135.4. Friedrich Schlegel to Wilhelm Schlegel in Amsterdam: Leipzig] 30 October 1793 [*]
[Leipzig] 30 October 1793
I did not write you the last postal day because I did not really have any news to pass along to you, since the normal messenger had not come in [from Lucka]. Although I did receive your note to me and the enclosure, I cannot accept your excuse. You did not consider that letters take six to eight days, so with this one you once again have three previous letters from me in which at least some things merit a response.
I also have work to do, regardless of whether at my own initiative or that of some stupid office; moreover, I tend to write you such lengthy letters even though my free time is so limited, for I have far more correspondence than you; and even though the time is quite enjoyable and is effectively employed, [Caroline] B[öhmer] does cost me a certain amount of time.
I visited her again and have only just returned. [1] I delivered your letter myself, and it seemed to give her considerable, unaffected joy. My dear brother, I have indeed noticed how extremely irritable she is in her illness, including with respect to fanciful ideas; with respect to the matter about which I know absolutely nothing, [1a] you may very well be right. But I openly confess my conviction that your particular manner of reproach is absolutely false, and merely causes bitterness without helping in the least.
You will acknowledge my judgment as little as you do hers, since I also speak from personal experience. I wish a third party could function as a mediator between us. What I have seen in the way of content in letters to her includes only a single letter to Mainz at the beginning of this year, and then individual passages concerning her political opinions, and I have absolutely no idea how you could possibly write thus. —
A while back you reproached me as well — doubtless unfairly — for being unable to tolerate criticism, i.e., of being incapable of friendship. Pape and others as well have often criticized me quite harshly, more harshly even than you yourself, albeit gently, and I grew fond of them for precisely that reason. —
Her health is quite good considering the time and circumstances, [2] for she does admittedly still suffer from hot spells, and often from sleeplessness and anxiety, occasionally also from severe cramps. She apologizes for not answering herself, but it is extremely arduous for her to maintain the body position required for writing now. That said, you will presumably be receiving something from her soon. I told her your portrait would not be coming, [3] so when it does it will be quite a pleasant surprise and will give her considerable joy.
She asks that you send the six louis d’or very soon; she would like to pay her landlord for two months yet (which comes to eight louis d’or), since she has only paid for one; and the money she was expecting from home has not yet arrived and, given the postal disarray between Lucka and Göttingen, could be considerably delayed. —
Hence I prefer to withdraw my own request for now, [4] though not if it might no longer burden you. Even for her sake it is not really advisable for me now to be utterly without money. Moreover, my visits to her do cost me something; I cannot do it by horse for less than four or five Thaler. You can also almost certainly figure in as well that I will have to pay five to six Thaler shipping for the portrait! for I recently had to pay 1 Thaler 3 Groschen even for the modest manuscript. [5] Surely you will not begrudge me for asking for money again if you carefully consider my situation. . . .
Perhaps I should not have related to you what she wrote me. [6] “Mistreat” is a harsh word if taken seriously in its full sense, as you do, though it was only meant half in jest. But neither should you ever forget — that she is jealous of Sophie, [7] and you are jealous of Cr[ancé], and that both of you are being unfair and bitter here, albeit without wholly ignoble selfishness, and that you yourself have perhaps provoked her jealousy. — Naturally, it goes without saying that both of you are utterly unprejudiced! —
I am so tired that I simply cannot write anything more. I will write a long letter very soon. —
Notes
[*]Sources: Walzel, 129–31; KFSA 23:146–47. Back.
[1] That is, returned to Leipzig from Lucka, by horse, as Friedrich mentions later in the letter (Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Von Berlin nach Danzig: Eine Künstlerfahrt im Jahre 1773, von Daniel Chodowiecki. 108 Lichtdrucke nach den originalen in der Staatl. akademie der künste in Berlin, mit erläuterndem text und einer einführung von Wolfgang von Oettingen [Leipzig 1923], plate 20):
[1a] Concerning the father of Caroline’s unborn child. — Strictly speaking, Caroline was not ill — Friedrich uses the word Krankheit — but rather pregnant. Back.
[2] Caroline was four days away from delivery. Back.
[3] Presumably the portrait by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein mentioned earlier (Friedrich to Wilhelm on 9 October 1793 [letter 135ab]). Back.
[4] The postal routes between Göttingen and the tiny village of Lucka were circuitous in any case (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
Friedrich mentions these financial requests in his letters to Wilhelm on 28 August, 16 September, and 9 October 1793 (letters 134, 135.1, 135ab). Back.
[5] The translation mentioned in Friedrich’s letter to Wilhelm on 29 September 1793 (letter 135.2, with note 2). Back.
[6] In his letter to Wilhelm on 9 October 1793 (letter 135ab), in which he cites Caroline as having written, “What a fine way to greet people with such tenderness, hoping that nothing bad happens to them after having just mistreated them.” Back.
[7] Wilhelm’s love interest in Amsterdam, apparently Sophie Tischbein. See the supplementary appendix on Sophie Tischbein as the Amsterdam Sophie. Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott