Feb. 12th, 2020

Since the last round of textual criticism was posted, several new developments have turned up. In this post, I'm going to report on these developments and how they've affected the conclusions of the previous posts. I will stop short of doing a polished write-up of each new source in this post, especially since producing the necessary evidence for similarities would involve adding new excerpts from existing sources.

ExpandThiébault overview )

ExpandThiébault summary )

ExpandThiébault analysis )

We then turned up a Katte passage in the memoirs of Andrew Mitchell.

ExpandMitchell overview )

ExpandMitchell summary )

ExpandMitchell analysis )

We then turned up an anonymous pamphlet that was published shortly after Katte's execution.

ExpandPamphlet overview )

ExpandPamphlet summary )

ExpandPamphlet analysis )

But by far the most earth-shattering discovery has been just how unreliable Catt is. He is basically a historical novelist. You can read a detailed account of the evidence here. In sum, Catt is unreliable in three main ways:

- Taking anecdotes he read in books, or heard from other people, and putting them in Fritz's mouth.
- Changing the dates on which he had conversations with Fritz, and combining unrelated conversations.
- Rewriting entire episodes to make himself look better, even if it makes Fritz look worse.

It's entirely possible that twenty-years' worth of conversations with Fritz are packed into this memoir supposedly covering the first two years.

Below the cut, a dissection of the passage in which Fritz supposedly tells Catt about his escape attempt, imprisonment, and Katte's execution. To make a long story short, it purports to be a single conversation, but is really a composite of conversations that took place on different days, including conversations that weren't with Fritz.

ExpandDeconstructing Catt )

So here's my current thinking on the subject.

ExpandExternal and textual evidence for source relationships )

ExpandEvidence for source relationships from their content )

And now, for my tentative conclusions on what happened and who said what when.

ExpandHow it (probably maybe idk) happened )

ExpandNotes for consolidated write-up )

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