Love Affairs and Matrimonial Proposals--The Song of Solomon may be used
in Matchmaking--A new _Modus Lucrand_i--Smallpox.
In my youth I was very lively, and had in my nature a good deal that was
agreeable. In my passions I was violent and impatient. Till about my
eleventh year, as I had the benefit of a very strict education, and was
kept from all intercourse with women, I never traced any special
inclination towards the fair sex. But an incident produced in me a great
change in this respect.
A poor, but very pretty, girl about my own age was taken into our house
as a servant. She charmed me uncommonly. Desires began to stir in me,
which till this time I had never known. But in accordance with the
strict rabbinical morals, I was obliged to keep on my guard against
looking on the girl with attentive gaze, and still more against speaking
with her, so that I was able only now and then to throw at her a stolen
glance.
It happened once however that the women of the house were going to
bathe, which by the usage of the country they are accustomed to do two
or three times a week. By chance my instinct drove me without
reflection towards the place where they bathed; and there I suddenly
perceived this beautiful girl, as she stepped out of the steam-bath and
plunged into the river flowing by. At this sight I fell into a sort of
rapture. After my feelings had calmed down again, being mindful of the
strict Talmudic laws, I wished to flee. But I could not; I remained
standing, as if rooted in the spot. As I dreaded however lest I might be
surprised here, I was obliged to return with a heavy heart. From that
time I became restless, was sometimes beside myself; and this state
continued till my marriage.
Our neighbour, the arendant, had two sons and three daughters. The
eldest daughter, Deborah, was already married. The second, Pessel, was
about my age; the peasantry of the place professed to find even a
certain resemblance in our features, and therefore, in accordance with
all the laws of probability, conjectured that there would be a match
between us. We formed also a mutual affection. But by ill luck the
youngest daughter, Rachel, had to fall into a cellar and dislocated one
of her legs. She herself, indeed, completely recovered, but the leg
remained somewhat crooked. The arendant then started a hunt after me; he
was absolutely determined to have me for a son-in-law. My father was
quite agreeable, but he wished to have for his daughter-in-law the
straight-legged Pessel rather than Rachel of the crooked leg. The
arendant however declared that this was impracticable, inasmuch as he
had fixed on a rich husband for the elder, while the youngest was
destined for me; and as my father was unable to give me anything, he was
willing to provide for her richly out of his own fortune. Besides a
considerable sum which he agreed to give as a portion, he was willing in
addition to make me a joint-heir of his fortune, and to provide me with
all necessaries the whole of my life. Moreover he promised to pay my
father a fixed sum immediately after the betrothal, and not only to
leave him undisturbed in his rights, but also to try and promote his
domestic happiness in every possible way. The feuds between the two
families were to cease from this time, and a league of friendship was to
unite them for the future into one family.
Had my father lent an ear to these representations, he would without
doubt have established the fortune of his house, and I should have lived
with a spouse, who, it is true, had a crooked leg, but (as I found out
some time afterwards when I was tutor in her family) was in other
respects an amiable woman. I should thus have been freed from all cares
in the midst of good fortune, and I should have been able to apply
myself without hindrance to my studies. But unhappily my father rejected
this proposal with scorn. He was absolutely determined to have Pessel
for his daughter-in-law; and since this, as already mentioned, was
impracticable, the feuds between the two families broke out afresh. But
as the arendant was rich, and my father was a poor man, the latter was
necessarily always the loser.
Some time afterwards another matrimonial proposal for me turned up. Mr.
L---- of Schmilowitz, a learned and at the same time a rich man, who had
an only daughter, was so enchanted with my fame, that he chose me for
his son-in-law without having seen me before. He began by entering into
correspondence with my father on the subject, and left it to him to
prescribe the conditions of the union. My father answered his letter in
lofty style, made up of Biblical verses and passages from the Talmud, in
which he expressed the conditions briefly by means of the following
verses from the Canticles, "The thousand gulden are for thee, O Solomon,
and the two hundred for those who keep his fruits."[22] Consent was
given to everything.
My father accordingly made a journey to Schmilowitz, saw his future
daughter-in-law, and had the marriage-contract drawn in accordance with
the terms agreed upon. Two hundred gulden were paid to him on the spot.
With this, however, he was not content, but insisted that in his letter
he had been obliged to limit himself to two hundred gulden merely for
the sake of the beautiful verse which he did not wish to spoil; but he
would not enter into the transaction at all unless he received for
himself twice two hundred gulden (fifty thalers in Polish money). They
had therefore to pay him two hundred gulden more, and to hand over to
him the so-called little presents for me, namely, a cap of black velvet
trimmed with gold lace, a Bible bound in green velvet with silver
clasps, etc. With these things he came home full of joy, gave me the
presents, and told me that I was to prepare myself for a disputation to
be held on my marriage day, which would be in two months' time.
Already my mother had begun to bake the cakes she was expected to take
with her to the wedding, and to prepare all sorts of preserves; I began
also to think about the disputation I was to hold, when suddenly the
mournful news arrived that my bride had died of smallpox. My father
could easily reconcile himself to this loss, because he thought to
himself that he had made fifty thalers by his son in an honourable way,
and that now he could get fifty thalers for him again. I also, who had
never seen my bride, could not particularly mourn her loss; I thought to
myself, "The cap and the silver-clasped Bible are already mine, and a
bride will also not be awanting long, while my disputation can serve me
again." My mother alone was inconsolable about this loss. Cakes and
preserves are of a perishable nature and will not keep long. The labour
which my mother had expended was therefore rendered fruitless by this
fatal accident; and to this must be added, that she could find no place
to keep the delicious cakes from my secret attacks.