139a. Wilhelm Schlegel to Georg Joachim Göschen in Leipzig: Amsterdam, February 1794 [*]
[Amsterdam, February 1794]
May I ask you to dispatch the enclosed letter to my friend? Should she have already left Luppa [Lucka], you are sure to know her address.
That the generous zeal with which you took an interest in her, and thus also in me, remained unchanged to the end, makes me deeply grateful. The memory of our acquaintance, short as it was, is very dear to me, and I am sure it will never fade in my heart. Please let me preserve your affection also, and give my most special messages to your wife and the whole of your family. Good-bye, and do not try your health too much in the many troubles the Wieland undertaking must be causing you. [1]
[From a later letter:]
I am sorry that your kindnesses to my friend have occasioned rumours that must have been disagreeable to you. However, I should think that such gossip would be much too improbable to be of any consequence, and would soon be forgotten. It is to be hoped that Caroline’s circumstances will soon make it possible to take her son away from Luppa [Lucka], and then everything will be forgotten very quickly there, as well as in Leipzig. [2]
Notes
[*] Source: Published in English in original source (that translation used here): both letter excerpts from Viscount Goschen (Göschen’s grandson), The Life and Times of Georg Joachim Goschen, Publisher and Printer of Leipzig 1752–1828, 2 vols. (New York, London 1903), 2:177–78; the second excerpt is undated. Concerning the relationship between Wilhelm, Caroline, and Georg Joachim Göschen, see the account in ibid., 2:173– 81 (text see supplementary appendix 137c.1). Back.
[1] On the occasion of having accompanied Caroline to Leipzig in July 1793, Wilhelm had spoken with Göschen about the latter’s plans to publish Christoph Martin Wieland’s collected works and in fact secured subscribers for the edition among his acquaintances in Amsterdam (Körner [1930], 2:11). Back.
[2] The reputation Caroline had acquired because of the episode in Mainz, her imprisonment, and the suspicious circumstances of her stay in Leipzig and Lucka would in certain contexts regrettably never be forgotten. Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott