Note 109 — IV THE ELECTORAL HOUSE OF HANOVER (HANOVER AND HERRENHAUSEN, 1688-1701)

First, they use pseudonyms of a more or less allusive nature in lieu of proper names. Thus Don Diego and la Romaine signify the Elector and the Electress (the former is not a flattering nickname in contemporary English literature; it will be remembered that the eldest of Sophia’s sisters had in former days been called la Grecque by the younger); le Grondeur, la Pédagogue, are farcical names for the Duke and Duchess of Celle, while the Electoral Prince, Sophia Dorothea’s husband, is (not quite so intelligibly) called le Réformeur; Countess Platen (query with an allusion to Monplaisir) la Perspective, and Sophia Dorothea herself goes by the appellation of la petite louche, or of le cœur gauche, or of Léonisse, a character in a romance of the times. Aurora von Königsmarck is l’Avanturière, and Prince Ernest Augustus l’Innocent. Secondly, the writers of these letters employ a numerical cipher of a tolerably simple kind. Of this Professor Palmblad, who published a few of the letters (carefully selecting the worst), and who formed a monstrous hypothesis upon them, lacked the key; Mrs. Everett Green, who possessed it, was already able to decipher most of the names; Mr. Wilkins had not to leave much obscure. Thirdly, names, and occasionally other words, are spelt in figures, the chief difficulty of deciphering being in this case the phonetic spelling adopted by Königsmarck (biljay = billet, &c.). Finally, the lovers also resorted to an occasional cryptogram, which would not deceive a child. A name, such as Chauvet, is split up and interlarded with the letters ‘illy’—thus: ‘illychauillyvetilly.’ The farce of insertion might have gone further. Cf. Appendix B as to the Berlin letters.