259j. Wilhelm Schlegel to Goethe in Weimar: Jena, 27 April 1800 [*]
Jena, 27 April 1800
Please find enclosed three copies of my Gedichte, of which I would like to ask you to keep one for yourself and pass along another in my name to His Excellency the Duke; the third is for Herr Hofrath Schiller. [1] — I would like to request that you return the original copy I sent to you; [2] I wanted to give it to a certain lady as a gift, a lady who will put considerable value in the fact that it was once your personal copy. [3] . . .
I am quite sorry that this time I am not sending along anything really new, since you are already familiar with the collection of poems. Very soon, however, I hope to pass along to you the 6th volume of Shakespeare. [4] . . .
My brother is thinking about coming over to Weimar tomorrow if the weather is good, and is looking forward to speaking with you again after such a long time. He will be able to tell you how my wife is doing and relate some news about Tieck and about other things going on in our circle. [5] Stay well and healthy.
AWSchlegel
Notes
[*] Source: Körner-Wieneke 101–2. Back.
[1] Gedichte (Tübingen 1800). Back.
[2] After sending Goethe an edition of his poems on normal paper (see Wilhelm’s letter to Goethe on 23 March 1800 [letter 258v]), he is here sending along an edition on vellum. Back.
[3] Possibly (so Josef Körner, Körner-Wieneke, 232) Minna van Nuys; see also Wilhelm’s letter to Goethe of 1 September 1799 (letter 243d). Back.
[4] Volume 6 of the edition of Shakespeare contained translations of The First Part of King Henry IV and The Second Part of King Henry IV as König Heinrich der vierte: Erster Theil, König Heinrich der vierte: Zweyter Theil. Wilhelm will send freshly printed copies to Goethe on 30 May 1800 (letter 260c). Back.
[5] Friedrich traveled over to Weimar on 28 April 1799, but Goethe had left for Leipzig the same day, where he stayed till 16 May and also met Wilhelm on 12 May (Weimarer Ausgabe 3:2:288, 295) (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
Translation © 2014 Doug Stott