259o. Schelling to Adalbert Friedrich Marcus (?) in Bamberg: Saalfeld, 3 May 1800 [*]
Saalfeld, [Saturday] 3 May 1800 [1]
My dear Friend,
I am turning to you today with several requests and errands because I know you will be glad to take care of them for me and will do so with care.
My original plan was to travel from here to Bamberg with Röschlaub. But because I now discover he is not even here, my entire travel plans have changed.
The reason is the following. Madame Schlegel similarly intends to travel to Bamberg, in part to consult Röschlaub with regard to her health, and in part to use one of the Franconian mineral springs. I will now make that trip with her and intend to wait for her here. [2]
She would, however, very much like to find a logis in Bamberg that is already furnished, and since I myself cannot secure one just now, I am turning to you, whose taste I most trust in such matters. [3]
Can you judge whether it is expedient for Madame Schlegel to take quarters with Röschlaub if he does indeed have enough room in his new logis, or whether it is in fact not expedient? —
You doubtless understand what I am really saying. [4] Although I know Röschlaub himself very well, I know not what other sorts of people might be living in the house.
If Röschlaub does have sufficient space, and if you yourself can think of no other concerns, then please ask him for four rooms for Madame Schlegel. One in which she can live; it must not necessarily be that big, but should nonetheless be pleasant. For now, this particular room needs no other furniture besides a large, handsome sofa, chairs, 2 mirrors, several tables, a commode, if possible with a desk as well. A second room where she can sleep, if possible adjoining — an alcove, for example — which, by the way, need not be large, and which needs merely a good bed and perhaps a table and mirror; a third room for her daughter, similar to the second, and finally a fourth for the maidservant, which can be quite simple.
For myself, might I ask that you secure a serene room along with a sleeping chamber, which for the time being needs nothing but a bed and desk along with several chairs.
It would be especially nice if Röschlaub could offer all the rooms on the same étage, [5] that one might avoid perhaps having to live next to someone whom one does not know or with whom one does not wish to have contact.
Should Röschlaub not have this many rooms available, or should you yourself have other concerns with him renting out to Madame Schlegel as well, I would then ask you to arrange, if possible, a garden house for us together, and should one this spacious not be available, to secure some other logis pleasantly situated out in the open and of the same quality as described above.
You can see how very much I am counting on your friendship. I am confident that this request will be handled best if in your hands. Of course, here, too, as everywhere, price is a consideration.
I think I will probably be arriving in Bamberg with my companions on Thursday or Friday. [6] This should give you sufficient time to make these arrangements. I would very much like to know beforehand whether and where you have leased something for us that we might disembark directly at our logis. Such can probably be accomplished most easily if you deposit a billet for me at the Bamberg town gate or send a letter poste restante to the final postal station before Bamberg itself wherein you can inform me of the success of your efforts. [7]
Please send along my regards to Röschlaub and tell him how my journey is now arranged. I greatly regret not having found him here, and I suspect he was recalled earlier either because my own message to him was ill delivered by Dr. Streng, or because of urgent business in Bamberg. [8] My brother sends you his regards.
I commend my requests to you yet again and ask that you excuse my presumption as deriving simply from my trust in your friendship.
In the meantime, I do hope you are doing well and hope to see you in person very soon.
Schelling [9]
Notes
[*] Source: Fuhrmans 1:193–95. — Although no addressee is indicated, the letter was likely written to Adalbert Friedrich Marcus.
Concerning the background to this letter see Schelling’s letter to Schiller on 25 April 1800 (letter 259h), note 1. See also the gallery on Bamberg. Back.
[1] Schelling had left Jena on Friday, 2 May 1800, on foot (see Wilhelm Schlegel’s letter to Goethe on 4 May 1800 [letter 259p]; and Dorothea Veit’s to Schleiermacher on 15 May 1800 [letter 259s]). Saalfeld is located ca. 35 km southwest of Jena, Bamberg ca. 130 km southwest of Jena (map: Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]; illustration: Matthäus Merian, Saalfeld ca. 1650):
See below concerning the postal route. Back.
[2] Wilhelm Gradesinn, Wilhelm Gradesinns Lebens- und Bildungsgeschichte: ein Beytrag zur Menschenkunde, vol. 1 (Vienna 1804), following p. 294:
Although Schelling may indeed have long been planning his own journey to Bamberg, and had then perhaps, along with Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, influenced Caroline to journey there and to Bocklet as well (see his letter to Schiller on 25 April 1800 [letter 259h], note 1), their plans seem initially to have been to travel separately, with Schelling going on ahead, as suggested by this letter, to make arrangements for Caroline’s accommodations, something he could no longer do in a sufficiently timely fashion, whence the urgency of this request to Marcus (Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
In any event, Wilhelm remarks to Goethe in a letter on 4 May 1800 (letter 259p) that he would be leaving on 6 May 1800 (Friedrich Schlegel remarks in a letter to Schleiermacher on 5 May 1800 [letter 259r] that Caroline had already departed) to accompany Caroline and Auguste only as far as Rudolstadt or Saalfeld (see map in note 7 below).
Although Wilhelm may have known this soon that Schelling’s “entire travel plans” had changed, these considerations cast doubt on Dorothea’s remark in her letter to Schleiermacher on 15 May 1800 (letter 259s) that the original plan was for Wilhelm to accompany Caroline to Rudolstadt, where he would then “hand her off” to Schelling. That said, this chronology is difficult to document precisely. Back.
[3] Logis, Fr., “house, residence; here: accommodations.” Back.
[4] An allusion to the fact that Schelling would be residing quite close to or even with Caroline and Auguste. Back.
[5] Fr., “story, floor, level.” Back.
[6] Schelling anticipates arriving in Bamberg — after waiting for Caroline, Auguste, and the maidservant to arrive in Saalfeld, who will be leaving Jena on Tuesday, 6 May 1800 — on Thursday, 8 May, or Friday, 9 May 1800. Back.
[7] On this account, Schelling would be expecting a letter from Marcus post restante (Fr., “general delivery,” i.e., to be picked up) in Rattelsdorf or at the Bamberg town gate. Schelling’s letter, moreover, suggests they are traveling by postal coach rather than in a private carriage (anonymous, Departing Postal Coach [ca. 1830]):
The postal route between Jena and Bamberg (ca. 130 km) proceeded by way of the following postal stops: from Jena to Uhlstadt (Ulstedt), Rudolstadt, Saalfeld (where, given this letter, he seems to have awaited Caroline and Auguste), Graefenthal (Grafenthal), Iudenbach (Judenbach), Coburg, Gleussen, and Rattelsdorf, then Bamberg itself (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
[8] Dr. Streng is not otherwise identified. Back.
[9] Marcus was unsuccessful in securing the desired accommodations; letters to Schelling from Auguste and Caroline over the next several weeks recount their unsuccessful attempts to find either a garden house or an apartment in the town proper. Back.
Translation © 2014 Doug Stott