• 160. Wilhelm Schlegel to Auguste in Braunschweig: 1795/96 [*]
[1795/96]
|378| . . . What your mother said about men she could just as easily have said about women. They, too, often act quite nice to a person without really being sincere about it. It is when a person becomes unhappy or experiences misfortune that he finds out who his friends really are. True friends show twice as much love as before; false ones act as if they do not even know you. Your mother has experienced this herself. [1]
The two of you, you and your mother, will have to decide together sometime whether you are willing to trust me. Surely you will not be against me, my dear Gustel! [2]
I hear you are a real sweetheart and that you give your mother much joy. For just that reason, I am very fond of you and hope your days are quite entertaining. [3]
Your friend Wilhelm
Notes
[*] The manuscript of this letter, of which Waitz (1871), 1:166, published only this present excerpt, seems not to have been dated, since Waitz himself (ibid., note 1) remarks that this and the following letter (letter 161) “seem to belong to this period, since Schlegel was not yet united with Caroline.” Nor is it entirely clear where the letter was written. Although Wilhelm could well already be in Braunschweig, certain remarks (“I hear you are a real sweetheart,” “Surely you will not etc.”) suggest that Wilhelm has not yet made Auguste’s acquaintance. Back.
[1] E.g., in Gotha 1794–95 (Leipziger Taschenbuch für Frauenzimmer zum Nutzen und Vergnügen auf das Jahr 1798; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[2] Christian Gotthilf Salzmann, Moralisches Elementarbuch, vol. 1 (Vienna 1794): plate 5:
[3] Wilhelm arrived in Braunschweig in late June or early July 1795, after which ten-year-old Auguste once again had a father figure in her life ([1] Goettinger Taschen Calender für das Jahr 1791; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung; [2] frontispiece to Jakob Glatz, Sittenlehre für jüngere Mädchen in Beyspielen und Erzählungen, vol. 1 [Frankfurt 1807]):
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott