132a. Friedrich Schlegel to Wilhelm Schlegel in Amsterdam: Leipzig, 3 August 1793 [*]
[Leipzig, 3 August 1793] [1]
Dear Wilhelm, the enclosed letter will probably tell you everything you want to know, and for this evening I can add only a few accompanying lines of my own. [2] Moreover, I am not at all yet capable of writing about what is occupying me the most just now, so much so that I must postpone everything else, much of which is also of great concern to me.
The impression she has made on me is much too extraordinary for me to assess and relate to you clearly this soon. [3] She has probably already written and told you that she put herself completely in Göschen’s hands and that I have essentially nothing to do with the matter, and that I am quite unable even to comprehend everything at this point. [4] Initially I could not help suspecting the reason was that she simply thought too little of me. I was perhaps mistaken in that, and it is better for Göschen to arrange for her stay rather than I. [5] —
I am free to entertain my own suspicions, and it may well be that I am not permitted to know all the reasons behind her concealment; nonetheless it does not seem good for me to remain so in the dark. [6] Please relate what she writes about me, as much as you can and may. It could give me considerable guidance; we quickly arrived at a certain measure of trust and of open communication at least with respect to our thoughts. I have absolutely no idea and am wholly puzzled concerning what she actually thinks of me, though I seem to be largely a person of indifference to her.
Göschen cannot understand why she came specifically with you. — Contra your instructions, I for all practical purposes did not respond to him at all that I might instead leave everything to you, since you have to write to him yourself in any case. [7] Even in H[annover] I was already inclined to raise objections in this regard. [8] If there are some secrets or other behind all this that I am not to guess, then you should not have made it so easy for me, [9] and if such not be the case, then you could have said a few words to keep me from making the inevitable mistakes. [10]
You should have given me a letter. She has often prattled on about that; and also asked whether you had written from Hannover to Holland. I know not whether I should speak with her about that relationship, [11] and hence acted as if I knew nothing when she started querying me.
We spoke quite often about you, moreover, as it seemed to me, quite openly as well. But she did not really tell me more than I already knew from the letters. [12]
I will write you no more about her, no judgments, no stories, no suspicions. Anything I might say would be merely confused and superficial, and I might even run the risk of expressing myself with excessive emotion, and it seems to me that being excessively emotional about her is the same as sinning against her. Perhaps I can succeed in comprehending her quickly without being dazzled.
More anon.
F. S.
Notes
[*] Sources: Walzel, 98–99; KFSA 23:111. Back.
[1] The date of this letter can be deduced from Friedrich’s letter of 2 August 1796 (letter 168): “It was three years ago today that I first saw you” (thus also KFSA 23:424.52n1) (Bergisches Taschenbuch für 1798: Zur Belehrung und Unterhaltung; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[2] Wilhelm had returned to Germany from Amsterdam to accompany Caroline from Frankfurt to Leipzig after her release and was now back in Amsterdam. The enclosed letter from Caroline to Wilhelm seems not to have been preserved. Back.
[3] Concerning Friedrich’s first impressions of Caroline as transfigured in hindsight in 1798 and 1799, see “Caroline in Friedrich Schlegel’s Lucinde. Ein Roman (Berlin 1799),” supplementary appendix 132a.1. Back.
[4] Wilhelm had not yet told Friedrich about Caroline’s pregnancy. Back.
[5] Friedrich had made overtures to Caroline in his letter to her in early July 1793 (letter 130a) about arranging a place for her to stay. Back.
[6] As it turned out, Georg Joachim Göschen did quickly become apprehensive about the implications of a scandal and essentially turned things over to Friedrich. Back.
[7] Although Georg Joachim Göschen does initially seem to have been willing to take Caroline in, as Caroline herself points out in her letter to Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer on 30 July 1793 (letter 132), it quickly became clear that she could not stay in Leipzig indefinitely. Moreover, as becomes clear over the next few letters Friedrich writes to Wilhelm, rumors and innuendo concerning Caroline and Wilhelm himself as the presumed father of Caroline’s child ultimately prompt Wilhelm to send a written explanation to Göschen, albeit not until 13 January 1794 (letter 137c). Back.
[8] Friedrich had just returned from a two-week stay in Hannover at the home of his and Wilhelm’s parents, where he had met with Wilhelm during Wilhelm’s return journey to Amsterdam (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]; illustration: Penelope Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1813 der Häuslichkeit und Eintracht; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[9] Namely, to discern immediately that Caroline was pregnant. Back.
[10] As intimated in note 8 above, Friedrich was not in Leipzig when Caroline and Wilhelm arrived, Wilhelm having arranged for him to be in Hannover for two weeks instead (as Friedrich points out in a letter to Friedrich von Hardenberg in July 1793 [KFSA 23:110]), presumably because of Caroline’s pregnancy.
Wilhelm met Friedrich in Hannover after having left Caroline at the house of the publisher Georg Joachim Göschen, an arrangement that seems to have been initiated by Caroline’s friend in Gotha, Luise Gotter (Körner [1930], 2:10), but mentioned nothing to him about her pregnancy even there.
Friedrich apparently returned to Leipzig on or around 1 August and met Caroline for the first time on 2 August 1793, only then discerning her condition, she then being fully six months into her pregnancy. Back.
[11] Namely, between Wilhelm and a certain “Sophie” (presumed to be Sophie Tischbein) in Amsterdam. See the supplementary appendix on Sophie Tischbein as the Amsterdam Sophie. Back.
[12] Frontispiece to Deutsche Schaubühne 28 (Augsburg 1791), no. 4:
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott