• 207c. Friedrich Schlegel to Auguste Böhmer in Jena: Berlin, November 1798 [*]
[Berlin, November 1798]
Henriette wanted to write you but will do so another time. [1] —
Thus it is with people with worldly inclinations, [2] and there you simultaneously answer your own question, my dear, divine little niecekin! With this reference to “worldliness,” however, I am not at all saying that Henriette was not just as happy as you and also just as excited about seeing you and delighted with your own amiable excitement at the possibility of her visit; nor am I saying that I was under the impression or believed that I myself had been entirely extirpated and had disappeared from your tender heart.
Quite to the contrary, your last, charming letter proves to me that you are still fond of me and not so terribly angry. But listen, I promised nothing with regard to me myself coming or not coming. Nor does one really have to promise something like that so far in advance. Once you are here, [3] we can, both of us, sit down and consider together when it would be best for me to come visit all of you and when you actually want me to come. [4]
As far as the Ungermonsteress’s letters are concerned, I was thinking it best that all of you forget about it until you come, then I will simply give them to all of you or even just to you alone — cede them to you in perpetuity. [5]
Madam Veit is excessively piqued because you sent such tender regards to Henriette and none at all to her. And that really is very one-sided of you.
Are you among the students attending Wilhelm’s lectures? [6] — And in the larger sense as well, in which scholarly discipline are you primarily engaged just now? — I for my part |639| am concentrating primarily on the romantic science. [7] Tell your mother that and ask her how her little novel is doing. [8] —
It is good that the weather is beautiful and that you are merry, and also pleasant for me to hear.
Please give my regards to Schelling and ask him whether his philosophy of nature will not be published soon. [9] Tell him I am quite anxious to read it.
Only imagine: I recently spoke with Madam Fleck, who does not know at all that, as word has it, Iffland himself is intending to play the role of Hamlet in Hamlet, and she asks me quite naively who would be performing the role. And I preferred to let her remain in her ignorance. [10]
Your eternal Friedrich
Notes
[*] Source: Schmidt (1913), 1:638–39 (letter no. 24); Waitz (1871), 1:370; reprinted in KFSA 24:191–92. — Dating according to KFSA 24. — Concerning the textual history of Friedrich Schlegel’s letters to Auguste Böhmer, see supplementary appendix 181d.1. Back.
[1] Concerning Henriette Mendelssohn’s journey to Vienna, see Friedrich’s letter to Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel on 15 December 1798 (letter 212). Also earlier Caroline’s letter to Friedrich 14–15 October 1798 (letter 204) with note 30. Back.
[2] Concerning those with “worldly inclinations” and “clerics,” see Friedrich’s letter to Caroline on 20 October 1798 (letter 205). Back.
[3] The Schlegels did not make the trip to Berlin to accompany Henriette Mendelssohn back to Jena; it seems, however, that plans were at least being considered again for a journey to Berlin. Back.
[4] Friedrich would not return to Jena from Berlin until September 1799 (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
[5] Concerning Friederike Unger’s letters, see Friedrich’s letter to Auguste in October 1798 (letter 203e). Back.
[6] Concerning Wilhelm’s lectures during the winter semester 1798–99, see Wilhelm’s letter to Georg Joachim Göschen on 31 October 1798 (207a) with note 2. Back.
[7] “Romantic,” presumably an allusion to Germ. Roman, “novel,” as an indirect reference to Friedrich’s work on his novel Lucinde. Concerning the use of the term “romantisch” during this period, see Caroline to Luise Gotter on 16 June 1780 (letter 16) with note 1, though esp. the voluminous secondary literature on Friedrich’s own understanding of the term. Back.
[8] Friedrich mentions such a “little” or “short novel” in his letters to Caroline on 20 October 1798 and 29 October 1798 (letters 205, 207).
See in any case Caroline’s draft of a novel, also Friedrich’s letter to Caroline in late March 1799, where he writes:
One more thing about novels. If I believed you could write only the one novel that you intend to leave as your legacy to the world, I would be wrong to demand it while still alive. But precisely that is the point, namely, that I am convinced you would write more than just this one were it but finally published. Back.
[9] Erster Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie: Zum Behuf seiner Vorlesungen (Jena 1799); Einleitung zu einem Entwurf der Naturphilosophie, oder: Ueber den Begriff der speculativen Physik und die innere Organisation eines Systems dieser Wissenschaft (Jena, Leipzig 1799). Back.
[10] The actress Sophie Luise Fleck was expecting the role of Hamlet to be assigned to her husband, Johann Friedrich Fleck, rather than to the unsuitable August Wilhelm Iffland. Friedrich has obviously picked up on this interest and is probably wisely disinclined to commit himself (Göttinger Taschen Calendar Für das Iahr 1795; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
Concerning the problems with staging Wilhelm’s translation of Hamlet in Berlin, see Ella Horn’s essay on the background to the premiere of Hamlet in Berlin, who cites a letter in which Iffland acknowledges to Wilhelm Schlegel why he, Iffland, felt unsuited to perform the part of Hamlet and had assigned the role to someone else after all. Back.
Translation © 2013 Doug Stott