202c. Wilhelm Schlegel to Gottlieb Hufeland in Jena: Dresden, 22 July 1798 [*]
Dresden, 22 July [17]98
Dearest friend,
You were recently so gracious in taking care of several things for me, [1] and now, because I am coming to you with yet another request, I fear you will soon begin to curse both my stay in Dresden and my confidence in your obligingness.
I recently queried you concerning what fees I might need to pay apart from those at my appointment to professor. Since then, however, I have received yet another letter from the privy chancellery messenger in Gotha, who is now admonishing me regarding the fees and at the same time reminding me of his own “Tusehr.” [2] I cannot really let him wait much longer.
Since I still do not yet know what I ought to give him, however, might I request that you determine what you think is appropriate and then include the money along with the fees in my letter to him, which I am for that reason leaving unsealed. You could then straightaway deduct this expense from the honorarium I am to be receiving from the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung.
I have also enclosed my letter to the Coburg privy senior messenger administrator; I thought I should refer to him as Euer Wohlgeboren because he writes with orthographic correctness and is not demanding a douceur. [3] Hence here I am doubly unsure whether I must offer him anything at all, and, if so, how much. Would you be so kind as to determine this amount as well, enclose it in the letter, and forward it on to him, and then receive your expenses and postage and everything back immediately or, if the honorarium has already been sent, to alert me to the costs.
I might also add that the Gotha messenger inculcated to me that the fees were figured in good gold at 1 Laubthaler à 1 Reichthaler 12 Groschen.
Please pardon this dry long-windedness. Now merely a couple of remarks about literary news. —
You have probably already read the letter of the elderly Kant to Nicolai concerning the “churning out of books.” [4] I was heartily entertained by the restraint and calm with which Kant exposes Nicolai’s stupidity and baseness. The old days were certainly more polite than the present, for among Nicolai’s younger adversaries not a single one would likely deem him worthy of the attention involved in responding to his latest literary trash.
In the July issue of the Jahrbücher der Preussischen Monarchie you will find an essay by the same Novalis who is the author of the “Blüthenstaub” in Athenaeum; [5] in this essay, he views an ideal of the monarchical constitution as being realized in the person of the current king, and uses this insight as a vehicle to present his attendant philosopheme in an almost poetic garb. This essay has created a considerable stir in Berlin, even drawing the attention of the king himself, and one minister has been earnestly inquiring concerning its author.
The 2nd issue of Athenaeum must already be in your hands by now, and we are eager to read something about it soon in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung. [6]
We were all enormously pleased that the good news concerning your dear spouse continues. My wife would very much have liked to write your Mademoiselle sister-in-law today had such not been impossible for her. She is drinking the spring water for the first time again today, something she had to forego last week after coming down with a cold because of the precipitate change in the weather. [7] But now the weather is quite nice again, and we are enjoying and taking advantage of our pleasant stay here in every way possible.
Warmest regards from Caroline, Auguste, and myself to both you and yours. If Goethe is still in Jena, please be so kind as to give him my regards and ask whether he received a parcel I addressed to Weimar. [8]
Yours,
A. W. Schlegel
Notes
[*] Source: Körner (1930), 78–79.
Chronological note: Caroline’s reviews of The Most Recent Discoveries in the Realm of Women and Girls and And he shall rule over thee. Genesis 3:16 appeared the next day in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 223 (Monday, 23 July 1798) 166–68. Back.
[1] See Wilhelm’s letter to Hufeland on 15 July 1798 (letter 202a.1). Back.
[2] Fr. douceur, here: “tip, gratuity.” Back.
[3] Euer Wohlgeboren was a form of address for non-aristocratic citizens who enjoyed a certain distinguished social status in smaller towns or larger villages, including in administrative positions. Back.
[4] Attacks leveled against Friedrich Nicolai in Kant’s Über die Buchmacherey. Zwey Briefe an Herrn Friedrich Nicolai (Königsberg 1798) prompted Nicolai to respond in the lengthy book Über meine gelehrte Bildung (Berlin, Stettin 1799); Johann Gottlieb Fichte in his own turn then addressed the latter publication in Friedrich Nicolais Leben und sonderbare Meinungen: Ein Beitrag zur Litterargeschichte des vergangenen und zur Pädagogik des angehenden Jahrhunderts, ed. A. W. Schlegel (Tübingen 1801). See the supplementary appendix on Fichte’s Friedrich Nicolai’s Leben und sonderbare Meinungen. Back.
[5] Friedrich von Hardenberg “Glauben und Liebe oder der König und die Königin.” Jahrbücher der preussischen Monarchie unter der Regierung Friedrich Wilhelms des Dritten (1798) 2 (May, June, July, August) 269–86; “Blüthenstaub,” Athenaeum (1798) 70–106. Back.
[6] I.e., anxious to read a review of it in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, something that never happened; the evasiveness of the editors of the newspaper contributed to the break between the paper and Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel (contemporaneous with Schelling’s break with the paper) during the coming year (documented in letters from 1799 below). Back.
[7] Concerning the Egerbrunnen water Caroline had been drinking, see her letter to Luise Gotter in late June/early July 1798 (letter 202) with note 8 . Back.
[8] I.e., the parcel delivered by Marianne Meyer (see Wilhelm’s letter to Goethe on 18 July 1798 (letter 202b). — Goethe was in Jena 6–9 July 1798 and then again 1–16 August 1798 (Weimarer Ausgabe 3:2:214, 216–17). Back.
Translation © 2012 Doug Stott