• 49. Caroline to Lotte Michaelis in Göttingen: Clausthal 1784
[Clausthal 1784]
|102| My dear Lotte, this just seems odd to me. While Böhmer was not home, a letter addressed to him in your handwriting arrived without my being able to feel any inner seal on it no matter how much I felt it and pressed on it in my hands.
My dear sister, what can this mean? I ponder it back and forth, by land and by sea — you are not his beloved, are you? It is itching at me rather peculiarly inside, I cough but cannot loosen it up and must wait until my husband returns.
There is another letter that arrived here from Canon Meyer, whose secret I comprehend just as little, unless he wants to thank us for having wined and dined his beloved for 4 weeks. [1]
But that cannot be the case with you — as far as I know, we have not given accommodations to any darling of yours. I guess I really can only wait patiently until Böhmer returns. In the meantime, I do have to chat with you about one more thing, namely, to thank you — that I not depart this world with any lingering ingratitude in case the letter en questionis perhaps creates hostility between us — to thank you, that is, for remembering me with cookies in Nordheim. I distributed them to the Dahme children, and each child received a little heart. Had you also sent one to Herr W. for your remembrance? [2]
Ah, what a wry face I am making just now, indeed one that |103| makes me look even more wryly pinched than I already am; for my poor mouth is terribly sick and fat and chapped, I can neither eat nor speak nor kiss and am having to apply all sorts of salve and drinks. Good heavens, it is bad enough that I cannot even go outside. I already wrote you last week that I wanted to say something to you about the person who gave you the book by Iffland — actually, about the giving of the book.
Now please do listen. It does not seem proper to me for you to have any commerse with Herr W., not even any book commerse; it is not proper for you even to speak about him, or to have others tell you, even just to pass the time, about what he does, or to concern yourself with him in any way.
I also said this to the young gentleman in Nordheim — “It violates all propriety, Herr W., if you do not remove yourself from her entirely — You may not even send her books — As far as I am concerned, you could do whatever you like if at one time you had not already stood in some sort of relationship with her, after the end of which a measure of reserve would necessarily have to be exercised if you both want to maintain your dignity.” —
“Indeed,” he countered after my beautiful speech — “Mamsel Lotte did have me send her some books” — whereupon I admittedly did quite lose my own script. “Listen,” I said to Philipp, “what is the point of all this nattering, all this gossip about Herr W.? You know that Lotte neither wants nor should hear anything about him — so why are you taking books to her?” — “Indeed,” the rascal answered me, “if I do not speak first, she will ask anyway, and if I do not fetch books for her, she will simply send Dortchen.”
So what am I to think? Nothing bad, that much I can assure you, my dear soul, but rather only that you are being frightfully thoughtless and careless and amid all these faults are also losing all sense of propriety. Herr W. offered himself to you — you rejected him because you loved another, put him down in the presence of the latter more than propriety would really allow [3] — |104| would certainly not have had him send you anything at that time, and yet now that your beloved has been riding about all over the place for 4 weeks — what am I to say? —
And now the more powerful interests of your senses, which saw and heard him, no longer keep you from being so concerned now with this pitiful rogue who you know is pining for you — you are unable to be so indifferent now when you encounter him, and if you had even a trace of point d’honneur, [4] you should be doing so even more than ever since now it appears you are taking up with him again simply because the other one has slipped from your grasp. . . .
Notes
[1] Friederike Böhmer seems to have spent a month with Caroline in Clausthal. Back.
[2] The identity of Lotte’s love interest “Herr W.” is unknown (illustration of a gentleman caller and his lady friend: Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Gnädige Herren, schöne Frauen [1777]; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum; Museums./Signatur DChodowiecki AB 3.212):
[3] Caroline continues to be concerned about Lotte’s flighty and, in Caroline’s view, careless temperament and ill-considered social decisions and acquaintances (later in Göttingen: with Elise Bürger). The present episode seems to involve a love triangle gone awry and an unpleasant encounter between the two men in Lotte’s presence (Johan Georg Pendel, Junges Paar auf einem Sofa, zu einem jungen Mann aufblickend, der gerade das Zimmer betritt [1803]; Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Graph. A1: 2017; anonymous, Zwei Männer im Streitgespräch im Beisein zahlreicher Personen [ca. 1776–1800]; Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Graph. Res. A: 188.1):
Such encounters could, of course, escalate (Gottlieb Böttger der Ältere, Zwei Männer streiten sich um eine Frau [1804]; Herzog August Bibliothek; Museums./Signatur Graph. A1:282):
[4] Fr., “personal pride.” Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott