sent me to the course in the autumn, so that I commenced in the
cool and damp season. The pedantic treatment of this noble art was
highly repugnant to me. From first to last the whole talk was about
sitting the horse, and yet no one could say in what a proper sitting
consisted, though all depended on that; for they went to and fro on
the horse-without stirrups. Moreover, the instruction seemed contrived
only for cheating and degrading the scholars. If one forgot to hook
or loosen the curb-chain, or let his switch fall down, or even his
hat,--every delay, every misfortune, had to be atoned for by money,
and one was even laughed at besides. This put me in the worst of
humours, particularly when I found the place of exercise itself quite
intolerable. The great nasty space, either wet or dusty, the cold, the
mouldy smell, all together was in the highest degree repugnant to me;
and since the stable-master always gave the others the best and me the
worst horses to ride, perhaps because they bribed him by breakfasts
and other gifts, or even by their own cleverness; since he kept me
waiting, and, as it seemed, slighted me, I spent the most disagreeable
hours in an employment that ought to have been the most pleasant in
the world. Nay, the impression of that time and of these circumstances
has remained with me so vividly, that although I afterwards became a
passionate and daring rider, and for days and weeks together scarcely
got off my horse, I carefully shunned covered riding-courses, and
at least passed only a few moments in them. The case often happens
that when the elements of an exclusive art are taught us, this is
done in a painful and revolting manner. The conviction that this is
both wearisome and injurious, has given rise in later times to the
educational maxim, that the young must be taught everything in an easy,
cheerful, and agreeable way: from which, however, other evils and
disadvantages have proceeded.
With the approach of spring, times became again more quiet with us, and
if in earlier days I had endeavoured to obtain a sight of the city, its
ecclesiastical, civil, public and private structures, and especially
found great delight in the still prevailing antiquities, I afterwards
endeavoured, by means of Lersner's _Chronicle_, and other Frankfortian
books and pamphlets belonging to my father, to revive the persons of
past times. This seemed to me to be well attained by great attention
to the peculiarities of times and manners, and of distinguished
individuals.
[Side-note: The Rebel Fettmilch.]
Among the ancient remains, that which, from my childhood, had been
remarkable to me, was the skull of a state criminal, fastened up on
the tower of the bridge, who, out of three or four, as the naked
iron spikes showed, had, since 1616, been preserved in spite of
the encroachments of time and weather. Whenever one returned from
Sachsenhausen to Frankfort, one had this tower before one, and the
skull was directly in view. As a boy, I liked to hear related the
history of these rebels--Fettmilch and his confederates--how they had
become dissatisfied with the government of the city, had risen up
against it, plotted a mutiny, plundered the Jews' quarter, and excited
a fearful riot, but were at last captured, and condemned to death by
a deputy of the emperor. Afterwards I felt anxious to know the most
minute circumstance, and to hear what sort of people they were. When
from an old contemporary book, ornamented with woodcuts, I learned that
while these men had indeed been condemned to death, many councillors
had at the same time been deposed, because various kinds of disorder
and very much that was unwarrantable was then going on; when I heard
the nearer particulars now all took place, I pitied the unfortunate
persons who might be regarded as sacrifices made for a future better
constitution. For from that time was dated the regulation which allows
the noble old house of Limpurg, the Frauenstein-house, sprung from a
club, besides lawyers, tradespeople, and artisans, to take a part in a
government, which, completed by a system of ballot, complicated in the
Venetian fashion, and restricted by the civil colleges, was called to
do right, without acquiring any special privilege to do wrong.
Among the things which excited the misgivings of the Boy, and even of
the youth, was especially the state of the Jewish quarter of the city
(_Judenstadt_), properly called the Jew-street (_Judengasse_), as it
consisted of little more than a single street, which in early times may
have been hemmed in between the walls and trenches of the town, as in a
prison (_Zwinger._) The closeness, the filth, the crowd, the accent of
an unpleasant language, altogether made a most disagreeable impression,
even if one only looked in as one passed the gate. It was long before I
ventured in alone, and I did not return there readily, when I had once
escaped the importunities of so many men unwearied in demanding and
offering to traffic. At the same time the old legends of the cruelty
of the Jews towards Christian children, which we had seen hideously
illustrated in Gottfried's _Chronicle_, hovered gloomily before my
young mind. And although they were thought better of in modern times,
the large caricature, still to be seen, to their disgrace, on an arched
wall under the bridge tower, bore extraordinary witness against them;
for it had been made, not through private ill-will, but by public order.
However, they still remained, nevertheless, the chosen people of God,
and passed, no matter how it came about, as a memorial of the most
ancient times. Besides, they also were men, active and obliging, and
even to the tenacity with which they clung to their peculiar customs,
one could not refuse one's respect. The girls, moreover, were pretty,
and were far from displeased when a Christian lad, meeting them on
the sabbath in the Fischerfeld, showed himself kindly and attentive.
I was consequently extremely curious to become acquainted with their
ceremonies. I did not desist until I had frequently visited their
school, had assisted at a circumcision and a wedding, and had formed
a notion of the Feast of the Tabernacles. Everywhere I was well
received, pleasantly entertained, and invited to come again; for they
were persons of influence by whom I had been either introduced or
recommended.
[Side-note: Public Burning of a Book.]
Thus, as a young resident in a large city, I was thrown about from one
object to another, and horrible scenes were not wanting in the midst of
the municipal quiet and security. Sometimes a more or less remote fire
aroused us from our domestic peace, sometimes the discovery of a great
crime, with its investigation and punishment, set the whole city in
an uproar for many weeks. We were forced to be witnesses of different
executions; and it is worth remembering, that I was also once present
at the burning of a book. The publication was a French comic romance,
which indeed spared the state, but not religion and manners. There was
really something dreadful in seeing punishment inflicted on a lifeless
thing. The packages burst asunder in the fire, and were raked apart
by an oven-fork, to be brought in closer contact with the flames. It
was not long before the kindled sheets were wafted about in the air,
and the crowd caught at them with eagerness. Nor could we rest until
we had hunted up a copy, while not a few managed likewise to procure
the forbidden pleasure. Nay, if it had been done to give the author
publicity, he could not himself have made a more effectual provision.
But there were also more peaceable inducements which took me about in
every part of the city. My father had early accustomed me to manage for
him his little affairs of business. He charged me particularly to stir
up the labourers whom he set to work, as they commonly kept him waiting
longer than was proper; because he wished everything done accurately,
and was used in the end to lower the price for a prompt payment. In
this way, I gained access to all the workshops; and as it was natural
to me to enter into the condition of others, to feel every species of
human existence, and sympathize in it with pleasure, these commissions
were to me the occasion of many most delightful hours, and I learned
to know every one's method of proceeding, and what joy and sorrow, what
advantages and hardships, were incident to the indispensable conditions
of this or that mode of life. I was thus brought nearer to that active
class which connects the lower and upper classes. For, if on the one
side stand those who are employed in the simple and rude products, and
on the other those who desire to enjoy something that has been already
worked up; the manufacturer, with his skill and hand, is the mediator
through whom the other two receive something from each other; each is
enabled to gratify his wishes in his own way. The household economy of
many crafts, which took its form and colour from the occupation, was
likewise an object of my quiet attention; and thus was developed and
strengthened in me the feeling of the equality, if not of all men, yet
of all human conditions,--the mere fact of existence seeming to me the
main point, and all the rest indifferent and accidental.
As my father did not readily allow himself an expense which would be
at once consumed in a momentary enjoyment--as I can scarcely call to
mind that we ever took a walk together, and spent anything in a place
of amusement,--he was, on the other hand, not niggardly in procuring
such things as had a good external appearance in addition to inward
value. No one could desire peace more than he, although he had not
felt the smallest inconvenience during the last days of the war. With
this feeling, he had promised my mother a gold snuffbox, set with
diamonds, which she was to receive as soon as peace should be publicly
declared. In the expectation of the happy event, they had laboured
now for some years on this present. The box, which was tolerably
large, had been executed in Hanau, for my father was on good terms
with the gold-workers there, as well as with the heads of the silk
establishments. Many designs were made for it; the cover was adorned by
a basket of flowers, over which hovered a dove with the olive-branch.
A vacant space was left for the jewels, which were to be set partly in
the dove and partly on the spot where the box is usually opened. The
jeweller to whom the execution and the requisite stones were entrusted
was named Lautensak, and was a brisk, skilful man, who like many
artists, seldom did what was necessary, but usually works of caprice,
which gave him pleasure. The jewels were very soon set, in the shape
in which they were to be put upon the box, on some black wax, and
looked very well; but they would not come off to be transferred to the
gold. In the outset, my father let the matter rest; but as the hope of
peace became livelier, and finally when the stipulations--particularly
the elevation of the Archduke Joseph to the Roman throne--seemed more
precisely known, he grew more and more impatient, and I had to go
several times a week, nay, at last, almost daily, to visit the tardy
artist. By means of my unremitted teazing and exhortation, the work
went on, though slowly enough; for as it was of that kind which can
be taken in hand or laid aside at will, there was always something by
which it was thrust out of the way, and put aside.
[Side-note: Lautensak's Bouquet.]
The chief cause of this conduct, however, was a task which the artist
had undertaken on his own account. Everybody knew that the Emperor
Francis cherished a strong liking for jewels, and especially for
coloured stones. Lautensak had expended a considerable sum, and as
it afterwards turned out larger than his means, on such gems, out of
which he had begun to shape a nosegay, in which every stone was to
be tastefully disposed, according to its shape and colour, and the
whole form a work of art worthy to stand in the treasure-vaults of
an emperor. He had, in his desultory way, laboured for many years
upon it, and now hastened--because after the hoped-for peace the
arrival of the Emperor, for the coronation of his son, was expected in
Frankfort--to complete it and finally to put it together. My desire
to become acquainted with such things he used very dexterously in
order to distract me as a bearer of threats, and to lead me away from
my intention. He strove to impart a knowledge of these stones to me,
and made me attentive to their properties and value, so in the end I
knew his whole bouquet by heart, and quite as well as he could have
demonstrated its virtues to a customer. It is even now before me, and
I have since seen more costly, but not more graceful specimens of
show and magnificence in this sort. He possessed, moreover, a pretty
collection of engravings, and other works of art, with which he liked
to amuse himself; and I passed many hours with him, not without profit.
Finally, when the Congress of Hubertsburg was finally fixed, he did
for my sake more than was due; and the dove and flowers actually
reached my mother's hands on the festival in celebration of the peace.
I then received also many similar commissions to urge on painters with
respect to pictures which had been ordered. My father had confirmed
himself in the notion--and few men were free from it--that a picture
painted on wood was greatly to be preferred to one that was merely put
on canvas. It was therefore his great care to possess good oak boards,
of every shape, because he well knew that just on this important point
the more careless artists trusted to the joiners. The oldest planks
were hunted up, the joiners were obliged to go accurately to work with
gluing, painting, and arranging, and they were then kept for years in
an upper room, where they could be sufficiently dried. A precious board
of this kind was intrusted to the painter JUNKER, who was to represent
on it an ornamental flower-pot, with the most important flowers drawn
after nature in his artistic and elegant manner. It was just about
the spring-time, and I did not fail to take him several times a week
the most beautiful flowers that fell in my way, which he immediately
put in, and by degrees composed the whole out of these elements with
the utmost care and fidelity. On one occasion I had caught a mouse,
which I took to him, and which he desired to copy as a very pretty
animal; nay, really represented it, as accurately as possible, gnawing
an ear of corn at the foot of the flower-pot. Many such inoffensive
natural objects, such as butterflies and chafers, were brought in and
represented, so that finally, as far as imitation and execution were
concerned, a highly valuable picture was put together.
Hence I was not a little astonished when the good man formally declared
one day, when the work was just about to be delivered, that the picture
no longer pleased him,--since, while it had turned out quite well in
its details, it was not well composed as a whole, because it had been
produced in this gradual manner; and he had perpetrated a blunder in
the outset, in not at least devising a general plan for light and
shade, as well as for colour, according to which the single flowers
might have been arranged. He examined with me the minutest parts of the
picture, which had arisen before my eyes during a half year, and had
in many respects pleased me, and managed to convince me perfectly,
much to my regret. Even the copy of the mouse he regarded as a mistake;
for many persons, he said, have a sort of horror of such animals, and
they should not be introduced where the object is to excite pleasure.
As it commonly happens with those who are cured of a prejudice, and
imagine themselves much more knowing than they were before, I now had
a real contempt for this work of art, and agreed perfectly with the
artist when he caused to be prepared another tablet of the same size,
on which, according to his taste, he painted a better formed vessel
and a more artistically arranged nosegay, and also managed to select
and distribute the little living accessories in an ornamental and
agreeable way. This tablet also he painted with the greatest care,
though altogether after the former copied one, or from memory, which,
through a very long and assiduous practice, came to his aid. Both
paintings were now ready, and we were thoroughly delighted with the
last, which was certainly the more artistic and striking of the two. My
father was surprised with two pictures instead of one, and to him the
choice was left. He approved of our opinion, and of the reasons for it,
and especially of our good-will and activity; but, after considering
both pictures some days, decided in favour of the first, without saying
much about the motives of his choice. The artist, in an ill-humour,
took back his second well-meant picture, and could not refrain from the
remark that the good oaken tablet on which the first was painted had
certainly its effect on my father's decision.
[Side-note: Oil-Cloth Factory.]
Now I am again speaking of painting, I am reminded of a large
establishment, where I passed much time, because both it and its
managers especially attracted me. It was the great oil-cloth factory
which the painter NOTHNAGEL had erected; an expert artist, but one who
by his mode of thought inclined more to manufacture than to art. In a
very large space of courts and gardens, all sorts of oil-cloths were
made, from the coarsest that are spread with a trowel, and used for
baggage-wagons and similar purposes, and the carpets impressed with
figures, to the finer and the finest, on which sometimes Chinese and
grotesque, sometimes natural flowers, sometimes figures, sometimes
landscapes were represented by the pencils of accomplished workmen.
This multiplicity, to which there was no end, amused me vastly. The
occupation of so many men, from the commonest labour to that in which
a certain artistic worth could not be denied, was to me extremely
attractive. I made the acquaintance of this multitude of younger
and older men, working in several rooms one behind the other, and
occasionally lent a hand myself. The sale of these commodities was
extraordinarily brisk. Whoever at that time was building or furnishing
a house, wished to provide for his lifetime, and this oil-cloth
carpeting was certainly quite indestructible. Nothnagel had enough to
do in managing the whole, and sat in his office surrounded by factors
and clerks. The remainder of his time he employed in his collection of
works of art, consisting chiefly of engravings, in which, as well as in
the pictures he possessed, he traded occasionally. At the same time he
had acquired a taste for etching; he etched a variety of plates, and
prosecuted this branch of art even into his latest years.
As his dwelling lay near the Eschenheim gate, my way when I had
visited him led me out of the city to some pieces of ground which
my father owned beyond the gates. One was a large orchard, the soil
of which was used as a meadow, and in which my father carefully
attended the transplanting of trees, and whatever else pertained to
their preservation, though the ground itself was leased. Still more
occupation was furnished by a very well-preserved vineyard beyond the
Friedberg gate, where between the rows of vines, rows of asparagus were
planted and tended with great care. Scarcely a day passed in the fine
season in which my father did not go there, and as on these occasions
we might generally accompany him, we were provided with joy and delight
from the earliest productions of spring to the last of autumn. We also
learned to occupy ourselves with gardening matters, which, as they were
repeated every year, became in the end perfectly known and familiar to
us. But after the manifold fruits of summer and autumn, the vintage
at last was the most lively and the most desirable: nay, there is no
question that as wine gives a freer character to the very places and
districts where it is grown and drunk, so also do these vintage-days,
while they close summer and at the same time open the winter, diffuse
an incredible cheerfulness. Joy and jubilation pervade a whole
district. In the daytime, huzzas and shoutings are heard from every end
and corner, and at night rockets and fire-balls, now here, now there,
announce that the people, everywhere awake and lively, would willingly
make this festival last as long as possible. The subsequent labour at
the wine-press, and during the fermentation in the cellar, gave us also
a cheerful employment at home, and thus we ordinarily reached winter
without being properly aware of it.
These rural possessions delighted us so much the more in the spring of
1763, as the 15th of February in that year was celebrated as a festival
day, on account of the conclusion of the Hubertsberg peace, under the
happy results of which the greater part of my life was to flow away.
But before I go further, I think I am bound to mention some men who
exerted an important influence on my youth.
[Side-note: Frankfort Characters - Von Olenschlager.]
VON OLENSCHLAGER, a member of the Frauenstein family, a Schöff, and
son-in-law of the above-mentioned Dr. Orth, a handsome, comfortable,
sanguine man. In his official holiday costume he could well have
personated the most important French prelate. After his academical
course, he had employed himself in political and state affairs, and
directed even his travels to that end. He greatly esteemed me, and
often conversed with me on matters which chiefly interested him. I
was with him when he wrote his _Illustration of the Golden Bull_;
when he managed to explain to me very clearly the worth and dignity
of that document. My imagination was led back by it to those wild and
unquiet times, so that I could not forbear representing what he related
historically, as if it were present, by pictures of characters and
circumstances, and often by mimicry. In this he took great delight, and
by his applause excited me to repetition.
I had from childhood the singular habit of always learning by heart the
beginnings of books, and the divisions of a work, first of the five
books of Moses, and then of the _Æneid_ and Ovid's _Metamorphoses._ I
now did the same thing with the _Golden Bull_, and often provoked my
patron to a smile, when I quite seriously and unexpectedly exclaimed,
"_Omne regnum in se divisum desolabitur; nam principes ejus facti sunt
socii furum._"[4] The knowing man shook his head, smiling, and said
doubtingly, "What times those must have been, when at a grand Diet,
the Emperor had such words published in the face of his princes!"
There was a great charm in Von Olenschlager's society. He received
little company, but was strongly inclined to intellectual amusement,
and induced us young people from time to time to perform a play; for
such exercises were deemed particularly useful to the young. We gave
the CANUTE of Schlegel, in which the part of the king was assigned to
me, Elfrida to my sister, and Ulfo to the younger son of the family. We
then ventured on the BRITANNICUS,[5] for, besides our dramatic talents,
we were to bring the language into practice. I took Nero, my sister,
Agrippina, and the younger son, Britannicus. We were more praised than
we deserved, and fancied that we had done it even beyond the amount of
praise. Thus I stood on the best terms with this family, and have been
indebted to them for many pleasures and a speedier development.
[Side-note: Frankfort Characters - Von Reineck.]
VON REINECK, of an old patrician family, able, honest, but stubborn, a
meagre, swarthy man, whom I never saw smile. The misfortune befell him
that his only daughter was carried off by a friend of the family. He
pursued his son-in-law with the most vehement prosecution; and because
the tribunals, with their formality, were neither speedy nor sharp
enough to gratify his desire of vengeance, he fell out with them; and
there arose quarrel on quarrel, suit on suit. He retired completely
into his own house and its adjacent garden, lived in a spacious but
melancholy lower-room, into which for many years no brush of a white
washer, and perhaps scarcely the broom of a maid-servant, had found its
way. Me he could readily endure, and he had especially commended to me
his younger son. He many times asked his oldest friends, who knew how
to humour him, his men of business and agents, to dine with him, and
on these occasions never omitted inviting me. There was good eating
and better drinking at his house. But a large stove, that let out the
smoke from many cracks, caused the greatest pain to his guests. One of
the most intimate of these once ventured to remark upon this, by asking
the host whether he could put up with such an inconvenience all the
winter. He answered, like a second Timon or Heautontimoroumenos: "Would
to God this was the greatest evil of those which torment me!" It was
long before he allowed himself to be persuaded to see his daughter and
grandson. The son-in-law never again dared to come into his presence.
On this excellent but unfortunate man my visits had a very favourable
effect; for while he liked to converse with me, and particularly
instructed me on world and state affairs, he seemed to feel himself
relieved and cheered. The few old friends who still gathered round him,
often, therefore, made use of me when they wished to soften his peevish
humour, and persuade him to any diversion. He now really rode out with
us many times, and again contemplated the country, on which he had not
cast an eye for so many years. He called to mind the old landowners,
and told stones of their characters and actions, in which he showed
himself always severe, but often cheerful and witty. We now tried also
to bring him again among other men, which, however, nearly turned out
badly.