Letter 188

• 188. Caroline to Luise Gotter in Gotha: Jena, 15 October 1797

Jena, 15 Oct[ober] 1797

|432| My dear, here I am returning to you your more complete copy of the Geisterinsel. [1] It was too late. Schiller has already sent everything off to Swabia to be printed, it is probably almost finished, so neither could it be sent there, for example, after the other material. [2] The changes are not all that extensive, are they? But it really is a shame. Only be careful to allow plenty of time for Marianne.

As far as your trip here is concerned, dear soul, I have long considered the whole thing and am firmly insisting on my opinion. As soon as you arrive, you will see that it is quite convenient for you to come. Only please write at the beginning of next week and let me know the day; we are impatiently looking forward to it, for there is so much about it we will enjoy, even picking you up. [3] But I cannot really stay more than a day there. Schlegel would simply be too alone here. He has no one but me. [3a]

Warm regards to Minchen, and tell her I wanted to answer her in person; then I can also give an extensive account of a visit |433| I had. Madam Liebeskind, ci devant Forkel, [4] came through here from Königsberg with her husband, who has become a senior civil servant in Anspach [Ansbach], and with 2 fruits of their love, namely, Adelbert and Antonie; they stayed with me for 4 days, which after all was said and done was not as bad as I initially thought it would be. [5]

Einsiedel, whose personal acquaintance I recently made, who pleased me greatly, and who just sent me one of his little works accompanied by the most charming letter, a work dealing with the theater that is remarkably good, a carefully considered piece and quite sensitively expressed [6] — this same Einsiedel charged me with asking you about a manuscript of his, Lothimela. A Tragedy. It must be lying somewhere among Gotter’s papers. [7] Try to find it beforehand — we can take it along with us and deliver it to him in Weimar. And let me also earnestly entreat you to organize the biography of Diderot by his daughter. Schlegel would very much like to read it; since he is just now having to deal with Diderot specifically, it would be extremely interesting to him. [8]

I was horrified to hear about Cecile’s illness. She would admittedly not have been permitted to do something like that to me here. Let us hope it will soon be over and that everything will finally accord with our wishes and you will soon be sitting here next to me. [9]

Your Caroline

Notes

[1] Concerning the Geisterinsel and several other pieces under discussion at the time (including Mariane, which Caroline mentions later in the paragraph), see Caroline’s letter to Luise Gotter in March 1797 (letter 181) with note 2. Concerning the general disposition and posthumous publication of Gotter’s plays, see supplementary appendix 181.1. See also Caroline’s letter to Luise Gotter on 7 September 1797 (letter 185). Luise Gotter seems to have wanted to submit a more cleanly edited manuscript of Die Geisterinsel. Back.

[2] The publisher of Schiller’s periodical Die Horen, Johann Friedrich Cotta, was in Tübingen. Back.

[3] The “we” in this remark refers presumably to Caroline and an otherwise unidentified traveling companion (perhaps also Auguste; see her letter to Luise Gotter on 1 November 1797 [letter 189]) who would be traveling to Gotha to pick up Luise and her daughters to accompany them back to Jena, while Wilhelm, as she goes on to state, would be remaining in Jena.

Gotha is located ca. 60 km west of Jena (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]; Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):

Jena_Weimar_Gotha_map

Gotha_Erfurt_Weimar_Jena_map

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[3a] Friedrich Schlegel had returned to Berlin probably in late June or early July 1797, Caroline, Auguste, and Wilhelm were now the only ones residing in the apartment at Leutragasse 5. Back.

[4] Fr., “ex-Forkel.” Back.

[5] The Liebeskinds had just undertaken a prodigious journey indeed, ca. 1000 km from Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad) to Ansbach (Thomas Kitchin, [Composite of] Europe divided into its empires, kingdoms, states, republics, &c [1787]; illustration: anonymous, Departing Postal Coach [ca. 1830]):

Koenigsberg_Ansbach_map

Postal_coach_1830

Monika Siegel, “Ich hatte einen Hang zur Schwärmerey,” 142n25, dates the Liebeskinds’ arrival in Bayreuth on their way to Ansbach (in the circle of Franconia) to late September or early October 1797 based on remarks in Jean Paul Chronik. Daten zu Leben und Werk, ed. Uwe Schweikert et al. (Munich 1975), 53, which presumably would put them in Jena sometime during September 1797 (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):

Ansbach_Baireuth_map

Concerning Friedrich Schlegel’s reaction to the visit, see his letter to Auguste on 26 August 1797 (letter 184d), note 6. See esp. his letter to Auguste from Berlin in mid-November 1797 (letter 191b) concerning his further opinion of Meta Liebeskind. It will be recalled that Caroline suspected Meta Liebeskind of having betrayed the secret of her pregnancy in Königstein and the real reason for her stay in Lucka; concerning Caroline’s horrified reaction, see Friedrich’s letter to Wilhelm on 28 August 1793 (letter 134), esp. with note 14 there. Back.

[6] Concerning this piece and Caroline’s interest in it, see her letter of thanks to Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel on 18 October 1797 (letter 188a) for having sent her his anonymous Grundlinien zu einer Theorie der Schauspielkunst, nebst der Analyse einer komischen und tragischen Rolle, Falstaf und Hamlet von Shakespeare (not especially long: 134 pages), which was published by Georg Joachim Göschen in Leipzig in 1797. Back.

[7] No tragedy by either Einsiedel himself or Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter with the title Lothimela is known. Back.

[8] Wilhelm Schlegel did not write anything about these Mémoires, which at the time were circulating in manuscript form, whence Caroline’s request to organize the materials.

They were arranged by Diderot’s only daughter, Madame de Vandeul, née Marie-Angélique Diderot, and published later: “Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de Diderot, par Madame de Vandeul, sa fille,” in Denis Diderot, Mémoires, correspondance et ouvrages inédits de Diderot, 4 vols. (Paris 1830), 1:1–64.

Interestingly, they were first published in Germany (in French) as M. A. de Vandeul, “Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la Vie et des Ouvrages de Feu M. Diderot,” Allgemeine Zeitschrift von Deutschen für Deutsche, ed. Schelling, vol. 1 (only volume), issues 1–4 (Nürnberg 1813), 141–95. Diderot himself had connections both with the court and with literary life in Gotha (see Caroline’s letters to Luise Gotter on 1 November 1797 [letter 189] and in late 1798 or early 1799 [letter 214]). Back.

[9] Patriotische Beschäftigung einiger deutscher Damen (after ca. 1789); Herzog August Bibliothek Graph. A1/ 2201r:

Women_girls_table

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Translation © 2012 Doug Stott