199a. Caroline to Georg Joachim Göschen in Leipzig: Weimar, 26 April 1798 [*]
[Weimar] 26 April 1798 [1]
Dearest Göschen, we are here to enjoy Iffland’s performance. [2] We have not heard anything from each other for a long time now — so I simply wanted to alert you that you will soon be seeing me and also wanted to ask whether, notwithstanding the book fair will be going on, you might be willing and able to put Auguste and me up for one night. [3]
As soon as Iffland has finished his performances, we will be returning to Jena, where I will but have time to put my things in order before having to depart immediately for Dresden (I honestly know not whether we already told you that we will be spending the entire summer there). I am hoping to be in Leipzig on either the 8th, 9th, or 10th of May [4] [ . . . ]
Schlegel will be remaining in Jena several weeks longer before going to Berlin. Only then will he be traveling on to Dresden to meet up with me [5] [ . . . ] Tischbein was with us for 6 weeks and is with us here as well. [6]
Notes
[*] Source: The manuscript of this letter was offered for sale in 2005 by Autographen & Bücher Eberhard Köstler, Tutzing, Federal Republic of Germany (3 pages; asking price: € 2400); the transcription was incomplete, whence the ellipses in the present translation.
This letter is not listed in Stephan Füssel, Sabine Doering, Marion Marquardt, Georg Joachim Göschen, ein Verleger der Spätaufklärung und der deutschen Klassik (Göttingen 1996), though the latter does list under no. 2150 a letter written by Caroline to Göschen on 7 May 1798 (received on 9 May 1798) from Jena requesting that a letter to Johann Friedrich Cotta not be sent and announcing her visit there in Leipzig in two days (she would be leaving for Dresden on 9 May).
This present letter is presumably the letter to which Wilhelm refers in his letter to Göschen on 27 April 1798 (letter 199b) and which Körner (1930), 2:29n59 characterizes as having been lost. Back.
[1] Caroline and Wilhelm Schlegel were in Weimar from 24 April till 4 May 1798 to attend August Wilhelm Iffland’a second guest performance in the Weimar theater. Jena is ca. 20km from Weimar (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]; Rudolf Koch and Fritz Kredel, Deutschland und angrenzende Gebiete [Leipzig 1937]):
Here Weimar in 1785 viewed from the west, approaching the Erfurt Town Gate, i.e., the gate for travelers approaching from Erfurt (illustration from Wilhelm Bode, Damals in Weimar [Weimar 1912], 10):
[2] Concerning Iffland’s Weimar performances in the Weimar theater, see Caroline’s undated letter to Luise Gotter in April 1798 (letter 199) with note 5. Back.
[3] That is, on their journey to Dresden. The Leipzig trade fair would begin on Sunday, 29 April 1798 (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
[4] Caroline now no longer speaks about traveling to Berlin as part of this journey; she and Auguste eventually departed Jena before sunrise on 9 May 1798 and arrived in Dresden during the evening of 12 May 1798.
The reason Caroline adduces for her decision not to travel to Berlin and to proceed instead directly to Dresden was that Ludwig Emanuel Ernst, husband of Caroline’s sister-in-law Charlotte Ernst, was ill, and Caroline thought it best for her to get to Dresden as soon as possible to assist Charlotte (see her letter Dorothea Marie Campe on 6 May 1798 [letter 200b]). Back.
[5] After Caroline and Auguste left Jena for Dresden on 9 May 1798, Wilhelm remained in Jena before leaving on or before 20 May 1798, traveling thence to Berlin by way of Leipzig; he and Friedrich Schlegel arrived together in Dresden ca. 30 June 1798.
Jena is 75 km from Leipzig, Berlin 150 km from Leipzig, and from Leipzig to Dresden it is then another 100 km (Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]):
[6] It was during this visit to Jena and Weimar that Johann Friedrich August Tischbein began the portraits of Caroline and Auguste that he then finished in Dessau (illustration: Königlich Grosbritanischer und Churfürstlicher Genealogischer Kalender auf das 1774 Iahr; Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung; map: Post Karte Durch ganz Deutschland, ed. J. Walch [Augsburg 1795]; Dessau illustration by Mattäus Merian [1650]):
Translation © 2012 Doug Stott