258v. Wilhelm Schlegel to Goethe in Weimar: Jena, 23 March 1800 [*]
Jena, 23 March 1800
I received your parcel the day before yesterday and immediately and with great delight had a look at the new material in it. [1] A remark you made in your letter intensified the wish, one I have long had, to come over to Weimar for a day sometime, and if the weather does not render such impossible, and if our patient stays the course on her way to recovery, which she seems finally to have commenced since last night, I would hope to ride over on Tuesday or Wednesday. [2] In any event, you will receive the manuscript per courier on Wednesday.
When I last wrote you, I was hoping that my wife’s illness had essentially passed. This insidious nervous fever, however, returned with a vengeance, this time with extremely unpleasant bouts of cramping, and has plagued us with varying degrees of concern the entire time. Only the strongest treatments have been able to stem it, including musk, opium, and, in between, as the only aid for her exhausted strength, constant servings of Hungarian wine.
Should you yourself have some of the latter available, might I be so blunt as to request a bottle from you? There is none left here to buy, nor any in Weimar, and the inventory of our friends who have hitherto supplied us is becoming depleted, since they have been helping other ill people with it as well. We are well supplied for the next few days, in part with a bit of Hungarian wine, in part also with a bottle of excellent Lünell, which Herr von Einsiedel was kind enough to send me; [3] but I am worried that my wife will not so quickly be able to do without this particular fortifier, one which she has had to use to an extent she would otherwise, in a normal, healthy condition, not at all have been able to tolerate. [4]
We are otherwise all healthy, even Tieck is doing better, and has, moreover, composed some quite nice things recently. [5]
I am herewith sending along to you for the time being a copy of my freshly printed poems, which I afterward intend to replace with a nicer edition for you. [6] That is, the edition on vellum will not be ready for a few weeks yet. — You will doubtless discover the new material quite on your own; it constitutes a not inconsiderable part of the whole.
Stay very well; I hope to visit you soon in your house there should I not otherwise have the good fortune beforehand of seeing you again here with us.
AWSchlegel
Notes
[*] Source: Körner-Wieneke 97. Back.
[1] Goethe had sent Wilhelm copies of the “Venetianische Epigramme,” “Die Weissagungen des Bakis,” and “Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen.” Concerning the latter poem, see Anton Kerner von Marilaun, The Natural History of Plants: Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution, trans. F. W. Oliver, half-vol. 1 (London 1895), 12 (illustration ibid.):
Whilst seeking to explain metamorphosis in this manner, and endeavouring, with greater perspicacity than all his predecessors and contemporaries, “to reduce to one simple universal principle all the multifarious phenomena of the glorious garden of the world,” Goethe conceived the notion of a typical plant, an ideal, the realization of which is achieved in nature by means of a manifold variation of individual parts.
This abstract notion of a plant’s development with its six stages corresponding to “three wave-crests” or expansions (Leaf, Petal, Carpel) and “three wave-troughs” or contractions (Cotyledon, Sepal, Stamen) is expressed graphically in figure 3. It still holds its ground at the present day under the name of Goethe’s “Urpflanze,” and the credit of its invention is entirely his.
But it is not quite right to claim for Goethe, in addition, the title of founder of the doctrine of vegetable metamorphosis; for in reality he only offered another interpretation and mode of representation of a phenomenon already included by Linnæus under the term metamorphosis.
Here an illustration of the primal or proto-plant:
Against this background, the following translation of the poem Wilhelm received may be of some interest (translation from Paul Carus, Goethe: With Special Consideration of His Philosophy [Chicago 1915], 252–53):
First printed in Schiller’s Musen-Almanach for 1799 but probably written nine years before that date, simultaneously with Goethe’s treatise entitled “An Essay to Explain the Metamorphosis of Plants” (1790). The ideas therein presented which are an anticipation of the theory of evolution did not make a favorable impression and elicited only vigorous protest on the part of specialists. Goethe wrote this poem in order to prepare the public for his conception.
Thou art confused, my beloved, at seeing the thousandfold medley, Shown in this flowery mass, over the garden dispersed; Many a name, love, thou hearest assigned; one after another Falls on thy listening ear with a barbarian sound. None of these forms are alike but they all bear a certain resemblance. And a mysterious law is by their chorus revealed. Yea, 'tis a sacred enigma, my loveliest friend; could I only Happily teach thee the word which will the mystery solve! Closely observe how the plant is developing little by little, How it will grow by degrees changing to blossom and fruit! First from the seed it unravels itself, as soon as the silent, Motherly womb of the earth kindly allows its escape, And to the charms of the light, which is holy and ever in motion, Trusteth its delicate leaves, feebly beginning to shoot. Simple the force is that slumbers in seeds; 'tis a germ of the future, Peacefully locked in itself, 'neath the integument hid, Leaflet, and rootlet, and bud, still void of all color, and shapeless, Such as the kernel, while dry, holdeth in motionless life. Upward then striveth the plant and it swelleth with delicate moisture, Forth from the night where it dwelt, straightway ascending to light. Simple remaineth its shape, when the green first makes it appearance; And 'tis a token like this, points out the child ’mid the plants. Soon though an off-shoot, succeeding it, rises on high, and repeateth, Piling up node upon node, ever the primitive form; Yet not always alike: for the following leaf, as thou seest, Ever produceth itself, fashioned in manifold ways, Longer and more indented, in points and in parts more divided, — Forms which were latent till now, sleeping in organs below. So it attaineth at length its predestined and noble perfection, Which in these numerous forms, fills thee with wondering awe. Ribbed it appears here and toothed, on its surface exuberant swelling, Free and unending the shoot seemeth in fulness to be; Nature, however, restraineth with powerful hand the formation, And she perfecteth the plant, gently completing its growth, Yielding the juices with lesser abundance, contracting the vessels, So that the figure ere long nobler effects will disclose. See how the growth of the foliage here on the edge is retarded, While there the rib of the leaf fuller becometh in form. Leafless, however, and quick the tenderer stem then upspringeth, And a miraculous sight will the observer enchant. Ranged in a circle in numbers that now are but small, and now countless, Gather these delicate leaves close by the side of their like, Here at the axis embraces them all the well sheltering calyx Which the corolla presents, brilliant in hue and in form. Nature thus decks them with bloom in a noble and radiant glory, Showing, in order arranged, branches with leaves and with buds. Wonderment fresh dost thou feel, as soon as the stem rears the flower Over the scaffolding frail fringed with its alternate leaves. Flowers, however, are only the prophets of further creation, Truly the leaf with its hues feeleth the touch of a god. It on a sudden contracteth itself; the tenderest figures Stand as yet twofold, divided, but soon will they haste to unite. Lovingly then the fair couples are joined in a bridal alliance, Gathered in countless array, there where the altar is raised. Hymen is hovering o'er them, and scents of an odor delicious Sweetly their fragrance exhale for the delight of the world. Presently numberless germs on the several branches are swelling, Sweetly concealed in the womb, where is made perfect the fruit. Here, we see, Nature is closing the ring of her forces eternal; And it attacheth a new link to the one gone before, So that the chain be prolonged forever through all generations, And the whole may have life, e'en as enjoyed by each part. Now, my beloved one, turn thou thy gaze on the many-hued thousands Which can confuse thee no more; for they will gladden thy mind. Every plant unto thee proclaimeth the law everlasting, Every floweret speaks louder and louder to thee; But if thou here canst decipher the sacred design of the goddess, Everywhere will it be seen, e'en though the features are changed. Caterpillars are sluggish, and busily butterflies flutter, — Man however may change even the figure decreed. Oh, then, bethink thee, as well, how out of the germ of acquaintance, Gradually habits arose. Seeking each other we met, Verily friendship and love began to flame in our bosoms, Finally Amor procured wondrously blossom and fruit! Think of the manifold touches which Nature hath lent to our feelings, Silently giving them birth, all of them different in form! Yea and rejoice thou to-day in the present! For love that is holy Seeketh the noblest of fruits, — which is a concord of thought, When our opinions agree, — thus we both will in rapt contemplation, Lovingly blending in one, find a more excellent world.
Concerning the implications of the primal or proto-plant for Goethe’s understanding of truth and for his peculiar place in the development of the natural sciences, see esp. Erich Heller, “Goethe and the Idea of Scientific Truth,” The Disinherited Mind: Essays in Modern German Literature and Thought (London 1952; 3rd ed. 1971), 3–34. Back.
[2] Goethe’s diary remarks on Wednesday, 26 March 1800 (Weimarer Ausgabe 3:2:286): “Herr Rath Schlegel came over from Jena.” Back.
[3] Lunel, Wilhelm spells it phonetically; a sweet muscatel liqueur wine produced around the town of Lunel in France (near Montpellier).
[4] “Fortifying agents” generally included wine; John Huxham mentions musk and opium in the treatment of nervous fever, and Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland classifies both as narcotics; see the excerpts from Huxham’s and Hufeland’s books in the supplementary appendix on nervous fever; Hufeland’s classification reads:
— narcotics, including valerian, musk, camphor, emetics, narcotics in the narrower sense (capable of “weakening the nerves, though especially the sensitivity of the mind/soul”), including opium. Back.
[5] Tieck suffered from rheumatism and gout his entire life. See Wilhelm’s letter to Goethe on 28 February 1800 (letter 258o) along with note 5 there. Back.
[6] Gedichte (Tübingen 1800). Back.
Translation © 2013 Doug Stott