• 194a. Friedrich Schlegel to Auguste Böhmer in Jena: Berlin, late December 1797 [*]
[Berlin, late December 1797]
|624| My dear Auguste, please do ask your mother whether the letters of the 5th, 12th, and 19th arrived safely. [1] I am writing practically till my heart falls out of my arm and yet must listen to nothing but complaints. [2] —
Tell her to quickly get healthy again and then also to devote both her health and her mind to the “written Auguste” (as you prefer the Schlegelaeum to be called, and with which I am certainly satisfied) [3] just as she did to the reading and living Auguste, though I do hope that our “Auguste” will live in defiance of you as well.
|625| How do you like the songs by Zelter? Were you able to use them? — I forgot last time to send you a six-pfennig piece, which I have now enclosed here. It actually represents a kiss, which is, however, not as easy to pack up and send. And anyway, you have always said, including to an uncle: preferably the six-pfennig piece.
I recently lost several thoughts and was unable to find them no matter how hard I tried. If they have perhaps escaped to Jena, please catch them and send them back here to me. [4]
Finally, I am also quite pleased that you have become so sensible and are reflecting and moralizing about how your mother “resisted the embrace” of the courteous mezereum. [5]
As a postscript let me send you my warmest regards and kisses. Keep all my books safe, and your friendship as well. I will soon be returning and demanding that you render an account. [6]
Your most devoted Fritz
Notes
[*] Source: Schmidt (1913), 1:624–25 (letter no. 11); Waitz (1871), 1:242 (first part), 1:371–72 (second part; both dated “February 1799?”); KFSA 24: 71–72.
Dating according to KFSA 24:364, which points out how Friedrich’s references to letters on 5, 12, and 19 December suggests this present letter was written at earliest a few days after 19 December. — See Schmidt’s reflections concerning the dating in (1913), 1:762 (here paraphrased):
Although Georg Waitz assigned this letter a date of February 1799 based on the dates of Friedrich’s letters to Wilhelm, this date does not fit, among other things, the expression Schlegelaeum (Walzel 366 [? unclear reference; ed.]) nor also the remark concerning the mezereum, the joke concerning which is to be understood in connection with Caroline’s remarks to Georg Joachim Göschen on 16 December 1797 (letter 193). One also necessarily imagines Auguste as being younger here.
Similarly, though not constituting proof as such, the remarks concerning “lost thoughts” recall Wilhelm’s words to Schleiermacher on 22 January 1798 (Aus Schleiermacher’s Leben 3:72; here letter 194d) about Friedrich’s inclination constantly to offer up “his inner wealth in all sorts of distorted forms while simultaneously searching with unspeakable grief for this or that thought he has lost on the staircase like a pin” (illustration: Georg Steinhausen, Geschichte der Deutschen Kultur [Leipzig, Vienna 1904], 698):
[1] Friedrich to Wilhelm on 5 December 1797 (Walzel, 324–30; KFSA 24:55–59); Friedrich to Caroline (and Wilhelm) on 12 December 1797 (letter 192c); Friedrich to Wilhelm and Auguste on 18 December 1797 (letter 194; Friedrich is presumably remembering the date incorrectly). Back.
[2] Concerning the allusion to a person’s “heart” or “inner disposition,” see Friedrich’s letter to Auguste, Caroline, and Wilhelm in early November 1797 (letter 190) with note 1; also Friedrich’s letters to Auguste from November 1797 (letters 191a, 191b). Back.
[3] Apparently Schlegelaeum (Schlegeläum) was under consideration — if only by Auguste — as a possible name for the periodical that became Athenaeum. Back.
[4] Wilhelm picks up on this metaphor in his letter to Schleiermacher on 22 January 1798 (letter 194d). Back.
[5] Caroline discusses her treatment with mezereum in the initial paragraph of her letter to Georg Joachim Göschen on 16 December 1797 (letter 193); see note 1 there. Back.
[6] Friedrich was planning to accompany Wilhelm, Caroline, and Auguste back to Jena after their anticipated (but unrealized) trip to Berlin (see his letter to Caroline on 12 December 1797 [letter 192c]). Back.
Translation © 2012 Doug Stott