A curious episode in Weber's life was his connection with the royal
family of Wurtemberg, where he found a dissolute, poverty-stricken
court, and a whimsical, arrogant, half-crazy king. Here he remained four
years in a half-official musical position, his nominal duty being that
of secretary to the king's brother, Prince Ludwig. This part of
his career was almost a sheer waste, full of dreary and irritating
experiences, which Weber afterward spoke of with disgust and regret.
His spirit revolted from the capricious tyranny which he was obliged to
undergo, but circumstances seem to have coerced him into a protracted
endurance of the place. His letters tell us how bitterly he detested the
king and his dull, pompous court, though Prince Ludwig in a way seemed
to have been attached to his secretary. One of his biographers says:
"Weber hated the king, of whose wild caprice and vices he witnessed
daily scenes, before whose palace-gates he was obliged to slink
bareheaded, and who treated him with unmerited ignominy. Sceptre and
crown had never been imposing objects in his eyes, unless worn by a
worthy man; and consequently he was wont, in the thoughtless levity
of youth, to forget the dangers he ran, and to answer the king with a
freedom of tone which the autocrat was all unused to hear. In turn he
was detested by the monarch. As negotiator for the spendthrift Prince
Ludwig, he was already obnoxious enough; and it sometimes happened that,
by way of variety to the customary torrent of invective, the king, after
keeping the secretary for hours in his antechamber, would receive him
only to turn him rudely out of the room, without hearing a word he had
to say."
At last Karl Maria's indignation burst over bounds at some unusual
indignity; and he played a practical joke on the king. Meeting an old
woman in the palace one day near the door of the royal sanctum, she
asked him where she could find the court-washerwoman. "There," said the
reckless Weber, pointing to the door of the king's cabinet. The
king, who hated old women, was in a transport of rage, and, on her
terror-stricken explanation of the intrusion, had no difficulty in
fixing the mischief in the right quarter. Weber was thrown into prison,
and had it not been for Prince Ludwig's intercession he would have
remained there for several years. While confined he managed to compose
one of his most beautiful songs, "Ein steter Kampf ist unser Leben." He
had not long been released when he was again imprisoned on account of
some of his father's wretched follies, that arrogant old gentleman being
utterly reckless how he involved others, so long as he carried out his
own selfish purposes and indulgence. His friend Danzi, director of the
royal opera at Stuttgart, proved his good genius in this instance; for
he wrangled with the king till his young friend was released.
Weber's only consolations during this dismal life in Stuttgart were the
friendship of Danzi, and his love for a beautiful singer named Gretchen.
Danzi was a true mentor and a devoted friend. He was wont to say to
Karl: "To be a true artist, you must be a true man." But the lovely
Gretchen, however she may have consoled his somewhat arid life, was not
a beneficial influence, for she led him into many sad extravagances and
an unwholesome taste for playing the cavalier.
In spite of his discouraging surroundings, Weber's creative power was
active during this period, and showed how, perhaps unconsciously to
himself, he was growing in power and depth of experience. He wrote the
cantata "Der erste Ton," a large number of songs, the first of his great
piano sonatas, several overtures and symphonies, and the opera "Sylvana"
("Das Waldmädchen" rewritten and enlarged), which, both in its music
and libretto, seems to have been the precursor of his great works "Der
Freischutz" and "Euryanthe." At the first performance of "Sylvana" in
Frankfort, September 16, 1810, he met Miss Caroline Brandt, who sang
the principal character. She afterward became his wife, and her love and
devotion were the solace of his life.
Weber spent most of the year 1810 in Darmstadt, where he again met
Vogler and Meyerbeer. Vogler's severe artistic instructions were of
great value to Weber in curbing his extravagance, and impressing on him
that restraint was one of the most valuable factors in art. What Vogler
thought of Weber we learn from a letter in which he writes: "Had I been
forced to leave the world before I found these two, Weber and Meyerbeer,
I should have died a miserable man."