219b. Wilhelm Schlegel to Georg Joachim Göschen in Leipzig: Jena, 7 February 1799 [*]
Jena, 7 February 1799
My dearest Göschen!
I have been inexcusably tardy in responding to your last letter. — At blame are my many projects, which this winter really have been extraordinarily numerous, since even amid all my professoring, which is new and therefore requires a great deal of time, I have still kept my literary projects going at full speed. But I long for news again about you and your family, and I fear such will not be forthcoming without a gentle reminder from my side.
I do hope you noticed that I did indeed immediately review Neubeck and the elegies in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung. [1] I hope you will not be displeased by either review. Knebel’s Propertius is really much better than I had expected; he certainly polished the material with admirable diligence — I would actually like to own it myself, and perhaps you can supply me with a copy at your convenience — I only had a borrowed copy. —
Here, along with Werner [?], I could praise quite commensurate with my convictions, which is not quite the case with Doolin, which is why I still owe you this review, and why I have from time to time simply postponed it. I have also resolved, should I indeed publish it, to say everything positive I can about the tasteful production of the book itself, to compare the new edition favorably with the old one, but otherwise to speak the truth — according to my own conviction, of course. [2]
What is holding me up is that I have not been able to find the first edition here, from which in Dresden I already compared a couple of songs with those in the newer edition. Hence please be so kind as to have it sent to me with Propertius at your convenience; there is no real hurry.
I consider it already settled that you will not be publishing anything of mine, though we will certainly remain no less good friends for it. [3] My writings are not such old and worn-out goods that I am embarrassed trying to find a publisher. But that’s merely playing with words! [4] But one must confess that you booksellers certainly know how to come up with odd calculations. —
You write that if you were to pay me 300 Thaler for my poems, you would lose 200. Hence if you were to pay me 100 Thaler, you would have gone to all the trouble for naught. But since that would not be fair at all, you really cannot pay me anything; indeed, since it is reliably considerably more difficult to publish a volume of poems that to compose them, by all rights I myself would have pay you a couple hundred Thaler on top of the poems themselves.
By the way, amid all my other projects now, I have quite lost sight of the entire notion of collecting my poems. Apart from Shakespeare and Athenaeum, which continue unabated, [5] I will likely begin a few other projects as well and thus have my hands quite full.
We are all doing very well indeed, and have already been anticipating perhaps a visit from you this winter. — Please do write again soon and let us know how your family is doing. Enclosed is a note from my wife to your sister-in-law — I suspect she is coming yet again with this or that request. Incorrigible. [6]
Yours,
AWSchlegel
Notes
[*] Source: Karl Gödeke, “Kleine Mitteilungen: 12. Vier Briefe A. W. Schlegels an Göschen (7 February 1799; 29 April 1799; 11 October 1799; 26 April 1800),” Weimarisches Jahrbuch für deutsche Sprache, Literatur und Kunst 4:1 (1856), 26–27. Back.
[1] Concerning the new edition of Valerius Wilhelm Neubeck, Die Gesundbrunnen. Ein Gedicht in vier Gesängen (Leipzig 1798), and Caroline’s review in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, see Wilhelm’s letter to Göschen on 31 October 1798 (letter 207a) with note 3.
Göschen had also published Elegien von Properz, trans. Karl Ludwig von Knebel (Leipzig: Göschen, 1798), which Wilhelm reviewed in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (1798) 384 (Tuesday, 18 December 1798) 713–20. Back.
[2] Concerning the new (1797) and earlier (1787) editions of Johann Baptist von Alxinger, Doolin von Maynz. Ein Rittergedicht (Leipzig, Vienna 1787), see Wilhelm’s letter to Göschen on 27 April 1798 (letter 199b) with note 4. Wilhelm never wrote the review. Back.
[3] Concerning the publication of Wilhelm’s poems, Gedichte (Tübingen: Cotta, 1800) (i.e., not by Göschen in Leipzig), see his letter to Göschen on 31 October 1798 (letter 207a) with note 6. Back.
[4] In the previous sentence, Wilhelm plays on three different meanings or derivatives of the word verlegen in needling Göschen about not publishing his poems, namely, “old, worn out,” “embarrassed,” and “publisher.” Back.
[5] I.e., the edition of Shakespeare and the continuation of Athenaeum with a new publisher, namely, Heinrich Frölich. Concerning Athenaeum, see the correspondence between Friedrich Schlegel, Caroline, and Wilhelm (and Friedrich von Hardenberg), letters 208, 209, 210, 212, 213. Back.
[6] Caroline’s note has apparently not been preserved. Back.
Translation © 2013 Doug Stott