162d. Friedrich Schlegel to Wilhelm Schlegel in Jena: Pillnitz, 27 May 1796 [*]
Pillnitz, 27 May 1796
It was with desire, yearning, and impatience that I awaited your letter, my dearest friend! Hitherto, however, my craving has been but quite insufficiently satisfied. Karoline has still not sent me the news about you to which your own letter on 17 May referred me.
Although I received a letter from Mademoiselle Stock, [1] it contained nothing entertaining other than a few remarks about Goethe’s current corpulence.
I absolutely cannot describe for you the impatience with which I am awaiting more detailed news. Please see to it that I receive it soon. Let me know as soon as can be about your professorial prospects and lecture plans. [2] And also about whether you consider it good that I come sooner than Charlotte — who sends her warm regards — moves to town. [3] —
I have thought a great deal about it and consider it highly advisable that you give only a single lecture course this coming winter. If you begin with two, then you must also carry them through, come what may, and then doubtless also have to put all your own writing aside. For the latter everything is already organized that must yet be organized for the former. The yield is considerable and certain. —
Given all your many other projects, I consider it utterly impossible for you to prepare a lecture on Homer this summer as well. Please do think it over. A false decision could do you irreparable damage. . . .
Notes
[*] Sources: Walzel, 271–72; KFSA 23:300.
Concerning Wilhelm’s itinerary at the time, see Caroline’s letter to Luise Gotter during the autumn of 1795 (letter 156), note 2. He was currently in Jena investigating the logistics for his and Caroline’s move there, and would remain until 28 June 1796; after visiting Weimar, he would return to Braunschweig, where he would marry Caroline on 1 July. They would both be back in Jena by 8 July. Back.
[1] Dora Stock, Christian Gottfried Körner’s sister-in-law, had apparently accompanied the Körners on the latters’ trip to Weimar at the end of April and early May 1796. Back.
[2] Viz., in Jena; see Wilhelm’s letter to Schiller on 18 December 1795 (letter 159a). Back.
[3] Friedrich and Wilhelm’s sister Charlotte Ernst and her husband customarily spent the warmer months in Pillnitz, outside Dresden; Charlotte was expecting a child at the time, her daughter Auguste, who would be born in July of that year. Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott