written in French, it was evidently in a quite poor style. Based on Voltaire's comment about the 'pureté du stile', with my knowledge of French being very limited, I'm going to tentatively suggest that Fredersdorf wrote in poor French that has been cleaned up for the sake of clarity. Or somebody wrote in French on his behalf, and it was translated from Fredersdorf's German, hence the awkward style.

We know much less about the August letter. This one was actually addressed directly to Denis. She quotes an extract from it (not the whole letter this time) in a letter to Voltaire written on the 26th of August:

'Mais voici ce que le sieur Federsdorff m'écrit de Potsdam, le 12 août: Je déclare que j'ai toujours honoré m. de Voltaire comme un père, toujours prêt à lui servir. Tout ce qui vous est arrivé à Francfort a été fait par ordre du roi; finalement je souhaite que vous jouissiez toujours d'une prospérité sans pareille, étant avec respect &c.'

Voltaire's response to this on the 1st of October is: 'Fredersdorff vous a écrit une drôle de lettre. C'est un plaisant que cet homme là.'

Again, we have no way of knowing whether this quote was verbatim (very unlikely), cleaned up, or translated from a German letter. If he is writing in French, then he's not trying to keep his knowledge of French a secret from Friedrich. Many letters, especially letters in the volatile time of 1753 addressed to either Voltaire or Denis, will be unsealed and checked before they are sent off by anybody affiliated with the King.

Conclusion: His only surviving correspondence is in German. Letters addressed to Madame Denis could possibly have been written in French; if they were, it would point to Fredersdorf being able to write (not necessarily speak) some at least passable French, and that he's not keeping this a secret from Friedrich. But without the manuscripts surviving, it's impossible to tell the original language or syntax.

Assessing the extent to which Voltaire can understand German:

This is significantly easier to analyse since there are actually surviving letters featuring Voltaire's literally transcribed written German from around 1750 to 1753. His writing indicates that he knew more than how to order meals or ask for directions, albeit in a grammatically incorrect way and not with the same level of familiarity as with his English or Italian, but that his professions to 'not understand a word of German' are an exaggeration.

I'll go through his German chronologically in the three years he was at Friedrich's court.

He sends a letter to Friedrich written in German (he probably wasn't pleased about this!) on the 13th of February 1751:

'Allerdurchlauchtigster Grossmächtigster König
Allergnädigster König und Herr,

Es hat zwar der Gegner seiner Schluss Schrift verschiedene nova eingerücket, ja sogar neue Beylagen annectiret, ich will aber um die Sache nicht noch länger aufzuhalten darauf (jedoch ohne alles præjudicirliche Einräumen) nicht weiter antworten, sondern nur Ew. Königl: May: allerunterthänigst bitten auf dasjenige was ex adverso wieder die Ordnung neuerlich angebracht ist in Sententionando nicht zu reflectiren und nunmehro ad Publicationem Sententiæ einen baldigen Terminum allergerechtest præfigiren zu lassen

wofür ersterbe

Ew. Königl. Majestæt

allerunterthänigster

de Voltaire'

From here on he very occasionally likes to include some German in his mostly French correspondence to random Germans, depending on the context.

He thanks Johann Christof Gottsched for sending him a German grammar book for French people on the 25th of April 1753, but he doesn't intend to learn it further: 'Er habt mir mit ein geschench wereheret, welches ich nicht werth bin. Ich bin zu alt um zu lern eine sprache welche si so gut lehren.'

He signs off a letter in April 1753 to Christoph Otto von Schönaich: 'Ich bin ohne Umstand sein gehorsamer Diener - Voltaire.'

Actual correspondence between Voltaire and his temporary jailer Freytag in Frankfurt:

Voltaire on the 22nd of June 1753 (in French): I can't have said anything unpleasant to your lackey, since I don't know German.

Voltaire, literally two days later: 'Messieurs!

Ich habe befolget was Sie vor eine Commission von Ihrem König an mich gehabt. Sie haben mich auch die Wache bis auf 2 Mann abgehen lassen, da mir nun diese noch ein embaras sind, so ersuche ich die Herrn, Sie wollen mir diese 2 Mann auch noch abgehen lassen, damit ich wegen meinen Schwächlichen Umständen die frische Luft geniessen möge. Ich verspreche nebst den allschon auf-gesetzten Billet mich annoch hierdurch zu engagiren das wann ich über kurtz oder lang noch einige pieces welche Seiner Majestaet zustehen finden solte als ein honnet homme an allerhöchst dieselben geträulich ausliefern, ich versehe mich dessen, und bin

Messieurs.'

Would Voltaire have been able to carry a conversation in German with this knowledge...?

Conclusion: Voltaire is not confident in his use of German, but shows some familiarity with the language by 1751. His knowledge of German is much easier to establish than Fredersdorf's potential use of French. How well could he speak it? Not a clue, but his pronunciation would be rather terrible. His written English is far better than his written German, but he was still noted to have a thick French accent by English visitors at Ferney.

My own speculations: If Voltaire and Fredersdorf were to have a conversation, it would probably have taken place in German, but if Voltaire started substituting French words when he didn't know the corresponding German word, it's possible that Fredersdorf would be able to understand.

Note: as later discovered, the Voltaire/MD correspondence from 1750-1753 is suspect (that doesn't mean none of it is real, but that further research is necessary), but the rest of the evidence stands.