163d. Mother (Johanna Christiane Erdmuthe) Schlegel to Wilhelm Schlegel: Hannover, undated [*]
[Hannover, undated]
Dearest Wilhelm,
I must not put off writing you any longer. I wanted to answer your Caroline, I am always hesitant with such letters because my writing is so ill in every respect. — —
So you need to thank your lady friend in my name for her letter, which pleased me greatly and which I was able to read very well. [1] I really would like to get to know her; but it will still be possible someday. I had hoped you would have written me in more detail about her financial situation. [2] That sort of thing puts me more at ease. — —
What is your lady friend’s relationship with her in-laws? and with Nieper? I would like to have you explain one passage in Caroline’s letter to me. The passage is something like, or approximately, as follows, it is just that I could not read it all: “Impressions are already extinguished, even more will be extinguished,” something like that, [3] “and now we simply want to calmly await greater security.” What does she mean by “security”? [4] — —
Notes
[*] Source: Waitz (1882), 31. Passages Waitz did not include are indicated by “—.” Back.
[1] Leipzig Taschenbuch für Frauenzimmer zum Nutzen und Vergnügen auf das Jahr 1799; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung:
[2] Mother Schlegel had already inquired about Caroline’s financial circumstances in her letter to Wilhelm in an earlier letter from 1796 (letter 163c). Back.
[3] Concerning Caroline’s reputation at the time, see her letter to Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer on 7 June 1794 (letter 145), note 13. Back.
[4] Although Wilhelm had already put out feelers, his future professional employment was still quite uncertain, not least financially. See esp. Moritz Schlegel’s letter to him on 22 June 1795 (letter 150d), and Friedrich Schlegel’s letter to him on 27 May 1796 (letter 162d).
As it turned out, his work as a professional writer, critic, translator, and lecturer in Jena eventually essentially exhausted him, notwithstanding he engaged Caroline’s help with the literary reviews and the incipient translation of Shakespeare. Concerning the toll these years took on Wilhelm, see his letter to Georg Joachim Göschen on 31 October 1798 (letter 207a), note 2.
After it was clear that his marriage to Caroline was over, he made arrangements to move to Berlin in February 1801 to begin his series of private lectures. Unexpectedly, in 1804 he received a financially attractive invitation to join the entourage of Madame de Staël, with whom he then stayed until her death in 1817.
Hence Mother Schlegel’s (and Caroline’s) not entirely unfounded concerns about security, financial and, apparently, otherwise, were concerns Wilhelm’s family already shared. Back.
Translation © 2011 Doug Stott