a spiritual direction. Nature seems to desire that one sex may by the
senses perceive goodness and beauty in the other. And thus to me, by
the sight of this girl--by my strong inclination for her--a new world
of the beautiful and the excellent had arisen. I read my poetical
epistle a hundred times through, gazed upon the signature, kissed it,
pressed it to my heart, and rejoiced in this amiable confession. But
the more my transports increased, the more did it pain me, not to be
able to visit her immediately, and to see and converse with her again;
for I dreaded the reproofs and importunities of her cousins. The good
Pylades, who might have arranged the affair, I could not contrive
to meet. The next Sunday, therefore, I set out for Niederrad, where
these associates generally used to go, and actually found them there.
I was, however, greatly surprised, when, instead of behaving in a
cross, distant manner, they came up to me with joyful, countenances.
The youngest particularly was very friendly, took me by the hand, and
said, "You have lately played us a sorry trick, and we were very angry
with you; but your absconding and taking away the poetical epistle
has suggested a good thought to us, which otherwise might never have
occurred. By way of atonement, you may treat us to-day, and you shall
learn at the same time the notion we have, which will certainly give
you pleasure." This address put me in no little perplexity; for I had
about me only money enough to regale myself and a friend; but to treat
a whole company, and especially one which did not always stop at the
right time, I was by no means prepared; nay, the proposal astonished
me the more, as they had always insisted, in the most honourable
manner, that each one should pay only his own share. They smiled at my
distress, and the youngest proceeded, "Let us first take a seat in the
bower, and then you shall learn more." We sat down, and he said, "When
you had taken the love-letter with you, we talked the whole affair over
again, and came to a conclusion that we had gratuitously misused your
talent to the vexation of others and our own danger, for the sake of
a mere paltry love of mischief, when we could have employed it to the
advantage of all of us. See, I have here an order for a wedding-poem,
as well as for a dirge. The second must be ready immediately, the
other can wait a week. Now, if you make these; which is easy for you,
you will treat us twice, and we shall long remain your debtors." This
proposition pleased me in every respect; for I had already in my
childhood looked with a certain envy on the occasional poems,[2] of
which then several circulated every week, and at respectable marriages
especially came to light by the dozen, because I thought I could make
such things as well, nay, better than others. Now an opportunity was
offered me to show myself, and especially to see myself in print.
I did not appear disinclined. They acquainted me with the personal
particulars and the position of the family; I went somewhat aside, made
my plan, and produced some stanzas. However, when I returned to the
company, and the wine was not spared, the poem began to halt, and I
could not deliver it that evening. "There is still time till to-morrow
evening," they said; "and we will confess to you that the fee which
we receive for the dirge is enough to get us another pleasant evening
to-morrow. Come to us; for it is but fair that Gretchen too should sup
with us, as it was she properly who gave us the notion." My joy was
unspeakable. On my way home I had only the remaining stanzas in my
head, wrote down the whole before I went to sleep, and the next morning
made a very neat fair copy. The day seemed infinitely long to me; and
scarcely was it dusk, than I found myself again in the narrow little
dwelling beside the dearest of girls.
[Side-note: Gretchen and Her Friends.]
The young persons with whom in this way I formed a closer and closer
connexion were not properly low, but ordinary sort of people. Their
activity was commendable, and I listened to them with pleasure when
they spoke of the manifold ways and means by which one could gain a
living; above all they loved to tell of people, now very rich, who
had begun with nothing. Others to whom they referred had, as poor
clerks, rendered themselves indispensable to their employers, and had
finally risen to be their sons-in-law: while others had so enlarged
and improved a little trade in matches and the like, that they were
now prosperous merchants and tradesmen. But above all, to young men,
who were active on their feet, the trade of agent and factor, and the
undertaking of all sorts of commissions and charges for helpless rich
men was, they said, a most profitable means of gaining a livelihood.
We all heard this eagerly, and each one fancied himself somebody, when
he imagined, at the moment, that there was enough in him, not only to
get on in the world, but to acquire an extraordinary fortune. But no
one seemed to carry on this conversation more earnestly than Pylades,
who at last confessed that he had an extraordinary passion for a girl,
and was actually engaged to her. The circumstances of his parents would
not allow him to go to universities, but he had endeavoured to acquire
a fine handwriting, a knowledge of accounts, and the modern languages,
and would now do his best in hopes of attaining that domestic felicity.
The cousins praised him for this, although they did not approve of a
premature engagement to a girl, and they added, that while forced to
acknowledge him to be a fine good fellow, they did not consider him
active or enterprising enough to do anything extraordinary. While he,
in vindication of himself, circumstantially set forth what he thought
himself fit for, and how he was going to begin, the others were also
incited, and each one began to tell what he was now able to do, doing,
or carrying on, what he had already accomplished, and what he saw
immediately before him. The turn at last came to me. I was to set forth
my course of life and prospects, and while I was considering, Pylades
said, "I make this one proviso, if we all would stand on a level, that
he does not bring into the account the external advantages of his
position. He should rather tell us a tale how he would proceed if at
this moment he were thrown entirely upon his own resources, as we are."
Gretchen, who till this moment, had kept on spinning, rose and seated
herself as usual at the end of the table. We had already emptied some
bottles, and I began to relate the hypothetical history of my life in
the best humour. "First of all, then, I commend myself to you," said I,
"that you may continue the custom you have begun to bestow on me. If
you gradually procure me the profit of all the occasional poems, and we
do not consume them in mere feasting, I shall soon come to something.
But then you must not take it ill if I dabble also in your handicraft."
Upon this I told them what I had observed in their occupations, and
for which I held myself fit at any rate. Each one had previously
rated his services** in money, and I asked them to assist me also in
completing my establishment. Gretchen had listened to all hitherto very
attentively, and that in a position which well suited her, whether
she chose to hear or to speak. With both hands she clasped her folded
arms, and rested them on the edge of the table. Thus she could sit a
long while without moving anything but her head, which was never done
without occasion or meaning. She had several times put in a word and
helped us on over this and that, when we halted in our projects, and
then was again still and quiet as usual. I kept her in my eye, and it
may readily be supposed that I had not devised and uttered my plan
without reference to her. My passion for her gave to what I said such
an air of truth and probability, that for a moment I deceived myself,
imagined myself as lonely and helpless as my story supposed, and felt
extremely happy in the prospect of possessing her. Pylades had closed
his confession with marriage, and the question arose among the rest of
us, whether our plans went as far as that. "I have not the least doubt
on that score," said I, "for properly a wife is necessary to every one
of us, in order to preserve at home and enable us to enjoy as a whole
what we rake together abroad in such an odd way." I then made a sketch
of a wife, such as I wished, and it must have turned out strangely if
she had not been a perfect counterpart of Gretchen.
The dirge was consumed; the epithalamium now stood beneficially at
hand; I overcame all fear and care, and contrived, as I had many
acquaintances, to conceal my actual evening entertainments from my
family. To see and to be near the dear girl was soon an indispensable
condition of my being. The friends had grown just as accustomed to me,
and we were almost daily together, as if it could not be otherwise.
Pylades had, in the meantime, introduced his fair one into the house,
and this pair passed many an evening with us. They, as bride and
bridegroom, though still very much in the bud, did not conceal their
tenderness; Gretchen's deportment towards me was only suited to keep me
at a distance. She gave her hand to no one, not even to me; she allowed
no touch; yet she many times seated herself near me, particularly when
I wrote or read aloud, and then laying her arm familiarly upon my
shoulder, she looked over the book or paper. If, however, I ventured
on a similar freedom towards her, she withdrew, and would not soon
return. This position she often repeated, and indeed all her attitudes
and motions were very uniform, but always equally fitting, beautiful,
and charming. But such a familiarity I never saw her practise towards
anybody else.
[Side-note: The Höchst Market-Ship.]
One of the most innocent, and at the same time amusing, parties of
pleasure in which I engaged with different companies of young people,
was this: that we seated ourselves in the Höchst market-ship, observed
the strange passengers packed away in it, and bantered and teased, now
this one, now that, as pleasure or caprice prompted. At Höchst we got
out at the same time as the market-boat from Mentz arrived. At a hotel
there was a well-spread table, where the better sort of travellers,
coming and going, ate with each other, and then proceeded, each on
his way, as both ships returned. Every time, after dining, we sailed
up to Frankfort, having, with a very large company, made the cheapest
water-excursion that was possible. Once I had undertaken this journey
with Gretchen's cousins, when a young man joined us at table in Höchst,
who might be a little older than we were. They knew him, and he got
himself introduced to me. He had something very pleasing in his manner,
though he was not otherwise distinguished. Coming from Mentz, he now
went back with us to Frankfort, and conversed with me of everything
that related to the internal arrangements of the city, and the public
offices and places, on which he seemed to me to be very well informed.
When we separated he bade me farewell, and added, that he wished I
might think well of him, as he hoped on occasion to avail himself of my
recommendation. I did not know what he meant by this, but the cousins
enlightened me some days after; they spoke well of him, and asked me
to intercede with my grandfather, as a moderate appointment was just
now vacant, which this friend would like to obtain. I at first excused
myself, because I had never meddled in such affairs; but they went on
urging me until I resolved to do it. I had already many times remarked
that, in these grants of offices, which unfortunately were often
regarded as matters of favour, the mediation of my grandmother or an
aunt had not been without effect. I was now so advanced as to arrogate
some influence to myself. For that reason, to gratify my friends, who
declared themselves under every sort of obligation for such a kindness,
I overcame the timidity of a grandchild, and undertook to deliver a
written application that was handed in to me.
One Sunday, after dinner, as my grandfather was busy in his garden, all
the more because autumn was approaching, and I tried to assist him on
every side; I came forward with my request and the petition, after some
hesitation. He looked at it, and asked me whether I knew the young man.
I told him in general terms what was to be said, and he let the matter
rest there. "If he has merit, and moreover good testimonials, I will
favour him for your sake and his own." He said no more, and for a long
while I heard nothing of the matter.
[Side-note: Gretchen's New Situation.]
For some time I had observed that Gretchen span no more, but on the
other hand was employed in sewing, and that, too, on very fine work,
which surprised me the more, as the days were already shortening, and
winter was coming on. I thought no farther about it, only it troubled
me that several times I had not found her at home in the morning as
formerly, and could not learn, without importunity, whither she had
gone. Yet I was destined one day to be surprised in a very odd manner.
My sister, who was getting herself ready for a ball, asked me to fetch
her some so-called Italian flowers, at a fashionable milliner's. They
were made in convents, and were small and pretty; myrtles especially,
dwarf-roses, and the like, came out quite beautifully and naturally. I
granted her the favour, and went to the shop where I had already often
been with her. Hardly had I entered and greeted the proprietress, than
I saw sitting in the window a lady, who in a lace cap looked very young
and pretty, and in a silk mantilla seemed very well shaped. I could
easily recognize that she was an assistant, for she was occupied in
fastening a ribbon and feathers upon a hat: The milliner showed me the
long box with single flowers of various sorts; I looked them over, and
as I made my choice glanced again towards the lady in the window; butious, if not unpleasant
consequences. For some time, already, Count Lindto Gretchen, nay, was forced to be convinced at last that it was
Gretchen herself. No doubt remained, when she winked with her eyes and
gave me a sign that I must not betray our acquaintance. I now with my
choosing and rejecting drove the milliner into despair more than even a
lady could have done. I had, in fact, no choice, for I was excessively
confused, and at the same time liked to linger, because it kept me
near the girl, whose disguise annoyed me, though in that disguise she
appeared to me more enchanting than ever. Finally, the milliner seemed
to lose all patience, and with her own hands selected for me a whole
bandbox full of flowers, which I was to place before my sister and let
her choose for herself. Thus I was, as it were, driven out of the shop,
while she sent the box first by one of her girls.
Scarcely had I reached home than my father caused me to be called, and
communicated to me that it was now quite certain that the Archduke
Joseph would be elected and crowned King of Rome. An event so highly
important was not to be expected without preparation, nor allowed to
pass with mere gaping and staring. He wished, therefore, he said, to
go through with me the election and coronation-diaries of the two last
coronations, as well as through the last capitulations of election,
in order to remark what new conditions might be added in the present
instance. The diaries were opened, and we occupied ourselves with them
the whole day till far into the night, while the pretty girl, sometimes
in her old house-dress, sometimes in her new costume, ever hovered
before me, backwards and forwards among the most august objects of the
Holy Roman Empire. This evening it was impossible to see her, and I
lay awake through a very restless night. The study of yesterday was
the next day zealously resumed, and it was not till towards evening
that I found it possible to visit my fair one, whom I met again in her
usual house-dress. She smiled when she saw me, but I did not venture
to mention anything before the others. When the whole company sat
quietly together again, she began and said, "It is unfair that you
do not confide to our friend what we have lately resolved upon." She
then continued to relate, that after our late conversation, in which
the discussion was how any one could get on in the world, something
was also said of the way in which a woman could enhance the value of
her talent and labour, and advantageously employ her time. The cousins
had consequently proposed that she should make an experiment at a
milliner's who was just then in want of an assistant. They had, she
said, arranged with the woman; she went there so many hours a-day,
and was well paid; only when there she was obliged, for propriety's
sake, to conform to a certain dress, which, however, she left behind
her every time, as it did not at all suit her other modes of life and
employment. I was indeed set at rest by this declaration, but it did
not quite please me to know that the pretty girl was in a public shop,
and at a place where the fashionable world found a convenient resort.
But I betrayed nothing, and strove to work off my jealous care in
silence. For this the younger cousin did not allow me a long time, as
he once more came forward with a proposal for an occasional poem, told
me all the personalities, and at once desired me to prepare myself for
the invention and disposition of the work. He had already spoken with
me several times concerning the proper treatment of such a theme, and
as I was voluble in these cases, he readily asked me to explain to
him circumstantially what is rhetorical in these things, to give him
a notion of the matter, and to make use of my own and others' labours
in this kind for examples. The young man had some brains, though he
was without a trace of a poetical vein, and now he went so much into
particulars, and wished to have such an account of everything, that I
gave utterance to the remark: "It seems as if you wanted to encroach
upon my trade and steal away my customers!" "I will not deny it," said
he, smiling, "as I shall do you no harm by it. This will only continue
to the time when you go to the university, and till then you must allow
me still to profit something by your society." "Most cordially," I
replied, and I encouraged him to draw out a plan, to choose a metre
according to the character of his subject, and to do whatever else
might seem necessary. He went to work in earnest, but did not succeed.
I was in the end compelled to re-write so much of it, that I could
more easily and better have written it all from the beginning myself.
Yet this teaching and learning, this mutual labour, afforded us good
entertainment: Gretchen took part in it and had many a pretty notion,
so that we were all pleased, we may indeed say, happy. During the
day she worked at the milliner's: in the evenings we generally met
together, and our contentment was not even disturbed when at last the
commissions for occasional poems began to leave off. Still we felt
hurt once, when one of them came back under protest, because it did
not suit the party who ordered it. We consoled ourselves, however, as
we considered it our very best work, and could therefore declare the
other a bad judge. The cousin, who was determined to learn something
at any rate, resorted to the expedient of inventing problems, in the
solution of which we always found amusement enough, but as they brought
in nothing, our little banquets had to be much more frugally managed.
[Side-note: Preparations for the Election.]
That great political object, the election and coronation of a King of
Rome, was pursued with more and more earnestness. The assembling of
the electoral college, originally appointed to take place at Augsburg
in the October of 1763, was now transferred to Frankfort, and both at
the end of this year and in the beginning of the next, preparations
went forward, which should usher in this important business. The
beginning was made by a parade never yet seen by us. One of our
chancery officials on horseback, escorted by four trumpeters likewise
mounted, and surrounded by a guard of infantry, read in a loud clear
voice at all the corners of the city, a prolix edict, which announced
the forthcoming proceedings, and exhorted the citizens to a becoming
deportment suitable to the circumstances. The council was occupied
with weighty considerations, and it was not long before the Imperial
Quarter-Master, despatched by the Hereditary Grand Marshal, made
his appearance, in order to arrange and designate the residences of
the ambassadors and their suites, according to the old custom. Our
house lay in the Palatine district, and we had to provide for a new
but agreeable billetting. The middle story, which Count Thorane had
formerly occupied, was given up to a cavalier of the Palatinate, and as
Baron von Königsthal, the Nuremberg _chargé d'affaires_, occupied the
upper floor, we were still more crowded than in the time of the French.
This served me as a new excuse to be out of doors, and to pass the
greater part of the day in the streets, that I might see all that was
open to public view.
After the preliminary alteration and arrangement of the rooms in the
town-house had seemed to us worth seeing, after the arrival of the
ambassadors one after another, and their first solemn ascent in a body,
on the 6th of February, had taken place, we admired the coming in of
the imperial commissioners, and their ascent also to the _Römer_,
which was made with great pomp. The dignified person of the PRINCE of
LICHTENSTEIN made a good impression; yet connoisseurs maintained that
the showy liveries had already been used on another occasion, and that
this election and coronation would hardly equal in brilliancy that
of Charles the Seventh. We younger folks were content with what was
before our eyes; all seemed to us very fine, and much of it perfectly
astonishing.
The electoral congress was fixed at last for the 3rd of March. New
formalities again set the city in motion, and the alternate visits of
ceremony on the part of the ambassadors kept us always on our legs.
We were compelled, too, to watch closely, as we were not only to gape
about, but to note everything well, in order to give a proper report at
home, and even to make out many little memoirs, on which my father and
Herr von Königsthal had deliberated, partly for our exercise and partly
for their own information. And certainly this was of peculiar advantage
to me, as I was enabled very tolerably to keep a living election and
coronation-diary, as far as regarded externals.
[Side-note: Baron Von Plotho.]
The person who first of all made a durable impression upon me was
the chief ambassador from the electorate of Mentz, BARON VON ERTHAL,
afterwards Elector. Without having anything striking in his figure,
he was always highly pleasing to me in his black gown trimmed with
lace. The second ambassador, BARON VON GROSCHLAG, was a well-formed
man of the world, easy in his exterior, but conducting himself with
great decorum. He everywhere produced a very agreeable impression.
PRINCE ESTERHAZY, the Bohemian envoy, was not tall, though well-formed,
lively, and at the same time eminently decorous, without pride or
coldness. I had a special liking for him, because he reminded me
of MARSHAL DE BROGLIO. Yet the form and dignity of these excellent
persons vanished, in a certain degree, before the prejudice that was
entertained in favour of BARON VON PLOTHO, the Brandenburg ambassador.
This man, who was distinguished by a certain parsimony, both in his
own clothes and in his liveries and equipages, had been greatly
renowned from the time of the seven years' war, as a diplomatic hero.
At Ratisbon, when the Notary April thought, in the presence of
witnesses, to serve him with the declaration of outlawry which had
been issued against his king, he had, with the laconic exclamation:
"What! you serve:" thrown him, or caused him to be thrown, down
stairs. We believed the first, because it pleased us best, and we
could readily believe it of the little compact man, with his black,
fiery eyes glancing here and there. All eyes were directed towards
him, particularly when he alighted. There arose every time a sort of
joyous whispering, and but little was wanting to a regular explosion,
or a shout of _Vivat!_ _Bravo!_ So high did the king, and all who were
devoted to him, body and soul, stand in favour with the crowd, among
whom, besides the Frankforters, were Germans from all parts.
On the one hand these things gave me much pleasure; as all that took
place, no matter of what nature it might be, concealed a certain
meaning, indicated some internal relation, and such symbolic ceremonies
again, for a moment, represented as living the old Empire of Germany,
almost choked to death by so many parchments, papers, and books. But,
on the other hand, I could not suppress a secret displeasure, when I
was forced, at home, on my father's account, to transcribe the internal
transactions, and at the same time to remark that here several powers,
which balanced each other, stood in opposition, and only so far agreed,
as they designed to limit the new ruler even more than the old one;
that every one valued his influence only so far as he hoped to retain
or enlarge his privileges, and better to secure his independence. Nay,
on this occasion they were more attentive than usual, because they
began to fear Joseph the Second, his vehemence and probable plans.