264d. Dorothea Veit to Schleiermacher in Berlin: Jena, 4 July 1800 [*]
Jena, 4 July 1800
. . . It is still wholly uncertain whether Karoline will be returning here; although she writes Schlegel often, she says nothing about that. [1]
Wilhelm is ponderous and weak, and he has no idea that Karoline would not need to return here to have it out with him! for example, with respect to the dozens of chairs, plates, and bed linens — what she will do when she learns that Friedrich and I are remaining here is still in doubt. [2]
I would wager she will not be returning, and if she has even a moderate nose for such things, she will indeed not come, for she will likely have a hard time of it here. Although she is certainly hearty enough to snub the world, she is by no means strong enough to withstand being snubbed by the world. She believes tout bonnement [3] that everyone’s opinion of her is precisely what she wants to make them believe! —
And even were she genuinely to come, you certainly have no need to fear for us, my dear Schleiermacher. She will not concern us in the slightest, and there is nothing she can do to us in any case, absolutely nothing. [4] Since she has been gone, Friedrich and I have begun to enjoy quite some popularity among people here; people are approaching us from various quarters and beginning to have more and more trust in us.
The Pauluses, for example, have been quite cordial in looking after us in both secular and spiritual matters; [5] people are becoming increasingly accustomed to our relationship, [6] and we are even managing to prompt a sort of respect for it among them. People here are by far not as crass as in Berlin; they are much quicker to view things reasonably and much less apt to be so astonished at every strange or unfamiliar thing.
In a word, Karoline can do nothing to us. Moreover, we have already rented an apartment for the winter that will cost us no more than we have been paying here apart from the smaller advantages of sharing a household; [7] on the other hand, we have certainly had sufficient disadvantages from that arrangement in other respects; every gêne [8] and every vexation costs us real money, directly from our purse. Ah, Schleiermacher, would you but come here yourself! [9]
If only I never had to hear anything about Veit’s pathetic hopes again! [10] My poor friend, what you have had to put up with for our sake! Let me warn you, please do not get into any more discussions with him about anything radical; [11] it is nothing but wasted effort. If such must take place (though now is absolutely not the time for it), he must be annihilated, on that point I will not budge; believe me, I know the patron! [12]
At most, you can indeed discuss any and all lesser matters and external considerations to whatever extent is necessary. If you can convince him to take a wife, flesh of his flesh, and spirit of his spirit, [13] and to give me the children essentially in pension, [14] that would be an enormous coup! In that case I would under no circumstances change my relationship with Friedrich. [15]
If we stay here, and no other reason arises to do so, we will not have to in any case. Hardenberg will secure a new pass to Dresden for me should we ever want to travel there; [16] but I have no desire to stay there, I am quite content here, it would be solely for the sake of making Charlotte’s acquaintance and of seeing the gallery; [17] but just now there is absolutely no need for that to happen. . . .
Notes
[*] Sources: Briefe von Dorothea Schlegel an Friedrich Schleiermacher 80–83; KGA V/4 125; KFSA 25:133–34. Back.
[1] It seems none of Caroline’s letters to Wilhelm during this period have been preserved. Back.
[2] That is, remaining in Jena; Dorothea speaks in a moment about their new living arrangements.
Dorothea’s reference to the “the dozens of chairs, plates, and bed linens” alludes to the inventory of property the couple had accumulated for the sizable apartment they occupied together with Friedrich and Dorothea at Leutragasse 5, property that indeed becomes an issue when Caroline returns to Jena in April 1801, albeit not at all for the reason Dorothea suspects.
Click on the image below to open a gallery of illustrations of a typical mid-18th-century bourgeois residence of the sort to which Caroline was likely accustomed and which the house at Leutragasse 5 doubtless represented:
[3] Fr. “quite frankly.” Back.
[4] Schleiermacher was not entirely convinced, responding on 10 July 1800 (KGA V/4 148; KFSA 25:139) that “if Caroline returns, things will be extremely complicated.” In any event, Caroline did return to Jena, but not until 23 April 1801. Back.
[5] The Pauluses seem to have assisted Dorothea and Friedrich in finding a new apartment in Jena. Back.
[6] I.e., to the fact that she and Friedrich were not married and that she was a divorced Jewess. Back.
[7] Concerning this new apartment, see Friedrich and Dorothea’s letter to Schleiermacher on ca. 1 July 1800 (letter 264c), esp. note 2. Back.
[8] Fr., “difficulty, awkwardness, embarrassment,” here also: “financial difficulty.” Back.
[9] A few days before, both Friedrich and Dorothea had urged Schleiermacher to do so (letter 264c); as it turned out, however, he did not make the trip. Caroline, moreover, never made his personal acquaintance. Back.
[10] Dorothea’s ex-husband, Simon Veit, was apparently making overtures of some sort about the couple reuniting (Berlinischer Damen Kalender auf das Jahr 1800; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung):
[11] Namely, about the possibly of her converting to Christianity or of marrying Friedrich. For the background to these issues, see Dorothea’s letter to Schleiermacher on 16 June 1800 (letter 263a). Back.
[12] Fr., here in the sense of “master, head.” Back.
[13] Dorothea slightly alters Gen. 1:22–24 (NRSV) (illustration: Christoph Weigel, Biblia Ectypa: Bildnussen auß Heiliger Schrifft dess Alt- und Neuen Testaments, in welchen Alle Geschichte und Erscheinungen deutlich und schrifftmäßig zu Gottes Ehre und Andächtiger Seelen erbaulicher beschauung vorgestellet werden [Augsburg 1695]):
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”
See Martin Luther, Die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch (Wittenberg 1545):
Das ist doch Bein von meinen Beinen vnd Fleisch von meinem Fleisch. Back.
[14] I.e., as if in a boarding school. Dorothea had two sons: Jonas, who remained with his father in Berlin, and Philipp, who was living with Dorothea and Friedrich. Back.
[15] Dorothea’s divorce terms stipulated that, were she to remarry, she would lose custody of her youngest son, Philipp, who had followed her to Jena. Back.
[16] As a Jew, Dorothea needed a pass(port) and had to pay a toll to remain within the territory of certain sovereigns and cities. It is not clear how Friedrich von Hardenberg might have helped her, possibly through his connections with certain administrators in Dresden. See Friedrich’s letter to Schleiermacher on 5 May 1800 (letter 259r), note 8. Back.
[17] Dorothea had been in Berlin during the summer of 1798, when the Jena circle (including Fichte, Schelling, Hardenberg, and Johann Diederich Gries) had spent time in the Dresden art gallery (see Caroline’s letter to Dorothea Marie Campe on 6 May 1798 [letter 200b], note 9).
In 1802, however, Dorothea did finally have an opportunity to become better acquainted with both Charlotte Ernst and the Dresden gallery; see her remarks in her letter to Schleiermacher from Dresden in late April/early May 1802 (Briefe von Dorothea Schlegel an Friedrich Schleiermacher 118; KGA V/5 394; KFSA 25:361):
I am not really capable of writing anyone just now in any organized or thorough fashion, since I belong wholly to the antiquities, the gallery, and the transient life of mortals. Back.
Translation © 2014 Doug Stott