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The Correspondence of Christian Gottfried Krause: A Music Lover in the Age of Sensibility
The Correspondence o f Christian Gottfried Krause: A M usic Lover in the A ge o f Sensibility Darrell M. Berg
First published 2009 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Darrell M. Berg 2009 Darrell M. Berg has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Krause, Christian Gottfried, 1719-1770 The correspondence of Christian Gottfried Krause: A Music Lover in the Age of Sensibility 1. Krause, Christian Gottfried, 1719-1770 - Correspondence. 2. Composers - Germany Correspondence. 3. Lawyers - Germany- Correspondence. 4. Sensitivity (Personality trait). S. Germany - Intellectual life - 18th century. I. Title. II. Berg, Darrell M. 780.9'2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Berg, Darrell. The Correspondence of Christian Gottfried Krause: A Music Lover in the Age of Sensibility / by Darrell M. Berg. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Krause, Christian Gottfried, 1719-1770 - Correspondence. 2. Composers - Germany Correspondence. 3. Musicians -Germany-Correspondence. 4. Music - Germany- 18th centuryHistory and criticism. I. Krause, Christian Gottfried, 1719-1770. Correspondence. Selections. II. Title. ML410.K7361SA4 2009 780.92-dc22 [BJ 2008010400
Typeset by TJO Typographers, Prenton, Wirral
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-6429-1 (hbk)
Contents
List of illustrations
vii
Acknowledgements
ix
Introduction Musical interests Intellectual background and interests The Gleim Circle Contents of the Krause Correspondence Editorial Policy
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The Krause Correspondence in German and English
1
Appendix: Lieder that Krause proposed to set to music
235
Glossary of Names
241
Bibliography
259
Index
269
List o f Illustrations
1 Portrait of Christian Gottfried Krause by Gottfried Hempel, 1752 By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A/2
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2
Portrait of Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim by Hempel, 1750 By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A/2
234
3
Portrait of Ewald Christian von Kleist by Hempel, 1751(?) By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A/17
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4
Portrait of Karl Wilhelm Ramier by Hempel, 1749 By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A/19
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Letter of 24 October 1747 from C.G. Krause to J.W.L. Gleim, p. 1 By permission of the Gleimhaus, Hs. A2338
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the International Research Exchange Board (IREX), and to the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbiittel, for grants that made the research for this edition possible. I wish to thank the Gleimhaus, Halberstadt, and the GoetheSchiller Archiv, Weimar, for permission to publish the Krause correspondence in their collections and to the Gleimhaus for permission to publish a facsimile of one of the letters, and reproductions of four of the portraits, in Gleim’s Freundschaftstempel. I wish to express my gratitude to the staff of Ashgate Publishing, particularly to Heidi May and Kirsten Weissenberg for their kind assistance and patience, and to Peter Wilton for his help during the later stages of the editorial process. My engagement with Krause’s correspondence, begun at a time when Germany was divided politically, has created a “friendship cult” for me. I am indebted to members of the Gleimhaus staff, past and present: Dr. Horst Scholke, former Director of the Gleimhaus, Gerlinde Wappler, the late Karl-Otto Schulz, and all of the “Gleimhausler” who helped me during the summer I spent in Halberstadt; Dr. Ute Pott, present Director of the Gleimhaus, and Annegret Loose. I am grateful to Dr. Gudrun Busch, who suggested the Herzog August Bibliothek to me as a venue for preparing the annotation of this edition, and to the staff of that library, where I completed most of the annotation, especially Dr. Sabine Solf, Dr. Gillian Bepler, and Christian Hogreve. I am grateful to Professor David Lee and to the late Professor John Osborne, both of the Department of German, Slavic, and Asian Languages of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for their unending generosity in providing me with information about the Gleim-Ramler circle and its environment. I owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Professor Lee for reading the English translation of the correspondence and offering expert advice. In my examination of the German text I was fortunate to have the valuable insight of Birgit Noll of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. I also wish to thank Cornelia and Gerd Petermann for their assistance. Finally, I am grateful to my children, Rebecca and James Berg, and to Mary Seager and Betty White for reading and making suggestions about the English text of this edition. Darrell M. Berg Washington University St. Louis, Missouri
Portrait of Christian Gottfried Krause by Hempel, 1752. By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A/2
Introduction
On 9 February 1748 Christian Gottfried Krause, secretary to one of Frederick the Great’s generals in Potsdam, wrote to the poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim in Halberstadt, expressing concern about a mutual friend, a young Prussian officer, Ewald Christian von Kleist - also a poet - who was stationed with a garrison in Potsdam: “Our dear Kleist is by no means melancholic, but as “vexecT - here Krause uses the French word chagrin - “as one can be because people want to pronounce him melancholic.” Kleist, says Krause, has had himself bled, but the blood didn’t flow properly, and despite assurances from superiors that he is a good officer, Kleist is afraid that he will appear melancholic, and therefore unmanly, to his military colleagues: “He says his reputation is lost; no one will have anything to do with a melancholic person.” Krause goes on to urge Gleim: “Write to him, comfort him, encourage him and cheer him up in any way you can. I am too serious and tender-hearted for that.” The years in which Krause wrote his letters to Gleim and other friends belong to the period generally designated as the high Enlightenment (the age of Christian Wolff, Moses Mendelssohn, and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing). Krause’s letter, and indeed all of his surviving correspondence, display a convergence of cultural strains that formed counterpoints to the rationalism pervading much Enlightenment thought. Melancholia and hypochondria, once regarded as illnesses of madmen or misanthropes, were fashionable maladies in the mid eighteenth century. Those who suffered from them were considered by their sympathizers to have refined sensibilities, and exponents of “sensibility” indulged each others’ tender feelings. Concurrent with the sensibility of Krause and his friends, but not perceived by them as a conflicting ideal, was their enthusiasm and support for the military triumphs that would establish Prussia as a world power. War, they believed, was commendable if it improved their nation’s standing in the world. These patriots considered Friedrich II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) not only a “philosopher king,” but a great warrior, and they followed news of his military campaigns faithfully. Christian Gottfried Krause’s correspondence displays two important aspects of mid-eighteenth-century culture: concern with “feeling” and zeal for war. During the last half of his own century, Krause was best known for his voluminous treatise Von der musikalischen Poesie (1752), a work that examines relationships between texts and their musical settings, giving advice to poets on how to write a poem that is to be set to music, and to composers on the kind of texts that are suitable for musical treatment. Discussions of this work in the correspondence of Krause and some of his friends hint that his struggle to formulate a theory of music aesthetics for the Age of Sensibility was fraught with difficulties
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that he could not surmount. Krause himself admitted in the introduction to the treatise that it would have been more cogent if he had had time to shorten it, and confessed that he had not always acknowledged the authors from whom he had drawn many of his ideas. Yet the work was generally esteemed in Krause’s time. References to it, couched in respectful language, can be found in prominent eighteenth-century publications.1 Krause was also recognized by many of his contemporaries as the catalyst through whose exertions the so-called “first Berlin Lieder school” came into being. As an anonymous co-editor with the poet Carl Wilhelm Ramler (1725-98), Krause published at least two of the anthologies of Lieder titled Oden mit Melodien (Berlin, 1753, 1755), most probably the anonymous collection of 1761 with the same title, and the anthology titled Lieder der Deutschen (1767-68).2 With these publications he contributed to the vogue of a genre - the simple Lied with keyboard accompaniment - embraced by a middle class clientele who behaved simultaneously as performers and audience. The easy songs for the home that Krause and his contemporaries wrote and published were eventually superseded by those of later generations of composers, and, since the nineteenth century, have remained largely unsung. From the perspective of the present century these two accomplishments are sufficient to win Christian Gottfried Krause (1719-1770) a modest place among musical luminaries of his time. But through Krause’s correspondence, unknown in its day to all but senders and recipients, his works take on greater significance; and his letters, like those of many of his contemporaries, offer telling glimpses of the culture in which his career developed: the Prussian bureaucracy of the mideighteenth century that provided employment to a rising middle class. Krause’s letters have a very personal aspect, moreover, that many eighteenth-century letters lack. They depict his fervent response to the unfolding history of his nation and to the vicissitudes of his own life. They permit the reader of the twenty-first century an unusual degree of empathy with their author: a mid-eighteenth-century breadwinner, husband, father, and “man of feeling.” Krause’s story unfolds in 58 surviving letters: 1.
From Krause to Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719-1803):3 46 letters in the Gleimhaus, Halberstadt, Germany (D-HTgl 2332-2333, 2335-2357, 23592378,2381), dated 11 September 1746 to 17 September 1766
1 See, for example, QUANTZ/VERSUCH, p. 318 (this edition is a reproduction of the original edition of 1752 - when it was published, Quantz had been dead for 16 years; thus his remarks date from the same year as the publication of Krause’s work); HILLER/NACHRICHTEN (1769), p. 35, and FORKEL/LITTERATUR, p. 442. 2 For a brief biography of Ramler, see note 39 in Krause’s correspondence. Despite the fact that Krause and Ramler were not named in their published anthologies of Lieder, it was generally known that they were the editors of these collections. 3 For brief accounts of Gleim’s life during his friendship with Krause, see nn. 11,16,38, and 204 in Krause’s correspondence.
Introduction
2. 3. 4. 5.
6.
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From Krause to Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804):4 1 letter (D-HTgl 2334) dated 11 February 1747 From Krause to the poet Johann Peter Uz (1720-96):5 1 letter (D-FlTgl 2379) dated 17 January 1748 From Krause to the poet Ewald Christian von Kleist (1715-59): 2 letters (DHTgl 2358,2380) dated 28 February 1757 and 23 March 1758 From Krause to the poet Carl Wilhelm Ramler: 5 letters in the Goethe-Schiller Archiv in Weimar, Germany (D-WR, GSA 75/114) 3 dated 20 August 1759, 31 May 1760, and 4 June 1760 respectively; 2 undated (1 written between 1757 and 1763,1 in the spring of 1763 or later) From Gleim to Krause (3 letters: D-HTgl 5898, 5900, 5901) dated 9 April 1758,27 March 1765, and 26 January 1766
Krause’s life was outwardly unremarkable and relatively uneventful. He was baptized on 17 April 1719 in Winzig in Silesia (now Winsko, Wolöw, near Wroclaw, in the Polish district of Slonsk), the son of a town musician, Christian Krause, and his wife Regina.6 The young Krause received thorough musical training, presumably from his father, and, according to several reports, played violin and keyboard, conducted, and composed, all respectably. According to his contemporaries, his prowess as a timpanist was more than respectable: Carl Wilhelm Ramler’s letter dated 11 December 1757, describing a performance of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Donnerode, mentions Krause as a virtuoso timpanist.7 Joseph Beaujean, Krause’s biographer, speculates that Krause’s father may have originally planned a musical career for his son, and enlisted his participation as a timpanist in performances by the town musicians.8 Whatever his father’s intentions, Krause prepared himself for a career as a lawyer. He is said to have attended school in Breslau (now Wroclaw); on 27 February 1741, he matriculated as a student of law at the Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der Oder.9 Nothing is known of Krause’s life there beyond a report in Johann Adam Hiller’s Wöchentliche Nachrichten that, while in Frankfurt, the young student composed many pieces for the church.10 By 1746, the year his name first appears in the correspondence of his friends, Christian Gottfried Krause had obtained a position as legal secretary to one of Friedrich II’s trusted advisers, Lieutenant General Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg (1710-1751), who was stationed with the garrison in Potsdam.11 It was around this time that Krause met 4 For a brief biography of Spalding see nn. 4 and 374 in the correspondence. 5 For a brief biography of Uz, see n. 24 in the correspondence. 6 BEAUJEAN/KRAUSE, p.7. Beaujean surmises that because there were many musicians named Krause in Silesia, Christian Gottfried may have belonged to a large family of professional musicians. 7 GLEIM/RAMLER n , p. 307. It is difficult to evaluate Ramler’s lavish praise: in Krause’s lifetime, less technical prowess was demanded of timpanists than at present. 8 BEAUJEAN/KRAUSE,p. 8. 9 BEAUJEAN/KRAUSE, p. 9, n. 18. 10 HILLER/NACHRICHTEN (1769), p. 35. 11 See ADB, 29 (1889), pp. 358-9 and PREUß/FRIEDRICH, pp. 148,160 and passim.
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the poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim - perhaps in Berlin, where Gleim was living at the time, perhaps in Potsdam. It would also seem most likely that, in 1746, apparently through Gleim’s mediation, Krause was introduced to the poet Ewald Christian von Kleist, a member of the regiment commanded by Friedrich II’s brother Prince Heinrich in Potsdam, and to a group of Gleim’s friends: Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804), who would soon choose a career as a pastor, Hans Caspar Hirzel (1725-1803), a young Swiss doctor who was visiting Berlin, and Johann Georg Sulzer (1720-79), a Swiss intellectual who would make his permanent home in Prussia.12 It was probably Gleim who introduced Krause to the poet Carl Wilhelm Ramler.13 Krause seems to have begun to correspond with Gleim as soon as they met. Their correspondence lasted from 11 September 1746, the date of Krause’s first surviving letter, to 17 September 1766, the date of the last. Krause’s correspondence refers to many of the important events of his life. On 4 June 1747, Gleim wrote to Johann Peter Uz of Krause’s intention to write a treatise on the relationship between music and words. In his letter to Gleim of 20 December of that year, Krause announced that he had completed a draft of this work: Von der musikalischen Poesie. His early letters to Gleim, who left Berlin in October 1747 to accept a position as secretary to the chapter of the cathedral in Halberstadt, are frequent and elaborately polite, soliciting advice about the projected book, and deprecating his own knowledge of literature.14 In 1749 Krause completed his bar examinations, became a lawyer, and settled in Berlin. The Berlin Adres-Calender of 1750 lists him as a Gerichts-Advocat (court lawyer).15 Little else is known about the progress of his professional career at this time beyond a few remarks in his letters to Gleim and in Gleim’s correspondence with Ramler.16 During the next few years Krause’s correspondence with Gleim entered a different phase, becoming less frequent and reflecting less dependency on his former mentor. The young lawyer led a busy social life among friends and family, devoted himself to his legal career, and pursued musical interests. According to the Kalender of the Montagsklub of Berlin, Krause became one of the earliest members of the organization in 1750;17 during this year he was eagerly planning the first collection of Lieder that he would publish in collaboration with Ramler. One of 12 See Gleim’s letter of 24 August 1746 to Kleist, in which Krause is mentioned as “General Rothenburg’s secretary.” See also KLEIST/SAUER III, p. 18, and Krause’s letter of 11 September 1746 (D-HTgl 2332). 13 Ramler’s name first appears in Krause’s correspondence in the letter to Gleim of 24 October 1747 (D-HTgl 2338); the tone of Krause’s references to Ramler in this letter suggests that the latter was a new acquaintance. 14 See, for example, D-HTgl 2332 (11 September 1746), D-HTgl 2337 (22 March 1747), and DHTgl 2346 (3 August 1748). 15 ADRES-CALENDER, 1750, p. 191: “Hr. Christian Gottfried Krause, wohnt bey Rollets Hofe neben dem Hm. Prediger Pelloutier im Moritzschen Hause.” Krause’s residence is also listed in the address books of 1751,1752,1753-55,1756,1757,1769, and 1770. 16 See, for example, Krause’s letters, D-HTgl 2355 (2 August 1749) and HTgl 2357 (answered 28 November 1750), and GLEIM/RAMLERII, pp. 197 and 203. 17 MONTAGSKLUB, p. 2.
Introduction
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Ramler’s letters to Gleim, in fact, points to Krause as the driving force in the publication of their collections of Lieder: Our Krause, who, in his project, is far more passionate than I - as befits a lawyer - has already made all the preparations for the printing of the new song collection. The music is already engraved, and the songs are altogether ready. He has driven me so hard that I have had to give up my leisurely style of editing.18
Events in Krause’s personal life and in his musical life during the 1750s followed in fairly regular succession (see Table I).19 TABLE I: Krause’s Family 1750-17 October:
married first wife, Dorothea Elisabeth Leidemit, in Jerusalemkirche, Berlin 1752-3 September: first daughter, Christiana Dorothea, bom, baptized in Marienkirche, Berlin (published Von der musikalischen Poesie) 1753-6 October: second daughter, Friederica Sophia, bom, baptized in Marienkirche (first volume of Oden mit Melodien, published by Friedrich Wilhelm Bimstiel of Berlin - Krause and Ramier anonymous editors) 1754- 18 October: first son, Johann Carl, bom, baptized in Marienkirche 1755- 18 December:third daughter, Johanne Wilhelmina, bom, baptized in Marienkirche (second volume of Oden mit Melodien published by Bimstiel) 1757- 17 January: second son, Johann Gottfried, bom, baptized in Marienkirche 1758- 5 May: fourth daughter, Caroline Henrietta, bom, died 23 August, baptized and buried in Marienkirche 1759- 17 February: son, Johann Carl buried in Marienkirche 1760- December: first wife died, buried 12 December in Marienkirche married second wife, Wilhelmina Sodem née ??? in 1762-3 June: Marienkirche Krause’s knowledge of French affairs and French culture stood him in good stead, and by 1756 he was listed in the Adres-Calender among the Officiales Fisci and 18 GLEIM/RAMLER n , p. 2 (letter of 6 January 1753): “Unser Krause, der in seinen Projecten, wie es einem Advocaten zukommt, weit hitziger ist, als ich, hat schon alle Anstalten zum Druck der neuen Lieder-Sammlung gemacht. Die Noten werden schon gestochen und die Lieder sind alle mit einander fertig. So sehr hat er mich getrieben, daß ich meine langsame Art zu corrigiren habe ablegen können.” 19 For Information about the dates of Krause’s marriages, the birth of his children, and his death and that of his first wife I am indebted to Frau Wiriadidjaja of the Evangelisches Zentralarchiv in Berlin (Kirchenbuchstelle).
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Procuratores of the French Upper and Lower Courts and the French Upper Consistory and Revisions-Instantz. By 1758, a year and a half after the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, Krause owned a house in the SpandauerstraBe. Around this time he may have sought to use his proficiency in French as a translator and may also have hoped that his professional experience with the French court might help him find a new position outside of Berlin. His letters to Gleim, Ramler, and Kleist express not only his concern for himself and his family, but also his eager patriotism and keen interest in the events of the war. But they also signal a darker period of his life. His 16-week-old daughter, Caroline Henrietta, died in the summer of 1758; the following winter all of his remaining children contracted smallpox from which the older son died and the daughter Wilhelmina, after being dangerously ill, recovered slowly. In the summer of 1759 Ewald Christian von Kleist, the poet beloved by Gleim, Krause, and their friends, died from wounds received in the battle of Kunersdorf. In the winter of 1760 Krause’s first wife died after a short illness; he married his second wife a year and a half later (there is no record of children by this wife).20 Krause and Ramler continued to publish collections of Lieder jointly and anonymously.21 Yet Krause’s life was still not free from sadness. As the friendship between Gleim and Ramler began to deteriorate, Krause gradually took Ramler’s part, and, by 17 September 1766, the date of his cold final letter, probably intended to be delivered to Gleim through an intermediary, he seems to have become completely estranged from the hypersensitive poet in Halberstadt. Nothing is known of the circumstances of Krause’s death at the age of 51, dated 21 July 1770 in the records of the Nicolaikirche in Berlin. He was buried on 24 July.22 Little else is known of the outward events of his life. Musical Interests Although Krause was not a professional musician, many of his contemporaries respected him for his musical accomplishments. Gleim and his circle of friends sometimes dubbed him a “virtuoso,” and often turned to him for an expert musical opinion.23 It is difficult to know how most professional musicians in Berlin regarded Krause, for their writings rarely mention other musicians. Krause’s name appears from time to time in mid-century writings about musical occasions; like several professional musicians in Berlin, he often held concerts in his home, in which he introduced musical works that he considered worthy of the attention of Berliners. 20 See n. 19 and BERG/BACH-KARSCH, pp. 47, n. 22, and 67-8. 21 See pp. 1-2 above. 22 This recorded date does not correspond to that of the Montagsklub records, which give 4 May 1770 as the date of Krause’s death. 23 See, for example, GLEIM/UZ, pp. 248, 291; GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 148, 190, 203, 312; GLEIM/RAMLERII, pp. 6,18,42,78, 84,103,117,147,166,171, 307, 308,394.
Introduction
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Krause’s writings demonstrate knowledge of the music of his day and of the composers whose works he often heard. In Von der musikalischen Poesie he describes Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Gottlieb Graun as composers whose works are not merely pleasing, but possess substance.24 In a letter to Gleim he begs that Bach’s works not be dismissed by Halberstadters on first hearing, but be studied thoroughly in order that performers and listeners may see their merit.25 Although Krause recognizes the younger Graun, Carl Heinrich, Friedrich II’s Kapellmeister, and Johann Adolf Hasse, Kapellmeister at the Saxon court in Dresden, as prominent composers of operas, he offers no particular opinion of their works in his letters or in his published essays.26 He writes with respect and sympathy of Johann Friedrich Agrícola, a composer who spent much of his career in disfavor with Friedrich II; several of Krause’s letters record his attempt to promote collaboration between Agrícola and Gleim on a large choral setting of the Te Deum in German. In two letters to Ramler, Krause refers to the king’s flute teacher and musical mentor, Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773), whom he regards as a grand old man.27 For Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), who is mentioned only once, Krause displays more admiration than for any other composer. He praises Telemann’s music unreservedly, even though its style, by the 1750s, was sometimes regarded as belonging to an earlier day. Writing of Telemann’s Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesus (1760), Krause pays the composer the supreme compliment: the music of this octogenarian has made him weep.28 In his musical taste and in many of his compositions, Krause was an exponent of the mid-eighteenth-century musical style known as galant. Like most chronological and stylistic labels - perhaps even more than most - galant is vague. In non-musical discourse of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, its signification varied with the user, covering such a broad a range of meanings as to embrace virtually opposite attributes - brave, noble, chivalrous, courtly, lascivious, immoral. Often it was simply an approbatory adjective describing what was modish. Krause uses it only once in his letters to mean dashing and trendy.29 Although the application of galant to music was often wide ranging and imprecise, a general concept of galant composition emerged towards the middle of the eighteenth century: easily accessible, agreeable, flowing music, in which melody predominated and accompaniment played a subordinate role, or, negatively, music that avoided contrapuntal texture or other compositional complexity, and made no 24 KRAUSE/POESIE, 34~5. 25 See D-HTgl 2340 (20 December 1747). 26 See, for example, Krause’s letters to Gleim , D-HTgl 2340 (20 December 1747) and D-HTgl 2462 (6 November 1753). Only in his letter to Ramler of 20 August 1759, immediately following Carl Heinrich Graun’s death, does Krause make any evaluation of his merit as a composer. See D-WRgs 75/114. 27 See Krause’s letters to Ramler of 4 June 1760, and a letter written on 29 March, probably in 1763: D-WRgs 75/114, (nos. 50 and 52 of this edition). 28 Krause’s letter to Ramler, D-WRgs 75/114 (31 May 1760). 29 Krause’s letter to Gleim, D-HTgl, no. 2338 (24 October 1747).
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stringent demands on the intellect or the emotions of the listener. In his letters, though, Krause never once applies the word galant to music. He was an admirer of music described above as galant, but was also an admirer of musical styles that displayed more rigor and that required more diligence of the listener. On his arrival in Berlin, Krause was exposed to the two prevailing national styles of music, Italian and French; the relative merits of these two styles was the subject of a battle of words that had raged since the late seventeenth century and that would erupt in Berlin during the late 1740s and early 1750s. Works presented at the Berlin opera were overwhelmingly Italianate, consisting primarily of the opere serie and intermezzi of Carl Heinrich Graun and Johann Adolf Hasse. Although Johann Joachim Quantz declared in his famous treatise on playing the flute that, from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth, German composers had developed a “mixed” instrumental style that combined the merits of both French and Italian styles, Quantz’s own music and that of many other Berlin composers included mostly genres developed by Italian composers - sonatas, concertos, trio sonatas and was predominantly Italian in style.30 In fact, instrumental music of the mid eighteenth century by French composers also displayed many elements of Italian style, for since the days of François Couperin’s Les Goûts réunis, French composers had gradually adopted Italian models for their instrumental music. The only characteristically French instrumental music that achieved much currency in north Germany in the mid eighteenth century was the pièce de caractère (character piece for keyboard), a genre briefly explored by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-95), and others. Krause’s familiarity with French music seems to have stemmed from the time of his employment as secretary to General Rothenburg. In the household of the general, who had spent much time in France and had married a French aristocrat, the young secretary was introduced to various aspects of French culture, including the contemporary French chanson. His engagement with the chanson was profound and unchanging; its style became the ideal on which he based his aesthetic requirements for the Lied. Yet Krause, despite his allegiance to the chanson, was receptive to all musical styles. His one essay on the subject of national styles, the Lettre à Mr. le Marquis de B. sur la différence de la musique italienne et la musique française (see correspondence, nn.141), commends Italian styles enthusiastically. Krause began his musical activities in Berlin ambitiously. From poets of his acquaintance, he eagerly requested cantata texts that were to be set to music in the Italian style: typically, three elaborate arias separated by two secco (declamatory) recitatives. When his correspondents, with one or two exceptions, failed to supply him with such texts, his recourse to the style of the chanson was equally enthusiastic.31 He found it easier to join Ramier in the preparation of an anthology 30 QUANTZ/VERSUCH, pp. 332-3. From time to time the music of Berlin composers incorporated elements of German contrapuntal styles of an earlier time, but such styles were not especially popular with the king. 31 Ramier was one such exception. Among the list of works in Krause’s musical œuvre were several cantatas to texts by Ramier. Only two of these cantatas, Ino and Pygmalion, have survived.
Introduction
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of musical settings of short pastoral poems or fables than to importune his literary friends for cantata texts; references to the composition, publication, and sale of collections of Lieder can be found in his letters from 1752 to 1760. Settings of little poems, Krause believed, should be as simple as possible, with easily singable melodies, and keyboard parts that were expendable. In order to create music that was sufficiently easy for amateurs to sing, suggested Krause, composers should not be at the keyboard when they set such poems to music.32 Although Krause’s correspondence does not devote much space to music theories of his time, he was acquainted with them. He published theoretical writings of his own during his career, and occasionally mentioned contemporary theorists to his literary friends.33 In his letter to Spalding of 11 February 1747, Krause announces that he is sending a book by Johann Mattheson (1681-1764), probably Der vollkommene Capellmeister, and with great admiration describes Mattheson’s accomplishments as an autodidact.34 In the same letter he dismisses the writings of Lorenz Christof Mizler (1711-1778), presenting what he considers Mizler’s dry pedantry as a foil for Mattheson’s greater insights into the theory and composition of music.35 Although he does not mention Johann Adolph Scheibe by name in his letters, Krause was familiar with Scheibe’s theoretical writings, and wrote a critique of Scheibe’s opera Thusnelde. In Von der musikalischen Poesie, he mentions Scheibe’s Der critische Musicus (1737-40), a journal inspired by Gottsched’s Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst (1730).36 32 See Krause’s letter to Gleim of 29 December 1752 (D-HTgl, no. 2360). 33 In addition to Von der musikalischen Poesie, he published several essays in Marpurg’s journals: Lettre à Mr. le Marquis de B. sur la différence de la musique italienne et la musique française “(Berlin, 1748), published in German translation as “Schreiben an den Herrn Marquis von B. über den Unterschied zwischen der italiänischen und französischen Musik,” in MARPURG/HISTORISCH, vol. I (1754), pp. 1-24; a review of Johann Adolph Scheibe’s Thusnelde, in MARPURG/HISTORISCH, vol. I (1754), pp. 93-141; “Vermischte Gedanken,” in MARPURG/HISTORISCH, vol. UI (1757), pp. 523-43; “Brief an den Herrn Friedr. Wilh. Marpurg . . . ” in MARPURG/BRIEFE (1766), pp. 167-170. 34 As Secretary to the English Resident in Hamburg, Mattheson became one of the earliest purveyors of English culture to Germany. He translated The Tatler and The Spectator into German, introducing a tradition of German Wochenschriften that would last throughout the eighteenth century. He also translated other English literary works into German, notably Richardson’s Pamela. Despite his demanding position with the English Resident, Mattheson was able to pursue a career in Hamburg as a composer and performer. He is arguably the most important German music theorist and music journalist of the first half of the eighteenth century, his most influential work being Der vollkommene Capellmeister (Hamburg: Christian Herold, 1739). 35 Mizler, also a music journalist, espoused many theories that were considered conservative even at the time he published his Neu eröffhete musikalische Bibliothek ajournai lasting from 1739 to 1754, in which he tried to establish a musical system based on mathematics, science, and philosophy. Mizler was an admirer of Johann Sebastian Bach, and printed a defense of Bach against Johann Adolf Scheibe’s charge that Bach’s music was complex, old-fashioned, and “gothic.” Krause describes Mizler as a “Magister who computes music scientifically, but can make little else of it” (letter to Spalding of 11 February 1747, D-HTgl, no. 2334). 36 Despite his admiration for Gottsched, with whom he studied, Scheibe was often at variance with Gottsched’s theories of art. Gottsched disliked opera as an art form, for example, particularly operas with an element of fantasy, because they violated his ideal of verisimilitude.
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The Correspondence o f Christian Gottfried Krause
Intellectual Background and Interests It appears from accounts of Krause’s life in eighteenth-century journals and from his letters that, when he left Frankfurt an der Oder, he had substantial knowledge of the law and an impressive musical background. But his letters of the late 1740s suggest that, on the subject of prevailing philosophical, scientific, literary, and artistic theories, his mind was to a great extent an “empty cabinet.” At this time he appears to have embarked on a course of reading, much of which may have been recommended by Gleim, Ramier, and their circle, intended to broaden his background. The thoroughness and depth of Krause’s reading is not clear. In the preface to Von der musikalischen Poesie, he confesses that he has not always had access to large numbers of books, and adds that he has often had to make hurried extracts from his reading. He points out that he has frequently failed to name the authors to whom he is indebted - indeed, the derivation of the ideas that Krause expresses in Von der musikalischen Poesie is seldom explicit. He names many authors in his correspondence, however, and from his letters it is sometimes possible to make surmises about the works from which he culled selections for his treatise. Krause was undoubtedly familiar with the mimesis theory: the proposition, traced by its proponents to Aristotle, that art should imitate nature. The appropriate means of imitation for each of the various arts was discussed at considerable length by writers from the late seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth. Most regarded music as the most problematic of the “sister arts,” since its means of imitating nature were not as obvious as those of more representational arts (onomatopoetic effects, for example, such as the sounds of thunder or the cackling of hens, were rejected as too crude and simplistic to constitute answers to the problem of musical mimesis)?1 In his treatise Reflexions critiques sur la poesie et sur la peinture (1719), a work that went through many editions in the eighteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Abbé Dubos (1670-1742) offered a solution to the dilemma of how music might imitate nature. The musician, he asserted, imitates the “tones, accents, sounds [of the human voice], by which nature itself expresses its sentiments and passions.”38 It followed from Dubos’s solution that vocal music was more successful mimetically than purely instrumental music, and it was to all sorts of texted vocal music that Krause and other mid-eighteenth century writers about music devoted most of their attention. Charles Batteux (1713-1780), author of a prominent mid-eighteenth-century treatise, Les Beaux Arts réduits à un même principe (1743), likewise named human emotions as the proper subjects of musical mimesis, and stipulated that the arts should imitate beautiful, not wild or untamed nature. It is clear that Krause was familiar with both Dubos and Batteux. Having 37 Curiously, the problem of musical mimesis - although it was mentioned and sometimes examined at length by many writers on poetry and the visual arts - does not seem to have been of particular interest to writers on the practical and technical aspects of musical composition, theory, and performance. 38 DUBOS/REFLEXIONS, vol. 3, pp. 435-6.
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read Dubos’s Reflexions critiques, in his letter of 12 January 1749 he informs Gleim that he believes himself on the right path in the treatise he is writing. His joking remark about the absence of la belle nature in the rough style of a dancer at the court of Friedrich II undoubtedly refers to Batteux’s theory.39 Krause’s acquaintance with broader intellectual trends of his age must be to some extent a matter of speculation. He was undoubtedly acquainted with the rationalism that traced its descent from Descartes and was a dominant paradigm of the Enlightenment. He was doubtless familiar with Cartesian ideas about the passions as they were applied to music. In Der vollkommene Capellmeister, for example, Mattheson, referring to Descartes’s Passions o f the Soul (1650), proposed that joy, an expansion of our vital spirits, is best expressed musically by wide melodic leaps, and grief, a contraction of the spirits, by small, mostly chromatic, intervals.40 Such conventions were the basis of the mechanistic system of musical figures employed by composers of the early eighteenth century. Like the systems derived from rationalistic philosophers, this doctrine of the affects gave little attention to perception by the listener. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century, however, theories of music aesthetics and composition had begun to move to a new kind of formulation. Even Mattheson, oriented to the old Affektenlehre, recognized that affects were not only conveyed by the composer, but sensed by the listener. In the passage excerpted above Mattheson observes that “Natural philosophers can say how our emotions are actually, and so to speak, physically, affected, and it is a great advantage for a composer if he is also not unaware of this.”41 It was to a Lockian paradigm, the inclusion of sensory perception as a valid aspect of cognition, that many writers, Krause among them, looked to achieve greater philosophical respectability for the arts, and to legitimate the responses of listeners and spectators. In 1735 Alexander Baumgarten (1714-62) had endeavored to encompass art and the perception of art - especially the art of poetry - within the framework of rationalism, thus maintaining allegiance to the school of Leibniz and Wolff. Although Baumgarten continued to regard sensory perception as the inferior part of cognition, ranking it below analytical reasoning, he made a systematic 39 In his letters, Krause also refers to Batteux by name, mentioning Ramler’s work on a translation of Batteux. See D-HTgl 2365 (answered 22 December 1755); 2359 (6 August 1757); 2380 (23 March 1758). 40 MATTHESON/CAPELLMEISTER, 15-16: “Die Lehre von den Temperamenten und Neigungen, von welchen letztem Cartesius absonderlich deswegen zu lesen ist, weil er in der Music viel gethan hatte, leisten hier sehr gute Dienste, indem man daraus lernet, die Gemüther der Zuhörer, und die klingenden Kräffte, wie sie an jenen wircken, wol zu unterscheiden ... Da z. E. die Freude durch Ausbreitung unsrer Lebens-Geister empfunden wird, so folget vemünfftiger und natürlicher Weise, daß ich diesen Affect am besten durch weite und erweiterte Intervalle ausdrücken könne. Weiß man hergegen, daß die Traurigkeit eine Zusammenziehung solcher subtilen Theile unsers Leibes ist, so stehet leicht zu ermessen, daß sich zu dieser Leidenschafft die engen und engesten Klang-Stuffen am füglichsten schicken.” 41 Ibid., p. 16: Die Natur-Kündiger wissen zu sagen, wie es mit unsem Gemüths-Bewegungen eigentlich, und so zu reden cörperlich zugehe, und es ist einem Componisten ein grosser Vortheil, wenn er auch darin nicht unerfahren ist.
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The Correspondence o f Christian Gottfried Krause
examination of perception, and endowed it with a rationalistic vocabulary. He announced the ideas that were to characterize his work in two publications: his dissertation, Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus (Halle, 1735), and his Aesthetica (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1750 and 1758). In the first, he introduced the codification of a new field of philosophy: aesthetics; in the second, he expanded his examination of the subject. Baumgarten, appointed Professor of Philosophy in 1740 at the Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder, one year before Christian Gottfried Krause’s matriculation there, was known to Krause, who mentions him twice in his correspondence: once as the youthful author of a poem much admired by Krause as a young law student, and much later in connection with the death of Ewald Christian von Kleist at Baumgarten’s home in Frankfurt an der Oder after the battle of Kunersdorf. It seems clear that Krause was also acquainted with Baumgarten’s theories of aesthetics; for the discussion of “clarity of representations” in Von der musikalischen Poesie, he adopts the vocabulary employed by Baumgarten and his followers: With music that is not sprightly, other [musical] effects that are just as much companions of emotion as the former [sprightly or animated music] are implanted in his [the listener’s] body. He perceives the tones without being able to say more about them than that they are pleasing. The greatest musical experts often do not think about anything else in very touching pieces. They are well aware of the ideas contained in the tones, but their hearts are so overwhelmed by them that they cannot articulate the ideas but can only feel them clearly. Philosophers say that the clarity of representations can be increased in two ways: first by extension, when they [the representations] consist of many parts and when the number of their characteristic features increases; secondly, by the greater clarity of the characteristic features. In the latter case the elements of an idea will be developed and made more conspicuous; we learn to understand it better. This latter happens in a piece of music in which a theme a few measures long is worked out at some length. At the beginning, we grasp only sequence of notes in the theme. However, if repeated, though in different surroundings, the melody becomes more familiar and clearer to us. We become better acquainted with it and might even keep it in our memory. If the theme were always presented to us in the same context, it would soon become quite clear to us.42
42 KRAUSE/POESIE, p. 29: Bey einer nicht muntern Musik eräugnet sich in seinem Cörper andere Zufälle, die aber eben sowohl, wie jene, Begleiter der Leidenschaften sind. Er vernimmt die Töne, ohne weiter etwas davon sagen zu können, als daß sie ihm gefallen, Die größten Musikverständigen gedenken bey recht rührendcen Stücken oft an sonst nichts. Sie sind der darinn enthaltenen Vorstellungen wohl bewust; ihr Gemüth wird aber damit so überhäufet, daß sie sie nicht deutlich machen können, sondern nur klar empfinden. Von der Klarheit in den Vorstellungen sagen nun die Weltweisen, sie könne auf eine doppelte Art vermehret werden; einmahl der Ausdehnung nach, wenn selbige aus viel Theilen bestehet, und wenn die Menge der Merkmahle zu nimt; zum andern, durch die größere Klarheit der Merkmale. Im lezten Falle warden die Theile der Vorstellung entwickelt und sichtbarer bemacht; wir lernen sie mehr begreifen. Bey einem musikalischen Stück, daß über ein Thema von einigen Tacten sehr ausgearbeitet ist, eräugnet sich dieses. Anfangs begreifen wir nur überhaupt, wie in dem Thema die Folge der Töne beschaffen ist. Bey Wiederholung desselben aber, ob gleich in andern Verbindungen, wird uns die Melodie bekanter, klarer; wir lernen sie mehr einsehen, und wohl gar aufwendig.
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Since the first part of the Aesthetica, in its original Latin version, was published only two years before Krause’s treatise, and the second part had not yet been published, Krause may have derived the concepts and vocabulary that he uses in Von der musikalischen Poesie from the Meditationes, or from the German translation and commentary on Baumgarten’s theories by his pupil, Georg Friedrich Meier: Anfangs gründe aller schönen Wissenschaften (1748-50), rather than from the Aesthetica43 In Von der musikalischen Poesie, Krause acknowledges the existence of many affects, but views them all as variations of binary sets of basic emotions: happy or sad, pleasant or unpleasant. His reduction of affects to simple binary pairs may stem from the theories of Baumgarten and Meier. Beaujean suggests an additional derivation from Spinoza’s ideas about pleasant and unpleasant emotions.44 Krause was verifiably acquainted with Spinoza’s writings: several of the letters to Gleim mention a book by Spinoza, his Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), borrowed by Krause from another talented musical amateur, Johann Otto Uhde (1725-66) and lent to Gleim, who apparently never returned it.45 Whether Krause was also familiar with Spinoza’s Ethics (1677), in which his discussion of emotions is found, is not certain. The Gleim Circle Krause may have realized that the association with Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim and his friends could help him with the treatise conceived as instruction for the poet and the composer regarding musical settings of texts. His familiarity with intellectual developments from classical antiquity to his own time seems to have increased rapidly after he became acquainted with members of Gleim’s circle. Although Gleim was conspicuous in his adoption of the ideal of friendship and in his enthusiasm for the poetry of the Greek poet Anacreon of Teos (fl. c. 6th c. BCE), he was not the earliest exponent of the cult of friendship that flourished among German literati in the mid-eighteenth century, nor the first poet to acknowledge as models the playful verses ascribed to Anacreon. Not surprisingly, a number of adherents to this cult had attended the University of Halle, an institution with strong ties to Pietism, and had imbibed the hyper-emotional vocabulary of much Pietistic 43 In an article that examines the epistemological arena of Krause’s Von der musikalischen Poesie, Rainer Bayreuter traces Krause’s concern with perceptions that are “klar empfunden, aber nicht deutlich [felt clearly, but not articulate]” to Baumgarten, and also to Leibniz’s discussion of sensory perception in the Neue Abhandlungen über den menschlichen Verstand, in which Leibniz designates sense perception as cognitio clara et confltsa. See BAYREUTER/ÄSTHETISCHE WAHRNEHMUNG, particularly pp. 281-2. Whether or not Krause was acquainted with Leibniz’s writings, it is far more certain that he was familiar with Baumgarten’s aesthetic theories. 44 See BEAUJEAN/KRAUSE,pp. 36-8 45 See D-HTgl 2339 (11 December 1747), 2344 (4 May 1748), 2345 (18 June 1748), and 2346 (3 August 1748).
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The Correspondence of Christian Gottfried Krause
discourse.46 Two early proponents of friendship, Samuel Gotthold Lange (1711-1781) and Jakob Immanuel Pyra (1715-1744), met as students at Halle and retired to Lange’s home and pastorate in nearby Laublingen to collaborate on a collection of poems. Pyra, the more talented of the two, did not live to see the publication of the collection of unrhymed verse, Thirsis und Damons freundschaftliche Lieder (1745), but Lange continued to celebrate friendship, publishing several collections of Freundschaftliche Briefe. Krause mentions Lange twice in his correspondence with Gleim, and appears to have been familiar with Lange’s works.47 In the winter of 1739-1740, Gleim, also a student at the University of Halle, joined with three fellow students, Johann Nikolaus Gotz (1721-1781), Johann Peter Uz (1720-96), and Paul Jakob Rudnick (1718-1740/1?), to form a school of poetry that was to base its style and ideals on works ascribed to Anacreon. The four young poets of Halle were preceded in their imitation of Anacreon by another German poet, Friedrich Hagedom (1708-54) of Hamburg. However, Hagedom’s nod to Anacreon in the form of suave rhymed verses in a whimsical pastoral vein constituted only one aspect of his poetry. Gleim and his three colleagues, during the short time that they were together, were more emphatic in their homage to Anacreon and to the ideals they perceived as anacreontic. They appropriated the name of the poet for their group, and announced their commitment to his themes: love, wine, and roses. The members of the group scattered shortly after its founding. Rudnick apparently died in the winter of 1740-41. Gotz continued to write poems, published a translation of Anacreon in 1746 but gradually drifted away from his poetic interests to hold pastorates, chaplaincies, and other ecclesiastical offices in various parts of Germany. Uz returned to his native Ansbach in 1743, continuing to write anacreontic verses, and also cultivating more serious styles of poetry (among his models were the odes and satires of Horace). He devoted his time increasingly to his duties as a government official in Ansbach, and eventually became inactive as a poet. Gleim, the leader of the group, continued longer than any of the others as a follower of Anacreon. In 1743 he moved to Berlin, where he published his first collection of poems, Versuch in scherzhaften Liedem (1744-45), and where he made his ideas about poetry known to the circle of friends that included Krause. Krause’s engagement with anacreontic verses lasted through most of his career, for they furnished texts for many of the Lieder in the collections that he and Ramler edited. Although Krause mentions Hagedom five times in his letters,48 he is obviously more involved with the anacreontic poets of Halle. He refers frequently to Gleim’s poems and, in one letter, attempts to establish a correspondence with Uz. The ideal of friendship is reflected not only in Gleim’s poetry, but in the circumstances of his life. His correspondence displays a passionate allegiance to and need for friendship. Between 1743 and 1747, he held several positions in rapid 46 SeeLANGENAVORTSCHATZ. 47 See D-HTgl 2332 (11 September 1746) and 2348 (8 October 1748). 48 See D-HTgl 2345 (18 June 1748), 2351 (12 January 1749), 2357 (c. 26 November 1750), 2360 (29 December 1752), and 2363 (18 December 1753).
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succession, and, for an alarming length of time, he was unable to find a substantial and secure position. Gleim’s eager cultivation of new friends in the 1740s may have been motivated partly by a desire to establish a network that would help him find gainful employment, but it was also driven by loneliness. For his correspondence and his quest for new friends continued unabated after he was settled in the position as secretary to the cathedral chapter in Halberstadt (where he was to reside for the rest of his fife). Like many of his contemporaries in the decentralized German nation, Gleim found few acquaintances in his place of residence who shared his interests. In the letters he wrote, many of which have been preserved, he conducted much of his discussion of literature and philosophy, and retailed much gossip about celebrated literary figures and local acquaintances. Through much of his career he wrote letters to struggling young poets whom he had befriended, and he also attempted to enter into correspondences with established poets.49 When Anna Louisa Karsch (1722-91) arrived in Berlin, he began to correspond with her, and met her shortly afterwards during a visit to Berlin.50 In 1763, Gleim and several of his friends, in a well-intentioned, but largely unsuccessful, attempt to secure a moderate income for Karsch, planned the publication of a volume of her poems. Krause’s letter of 2 January 1764 mentions Gleim’s interest in Karsch, and admits that the time Gleim is spending on editing and publishing Karsch’s poems is worthwhile.51 Around this time, German literature entered a period of vigorous growth, and Gleim’s works, which had never achieved more than modest fame, received less and less attention. His efforts to establish friendships with Johann Nicolaus Meinhard (1727-67), Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81), and Goethe were not always successful. In his last surviving letter to Krause, Gleim complains bitterly that neither Meinhard nor Lessing seems interested in visiting him in Halberstadt.52 Many of the letters of Gleim and his friends have an extremely sentimental tone. When Krause learns of Gleim’s appointment as secretary of the cathedral chapter in Halberstadt, he writes: I have already written to Herr Bergius that I am not yet decided whether I should rejoice more over your good fortune or grieve more over the loss of you. Oh, if it were possible for me to deal with the calamity by continuing to cherish you even at a distance of 24 miles, you could have traveled 100 miles long ago to find your fortune. But how many evenings I intended to spend with you in the coming winter, like those at my home last winter.53 49 He carried on a long correspondence with Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), much of which is preserved in the Gleimhaus in Halberstadt. 50 The first letter from Karsch is dated 28 April 1761. The tone of Gleim’s letters cooled somewhat when he discovered that Karsch’s interest in him was more than literary, but the correspondence continued nevertheless until 1791. See KARSCH/MEIN BRUDER. 51 D-HTgl 2376. See n. 379 to text of letters. 52 D-HTgl 5901, letter of 26 January 1766. 53 D-HTgl 2338: “Ich habe schon H. Bergius geschrieben, daß ich noch nicht schlüßig bin, ob ich mich mehr über Ihr Glück freuen, als über Ihren Verlust betrüben soll. O könnte dem Übel dadurch abgeholfen werden, daß ich Sie auch bey einer Entfernung von 24 Meilen noch fortführen recht sehr zu lieben, so hätten Sie längst nach Ihrem Glück 100 Meilen reisen mögen. Aber wie viel Abend habe ich schon gedacht mit Ihnen künftigen Winter so zuzubringen, als den letzten bey mir.
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Yet in their letters, these exponents of the eighteenth-century cult of friendship seldom address each other by first names, and never use familiar pronouns. Krause adopts a typically ambivalent tone with Ramler, Kleist, and, especially, Gleim: playful, affectionate, but never presuming to use first names or familiar forms of address.54 Along with his eagerness for friendship - perhaps as a corollary of his preoccupation with friendship - Gleim seems to have suffered from two celebrated disorders of the Age of Sensibility: extreme sensitivity and hypochondria. Krause, like others who corresponded with the Halberstadt poet, cossets him. He flatters Gleim on his knowledge and judgment of literature, and on his “prophetic” ability to predict turns of events and their dates - during the Seven Years’ War, Gleim blithely undertook to guess dates and places of campaigns, battles, and troop movements, until the French army’s vandalization of his garden brought the war too close, and ended his lightheartedness.55 Contents of the Krause Correspondence Posterity is fortunate that Gleim preserved 50 letters written to him by Krause56 and three written by him to Krause,57 and that Ramler preserved five of Krause’s letters. Despite the paucity of extant letters to Krause from his correspondents, it is possible to draw some inferences about the contents of the lost letters: (1) from Krause’s answers to his correspondents, and (2) from surviving letters of Gleim, Ramler, Kleist, and their friends to others. Such letters often contain substantial discussions of literary figures mentioned briefly by Krause: for example authors from classical antiquity; German writers of the first half of the eighteenth century; and English authors, who had begun to exert considerable influence on German literature.58 Gleim and his friends occasionally mention the English journals of the early eighteenth century and their German imitators, the little Wochenschriften that proliferated after Johann Mattheson’s translation of parts of The Tatler and The Spectator in 1712. And although these magazines are not mentioned in Krause’s correspondence, they were important to him as sources of little anacreontic poems (often published anonymously) that might be set to music.59 54 The tone of the letters to Spalding and Uz is much more formal. 55 On the destruction of Gleim’s garden by the French, see KLEIST/SAUER HI, p. 239, and GLEIM/RAMLERII, pp. 293,295, and 299. 56 In fact, letters from Gleim’s correspondents to him (and some from him), form much of the large collection of letters housed in the Gleimhaus in Halberstadt. Gleim considered these materials his to treat as he pleased and published some of them, e.g., his letters from Spalding, without his correspondents’ permission. 57 A fourth from Gleim, D-HTgl 5899, mistakenly included with these three addressed to Krause, is obviously written to a more scholarly recipient. 58 Classical authors: Horace, Anacreon, and Theophrastus; German and Swiss authors: Bodmer, Breitinger, Lange, Gottsched, Gellert; English authors Milton, Dryden, Pope, and Shaftesbury. 59 Most issues of these Wochenschriften contain at least one of these poems, frequently published anonymously.
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Additional evidence of English influence on members of the Gleim circle is found in the establishment of the Montagsklub in 1749 by seven of Gleim’s friends, an organization that took the English club as its model.60 Although Gleim himself was never a member of the club, he often corresponded with its members, and shared their social occasions during his visits to Berlin. The group met first on Thursdays, later, apparently, on Fridays, and finally, in 1780, on the day of the week from which it ultimately took its name. Krause, an early member, mentions it several times in his correspondence with Gleim. Its mission at first was to achieve brilliant conversation and intellectual exchange, as well as to enjoy good fellowship. But the Montagsklub quickly acquired the character of an exclusive social club which it would retain until its dissolution in 1899. Because only two negative votes were needed to reject an applicant, its membership grew slowly. Among the members who were added to its rolls during the 1750s were the publisher Christian Friedrich VoB, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and two musicians, Johann Friedrich Agricola and Johann Joachim Quantz. Curiously, neither Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, nor the royal Kapellmeister Carl Heinrich Graun was ever a member of the club, although they often participated in its social gatherings.61 Krause’s familiarity with the works of French writers, of past generations and of his own time, seems to have been greater than his knowledge of other literature. Because the principal language of many German courts, including that of Prussia, was French, literate Germans were expected to be versed in the culture and literature of France. In a letter to Gleim describing preparations for his treatise Von der musikalischen Poesie, Krause lists French authors whom he has read.62 Krause was also familiar with the works of the French literati and scientists whom Friedrich II, one of the most enthusiastic francophiles among German rulers, gathered about him (of Friedrich’s importedphilosophes only Francesco Algarotti was not French).63 Krause and some of Gleim’s other correspondents discuss the works of these Frenchmen seriously, but it is clear that they resent the king’s favorites, and seize opportunities to ridicule their antics.64 Further exposure to French culture lay in Krause’s affiliation with the French court in Berlin, an institution formed to deal with the affairs of the large and influential Huguenot population in the Prussian capital.65 It is not clear whether the 60 Krause joined the club in 1750 as its eighth member. 61 See ENGELKE/LIEDER, p. 463, and MARKS/KRAUSE, p. 100. 62 See D-HTgl 2338, 2345, 2346. Many of these authors - Patin, Rollin, La Nauze, Lamy, Dacier, Legendre, Pluche, and Gresset - may have been recommended to Krause by his literary correspondents, or he may have learned of them during his years in General Rothenburg’s household. See p. xiii above. 63 The French philosophes were, typically, awarded membership in Friedrich n ’s newly formed Academy in Berlin; some were frequent visitors at his summer palace in Potsdam. 64 See, for example, D-HTgl 2332,2345,2357. Among French favorites at the Prussian court were Voltaire, La Mettrie, Maupertuis, and some lesser lights: Boyer (the Marquis d’Argens), Darget, and Amaud. 65 The Huguenot population had been prominent in Berlin ever since it was welcomed in the late seventeenth century by Friedrich II’s ancestor, Friedrich Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg (16201688), following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
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French court functioned regularly during the Seven Years’ War, or whether Krause was actively affiliated with the court at all times during the war. In a letter to Ramler that contains neither a date nor a place of origin, but perhaps written during the war, Krause writes of the possibility of becoming a translator from French into German, and refers to a number of French authors: Mole, Seguier, and Lemoine d’Orgival.66 Krause’s letters describe matters of interest not only for the genesis of Von der musikalischen Poesie, but also for the rise of the simple Lied for the home as a popular genre. From these letters it appears that the flowering of the Lied may have been accidental. Krause’s early letters contain requests for, and discussions of, cantata texts. He flatters his correspondents on their sensitive hearts (empfindliche Herze - the word empfindsam, almost synonymous with empfindlich in the eighteenth century, had not yet been coined), which he declares to be well suited for writing cantata texts. The cantata was a genre associated with the court - or, at least, with formal musical performances and with musicians of professional ability - and required a fairly elaborate musical setting. Its text, traditionally in Italian, and stereotyped in its formal design, was correspondingly elaborate. The prospect of writing such texts in German does not seem to have attracted writers who wished to forge distinctively German styles of poetry. From Krause’s letters it appears that he received very few texts designed for cantatas. But the poets of his acquaintance seem to have had less difficulty in producing little vignettes - anacreontic verses, or moral and lyrical fables. Krause could obtain all the little poems he needed by requesting them from friends, and by selecting them from published collections of poems and from periodicals. His concern with these Lieder, and with musical settings for them, pervades his correspondence from 1752 to 1760. But although his success in this genre was enormous, he retained his interest in cantata texts because they challenged his ability as a composer. Krause’s letters reflect his response to the events of the Seven Years’ War. One letter to Gleim may have been written with caution, against possible interception by Prussia’s enemies.67 But most of Krause’s commentary on the events of the war is unguarded. Of all his responses to the daily occurrences of his life, his commentary on the war may seem strangest to the twenty-first-century reader. From the perspective of the present age, with its memory of the disastrous effects of German chauvinism and militarism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and an increasing distrust of war itself, Krause’s naive and fervent patriotism may be difficult to comprehend. Like Gleim, Krause wished to see Prussia take its place as a world power. Although Friedrich II often treated native poets and intellectuals with contempt, these Prussian subjects rallied round him, never doubting his heroism for a moment. Their effusions in support of the war were unrestrained. Krause applauds Prussian victories, and interprets defeats as positively as he can. 66 See Krause’s letter in French to Ramler (undated), D-WRgs 75/114. 67 See Krause’s letter of 17 April 1759, D-HTgl 2373, in which the name of Krause’s source of information is deleted, although the information itself is not.
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He perceives a significant sectarian religious aspect in the war. Ignoring the fact that Prussia’s enemies include Sweden and Russia - the one a Protestant country, the other an Orthodox one - as well as Austria and France, he writes of the prospect of victory by Prussia’s enemies as a danger to his own Lutheran confession and as a triumph for Catholicism. Only toward the end of the correspondence with Gleim do Krause’s letters convey annoyance and impatience with Gleim’s hypersensitivity, petulance, and capriciousness. Gleim’s complete estrangement from Ramler after 1765 seems to have originated as a quarrel over the latter’s Verbesserungssucht - Ramler’s compulsion to improve on the writings of his contemporaries as he edited them. Some poets were angered by his unsolicited and unapproved emendations; Gleim, who had been Ramler’s mentor during the mid-1740s, and faithful correspondent throughout the 1750s and early 1760s, was particularly offended by what he considered the latter’s callous and brutal corrections to his work. The falling out between the two is mentioned in two surviving letters of Gleim to Krause. These letters, in valetudinarian mode, suggest Gleim’s disappointment with friendship. Yet he continued to write letters to correspondents whom he still esteemed, and he survived both Krause and Ramler. The correspondence of Christian Gottfried Krause views the history of mideighteenth-century Prussia through a lens that more formal documents do not supply. It reveals Krause’s musical tastes and his opinions of the leaders of the musical establishment in Berlin. It retails gossip about the Prussian court and about the philosophes whom Friedrich II gathered around him. It contains snapshots of Prussian military life. It furnishes evidence of Krause’s wholehearted approval of war as a means of achieving national goals. Krause’s knowledge of all the writers he mentions in his letters was probably not profound, and the extent to which these writers influenced his aesthetic ideals is uncertain. But the authorial names that Krause drops throughout his correspondence furnish hints about authors who were being read by his literary friends, and thus about the dispersion of the works of these authors in Germany. Krause’s letters contain many cryptic and ambiguous references, and because most of his correspondents’ letters to him have not survived, some of these references must remain unclear. But the letters give occasional glimpses of Krause’s gentle personality and his piety. They record moments in the life of a successful lawyer of mid-eighteenth-century Prussia, and the response of a citizen of the rising middle class to the world around him.
Editorial Policy I present Krause’s correspondence in both German and English in the hope that a bilingual edition will appeal to a wide readership. I have tried to give the German text, originally in alte Schrift (eighteenth-century German cursive handwriting), in a form as faithful to the original as possible. Insertions and deletions are retained, as are the original grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Page-breaks in the letters,
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typically bifolios written on all four sides, are indicated by single forward slashes. Krause indicates many paragraph breaks in the conventional way - dropping down a line and indenting the new line. But he also indicates changes of topic - paragraph breaks of a sort - by leaving a long space in the line he is writing. I have endeavored to preserve this syntactical structure. It is my hope that this method of presentation will help to engage readers with the authors of these letters. Only the English text is annotated. In my notes I attempt to provide a historical context for Krause’s remarks and to identify authors and other persons discussed by Krause. Citations in footnotes have the abbreviated form that I present in the bibliography. In the section titled GLOSSARY are found: 1) information that amplifies biographical descriptions in footnotes and 2) brief identification of persons who are connected only marginally to Krause’s story
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The Correspondence o f Christian Gottfried Krause
No. 1 (D-HTgl 2332) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Most noble sir, Most honored sir, A hundred times, at least, must I beg your pardon, for not having sent the letter from Voltaire back to you sooner.1 But, as you know, one likes to find excuses. So you won’t hold it against me if I include Herr von Kleist in my apology.2 When I showed him this letter of Voltaire’s, he told me that he had already read it. But I left it there nevertheless, because I forgot it, and when I wanted to take it back, I had the bad luck, several times, not to find Herr von Kleist at home. I was at his home yesterday, and herewith you find your letter together with my most respectful thanks. At Herr von Kleist’s home, there was a certain Herr Dr. Hirzel from Switzerland, a lover of the fine arts and of such beautiful thoughts as you, your honorable self, have in your works.3 He is very eager to meet you, and he is considering staying in Berlin for a while. We drank to all lovers of beautiful thoughts, particularly to Your Honor, as well as to Herr Spalding to whom I respectfully commend myself.4 Oh, how obliged I am to you for the acquaintance with Herr von Kleist. What a likable man, an even more likable nobleman, and an altogether likable officer he is indeed! Surely yesterday was my most pleasant afternoon ever. If I should have the good fortune to be more closely acquainted with Your Honor, I should not need to assure you that nothing can be more agreeable to me than what we talked of yesterday. Herr von Kleist is as devoted to the True as to the Beautiful, and we spoke about that.5 Here we were delighted by Dr. Hirzel’s descriptions of, and anecdotes about, Herr Bodmer, Herr Breitinger, and Herr
1 Possibly the same letter to which Gleim refers in a letter to Johann Peter Uz dated 30 June 1746: “Today I read a clever letter by Voltaire; soon I will copy it for you”; he refers to Voltaire again in a letter to Uz dated 2 August 1746: “If I were capable of writing amusing letters, I would like to write like Hamilton and Voltaire.” GLEIM/UZ, pp. 121,123. Also see n. 20. 2 Through Gleim’s mediation, Krause had recently become acquainted with Ewald Christian von Kleist (1715-59), a first lieutenant in Prince Heinrich’s regiment in Potsdam. Financial exigency had obliged Kleist to choose a military career, but he devoted himself to writing poetry in whatever spare time was left him, and he was encouraged in this occupation by Gleim and his circle of friends. See Introduction, p. 1, and passim. 3 Hans Caspar Hirzel (1725-1803), a native of Zürich, had embarked on a career in medicine. He also had a lively interest in literature, philosophy, and history and was profoundly influenced by Bodmer and his circle (see n. 6). In 1745, Hirzel went to Leyden and, after receiving a doctorate in medicine there, to Potsdam, where he spent a year as assistant to an experienced physician. Here he met Kleist, and established connections between Bodmer’s circle and the group of friends in Berlin: Kleist, Gleim, Ramler (see n. 39 and passim ), and a countryman, Johann Georg Sulzer (see n. 55). In 1747, Hirzel returned to Switzerland but continued to correspond with Kleist. See NDB vol. 9 (1972), pp. 244-5. 4 Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804) had met Gleim while he was in Berlin between 1743 and 1747, after which he left Berlin to take a small pastorate in Lassahn. See GLOSSARY. 5 Here a small comer of the German text is tom off, but the sense of the passage is clear.
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No. 1 (D-HTgl 2332) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Hoch Edelgebohmer Herr, Hochzuehrender Herr, Hundertmal wenigstens muß ich Sie um Verzeihung bitten, daß ich Ihnen den Voltairischen Brief nicht eher zugeschickt habe. Sie wissen aber, man sucht gern eine Ausrede zu haben. Also werden Sie mir nicht verdenken, wenn ich den Herrn v. Kleist mit zur Entschuldigung nehme. Als ich ihm diesen Brief des Herrn Voltairs zeigte, so sagte er mir, daß er ihn schon gelesen habe. Demohngeachtet aber ließ ich ihn da, weil ich ihn vergaß, und als ich ihn nochmals wieder hohlen wollte, so hatte ich ein paar mal das Unglück, den Herrn v. Kleist nicht zu Hause anzutreffen. / Ich bin gestern bey ihm gewesen, und da sehen Sie auch hier ihren Brief, nebst meinem ergebensten Danke. Es war auch ein gewisser Herr Doctor Hirzel aus der Schweiz bey dem Herrn v. Kleist, ein Liebhaber der schönen Wissenschaften, und der schönen Gedanken, wie Ev. HochEdelgebohmen selbige in Ihren Werken haben. Er ist sehr begierig, Sie kennen zu lernen, und er gedenkt sich eine Zeitlang in Berlin aufzuhalten. Wir haben allen Liebhaber artiger Gedanken getrunken, und Ev. HochEdelgebohmen Ihrer namentl. wie auch Herr Spaldings seine, dem ich mich gehorsamst empfehle. / O wie bin ich Ihnen für die Bekandschaft mit dem Hn. von Kleist verbunden. Wie ein liebenswürdiger Mann, wie ein noch liebenswürdigere Edelmann, und wie der allerliebenswürdigste Officier ist er doch! Gewiß meine vergnügtester Nachmittag ist der gestrige gewesen. Wenn ich das Glück hätte, von Ev. HochEdelgebohmen, noch genauer gekandt zu seyn, so bräuchte ich denselben keine Versicherung zu machen, daß mir nichts lieber seyn kann, als was wir gestern geplaudert haben. Der Herr v. Kleist ist im Wahren als Schönen gleich stark, und davon haben wir [ge?]sprochen. Hier Doctor Hirzeis / Beschreibungen und Erzehlungen von H. Bodmer, H. Breitingem,
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Lange, whom he knows well, and, not least, by what was said about Herr Gottsched on this occasion.6 Write to me from time to time, Your Honor. Your letters will be doubly pleasing to me here because of our lack of good pastimes.7 For you are so kind and write me wonderfully long letters. Herr Spalding has too much to do, I dare say; else I would like to ask him to correspond with me.8 You are faring well, my most worthy friend. Continue to do so, and believe that I will be as pleased as I am truly Your Honor’s Potsdam, the 11th Sept. 1746 In the margin: If you visit Mme Wilken, give my respects to that household.9 No. 2 (D-HTgl 2333) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dear sir, I spoke yesterday with M. Dieu.10 The position you seek has still not been filled. I am happy that some hope therefore remains, do believe me. Have you no news
6 By the time Hirzel visited Berlin and Potsdam, Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700-1766) was already a target of acrimonious criticism by German and Swiss writers. He had earlier won recognition for his efforts to improve German literary style by formulating rules of grammar and composition But Gottsched’s unyielding insistence on classical rules of decorum and his rejection of opera as a valid art form (see n. 159) provoked opposition by Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698-1783) and Johann Jakob Breitinger (1701-76) (see GLOSSARY). They were joined in their literary feud by Samuel Gotthold Lange (1711-81) and Jakob Immanuel Pyra (1715-44) (see GLOSSARY), authors who celebrated the mid-eighteenth-century cult of friendship (see Introduction, p. xxiv and passim ). In the 1750s, Lange himself became the target of scathing attacks by Lessing (see GLOSSARY). In these literary quarrels, Gleim succeeded in steering a middle course. 7 Potsdam offered little entertainment or intellectual stimulation for Krause and others connected with the military. In his edition of Kleist’s works, August Sauer mentions references in Kleist’s letters to the bleakness of life in the garrison. “Here under the king’s eyes,” observes Sauer, “duties were discharged strictly, pedantically, ruthlessly . . . ” Kleist and his colleagues led “a boring, mindless garrison life in which drill and guard duty succeeded one another in an unbroken chain, without amusement or diversion, without stimulation or relaxation.” See KLEIST/S AUER I, p. XXVII. 8 Krause made at least one attempt to correspond with Spalding: the letter of 11 February 1747 (DHTgl 2334) is almost certainly addressed to him. But no other letters to Spalding and no replies from him have survived. 9 “Mme Wilken” or “Wilke” was apparently an acquaintance of the Gleim circle in Berlin. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 60, letter of 15 October 1746, in which Ramler refers to a “Mile Wilcken,” and p. 117, letter of 24 April 1748, in which Gleim sends regards to “Mme Wilcken.” 10 “Mr. God”: Probably a code name for an influential person at the court - possibly Jakob Friedrich Baron von Bielfeld (see n. 16).
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H. Langen, den er auch sehr wohl kennt, haben uns sehr ergötzt, nicht weniger das, was bey diesen mir Gelegenheiten von H. Gottscheden vorkam. Schreiben Ev. HochEdelgebohme A doch zuweilen. Ihre Briefe werden mir hier, wegen des schlechten Zeitvertreibs doppelt lieb seyn. Denn Sie sind so gütig, und schreiben mir hübsch lange Briefe. Herr Spalding hat wohl zu viel zu thun, sonst wollte ich ihn auch bitten einen Briefwechsel mit mir anzufangen. Sie leben doch noch wohl, mein werthester Freund. Thun Sie solches noch ferner, und glauben Sie, daß ich mich so sehr drüber freuen werde, als ich wahrhaftig bin Ev. HochEdelgebohmen Potsdam d. 11 Sept. 1746 Am Rand: Kommen Sie zur Mad. Wilken, so machen Sie diesem Hause meine Ergebenheit. No. 2 (D-HTgl 2333) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein Herr, Ich habe gestern mit Mr. Dieu gesprochen. Ihre gesuchte Bedienung ist noch nicht vergeben. Die deswegen übrige einige Hoffnung hat mich gefreuet; sie [sic] glauben mirs doch. Haben Sie keine Nachrichten davon? Dürfte ich Ihnen rathen,
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about it? If I might advise you, inquire of the Superior Directorate about how the matter stands.11 I am finally sending you the music to the anacreontic ode.12 If it is one-tenth as good as I could have made it with more time, I will be satisfied. As soon as I come to Berlin, I will play and sing it for you. Meanwhile, do what you like with it. If you want to give it to someone, be prepared for the same thing to happen with it as with the one you received from Magdeburg.13 I have not yet been able to scold Herr von Kleist for not keeping his word recently. I have been indisposed for a few days. But I spoke to Herr Dr. Hirzel yesterday. He doesn’t know that I am writing to you. Otherwise, you would get a compliment with the letter. Herr Clapproth, about whom you told me, is an honorable man.14 He pleases me uncommonly well. I am also writing to Herr Spalding about him. Are you living happily, by the way, my friend? Do that, I urge you. So you will do your philosophy honor, and will give heartfelt pleasure to him who, with all sincerity, is, dear sir, your most loyal servant, Krause Potsdam, the 2nd Nov. 1746
11 Gleim had so far been unable to find a satisfactory permanent position. After an abrupt departure from Prince Dessau’s employ (see GLOSSARY), he had returned to Berlin on 13 November 1745 and taken up residence with Professor Ludolph for whom he acted as secretary while he was seeking other employment (see n. 28). During the winter and spring of 1745-6, Gleim considered at least two positions, but obtained neither. Ramler’s letter to Gleim dated July 1746 refers to a position as Quartermaster for which Gleim may have applied (GLEIM/RAMLER, I, p. 42). A letter from Gleim to Kleist written on 10 September contains hints that Gleim considered seeking employment in Dresden, Hamburg, and Minden, and expresses both discouragement, and determination to continue the search in Berlin (KLEIST/SAUER III, p. 21). Gleim’s correspondence with Kleist between 7 and 11 October reflects the renewed energy of both correspondents in pursuit of a position that Gleim believes to be a lucrative one (KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 55 and 56 and III, p. 25f.). The position to which Krause refers in this letter is doubtless the same one. Whether it was the position that Ramler mentioned in his letter of July 1746 is difficult to determine. 12 The ode to which Krause refers may have been among those published in one of the collections titled Oden mitMelodien (Berlin, 1753,1755, and 1761), of which Krause was editor, or it may not have survived. 13 What Gleim “received from Magdeburg” is unknown. It is possible that Johann Heinrich Rolle (1716-85), a member of the Hojkapelle in Berlin from 1741 to 1746 and organist in Magdeburg from 1746, who later published settings of anacreontic Lieder, was already making settings of Gleim’s poems. See GROVE2, vol. 21, pp. 531-33, and MGG, Personenteil, vol. 14, cols. 302-307. 14 Johann Christian Claproth (1715-1748). See GLOSSARY.
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so erkundigen Sie sich auf dem Ober Directoría, wie es damit stehe. Ich schicke Ihnen endlich einmal die Noten zu der anacreontischen Ode. Wo sie nur das zehnte Theil so gut sind, als ich sie wegen Länge der Zeit hätte machen können, so bin ich zufrieden. So bald ich nach Berlin komme, will ich sie Ihnen Vorspielen und Vorsingen. Thun Sie unterdessen damit, was Sie wollen. Wollen Sie sie jemand geben, so machen Sie sich gefaßt, daß es Ihnen damit so gehen wird, wie mit der, die Sie aus Magdeburg bekommen. Ich habe den Herrn v. Kleist noch nicht schelten können, daß er letzthin nicht Wort gehalten. Ich bin einige Tage unpaß gewesen. Herr |>/c] D. Hirzel habe gestern aber gesprochen. Er weis es nicht, daß ich an Sie schreibe. Sonst kriegten Sie vielleicht ein Compliment mit. Herr Clapproth, den Sie mir gelehret, ist ein Ehren Mann. Er gefällt mir ungemein wohl. Ich schreibe Herr Spaidingen auch von ihm. Sie leben doch übrigens noch vergnügt, mein Freund? Thun Sie dieß, ich ermahne Sie dazu. Sie machen dadurch Ihrer Philosophie Ehre, und dem ein rührendes Vergnügen, der mit aller Aufrichtigkeit ist Mein Herr Dero ergebenster Diener Krause Potsdam d. 2 Nov. 1746
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No. 3 (D-HTgl 2334) KRAUSE TO JOHANN JOACHIM SPALDING Sir and most worthy friend,15 I obey you, and report that on the coming Wednesday Le Menteur of Corneille will be performed. It is supposed to be a fine piece, and if my plan for you and me would be feasible, I would like very much to fetch you to go to the comedy so that you could tell me the gist of it. You would surely do that. Herr von Kleist and Herr Dr. Hirzel are well. We were together several days ago and remembered you fondly. How is Herr Gleim? Recently I spoke with the king, and the conversation turned to him [Gleim]. I did everything for him that a friend is supposed to do, and learned that the king knew him. But he knew nothing about the fact that Herr Gleim has petitioned in vain for something several times, and was astonished that his request had not been attended to. The disquieting thought came to me that I was speaking to the king very unceremoniously, and that gave me the notion, even in my dream, that the whole thing had to be a dream. Oh, that it had been true! Certainly the king was so well disposed that I would have vouched for Herr Gleim’s success. He will, at least, know by this that I have dreamt of him. For usually I never dream. I try, at least when sleeping, to do well by him, something which I can’t do when awake, and of which he is so worthy.16 He will pardon me that I don’t write to him separately. I am sending you, sir, a book written by a man who has read much and remembers much, but who hasn’t attended a university. He understands more than 6 languages perfectly, law, and gallant arts. His character and his forthrightness, combined with the circumstance that, as English Legation Secretary in the district of Lower Saxony, he had to settle all the disputes of sailors and boatmen, have
15 Although Spalding’s name (see nn. 4 and 8) does not appear in this letter, it may be inferred that this is the letter to Spalding to which Krause refers in the opening of his letter to Gleim of 5 March 1747 (D-HTgl 2335). At this time, Gleim seems to have been seeing Spalding more frequently than any other friend, and to have made him a confidant-he is mentioned many times in Gleim’s correspondence with Uz and with Ramler between 30 June 1746 and 25 April 1747 (see GLEIM/UZ, pp. 118, 123,125, 154, 158, 161 and GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 41, 45, 46, 50, 51, 53, 57, 58, 60, 63, 64, 65, 68, 74, 75, 77, 80-82). 16 Gleim was still searching for a permanent position. Although the king of Krause’s dream knew nothing of Gleim’s search, it is difficult to believe that the king of Krause’s waking moments was unaware of Gleim’s various attempts to obtain government posts-the names of Friedrich II, and of two of his most trusted advisers, General von Stille (see n. 191) and Jakob Friedrich Baron von Bielfeld (see GLOSSARY), appear several times in Gleim’s correspondence in connection with his applications for a position. In a letter to Ramler dated 14 January 1747, Gleim suggests that the recent good fortune of Bielfeld, Gouvemeur to Prince Ferdinand (1730-1813), youngest brother of Friedrich n , may work to his advantage (probably he refers to Bielfeld’s appointment as Curator of all Prussian universities and Director of the Hospital in Berlin). Gleim adds that he has spoken to Bielfeld, who has expressed a desire to help him. Presumably it was at this time that Gleim began to seek a position as secretary to Prince Ferdinand. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 68, 71; GLEIM/UZ, p. 91; KLEIST/SAUER HI, p. 46; II, pp. 47,81-3.
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No. 3 (D-HTgl 2334) KRAUSE TO SPALDING Mein Herr und werthester Freund, Ich gehorche Ihnen, und berichte, daß man künftige Mittwoche le menteur aus dem Corneille spielen wird. Es soll ein schönes Stück seyn, und wenn es in Absicht auf Sie und mich angaenge, so möchte ich Sie wohl in die Comoedie abhohlen, damit Sie mir den Inhalt sagen könnten. Sie thäten es doch wohl. Herr von Kleist und H. D. Hirzel befinden sich wohl. Wir sind vor einigen Tagen beysammen gewesen, und haben Ihrer freundschaftlich gedacht. Herr Gleim, was macht der? Letzthin spräche ich mit dem Könige und es kam auch auf ihn die Rede. Ich that denn alles was ein Freund thun soll, und erfuhr, daß der König ihn kennte. Er wüste aber nichts von allem dem, daß H. Gleim schon etliche mal vergebens um etwas angehalten, und wunderte sich darüber daß er noch nicht versorget sey. Eine Sache kam mir hiebey bedenklich vor, daß ich mit dem Könige so ohne Umstände sprach, und dieses brachte mich selbst im Traum auf die Gedanken, daß das ganze Ding ein Traum seyn müßte. O wäre es doch wahr gewesen. Gewiß der König war in solcher Disposition, daß ich für H. Gleims Glück Bürge seyn wollte. Er wird mir es doch ein wenig damit wissen, daß ich von ihm geträumet habe. Denn ich träume sonst niemalen. Ich suche ihm doch wenigstens schlafend das Gute zu erweisen, was ich wachend nicht thun kann, und dessen er doch so werth ist. Er wird mir verzeihen, daß ich ihm nicht besonders schreibe. / Ich schicke Ihnen, Mein Herr, hier ein Buch, welches ein Mann geschrieben, der viel gelesen, viel behalten, aber nicht auf der Universität studiert hat. Er verstehet perfect mehr als 6 Sprachen A, die Rechte, und alle galante Wissenschaften. Seine caracter, und seine Droiture, nebst dem, daß er als Engelländischer Legations Secretair im Niedersächsischen Kreise alle Debatten der Schiffen u. Boots Leute zu schlichten
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produced something rough and common in his speech.17 In Leipzig, there is a Magister Mizler who computes music scientifically, but can make little else of it, like Herr Professer Gottsched, with whom you are already acquainted.18 In spite of all this, the author [Mattheson] is an original as a writer, and, I think, not a bad one, except for the roughness and commonness. At times, he can write like no one else. In the last 12 years, he has lost most of his hearing. A great misfortune. So much for the understanding of the book. Do read it, you won’t regret it. You can show a dozen or two pages to Herr Gleim also, but I won’t demand more of his patience. He is to give me the cantata in return, however. I hope you will not expect to find exegetical remarks in the book. Herr Clapproth doesn’t write in a donnish style quite the contrary - yet [he writes] in a traditional manner. In his Treatise on Instincts, he says nothing more than what is found around p. 70.19 And yet everything is here, and much shorter, and there is nothing like pedantry, no affected wit or embellishment. If I could ask so much time of you, you might be so kind as to jot down your comments. Yet that is not necessary. You’ll tell me in Berlin. Recently I read a German novel, the Life of the Count of Grammont written by Count Anthony Hamilton: Die Beschäftigungen auf dem Lande, or whatever it may be called - 1 myself no longer know.201 wish that our courtiers would at least speak such German, for one certainly cannot expect that it [the book] meet a higher moral standard. I didn’t regret reading the book as a pastime. I am, dear sir, your most respectful servant Krause The 11th Feb. 1747
17 Krause is referring to Johann Mattheson (1681-1764). See GLOSSARY. It was perhaps Mattheson’s most famous theoretical work, Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739) which Krause sent to Spalding. 18 Lorenz Christoph Mizler von Kolof (1711-78) (see GLOSSARY). Mizler’s most famous work was the Neu eröjfnete musikalische Bibliothek (Leipzig, 1739), ajournai in which he tried to establish a musical system based on mathematics, science, and philosophy. Although Mizler criticized Gottsched’s intolerant view of opera in this journal, Krause lumps the two writers together here, perhaps because he regards both as pedantic and unimaginative. 19 See CLAPROTH, Schreiben von den natürlichen Trieben des Menschen, Stück 3, Part 1: Possibly Krause is referring to Claproth’s discussion (pp. 471-7) of Jean Baptiste Abbé Dubos (see n. 155), who designates the soul’s taste as a sixth sense (the pagination of the collection of treatises in which this one appears is continuous, and this discussion occurs about 70 pages into the Schreiben von den natürlichen Trieben). See also n. 14. 20 Krause is undoubtedly referring to the German translation of GRAMMONT, Anton Hamilton’s satirical work, published in English as Memoirs o f the Life o f Count de Grammont: Containing, in Particular, the Amorous Intrigues o f the Court o f England in the Reign o f King Charles II, transi. Boyer (London, 1714), and in German under the title Die Vergnügten Abwechselungen der Geschäfte auf dem Lande, oder Begebnenheiten des Grafen von Grammont (Stockholm and Leipzig, 1745). The censor had at first refused to allow these memoirs to be published, and it was not until 1713 that they appeared in a first edition. See GLOSSARY.
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u. plattes gehabt, haben was rüdes A in seinen Stil gebracht. In Leipzig ist ein Magister Mizler, der die Musik ausrechnet u. sonst wenig darum machen kann, wie auch H. Pr. Gottsched, den Sie schon kennen. Der Autor ist bey allem dem aber doch ein Original von einem Schriftsteller, und mich denkt, kein schlimmes, das rüde und wie platte ausgenommen. Zuweile kan er auch A keiner schreiben. Seit etwa 12 Jahren ist er meist um sein Gehör gekommen. Ein groß Unglück. So viel zum Verständnis des Buches. Lesen Sie es nur, es soll Sie nicht reuen. Ein Paar Dutzend Seiten können Sie auch H. Gleimen zeigen, mehr aber will ich seiner Geduld nicht zumuthen. Er soll mir aber dafür die Cantate geben. Exegetische Anmerkungen werden Sie wohl im Buche nicht zu finden glauben. H. Claproth schreibt nicht sohulmäß schulfüchsisch, aber doch gegen den, noch schulmäßig. In seiner Abh. von den Trieben sagt er nichts anders als was etwa um p. 70 herum stehet. Und hier ist alles doch, und weit kürzer, und nichts sieht der Schule ähnlich, kein gesuchter Witz oder Zierde. Wenn ich Ihnen so viel Zeit Zutrauen könnte, so würden Sie vielleicht so gütig seyn, und Ihre Anmerkungen dabey ein wenig aufschreiben. Doch das brauchts nicht. Sie sagen mir sie in Berlin. Letzthin habe ich einen deutschen Roman das leben des Grafen v. Grammont von dem Graf Anton Hamilton abgefaßt, gelesen; die Beschäftigungen auf dem Lande, oder wie es etwann heist, ich weis selbst nicht mehr. Solch Deutsch wünschte ich wenigstens, daß unsere Hofleute sprächen, denn moralisch besser kan man doch nicht wohl verlangen. Das Buch hat mich nicht gereuet zum Zeitvertreib gelesen zu haben. Ich bin, Mein Herr ihr ergebenster Diener Krause d. 11 Feb 1747
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Greet Herr MaaB; no answer has come, for what reasons, I know not.21 No. 4 (D-HTgl 2335) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Worthiest friend, Even though you are not a moralist, yet I had certainly threatened to send you a letter by today. But you make my letter into an answer so pleasantly that I like you even more. Don’t be angry with this word.22 I am not a poet or a writer. Don’t be jealous of Herr Spalding. On another occasion, I wrote two letters to you, and none to Herr Spalding. I find your cantata incomparable, except for one part about which I want to speak to Herr von Kleist first before I write to you about it. I no longer write that I want to speak to you in person about it. For I no longer believe that we will come to Berlin, because it has so often been said here wrongly that we would go there. “Warte du kleine, etc.”: I drafted most of this aria in my head immediately after receiving your letter, while I was still in bed.23 If you had not already had something printed, I would not know why you inform me that my ideas about music are esteemed. But of course the first children are always well loved. Certainly you humble me on the second page of your letter all the more effectively because you have extolled me on the first. Here I am to do your cantata honor, and there it is only a trifle with which H. Hirzel is not to know that you are concerned. Today I will call on him. I have had all sorts of things to do, and have still not gone for a stroll with our friends. When you are here, it will happen all the more often. Have Herr Uz write a cantata, then.24 Perhaps I can write music one quarter as beautiful for it as what you scoff at in your Scherzhafte Lieder.25
21 Little is known of Nicolaus Maaß aside from the correspondence of members of Gleim’s circle. Maaß’s name appears in one of Krause’s other letters to Gleim (no. 6), and in Gleim’s correspondence with Ramler and Kleist between July 1746 and 8 May 1747. In his letter of 21 February 1747, Gleim informs Johann Peter Uz (see GLOSSARY) that “Herr Maaß will leave to become a professor in Stettin. After his departure—probably in September 1747—Maaß continued to correspond with the circle of friends in Berlin. On Maaß see GLOSSARY. 22 Krause’s meaning at the beginning of this letter is not clear—it may be a response to a remark by Gleim expressing his pique that Krause had written to Spalding when he owed Gleim a letter. Presumably “this word” refers to “moralist.” 23 Neither the text nor the music of this cantata has survived. 24 On Uz, see Introduction, p. xxiv, and GLOSSARY. 25 Gleim’s first collection, Versuch in Scherzhaften Liedern, in two volumes, published anonymously in Berlin by J. J. Schütze in 1744 and 1745. Like the poems of Thirsts und Damons freundschaftliche Lieder (1745) by his contemporaries, Samuel Gotthold Lange and Jacob Pyra (see n. 6), Gleim’s Lieder are without rhyme. In the first Lied, Gleim addresses Anacreon (see n. 30) as his teacher, designates wine and love as the subjects of his poems, and establishes the tone of the Lieder, which is always playful, even when serious subjects are treated.
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Grüssen Sie H. Maßen, es ist keine Antwort erfolget, quibus ex causis weis ich nicht.
No. 4 (D-HTgl 2335) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Werthester Freund, Ohngeacht Sie kein Moralist sind, so hatte ich Ihnen doch auf heute gewiß mit einem Briefe gedrohet. Aber Sie machen ihn auf eine so angenehme Art zugleich zu einer Antwort, daß ich Sie dafür von neuem noch lieber gewonnen. Aergem Sie sich nicht über dieses Wort. Ich bin kein Poet noch Schriftsteller. Seyn Sie nicht über H. Spaidingen eyfersüchtig. Ich habe Ihnen ein andermal auch zwey Briefe geschrieben, und H. Spaidingen keinen. von Ihre Cantate finde ich unvergleichlich bis auf eine Stelle, A welcher ich vorher mit dem H. v. Kleist sprechen will, ehe ich Ihnen darüber schreibe. Ich schreibe nicht mehr, daß ich selbst mit Ihnen deshalb sprechen will. Denn ich glaube, wir kommen nicht mehr nach Berlin, so oft hat man hier schon fälschlich gesagt, daß wir hingehen würden. Warte du kleine p. Diese Arie habe ich gleich nach Empfang Ihres Briefes im Bette noch, im Kopf meist entworfen. Wenn Sie nicht auch schon hätten etwas drucken / lassen, so wüste ich nicht, warum Sie mir melden, daß meine Gedanken von der Musik schon in dem Urtheile stünden. Aber freylich die ersten Kinder sind allemal lieb. Gewiß Sie demüthigen mich auf der andren Seite Ihres Briefes desto besser je mehr Sie mich auf der ersten erhoben haben. Hier soll ich Ihrer Cantate Ehre machen, und dort ist sie doch nur eine Kleinigkeit, die H. Hirzel noch nicht wissen soll, daß Sie sich dam itA abgeben sollen. Ich will ihn heut aufsuchen. Ich habe allerley zu thun gehabt, und bin noch nicht viel mit unseren Freunden spazieren gegangen. Wenn Sie hier seyn werden, desto öfter. Lassen Sie H. Utzen doch eine Cantate machen. Vielleicht kann ich das vierdte Theil so schöne Noten dazu finden, als Sie wegen Ihrer scherzhaften Lieder spotten.
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My brother is in love.26 He even wants to get married, and he wants your Scherzhafte Lieder, which he saw at my house. So be so good as to send me both parts. I will give you the money in return. But you will receive this letter today or tomorrow morning, and by Tuesday morning I must have the Lieder. For I am sending my carriers off the same day. Every day, around evening, a relay messenger comes here from Berlin. You can send them with him. You don’t need Herr Goldbeck’s poems and Herr Baumgarten’s answer any longer?27 Send them along to me, if you wish. My brother wants them also. He will be pleased if I send you his compliments, even though he did not instruct me to do it, and he will be more pleased to be indebted to you than to anyone else for the songs. He liked them. Give my best compliments to Herr Spalding and Herr MaaB. By Wednesday, we are to go to Berlin - but I won’t write this again. Farewell. I am, worthiest friend, your most respectful Krause Potsd., the 5th March 1747
Inquire of HenProf. Ludolph across from the Berlin town hall28
to Monsieur Monsieur Gleim Student of Law m Berlin
26 It is possible that the brother whom Krause mentions was living in Berlin in the late 1740s (although it is by no means certain from this letter). The ADRES-CALENDER of 1748 lists at least five Krauses (the ADRES-CALENDER of 1749 lists two more). 27 Possibly the Goldbeck mentioned here was the Regimental Quartermaster to whom Gleim refers in his letter to Kleist of 10 October 1748 (see KLEIST/SAUER III, p. 89), and an older relative of Johann Friedrich Goldbeck (b. 1748), chaplain of an infantry regiment in Graudenz (see GLOSSARY). Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-62) was appointed Professor at the Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der Oder. His accomplishments include the development of philosophical terminology, the systematization of the field of aesthetics, and the achievement for which he is most celebrated: the establishment of aesthetics as a branch of philosophy. Baumgarten’s conception of aesthetics was focused upon the sensory perception of art. Krause was a student at the Viadrina University during Baumgarten’s tenure there, and although his writings do not make explicit reference to Baumgarten, his concern with feeling surely reflects Baumgarten’s influence. See GLOSSARY. 28 Michael Matthias Ludolph (or Ludolf) (1705-56), Royal Court Physician and Professor of Botany at the College of Surgery in Berlin. Wilhelm Korte, Gleim’s nephew and biographer, refers to Ludolph as Gleim’s relative. While he was looking for a position in Berlin, Gleim served as Ludolph’s secretary, but this stopgap position was obviously trying: Ramler refers to Ludolph as “discontented”; Carl Schuddekopf calls him “hypochondriac.” See ADELUNG/JOCHER (1787), vol. 4 (supplement), col. 60; KORTE/GLEEM, p. 31; GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 71; and SCHUDDEKOPF/RAMLER, pp. 11-12.
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Mein Bruder ist verliebt. Er wird so gar heirathen, und er verlangt Ihre scherzhaften Lieder, die er bey mir gesehen. Schicken Sie mir also beyde Theile; frühe seyn Sie so gut. Ich will Ihnen das Geld wieder geben. Allein heute oder morgen A kriegen Sie diesen Brief, und Dienstags frühe muß ich schon die / Lieder haben. Denn ich schicke denselben Tag meine Boten fort. Alle Tage gegen Abend gehet eine Staffete aus der Post v. Berlin hieher. Mit dieser können Sie sie schicken. Sie brauchen H. Goldbecks Gedicht und H. Baumgartens Antwort nicht mehr? Schicken Sie mir sie auch mit, wenn Sie wollen. Mein Bruder will sie auch haben. Es wird ihm lieb seyn, wenn ich Ihnen von ihm ein Compl. mache, ohngeachtet er mir es nicht befohlen hat, und er wird Ihnen lieber als einem anderen für die Lieder verbunden seyn. Sie gefielen ihm. Machen Sie doch H. Spalding, u. H. Maaßen mein allerbestes Compliment. Auf die Mittwoch sollen wir nach Berlin gehen, aber ich schreibe es nicht mehr. Leben Sie wohl. Ich bin
bey dem Hn. Prof. Ludolph dem Berlinischen Rathhause grade über abzufragen
A Monsieur Monsieur Gleim Candidat en Droit in Berlin
Werthester Freund Ihr ergebenster K. Potsd. den 5ten März 1747
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No. 5 (D-HTgl 2336) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dear sir, You are a fine friend! You consider me very lazy because you believe that I didn’t want to go into the local bookstore before putting you to the trouble of sending me your Scherzhafte Lieder. In this store it was as in many spice shops: they had run out of them immediately. So I won’t leave you alone unless you obtain them for me. I have promised them to my brother, and have given him reason to hope that I will send them to him in case his tenderness alone no longer suffices to entertain his bride. Then your Lieder shall help him. Yes, that is my brother whom you once saw in my garden. I asked you for Herr Baumgarten’s poem. Is that to be the answer, that Herr Spalding is reading a poem of Baumgarten’s? What does it matter? You have lost it. You see, this is in retaliation for your suspicion that I mentioned above. But what Baumgarten was as a young man! What a poem, what a beautiful poem! Don’t be so laconic. Or don’t write to me at precisely the moment when you wish to visit Herr Königs Rat Borchward.29 I showed Herr von Kleist your cantata. Oh, for heaven’s sake, help me to make amends to him. I had invited him along with Herr Hirzel expressly for last Tuesday. And he came. I kept him waiting an hour - longer - and didn’t actually get home until they had gone. That is really too bad, indeed! But back to your cantata-he speaks of it, and insists that you make it rhyme either entirely or not at all. At the very least, the arias, since they are already, for the most part, rhymed. He sends you herewith a couple of rhymes for the first: for “Wein [wine],” “sein [to be]”; “Die Rose giebt dem Bachus Söhnen, und den Liebhabern die Schönen [the rose gives Bacchus sons and gives lovers beautiful women],” etc. I won’t mention to you those ideas that he considered good, but only those that did not seem proper to him. “Wär ich nur dein Kind [if only I were thy child]”: That must go. He didn’t know what sort of child the rose could have, and if, by saying “Rose,” you meant woman, it would be completely unacceptable. He said that Anacreon, your teacher, did not think in allegorical terms either.30 In support of your idea, we even thought of 29 Ernst Samuel Jakob Borchward (1717-76?), a native of Berlin, held the position of
HochfUrstlich Brandenburg-Bayreuthischer Hofrat und Resident (Court Councilor and, as Resident, a
representative of the Margravate of Anspach-Bayreuth). Borchward was an amateur poet and composer; his correspondence with Christian Furchtegott Gellert (see n. 103) grew out of his interest in devotional songs. He was frequently in touch with Gleim’s circle in Berlin - one of C. P. E. Bach’s character pieces, several of which bear the names of members of this circle, is named after him: La Borchward, Wq 117/17 (H 79). Because of his connection with the court of Anspach-Bayreuth, Borchward was from time to time the bearer of musical materials from Gleim and Krause to Johann Peter Uz in Anspach. See ADB, vol. 2, p. 156 and GLEIM/UZ, pp. 149,160. 30 Anacreon, a lyric poet of Teos (fl. 6th c. B.C.), was celebrated in his own time and in the eighteenth century for his odes and epigrams, written in a playful, sometimes satyrical style. The principal themes of his verses, love and wine, earned Anacreon, perhaps undeservedly, the reputation of profligacy. Anacreon’s style and the themes of his verses have furnished inspiration, not only for his
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No. 5 (D-HTgl 2336) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein Herr, Sie sind mir ein hübscher Freund. Sie halten mich für sehr faul, daß Sie glauben ich werde nicht eher in den hiesigen Buchladen gegangen seyn, ehe ich Sie beschwere, mir Ihre scherzhaften Lieder zu schicken. Es war da wie in manchen Gewürz Laden, sie waren gleich abgegangen. Ich lasse Sie also doch nicht, Sie schaffen mir sie denn. Ich habe sie meinem Bruder versprochen, und ihm gewisse Hoffnung dazu gemacht, sie zu schicken, wenn seine Zärtlichkeit etwann seiner Braut nicht viel mehr werde sagen können. Da sollen ihm Ihre Lieder zu Hülfe kommen. Ja das ist mein Bruder, den Sie einmal bey mir im Garten gesehen. Ich habe Sie um H. Baumgartens Gedicht ersucht. Soll das die Antwort drauf seyn, daß H. Spalding eines Baumgartens Gedicht lieset. Was gilts, Sie haben jenes verlohren. Sehen Sie, das ist die Wiedervergeltung für Ihren obengedachten Argwohn. Aber was ist das für ein junger Baumgarten, was für ein Gedicht, ein schönes Gedicht. / Seyn Sie doch nicht so laconisch. Oder schreiben Sie mir doch nicht grade in dem Augenblick, wenn Sie wollen zu dem Hn. K.R. Borchward gehen. Ich habe Ihre Cantate Hn v. Kleist gezeiget. Ach ums Himmels Willen helfen Sie machen mir den wieder gut A. Ich habe ihn samt H. Hirzein auf den verwichenen Dienstag ausdrücklich zu mir gebeten gehabt. Er ist auch erschienen. Ich habe ihn aber eine Stunde und länger warten lassen, und bin doch erst nach Hause gekommen, als sie weg waren. In der That das ist ein bisgen zu schlimm. Doch Ihrer Cantate, davon sagt er, und will durchaus, daß Sie sie entweder ganz reimen, oder ohne Reimen machen sollen. Zum allerwenigsten die Arien da sie es schon meistentheils sind. Er schickt Ihnen hiemit, zur ersten ein paar Reime: auf Wein, seyn, die Rose giebt dem Bachus Söhnen, und den Liebhabern die Schönen pp. Ich will Ihnen nicht sagen, welche Gedanken er schön gefunden sondern nur die, die ihm nicht anständig gewesen. Wär ich nur dein Kind! / Das soll fort. Er wüste nicht was die Rose für ein Kind hätte, und wo Sie unter der Rose ein Frauenzimmer zugleich mit im Sinne hätten, das gienge gar nicht an. Anacreon, ihr Lehrer habe auch nichts allegorisches dabey gedacht. Sie zu rechtfertigen dachten wir gar an die schön gekleideten Rosen
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beautifully attired roaes lilies of the field-which you had scarcely thought of. For who will think of the Bible? So “das Kind [the child]” should go, as, also, the last 4 lines of the last aria: “Doch die spröde, etc. [yet the recalcitrant creature]” One doesn’t need yet another recitative inserted; the unity of conception will no longer be there. Shouldn’t one who has had so many sweethearts be able to say in 4 lines that love’s wounds are painful, without first bringing in the coy Sylvia? The first part is good, as was often mentioned in Berlin. But where does the accent come in the pronunciation, and therefore, in the music, in “So bedenke welche Schmerzen macht dein Pfeil in zarten Herzen? [So consider what pains thy arrow makes in gentle hearts]” Whether it comes on “zarten [gentle]” or “Herzen [hearts],” you, as poet, must know best. I ask you kindly, my worthy friend, where you want to change something, send it to me soon. Don’t wait until I come to Berlin. This won’t happen very soon. But don’t change anything in the Geflügelte Schlange [winged serpent];311 have finished this aria already. I want to write to Herr Spalding, but my head is beginning to ache. Perhaps tomorrow. Farewell. I am, sir and worthy friend, your most respectful K. Potsdam, the 9th March 1747 P.S. Greetings to my acquaintances. No. 6 (D-HTgl 2337) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Worthiest friend, I have received the Operette that was sent to me; I give you my most respectful thanks, and will also reimburse you for it.32 You say your approval of the Operette imitators in classical antiquity, but for modem poets, including Friedrich Hagedom (see n. 156) and the small but enthusiastic circle of students in Halle: Gleim, Johann Peter Uz, and Johann Nicolaus Gôtz (see INTRODUCTION, p. xxiv). The first edition of Ancreon’s works in the early modem period was published in 1554 in Paris by Henri Etienne. Although the authenticity of the sources of Etienne’s edition was suspect, it was followed by others, e.g., editions in 1681 by Anne Lefèvre, later Mme Dacier (see n. 112), and in 1705 by Joshua Barnes. Anacreon’s works also appeared in many French, English, and German translations (including Die Oden Anakreons in reimlosen Versen published by Gôtz in 1746). See ALTEN WELT, cols. 149-150; GOEDEKE, vol. 4 (Dresden, 1891), p. 43; NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, vol. 1 (1949-1950), 1170-72. 31 This cantata, to which Krause refers again in his letter of 20 August 1748 (D-HTgl 2347) has not survived. Its text was apparently one of the few cantata texts actually completed by Gleim—or any of the members of his circle of friends—and given to Krause to set to music. 32 It is impossible to identify this work, its poet, or its composer.
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Lilien auf dem Felde, woran Sie doch schwerlich gedacht haben. Denn wer wird an die Bibel denken? Das Kind soll also fort, wie auch die letzten 4 Zeilen der letzten Arie, Doch die spröde pp. Man braucht nicht noch ein Recitative dazwischen zu machen, so ist die Einheit des Planes schon nicht mehr da. Sollte einer der so viel in Mädgen hat nicht noch A4 Zeilen sagen können, daß die Liebes Wunden weh thun, ohne die spröde Sylvia erst herzubringen. Der erste Theil ist, wie schon oft gesagt in Berlin, gut. Aber wo kommt im prononciren und also auch im musiciren des Accent hin, in: So bedenke, welche Schmerzen macht dein Pfeil in zarten Herzen. Kommt er auf zarten oder Herzen, das müssen Sie als Poet am besten wissen. Ich bitte recht sehr, mein weither Freund, schicken Sie mir, wo Sie was ändern wollen, es bald. Warten Sie / nicht, bis ich nach Berlin komme. Es geschieht so bald noch nicht. Aendem Sie aber nichts an der geflügelten Schlange, dies Arie habe ich schon fertig. Ich will H. Spaidingen auch schreiben, aber der Kopf fängt mir an weh zu thun. Vielleicht morgen. Leben Sie wohl. Ich bin Mein Herr und werthester Freund Ihr ergebenster K. Potsdam d 9 Merz 1747 P.S. Grüssen Sie die ich kenne. No. 6 (D-HTgl 2337) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Werthester Freund, Ich habe die mir übersendete Operette erhalten und sage Ihnen dafür den
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shall be mine. I hardly dare give my judgment - well, not yet - in a matter that concerns the poets. So far I have reviewed it only with respect to the music, and I don’t believe the arias can be made more musical with regard to form. Three days ago I had an idea that I want to communicate to you. I maintain that one does music too much honor if one ascribes such scope to it as to rhetoric or poetry. (juxtapose) One should not always compare it with poetry and wish to extract rules from the latter for it. I find that it comes closer to architecture. It has general rules in common with all the fine arts. But its specific rules are closer to architecture than to poetry. We cannot reflect otherwise on what we think, in truth, except with words, and if we had learned no words, it would be difficult. Poetry, then, not only delights the so-called beautiful in our souls, but also engages, stimulates, and brings into play the understanding itself, and reason; but this happens only in a very remote way with architecture, even if buildings can be made that delight the eye in various ways. A summer house on the water, one in a garden [or?], a vineyard, a castle, an arsenal, a church, give different kinds of pleasure. Indeed, no church, even in accordance with the most opulent architectural practice, will be built with so much ornament as the Berlin Arsenal.33 So the structure will delight the eye, the understanding will be stimulated in part by harmony, but it doesn’t extend further than this, not quite to the will. It is almost exactly the same with music. Only by a few musical works is one rendered devout, loving; hardly ever generous and virtuous. But I believe that a church decked out in mourning would make one unacquainted with our customs sad, just as an ornate Catholic church would make one believe that it is a house dedicated to the gods. You understand me better than I can say it to you here. Do reflect on this as yet poorly defined thought, and then tell me your opinion. I think that one can claim more from music than from architecture. But certainly not too much - for circumstances must contribute tremendously, and thus it [music] doesn’t by itself produce an effect. Occasionally - I say it again - I believe music can produce an effect, but not as often, not as universally, or as easily as poetry. Musical “periodology” and “commatology” need not be patterned entirely after rhetoric, but more strictly - particularly the latter-after proportions in architecture. The poet of the Operette has designed it incomparably for the musician; the little Operette can’t help but be beautiful. Buy it for yourself; then you can learn all about the form of good arias from it. Take the 33 The Berlin Arsenal, conceived by Friedrich Wilhelm, the “Great Elector” of Brandenburg, and erected during the reign of his son Friedrich III of Brandenburg (later Friedrich I, king of Prussia), was begun in 1695 by Johann Arnold Nering (1659-95), who held the title of Kurfürstlicher Baudirekter (Chief Architect to the Elector), continued by Martin Grünberg (1655-1707), who had been Landmesser (Overseer of Construction) in the Kurmark since 1688, and completed by Andreas Schlüter (d. 1714) (see GLOSSARY) The Arsenal (which still stands today is a monument to the military prowess that enabled Prussia to become an important European power. The keystones of its exterior and its inner court are lavishly decorated with fanciful sculptured helmets and warrior masks, which Schlüter and his workshop completed by 1696. Among the sculptures for the keystones on the northern exterior are a sculptured head of Medusa and a shield crowned with two harpies. Around the roof are statues of warriors.
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ergebensten Dank, werde auch das Pretium wieder erstatten. Sie sagen, ihr Beyfall in der Operette solle der meinige seyn. Ich unterstehe mich so wie da überhaupt nicht sehr also jetzo noch nicht A von mein Urtheil, was den Poeten betrift, zu geben. Ich habe sie heute nur einmal in musikalischer Absicht durchgesehen, und ich glaube nicht, daß die Arien musikalischer gemacht werden können, was die Form betrift. Ich habe für [vor] 3 Tagen einen Gedanken gehabt, den ich Ihnen communiciren will. Ich halte dafür man thut der Musik zu viel Ehre an, wenn man ihr eine solche Etendue zuschreibt als der Rede- und Dichtkunst. (Zusammenhalten)
Man sollte nicht immer mit der Poesie vergleichen und aus dieser die Regeln auf jener [57 c] ziehen wollen. Ich finde, daß sie der Baukunst näher kommt. / Sie hat mit allen schönen Wissenschaften die allgemeinen Regeln. Aber die besondem in Wahrheiten kommen der Baukunst näher als der Poesie. Alles, was wir denken A, können wir fast nichts anders als mit Worten gedenken, und wenn wir keine Worte gelernt, würde es schwer halten. Durch die Poesie wird also nicht nur das so genandte Schöne unserer Seele ergötzet sondern auch der eigentliche Verstand u. die Vernunft gar nahe afficirt, gereizet und mit ins Spiel gebracht; dies geschieht aber durch die Baukunst nur gar entfernt, ob man gleich auch Gebäude machen kann, die das Auge auf verschiedene Weise delectiren. Eine andere Lust giebt ein Lust Haus auf dem Wasser, eines im Garten, ein Weinberg, ein Schloß, ein Arsenal, eine Kirche. Auch nach der reichsten Baukunst wird keine Kirche mit so viel Auszierungen als das berlinische Arsenal gebaut werden. Das Auge wird also vom von Gebäude ergötzet, und der Verstand auch wegen der Übereinstimmung mit an gerühret, aber weiter geht es nicht, nicht eben bis A den Willen. Fast eben so ist es mit der Musik. Nur von wenig Musiken wird man / andächtig, verliebt; großmüthig und tugendhaft wohl gar nicht. Aber ich glaube eine zur Trauer ausgezierte Kirche würde auch einen unserer Sitten unkundigen traurig, so wie eine catholische Kirche ausgezierte glauben machen, daß das ein den Göttern gewidmetes Haus sey. Sie es diesem noch hohlen verstehen mich besser, als ich A Ihnen hier noch sagen kann. Denken Sie dem A Gedanken einmal nach, und sagen Sie mir denn Ihre Meynung. Ich glaube man etwas kann von der Musik noch Amehr praetendiren, als von der Baukunst. Aber auch gar zu viel nicht, oder die Umstände müssen entsetzlich helfen und da thut sie es nicht kan sie was thun allein. Zuweilen, sage ich nochmal, glaube ich es A , aber lange nicht so oft, so allgemein so leicht als die Poesie. Die musikalische Periodologie und Commatologie muß nicht völlig nach der oratorischen, sondern stricter und sonderlich die letzte so wie die Proportiones in der Baukunst zugeschnitten werden. Der Poet der Operette hat dem Musico unvergleichlich vorgeschnitten, das Operettchen muß schön seyn. Kaufen Sie es sich ja, sie können daraus die ganze
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measure of the first aria. Read it with pathos, and tell me whether there isn’t a wonderful congruency in the form, in the lines. That makes the musical expression easier; it is similar to arranging a picture gallery, where one requires 2 or 3 pendants that go well together and have a relationship with each other. What is easy quickly becomes clear, and that is a beautiful thing.34 Herr von Kleist has come from guard duty today; tomorrow he shall have your letter, and after that, I will answer you further. Read these musical whims aloud to Herr Court Councilor Bergius together with my compliments.35 He is so fond of music that he also reflects on it. Give him the enclosed note if you wish. Commend me also to Herr Spalding, to Herr MaaB, also to Herr Court Councilor Borchward, if you see him. They recently acquired the little treatise by Horace.36 Herr Spalding has also got his comedies and the Clark.37 I will probably write to you about the opera again and will tell you the affects that seem to me to reside in the arias. For we must go together this time. Farewell, my worthiest friend, I am your most respectful Krause Pots, the 22nd March 1747 No. 7 (D-HTgl 2338) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, And if you had scolded me ever so severely in your letter of the day before yesterday, I would have deserved it. For why don’t I answer you indeed? I have already written to Herr Bergius that I am not yet decided whether I should rejoice more over your good fortune or grieve more over the loss of you. Oh, if it were 34 This remark reflects the galant aesthetic ideal that pervaded mid-eighteenth century music. The word galant had a variety of meanings in the first half of the century. Although its applications to music were also varied, it generally meant “modish,” and referred to a style in which complex counterpoint was avoided, and musical texture was dominated by pleasant melody that could be ornate, but nevertheless uncomplicated, and above all easily understood. 35 Johann Wilhelm Bergius (1713-65), bom in Pillau (today Baltjisk), was Court Councilor, Regional Collector, and Regional Mortgage Registrar. Bergius, who belonged to the Gleim/Ramler circle in Berlin, was one of the eight original members of the Montagsklub (see n. 173). His name appears frequently in the Gleim/Ramler correspondence beginning 9 December 1747. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s character piece, La Bergius, Wq 117/20 (H 90), is undoubtedly named after him. See KULLNICK, p. 34; MONTAGSKLUB, p. 112; GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 91 and passim. 36 Probably the Ars Poetica of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (ca. 68-65 BCE-8 BCE), much admired and quoted in the eighteenth century for its contribution to theories of art. 37 Probably Samuel Clarke, (1675-1729), English philosopher, clergyman, and disciple of Isaac Newton. A volume containing 114 sermons appeared in the posthumous edition of Clarke’s works (1738). The “Clark” to which Krause refers may be the collection of Geistliche Reden listed by HEINSIUS (1812), vol. 1, cols 559-60: a German translation of Clarke’s sermons, published in Leipzig between 1744 and 1748. See GLOSSARY.
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Form guter Arien lernen. Messen Sie mit dem Maßstabe die erste Arie aus. / Lesen Sie sie erst pathetisch her, und sagen Sie mir, ob nicht eine unvergleichliche Übereinstimmung in der Form in den Zeilen, ist. Das erleichtert den musikalischen Ausdruck, das hat man auch wie in Rangirung eines Bilder Cabinets gar zu sehr 2 nötig oder 3 pendants, die zusammenpassen und eine Verhältniß zusammen haben A. Was leicht ist wird bald deutlich und das ist eine Schönheit. H. v. Kleist ist heute von der Wache kommen, morgen soll er Ihren Brief haben, und dar-wiR nach will ich Ihnen weiter antworten. Lesen Sie diese musikalische Grillen H. Hoff. Bergius nebst meinem Empfehl vor. Er hat die Musik so lieb, daß er auch daran gedenkt. Geben Sie ihm den beygehenden Zettel, wenn Sie wollen. Empfehlen Sie mich auch H. Spalding, H. Maßen ib. H. H. Borchward, wenn Sie ihn sehen. Sie haben doch letzthin das Tractätchen von Horaz bekommen. H. Spalding auch seine Comedien und den Clark. Ich schreibe Ihnen wohl von der Oper noch einmal, und schicke Ihnen die Affecte zu, die mir scheinen in den Arien zu stecken. Denn wir müssen dießmal zusammen hineingehen. Leben Sie wohl, mein werthester, ich bin Ihr ergebenster Krause Pots d 22 Merz 1747 No. 7 (D-HTgl 2338) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerliebster Freund, Und wenn Sie mich auch noch einmal so sehr in Ihrem Briefe von vorgestern gescholten hätten, so hätte ich es doch verdient. Denn warum antworte ich Ihnen auch nicht? Ich habe schon H. Bergius geschrieben, daß ich noch nicht schlüßig bin, ob ich mich mehr über Ihr Glück freuen, als über Ihren Verlust betrüben soll. O
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possible for me to deal with the calamity by continuing to cherish you even at a distance of 24 miles, you could have traveled 100 miles long ago to find your fortune.38 But how many evenings I intended to spend with you in the coming winter, like those at my home last winter. Don’t wait an instant to let me know when you come to Potsdam. You are to find opera arias and a cantata for Herr Uz. Herr von Kleist curses the 24 miles as bitterly as I do. Now I must thank you and Herr Ramler for the song you sent.39 It is beautiful; I say nothing further. Poor Ramler! He also is losing you. Tell him if he stays in Berlin for the winter he will be half a substitute for you; the other half will consist of frequent letters from you. You certainly shall not have to wait as long again for an answer as you did this time. One doesn’t know his good fortune until he no longer has it. I will make use of your answer for the rhyme volumes. I would love to have from you the Italian thing that ends beltà s ’en va, and also your translation. Bring it here in your bag. Try to speak with Herr Edelmann during your short stay in Berlin.40 He is there; he has written to the king. He will also come here. Herr Haude can give you news of him.41 Are you acquainted with Patin’s 38 On Bergius, see n. 35. On 22 October 1747, Gleim had written Kleist: “I have become Cathedral Secretary in Halberstadt. I am to go there this very month. During his last stay in Halberstadt, Herr Geheimrat von Berg [see GLOSSARY] suggested me without my petition or foreknowledge, and finally arranged it that I was chosen by a majority of votes. I would be immoderately pleased over this moderate luck if the removal from my dearest Kleist did not disturb my spirit whenever I experience the least or greatest pleasant expectations, and destroy all satisfaction over the final attainment of a goal vainly sought for so long. I must, moreover, search for all possible reasons for taking comfort in the fact that I am to be 20 [sic] miles away from you” (see KLEIST/SAUER III, p. 59). Gleim’s letter to Uz of 31 January 1748 provides still more information about the new appointment. Gleim “had just applied for the position of secretary to His Royal Highness, Prince Ferdinand,” when Berg, who was a Domherr (member of the Cathedral Chapter) in Halberstadt proposed Gleim as secretary “to the worthy cathedral chapter here in a contested [!] election, and first, in fact, for the position of adjunct secretary.” Although none of the members of the Chapter knew Gleim, they were familiar with his poems, and he was chosen “unanimously” (einmütig). (See GLEIM/UZ, p. 198). On the size of German miles, see Introduction, note 52. 39 Carl Wilhelm Ramler (1725-98) attended the University of Halle, and came to Berlin in 1745, where he met Gleim. It is not known precisely when Gleim brought Krause and Ramler together. These two friends of Gleim became increasingly close. They shared membership in the Montagsklub (see n. 173), and, after Krause moved to Berlin, they formed an association that was of great importance for the development of the Berlin Lied in the mid-eighteenth century. See GLOSSARY. 40 Johann Christian Edelmann (1698- 1767), originally from a pietist background, was now inveighing fiercely against the hypocrisy of all established religions. Edelmann’s excessive language, and his violent attacks on those who did not share his views, made him a center of controversy. When he came to Berlin in 1747, Friedrich II, who practiced a policy of religious toleration, allowed Edelmann to remain there, but insisted repeatedly that he was not Edelmann’s champion. See GLOSSARY. 41 Ambrosius Haude (1690-1748) was living in Berlin by 1723, in which year he married the daughter of the theologian Philipp Jakob Spener, and received a license as Buchführer (book dealer) from Friedrich Wilhelm I. At some risk, Haude supported the literary propensity of the future Friedrich II (then crown prince) against his father, and, when Friedrich became king, was rewarded with various privileges. He published the Berlinische Nachtrichten von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen, one of Berlin’s leading newspapers in the eighteenth century. See GLOSSARY.
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könnte dem Übel dadurch abgeholfen werden, daß ich Sie auch bey einer Entfernung von 24 Meilen noch fortführen recht sehr zu liehen, so hätten Sie längst nach Ihrem Glück 100 Meilen reisen mögen. Aber wie viel Abend [sic] habe ich schon gedacht mit Ihnen künftigen Winter so zuzubringen, als den letzten bey mir. Verziehen Sie keinen Augenblick, wenn Sie in Potsdam anlangen, mir es wissen zu lassen. Sie sollen Opern Arien und auch eine Cantate für H. Uzen finden. H. v. Kleist flucht auf die 24 Meilen eben so sehr wie ich. Nun muß ich Ihnen und H. Ramlem / wohl für das überschickte Lied danken. Es ist schön, ich sage weiter nichts. Der gute Ramler! Er verliehrt Sie auch. Sagen Sie ihm, wo er den Winter in Berlin bleibt, so solle er Ihre Stelle halb vertreten, die andre Helfte, sollen es fleissige Briefe von Ihnen thun. Sie sollen gewiß nicht mehr so lange auf die Antwort warten, als jetzo. Man kennt sein Glück eher nicht, als bis Ihre man es nicht mehr hat. Ich werde mir A Antwort wegen der Reimgebände zu Nutz machen. Das italienische Ding möchte ich gern von Ihnen haben, das sich schließt beltà s ’en va, wie auch Dire Übersetzung. Bringen Sie es in Ihrer Tasche mit hieher. Suchen Sie bey Ihrer kurzen Anwesenheit in Berlin noch H. Edelmannen zu sprechen. Er ist da, er hat an den König geschrieben. Er wird auch hieher kommen. H. Haude wird Ihnen von ihm Nachricht geben können. Kennen Sie Patins
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letters?42 My General has praised them to me.43 There is said to be much good sense in them. But the expression is of the sort that people of rank write, but not as poetic as - letters in Voltaire. M. Darget is marrying a certain Mile Cesar who has 20,000 Reichthalers, and Herr Algarotti a Mile de Schmettau.44 He wanted to marry Barbarini and they each stipulated 12,000 Reichthalers Reukauf45 But Barbarini has since lost the inclination; she asked the king for cancellation of the contract.46 His Majesty answered, there would be no other way but to commit himself to B. as a dancer. She agreed to it. Some days afterward, Algarotti came and petitioned for 42 Guy Patin (1602-72), who pursued a medical career, was appointed Professor at the Collège de France in 1754. His lectures were attended as much for the elegance of his Latin as for their medical content. But Patin achieved his greatest celebrity for his letters to friends, published posthumously, which contain information about medical developments during his lifetime, and about the mores and literature of his day. See GLOSSARY. 43 General Friedrich Rudolf Graf Rothenburg (1710-51), bom in Nettau near Crossen (today Nietkow near Krosno Odrzanskie), had attended the Viadrina University at Frankfurt an der Oder, and finished his education at the French university in Lüneville. In 1727, through the mediation of a relative, he entered the military service of the king of France. In 1733, Rothenburg became a Catholic, and, in 1735, married the daughter of the Marquis de Parabère. After the accession of Friedrich II, Rothenburg was persuaded to return to his home and to enter the Prussian army as a colonel. He served in the Silesian wars of the 1740s, was awarded the Order of the Black Eagle, and finally attained the rank of Lieutenant General. Although Rothenburg’s conversion to Catholicism and his years in the French military service occasioned suspicion in the Prussian capital, he became a member of the circle of the king’s closest friends and was frequently entrusted with diplomatic missions. See ADB, vol. 29 (1889), pp. 358-359 and PREUSS/FRIEDRICH, pp. 148,160 and passim. 44 When Etienne Darget (c. 1712-78) came to Berlin in 1744 as secretary to the French ambassador to the court of Friedrich II, the king, impressed with Darget, requested his services, giving him the double title of Lecteur and Secrétaire des Commandemens, and because his duties included reading to the Akademie der Wissenschaften the memoirs composed by the king, Darget was made an honorary member of the Akademie. See GLOSSARY. Francesco Algarotti (1712-64), bom in Venice and educated in Bologna, traveled widely, visiting Paris, London, and St. Petersburg. Friedrich H, while still Crown Prince, began to correspond with Algarotti (possibly through the recommendation of Voltaire). After Friedrich’s accession, Algarotti was invited to the court, and became a privileged member of the literary circle that the king gathered about him. In 1747, Friedrich bestowed on Algarotti the title of count, and continued to correspond with him after he had left the court. Algarotti is well known for his critique of eighteenth-century opera: Saggio sopra TOpera in musica (1755). The “Mile Schmettau” whom Krause mentions is possibly a daughter of Samuel Graf von Schmettau (1684-1751), field marshal, Government Minister, member of the Société Litéraire, and President of the Akademie der Wissenschaften, or his brother Generallieutenant Karl Christof Graf von Schmettau (1696-1775), who had a military career full of vicissitudes, finally ending it, like many of Friedrich’s other officers, as the recipient of the king’s displeasure. ADB, vol. 1 (1875), p. 340, and vol. 31 (1890), p. 642-7. 45 A sum of money to be paid as penalty for withdrawal from an agreement. 46 The turbulent career of Barbara Campanini (1725-99), known as “Barbarina,” is part of the colorful history of the dancers attached to the opera in Berlin. In 1742, Friedrich II, believing that a brilliant ballet troupe was essential to the success of the opera, had given orders for a troupe of dancers to be engaged in Paris. Poitier, who was appointed balletmaster, a Mile Roland, and two Miles Cochois (see n. 179) had arrived in August. But less than a year later, Marianne Cochois and the dancer Tessier had sent the king a petition complaining of Poitier’s unreasonable behavior. Friedrich not only dismissed his balletmaster, but, on 20 August 1743, wrote a letter, which he published in newspapers in Berlin, London and Paris, in which he excoriated Poitier and Mile Roland, who had resigned in sympathy, and announced that the ballet could live very well without these two dancers.
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Briefe? Sie sind mir von meinem General gelobet worden. Es soll unendlich viel Verstand darin / seyn. Aber der Ausdruck doch so, wie Leute von Stande schreiben, aber nicht so poetisch, wie - Briefe im Voltaire. Mr. Darget heurathet eine gewisse Mdselle Cesar, die 20000 rt. hat, und H. Algarotti eine Mds. de Schmettau. Er hat die Barbarini heurathen wollen, und sie haben sich jedes 12000 rt. Reukauf stipulirt. Die Barbarini aber verlirhet hernach die Lust, sie bittet den König um Aufhebung des Contracts. S.M. antwortet, es wäre kein Mittel, als sich noch auf B. als Tänzerin A zu engagiren. Sie thut es. Einige Tage drauf kommt Algarotti u. bittet um
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permission to marry. Would he be a fool to marry a dancer? Mme Algarotti would shine brilliantly in the theater. He was shown her new commitment and was like to go mad.47 Won’t Potsdam become a galant place yet? Farewell. Commend me most highly to Herr Ramler, give him my thanks again, and continue to love me as your most respectful Krause Pots, the 24th Oct. 1747 Herr Christiani has just brought me an Unterweisung zur Vergnügung und Ergötzlichkeit translated from the French.48 As far as I see from the first page, your poetic system pertaining to love is in it. Inquire about it so that you can give me information about it. I am also a poetic voluptuary. To Monsieur Monsieur Gleim Secretary of the Chapter of Halberstadt at Berlin A new balletmaster, Lany, was quickly engaged in Paris; he brought with him his sister and another ballerina, and offered to find a stellar dancer for Friedrich’s ballet. But the king, fearing the close allegiance between dancers that might develop from such a choice, decided to engage the highly acclaimed Italian ballerina, Barbara Campanini. While negotiations for a contract were being completed in Venice in November 1743, Barbarina became romantically involved with a young Scottish lord, Stuart Mackenzie, and tried to withdraw from the agreement. But Friedrich complained to the Venetian government about what he perceived as a breach of contract, and secured the cooperation of the Venetians in having Barbarina forcibly transported to Berlin. Although Stuart Mackenzie followed her there, insisting that they were already married, he could not prevail against the determination of the king. Mackenzie retired from the field with protestations of undying love, and, on 13 May 1744, Barbarina was presented to Friedrich. She immediately won his admiration, and for a short period enjoyed the adulation of the Berlin audience. See SCHNEIDER/OPER, pp. 74-121, and Beilage, p. XIX. 47 The king was probably happy to oblige Barbarina’s request, for he did not wish his distinguished singers and dancers to marry, or at least not without his permission. Algarotti may not have been aware of this royal injunction, when he proceeded to petition the king for permission to marry-a procedure that Barbarina’s admirer of the following year (1748) failed to follow (see n. 68). But even though his plans to marry Barbarina were shattered, Algarotti allegedly had at least one further romantic attachment to a dancer: Ludwig Schneider refers to a letter of Friedrich U, dated 25 September 1751, in which Algarotti is described as in love with Mile Denis. See SCHNEIDER/OPER, p. 131. 48 Possibly Carl Andreas Christiani (1707-80). Although he spent most of his life in Königsberg, it is possible that he was visiting Berlin at this time (see GLOSSARY). The book that Christiani brought,
Unterweisung zur Vergnügung und Ergötzlichkeit. In der Insul Calypso. A uf Kosten der Nymphen (Instruction for Pleasure and Delight. On the Island o f Calypso. At the expense o f the Nymphs) (Frankfurt am Main, 1747), was a translation of TEcole de la volupté. Dans Visle de Calypso. Aux dépens des Nymphes. (Cologne, 1746) of La Mettrie (see n. 106). It had as its introduction a love-letter, followed by Unterweisung zur Wollust (Instruction in Voluptuousness), and a final section tided Die drey Arten der Wollust ( The Three Kinds o f Voluptuousness). See HAYN-GOTENDORF/ BIBLIOTECA, vol. 8 (Munich, 1914), pp. 45-6.
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Erlaubniß zu heurathen. Ob er ein Thor wäre, Tänzerin eine Comedienne zu heurathen. Madame Algarotti würde auf dem Theatre sehr brilliren. Man zeigt ihm ihr neues Engagement, und er hat wollen toll werden. Wird Potsdam nicht noch ein galanter Ort werden? Leben Sie wohl. Empfehlen Sie mich H. Ramlem auf das beste mit nochmaliger Danksagung und lieben Sie mich ja ferner als Ihren ganz ergebenster Krause Pots d. 24 Oct. 1747 Gleich bringt mir H. Christiani eine Unterweisung zur Vergnügung und Ergötzlichkeit, aus dem Französischen übersetzt. Es ist Ihr poetisches System von der Liebe darinn, so viel ich aus den ersten Bogen sehe. Erkündigen Sie sich doch drum, und daß Sie mir daran Auskunft geben können. Ich bin auch ein poetischer Wollüstling. A Monsieur Monsieur Gleim Secrétaire du Chapitre de Halberstadt à Berlin
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No. 8 (D-HTgl 2339) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, In my last letter, I promised you to write often. Unfortunately, this is happening rather late for the second time. By writing, I intended to assuage my feeling that I must lose you, as well as to give you something to pass the time until you make sufficient pleasant acquaintances. Perhaps the latter has already happened. After all, you are not the man to be without friends for long. You have a good understanding of all people, places, and circumstances. Should everybody consider it his duty to be stupid?49 What shall I tell you from here? We still have no dancer, and therefore also no opera.50 Tomorrow, they say, there is to be a ball.51 I am sending you here a letter from one of the women for whom you wrote a song once. I promised her that when I sent Herr Ramler’s song, I would send yours as well. But now I can’t send it. The reason why, then? I don’t have it any more. I gave it to Herr Ramler, and it is gone. Look for it in your archive and send it to me again, or send me a new one. Here is the meter. I know that a woman who treats your sincerity so sincerely surely deserves a song. I impose on you this test of your Halberstadt thoughts (for me, that is). Do answer my last letter right away - am I to send the things by Herr Bach?52 Also, send me back the woman’s letter. I hope that you have more good friends there who are musical. I want to send you a number of arias from the new opera. It is called Cinna.53 The whole Roman council will appear in it, and the councilors will all have clothes that formerly belonged to the singers, well refurbished and tidied up. There are some English people here; we want to show them that there are also people living across the sea, like you beyond the mountain-or is the Blaksberg 49 The meaning of this sentence is not clear. It may be a response to a remark in one of Gleim’s letters. Krause may also may mean that people in Halberstadt will surely not be so stupid as not to recognize Gleim’s merits. 50 According to Schneider, the opening of the Carnival season was delayed because Carl Heinrich Graun’s new opera Cinna (see nn. 53 and 64) was not ready. It appears from Krause’s remark in this letter that the season was delayed because the new balletmaster, Pierre Sodi (see n. 66), who was to replace Lany, had not yet arrived (Schneider is vague about the date of Sodi’s arrival). Perhaps the dancers whom Sodi imported from Paris had also not arrived: Giraud, “Cionnois,” Le Roi, Domitilla, Dourdet, Duportail, Baucher, Giraud, du Bois and le Feuvre. See SCHNEIDER/PRACHT, pp. 29-30. 51 Schneider {Ibid.) also reports that changes in the Carnival schedule were made around this time: operas were to be given on Mondays and Fridays; there were to be balls on Tuesdays and after the opera on Fridays. 52 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-88), second son of Johann Sebastian Bach. After completing his studies in law at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder in 1738, Emanuel Bach came to Berlin, and, in 1741, formally entered the service of Friedrich II as Court Cembalist, primarily with the assignment of accompanying Friedrich when he played the flute. Although Bach’s music did not receive much attention from the king, it had by 1747 begun to win the admiration of professional and amateur musicians in Berlin and elsewhere. 53 Cinna by Carl Heinrich Graun (see nn. 64 and 67), with a libretto by Villati and ballets by Sodi, was based on Corneille’s tragedy of the same name.
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No. 8 (D-HTgl 2339) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerliebster Freund, In meinem letzten Brief habe ich Ihnen versprochen, oft zu schreiben. Es geschieht leider spät genug zum zweitenmal. Ich dachte dadurch so wohl meine eigene Empfindung, daß ich Sie entbehren muß, zu lindem, als auch Ihnen ein wenig die Zeit zu vertreiben, bis Sie angenehme Bekandschaften genug werden gemacht haben. Vielleicht ist dieses letzte schon geschehen. Sie sind nicht der Mann darnach lange ohne Freunde zu seyn. Sie sind in gutem Verstände, für alle Leute und für alle Orten, und für alle Umstände. Sollte jederman pflichtmäßig dumm seyn? Was soll ich Ihnen von hier schreiben? Wir haben noch keine Tänzer, also auch noch keine Oper. Morgen, heist es, soll Redoute seyn. Ich schicke Ihnen hier einen Brief von einem der Frauenzimmer, für die Sie einmal ein Lied gemacht haben. Ich versprach demselben, bey Überschickung des Liedes von H. Rammlern, auch Ihres. Aber nun kann ich es nicht schicken. / Denn, Ursache warum? Ich habe es nicht mehr. Ich habe es H. Rammlern gegeben, und es ist fort. Suchen Sie in Ihrem Archiv nach, und schicken Sie mir es wieder, oder ein neues. Hier ist das Metrum. Ich weiß ein Frauenzimmer, die so aufrichtig mit Ihrer Aufrichtigkeit umgehet verdienet wohl ein Lied. Ich beschwere Sie um diese Probe ihrer Haiberst, [ädtischer] Gedanken (vor mich nämlich). Antworten Sie nur zugleich auf meinen letzten Brief, ob ich von H. Bachen Sachen schicken soll? Schicken Sie mir auch den Brief des Frauenzimmers wieder. Hoffend, haben Sie mehr gute musikalische gute Freunde. Ich will Ihnen von der neuen Oper etliche Arien schicken. Sie heist Cinna. Es wird der ganze Römische Rath dabey erscheinen, und sie werden die Rathsherren werden alle ehemalige Kleider der Sänger haben, wohl wieder zu recht gemacht und geputzt. Es sind etliche Engelländer hier, denn will man zeigen, daß über der See auch Leute wohnen, so Vom wie Sie hinterm Berge, oder / ist der Blocks Berg hinter Ihnen? Der H. v. Kleist
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[sic] beyond you?54 Recently I took leave of Herr von Kleist, sick with piles. He had them-I am not writing clearly. He is probably over them. Recently we drank to your health at Herr Bergius’s house. Herr Sulzer was also there.55 Farewell, Herr Probst [provost] in the cloister, divine poet, and better prophet than the ancients (which was it?). Nineveh did not perish, even if that was prophesied. But you will become Probst, and other people and your not being known cannot prevent it.56
Iam
your most respectful servant Krause Berl. the 11th Dec. 1747 When you have the opportunity, write 2 words to Herr Buttner, and ask whether I could have the little thing by Horace and the Spinoza.571 will also send your books before long. They have been very useful to me.
54 “Blocksberg” is another name for the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz range, with an elevation of 1,142 meters. The Brocken lies almost due west of Wernigerode, which is a little more than 20 km southwest of Halberstadt. If Krause was describing the Brocken from his own perspective, it was “beyond” Gleim; if from the point of view of the English, Gleim was “beyond the mountain.” It is on the Brocken that the Walpurgis Night scene in Goethe’s Faust is laid (the legendary witches’ and spirits’ celebration on mountain tops on the night before the first of May). 55 Johann Georg Sulzer (1720-79), a native of Switzerland, had studied theology, and pursued interests in mathematics, botany, and, under the tutelage of Bodmer and Breitinger (see n. 6 and GLOSSARY), literature and aesthetic theory. Shortly after the completion of his studies, he accepted a position as tutor to the two sons of Heinrich Wilhelm Bachmann (1706-53), a wealthy merchant in Magdeburg. Here he met August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack, Hof-Prediger at the Prussian court (see n. 343), and established the first of his contacts with Berlin. Soon afterward, he met Gleim (with whom he began to correspond on 24 July 1744), Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (see n. 186), and the mathematician Leonhard Euler (see GLOSSARY), all of whom were instrumental in securing Sulzer the post of Professor of Mathematics at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in 1747. See GLOSSARY. 56 Krause’s remark is playful; Gleim was ineligible to become a Domherr (member of the chapter) or Probst because he did not belong to the nobility. 57 David Siegmund August Büttner (1724-68), whom Gleim called “cousin Büttner,” left his birthplace, Chemnitz, at the age of four, to be educated in Berlin under the supervision of his greatgrandfather Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734), distinguished Court Physician and Professor of Medicine. When Stahl died, the boy found a stepfather in Professor Michael Matthias Ludolph (see n. 28). Büttner quickly became interested in Ludolph’s field, botany. His name appears frequently in the correspondence of Gleim and Ramler: in 1745, as he prepared to go to Göttingen, and in 1747-48,between the time of his return to Berlin and his trip to Leyden. Although the biography of Büttner in HANNOVER gives 1747 as the year of his journey to Leyden, Ramler’s letters indicate that Büttner was still in Berlin on 29 June 1748, but had left for Leyden before 27 July of that year. See GLOSSARY.. It is not clear which of Horace’s works Gleim had borrowed (see n. 36), but his letter to Ramler of 20 May 1748 indicates that it was Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670) to which Krause refers (see n. 100). In this letter Gleim tells Ramler that “From Küstrin Herr Krause has requested that Les Ceremonies Superstitieuses des Juifs or the Spinoza, which he once lent me, be returned; it is supposed to belong to Herr Uhde; to my knowledge I left it with Herr Büttner to be delivered to Herr Krause when I departed. Do tell him. He is anxious that the owner of the Spinoza get it back.” See GLEEM/RAMLER I, p. 126.
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habe in Potsdam an der goldenen Ader kranck, Abschied genommen. Er hatte sie, ich schreibe undeutlich. Es wird aber wohl vorüber seyn. Bey H. Bergius haben wir letzthin Ihre Gesundheit getrunken. H. Sulzer war auch da. Leben Sie recht wohl, H. Probst im Closter, göttlicher Poete, und besserer Prophete als die Alten (welcher wars?) Ninive gieng nicht unter, ob es gleich prophezeit war. Sie aber werden Probst, ohne daß es Unbekandtschaft und andere Leute Bemühungen hindern können. Ich bin
Ihr ergebenster Diener Krause Beri, d 11 Dee. 1747
Schreiben Sie doch bey Gelegenheit 2 Worte an H. Büttnern, ob ich das kleine Ding von Horaze und der Spinosa wird haben könnten [sic]. Ihre Bücher werde ich Ihnen nächstens auch schicken. Sie haben mir viel Nutzen gebracht.
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No. 9 (D-HTgl 2340) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, I am answering your letter of the 8th December.58 I have allowed myself to be caught up so little in the whirl of entertainments here that I have not yet been to the ball. Yesterday the opera was given for the second time, and I was there.59 Up to now, I have continually made improvements in your cantata, and now I would perhaps dare to leave it as it is.60 Today and tomorrow I will copy it, and on Saturday, I will give it to Herr Borchward together with other things that were copied in Potsdam, but that I expect for certain. Would you, then, like to have it too? Is there anyone among your acquaintances in Halberstadt who sings? But why do I ask such a question? Should anyone, particularly a young girl who sings, be unknown to my friend who amuses people and who entertained our company here? You shall have the cantata. But you must first ask for it, or at least wait until another time so that I can have it copied. You write to me there are more amateurs and connoisseurs in Halberstadt than Herr von Spiegel.61 Perhaps someone among them can and will learn to play the Bach harpsichord concerto; for it can’t be played at sight.62 It costs one thaler. Since my General now has a taste for Bach and often plays his trio, I had to copy the enclosed one myself.63 Make an effort to see that it is not rejected out of hand, if it 58 The letter that Krause had written to Gleim on 11 December 1747 (letter no. 8, D-HTgl 2339) and Gleim’s letter of 8 December (lost) must have crossed in the mail. 59 Krause is referring to Carl Heinrich Graun’s Feste galanti,festa teatrale per musica in three acts with a libretto by Villati after Duché de Vanci, a piece that had first been performed on 6 April 1747 at the Schloßtheater in Potsdam. Since Graun’s newest opera Cinna (see n. 53) had not been ready for performance on 10 December, the opening date of the Carnival season (see n. 50), Feste galanti had, in its stead, been presented to the public for the first time at the Berlin Opera. Krause seems to be referring to a second public performance of this piece. See SCHNEIDER/PRACHT, p. 29b. 60 The work mentioned here is lost, as are most of the cantatas of which Krause writes. Only Pygmalion and Ino are known to survive. 61 Ernst Ludwig Christoph Freiherr von Spiegel zum Desenberge (1711-85) was a member of a family with estates in Westphalia and Hesse. In 1731, through the intercession of his uncle, Eberhard Clamor von der Bussche, (see n. 116), Spiegel was appointed Domherr of the cathedral at Halberstadt. In 1746, he became Domscholaster, and in 1753 Domdechant (Dean). See ADB, vol. 35 (1882), pp. 146-9, SPIEGEL/GESCHICHTE, vol. 2, pp. 515-21, and n. 206.1 am grateful to Annagret Loose of the Gleimhaus, Halberstadt, for providing me with a copy of this history of the Spiegel family. 62 Krause refers to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see n. 52). By 1747, only one of C P E Bach’s 23 keyboard concertos, Wq 11 (H 414), in D Major, had been published (composed 1743, publ. 1745 by Balthasar Schmid of Nürnberg). 63 By the time Krause entered General Rothenburg’s service, the General (see n. 43) was suffering from gout and colic. But his ill health apparently did not prevent him from performing C P E Bach’s music. There is no way of knowing which trio Krause sent Gleim. By 1747, according to C P E Bach’s Estate Catalogue, he had written 11 trios for two melody instruments and continuo (six composed in the 1730s and revised in 1747, one composed in 1745, and four composed in 1747): Wq 143-51 (H 567-75), Wq 154-5 (H 576-7), and four “sonatas” for obbligato keyboard and a single melody instrument, each with the texture of a trio: Wq 71-3 (H 502-^4), and Wq 83 (H 505) - Wq 73 (H 504) is simply an alternate version of Wq 149 (H 573), a continuo trio (a trio for two melody instruments and bass accompaniment).
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No. 9 (D-HTgl 2340) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Freund, Ich antworte Ihnen auf Ihren Brief vom 8ten Dec. Ich habe mich den Wirbel der hiesigen Lustbarkeiten so wenig fortreissen lassen, daß ich noch nicht in der Redoute gewesen. Gestern war das 2te mal Oper, und da war ich. An Ihrer Cantate habe ich bisher noch immer gebessert, und jetzo dürfte ich sie vielleicht so lassen, wie sie ist. Heute Ihfe und morgen schreibe ich sie ab, und auf dem Sonnabend will ich sie H. Burchwarden (Borchward) geben, nebst andern Sachen, die in Potsdam abgeschrieben worden, die ich aber gewiß erwarte. Wollen Sie sie denn auch haben? Ist jemand in Halberstadt von Ihren Bekanten, der singt? Allein was frage ich so? ist Mein Freund, der zur Ergötzung der Menschlichkeit A und zum Vergnügen unserer hiesigen Gesellschaft war, sollte dem wohl jemand, oder ein Mädgen sonderlich, unbekant seyn, welches singt? Sie sollen also die Cantate haben. Aber Sie müssen sie noch erst einmal verlangen, oder wenigstens noch bis zu einer anderen Zeit warten, daß ich sie kann abschreiben lassen. / Sie schreiben mir, es wären mehr Liebhaber und Kenner, als der H. von Spiegel, noch in Halb. Vielleicht kann und will jemand darunter das Bachische Flügel Concert spielen lernen; denn zum Wegspielen ist es nicht. Es kostet einen Thaler. Weil mein General jetzo in dem Gout von Bachen ist, und sein Trio oft spielet so habe ich das beygehende selbst abschreiben müssen. Geben Sie sich alle Mühe, daß man dieß Trio nicht
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doesn’t please right away. Bach is a Milton; he needs to be practiced thoroughly. One must be well acquainted with his melodies before they please. The province has an advantage over the capital; here, indeed, many musical compositions are played immediately and rather well at sight; there, however, one practices a long time until one knows a piece well, but then it goes all the better. You will surely be well rewarded for the trouble you take to make the Bachish style popular in your concerts. It is an uncommon pleasure to hear his works. At a distinguished musical gathering, it was recently observed, with general approval, that other pieces merely please, but Herr Bach’s and those of Concertmeister Graun compel admiration.64 Perhaps there is someone in Halberstadt who can adapt the Bach keyboard concerto to the flute. One would have to transpose only one or two places in the main part and in the bass. If no one is to be found, I myself will do it at some time if you wish it.65 The other trio is by me.66 All officers must now be home by 10 o’clock in the evening, because they were guilty of too many excesses at the ball and elsewhere. On Friday, we have the new opera Cinna; it is taken from Pierre Corneille.67 Yesterday my General met Herr von C. in the loge with Mile Barbarini.68 They 64 Probably Krause is referring to Johann Gottlieb (1703-71), the older of the Graun brothers in Friedrich’s employ. After Friedrich’s accession in 1741, Johann Gottlieb received the title of Konzertmeister, which he held for the rest of his life. He was a prolific composer of instrumental music, the topic of Krause’s remarks here. It is also possible, but not likely, that Krause refers to the younger and more distinguished of the Graun brothers: Carl Heinrich (1704-59), Kapellmeister of the royal musical establishment in Berlin, whom he singles out in Von der musikalischen Poesie as a composer worthy of comparison with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see n. 52 and KRAUSE/POESIE, p. 35). In 1735 Carl Heinrich Graun entered Friedrich’s service and became his Kapellmeister, a post that he held until his death. Graun was one of the few musicians on whom Friedrich bestowed repect and friendship. On the Graun brothers see GLOSSARY. 65 Bach himself adapted at least four of his keyboard concertos for the flute. A fifth, Wq 22 (H 425), composed for harpsichord around the same time as Krause’s letter, also exists in a version for flute, H 484.1, which, recent research has indicated, Bach composed before he wrote the harpsichord version. It was presumably for Gleim that the C P E Bach concerto that Krause was sending to him would be adapted. Although the portrait of Gleim, painted by Hempel (see n. 206) in 1750, pictures him holding the flute, the extent of Gleim’s accomplishment as a flutist is not known. See HELM/CATALOGUE, p. 105, and BILDNISSE, p. 27. 66 Four trios by Krause survive, three of which are listed in the Breitkopf catalogue of 1763 (Barry S. Brook, ed., Catalogo de’ Soli, Duetti, Trii e Concerti per il Flauto traversiere che si trovano in manuscritto nella officina musica di Breitkopf in Lipsia, Parte IHza 1763, p. 14). Two of these are for two flutes and continuo, two for flute, violin, and continuo. 67 Graun’s Cinna (see nn. 50 and 53) was not given an official first performance until 1 January 1748. See MGG, Personenteil, vol. 7, col. 1514 and BERLINER ZEITUNG, 2 January 1748. 68 The Herr von C. mentioned here is undoubtedly the Privy Councilor, Carl Ludwig von Cocceji, son of the Lord High Chancellor, Baron Samuel von Cocceji (see n. 168). Young Cocceji and the dancer Barbarina (see n. 46) had fallen in love, and as their affair became serious, the young man’s dismayed parents turned to the king for help. In July 1749, Barbarina went with her sister to London; when she returned, it became known that she and her admirer intended to marry, despite Friedrich’s injunction against marriage for the stars of his opera, and despite the protests of young Cocceji’s parents that he was marrying beneath him. The Lord High Chancellor and his wife begged Friedrich to stop the
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gleich verwirft, wenn es nicht bald gefällt. Bach ist ein Milton, er will durchaus exercirt seyn. Man muß mit seinen Melodien vorher recht bekant werden ehe sie gefallen. Die Provinz hat dieß auch von der Capitale voraus, daß hier zwar viel musikalische Stücke gleich ziemlich gut weg gespielet werden; dort aber übt man eines so lange, bis man es recht kann, aber als denn geht es auch desto besser. Sie werden für die Mühe, so Sie sich geben, den bachischen Gout in Ihren Concerten werden beliebt zu machen, sehr wohl schadloß gehalten A. Es ist ein ungemeines Vergnügen, seine Sachen zu hören. Es wurde / letzt in einer guten musikal. Gesellschaft mit allgemeinem Beyfall gesagt, daß andere Stücke nur gefielen, H. Bachs und des Concertmeister Grauns aber zum Gefallen zwängen. zu der Vielleicht ist jemand in H., der das Bachische Clavier Concert auf die Flöte aptiren kann. Man müste ein und anderes in der Hauptstimme und im Basse nur versetzen. Wo sich niemand findet, so will ich es selbst wohl einmal thun, wenn Sie es verlangen. Das andere Trio ist von mir. Jetzo müssen alle Officiers hier um 10 Uhr des Abends zu Hause gewesen, weil sie auf der Redoute und anderwerts zu große Ausschweifungen begangen. Auf dem Freytag haben wir die neue Oper, Cinna, sie ist aus dem Pierre Corneille genommen. Gestern hat mein General den Hm. v. C. in der Loge bey der Mdselle Barbarini angetroffen. Sie sind beyde sehr embarassirt gewesen. Man sagt, er gehe
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were very embarrassed. It is said that he is most intimate with her, and indeed it is asserted that he has the French Disease.69 For the last two weeks and longer, she has become pale, thin, unsightly. Yesterday she danced a harlequinade incomparably. The new ballet master is also good in the has comique.70 But it doesn’t please everyone. He danced the harlequinade with Barbarini very well; but in a menuet, he wanted to imitate a clumsy sailor. That was not la belle nature, but nature itself.71 He is certainly not to the king’s taste. Masi, the new singer who came recently, received her dismissal; it is a shame - she sang very naturally.72 She is not the great singer that Astroa is.73 The latter and Gasparini and Molteni will all 3 sing in the
marriage, and he obliged them by imprisoning their son in Alt-Landsberg for six months. After young Cocceji was released, he and Barbarina eloped. At this juncture, the king abandoned his efforts to separate the pair, and banished Cocceji to Glogau in Silesia. Barbarina, released from the king’s service, followed her husband there. Although they were eventually separated, Barbarina seems to have prospered. She reportedly had three estates in Silesia and a fortune of 100,000 Rth. She received the title Countess Barschau from Friedrich Wilhelm Ü, but called herself Countess Campanini. She founded a convent for 18 young women of the nobility, and died an abbess. See SCHNEIDER/OPER, pp. 130-131, 136-8, and Beilage, p. XXI. 69 The origin of the designation of syphilis as the “French Disease” was reported in 1514 by Juan de Vigo, physician to Pope Julius II, as follows: When Charles VIII of France and his army invaded Naples in 1494, they discovered in Italy an outbreak of a previously unknown disease. The French called it the “Neapolitan Disease”; the Neapolitans called it “Le Mal Français” because the French troops contracted it immediately after their arrival in Naples. The medical designation derives from the name of the shepherd in Hieronymus Fracastorius’s poem of 1546: Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus (Syphilis, or the French Disease); this poem, a history of the origin of the disease, alleges that it was contracted by the Spaniards during Columbus’s expedition to the new world. See DENNIE/SYPHILIS, pp. 39-57. 70 The Italian dancer Pierre (probably bom Pietro) Sodi (c. 1700-c. 1760) had arrived in Paris around the end of 1743, and, except for a short period (c. 1746-8), made his home there. During this period he visited England, then went to Berlin to replace Lany as balletmaster of the Berlin opera (see n. 46). Schneider writes that Sodi was particularly admired for the brilliance of his leaps. See MICHAUD, vol. 39 (1854), p. 538; SCHNEIDER/PRACHT, p. 30. 71 In Krause’s day, most authors of treatises on aesthetics endorsed the theory (attributed to Aristotle) that art imitates nature. But “nature,” in the eighteenth century, was invested with various meanings. In the works of the many influential writers, notably Charles Batteux (see n. 224), “nature” is carefully defined as elegant, refined, and beautiful, rather than wild and untamed. 72 Maria Masi, called La Masarola, had recently been engaged for the Court Opera. Her appearance in Berlin was brief, and little is known about her. She had made her debut in the 1746-7 season in Arminio, an opera by the Dresdon Hofkapellmeister Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) (according to Brachvogel, Friedrich II, who had won a victory over the Saxons at Kesselsdorf on 15 December 1745, must have taken pleasure in the irony of mounting this opera by a Saxon composer which glorified Saxony and attacked the king of Prussia). The king was displeased with Masi, who sang in the role of Thusnelde, but required that she remain in Berlin through the March festivities before she could receive her dismissal. See BRACHVOGEL, p. 128, and SCHNEIDER/OPER, p. 118. If these two reports are accurate, Masi must have left Berlin before Gleim went to Halberstadt. 73 Giovanna Astroa, or Astrua (1725-57), a native of Turin, had been engaged as a singer for the Berlin opera in 1747, and had arrived in May of that year, after the opera season had closed. Astroa was first heard in a concert at Sanssouci; after the first rehearsal, she was given the magnificent salary of 6,000 Reichstaler. Her operatic debut in Graun’s Cinna won the enthusiastic approval of the king and the public. See LEDEBUR, 14; SCHNEIDER/PRACHT, p. 29, n. 4 and passim .
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auf das vertraueste mit ihr um, und doch wird versichert, er habe die Franz. Sie ist seit 14 Tagen und länger blas, mager heslich worden. Sie hat gestern eine Harlequinade ganz unvergleichlich getanzt. In dem bas comique ist der neue / Balletmeister auch gut. Aber es gefällt nicht allen Leuten. Er tanzte die Harlequinade mit der Barbarini sehr gut; aber in einer Menuet wollte er einen ungeschickten Mateloten nachahmen, das war nicht la belle nature, sondern la gar nature selbst. Er i s t A nicht nach des Königs Geschmack. Die letzthin gekommene neue Sängerin Masi hat ihren Abschied, es ist Schade, sie sang sehr natürlich. Es ist nicht die grosse Sängerin die Astroa. Diese und die Gasparini und die Molteni
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opera.74 There are to be 75 soldiers appearing on stage, more than usual. The whole Roman Senate will have fine clothes. My treatise on Musical Poetry is finished, but longer than I intended.75 I have included various episodes in order to have the opportunity to say a word to the musicians and to make my musical taste known, something that perhaps does not agree with that of composers. I should concern myself about where I will have it printed and about a publisher. I have heaps of return compliments to make; I wish you a happy New Year and am always your most respectful Krause Beri, the 20th Dec. 1747
No. 10 (D-HTgl 2379) KRAUSE TO JOHANN PETER UZ Honored sir, highly honored sir, For almost two years now, Herr Gleim has told me so much that is good and beautiful about you that it can be nothing but the greatest pleasure for me to find the opportunity now to pay my particular respects to you. I can assure you, dear sir, entirely without blushing, that nothing more than an upright character is needed for me to cherish someone. Because Herr Gleim has convinced me of this, as well of your intellect, I hope, for the sake of these very qualities, to be permitted to ask for your friendship. I flatter myself that you will become my friend because I truly esteem you and because I am a friend of Herr Gleim. This worthy man, stopping in Potsdam on his way to assume his office as Probst, commissioned Herr von Kleist and me to send you, dear sir, some pieces of music. This commission has been delayed for a rather long time. I ask your pardon for this. 74 Giovanna Gasparini (1707-76), a native of Bologna, was engaged in 1741 by Carl Heinrich Graun for the court opera in Berlin. She made a successful debut in Graun’s opera Rodelinde, and enjoyed a remarkably long singing career in the Berlin opera until two years before her death, when she was finally pensioned off. See LEDEBUR, p. 182. Benedetta Emilia Molteni (1722-80), a native of Modena, fared less well. She was engaged to sing at the Berlin opera in 1742, and made a successful debut in 1743. When Astrua arrived in Berlin (see n. 73), Molteni was supplanted as prima donna. In 1751, she married the court composer Johann Friedrich Agricola (see n. 208), in violation of the king’s rule that his singers remain single. The king reduced the combined salary of the pair to 1,000 Rth (Molteni’s single salary had been 1500 Rth), allowed Molteni to sing less frequently than before, and continued to show his disfavor in various other ways. When her husband died in 1774, Molteni was retired without a pension. See LEDEBUR, pp. 1-2, and GROVE2, vol. 1, p. 229. 75 Von der musikalischen Poesie, finally published in Berlin in 1752. This work, the stages of its revision, and Krause’s attempts to find a publisher are discussed in his letters and in the letters of Gleim, Ramler, Uz, and Kleist. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 97, 159, 190, and 214; GLEIM/UZ, pp. 169 and 175; KLEIST/SAUERII, pp. 131-2, and III, pp. 82,95, and 97.
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werden alle 3 in der neuen Oper singen. Es sollen noch 75 Soldaten auf dem Theater, mehr erscheinen als bisher gewöhnl. gewesen. Der ganze Römische Senat wird gute Kleider haben. Meine Abhandlung von der musikalischen Poesie ist fertig, aber länger als ich gedacht. Ich habe verschiedene Episoden gemacht, um auch Gelegenheit zu haben, den Musicis em Wort zu sagen, und meinen Geschmack in Ihren der Musik bekant zu machen, der vielleicht nicht mit den Tonkünstlem al ihrem allemal übereinkömmt. Wo ich es drucken lasse, so sollte ich mich um einen Verleger bekümmern. Ich habe Ihnen ein ganz Hauffen Gegen Complimente zu machen, ich gratulire Ihnen zum Neuen Jahr und bin immer Ihr ergebenster K. B d 20 Dec. 1747
No. 10 (D-HTgl 2379) KRAUSE TO UZ Hochedler Herr, Insonders hochzuehrender Herr, Schon seit bey nahe zwey Jahren hat mir Herr Gleim von Ihnen so viel Gutes und Schönes gesagt, daß es mir nicht anders als höchst angenehm seyn kann, da ich jetzo Gelegenheit finde, Ihnen meine vor Sie habende besondem Hochachtung zu bezeugen. Ich kann Sie, mein Herr, wohl ohne Erröthen versichern, daß es bey mir nicht mehr, als einen redlichen Caracter braucht, wenn ich jemanden lieben soll. Da mich nun Herr Gleim daran so wohl als auch von Ihrem Geiste überzeuget, so hoffe ich um eben dieser Ihrer Eigenschaften willen die Erlaubniß zu haben mir Ihre Freundschaft aus zu bitten. Ich getraue mir damit zu schmeicheln, / weil ich Sie wahrhaftig hochschätze und weil ich von Herr Gleimen ein Freund bin. Dieser werthe Mann hat dem Herrn von Kleist und mir in Potsdam bey seiner durch Reise nach seiner Probstey aufgetragen, Ihnen, mein Herr, Musikalien zu schicken. Es hat sich damit etwas lange verzogen. Ich bitte deswegen um
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But here they are at last. Herr Gleim instructed me to enclose a cantata that I composed to his words. I submit it to your judgment. It will have no other merit than that Herr Gleim insisted that I send it to you. In it, there is, except for the bass, no other harmony. I wanted to see what one could accomplish with the mere melody. Yet the voice part will become grander if the thorough bass is always played while the voice is singing, and the ritomelli are played by a violin or a flute. But otherwise, one person who sings and plays clavier is sufficient for everything.76 Herr Gleim intends to write more cantatas like this. Herr Ramler has also promised. If I may be so bold, I take the liberty of asking you, likewise, for some cantatas, or at least one. Judging from the idea that I have of your intellect-and Herr Gleim also confirms this for me-you are uncommonly well suited to the affective aspect that musical verse must have.77 I am now working on a treatise on Musikalische Poesie which may perhaps be printed.78 The whole point of it is that one must constantly write in a moving, and not a witty, style. As for the form of lyric poems, I have sought primarily to provide an explanation for that which is special to them, rather than to say something new about them. I reiterate my petition for your friendship, and will endeavor to deserve it through the particular esteem with which I have the pleasure to be Your Honor’s most obedient servant, K. Berlin the 17th Januar 1748 No. 11 (D-HTgl 2341) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, I call you this, even though you must know that I am angry with you. In all letters to good friends here you say that I don’t write you; and Herr Bergius’s letter says that 76 Even in cantatas, works traditionally composed in an elaborate style and intended to be sung by accomplished singers as entertainment for aristocratic gatherings, Krause seems to have been satisfied with simple instrumentation. 77 Gleim was the source for Krause’s ideas about Uz’s character, but Krause may have also based his assessment on knowledge of Uz’s poetry. Although Uz’s first published collection, Lyrische Gedichte (1749), had not yet come out, Krause may have known the Lobgesang des Frühlings, composed in 1742, and published without Uz’s knowledge in the Belustigungen des Verstandes und des Witzes of 1743, and he may also have known some poems that would be published in the collection of 1749. 78 See n. 75. In his letter to Uz of 4 June 1747, Gleim had already mentioned Krause’s treatise: “Herr Krause, secretary to Count Rothenburg commends himself to you. At the earliest opportunity he will seek your judgment about some thoughts on musical poesy. I suggested that he do it because you understand music.” GLEIM/UZ, p. 169.
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Vergebung. Hier kommen Sie aber endlich. Herr Gleim hat mir befohlen, eine Cantate beyzulegen, die ich über seine Worte gemachet habe. Ich unterwerfe Sie Ihrem Urtheile. Sie wird nichts gutes an sich haben, als daß Herr Gleim sie Ihnen zu schicken verlanget hat. Es ist darinn ausser dem Baß gar keine andere Harmonie. Ich habe versuchen wollen, was man mit der blossen Melodie ausrichten könne. / Doch wird die Singestimme mehr erhaben werden, wenn, indem sie gehet allemal der General Baß dazu gespielet wird, und die Ritomelle von einer Violin [sic] oder Flöte bewerkstelliget werden. Sonst aber ist eine Person, welche singt und das Clavier spielt zu allem hinlänglich. Herr Gleim will mehr solche Cantaten machen. Herr Rammler hat es auch versprochen. Wenn ich so dreiste seyn darf, so nehme ich mir die Freyheit, Sie gleichfalls um einige oder wenigtstens eine zu bitten. Nach dem Begriffe den ich mir von Ihrem Geiste gemachet, und den mir Herr Gleim auch bestätiget, schicken Sie sich ungemein wohl zu dem affectuösen, welches in musikalischen Versen seyn m uß./ Ich habe jetzo eine Abhandlung von der musikalischen Poesie unter den Händen, die vielleicht dürfte gedrucket werden. Es kommt dabey alles darauf an, daß beständig rührend und nicht eigentlich witzig geschrieben werde. Was die Form der Singgedichte betrift, so habe ich von dem, was sie besonders haben, mehr allemal einen Grund anzuführen gesucht, als daß ich daran was neues gesagt hätte. Ich wiederhohle, meine Ansuchung um Ihre Freundschaft, und werde mich bemühen, sie durch die ganz besondere Hochschätzung zu verdienen, mit der ich die Ehre habe zu seyn Eure HochEdlen ganz gehorsamster Diener Krause Berlin den 17 Januar 1748 No. 11 (D-HTgl 2341) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Freund, Ich heisse Sie so, ohngeacht Sie wissen müssen, daß ich auf Sie böse bin. In allen Briefen an hiesige gute Freunde schreiben Sie, daß ich Ihnen nicht schreibe; und in H. Bergius seinem heist es gar, ich thäte nichts, als daß ich in die Oper ginge.
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I do nothing but go to the opera.79 But you surely know that you owe me two letters. Didn’t you receive the one in which I had enclosed the letter from the Frankfurt woman? I asked you to send me back the song requested in it together with the letter itself. But no; you are sensitive only to the request of the Obotritish girl.80 Yet I do not think that my letter was to your discredit. You were praised in it for your open-heartedness. You preen yourself about this, don’t you. But no answer. My second letter was accompanied by the Bach concerto and 2 trios.81 Herr Hofrat Bergius did indeed give me the Thaler for the first. But I would rather that you still owed it to me and had answered my letter. I will not give up any of your letters for a Thaler. I come from Herr Vennio [sic] who became the father of a little daughter four days ago.82 He commends himself to you. Herr Hofrat Jaschke from Ciistrin, or, rather, from here, does the same. I am writing in his room. He will settle here and await his wife and his belongings as soon as the water rises.83 Today Herr Kriegesrat Hagen of Ciistrin will travel from here to Halberstadt. He saw you as a very little Gleim in Ermsleben and remembers you well. Is the Herr von Hagen with whom you are acquainted his brother?84 To Herr Utz [sic] I have sent a whole packet of music with Herr Borchward.85 79 On Bergius see n. 35. 80 Neither the woman from Frankfurt an der Oder nor the “Obotritish girl” can be identified. The Obotriten, or Abodriten, were a Slavic tribe found in the vicinity of the Wismar Bay and the Schwerin Lake in the eighth century. The name later referred to a federation of Slavic tribes living in west Mecklenburg and east Holstein, who were subjugated in the twelfth century by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. Presumably the “Obotritish girl” was from Mecklenburg. 81 See Krause’s letter to Gleim of 20 December 1747 (no. 9). The trios cannot be identified. 82 Venino was an Italian merchant whom Gleim and his circle befriended, and who carried messages and other materials between Potsdam and Berlin. His name first appears in the correspondence of the Gleim circle on 11 Sept 1747; Ramler refers to him in a letter received by Gleim in December 1753. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 90, 94, 119 and 127, and II, p. 81; KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 84, 90, 106,138, and III, pp. 52,58. 83 Gottlob Nathanael Jaschke (1712-74), Court Councilor and Court Physician, who became a member of the Montagsklub (see n. 173) in 1753. See KULLNICK, p. 39. Presumably Jaschke’s belongings had to be transported by boat over the Friedrich-Wilhelm Canal which connected the Oder to the Spree. It is probable that low water had hampered the shipping traffic (at low water the depth of the Oder from Glogau to Schwedt was only one meter). See MEYERS/LEXIKON, vol. 14 (1908), pp. 900-901.1 am grateful to David Lee for bringing this information to my attention. 84 Probably Krause refers to either the father (Friedrich Philipp von Hagen) or older brother (Adolph Wilhelm von Hagen) of Gleim’s acquaintance: Ludwig Philipp von Hagen (1724-71). The Hagens came from a line of barons who were vassals of the counts of Hohenstein. A genealogy, prepared for the younger Hagen in honor of his appointment as Domherr in Halberstadt, and preserved in the Landesarchiv in Magdeburg (D-Mala Rep. U8c XVI, Anhang 77), shows him nobly descended on both sides for at least five generations. Ludwig Philipp von Hagen, who had a short but brilliant and intense career as a member of the General-Ober-Finanz-Kriegs- und Domainedirectorium, had close ties to Halberstadt. Gleim was looking forward to seeing Hagen, whom he expected to spend the spring and summer in Halberstadt, and whom he wished to introduce to the works of Shaftesbury. See POSNER/HAGEN; GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 106, 114, 115, 116, 117; GLEIM/UZ, p. 206; and NICOLAI/BESCHREIBUNG, pp. 141,142. 85 On Borchward, see n. 29.
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Wissen Sie aber wohl, daß Sie mir auf zwey Briefe die Antwort schuldig sind. Haben Sie denn [sic] nicht erhalten, zu welchem ich den Brief von dem Frankfurtischen Frauenzimmer gelegt hatte. Ich bat Sie mir das darinn begehrte Lied nebst dem Briefe selbst wieder zu schicken. Aber nein, Sie sind nur bey dem Bitten des Obotritischen Mädgens empfindlich. Mich dünkt, mein Brief war doch nicht zu Ihrer Schande. Sie werden darinn doch wegen der Offenherzigkeit gelobet. Damit machen Sie sich doch breit. / Aber point de reponse. Mein andrer Brief wurde mit dem Bachischen Concert, und 2 Trios begleitet. Den Thaler für das erste mir hat mir H. Hofr. Bergius wohl gegeben. Aber ich sähe lieber, Sie wären Adennoch schuldig, und hätten mir geantwortet. Ich gebe noch keinen Ihrer Briefe um einen Thaler. Ich komme von H. Vennio [sic], der ist seit 4 Tagen Vater einer kleinen Tochter. Er empfiehlt sich Ihnen. Der H. Hofrath Jäschke aus Cüstrin, oder vielmehr von hier thut desgleichen. Ich schreibe auf seiner Stube. Er etablirt sich jetzo hier, und erwartet seine Frau und Sachen, so bald das Wasser aufgeht. Heute reiset HE. Kriegs Rath Hagen aus Cüstrin, von hier nach Halberstadt. Er hat Sie als noch einen ganz kleinen Gleim in Ermsleben gesehen und besinnt / sich wohl auf Sie. Ist der HE. v. Hagen sein Bruder, mit dem Sie Bekandschaft gemacht haben. An HE. Utzen habe ich ein ganz Pact Noten durch HE. Burchwarden geschickt.
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You have written another cantata. Why don’t you send it to me. I have likewise composed one to Herr Borchward’s poetry. If you wish to have it, write to him about it. It is about friendship, and if, as people try to persuade me, there is something good about it, perhaps it comes from hearing the operas which, this year, were really incomparable.86 Herr Sulzer believes that cantatas in which nothing is really narrated are even more natural than yours. He has told me of an Italian one belonging to the genre; in it Atys sings, in an aria: Oh, come, my shepherdess, my beauty, etc. In the recitative, he sees her coming and rejoices; but in the aria that follows, he is afraid lest he lose her again by too much rejoicing. Pygmalion should offer incomparable opportunity for an inspired cantata such as this.87 The day after tomorrow we go to Potsdam. Today is the last ball. For the birthday of the Queen Mother, we will have a little opera, or ballet, UEurope g a lanteé You can find it in an appendix to Quinault’s poems. Six female singers will be there, without the castrati, and 20 Sultannesses who are all stripped to the navel. So one will actually see Astroa’s breasts. Answer this letter quickly, or I will be very angry. Frau Kriegesrat Hagen wants to marry you off; if it turns out successfully, you have my recommendation to thank for it.89 Farewell and write soon. I am your most respectful Krause Beri., the 30th Jan. 1748
No. 12 (D-HTgl 2342) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, This is the third letter that I have written you since I received the last from you. I have, however, a very sad reason for it. Our dear Kleist is by no means melancholic, but as vexed as one can be because people wish to pronounce him melancholic.90 86 Krause is referring to Graun’s Cinna. See nn. 50,53,59, and 67. 87 It was Ramler who, in 1768, finally published the text for a cantata titled Pygmalion. Krause’s setting of the text survives in the Sing-Akademie of Berlin (D-B, SA 1399 and 1400). Ramler’s text was also set to music in 1772 by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-95) and in 1784 by Friedrich Wilhelm Benda (1745-1814). See GROVE 6, vol. 1, p. 865; vol. 2, p. 465; vol. 15, p. 575. 88 VEurope galante, a pastoral, with music by Graun and a text by Villati based on a play by Houdar de la Motte, was given on 27 March 1748 at Schloß Monbijou, in honor of the birthday of the Queen Mother Sophia Dorothea. See SCHNEIDER/OPER, p. 30. 89 Presumably the wife of Adolph Wilhelm von Hagen (see n. 84). The youngest brother, Ludwig Philipp, had not yet married. 90 Letters that Kleist wrote around this time reflect the gradual approach of his depression: On 2 December 1747, Kleist assures Gleim that he will soon find friends in Halberstadt, and adds that he himself [Kleist], on the other hand, is resigned to a solitary life in Potsdam (KLEIST/SAUERII, p. 95); in a letter to Uz, dated 24 December, Kleist deplores the distance between him and Gleim, and wishes
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Sie haben wieder eine Cantate gemacht. Warum schicken Sie sie mir nicht. Ich habe auch eine zu H. Burchwards Poesie verfertiget. Wenn Sie sie haben wollen, so schreiben Sie ihm drum. Sie ist auf die Freundschaft, und wo was dran ist, wie man mich überreden will, so kommt es vielleicht von Anhörung der Opern her, die dieß Jahr ganz unvergleichlich gewesen. H. Sulzer hält die Cantaten, worinn eigentlich nichts erzehlet wird, für noch natürlicher als Ihre. Er hat mir eine Italienische von der Gattung communiciert, da singt Atis in einer Arie: Ach komme doch meine Schäferinn, meine Schönheit. Im Recitativ sieht er sie kommen, und freut sich; in folgender Arie aber fürchtet er vor übergrosser Freude, daß er sie nicht bald wieder verliehre. / Pigmalion, sollte zu einer solchen begeisterten Cantate unvergleichliche Gelegenheit geben. Übermorgen gehen wir nach Potsdam. Heute ist die letzte Redoute. Auf den Geburtstag der Königinn Mutter werden wir f eine kleine Oper, oder ein Ballet haben, l’Europe galante. In einem Anhang zu Quinaults Gedichten können Sie es finden. Es werden 6 Sängerinnen dabey seyn, ohne die Castraten, und 20 Sultaninnen, die alle bis auf den Nabel entblösset gehen da soll man der Astroa Brustwehr recht zu sehen kriegen. Antworten Sie mir ja bald auf diesen Brief, sonst bin ich recht sehr böse. Die Frau Kriegs Räthin Hagen will Sie verheurathen wo es gutgehet, so haben Sie es meine Recommendation zu danken. Leben Sie wohl und schreiben Sie bald. Ich bin Ihr ergebenster Berl 30 Jan. 1748 No. 12 (D-HTgl 2342) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Allerliebster Freund, Das ist der dritte Brief den ich Ihnen schreibe, seitdem ich den letzten von Ihnen erhalten habe. Ich habe aber eine gar traurige Ursache dazu. Unser theurer Kleist ist gar nicht melancholisch, aber so chagrin, als man es seyn kann, weil man ihn
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For some time, he has, for want of company, become terribly bored. Then he gets the news that his brother has become melancholic again.91 His mother was hypochondriac also, and since he is so much the same way, he fears that the news of his brother might do him harm. So he has himself bled; the chap doesn’t hit the vein right, for the blood won’t flow. In order to find excuses for his mistake, he says that the blood is too thick and viscous, and when Herr von Kleist tells him the reason for the bloodletting, he pretends that it is because of the melancholia that the blood won’t flow - that’s the way it is with such blood - and talks about it all over town. Several days later Herr von Kleist becomes terribly constipated. The Regimental Surgeon comes to him and, as he has already been informed of his [Kleist’s] alleged condition, also says that it comes from melancholia.92 Herr von Kleist does not that they were both spirits so that they might be together (KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 98); on 31 January 1748, Kleist reports that his colleague Donop (see n. 96) has taken him on an excursion into the country to cheer him up (KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 100); Kleist’s letter of 9 February 1748 contains much the same information as this letter of Krause’s written on the same date, and conveys a preoccupation with death (KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 101-3). 91 Sauer (KLEIST/SAUER I, p. XII) surmises that Kleist and his older brother Franz Casimir (baptized 5 January 1714) inherited their “hypochondriac temperament” from their mother Marie Juliane von Manteuffel (d. 9 September 1719). After the death of their father (1738), the older brother had taken over the administration of the estate, a Landgut that had apparently been in financial difficulty for many years. Hints that Franz Casimir suffered from incapacitating bouts of depression are found in several of Ewald Christian von Kleist’s letters to Gleim. In a letter dated 8 May 1746, Kleist mentions his own financial embarrassment, and implies that the older brother has not been entirely successful in administering the estate (KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 40). Another letter, dated 12 September 1748, in which Kleist writes of the possibility of selling the estate “which my brother and I still hold together,” indicates that the younger brother not only owned the estate jointly with Franz Casimir, but was empowered to share in decisions about its fate (KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 129-30). The “sad news from home” that Kleist mentions in his letter of 9 February 1748 (see n. 90) is doubtless the news, reported here by Krause, that Franz Casimir von Kleist had suffered another attack of depression. Sauer’s report that Kleist visited the family estate in Ruschitz in May 1749, a little more than a year after this letter of Krause’s, suggests that Franz Casimir’s attacks of depression were frequent (KLEIST/SAUER I, p. XXXI). 92 Traditional theories of the disease called melancholia, most of which are summarized by Robert Burton in his compendious monograph The Anatomy o f Melancholy (1621), can be traced to classical antiquity. According to one tradition reaching back to Problem XXX of Pseudo-Aristotle, melancholia typically affected scholars or persons eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, or the arts. Other descriptions of the disease emphasized less attractive characteristics of its sufferers: misanthropy, maliciousness, ambition, envy, avarice, fear, sadness, and madness. Central to theories of melancholia was the assumption that behavior and characteristic disposition were determined by the dominance of one of the four humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Melancholia was believed to be caused by a preponderance of black bile, which might affect the head, the entire body, or the spleen (hypochondria). Blood-letting was one of the standard treatments applied with the intention of ridding the body of the congestion caused by black bile. Although the humoral theory had been increasingly challenged since the middle of the seventeenth century, the perception that Kleist’s blood was too thick and pitchlike indicates that the surgeon was still influenced by the humoral tradition. Early in the eighteenth century, melancholia became associated with the diseases known as hypochondria and hysteria, and with their symptoms. A copious literature developed during the century that characterized hypochondria and hypochondriac melancholy more sympathetically, as diseases of persons with delicate nerves and sensibilities. Members of the Gleim circle probably put a sympathetic construction on Kleist’s depression-and on the over-refined sensibility of Gleim and others. But it is
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melancholisch machen k am wollen [sic]. Er hat seit einiger Zeit aus Mangel der Gesellschaft sich entsetzlich ennuyirt, hernach kriegt er Nachricht, daß sein HE. Bruder wieder melancholisch worden, wie er schon einmal gewesen. Sein Mama ist auch hypochondrisch gewesen, und da er es gleichfalls ist, so fürchtet er, daß die Nachricht von seinem HEn. Bruder ihm schaden mächte. Er läst also zur Ader, der Kerl trift nicht recht, denn es will nicht laufen. Um seinen Fehler nun zu beschönen, sagt er das Blut sey zu dick und klebricht, und als ihm der H. v. Kl. / die Ursache des Aderlassens sagt, so giebt er vor, das sey die Melancholie, daß das Blut nicht laufen wolle, so sey dergleichen Blut und bringt dieses in der Stadt herum. In einigen Tagen kriegt der H. v. Kl. entsetztliche Verstopfung, des Regiments Feldscher kommt zu ihm, und er als der von seinem praetendirten Zustande schon instruirt, sagt auch, das käme von der Melancholie her. Der H. v. Kl. will es nicht
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want to believe it, and keeps belching at him. But he is said to be and must be melancholic. This aggravates his doleful mood in an astonishing manner. His sleeplessness increases. Because of his wretched appearance, he cannot go out. This makes his illness loom larger in people’s opinion. He is visited, comforted, he is brought compliments from the colonel; he is told that he should bear up, that the king knows of him and knows that he is a good officer. One comforts a fool thus, he says, etc. He travels to Berlin to plunge into dissipation. The journey, the cold, the sleeplessness, and his dolefulness bring his blood into such dreadful agitation that he resolves to be bled once more. The Regimental Surgeon doesn’t want to do it, but he [Kleist] insists on it, and the blood is so excellent that the Regimental Surgeon himself says he would like to send it to all physicians; they would have to say it was the finest blood in the world. Herr von Kleist says also that it was mostly water on top and no phlegm whatever underneath. Thereupon the Regimental Surgeon, in order not to contradict himself, says that this illness is a melancholia immaterialis.93 He [Kleist] has become very worried over this. He says his reputation is lost; no one will have anything to do with a melancholic person. His fortune is ruined, etc. He wanted to starve himself to death, etc., but he says that what prevented him was that he believed he was not long for this world. You see, my worthy friend, in so pitiful a condition is our Kleist. Write to him, comfort him, encourage him and cheer him up in any way you can. I am too serious and tender-hearted for that. Several days ago, we spoke our minds to each other for a whole evening, and he seemed to me to become somewhat calmed. I can report to you better news of Herr von Bielefeld [sic], who is marrying a professor’s or doctor’s daughter from Halle with 70,000 Ri/z-Reich [Rich] or whatever her name may be.94 obvious that Kleist feared that his military colleagues would regard his attacks of melancholia as unmanly, and consider him a liability to his profession. See JACKSON/MELANCHOLIA, p. 31; BURTON/ANATOMY, pp. 83-1,404,415; SCHINGS, p. 49. 93 During Kleist’s lifetime most theories of melancholia, including the humoral theory (see n. 92) and those that were replacing it-chemical and mechanical theories and the theory of an aetherial nerve fluid-assumed a material cause. In support of the idea of the “immaterial melancholy,” which the regimental surgeon diagnosed in order to cover his mistake, there were a few venerable theoretical sources. In The Anatomy o f Melancholy, Burton had referred to several kinds of melancholy, which he called “immaterial or adventitious, acquisite, redundant, unnatural, artificial” which “Hercules de Saxonia believes to reside in the spirits alone and to proceed from a 'hot, cold, dry, moist distemperature, which without matter, alter the brain and functions of it’.” Another more recent source for an “immaterial melancholy” might have been the theories of Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734), who had been a professor at Halle from 1694 to 1716, and personal physician ( Leibmedicus) to Friedrich Wilhelm I from 1716 to 1734. Stahl had postulated an immaterial force, with motive and directional influences on the mechanisms of the living organism. See JACKSON/MELANCHOLIA, pp. 386-8, 121 and passim, and BURTON/ANATOMY, p. 110. 94 Krause is writing about Jakob Friedrich Baron von Bielfeld (c. 1716-70), Legation Councilor, writer, and trusted political adviser to Friedrich II. Bielfeld had recently been elevated to the rank of baron and had become a Privy Councilor. See n. 16 and GLOSSARY. In a letter to Gleim written between 26 February and 2 March, Ramler also reports that Bielfeld “wants to marry a girl with a [lively face?] and a ton of gold”; in a letter dated 16 March, Gleim replies:
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glauben, und rülpset ihm was vor. Er soll und muß aber dem ohngeachtet melancholisch seyn. Dieß vermehret seinen Chagrin auf eine erstaunliche Weise, die Schlaflosigkeit nimmt zu, er kan wegen des schlechten Aussehens nicht aus seh gehen. Dieß alles bestärket seine Krankheit in der Leute Meinung. Man besuchet, man tröstet ihn, man bringt ihm Complimente vom Hn. Obristen, er solle sich zufrieden geben, der König wisse von ihm, daß er ein guter Officier sey. So, sagt er, tröstet man einen Narren p. / Er reiset nach Berlin, um sich zu dissipiren. Die Reise, die Kälte, Schlaflosigkeit und sein Chagrin bringen sein Blut in so entsetzliche Bewegung, daß er resolviret noch einmal zur Ader zu lassen. Der R.[egiments] Feldsch. [er] will nicht, er aber bestehet darauf, und das Blut ist so schön, daß der R. Feldsch. selbst gesagt, er möchte es zu allen Medicis schicken, sie müßten sagen es wäre das schönste Blut von der Welt. Der H. v. Kl. sagt mir auch, es wäre oben viel Wasser und unten gar kein Schleim gewesen. Der R. Feldsch um sich nicht ein eine Dementi zu geben, sagt daher, es sey AMelancholia immaterialis seine Krankheit. Darüber grämet er sich nun noch entsetzlich. Er sagt, seine Reputation sey verlohren, mit einem melancholischen Menschen wolle niemand was zu thun haben. Seine Fortune sey ruinirt. Er hat sich wollen zu Tod hungern, p. aber er sagt, das habe ihn zurück gehalten, daß er geglaubt, er sey nicht für diese Welt gemacht. / Sehen Sie, mein weither Freund, in so erbärmlichem Zustande ist unser Kleist. Schreiben Sie ihm, trösten Sie ihn, ermuntern, erlustigen Sie ihn durch alles was Sie können. Ich bin zu ernsthaft und weichherzig dazu. Vor einigen Tagen haben wir uns einen ganzen Abend mit einander ausgeredet, und er schien mir etwas beruhiget zu werden. Eine bessere Zeitung kan ich Ihnen vom H. v. Bielefeld [sic] berichten, der heurathet eine Professors oder Doctors Tochter aus Halle mit 70000 Rth. Reichen oder wie sie heissen soll.
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Hen* von Kleist has also spoken with Fouque.95 He wants to have 1000 Rth, for that much is said to be already offered to him. Farewell, and love me. Iam your most dutiful K. Potsd. the 9th Feb. 1748 No. 13 (D-HTgl 2343) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, My letter will be very short this time. We are about to join the Regiment. So allow me to tell you only that I received your letter of the 16th March. But Herr von Kleist prevents me from sending you flutes. Herr H. von Donep [sic] is devoting himself intensely to music, and not long ago bought himself a very good flute - I don’t know how expensive - and again, more recently, bought one with 2 keys from Quantz for 12 ducats.96 Herr von Kleist will send you the first, for Herr von Donep “Herr von B ’s sweetheart is known to me from Halle ... His "lively face’ is a cousin of the bailiff of the Cathedral chapter in Zilly with whom I have much business and who is also rich [reich - presumably the bailiffs name was also Reich] and has seven- and eight-year-old girls. Their father also has the economy of the Cathedral chapter to thank for his wealth [Reichthum], for he has acquired it from the post in Zilly. See GLEEM/RAMLER I, pp. 101,107. 95 Krause is referring to Heinrich August, Baron de la Motte Fouque, a general and trusted adviser in the service of Friedrich II. Gleim was attempting to purchase from Fouque a vicarate which the general had received as a gift from the king. After conveying an offer of 1200 Rth through Christian von Berg (see GLOSSARY), Gleim had found out that the vicarate would yield very little income, and revised his offer to 400 Rth Gleim’s letter to Kleist, written on 31 January, informs him that Bielfeld (see n. 94 and GLOSSARY) has served him badly in this affair, and asks somewhat obliquely for Kleist’s help. Kleist will find a way, Gleim hopes, to convey this new offer through Fouque’s brother Carl Heinrich Baron de la Motte Fouque de Saint-Surin, the colonel of Kleist’s regiment. Kleist answers in his letter of 9 February that he has learned through the colonel that his brother will not sell the vicarate for 400 Rth. See GLOSSARY, and KLEIST/SAUER ΠΙ, pp. 67, and II, p. 103. 96 Levin Friedrich von Donop, a captain in the regiment of Prince Heinrich (see n. 310) at the time of this letter, had been a member of the regiment since 1741. During the 1740s, Donop and a von Seidlitz (d. 1750) provided companionship for Kleist, who found few congenial colleagues in Potsdam (see n. 7). The friendship between the three colleagues seems to have cooled towards the end of the decade (see KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 157, 161). Donop’s name appears less frequently in the correspondence of the Gleim circle after 1750; in a letter dated 18 May 1754, Kleist mentions that Donop is leaving the regiment with the rank of Major (see KLEIST/SAUER Π, p. 267). Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) had met Friedrich, Crown Prince of Prussia on a visit to Berlin as a member of the band of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, and began to instruct Friedrich on the flute. In 1733, the crown prince offered Quantz a position in his service, which Quantz refused, and it was not until Friedrich’s accession to the Prussian throne in 1741 that Quantz accepted a permanent
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Der H. v. Kl. hat auch mit Fouque gesprochen. Er will 1000 rh. haben, denn so viel soll ihm schon geboten seyn. Leben Sie wohl und lieben Sie mich. Ich bin Ungehorsamster K. Potsd. Den 9 Feb. 1748 No. 13 (D-HTgl 2343) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Freund, Mein Brief wird dießmal sehr kurz werden. Wir sind im Begriff nach dem Regiment zu gehen. Sie erlauben mir also, daß ich Ihnen nur melde, wie ich Ihren Brief vom 16 d. M. erhalten. Der H. v. Kleist aber verhindert mich, Ihnen Flöten zu schicken. Der H. L. v. Donep legt sich jetzo gewaltig auf die Musik und er hat sich vor kurzem eine ganz gute Flöte, ich weis nicht wie theuer, und zuletzt wieder eine für 12 Ducaten von Quantzen mit 2 Klappen gekauft. Jene will d. H. v. Kleist Ihnen
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says he doesn’t need it any more. I took leave of our dear Kleist, to all appearances, at least, somewhat calmer. Herr Spalding has written to me.971 will write to you and to him at length from Cüstrin. Also, I think I will speak to Mme Hagen there; I have not seen her here.98 Farewell. Until then, I am your most respectful K. Berl. the 30th March 48 No. 14 (D-HTgl 2344) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, I promised to write to you from here, and I am, you see, also compelled to do so. You will remember that when Herr Spalding left Berlin, he left behind several books for me. I have asked you for them, especially for the treatise of Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus) in French, which was among them, and which belongs not to me, but to Herr U hde." But you answered me that you couldn’t find it, and also that it was nothing rare, that one can get it at every auction. But this is not the case after all, although I have taken trouble over it. I must therefore return to my first recourse, and ask you to look and see if this book is to be found among your effects. I have received a letter from Herr Uhde dealing expressly with this matter. I know you don’t like to search for things, but for my sake, overcome your passivity and find the book, and send it either directly to Herr Uhde or to me in Berlin. We will be there again, in fact, after the 20th of the month.100 position in Berlin. Here he was exempted from service in the opera orchestra, and received a handsome salary for supervising the king’s private concerts. Quantz, as Friedrich’s instructor, the composer of many works for flute, and the author of a treatise on playing the flute, wielded great power and influence over the musical life of Berlin. The treatise, Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote traversiere zu spielen (1752), contributed to his international reputation, as did his addition (c. 1727) of a second key to the contemporary transverse flute, an instrument with a conical bore, originally with one key. See GLOSSARY. 97 By this time Spalding (see n. 4) had left Berlin for his new post, a pastorate in Lassahn. 98 Seen. 89. 99 Johann Otto Uhde (1725-66), bom in Insterburg, East Prussia, attended the Joachimsthal Gymnasium and, in 1743, the Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der Oder. In 1748, he was appointed Councilor of the Prussian Supreme Court; he was also Criminal Councilor and Royal Court Magistrate. Uhde, a talented musical amateur, was often a violin soloist at musical soirées given by the minister Franz Wilhelm von Happe (see n. 344). He also studied keyboard and composition, and became a solo singer. Like Krause, Uhde was an amateur musician of considerable accomplishment and influence. See GROVE2, vol. 24, pp. 47-8, and LEDEBUR, p. 611. Concerning Spinoza’s Tractatus theologicopoliticus, see n. 100. 100 In the Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), Benedict de Spinoza (1634-77) attacks systems of theological dogma as the result of superstition and fear, and advocates freedom of religion. He asserts that true religion consists in the observance of simple moral precepts. The author of this treatise, furiously denounced when it was first published, was in Krause’s time still highly controversial.
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schicken, da der H. v. Donep sie nicht mehr brauche. Unseren lieben Kleist habe ich wenigstens dem Schein nach etwas ruhiger verlassen. HE. Spalding hat mir geschrieben. Ich werde Ihnen und ihm von Cüstrin aus weitläufig schreiben, da denke ich auch die Md Hagen zu sprechen, hier habe ich sie nicht gesehen. Leben Sie wohl bis dahin, ich bin Ihr ergebenster K. Berl. d 30 Merz 48 No. 14 (D-HTgl 2344) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerliebster Freund, Ich habe Ihnen versprochen, von hier aus zu schreiben, und sehen Sie, ich bin auch dazu genötiget. Sie werden sich erinnern, daß als H. Spalding Berlin verließ, so hatte er Ihnen einige Bücher an mich zurückgelassen. Ich habe Sie zwar darum, und franosische sonderlich um den Tractat des Spinosae (Tractatg Theologico Politicus) A gebeten, der dabey war und der nicht mir sondern H. Uhden gehört. Sie gaben mir aber zur Antwort, Sie könnten es nicht finden und es wäre auch nichts rares, man könne es in allen Auctionen kriegen. Es ist dieses letztere aber doch nicht ohngeachtet ich mir darum Mühe gegeben. Ich muß also zum ersten wieder meine Zuflucht nehmen / und Sie bitten, nach zu sehen, ob sich dieses Buch unter Ihrem Vorrath nicht wieder auffinden läßt. Ich habe ausdrücklich deswegen von H. Uhden einen Brief hieher erhalten. Ich weis, Sie suchen nicht gern was auf. Thun Sie aber aus Liebe zu mir dieser Gemächlichkeit einigen Zwang an, und finden Sie das Buch und schicken Sie es entweder recta an H. Uhden oder an mich nach Berlin. Daselbst werden wir nach dem 20ten d. M. wie der seyn.
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What are you doing now? Nothing more with cantatas? Why, you did actually have one already begun. As soon as I return to Potsdam, I will put the finishing touches on my treatise, and then see whether it can be published. I have lately found another passage from Theophrastus that I like very much regarding the question of what subjects lend themselves to music. This man knew human nature, and knew when singing is natural to us. He lived to be 100 years old.101 I wrote a letter from here to our friend Kleist 19 days ago, but have received no answer. I excuse him gladly, the dear friend. Drilling will probably have paralyzed his hands so that he will not be in the mood to take his pen in them. I live very pleasantly here, and am often in company with 3 women, Miles Hagemeister and [illegible], and Frau Hofrathin Jaeschke who is expecting her husband to come back from Silesia and take her to Berlin.102 We have entertained ourselves once or twice with the 2nd part of Gellert’s Fables; there is much that is beautiful in them. I like the imitation of Nature especially in Cotill.103 Do indeed send me some of your verses some day. Nothing of yours to read for a long time - 1 rather regret that. Farewell. Answer me soon, and love him who esteems and loves you, your most respectful Krause Ciistrin, the 4th May 1748
101 The most readily accessible work of Theophrastus of Eresus (c. 372-287 BCE) was the
Characters, a collection of character sketches, which Krause probably knew in one of the many editions of the translation that Jean de la Bruyère (1645-96) had published in 1688 with his own additions, as Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du Grec, avec les caractères et les moeurs de ce siècle. Yet it seems
possible that Krause’s remark here refers to one of Theophrastus’s other writings, which have survived only as quotations from him in works by other authors. Krause may have been referring to the following quoted passage in Claudius Ptolemy’s Harmonics: “[Music] is the movement of the soul that occurs in correspondence with its release from the evils due to the emotions; and if it were not this, neither would it be the nature of music.” Or possibly he had come across the following quotation in Plutarch’s Table Talk, which seems even more relevant to his remark about Theophrastus: “ ... there are three sources of music, pain, pleasure and inspiration; for each of these emotions turns the voice aside and deflects it from its usual (inflection).” See FORTENBAUGH/THEOPHRASTUS, pp. 573, 5 7 5 .1 am grateful to William Fortenbaugh for calling my attention to these quotations. 102 Mile Hagemeister may have been the daughter of the Royal Councilor Hagemeister, to whom Krause refers in his letter to Gleim of 18 June 1748 (see n. 108); Fr. Hofrâtin Jâschke was undoubtedly the wife of Gottlob Nathanael Jâschke (see n. 83). 103 Christian Fiirchtegott Gellert (1715-69) spent most of his career at the University in Leipzig (see GLOSSARY). He earned a reputation as the author of fables, plays, novels, and spiritual poems. Gellert’s works are representative of the Age of Sensibility, as was his own character—he was sickly, was famous for his hypochondria, and loved solitude. Although Gellert has, on the whole, been regarded by posterity as a mediocre writer, he was popular and widely read during his lifetime. The fable, which belonged to a tradition reaching back to La Fontaine and Aesop, was not a particularly fashionable genre in the early 1740s. Gellert’s Fabeln und Erahlungen revived this tradition, and established his literary reputation. See GELLERT/WERKE, vol. 1, pp. 7-26,151-2.
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Was machen Sie denn? Nichts von Cantaten mehr? Sie haben ja eine schon einmal angefangen gehabt. So bald ich wieder nach Potsdam komme, / will ich meine Abhandlung vollends ins reine bringen, und so dann sehen, ob sie könne gedruckt werden. Ich habe dieser Tagen noch eine Stelle aus Theoprast gefunden, die mir bey der Frage sehr lieb ist: welche Materien musikalisch seyn. Dieser Mann Mensch kannte den Menschen, und wüste, wenn uns das Singen natürlich ist. Er wurde 100 Jahr alt. Ich habe an unsem Kleist vor 19 Tagen von hier aus geschrieben; aber keine Antwort erhalten. Ich entschuldige ihn gern; den lieben Freund. Das Exerciren wird die Hände wohl so lähmen, daß er nicht Lust haben wird, die Feder darein zu nehmen. / Ich lebe hier recht vergnügt, und bin oft mit 3 Dames zusammen, Mdselles Hagemeister u. (unlesbar) und die Fr. Hofräthin Jaeschken, die ihren Mann aus Schlesien erwartet um sie nach Berlin zu führen. Wir haben uns ein paarmal mit Gellerts 2ten Theil der Fabeln ergötzet; es ist doch viel natürlich schönes darinn. Die Nachahmung der Natur ist H gefällt mir sonderlich im Cotill. Schicken Sie mir doch auch einmal was von Ihren Versen. In Jahr und Tag nichts von Ihnen zu lesen, das ist mir ein bisgen zu peinlich. Leben Sie wohl. Antworten Sie mir bald, und lieben den, der Sie liebend hochschätzt, Ihren ergebensten Krausen Cüstrin den 4 May 1748
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No. 15 (D-HTgl 2345) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, I spent this afternoon at the home of a pastor here named Herr Rau in the company of Herr Inspector Lieberkühn, Herr P[asto]r Bock, the poet from Königsberg, and a local materialist, Herr Krause.104 Herr C. [K.?] explained to us his system: Omnia ex mat[erial]i [?] and the interpretation of the first 2 verses of the Bible. We spoke also of the profession of pastor, and said that at the very least it provided a person with sufficient means, like Herr Bock, who was Professor Extraordinary, and a chaplain of the Schorlemmish regiment, and who is being ordained here.105 He doesn’t look much like a poet; yet he expressed himself very cleverly, after all, in his description of a scholar who, in an effort to promote universal history at the schools in Königsberg, wanted to have not only the scholars of all periods, but also the best editions of their writings recited. To Herr de la Mettrie, who is a great materialist, it was told that there would be a learned materialist here [in Berlin]: Krause. He goes to him in order to make his acquaintance. Now although this misunderstanding was the occasion for laughter, I believe that nevertheless he will soon write L ’Homme raisin.1®6 In this company, I became ill from tobacco smoking, and I had to go home. There I found your letter, and am now thankful for my illness, for I can still answer it 104 The pastor mentioned here is probably Johann Friedrich Rau, Preacher and Inspector at the
Großes Waisenhaus in Potsdam. According to an account by Georg Arndt, a former Pastor of St. Moritz
in Halberstadt, Friedrich II wished to have Rau called in 1748 to a recently vacated pastorate in Halberstadt (Schwanebeck). The Kloster exercised its right of refusal, however, and the king was obliged to abandon his wish. In 1750, Rau was finally awarded a pastorate in Halberstadt (Derenburg) which he held until his death in 1758. See ARNDT, 9/101, and 6/94. The Inspector Lieberkühn may have been the preacher Christian Gottlieb Lieberkühn (dates unknown), a native of Potsdam (see GOEDEKE, vol. 4, pt. 1, 53), or his father, also a preacher, who is described by Kleist in 1755 as Gleim’s friend (KLEIST/SAUER II, 307). From 1757, the young Lieberkühn was chaplain in the regiment of Prince Heinrich (see n. 310), a position that Sauer says he owed to Kleist’s help (KLEIST/SAUER I, LI). The Bock to whom Krause refers is Friedrich Samuel Bock (1716-1786). Bock studied theology and taught philosophy in his native Königsberg, before joining the Schorlemmer regiment in 1748 as Feldprediger (chaplain). In 1753, he was appointed Consistorialrat, Professor of Greek, and Supervisor of the Schloßbibliothek in Königsberg, and later joined the theological faculty. See ADB, vol. 22 (1875), p. 766). Although the Berlin address book of the year 1748 contains several Krauses, it does not list the Krause discussed here, who was a dealer in spices and imported foods-an occupation known as “Materialist” (see n. 106). 105 The regiment of General Ludwig Wilhelm von Schorlemmer (1699-1776). See GLOSSARY. 106 “L ’Homme raisin” is obviously a play on La Mettrie’s title L ’Homme machine (“raisin” could also be a play on the word raison). In the fall of 1747, Julien Offray de la Mettrie (see n. 181), who had escaped to Holland, published in Leyden this famous materialist manifesto (the title is doubtless a reference to Descartes’ bête machine), in which he denied the dualism of mind and matter, and asserted that all psychic phenomena are the result of matter in motion. L ’Homme machine, published anonymously at first, was quickly banned in Leyden and burned in the Hague. When La Mettrie was discovered as its author (probably in January 1748), he fled to Berlin, where he was accepted by
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No. 15 (D-HTgl 2345) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerwerthester Freund, Ich habe diesen Nachmittag bey einem hiesigen Prediger Herr Rau genannt zugebracht, in Gesellschaft des HE. Inspector Lieberkühns und des HEn. Pr. Bocks, des Poeten aus Königsberg und eines hiesigen Materialisten HE. Krausen. HE. C. [K.?] hat uns sein System: Omnia est mat[erial?]i und die Auslegung der ersten 2 Verse der Bibel erkläret. Wir sprachen auch vom Prediger Stande, und sagten daß er wenigstens dazu gut wäre, daß ein Mensch einmal sein Brodt haben könnte, wie HE. Bock, der Prof Extra O. gewesen und ein Feldprediger beym Schorlemmischen Regiment und sich hier ordiniren läst. Man sieht ihm den Poeten nicht viel an, doch zuletzt äusserte er sich recht artig bey der Beschreibung eines Gelehrten, der in einer Anregung zur Universal Historie für die Schulen in Königsberg bey allen Zeiten nicht nur die Gelehrten, sondern auch die besten Editiones ihrer Schriften hat wollen angeführet haben. Dem HEn. de la Mettrie, der ein grosser matérialiste ist, hat man gesagt, es wäre hier auch ein sehr gelehrter Matérialiste Krause. Er geht zu ihm, um mit ihm Bekandtschaft zu machen. Ob nun gleich dieses Misverständniß zum Lachen Anlaß gegeben, so glaube ich, wird er doch nächstens l’Homme raisin schreiben. In dieser Gesellschaft wurde mir vom Taback rauchen schlimm, und ich muste nach Hause gehen. / Da fand ich Ihren Brief, und danke jetzt meinem Schlim-
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today. I hope that you will also answer immediately. I ask your forgiveness for the considerable trouble that the lost Spinoza makes for you. Yet I will thank you still more if you could find it for me again. I don’t like to bring harm to anyone. You know my strict legal conscience.107 In Ciistrin, we spoke much about you. Even if I were not neutral, I would be generous enough to say everything good of you to Mile Hagemeister and to her friend that I actually said. Royal Councilor Hagemeister is at present still in England, and for 4 months I haven’t known what he is doing.108 A propos: I gave Mile Hagemeister’s copy of your Scherzhafte Lieder to my brother. She wants them again, and one can’t get them in Berlin. Won’t they be printed again? My General is not included on the list of the retinue for Magdeburg that the king gave out yesterday. But today the king said to him: In Magdeburg, we will see and do such and such. So my General doesn’t know wherein the king is mistaken. He will ask him, but consequently I don’t yet know whether I will be able to have the pleasure of seeing you there. You can well believe me that I wish the king had forgotten himself yesterday, rather than today. Our Kleist has a right lively friend in Herr von Bon.109 Perhaps you will be able to see him in Magdeburg. He hopes to join a regiment there. Spalding’s appointment delights me also. If only he were inclined to come to Berlin again.110 Friedrich II as a member of the community of French philosophes at the Prussian court. Although Gleim and members of his circle read UHomme machine (references to it appear in the Gleim/Ramler correspondence of April and May 1748), they clearly experienced reservations about its thesis, and took a dislike to its author. The best means of dealing with this offensive philosophe, observes Ludwig Geiger in his intellectual history of Berlin, was to laugh at him. La Mettrie was given to understand that a great “materialist” named Krause was living in Berlin. Unaware that Materialist was the designation given to a dealer in foodstuffs, La Mettrie eagerly paid a visit to this Krause, only to find that the man to be congratulated on his materialism was a grocer. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 118, 119 and 127; GEIGER/BERLIN, p. 493; and DENINA III, p. 26 (Denina calls him an epicier-a spice merchant). 107 See n. 100. On 20 May 1748, Gleim had written Ramler: “From Küstrin, Herr Krause has requested the return of Les Ceremonies Superstitieuses des Juifs, or the Spinoza, which he once loaned me; it is supposed to belong to Herr Uhde; to my knowledge I left it with Herr Büttner on the occasion of my departure, to be delivered to Herr Krause - make sure that he does that. Herr Krause is anxious that the owner get the Spinoza back.” But apparently Krause was still convinced that Gleim had the book. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 126. 108 Possibly Royal Councilor Paul Rudolf Hagemeister. His signature appears in documents in the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Abteilung Merseburg (formerly Zentrales Staatsarchiv, Dienststelle Merseburg), H.A. Rep. 46, W. 89a, 103, 104, as administrator of the financial affairs of the king’s two youngest sisters, Princesses Ulrike and Amalia. 109 Probably Krause refers to a Lieutenant Bonin who was Prince Heinrich’s adjutant. The Bonin family was prominent in Pomerania, boasting many members who attained high military rank, and it is difficult to know which of these Krause might have been discussing. Kleist’s description of Bonin in a letter written to Gleim on the same day is less enthusiastic: “Today we have once more had to make room for a first lieutenant whom the prince attempted to have promoted to third Stabs-Capitaine because he [Bonin] was adjutant in the field with him [the prince]. Well, the king has refused to make him StabsCapitaine; meanwhile he takes precedence over Seidlitz, and has become the third lieutenant.” On 8 July, Kleist wrote, “Seidlitz is once more rid of the lieutenant who was forced on us. He complained to the king, who answered him that Lieutenant Bonin would not do the regiment any injury, and that he [the king] would surely place him [Bonin] elsewhere; that he had only put him there so that he would not forget the routine. Whether this is gospel, time will tell.” See KLEIST/SAUER n , pp. 117 and 121. 110 Seen. 97.
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werden, denn ich kann ihn heute noch beantworten. Ich hoffe Sie werden es auch thun. Ich bitte Sie wegen der vielen Mühe um Vergebung, die Ihnen der verlohme Spinosa macht. Indessen werde ich Ihnen noch mehr danken, wenn Sie mir ihn wieder schaffen könnten. Ich mag niemand gern in Schaden bringen. Sie kennen mein enges juristisches Gewissen. Wir haben in Cüstrin viel von Ihnen gesprochen. Wenn ich auch nicht neutral wäre, so wäre ich grosmüthig genug, alles das Gute von Ihnen gegen der Mds. Hagemeister und ihre Freundin zu sagen was ich wirklich gesagt habe. Der KR. Hag. ist jetzo noch in Engelland und ich weis seit 4 Monaten nicht was er macht. A propos. Ich habe der Mad. Hag. ihre scherzhafte [mc ] Lieder an meinen Bruder gegeben. Sie will sie wieder haben, und man kan sie in Berlin nicht kriegen. Werden sie nicht wieder neu gedruckt werden? Mein General stehet nicht mit auf der Liste die der König gestern von der Suite nach der König Magdeburg, gegeben. Heute aber h a tAzu ihm gesagt: in Magdeburg wollen wir das und das sehen und machen. Mein General weis also nicht, wo sich der König also vergessen habe. Er wird ihn fragen, ich weis aber nieht noch nicht ob ich werde das Vergnügen haben können, Sie da zu sehen. Sie können wohl glauben, daß ich wünsche, daß sich der König eher gestern als heute vergessen habe. / Unser Kleist hat einen recht muntern Freund an dem Hn. v. Bon. Sie können ihn vielleicht in Magdeburg zu sehen bekommen. Er hoft, da unter ein Regiment zu kommen. Spaldings Bestimmung ergötzt mich auch. Wenn er selbst doch bestimmt wäre wieder nach Berlin zu kommen. Haben Sie de la Mettrie [sic] Ouvrage de Penelope
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Have you read de la Mettrie’s Ouvrage de Penelope or Machiavel en Medecine?U1 Read it so that you too can drive many a tiresome physician crazy. Now he is said to cure all the French in the army (from Naples). I know nothing at all about the Edition royale of Horace. I will inquire about it.112 How edifyingly for the king’s purse will the Johannite monks explain the proposition that one sin punishes the other.113 My Musikalische Poesie will grow to a little octavo volume. Herr Ramler is partly to blame for it. I am writing for critics, poets, and musicians at the same time. I don’t want to reveal whether I am one of the three, however.114 So one will have to read my book. Here you have the chapters in it: I) Concerning the Birth of Poesy and The Art o f-Rhyming and the Former and Present State of the Latter; II) 111 In Ouvrage de Penelope ou Machiavel en médecine (Berlin and Geneva, 1748), La Mettrie (see n. 180) satirized the medical profession even more violently than he had in La Politique du médecin de Machiavel, ou le Chemin de la fortune ouvert aux médecins (Amsterdam, 1746). In this later assault on the medical profession few were spared, not Linnaeus, Winslow, Astruc, Ferrein, nor even La Mettrie’s former teacher Boerhaave. See MICHAUD, vol. 28 (1854), pp. 143-6; LA METTRIE/VARTANIAN, pp. 1-12. 112 On 15 May 1748, General von Stille (see n. 191) had written: “A few mail days ago, the great Friedrich sent me a new edition of Horace in French, which His Majesty himself supervised, as the title édition royale implies. In this edition, the translations of Sanadon and Tartaron have been used, and the best have been selected. Even the odes, which Dacier didn’t want to translate, have been added in order that it make a complete work.” Around this time, the edition was discussed by Gleim and his circle. On 11 June 1748, Gleim wrote to Kleist: “Do you know, now, that the king himself has authorized an edition of Horace (under the trade-mark Edition royale)? The translations of Sanadon, Dacier, etc., have been used in it; Herr von Stille has received it as a gift from the king” (KLEIST/SAUER III, p. 76). Gleim obviously thought that Krause, because of his proximity to the king’s circle, might know more about the edition. On Dacier, see n. 133; on Sanadon see GLOSSARY. 113 What Krause means here is unclear. The origin of the Johannite order can be traced to a period prior to the Crusade of Geoffrey of Bouillon (d. 1100), when a Saracen prince granted some merchants from Amalfi permission to build a cloister near the Holy Sepulcher. Members of the order formed in the cloister, at first hospitalers, later became a military order, open only to members of the nobility, and were called Knights of Malta, or Johannite Knights, after the church of St. John the Baptist that they had built in Jerusalem. By the eighteenth century, the order, which had eight branches (“nations”) throughout Europe, included members of Lutheran, Reformed, and Russian Orthodox confessions, as well as Catholics; it was still elitist and nominally military. From the time of the Reformation, there was a close connection between the Brandenburg order {die Ballei Brandenburg) and the Electors. From the reign of the Great Elector (1640-88), the title of Master was usually conferred on a Hohenzollem prince. In 1745, Friedrich II allowed the royal crown to appear on the cross of the order. Friedrich Nicolai’s Beschreibung of 1769 lists Prince Ferdinand, youngest brother of Friedrich II, as Master of the Johannite Order in Berlin. See the article “Malteser-Ritter” in Grosses Vollständiges Universal Lexikon, ed. Johann Heinrich Zedler, vol. 19 (Halle & Leipzig, 1739), cols. 772-9, NICOLAI/BESCHREEBUNG, p. 116, and Der Johanniterorden, der Malteserorden, ed. Adam Wienand, 3rd revised ed. (Köln, 1988), pp. 13-21,291-311. 114 Krause had asked Ramler for his critique of his treatise (see n. 78). On 3 February 1748, Ramler wrote to Gleim: “Herr Krause is now in the greatest lather over his Musicalische Poesie. He has continually sent me his manuscript in packages of six sheets at a time, and I still haven’t seen the end of it.” Ramler asserted that the treatise was rambling and not well organized. “I made a rough plan and gave it to him,” he went on to say. “Whether he will take this path, I rather doubt, as he constantly complains that he is not knowledgeable enough about poetry . . . ” (GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 97).
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ou Machiavel en Medecine nicht gelesen? Lesen Sie es um auch manchen überlästigen Medicum toll machen zu können. Er soll jetzo alle Franzosen in der Armee (aus Neapel) curiren. Ich weis gar nichts von der edition royale des Horaz. Ich werde mich drum erkundigen. Wie erbaulich für des Königs Beutel werden die Johanniter Münche den Satz erläutern, daß ein Laster das andere bestrafe. Meine musikalische Poesie wird zu einem kleinen Octav Bande wachsen. H. Rammler ist in etwas mit Schuld daran. Ich schreibe für Kunstrichter, Dichter, und Musikos zugleich. Ich will aber doch nicht verrathen, ob ich eins von allen drey bin. So wird man mein Buch lesen müssen. Hier haben sie die Capitel davon: I) Von der Geburt der Poesie und Dichtkunst und von der ehemaligen und
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Wherein Do the Nature of Music and its Uses Consist; III) Concerning the Union of Poetry and Music and Which Poems are actually Suited for Music; IV) Concerning the Affects thus Portrayed in Music; V) Concerning the Divisions of Lyric Poems and their Structure; VI) Concerning the Style of Musical Poems; VII) Concerning Meter; VIII) Concerning the Structure of Arias; IX) Concerning Various Kinds of All Lyrical Poems.1151 will perhaps send or bring something for you to Magdeburg. I will tell you another time why I have written to you on two half sheets of paper. That has its reason. Ask Herr von Busch to tell you his thought on Musikalische Poesie.116 Aren’t you writing cantatas any more? Well, think about Pygmalion. I would like very much to have at least three cantatas from you. Have Herr Borchward send you two that I have since composed.1171 am your most respectful K. Potsdam, the 18th Jun 1748 P.S. With Hagedom’s Odes is a treatise of de la Nauze about the songs of the ancient Greeks. I would like very much to have the beginning of it, perhaps 2 pages up to the end of where Plutarch showed that love has instructed poetry and music, and, particularly, Lieder; I would like very much to have the actual French words. I have the German ones already. Otherwise, where can I find this French treatise?118 It[em]: The first paragraph, also French, from Rollin’s History of Ancient Times and Peoples where he deals with music-in which volume, I don’t know.119 Be so kind as to have these two copied for me, or at least answer me as soon as possible.
115 The order of chapters listed here by Krause was not the final one. 116 Most probably Clamor Eberhard von dem Bussche, Domdechant (Dean) in Halberstadt, Probst of SS. Boniface and Moritz (also in Halberstadt), and Domherr in Magdeburg. See D-HTa No. 3617B, Part II (1745). I am indebted to Annagret Loose of the Gleimhaus, Halberstadt for this information. 117 On Borchward, see n. 29. 118 The two treatises that Krause mentions (see n. 132) are appended to Friedrich von Hagedom’s collection of Oden und Lieder in fü n f Büchern (HAGEDORN/ODEN), pp. 199-276. Their author, Louis Jouard de la Nauze (1696-1778), who served as tutor to the Duke of Antin and his sons, was modest and retiring, but learned. In 1729 he became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions, and published the two treatises to which Krause refers (Sur les Chansons de T ancienne Grèce) as volume 9 of the Recueil of this organization. 119 Notwithstanding his frequent disputes with church authorities, often because of them, Charles Rollin (1661-1741) was respected by many intellectuals, among them Friedrich II (see GLOSSARY). Rollin’s most successful book, Histoire ancienne des Egyptiens, des Carthaginois, des Assyriens, des Babyloniens, de Medes et des Perses, des Macédoniens, des Grecs (Paris, 1730-38), was published in a new 13-volume edition between 1733 and 1739 in Amsterdam. It was probably chapter VI (pp. 159-219), titled De la Musique, in vol. XI (1737) of this edition to which Krause refers.
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jetzigen Beschaffenheit der letzten. II) Worinn das Wesen der Musik und ihr Nutzen bestehe: III) Von der Verbindung der Dichtkunst mit der Musik und welche Poesien eigentlich dafür seyn. IV.) Von den Gemüthsbeschaffenheiten, so in der Musik vorgestellet werden. V. Von Eintheilung der Singgedichte und ihrer Einrichtung. / VI.) Von der Schreibart der musikalischen Gedichte VII.) Von den Sylbenmaaßen. VIII. Von Einrichtung der Arien. IX.) Von verschiedenen Arten ganzer Singgedichte. Ich schike oder bringe Ihnen vielleicht was mit nach Magdeburg. Ich werde Ihnen zu andrer Zeit melden, warum ich Ihnen jetzo auf 2 halben Bogen geschrieben. Das hat seine Ursache. Bitten Sie den Hn. von Busch um Mittheilung seiner Gedanken von der musikal. Poesie. Machen Sie keine Cantate mehr? Denken Sie doch an Pigmalion. Ich möchte gern wenigstens drey Cantaten von Ihnen habe. Lassen Sie sich zwey von H. Burchwarden schicken, die ich seitdem gemacht habe. Ich bin Ihr ergebenster K. Potsdam d. 18 Jun 1748 Bey P.S. Zu Hagedorns Oden ist eine Abhandlung des de la Nauze von den Liedern der alten Griechen. Ich möchte gern den Anfang davon haben etwann 2 Seiten bis wo die Stelle aufhört, daß Plutarch gezeiget, die Liebe habe (der?) die Poesie und Musik u. sondl. die Lieder gelehret; ich möchte gern die eigentlichen französischen Worte haben. Deutsch habe ich sie schon. Oder wo kann ich diese französische Abhandlung finden? It. den ersten Absatz auch französisch aus Rollins Geschichten alter Zeiten und Völker, wo er von der Musik handelt, ich weis nicht, in welchem Tomo. Lassen Sie mir dieses beydes gütigst abschreiben, oder antworten Sie mir wenigstens so bald als möglich ist.
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No. 16 (D-HTgl 2346) KRAUSE TO GLEIM [At the top of the last page of this letter is the following note, apparently made by Gleim as a reminder for his answer.] M. de la Mettrie is criticized in the Gottingen newspapers. The position of [illegible] with reference to music. it[em]. the discourse about it in pro and con.120 My worthiest friend, I am answering your letter of the 26th June somewhat late. But I was in Berlin for 4 weeks because of troublesome business and, even here, its aftermath has kept me from writing to you sooner. Our Kleist gets no leave to go to the spa; inasmuch as you expected and wanted him on your last journey, your hope was in vain. How did you enjoy yourself with the old spinsters? With the two “Freigeister”?121 I haven’t yet spoken with Herr Lieberkiihn.122 I will answer you shortly as to whether your preacher Rau is a relative of the one here.123 My conscience is tender, it is true; therefore you will assuage it greatly if you could send the Spinoza back.124 120 La Mettrie (see n. 181) was criticized at least three times in the Göttingische Zeitungen von gelehrten Sachen: by Albrecht Haller (June 1745, pp. 377-8), in a review of La Mettrie’s translation of Albrecht Haller’s annotated edition of Boerhaave’s Institutiones rei medicae\ in Haller’s review of L ’Homme machine (December 1747); in a review of the same work by Samuel Christian Hollman, a professor at Göttingen (1748, p. 427). 121 It is not possible to identify “the old spinsters” or the two Freigeister. The latter word was often used to designate those who attacked established religion. It is difficult to believe that Krause’s remark about the two Freigeister refers to Ludwig Philipp von Hagen (see n. 84) and a Herr von Haren, both Domherren in Halberstadt, who were presumably visiting Gleim (in a letter to Uz of 9 March of 1748, Gleim had mentioned that he was looking forward to spending the spring and summer in the company of these two men; see GLEIM/UZ, p. 206). Gleim’s letter to Ramler of 16 March (GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 106) expresses hope that Ramler and Kleist will join the company in Halberstadt during the summer. But his letter of 25 April (GLEIM/RAMLER 1 ,116-17) indicates that he will not have as many visitors as he hoped. 122 See n. 104. 123 Since the answer to Gleim’s query does not appear in Krause’s letters, it is impossible to determine whether the two Raus were related—their name is a common one. D-HTa No. 3617, Pt I lists a Prediger Rau as no. 24 in the list of members of the Consistorium from the time of the Brandenburg Beherrschung. Lucanus, the author of this Beschreibung, gives the date of Rau’s entry into the Consistorium as 19 March 1743. The histories of the appointments of the two Raus to congregations in Halberstadt have certain similarities (see n. 104): both appointments were proposed by Friedrich II, and both proposals were contrary to the wishes of the respective chapters in Halberstadt. Part II of the Beschreibung gives the following information regarding the appointment of the Rau whom Gleim knew: Friedrich II had proposed this Rau, who was Feldprediger in the Regiment des Gens d ’armes in Berlin, for a pastorate at the Marienkirche. In this case, the king’s wish seems to have prevailed, for Lucanus records that Rau was immediately installed as Consistoralrat and Preacher at the Marienkirche, and preached his first sermon on 8 September 1743.1 am grateful to Annagret Loose for this information. 124 Gleim had evidently taxed Krause with a conscience that was too tender. It is not clear to whom Gleim was to send the Spinoza (see nn. 99 and 107) or, indeed, if it was ever located. In any case, Krause’s letters do not mention it again.
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No. 16 (D-HTgl 2346) KRAUSE TO GLEIM [At the very top of the last page of this letter is the following note, apparently made by Gleim as a reminder for his answer.] M. de La Mettrie ist in Göttingischen Zeitungen critisirt. Die Stelle des [illegible] wegen der Musik It. Der Discourse davon im Pour et Contre. Mein werthester Freund, Ich antworte Ihnen auf Ihren Brief vom 26 Jan. etwas spät. Ich bin aber wegen einer mühsamen Gelegenheit 4 Wochen in Berlin gewesen, deren Folgen mich auch hier abgehalten haben, eher an Sie zu schreiben. Unser Kleist kriegt keinen Abschied nach dem Bade zu gehen, mithin ist Ihre Hoffnung vergebens gewesen, da Sie ihn zu Ihrer letzten Reise vermuthet und gewünschet haben. Wie haben Sie sich mit den alten Jungfern ergötzet? Wie mit den zwey Freigeistern. Ich habe den Hn. Lieberkühn noch nicht gesprochen. Ich antworte Ihnen nächstens, ob Ihr Prediger Rau ein Verwandter von dem hiesigen ist. Mein Gewissen ist freylich zärtlich, daher werden Sie es sehr soulagiren, wenn Sie ihm den Spinosa wieder schaffen könnten.
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I am not the Mile Hagemeister who desires your Lieder } 25 It is she herself. If she were not so complacent and had not become so prudish since you became acquainted with her, I would want to enclose an attestation from her about it. Meanwhile, I can assure you in all honesty that you didn’t make yourself at all displeasing to her with your levity. She always speaks of you in a certain manner and with such an air that I surely believe she would as gladly bestow her 6,000-8,000 Rth on you as on any man. Make me your surrogate suitor and begin the gallantry by having your Lieder reprinted for her. She is presently in Berlin, and there she is company for Frau Court Councilor Jaschke, who still has few acquaintances.126 Haven’t you read Ouvrage de Penelope yet?127 It deserves to be read. At present, I have one volume of it in Berlin; otherwise I would send it along to you. But just write again - you shall certainly have it. I have read and thought over everything that I learned about musical poetry: your works of Bodmer and Breitinger, which I will send back as soon as possible;128 Lami, U A rt de parler,;129 Die critische Dichtkunst;130 Mattheson’s, Mizlers’s writings;131 the treatise in the Memoires de VAcademie de Belles Lettres , volume XI (it is this from which I would like to have the excerpt); 132Horace’s A rt poeti with Dacier’s extensive commentary, which has been useful to me;133 Le Traite de
125 Seen. 102. 126 Ibid. 127 Seen. 111. 128 See n. 6. It is not clear which of Bodmer’s and Breitinger’s works Krause borrowed from Gleim. 129 UArt de parler, avec un discours dans lequel on donne une idée de l'art de persuader (1675), a highly respected treatise on rhetoric, was the first work published by Bernard Lamy (1640-1715), whose other publications included treatises on physics, mathematics, moral philosophy, history, and the Bible. During his lifetime Lamy was known not only as a teacher of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, but as a staunch defender of the theories of Descartes in the face of Thomist persecution and condemnation. By the time Gleim’s circle became acquainted with L'Art de parler, however, the controversy surrounding Lamy’s name had long since abated. Krause may have found the sections of this book dealing with the arousing of passions and the division of sounds into agreeable and disagreeable relevant to the book he was writing. See HOEFER, voi. 29 (1859), cols. 294-8. 130 Although Gottsched’s literary authority had been vigorously challenged by the late 1740s (see n. 6), the chapters in his Versuch einer critschen Dichtkunst dealing with poetic texts must nevertheless have held interest for Krause. 131 See nn. 17 and 18. 132 The treatise by La Nauze (see n. 118) in the Recueil de TAcademie des Inscriptions, vol. IX (1736), which Krause lists inaccurately here. 133 André Dacier (1651-1722) began his education in his native Castre and continued it in Saumur as a student of the celebrated humanist, Tanneguy Lefèvre (1615-72). In 1683, Dacier married Lefèvre’s daughter Anne (1654—1720), with whom he collaborated in many of his translations (see note 30). André Dacier’s translation of the works of Horace with commentary was first published in 10 volumes between 1681 and 1689, and appeared subsequently in many editions. Possibly the edition to which Krause refers is the following, to which Noel-Etienne Sanadon (see GLOSSARY) had contributed critical commentary: Oeuvres d'Horace, en latin, traduites enfrançoispar M. Dacier, et le P. Sanadon avec les remarques critiques, historiques et géographiques, de l'un & de l'autre, 8 vols. (Amsterdam, 1735). See HOEFER, vol. 12 (1856), col. 758.
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Ich bin nicht die Mds. Hagem., die Ihre Lieder verlangt. Sie ist es selbst. Wenn Sie [sie] nicht so commode wäre, und nicht so prüde geworden, seitdem Sie sie gekannt haben, / so wollte ich darüber ein Attestat von ihr beyfügen. Indessen kann ich Ihnen im Emst versichern, daß Sie mit Ihrer Leichtfertigkeit sich bey ihr gar nicht unangenehm gemacht haben. Sie spricht allemal mit einem gewissen Tour und [einer] solchen Miene von Ihnen, daß ich gewiß glaube sie würde Ihnen ihre 6 bis 8000 Rth. so gerne als irgend einer Mannesperson zuwenden. Machen Sie mich zum Freywerber, und fangen Sie mit der Galanterie an, daß Sie ihr Ihre Lieder wieder auflegen lassen. Sie ist jetzo in Berlin, und der Frau Hofräthin Jäschken zu Gesellschaft da, die noch wenig Bekannten hat. Haben Sie Ouvrage de Penelope noch nicht gelesen? Es verdienet gelesen zu werden. Ich habe gegenwärtig einen Band davon in Berlin, sonst schickte ich es Ihnen mit. Aber schreiben Sie nur noch einmal, so sollen Sie es gewiss haben. Ich habe alles gelesen und durchgedacht, was ich über die musikalische Poesie gekannt habe. / Ihre Bodmer und Breitingerischen Werke, die ich ehestens wiederschicken will. Lami L’art de parier. Die critische Dichtkunst. Matthesons, Mitzlers Schriften. Die Abhandlung in den Memoires de l’academie de belles lettres Tome XI. Es ist die wo ich die Stelle draus haben wollte. Horatii Art poeti mit Daciers weitläufigem und mir nützlich gewesenem Comentair. Le traite de
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Vopinion;134 Le Spectacle de la nature;135 Gresit [sic] and I no longer know what all.136 From this and that place I have been strengthened in my opinions. But I have found nothing new; here you have my scribblings themselves. Censure and criticize them very severely, but on the condition that you and Herr Uz and Herr Ramler produce cantatas for me. With the latter, I can accomplish nothing. Just try your luck. He would certainly be quite skillful with it, just like Herr von Kleist who is also dilatory, however. De poematum cantu of Vossius has not been particularly useful to me.137 He [Vossius] prescribes rules for Latin poems which are to be read, 134 Traité de T opinion, ou Mémoires pour servir à T histoire de T esprit humain (Paris, 1735) was the first and best known work of Gilbert-Charles Legendre (1688-1746), Marquis de St.-Aubin-surLoire. Legendre, trained for a career in public service, was appointed Maître des requêtes ordinaires de l ’hôtel du roi in 1714, but left this position a few years later to devote the rest of his life to his studies. Inspired by Pascal’s interest in an Italian book on opinions, Legendre decided to write his own study, a treatise of encyclopedic scope, which attempts to view the entire history of thought through the lens of a doubter, exposing prejudices and contradictions in the opinions of each author discussed. In this sixvolume work, Legendre deals with bellettristic, historical, philosophical, mathematical, astronomical, medical, political, and moral topics. See HOEFER, vol. 30 (1869), cols. 384-5. 135 Le Spectacle de la nature, a popularization of natural science, was the most celebrated of the works of Noël-Antoine Pluche (1688-1761). Pluche enjoyed early success, having been appointed Professor of Humanities at the Collège in his native Rheims at the age of 22, and advanced rapidly in his career until confronted with the prospect of accepting the papal bull Unigenitus. His opposition to the bull forced him to resign as Director of the Collège at Laon, and a warrant of imprisonment was issued against him. Through the mediation of Charles Rollin (see n. 119), Pluche was offered asylum in Normandy. Although he continued to oppose the papal bull, he was eventually allowed to settle in Paris, where he taught geometry and history, and earned a considerable reputation as an author. Le Spectacle de la nature, a compendious work in eight volumes, first appeared in Paris in 1732, and went through many subsequent editions. It is in the form of a dialogue, and deals with botany, zoology, geology, geography, astronomy, physics, political science, philosophy, education, the arts (particularly a long section that advocates a multicultural view of musical styles), morality, and religion. In L ’Homme machine (see n. 106), La Mettrie dismisses Pluche’s thought in Le Spectacle de la nature as frivolous, shallow, and unoriginal. See HOEFER 40 (1872), cols. 497-9, and LA METTRIE/V ART ΑΝΙΑΝ, pp. 150-51,205. 136 In the eighteenth century, Jean Baptiste Louis Gresset (1709-77) was one of France’s most illustrious men of letters. On the accession of Friedrich II (1740), Gresset addressed an ode to the king to which Friedrich responded with an ode of his own. But although Gresset was promptly elected a member of the Akademie, he declined to join the other French philosophes in Berlin and Potsdam. He was greatly respected by Gleim and members of his circle; on 25 April 1748, Gleim writes to Ramler that Ambrosius Haude will send him Gresset’s Oeuvres from an auction. It is likely that Krause knew of Gleim’s interest in this celebrated French author; possibly he had even borrowed Gleim’s copy of Gresset’s works. See p. 71, note 13: rewrite as follows: Isaak Vossius (1618-18), the son of a famous polymath, was himself a gifted polymath for hwom his contemporaries had great expectations. Krause was probably interested in consulting Vossius’s treatise on Prosody, De poematum cantu et viribus rhyhthmi (Oxford, 1673), because of its treatment of poetic meters and the expression of affects themes which Krause addressed in Von der musikalischen Poesie. See GLOSSARY. 137 Isaak Vossius (1618-89), the son of a famous polymath, was himself a gifted polymath, for whom his contemporaries had great expectations. Bom in Leyden, he acquired most of his education, and also spent the greater part of his life, in Holland. His gifts were recognized by several mlers of his day: Queen Christine of Sweden, who engaged him as her Greek instructor (1648-54), Louis XIV, who gave him a sizeable allowance for many years, and Charles II of England, who bestowed on him a canonry in Windsor. Despite the considerable recognition that Vossius won during his lifetime, he
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l’opinion; Le Spectacle de la Nature; Gresit, und ich weis nicht mehr was alles. Ich bin durch diese und jene Stelle in meinen Meynungen bestärket worden. Nichts neues aber habe ich gefunden. Hier haben Sie meine Schmierereyen selbst. Censiren und critisiren Sie sie recht scharf; aber mit der Condition, daß Sie und H. Uz und H. Rammler mir Cantaten schaffen. Den letzten kan ich zu nichts bringen. Versuchen Sie doch Ihr Heil. Er wäre gewiß recht geschickt dazu u. sowohl wie der H. v. Kleist, der aber auch so commode ist. Vossius de poematem cantu ist mir nicht sonderlich dienl.[ich] gewesen. Er schreibt Regeln zur lateinischen Poesien
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but not sung. But song has its own rights and rules, and already presupposes an accomplished poet; I only change him into a musical one. Do not return evil for evil, but write to me again soon, and give me quickly your judgment of my writings without sending them back again immediately. I would indeed like to have them published; yet don’t allow yourself to be incommoded into skimming through them too quickly. One must leave time for you men of affairs. I close and am your most respectful Krause Pots., the 3rd Augus 1748 No. 17 (D-HTgl 2347) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My most worthy friend, How gladly I send along letters to you with such people as Herr Ponikau.138 You can find a hundred good qualities to like in men like him, as you will in this worthy friend. But why do I write to you of this? Herr von Kleist will have portrayed him himself from real life, that means portrayed him well. I have simply not wanted to, nor should I, let him travel without my letter to you, for he has so firmly resolved to visit you soon. seems to have disappointed many of his contemporaries by producing fewer and shallower works than were expected of him, and by acquiring a reputation for frivolity and profligacy. Krause was probably interested in consulting Vossius’s treatise on prosody, De Poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi (Oxford, 1673), because of its treatment of poetic meters and the expression of affects - themes which Krause addressed in Von der musikalischen Poesie. See ADB, vol. 40 (1896), 370-72. 138 Ponikau (d. 1757), the son of a Saxon general and ambassador to the court of Friedrich Wilhelm I, was a young officer in the Prussian army. His name appears in the correspondence of members of Gleim’s circle between 18 May 1748 and 11 December 1757. Krause, returning to Potsdam from Kiistrin around the end of May, seems to have met Ponikau at that time (KLEIST/SAUER n , p. 116). In a letter to Gleim dated 5 August 1748, Kleist writes that Ponikau is far greater than his father—although there is little hope that he will ever be a general or an ambassador—because he places great value on friendship. Kleist adds that the presence in Potsdam of Ponikau, who shares his literary interests, has contributed much to his happiness (KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 120-21). He deplores the fact that Ponikau has been assigned to a battalion in Magdeburg (KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 125), and recommends the young man to Gleim (for whom Magdeburg was only a short distance away). Gleim’s letters of 1748 are full of high expectations for a meeting with Ponikau, and for the subsequent approval of the young officer. Ponikau’s friendship with Gleim and Kleist seems to have cooled considerably around the beginning of 1749 (KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 189, and KLEIST/SAUER III, p. 145), but his name continues to appear occasionally afterwards in letters from members of Gleim’s circle. In a letter of 9 December 1757 (KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 460), Kleist notifies Gleim of Ponikau’s death in the battle of Kollin (18 June 1757). Gleim’s answer of 12 December mentions that he has heard nothing from Ponikau for four years, and expresses sympathy for the latter’s widow (KLEIST/SAUER El, p. 264). See also GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 355, 380, and II, p. 117; KLEIST/SAUER n , pp. 119,122-23,125-7,129-30, 134,139,189,197,199-200,256, and El, pp. 74,77,81, 88,90,96,98,105,145,178.
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vor, die da sollen gelesen aber nicht / gesungen werden. Der Gesang aber hat seine eigenen Rechte und Regeln und setzt einen vollkommenen Dichter schon voraus, ich mache ihn nur zum musikalischen. Vergelten Sie nicht böses mit bösem sondern schreiben mir bald wieder, und melden Sie mir bald Ihr Jugement über meine Papiere ohne Sie [sie] mir eben gleich wieder zurück zu schicken. Ich möchte Sie zwar gerne drucken lassen, doch dürfen Sie sich deswegen nicht incommodiren, sie zu geschwind durchzublättem. Euch Leuten von Afairen muß man Zeit lassen. Ich schliesse und bin Ihr ergebenster Krause Pot. d 3 Aug 1748 No. 17 (D-HTgl 2347) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerwerthester Freund, die so sind Wie gern gebe ich solchen Leuten Briefe an Sie mit, A als der H. v. Ponikau ist, die Ihnen durch hundert gute Eigenschaften so wohl gefallen können, als Ihnen dieser braver Freund gefallen wird. Doch was schreibe ich hievon? Der H. v. Kleist wird Ihnen derselben schon nach dem Leben, das heist gut geschildert haben. Ich habe ihn nur ohne einen Brief an Sie, nicht wollen noch sollen reisen lassen, da er sich so fest vomimmt, Sie bald zu besuchen. / Was macht mein Buch? O wenn es doch nur
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How is my book doing? Oh, if only it were so good as to earn a very good critique from you, and if only you had time to make it. Herr Sulzer has told me you would like to have music from me.139 What kind, then? Your Geflügelte Schiangel Will you not write another cantata? You certainly haven’t needed my book at all for this purpose. It is only for completely ignorant, or preoccupied, or dull poets. You and your kind create something good even without instruction. Help me spur on Herr von Kleist, Herr Ramler, and Herr Uz, whose sensitive hearts are so well suited for writing cantatas. I can get nothing from them. I would like to have a half dozen. They would be engraved. You would write a preface to them as stipulated, etc. Herr Uz has surely received his packet from last winter. I have some news about it. I had written to him at the same time. But I have received no answer. You should know that Herr von Kleist and I intend to visit you in October. The king will go to Bayreuth. My General goes also, and I to Halberstadt. May heaven let this journey not be canceled. Farewell. Enjoy Herr von Ponikau. Hold me in your affection. Write to me soon, and believe me to be your most respectful servant Krause Potsdam, the 20th Aug. 1748 No. 18 (D-HTgl 2348) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My most worthy friend, Are you dead, or are you angry? Why don’t you write to me any more? I don’t have as clever a wit as Herr Lange and his Doris, who once quarreled with you over this very issue.140 So in order to rouse you from your inactivity, I must resort to other means. Along with this written letter, the enclosed printed one is to remind you that I would like very much to see something from you.141 So write to me soon, I entreat 139 Seen. 55. 140 Samuel Gotthold Lange (see n. 6) had married Anna Dorothea Gniige (d. 1764); around the same time, he was called to a pastorate in Laublingen (1737). Dorothea Lange was called “Doris” by Lange, Pyra, and their friends, who often referred to each other in their poems and letters by pastoral names. See ADB, vol. 17 (1883), pp. 634-5. 141 Probably the printed letter that Krause encloses is his Lettre à Mr. le Marquis de B. sur la différence de la musique italienne et la musique française, first published in French in 1748, later translated into German by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (see n. 165) and published in KRAUSE/ SCHREIBEN, pp. 1-23. In his letter, Krause reviews the various positions taken by late seventeenthcentury critics in the controversy over the merits of French and Italian musical styles. He carefully avoids partisanship in the controversy—these two national styles, he maintains, have subsequently influenced each other to the advantage of both. For the benefit of the French recipient of the letter, Krause asserts that he finds French songs engaging. But he also finds Italian styles - which prevail at the court of Friedrich II - not only technically brilliant, as seventeenth-century critics had conceded, but moving as well.
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so gut wäre, daß es mir recht gute Critik von Ihnen verdiente und wenn Sie doch so viel Zeit hätten, sie zu machen. H. Sulzer hat mir gesagt, Sie wollten Noten von mir haben. Was denn für welche? Ihre geflügelte Schlange? Werden Sie denn keine haben Cantate mehr machen? Sie brauchen ja gar mein Buch dazu nicht gebraucht. Das ist ganz nur für entweder Aunwissende, oder praeoccupirte oder matte Poeten. Sie und Ihres gleichen machen auch ohne Anweisung etwas gutes. Helfen Sie doch den / Hn v. Kleist, H. Rammlern und H. Uzen deren empfindliche Herzen zum Cantaten machen so geschickt sind, dazu anspomen. Ich kann von denselben nichts kriegen. Ich wollte gern ein halb dutzend haben. Die liesse man in Kupfer stechen. Sie machten mir Vorrede dazu abgeredtermassen pp. H. Uz hat doch sein Packet vom vorigen Winter gekriegt. Ich habe gewisse Nachricht. Ich hatte ihm zugleich geschrieben. Ich habe aber keine Antwort. / Wissen Sie auch wohl, daß der H. v. Kleist und ich uns vorgenommen haben, Sie auf den October zu besuchen. Der König geht nach Bayreuth. Mein General auch, und ich nach Halberstadt. Himmel laß diese Reise nicht zurückgehen. Leben Sie wohl. Ergötzen Sie sich mit dem Hn. v. Ponikau. Lieben Sie mich. Schreiben Sie mir bald und halten Sie mich für Ihren ergebensten Knecht Krause Potsdam den 20 Aug. 1748 No. 18 (D-HTgl 2348) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerwerthester Freund, Sind Sie tod, oder sind Sie böse? Warum schreiben Sie mir nicht mehr? Ich habe keinen solchen artigen Witz, wie Herr Lange und seine Doris, die sich einmal über eben diese Sache mit Ihnen gezanket haben. Um Sie also aus Ihrer Unthätigkeit zu erwecken, muß ich zu einem andern Mittel greifen. Nebst diesem geschriebenen Briefe, soll Sie beygehender gedruckter erinnern, daß ich gern auch was von Ihnen sehen möchte. Schreiben Sie mir also bald, ich bitte Ihnen drum. Kommt des Hn.
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you. Isn’t Das Landleben of Herr von Kleist coming out at the fair, and also Herr Uz’s Odesl142 I must have both as soon as possible. Therefore you must give me news of this right away, and also of any other fine thing that is coming out. Well, what is your muse doing? Has she drowned? Heaven should have made you A judge, Or perhaps an emperor, Or perhaps a pastor, But not a Domherr If you won’t write any more poetry. I can assure you that my published marquis is the Marquis d’Argens, to whom the king has given your prince’s house and garden, together with 2,000 Rth, and tapestries, and all sorts of other things, in order to make a proper marquis of him.143 How are my musical-poetic conceits doing? Ha, ha, I know, of course, that you haven’t had time to think of them. You are always out hunting, as Herr von Kleist has told me. You know of Vaucanson’s Fluteur,144 At present, there is a man here who has a 142 Das Landleben, dedicated to Ramier, was published in 1748 in the Neue Beyträge zum Vergnügen des Verstandes und Witzes, vol. 5, pt. 1, pp. 75-8 (according to Wilhelm Körte, Gleim’s nephew, who published an edition of Kleist’s works in 1804, this poem was written in 1744 while Kleist was in Standquartier [military base] in Brieg). The “odes” to which Krause refers are probably Uz’s Lyrische Gedichte, published in 1749 (see n. 77). See KLEIST/KÖRTE, vol. 1, pp. XII and 18. 143 Jean-Baptiste Boyer, Marquis d’Argens (1704-71) was one of the most colorful of the French philosophes at the court of Friedrich II. He made his debut as a writer with his Lettres juives, chinoises et cabalistiques (1736-39), although he had no preparation for a literary career other than his own desultory reading. Friedrich, the Crown Prince of Prussia, was charmed by D ’Argens’s writings and invited him to Berlin, an invitation that d’Argens did not venture to accept until after Friedrich’s accession to the throne. When D’Argens came to Berlin, he was appointed Chamberlain to the king and Director of Belles Lettres at the Akademie, and was allowed for a while to treat the king with great familiarity. Contemporary sources that discuss D ’Argens’s marriage to the dancer and actress Barbe (“Babet”) Cochois (see n. 179) are vague about the date of the marriage; Schneider (see Bibliography) names the date as 21 January, and the context of his discussion indicates that the marriage took place in 1749. In any case, all of these sources agree that D ’Argens lost his place as Friedrich’s favorite when he married Cochois without the king’s permission (see GLOSSARY). The “prince” to whom Krause refers is Gleim’s former employer, Prince Dessau. See n. 11 and GLOSSARY. 144 Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-82) had demonstrated an unusual aptitude for mechanics early in life. After completing studies under Jesuit teachers at his native Grenoble, he went to Lyons and Paris to make a more intensive study of mechanical science. The statue of a flute player in the garden of the Tuileries inspired him to construct a robot that imitated the movements of a flutist and the sounds of the flute. Several years after Vaucanson’s published account (1738) of his inventions - the flutist, a tambourin player, and an artificial duck - Friedrich II tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to come to Berlin. Although Vaucanson continued to build mechanical figures, he also devoted himself to the more practical occupations of overseeing silk manufacture, and of inventing machines for winding silk. When he died, he left his collection of mechanical curiosities to the Queen of France, who gave it to the Académie des Sciences. The collection was soon scattered; the Fluteur and the Jouer de tambourin ultimately made their way to Germany. See HOEFER, vol. 45 (1866), cols. 1019-20, and VAUCANSON.
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von Kleists Landleben nicht diese Messe heraus, wie auch H. Uzens Oden? Ich muß beydes so bald als möglich haben. / Daher sollen Sie mir gleich davon Nachricht geben, wie auch, wo sonst noch was artiges herauskommt. Was macht denn Ihre Muse? Ist sie versoffen? Der Himmel hätte, Sie wohl zum Richter, Auch wohl zum Kayser, Auch wohl zum Pfarrer Nur nicht zum Domherr machen sollen, wenn Sie keine Verse mehr machen wollen. Ich kan Ihnen wohl sagen, mein gedruckter Marquis ist der Marquis d’Argens, dem der König Ihres Prinzen Haus und Garten, nebst 2000 Rth. Geld und Tapeten und allerhand mehr geschenkt hat, um daraus sich ein anständiges / Marquisat zu machen. Was machen denn meine musikalischpoetischen Grillen? Ha, ha, ich weis schon, Sie haben nicht Zeit gehabt, daran zu gedenken. Sie sind immer auf der Jagd, wie mir der H. v. Kleist gesagt hat. Von Vaucansons Fluteur wissen Sie. Jetzo ist ein Mann hier, der hat einen
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shepherd and a shepherdess; they play together on transverse flutes under a tree, upon which three birds are sitting who join in with them. The height of this machine is so great that an ordinary room is not high enough for it. The king will probably see it today or tomorrow; and then I will see it also when it is my turn. The day before yesterday, there was an intermezzo, and yesterday, the rehearsal for the opera, Iphigenia, which will be played this winter.145 The scenes in which she takes leave of her parents, in which the mother upbraids the father, in which he complains of the harshness of Heaven, but yields to it, and in which she is guaranteed as a sacrifice are extremely moving. A dead march and a chorus, “Mora, mora, Iphigenia,” are incomparably characterized, and the latter is quite lugubrious. Be sure to write to me again soon. This time you made me wait much too long. Don’t do it any more. I recently wrote to Herr Lange, and sent him music to his Hy las.146 I am your most respectful Krause Potsdam, the 8th Octob. 1748 No. 19 (D-HTgl 2349) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, You have written to me like lightning. I will do the same for you. For it is just now reported that the king goes to Berlin tomorrow, and my General will go to the estates that he received from his father. I have inquired about the Collecte.147 Nothing comes of that any more, and the 145 Carl Heinrich Graun’s Ifigenia in Aulide, with a text by Villati after Racine’s tragedy of the same name, was to open the carnival season on 13 December 1748. Graun’s opera had much the same plot and sequence of scenes as Gluck’s Ifigenia (1774) would have. Schneider reports that, during the composition of this work, Graun was in love with “Frau Glockengiesserin,” the rich widow of a doctor. The king allegedly encouraged Graun in his love-making, and forbade a distinguished officer, who was Graun’s rival, to continue his suit. Contemporary critics, says Schneider, attributed the expressive quality of the love-arias to the state of Graun’s love life. See SCHNEIDER/PRACHT, p. 30. 146 Hylas may have been the name of a cantata text by Samuel Gotthold Lange (see n. 6), or of a shorter poem, which Krause set to music. Or Hylas may refer to a poem by Pyra, “Des Thirsis weissagender Segen über Hilas”, in the collection of poems by Lange and Pyra titled Thirsis und Damons freundschaftliche Lieder (1745, 2nd ed. 1749). The pastoral names Thirsis (Pyra), Damon (Lange) and Hylas (Ludolf, Lange’s son) were first suggested, not by Lange and Pyra, but by Bodmer (see n. 6), who borrowed them from the “Pastorals” published by Alexander Pope in Tonson’s Poetical Miscellanies (1709). Whether it was Bodmer who first designated Gleim and Ramler as “Daphnis” and “Alexis” respectively, the pastoral names by which they addressed each other, is not clear. See LANGE/PYRA, Vand 30. 147 In ZEDLER, vol. 1, col. 688, Collecte was defined as follows: all kinds of payments, expenditures that are levied by authorities on their subjects in cases of want, for the best interests of the republic, and that thus must be paid by everyone. According to his letter of 7 October to Kleist, Gleim had asked Krause to obtain the consent of the government for such an expenditure. See KLEIST/ASUER III, p. 89.
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Schäfer und eine Schäferin, die blasen mit einander auf Querflöten, unter einem Baume, worauf drey Vögel sitzen, die damit einstimmen. Die Höhe der Maschine ist so groß, daß eine gemeine Stube nicht hoch genug dazu ist. Der König wird es heut oder morgen wohl sehen; und ich denn auch, wenn die Reihe an mich kommen wird. Vorgestern ist hier wieder Zwischenspiel und gestern die Probe von der Oper: Iphigenia, gewesen, die diesen Winter soll gespielet werden. Die Scenen, da sie von den Eltern Abschied nimmt; da die Mutter den Vater schilt; da er sich über die Härte des Himmels sich [sic] zwar beklagt, doch darein ergiebt und da sie zum Opfer gesichert wird, sind äusserst rührend. Ein Todten Marsch, und ein Chor: Mora mora, Iphigenia, sind unvergleichlich caracterisiert, und das letzte gehet recht lugubre. Schreiben Sie mir ja bald wieder. Dießmal haben Sie mich gar zu lange warten lassen. Thun Sie es nicht mehr. Ich habe letzt an H. Langen geschrieben und seinem Hylas Noten geschickt. Ich bin Ihr ergebenster Krause Potsdam den 8 Octob.1748 No. 19 (D-HTgl 2349) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Freund, Sie haben mir wie der Blitz geschrieben, ich thue Ihnen desgleichen. Denn gleich verlautet daß der König morgen nach Berlin gehet und mein General will von da auf seine Güter, die er von seinem Vater angenommen. Ich habe mich erkundiget wegen der Collecte. Es kommt dabey nichts mehr
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king himself no longer consents to it. In a period of half a year, no one - except, recently, an officer - has got one. So the councils are accepting no more petitions for it, and if application is made directly to the king and he will not consent to it, he sends it back to the councils, and they act in accordance with the order not to grant anything. I pity the poor Wehrstedters, but who can help?148 I still have much to do this evening. I will close; farewell, and hold in affection your most respectful Krause P., the 10th Oct. 1748
No. 20 (D-HTgl 2350) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, I received the enclosed letter on Sunday, and you will pardon me for having broken its seal because of my eagerness to know the presumed contents. Fortunately, there seemed to me to be nothing in it that I should not know. Meanwhile, I am exceedingly obliged to you for the friendship expressed in it.149 And although there is nothing to be had, I will not let you off the hook unless you find me something in your district, or preferably, in your city. You are certainly worthy of one’s endeavor to live in the same place with you. Don’t take it amiss that I didn’t send you the
148 It was apparently on behalf of the inhabitants of Wehrstedt (presently incorporated into the city of Halberstadt), that Krause had inquired about the Collecte (see n. 147). At this time, the congregation at Wehrstedt was still under the jurisdiction of the Paulusstift at Halberstadt. Otto Legel of Helmstedt, Germany, keeper of the records of the Laurentiuskirche at Wehrstedt, and author of articles on the history of the area, suggested in a letter to me, dated 29 April 1994, that Krause’s remark might be explained as follows: “When Friedrich Wilhelm I (1713-40) was king of Prussia, he brought about coherence and unity in the economic and political life of the many regions that he ruled. He was a strict leader, and his discipline prevailed everywhere. Only in one instance had he not taken vigorous action: the rich Domherren and Stiftsherren—and thus those of Halberstadt—continued their idle lives. They wrung their rich income from the sweat of the downtrodden peasants. “In Wehrstedt, particularly, these circumstances made themselves shockingly evident, even, in fact, in the reign of Friedrich II (1740-86). The peasants of Wehrstedt were small farmers, and very poor. The Halberstadt Domherren and Stiftsherren nevertheless squeezed the last drop from them, so that poverty in Wehrstedt increased continually. This situation did not change until 1816, when the Wehrstedt congregation was released from the domain of the Paulusstift in Halberstadt, and became a free, independent congregation in the Halberstadt district.” I am grateful to Herr Legel for his communication to me on the subject. 149 The communication to Krause mentioned here has not survived. From Krause’s remarks regarding the “enclosed letter,” it appears that he was seeking a position, and that Gleim had written him a letter of recommendation.
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heraus und der König accordiert auch keine mehr. In einer Zeit von einem halben Jahre hat niemand als letzt ein Officier noch eine gekriegt. M m Die Collegia nehmen keine Suppliquen des halb mehr an, und wenn man immediate beym König einkommen und er will es nicht accordiren, so schicket er es an die Collegia zurück, und die richten sich nach der Ordre nichts zu geben. / Ich beklage die armen Wehrstedter aber wer kann helfen? Ich habe noch sehr viel den Abend zur thun. Ich schliesse, leben Sie wohl und lieben Ihren ergebensten Krause P .dlO O ct. 1748 No. 20 (D-HTgl 2350) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Allerliebster Freund, Ich habe schon am Sontage beygehenden Brief gekriegt, und Sie werden wegen der Begierde den vermutheteten [sic] Inhalt zu wissen mich entschuldigen daß ich ihn aufgebrochen habe. Zum Glück scheint mir nichts drin zu seyn, das ich nicht wissen könnte. Indessen bin ich Ihnen für die mir darunter bezeigte Freundschaft ungemein verbunden. Und obgleich jetzo nichts ist, so lasse ich Sie deswegen doch nicht, Sie versorgen mich denn in Ihrer Gegend oder am liebsten in Ihrer Stadt. Sie sind es in der That werth, daß man mit Ihnen an einem Orte leben will. Nehmen Sie
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letter sooner. I have always looked forward to seeing you. Aren’t you coming here any more? How are your affairs going? You’re not going to remain in Berlin until we come, are you, and then depart on that very day? Don’t do that. Have a little friendship for me, and let me enjoy your presence. Herr Hofrat Jaschke would like very much to speak to you.150 But you must make an appointment with him; otherwise, when you want to visit him, you may not see him. Doctors are always on the streets and by sick-beds. I heard a little bird sing. Herr Sulzer wants to travel back with you. Does he perhaps want to fetch a wife in Magdeburg?151 Give the dear man my best greetings. Tomorrow morning I will send to Herr Kleist to hear news of you. Farewell until we see each other - certainly that will be this month here or in Berlin. I am your most respectful Krause P. the 27 Nov. 1748 No. 21 (D-HTgl 2351) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My most worthy friend, I have learned from Herr Sulzer that you arrived home safely.1521 am glad, and if it is not too old-fashioned, I wish that you may have begun the New Year healthy and happy. Herr von Kleist has come here with Herr Sulzer on his journey.1531 saw him and spoke with him, and asked him to come to my home on Saturday afternoon and spend the evening with me. He promised, too, but an unfortunate circumstance put
150 Seen. 83. 151 Krause refers to Catherine Wilhelmine Sulzer (1732-61), daughter of Johann Adolf Keusenhoff. She was adopted by her uncle Heinrich Wilhelm Bachmann of Magdeburg (1706-53), whose portrait, possibly by Gottfried Hempel, hangs in the Gleimhaus in Halberstadt (see BILDNISSE, no. 41). Gleim was well acquainted with Bachmann’s son, also named Heinrich Wilhelm, and gave him the pastoral name Palemon (see GLEIM/UZ, p. 319). Sulzer had met Wilhelmine Keusenhof in 1744 when he was tutor to Bachmann’s sons (see n. 55). Although he was obviously courting her at the time of this letter from Krause, they were not married until December 1750. She is mentioned frequently in the correspondence of Gleim, who describes her as having a friendly disposition and as being “innocent Nature itself’ (GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 286). In 1759, she gave birth to a son, and from this time her health declined. She died on 16 March 1761. In the same year, Sulzer published a biography in her memory: Ehrengedächtniß der Frau Catherine Wilhelmine Sulzer gebohmer Keusenhof (Berlin: Winter, 1761). 152 Concerning Sulzer, see n. 55. 153 Gleim, who had made a visit to Berlin in December 1748, stopped in Potsdam on his return trip to Halberstadt. He was accompanied as far as Potsdam by Sulzer, who persuaded Kleist to come back to Berlin with him for a brief visit. See KLEIST/SAUERII, pp. 135-7, III, pp. 91-3.
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nicht übel, das ich Ihnen den Brief nicht eher zugeschickt. Ich habe Ihnen immer entgegen gesehen. Kommen Sie denn nicht wieder hieher? Wie gehen denn Ihre Sachen? Sie bleiben doch nicht etwann so lange in Berlin, bis wir dahin kommen und dann reisen Sie just den Tag weg? Thun Sie das nicht. / Haben Sie ein bisgen Freundschaft vor mich, und lassen Sie mich Ihrer auch gemessen. H. Hofr. Jäschke wollte Ihnen gerne sprechen. Sie müssen sich aber bey ihm melden lassen, sonst treffen Sie ihn vielleicht nicht, wenn Sie ihn besuchen wollen. Die Medici sind immer auf den Strassen und bey den Kranken Betten. Ich habe hören ein Vögelchen singen. H. Sulzer wolle mit Ihnen zurück reisen. Will er sich etwann eine Frau in Magdeburg hohlen? Grüssen Sie ihn doch bestens, den Werthen. Morgen früh schicke ich zum H. Kleist, um von Ihnen was zu erfahren. Leben Sie wohl, bis wir uns sehen, aber das ja noch gewiß in diesen [ric] Monat hier oder in Berlin. Ich bin Ihr gehorsamster Krause P .d 2 7 Nov. 1748 No. 21 (D-HTgl 2351) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerwerthester Freund, Daß Sie glücklich wieder zu Hause gekommen, habe ich durch H. Sulzem erfahren. Es freuet mich, und wo es nicht zu altmodisch ist, so wünsche ich, daß Sie das Neue Jahr gesund und vergnügt mögen angefangen haben. Der H. von Kleist ist mit H. Sulzem auf seinem Reisewege, hieher gekommen. Ich habe ihn gesehen und gesprochen und gebeten, Sonnabends nach Mittage zu mir zu kommen, und den Abend bey mir zu bleiben. Er versprach es auch, ein Unglück aber führt ihm den
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the idea of leaving on that very afternoon into his head. So Herr Ramler came alone; but think, then, how annoyed I was.154 Certainly that was too much, for our good Kleist was still on leave. I am still angry at him when I think about this, and I will surely quarrel with him when I return to Potsdam. But meanwhile, we have drunk his health and yours, each separately and individually. How is it with my Musikalische Poesie? Are you keeping your promise and working on it diligently? Do it, I ask you kindly, but soon, though, for in February we are going to Potsdam; and if I could have all or part of it back, I would like to alter everything in conformity with your comments and reminders, and in accordance with these, add one thing and another that I have collected ever since as pertinent to the subject. I would like very much to have the work published by Easter. The Reflexions sur la Peinture et sur la Poesie have altogether strengthened me in the belief that I am on the right path, and what can still be altered in the future will consist only in particulars and elaborations.155 But as I have already told you, I would like most of all to have the work published in Hamburg because it would sell best if it were known there. But since I mention the Berlin Opera so much in it, it would not be a drawback if Berlin were given as the place of publication. If I could get something from the publisher for copying expenses, I would like very much to avail myself of it in order to be compensated for this. Now you could do me a favor, if you would write a preliminary letter to Herr von Hagedom about this.156 After that, I would like, in February, to send him a chapter, perhaps, for perusal and examination, and if I offered the work for publication to one of the book dealers there, then they - 1 mean Bons [sic] and whatever the other is called who follows after him in such things - would surely ask him about the value of the book, and
154 In a letter to Gleim dated 25 January 1749, Ramler expresses his gratitude to Sulzer for having “abducted” Kleist from Potsdam, and mentions visits to the theater and the opera in Kleist’s company. But Kleist, who was often moody and seclusive (see, for example, n. 90), probably did not relish the prospect of a large gathering. Ramler excuses Kleist’s sudden departure, explaining that the gathering at Krause’s house - twelve people who were expecting the guest of honor - would have been overwhelming for a Berliner, let alone a stranger. GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 152. 155 Réflexions critiques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, a treatise on aesthetics, which appeared in many editions during the eighteenth century, was first published in Paris in 1719 by Jean-Baptiste Abbé Dubos (see GLOSSARY). In it are discussed the theory of art as an imitation of nature and the problematic role of music as a mimetic art. Dubos’s explanation, that music imitates the passions of the soul as they are expressed by the human voice (see DUBOS/REFLEXIONS, vol. 3, pp. 435-6), provided a solution to the problem of musical imitation for many aesthetic theorists of the eighteenth century, among them Charles Batteux (see n. 224). 156 Friedrich von Hagedom (1708-54), a native of Hamburg, had established himself as an important poet with the publication of the collection titled Fabeln und Erzählungen (1738). His fluent, graceful style won for him the admiration of literary figures of the day, many of whom entered into correspondence with him: Bodmer and Breitinger, Gottsched, the anacreontic poets with Gleim as their leading exponent, and Klopstock (see n. 195). See ADB, vol. 10 (1879), pp. 325-7.
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Gedanken in den Kopf eben den Sonnabend zu Mittage weg zu reisen. Da kam H. Rammler allein, aber fragen Sie denn, wie ich mich geärgert habe. Gewiß, das was [war] zu viel, da unser weither noch Urlaub hatte. Ich ärgere mich noch über ihn, wenn ich daran gedenke und ohne eine Zänkerey geht es nicht ab, wenn ich wieder nach Potsdam komme. Wir haben indessen / doch seine, und auch Ihre Gesundheit jede besonders und namentlich getrunken. Wie stehet es um meine musikalische Poesie? Halten Sie auch Ihr Versprechen und sind fleissig darüber her? Thun Sie es, ich bitte sehr drum, aber auch bald, denn auf den Februar gehen wir wieder nach Potsdam und wenn ich es da ganz oder doch theilweise wieder zurück haben könnte, so wollte ich alles nach Ihren Anmerkungen und Erinnerungen ändern, und eben demselbem gemäß noch eines und das andere zu setzen, was ich seitdem als dazu gehörig gesammlet habe. Ich wollte das Ding gern auf Ostern drucken lassen. Die Reflexions sur la Peinture et sur la Poesie haben mich völlig bestärket, daß ich auf rechtem Wege bin und was in künftig noch kann geändert werden, das wird nur auf näheren Bestimmungen und weiteren Ausführungen bestehen. Wie ich Ihnen aber schon / gesagt habe, so möchte ich das Ding am liebsten in Hamburg gedruckt haben, weil es wenn es da bekannt würde, am besten abgehen würde, da ich aber so viel darin der Berlinischen Opern gedenke, so würde nicht übel gethan seyn, wenn Berlin zum Verlags Orte angegeben würde. Könnte ich von dem Verleger etwas nur für das aufgewandte Abschreibe Geld kriegen, so möchte ich es wohl gern mitnehmen um doch dieserhalb schadloß zu seyn. Da könnten Sie mir nun einen Gefallen erweisen, vorläufig wenn Sie deshalb an H. v. Hagedorn A schreiben wollten. Ich wollte ihm so dann auf den Februar etwann ein Capitel zur Probe und Durchsicht überschicken, und das Ding wenn ich so dann einem von den dasigen Buchführem A zum Verlage anböte, so würden sie, zu verstehen Bons und wie der andere heist, die ihm in solchen Dingen folgen, ihn gewiß um den Werth des Buches befragen und vielleicht könnte er es
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perhaps he could then advise them to publish it.157 Write to me your answer about this soon. I await it eagerly, and am your most obedient Krause [illegible - probably Berlin] the 12th January 1749 No. 22 (D-HTgl 2352) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, I am writing to you from Potsdam, where we arrived at noon today. I haven’t yet spoken to our Kleist. You will have seen from my last letter what reason I have to scold him, and tomorrow I will not fail to do it in proper style. How is it going with you: Are you dead or ill, or have you completely forgotten the Berliners? Not a soul has a letter from you. What possesses you that you are becoming so very lazy? Answer my last letter and this one, and send me back my manuscript, if you please. I have various insertions to make, particularly concerning meter, genres of poems set to music, and, especially, the opera. Herr Ramler, Ramler the Horatian, is completely taken with it, and has induced me to draft the thoughts that we had on the subject.158 It is true, is it not, that painters, musicians, and poets work for the public. The public has always found in their earliest, unperfected works something beautiful which consisted of that was pleasing and made an agreeable impression. Artists have sought to make this approval more general, and have constantly invented more things that are pleasing. Finally, Sophocles and Euripides composed good tragedies, and only then, N.B., were the rules abstracted from them. Operas please the people, and let Herr Gottsched despise them, and though he may rejoice over the failure of some opera theaters, new ones always spring up again whenever people have money to pay the expenses.159 Thus one cannot deprive the public of 157 Krause is referring to Johann Carl Bohn (1712-73), a native of Breslau who came to Hamburg as a child. Bohn, who published Hagedom’s works, and later Klopstock’s, was respected by his contemporaries for his conscientiousness and accuracy. It has been suggested that the scrupulously corrected Nachdruck (pirated edition) of the Scherzhafte Lieder, which Gleim seems to have preferred to the authorized first edition, may have been published by Bohn. Bohn’s house became a gathering place for Hamburg poets and savants, among them Klopstock, Lessing, Ebert, Liskow, Hagedom, and Bode. In his letter, Krause is obviously hoping that Hagedom can be persuaded to intercede with Bohn on behalf of Krause’s treatise on musical poesy. See ADB, vol. 18 (1883), p. 581; SCHMIDT/NEKROLOG; GLEIM/SCHERZHAFT, pp. XU and XXV. 158 Ramler was known to his contempories as the “German Horace,” because he based his poetry on Horatian ideas and forms. 159 Gottsched (see n. 6) discusses the validity of opera as an art form in the twelfth chapter of part 2 of his Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst. He surveys the history of music drama, noting briefly that early seventeenth-century operas based on the style of the Florentine Camerata did not contain
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alsdann ihnen A zum Verlage rathen. Schreiben Sie mir bald hierüber Antwort. Ich warte begierig drauf und bin Ungehorsamster Diener Krause [illegible: Berlin?] d 12 Januar 1749 No. 22 (D-HTgl 2352) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein liebster Freund, Ich schreibe Ihnen von Potsdam, wo wir heute zu Mittag angekommen sind. Unsem Kleist habe ich noch nicht gesprochen. Sie werden aus meinem letzten Briefe gesehen haben, was ich für Ursache habe ihn zu schelten, und ich werde es nicht unterlassen morgen in aller Form zu thun. Wie steht es dann mit Ihnen? Sind Sie tod, oder krank, oder haben Sie nur die Berliner ganz vergessen? Kein Mensch hat von Ihnen Briefe. Was ficht Sie an, daß Sie so gar faul werden. Antworten Sie mir auf meinen letzten und diesen Brief und schicken Sie mir meine Handschrift wieder, wenn es Ihnen beliebt. Ich habe noch verschiedenes einzurücken, sonderl. vom Sylbenmaß, von den Gattungen der Singgedichte, und besonders von der Oper. Herr Rammler, der Horazianische Rammler, ist davon ganz eingenommen, und er hat mich bewogen, unser darüber gehabte Gedanken auf zu setzen. Nicht wahr, die Mahler, Musici und Poeten, arbeiten für das Publicum. / Dieses hat allezeit an ihren ersten unvollkommenen Arbeiten was schönes gefunden welches darin bestanden, daß sie ihm gefallen, und einen angenehmen Eindruck gemacht haben. Diesen Beyfall haben die Künstler gesuchet allgemeiner zu machen, und funden [sic] immer mehr Dinge, die gefielen. Endlich wurden machte [sic] erst Sophocles und Euripides gute Tragoedien, und daraus A NB. sind die Regeln abstrahiert worden. Die Opern gefallen den Leuten, und H. Gottsched mag Sie Opern verachten und sich über einige eingegangene Schaubühnen freuen, wie er will, so kommen immer wieder neue auf, nach dem die Leute Geld haben die Unkosten dazu herzugeben. Man wird also dem Publico den Geschmack zu Opern nicht
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opera, nor talk the public out of its liking for opera; but on the other hand, I think it right to make these plays more and more rational and perfect. But one must not completely judge them by the measure of tragedy. We do not yet know all the good rules for an opera, any more than one knew the rules for a good tragedy before Sophocles. What pleases me, what moves me, must be good. The Cid, with all of its imperfections, still has the greatest acclaim because it pleases and moves. How many rules of tragedy we have that are not absolute, for example, the one prescribing 5 acts.160 One goes to a play with the purpose of letting himself be deceived; otherwise, I wouldn’t hear what is said upstage that the actors standing downstage may not hear. Let the marvelous be presented as naturally as possible, and in such a way that the pleasure over the felicitous imitation of Nature so captivates the listener, or that he is so moved by the performance, that he does not notice that it is make-believe, illusion. Yet there must also be people who don’t believe, or who abound in good sense and reason. These two sorts find no nourishment here, but the power of the imagination will. But this [the imagination] has so much power over the mind that at times it produces, even on the strongest, a pleasant illusion, insofar as it simply does not seem to the intellect to be completely unreasonable and utopian. Well, send me my manuscript. I await it with longing. Before the publication of my book, I want to send you the chapter on the opera that is to be inserted. Should the publication in Hamburg not work out, it does not matter. A Berlin publisher will probably be found for it, and the proof-reading could be much easier there. Since my last letter, there have occurred to me still more reasons to hurry the printing to Easter, which stem from the fact that I cannot work on the book during the entire summer until Michaelmas, and perhaps not ever again. I will write to you more fully about it another time. Farewell. Answer me soon. I am, sincerely, your most respectful servant, K. Potsdam, the 1st Feb. 1749 significant breaches of classical rules of poetry and drama. Operas, he continues, have deteriorated greatly since that time; they are no longer imitations of human actions, as in classical tragedy and comedy, but fantasies that resemble medieval romances. As such they demand suspension of disbelief, and contribute to libertinism, rather than to good morals. Gottsched’s critique of opera is undoubtedly influenced by the theory of drama formulated by Boileau (see GLOSSARY), whom he names as a writer who also disapproves of opera. GOTTSCHED/WERKE, vol. 6, pt. 2, Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst (1730), pt. 2, pp. 363-71. 160 Here Krause must also have had Gottsched’s Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst in mind. In part 2, chapter 10, “Von Tragödien oder Trauerspielen,” p. 321, Gottsched mentions that Le Cid, whose merits he too acknowledges, violates the rule of unity of time: the story of a drama should ideally take place within approximately the same time that it takes to perform it on the stage. Krause’s reference to the conventional division of tragedies into five acts may also be based on a section (no. 9, pp. 315-16) in Gottsched’s chapter on tragedy.
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benehmen noch ausreden. Gegentheils aber dünkt mich billig zu seyn, diese Schauspiele immer vemunftmässiger und vollkommener zu machen. Man muß sie aber nicht ganz und völlig über den Leisten der Tragoedien schlagen. Wir wissen alle die guten Regeln einer Oper noch nicht, so wenig als man sie von einem guten Trauerspiele vor dem Sophocles wüste. / Was mir gefällt, was mich rühret, das muß gut seyn. Der Cid, weil er gefällt und rühret, hat mit allen seinen Unvollkommenheiten noch den grösten Beyfall. Wie viel Regeln des Trauerspieles sind nicht auch, die gar nicht absolut sind, zE. von den 5 Acten. In ein Schauspiel muß gehet man in der Absicht, sich betrügen zu lassen, sonst könnte ich das nicht wird, und hören was in der Hinterbühne gesagt A was doch in der Vorderbühne stehenden Actores nicht hören dürfen. Alles Wunderbare mache man so natürlich als man kann, und so daß entweder das Vergnügen das Z über die so glückliche Nachahmung der Natur, den Zuhörer so einnimmt, oder daß er durch die Vorstellung so gerühret wird, daß er es nicht gewahr wird, es sey ein Spiel, eine Illusion. Aus dergleichen Spielen müssen aber Leute bleiben, die dawieder [dawider] eingenommen sind, oder von bon sens über fliosoon und Vernunft überfliessen. Diese sollen da keine Nahrung haben, sondern die Einbildungskraft. Diese aber hat so wohl viel Gewalt über den Verstand, daß sie dem allestärksten zuweilen ein angenehmes Blendwerk machet, wofern dieses ihm nur nicht ganz unvernünftig und utopisch vorkommt. / Schicken Sie mir nur bald mein Manuscript, ich warte mit Verlangen darauf. Ich will Ihnen auch noch vor dem Abdruck meines Buches das einzuschaltende Capitel von der Oper schicken. Sollte es auch mit dem Drucke in Hamburg nicht angehen, so hat es nichts zu bedeuten. Es wird sich wohl ein Berlinischer Verleger finden, und da könnte sich alles besser corrigiren. Es sind mir seit meinem letzten Brief, noch mehr Ursachen vorgefallen mit diesem Druck auf Ostern zu eilen, die dahin auslaufen, daß ich den ganzen Sommer bis nach Michaelis nicht werde daran arbeiten können und vielleicht gar niemals mehr. Ich will Ihnen ein andermal davon ausführlicher schreiben. Leben Sie wohl—Antworten Sie mir bald. Ich bin mit Redlichkeit Ihr ergebenster Diener K. Potsdam d 1 Feb. 1749
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No. 23 (D-HTgl 2353) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Potsdam, 15 Feb. 1749 Worthiest friend, I have received your letter of the 9th, together with half of my manuscript.161 I thank you for the trouble that you have so kindly taken with it. Your comments are absolutely right, and indeed I will duly avail myself of them. I am also writing you forthwith to request that you continue to the end of my treatise, and soon send me everything together, so that I can have a fair copy made of it all. Here and there I will shorten, elsewhere define more precisely; and throughout, I will particularly improve the style. I will also make an effort to organize the work better, in order to make the whole thing take into account, and accord with, your critique. You will not find in me an obstinate friend or a stiff-necked author. But why do you not wish to send me what you yourself have formulated about musical poetry? I implore you; you will have no reasons to hesitate that you can’t tell me about. Just send it to me as it is. It will doubtless be useful to me. Where others have already worked, I can, in accordance with my inspiration, see further than I am inclined to do with completely new ideas.162 We cannot all do everything. Fare well and drink well, if it is always pleasant for you and tastes good, and if you remain our amiable Gleim in heart and mind. I have given your letter to Herr von Kleist himself. He wants to go home. Do me a favor and devote your first free hours to my scribbles, so that I will soon receive another letter from you. I am your most obedient Krause No. 24 (D-HTgl 2354) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Worthiest friend, I have received your letter of the 10th, in which you promise to send my manuscript soon. I expect this of your kindness. Meanwhile, it seems to me indeed that my little work can probably not be not be published this Easter. Has Herr Dreyer not
161 Unfortunately, Gleim’s letter to Krause, with his comments about Krause’s manuscript, has not survived. 162 It is true that Krause’s treatise is more a synthesis of the works of other authors (although Krause often fails to acknowledge the derivation of his ideas) than a source of new concepts about the relationship between words and music. Yet Krause’s emphasis on the suitability of certain emotions for musical depiction is largely his own.
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No. 23 (D-HTgl 2353) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Potsd. d. 15 Feb 1749 Werthester Freund, Ich habe Ihren Brief vom 9 samt der Hälfte meines Mscripts erhalten. Ich danke Ihnen für die Mühe, so Sie sich damit gütigst haben geben wollen. Ihre Anmerkungen sind alle vollkommen richtig und ich werde sie mir gewiß recht zu Nutze machen. Ich schreibe Ihnen auch deswegen so gleich, um Sie zu bitten, damit bis zum Ende meiner Abhandlung fort zu fahren und mir alles bald vollends zu übersenden, damit ich alles vollends in [sic] Reine abschreiben lassen kann. Ich werde hier und da abkürzen und auslassen, anderswo genauer bestimmen, und allenthalben sonderl. die Schreib Art [sic] bessern. Auch selbst die Sachen will ich mich noch bemühen besser anzuordnen, um alles Ihrer Critik würdig und anständig zu machen. Sie sollen an mir keinen eigensinnigen Freund und hartnäkig Autor finden. Aber warum wollen Sie mir das was Sie selbst von der mus. Poesie aufgesetzet, nicht schicken. Ich beschwöre Sie darum, / Sie werden doch keine Abhaltungs Ursachen [sic] haben, die ich nicht wissen darf. Schicken Sie mir so nur wie es ist. Es wird mir gewiß nützlich seyn. Wo andere schon gearbeitet haben da kann ich ohnedem nach meiner Genie weiter sehen, als ich zu ganz neuen Sachen aufgelegt bin. Wir können nicht alle alles thun. Leben Sie und trinken Sie wohl, wenn es Ihnen nur immer nur im mit Vergnügen gut schmeckt und Sie dem Geist und Herzen nach der liebenswürdige Gleim bleiben. Ihren Brief habe ich an den Hn. v. Kleist selbst abgegeben. Er will nach Hause reisen. Thun Sie mir den Gefallen, Ihre und opfern meinem Geschmiere die ersten müßigen Stunden auf, damit ich von Ihnen bald einen Brief wieder erhalte. Ich bin Ihr gehorsamster Krause No. 24 (D-HTgl 2354) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Werthester Freund, Ich habe Ihren Brief vom lOten erhalten, worinn Sie mir versprechen, mein Mscript bald zu schicken. Ich erwarte es von Ihrer Gütigkeit. Indessen scheint es mir doch, daß mein Werkgen diese Ostern wohl nicht gedruckt werden dürfte. Hat Ihnen Herr
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answered you yet?1631 have omitted the entire first chapter as you have suggested. It contained only things that are not closely related to my material. Instead I have introduced into this chapter a discussion about the former and present union of poetry and music. Therewith I have simply kept to the essentials, and found an opportunity to give the reader knowledge of our present vocal pieces, and to show how dramatic poetry has now been introduced in them in place of lyric, or, rather, how both are now entwined in them. Herr von Kleist has seen and corrected everything, and I flatter myself that you will like this chapter. In the other three, I also made considerable changes, and have in particular improved the organization and style everywhere, also made some additions which did not seem to me to be without merit. The chapter on sung plays is now also finished. It is a bit rambling, indeed, but there are a dreadful lot of prejudices against and objections to the opera, all of which I have to address, and at the same time show what the proper organization of these plays is, and how they can be made natural. Yet I have become aware of things of which I myself would not have believed to consist of so much illusion. Meanwhile, I have never lost sight of my musical poet. For the fifth chapter, I have made a discovery, namely, that, of all [concepts], the essential concept of an aria continues to be that by design it consists in one image, one conception, the portrayal of one affect.164 The chapter on the opera led me to this “source” where I had indeed already been long ago, but always simply groping in the dark. I am not the Critischer Musikus an der Spree, nor do I know who it is, nor have I seen anything of it as yet.165 One gets nothing of the kind here. When I go to Berlin, I will find out everything and inform you. 163 Johann Matthias Dreyer (1716-76), a native of Hamburg, studied law in Leipzig, and spent several years in Holstein and Berlin. By 1746 (see GLEIM/UZ, p. 97), he had returned to his native Hamburg, where he was active as a journalist and as an author of occasional poems. But many of his poems and epigrams maliciously ridiculed the Christian religion and those who professed it, and, in 1763, he hastily left Hamburg to escape the consequences of his publications. Through the intercession of a Hamburg minister, he was permitted to return in 1766 (ADB 5 [1977], p. 406). Dreyer’s name occurs from time to time in the correspondence of Gleim and his circle. 164 The ideal of unity of affect (primarly, unity of melodic material designed to represent a particular affect) which pervades the music and music theory of the high Baroque, and which appears almost to the end of the century in the works of many north German music theorists, e.g. Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Musikalisches Kunstmagazin (Berlin, 1782), St. I, p. 25, is undoubtedly derived from theories of poetry and drama found in the works of Gottsched and Boileau (in which genres and degrees of complexity and sophistication are painstakingly compartmentalized, and the mixing of categories is discouraged), and also from the aesthetic theory of Baumgarten. 165 Der critische Musicus an der Spree (1749-50) was the first of several periodicals about music published (most of them anonymously) by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-95). Marpurg spent some time in Paris around 1746, then came to Berlin, where he spent the 15 years between 1749 and 1763 composing Lieder and keyboard pieces, writing critical and theoretical works about music, and editing works by other composers and theorists. Krause’s Lettre à Mr. le Marquis de B *** sur la difference de la musique italienne et la musique française (Berlin, 1748) appeared in a German translation in the first issue of Marpurg’s Historisch-Kritische Beytrage (KRAUSE/SCHREIBEN, pp. 1-23), followed by Marpurg’s comments (pp. 23^46) (see n. 141). Marpurg also published a letter from Krause in Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst... (KRAUSE/BRIEF AN MARPURG). See GROVE2, vol. 15, pp. 880-82.
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Dreyer noch nichts geantwortet? Ich habe das ganze erste Capitel weggelassen, wie Sie es gehabt haben. Es hielt nur Sachen in sich, die nicht zunächst zu meiner Materie gehören. Ich habe dafür eine Abhandlung in dieß Capitel gebracht, wo der ehmaligen und jetzigen Verbindung der Poesie und der Musik. Ich habe damit mich bloß an das Nothwendige gehalten, und Gelegenheit gefunden, eine historische statt Erkäntniß unserer jetzigen Singstücke dem Leser zu geben, und zu zeigen, wie «ns der lyrischen Poesie die drammatische jetzo daraus darein eingeführet werden, oder vielmehr wie sie beyde darein verknüpft sind. Der H. v Kleist hat alles gesehen und corrigirt, und ich getraue mir zu schmeicheln, / daß Ihnen dieß Capitel gefallen werde. Ich habe auch in den andern dreyen noch gewaltig gewirthshaft, und sonderlich allenthalben die Ordnung und die Schreibart gebessert, auch einige Zusätze gemacht, die mir nicht unnützlich zu seyn geschienen. Das Capitel von den gesungenen Schauspielen ist nun auch fertig. Es ist zwar ein bisgen weitläufig, Vorurtheile und aber es sind eine greuliche Menge AEinwürfe wieder [wider] die Opern, die ich alle habe beantworten und zugleich zeigen, worinn die rechte Einrichtung dieser Schauspiele bestehe und wie sie natürlich können gemachet werden. Ich bin dabey auf Sachen gekommen, die ich selbst nicht geglaubt hätte, daß sie so viel Schein mals hätten. Indessen habe ich meinen musikalischen Poeten nie A aus dem Gesicht verlohren. Ich habe auch für das fünfte Capitel noch eine Entdeckung gemacht, nämlich daß das wesentliche der Gedanken de* einer Arie darinn bestehe, daß sie ein Bild, eine Vorstellung, die Schilderey eines Affects der Intension nach, in sich halten. Das Capitel von den Opern hat mich zu dieser Quelle geführet, wobey ich zwar schon längst gewesen aber nur immer im finstern getappt habe. / Ich bin der critische Musikus an der Spree nicht, ich weiß auch nicht, wer es sey bisher kan sehe, noch habe ich schon etwas davon gesehen. Man sei hier nichts dergleichen haben. Wenn ich nach Berlin komme, so werde ich wohl alles erfahren und es Ihnen melden.
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Two weeks ago, I saw poor Ramler, quite ill. But I think that he is probably better by now. At the time he already looked as if he were improving. Yet he sang, “Take me with you, beloved Damon, etc.”166 Around the 15th April, we will go to Ciistrin. Have you any message for Mile Hagemeister and her 16,000 Rthl Seriously, just give me some commission. I will carry it out as a friend and not as a male person. Neither Herr Bergius nor anyone else has seen our Kleist in Berlin. This heedless man started on a journey just as I wanted to show him to all of these friends at my home. Arrangements for our march will probably prevent him from traveling to Pomerania and from going to see you. Yet perhaps everything will blow over. One still has some hope. I am sending you here a poem by the secretary of the Marshal of Saxony. He is considered one of the cleverest minds in France. If he had not rhymed, his poem would perhaps be shorter and more beautiful. I like best the description of time and the lines that follow it: Je [n’ai?] vaincu, mais j ’aurai vecu.167 M. de la Mettrie knew the poem by heart. Farewell, my dearest friend, hold me in your affection, and write to me soon. I am your most respectful servant, K. Potsdam, the 15th March 1749 No. 25 (D-HTgl 2355) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, I am not dead, not ill, nor yet a lawyer, am still a friend, still your friend, and yet I am not writing. Yes, I haven’t written; I haven’t been able to, and now I do write again. Four months ago, when I began my law studies, I did nothing but run through juridical compendia. I was examined twice, and rather successfully. The third time it was to take place in public, and I did not want to make myself a laughing stock. For a month, my examination was moved about. Finally, it came to pass; I was examined; I gave an account of myself; I had to leave for Ciistrin; then my situation began to go badly, quite badly. I was vexed by it, but I found full employment in Ciistrin; there I had to make contracts for purchases, inheritances, and companies, prepare invoices, conduct affairs with people who pay a thousand charming compliments, but when it comes down to business, have no understanding, but 166 The first line of Gleim’s ode titled An Herrn Gleim in Versuch in scherzhaften Liedern, Pt. 1 (Berlin [1744]), p. 46. Damon was Gleim’s nickname. Krause’s report that Ramler “sang” must not necessarily be understood as it would today. In the eighteenth century the verb “to sing” was used more broadly than today - it could mean “to recite poetry” or “to write poetry.” 167 “I haven’t conquered, but I shall have lived.” Neither this poem nor its writer can be identified. Maurice, Marshal of Saxony (1696-1750), illegitimate son of August II (“the Strong”) of Saxony and Countess Maria Aurora of Königsmarck, was well known in his time as a brilliant military strategist.
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Den armen Rammler habe ich vor 14 Tagen recht krank gesehen. Ich denke aber wohl, daß es besser seyn wird. Es ließ sich damals schon dazu an. Er sung aber doch: Nimm mich mit geliebter Dämon p. Gegen den 15ten April gehen wir nach Cüstrin. Haben Sie was an die Mds. Hagem, und ihre 16000 rth. zu bestellen? Im Ernste, geben Sie mir nur einige Commission. Ich will sie als ein Freund und nicht als eine Mannsperson aus richten. H. Bergius und niemand hat unsem Kleist in da Freunden Berlin gesehen. Der lose Mann reisete eben weg, wer ich ihn allen diesen unter bey mir zeigen wollte. Unser Marschbesorgnisse werden ihn wohl jetzt verhindern, nach Pommern und zu Ihnen zu reisen. Doch vielleicht geht alles vorüber. Man hat schon einige Hoffnung. Hier schicke ich Ihnen ein Gedicht vom Secretair des wird für Marschall von Sachsen. Er ist einer einen der artigsten Köpfe in Frankreich gehalten. / Hätten er nicht gereimet, so wäre sein Gedicht vielleicht kürzer und schöner. Die Beschreibung der Zeit und folgende Zeilen gefallen mir am besten: Je n’ai vaincu, mais, j ’aurai vecu. Mr. de la Mettrie wüste das Gedicht auswendig. Leben Sie wohl, mein liebster Freund, lieben Sie mich, und schreiben Sie mir bald. Ich bin Ihr ergebenster Diener K. Potsdam d 15ten Merz 1749 No. 25 (D-HTgl 2355) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerliebster Freund, Ich bin nicht todt, nicht krank, noch kein Advocat, noch ein Freund, noch ein Freund von Ihnen, und dennoch schreibe ich nicht. Ja, ich habe nicht geschrieben, ich habe nicht gekonnt, aber nun schreibe ich doch wieder. Vor 4 Monaten, wie sich meine Advocaten Sache anfieng, that ich nichts als juristische Compendia durchlaufen. Ich bin schon zweymal und ziemlich glücklich examinirt worden. Das dritte mal sollte» es öffentlich geschehen, und ich wollte doch nicht gern mich auslachen lassen. Man zog mich mit dem Examine über einem Monat herum. Endlich kam es dazu, ich wurde examinirt, ich machte die Relation, ich mußte nach Cüstrin reisen, es fieng an mit meiner Sache schief, ziemlich schief zu gehen. Ich ärgerte mich darüber, ich fand aber in Cüstrin volle Arbeit, ich muste da Kauf, Erb Leuten und Societät Contracte machen, Rechnungen verfertigen, Affairen treiben m itAdie tausendartige Complimenten | sic] machen, wenn es aber zu Sachen kommt, keinen
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show dreadful willfulness, setting themselves between father, sons, and daughters where every single one has a different interest, it is a difficult matter. I am finally out of the woods, at least. Not until a week ago, did I come home at last from the General’s estates, and from I know not where all. In Potsdam, I sent in a report of my affairs; I am now here again, and am writing you at this moment. How are you doing, then, my dearest friend? Perhaps Herr Ramler and Herr Sulzer are with you now. I have not seen either for 3 months. Enjoy each other’s company. Pity me that I am to become a lawyer, and also because I have not yet become one. Until the return of the Lord High Chancellor, the matter won’t be settled.168 You will sit down together in friendship, you will laugh and cavort, and I must live in the most annoying uncertainty. Herr von Kleist would gladly have gone along, but he was not able to. You will probably have been told the reasons. Perhaps some changes will occur in this regiment, and our captain can also derive some advantage from them. Since the day before yesterday, I have had some indication of it. How glad we would be about it. He deserves it, our friend. Let us wish it with all our hearts, at least, until it happens.169 I am now nothing more than a juridical crank. But nevertheless something came to my attention today - that Herr Haller is supposed to have written a cantata about King George that the students in Gottingen performed. I have read about it in the following: Thusnelde, a Sing spiel, together with a Preface on the Possibility and Constitution o f Good Operas.™ Read this thing [the preface], then, until mine 168 Krause is referring to Samuel Baron von Cocceji (1679-1755). Although Cocceji published treatises dealing with the theoretical aspects of the law, he was interested in its more practical aspects. Between 1718 and 1724, he directed his efforts to reforming the East Prussian legal system. During the 1720s and 1730s, he held several posts in the Prussian government. In 1738, he resigned all offices except the ministries of state and war in order to supervise the reform of the entire Prussian legal system. To encourage Cocceji’s energetic and unflagging service to the Prussian monarchy, Friedrich II created for him the office of Lord High Chancellor, and rewarded him by elevating him to the rank of baron. Cocceji was the father of the young Privy Councilor Cocceji (see n. 68), who married Barbarina. See GLOSSARY. 169 In 1740, Kleist had been persuaded to leave the Danish army and enter the Prussian army as a second lieutenant in Prince Heinrich’s regiment; he was promoted to first lieutenant on 16 February 1741. At the time of this letter, he had recently been promoted to staff captain (the end of May 1749). But there was obviously no vacancy at this time for the post of captain of a company. It was not until 5 June 1751 that Kleist was awarded the leadership of a company, a post that had been left vacant by the death of Captain Valentin von Massow. On 20 February 1756, he was promoted to Major, the highest rank that he would hold. See KLEIST/SAUER I, pp. XVm-XIX, XXXI, XLIII. 170 In 1734, George II, king of England and a Hanoverian prince, had founded the University of Göttingen which bears his name (Georg-August-Universität). Two years later, Albrecht Haller (1708-77), known for his wide-ranging interests, was appointed to a chair of Anatomy, Medicine, Botany, and Surgery at the University. In addition to his accomplishments in the natural sciences and medicine, Haller wrote and published much poetry; he was the author of the text of the cantata to which Krause refers, honoring George II on the occasion of his visit to the University of Göttingen in 1748. Neither the music nor the text of the cantata is known to survive. The composer of Thusnelde, Johann Adolphe Scheibe (1708-76), court composer to the King of Denmark, was the author of many writings on the theory and aesthetics of music (and the author of a famous attack on J. S. Bach, whose music he regarded as “schwülstig”— too ornate or florid). As a pupil
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haben, Verstand hoben, aber entsetzlich viel Eigensinn A sich zwischen Vater, Söhne und ein Töchter zu setzen, wo just ein jedes A verschiedenes Interesse hat, ist eine schwere Sache. Sie ist endlich doch wenigstens aus dem / Graben. Vor 8 Tagen bin ich endlich erst zu Hause gekommen, von den Gütern des Generals, und ich weis nicht, wo allenthalben her. Ich habe in Potsdam von meinen Verrichtungen Bericht abgestattet, ich bin nun wieder hier, und ich schreibe Ihnen gegenwärtig. Was machen Sie denn, mein allerliebster? Jetzo wird H. Rammler und H. Sulzer seyn vielleicht bey Ihnen A . Beyde habe ich seit 3 Monaten nicht gesehen. Ergötzen Sie sich mit einander. Beklagen Sie mich, daß ich ein Advocat werden soll, und eben kann drauf es auch noch nicht einmal werden A . Vor der Rückkunft des Hn. Großcanzlers ist kein Ende der Sache zu hoffen. Sie werden sich da freundschaftlich setzen, Sie werden springen und lachen und ich muß in der verdrießlichsten Ungewißheit leben. Der H. von Kleist wäre gern mitgereiset, aber er konnte nicht. Man wird Ihnen wohl die Ursachen gesagt haben. Vielleicht gehet bey diesem Regiment einige Veränderung vor, und unser Hauptmann kan davon auch einigen Vortheil ziehen. / Seit vorgestern habe ich einige Anzeigen davon. Wie sehr wollten wir alle uns darüber freuen. Er verdient es, unser Freund. Last [sic] es uns es wenigstens von Herzen so lange wünschen, bis es geschiehet. Ich bin jetzo nichts als eine juristische Grille. Doch aber ist mir heute was vors Gesicht gekommen, daß H. Haller eine Cantate auf den König George soll gemacht haben, die die Studenten in Göttingen aufgeführet. Ich lese es in einem Dinge: Thusnelde ein Singspiel, nebst einem Vorbericht von der Möglichkeit und Beschaffenheit guter Opern. Lesen Sie das Ding auch, bis meines heraus kommt.
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comes out. I will now devote myself to it again. The author is of my opinion; but I have not yet read it completely. I must once again believe that I am made for pleasure and enjoyment in this world. Up to now - because I have done nothing but torment laws and constitutions, and they, in turn, have tormented me - I have sacrificed myself to coercion and wrangling. Could you, or your company that you have with you, help me to the Haller cantata? I would thank you, and I will commend Herr Haller because he does not despise musical poetry. How are you doing, then, my worthiest friend? Publish Anacreon or Herr Uz’s songs or Shaftesbury’s Enthusiasm or something else, or I will say that you too have become a monk.171 Is one allowed to do absolutely nothing when one can do so much? Do not pay me in kind, but answer me soon. With me it is like the Thirty Years’ War, for I did not have silver for good coins. I embrace you and your company and am your most obedient Krause Berlin, the 2nd August 1749 of Gottsched (see n. 6), Scheibe paid homage to his teacher in his journal Der critische Musicus (Hamburg, 1737-40), which obviously took Gottsched’s Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst as a model. Scheibe was troubled by Gottsched’s insistence that opera contributed to the corruption of taste and morals because of its emphasis on fantastic, rather than believable, situations. In the lengthy preface to his Singspiel Thusnelde (1749), Scheibe tries to demonstrate that opera is a viable genre provided that the unities of classical drama are observed - or even symbolically observed. He deplores the poor quality of the texts that are usually provided for composers of operas and cantatas, and cites Haller’s cantata as an example of an excellent text: “Yet we still also occasionally find a great poet who now and then dedicates a poem to music. But certainly there will be few princes in Germany who are eulogized in such a lofty way in musical poems as King George recently was by Haller. To whom is the beautiful cantata unknown which was written by this great and true poet, and performed by the students there?” See SCHEIBE/THUSNELDE, Preface, p. 51. 171 The writings of Anthony Ashley Cooper (1671-1713), third Earl of Shaftesbury (see GLOSSARY), were of considerable interest to members of Gleim’s circle. During the 1740s, Spalding and several other members of the circle attempted to translate Shaftesbury’s moral essays into German. Shaftesbury believed (in opposition to John Locke) that moral sense was innate, and that virtue should be determined by conscience, rather than by public opinion, threats of eternal punishment, or civil authority. One of his most substantial publications was a collection of treatises titled Characteristicks o f Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (3 vols., publ. 1711), some of which he had already published. The treatise with which Gleim and his circle were most concerned was the Letter concerning Enthusiasm (first published anonymously in 1708). In this work, Shaftesbury grants that enthusiasm or fanaticism of any kind is often accompanied by an unwholesome melancholy; as a means of exposing what is unsound in passion or enthusiasm, he advocates ridicule and wit. He insists, however, that suppressing enthusiasm will only aggravate an unwholesome situation, and recommends “good Humor” and a less melancholy and fearful concept of God as an antidote. What appealed to the Age of Sensibility and to the Sturm und Drang was the idea that enthusiasm was not always harmful - what appeared to be fanaticism might be divine inspiration.
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Ich will jetzo wieder drüber her gehen. Der Verfasser [von Thusnelde] ist meiner Meynung, ich habe es aber noch nicht ganz gelesen. Ich muß schon wieder einmal denken, daß ich auch mir zu gefallen und zum Vergnügen in der Welt bin. Bisher da ich nichts als Gesetze und Constitutiones geplaget und sie mich, habe ich nur mir dem Zwange und den Zänkereyen geopfert. Könnten Sie oder Ihre Gesellschaft, die Sie jetzt bey sich haben, / mir wohl zu der Hallerischen Cantate verhelfen? Ich würde Ihnen danken, und H. Hallern werde ich loben, daß er die musikalische Dichtkunst nicht verschmähet. Aber was machen Sie denn, mein Werthester? Geben Sie bald den Anacreon oder H. Uzens Lieder, oder Schaftesbury Enthousiasum oder sonst was heraus, oder ich sage Sie sind mit ein Münch geworden. Ist das auch wohl erlaubt, gar nichts zu thun, da man so viel thun kann? nicht Bezahlen Sie mich A mit gleicher Münze, sondern antworten Sie mir bald. Bey mir ist jetzo der dreyssigjährige Krieg gewesen, da habe ich kein Silber zu guter Münze haben können. Ich umarme Sie und Ihre Gesellschaft und bin dero gehorsamster Krause Berlin den 2 August 1749
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No. 26 (D-HTgl 2356) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Worthiest friend, It has been long enough since I have written to you, and you would become irreconcilably angry at me if I let this opportunity slip through my hands. I have given your 4 books to Herr Sucro to take along, and I thank you kindly because you have been willing to let me have them for so long.172 Do not take it amiss that I didn’t send them back to you sooner. Perhaps you did not need them urgently. I believe that your experience with the fine arts is probably the same as mine; anyway, there is no spare time to read such books. But you, more lively man that you are, are also a little too indolent, if it is true that you no longer produce anything at all. Also, for a long time, I have heard from no one who would know that you were doing, or had done, something new. For you must believe, my worthiest and ever truly beloved friend, that despite the fact that I have not written to you, I have inquired about you regularly, have spoken about you, have drunk your health, etc. Curse my legal affairs. But they shall not induce me to forget so worthy a friend as yourself. But if you are not making verses, what are you making then? Wives out of young girls? I hear that you always have bad luck with your sweethearts. I regret this, and if Herr Sucro doesn’t help you in your courtship, surely nothing will come of it. Just confide in him as one can confide in another in such things. Indeed it would be strange if you were not to find a wife. How you two dear people will often laugh and work together. I believe that you will laugh as much as the 8 of us have laughed in our winter club. Recently we had an “after club” meeting.173 Herr von 172 Johann Georg Sucro (1722-86) seems to have become a member of Gleim’s circle in 1748, when he came to Berlin as Conrector of the Kollnisches Gymnasium, and became one of the charter members of the Montagsklub (see n. 173). Through Gleim’s mediation, he was appointed second preacher in Halberstadt. References to Gleim’s efforts on Sucro’s behalf are found in the correspondence of members of the Gleim circle from November 1749 to June 1750, when Sucro assumed his new post. Most of the opinions expressed by Gleim and his circle characterize Sucro as a convivial friend and as a candidate worthy of the position. Yet there are occasional hints that Sucro was not an outstanding choice for the position. “Herr von Berg,” writes Gleim to Ramler, “will ask Herr Bergius about him. Have him [Bergius] say that he [Sucro] is a good preacher” (GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 211). The remarks of Johann Georg Sulzer to Johann Jakob Bodmer, in a letter written on April 21, 1750, present an even less favorable opinion of Sucro’s abilities: “Herr Sukro has become Domprediger in Halberstadt through Gleim’s negotiation. We lose him here without pain since we have come to recognize his mediocrity” (see KORTE/ SCHWEIZER, p. 133). In 1757, Sucro went to Magdeburg as Oberdomprediger, and eventually became Konsistorialrat. See GLOSSARY. 173 The club was founded in October 1749. According to MONTAGSKLUB (p. 45), a history of the famous and long-lived Montagsklub of Berlin, there were no formal written records during the first 16 years of its existence. The earliest known account of the organization is found in a letter written by Sulzer to Gleim in December 1749: “Has no one in our group written to you yet that we have a proper club? We eight, you can easily guess whom, meet every Thursday evening. In our meetings we scarcely do anything but laugh. Eating and drinking don’t occupy us for long.” The club, which had pleasant and instructive conversation as its primary goal, was modeled on the English clubs of the first half of the century (gently satirized by Addison and Steele in The Spectator). Although the club was small (applicants were rejected if they received more than a single blackball), its members sought to include
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No. 26 (D-HTgl 2356) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Werthester Freund, Ich habe Ihnen lange genug nicht geschrieben, und Sie würden unversöhnlich böse auf mich werden, wenn ich auch diese Gelegenheit aus den Händen ließe. Ich habe H. Sucroen Ihre 4 Bücher mitgegeben und danke Ihnen gehorsamst, daß Sie mir dieselben so lange haben erlauben wollen. Nehmen Sie nicht übel, daß ich sie Ihnen nicht eher wieder geschickt. Vielleicht haben Sie sie nicht nothwendig gebraucht. Ich glaube, es gehet Ihnen wohl jetzo mit den schönen Wissenschaften wie mir; wenigstens bleibt nicht Zeit übrig in solchen Büchern was zu lesen. Aber Sie, munterer Mann, sind auch wohl ein wenig zu unfleißig, wo es wahr ist, daß Sie gar nichts mehr machen. Seit Jahr und Tag höre ich auch von niemandem, daß er / wüste, daß Sie was neues machten oder gemacht hätten. Denn Sie müssen glauben, mein Werthester und allzeit wahrhaftig geliebter Freund, daß ohngeachtet ich Ihnen nicht geschrieben, ich mich doch fleißig nach Ihnen erkundiget, von Ihnen gesprochen, auf Ihr Gesundheit getrunken p. habe. Schelten Sie auf meine Juristerey. Aber bis dahin soll sie mich nicht bringen, daß ich so würdige Freunde vergäße wie Sie sind. Aber wenn Sie keine Verse machen, was machen Sie denn? Doch nicht aus Mädgen Frauen? Ich höre, daß es Ihnen mit Ihren Mädgen immer verunglückt. Ich beklage es, und wo Ihnen H. Sukro nicht freyen hillft, so wird gewiß nichts draus. Vertrauen Sie sich nur dem so weit als man sich in solchen Dingen einem / andern vertrauen kann. Es müste doch auch toll seyn, wenn Sie nicht eine Frau bekommen sollten. Wie werdet Ihr beyden lieben Leute manchmal mit einander lachen und wirtschaften. Ich glaube, Ihr beyde lachet so viel als wir unser 8 in unsrer Winterkluppe gelacht haben. Wir haben letzt einmal Nachkluppe gehalten. D[er]. H. v. Kleist war hier und H. Spalding ist auch in Suko gewesen
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Kleist was here, and Herr Spalding was also in Suko without quite coming here. Shame on him!174 Farewell; think occasionally of me who must consider it a double honor when such people as yourself think about me, me who must think about bagatelles, quarreling, and unwise - even sometimes ill-advised - things. Yet I am still your most respectful friend and servant Krause Berl., the 22nd June 1750 No. 27 (D-HTgl 2357) KRAUSE TO GLEIM [in Gleim’s hand on the 4th page of the letter] answered the 28th Nov. 1750. Dearest friend, Are you angry at me, or are you ill? For you do not answer me, although I requested several weeks ago that you answer me soon regarding Domherr von Kettler.175 I cannot believe that you are ill because you wrote to Herr Ramler only recently. So you are angry, and why? Because I have become a lawyer, because I have been unfaithful to the Muses, and scare them off with litis constationen, litis denunciationen, litis reassumtionen, and all manner of quarrelsome and barbarous Berliners from diverse walks of life, and apparently welcomed outsiders at their meetings. Berlin’s illustrious professional musicians Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see n. 52), the Graun brothers (see n. 64), and Franz Benda (see n. 377) were not members; yet they have been mentioned as frequent participants in the club’s gatherings (BEAUJEAN, p. 11). Although the organization appears to have met regularly on Thursdays, meetings seem to have been held sometimes on other days of the week—a letter from Lessing to Ramler refers to Friday meetings. In 1765, Monday was established as the official day of its meetings, but the organization was not officially designated the Montagsklub until 1780. In a listing of members (MONTAGSKLUB, p. 112 f.), 1750 is given as the earliest date of Krause’s membership. Thus Krause does not seem to have been one of the founders of the club, which was already in existence in the fall of 1749 - although the identity of the the “eighth” member to whom Sulzer refers is unclear. The seven were Johann Georg SchultheB (1724-1804), theological student, who was its prime mover and first Senior, and who returned to Switzerland after a visit of only one year in Berlin, Johann Georg Sulzer (see n. 55), Lucas Friedrich Langemack (d. 1761), police registrar, Gottfried Hempel (1720-72), portrait painter (see n. 206), Johann Georg Sucro (see n. 172), who left the club in June 1750 to go to Halberstadt, Carl Wilhelm Ramler, and Johann Wilhelm Bergius (see n. 35). See also GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 316, 335, 370; GLEIM/RAMLER H, pp. 257, 267, 277, 290, 293, 302, 304, 394; LESSING/RAMLER, p. 13; ENGELKE/LIEDERSCHULE, p. 463; BEAUJEAN, pp. 10-12. 174 Suko (Suckow) was an estate in the Ukermark belonging to Georg Friedrich von Amim (1717-72), who enjoyed hosting members of the Gleim/Ramler circle there in the summer. Gleim and Ramler were eventually disappointed that this rich aristocrat would do nothing further to support literature in Prussia. 175 The Beschreibung of J. H. Lucanus (see n. 114), Part II (1745), mentions a Hugo Friedrich Kettler of Middelburg as Capitular of the Cathedral Cahpter in 1743.1 am grateful to Annegret Loose for this information.
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ohne vollends hieher zu kommen. Der böse Mann! Leben Sie wohl, gedenken Sie auch einmal an mich, der sich es jetzo für eine doppelte Ehre schätzen muß, wenn solche Leute an ihn denken wie Sie sind, ich der ich A Bagatellen, Zänkereyen und unwitzigen ja oft unklugen Dingen nachdenken muß. Ich bin aber doch Ihr ergebenster Freund und Diener Krause Berlin den 22 Jun. 1750 No. 27 (D-HTgl 2357) KRAUSE TO GLEIM [in Gleim’s hand on the 4th page of this letter: beant. d. 28 d. Nov. 1750] Liebster Freund, Sind Sie böse auf mich, oder sind Sie krank, denn Sie antworten mir nicht, da ich Sie doch vor etlichen Wochen schon gebeten, mir wegen des Domherrn v. Kettler bald zu antworten. Das Krankseyn kann ich nicht recht glauben, weil Sie H. Rammlern nur kürzlich geschrieben. Also sind Sie böse, und warum? Weil ich ein und Advocat geworden, weil ich den Musen untreu bin, A sie mit litis contestationen, litis denunciationen, litis reassumtionen, und allerhand an den zänkischen und
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onens.176 It is true to some extent, yet not entirely, and therefore you have only half a reason to be angry. I do love the Muses still, even if I cannot pay my respects to them as you do. We are having a club meeting again; there we shall laugh heartily again - you should hear us.177 But you are coming here this winter, aren’t you? Surely. One will be so stupid or clever as to send you here. I’ll wager that if you come here, you will find that even with my black lawyer’s gown, I am still the same old fellow, and you will still like me. Bring a couple of new Lieder with you. This winter I will trouble the musicians here to make settings of the enclosed. You poetic gentlemen shall then find an engraver and publisher.178 Here there are strange goings-on with the so-called philosophers at court. For 2 years, the Marquis d’Argens was in the utmost favor; then he could sustain it no longer. He asked the king just to let him have his pension of 600 Rth as chamberlain (for besides that, he had 2,000); he wanted to live in retirement with his new wife, the snub-nosed, painted Cochois.179 In reply, the king had him informed that in 8 days he should inquire again and have the matter decided. But on this matter, he hasn’t seen the king since. D ’Arget is a lesser figure. He took a wife, infected her with the French disease, and made himself an object of discussion and ridicule, but because he is so insignificant, he is still here.180 La Mettrie, in the beginning, spoke with the king once-after that no more for two years more. Now, for 6 months, he has been Associate Lector, together with D’Arget and Amaud, but continues to play mad pranks.181 Some time ago, he had 176 Legal terms - litis contestatio: the inauguration of an action by calling witnesses; litis denunciatio: declaration of litigation; litis reassumptio: resumption of litigation (by the heirs of a party to the action). 177 Seen. 173. 178 Here, for the first time in his correspondence, Krause shows interest in the possibility of publishing a collection of musical settings of anacreontic verses and other similar poems by German composers; “the enclosed” is a list of Lieder that he thinks might be set to music. 179 At least three members of the Cochois family lived in Berlin during the 1740s. Their father, an itinerant actor, had married a Mile Molin, herself a member of a family of entertainers. Mme Cochois’s husband died in 1743, and it was at this time that her three children came to Berlin. The son, who became the leading actor of the Comédie in Berlin, was praised highly by the Marquis d’Argens (see n. 143) in a letter of 5 September 1747 to Friedrich II (OLIVIER/COMÉDIENS, pp. 34-5, 39, and passim ). One of the daughters, Marianne (see n. 46), had considerable success as a member of Friedrich’s troupe of dancers. It is Barbe or Babet Cochois, described as both an actress and a dancer (see SCHNEIDER/ OPER, 114), to whom Krause refers here. According to Olivier (OLIVIER/COMÉDIENS, p. 38), Babet Cochois collaborated with D ’Argens on his Lettres philosophiques et critiques (1744) and his Mémoires pour servir à T histoire de l ’esprit et du coeur (1745). 180 See n. 44. 181 Amaud: see n. 183. Little is known of the life of Julian Offray de La Mettrie (1709-51) prior to the publication of his most famous work, L ’Homme machine (see n. 106 and GLOSSARY). After the publication of this work and his reception by Friedrich II, La Mettrie became one of the boldest and most irreverent of the group of intellectuals that surrounded the king. His impudence and buffoonery (which Aram Vartanian believes was an attempt to conceal a profound melancholy) offended not only Germans, who resented La Mettrie’s influence on the king, but also the other philosophes around the king, and ultimately the king himself. In 1751, La Mettrie died suddenly after eating a great quantity of paté de
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barbarischen onen verscheuche und verjage. Ein wenig ist es wahr, aber doch nicht ganz, und also haben Sie / auch nur halb Ursache böse zu seyn. Ich liebe abe* doch die Musen noch, kann ich Ihnen gleich nicht oft die Aufwartung machen. Wir haben wieder eine Clubbe, da lachen wir wieder brav, da sollten Sie uns zuhören. Doch Sie kommen ja diesen Winter her. Nicht wahr? Gewiß. Man wird so dumm oder so klug seyn und Sie herschicken. Ich wette drauf, kommen Sie nur her, mit samt meinem schwarzen Advocaten Rocke werden Sie finden, daß ich doch noch der alte bin, und daß Sie werden mich noch lieb haben. Bringen Sie ein paar neue Lieder mit. Diesen Winter werde ich die hiesigen Musikos ansträngen, welche von den beygehenden in Noten zu bringen. Sie, poetischen Herrn [s/c] / sollen hernach einen Kupferstecher und Verleger schaffen. Mit den so genandten Philosophen am Hofe gehet es sehr wunderlich her. Der Marquis d’Argens war 2 Jahr ganz in der äußersten grace denn konnte er es nicht mehr aushalten, bat den König ihm nur seine Pension als Chambellan von 600 rth (denn ausser dem hat er an die 2000) lassen, er wolle in Ruhe mit seiner neuen Frau, der stumpfnäsigen schminkerfahrenen Cochois leben. Der König ließ ihm zur Antwort sagen er möchte nur in 8 Tagen wieder anfragen, und sich bestimmen. Darüber aber ist er seit Jahr und Tag dem König nicht mehr unter Augen gekommen. D’arget ist ein kleiner Kopf, nahm eine Frau, steckte sie mit den Franzosen an, gab darüber viel von sich zu reden und zu lachen, bleibt aber weil er klein, doch noch da. La Mettrie hat im Anfänge den König einmal gesprochen, darnach 2 Jahr nicht mehr. Nur ist er seit 6 Monaten nebst D ’arget, und Amaud Mitlector fahrt aber immer fort tolle Streiche zu machen. / Vor einiger Zeit hat er ein Ding drucken
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this thing printed in which he praised our king at the expense of the king of France. The king became very displeased over this, called him faquin and I know not what else,182 and he answered, “Well, Sire, I must be sent to Spandau.”183 Now Amaud is a foolish schoolboy; he also has received his dismissal. A little while ago, he said that the guards in Potsdam were fine men, but the guards of the king of France were finer yet and are, he says, “excellent, like me.”184 Maupertuis brought the greatest misfortune upon the young Grischko, when he alleged that the latter had drawn up maps of the country, and intended to go into the service of Russia; the poor fellow has got a guard and all that sort of thing in his house.185 Maupertuis is said to be eclipsed. Two stories are told concerning this; one: he is said to have yet another wife in France.186 faisan awe trujfes, and his death was attributed by his enemies to gluttony, and cited as an act of divine punishment for his materialism. Yet Friedrich, after he had ascertained that La Mettrie had not renounced his atheism on his deathbed, forgot his annoyance with this most bumptious philosophe, and wrote for him a substantial eulogy, which he had read before the Berlin Akademie. 182 Faquin: knave. 183 Spandau was the site of a famous prison. 184 Fran^ois-Thomas-Marie Baculard d’Amaud (1718-1805) had a precocious and facile talent for writing and a gift for flattery that attracted the attention of Voltaire. Upon Voltaire’s recommendation, Friedrich II began to correspond with Baculard and invited him to come to Berlin. Voltaire eventually became annoyed by the king’s admiration for the young poet, who seemed suddenly to have become Voltaire’s rival, and attacked him in verse. The king had referred to Baculard as his “Ovid” and demonstrated his admiration by conferring on him the position of legation councilor in Dresden. Here Baculard was persuaded by the Comte de Frise, nephew of the Marshall of Saxony to return to France. He soon went into retirement and continued to write prolifically, achieving his greatest success with lugubrious subjects. See HOEFER, vol. 3 (1853), cols. 291-2. 185 August Nathanael Grischow (1726-60) was the son of a distinguished professor of mathematics at the Collegium Medico-chirurgicum in Berlin and member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Augustin Grischow (1683-1749). Under the guidance of his father the young Grischow had devoted himself to mathematical studies. In 1749, he became a member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, and in 1751, the year following Krause’s letter, Professor of Astronomy and secretary of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg where he published several works on astronomy and geography. See ADB 9 (1879), pp. 703-704. 186 Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759) won great distinction for having verified the theories of Newton and Huygens concerning the flattening of the earth at the poles (see GLOSSARY). After Voltaire had brought him to the attention of Friedrich, Crown Prince of Prussia, he was invited to come to Berlin. After Friedrich’s accession to the throne, Maupertuis accepted the invitation. He took part in the reorganization of the Berlin Akademie, and became its president in 1746. In the same year, Maupertuis had married Eleonore von Borck, a member of a distinguished Pomeranian family, who was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother Sophia Dorothea, and, later, Hofmeisterin to Princess Amalia (see n. 219). The marriage was apparently a happy one; the rumor that Maupertuis had another wife in France was probably wishful thinking on the part of the circle to which Krause belonged—because of his irascibility, contentiousness, and brutal candor, Maupertuis was even more unpopular in Berlin than were most of the philosophes at the court of Friedrich n. The second story concerning the impending “eclipse” may have concerned the unpleasant turn Maupertuis’s career was taking. Earlier in the year, he had announced his discovery of the so-called Law of Least Action. Samuel König, a member of the Berlin Akademie living in Holland, protested that this “law” had been previously discussed and better understood by Leibniz. Voltaire arrived in the summer of 1750 to take König’s part in the controversy that followed. Disregarding the repeated injunctions of Friedrich II, Voltaire derided
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lassen. Da lobt er unseren König auf Unkosten des Königes von Frankreich. Darüber wird der König sehr unwillig, heist ihn faquin und ich weis nicht was mehr, und er antwortet: he bien, Votre M Sire, il faut me mettre _ Spando. Arnaud ist nun gar ein närrischer Schüler, hat auch jetzo seinen Abschied. Vor einiger Zeit sagte er: Die Garde in Potsdam wären zwar schöne Leute aber die Garde des Königes in Frankreich wären doch noch schöner, c’étaient des ce sont, dit-il, des hommes bien fait comme moi. Maupertuis, der den jungen Grischko bald in das gröste Unglück gebracht, indem er beym König angegeben, er habe Pläne vom Lande aufgenommen p. und wolle damit in Russische Dienste gehen, der arme Mensch hat darüber Wache und alles ins Haus gekriegt, Maup. soll eclipsirt seyn. Man ergiebet 2 Historien davon, die eine: daß herausgekommen, er habe in Frankr. noch eine Frau.
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Algarotti also has not seen the king any more for a long while.187 Now there remains nothing but for Voltaire to steal lace from the king’s throne in Potsdam, as Bottarelli stole fringe from the chapel in Charlottenburg.188 Adieu. I am your K. Die M acht des Weins Lieder p. 5 Seufzer einer Braut Der Bettler Die Monaden Abschied von Chloris:
it. p .1 4 .15.17.19. 20. 28. 29. 33. 35. 37. 40.44.49. 52.53. 57. Wouldn’t it be possible in this for the “als sie selbst” to be deleted, or rather, for the “Sein der Rede” not to be broken off so in the middle of the line? p. 59. A n Phillis, p.3. Lieder.
Couldn’t you make another strophe here? “Die lange Nacht” at the end is too serious for singing. p .4 .5 .7 . 8.10.11.12.14. From Herr Uz’s Lyrische Gedichte p. 10.12.21.23.25.27. 33 45.48. Neue Bevträge Die darin edirte 5.B. 4-Str p. 68.92.93. 94.176.267. But in this what is between the lines “Gönnet dir ein wahres Glück” and “Wenn ich wie ich oft begehre” would be deleted, p. 271,272 Scherzhafte Lieder 1 Th. p. 19. 34. 39.40.43.62.71. 75.81.85. Maupertuis mercilessly in his Diatribe du docteur Akakia and various other writings; it was widely believed that Voltaire’s attack contributed to the decline of Maupertuis’s health, and ultimately to his death. 187 Seen. 44. 188 Giovanni Gualberti Bottarelli was librettist for the Berlin Opera between 1741, when Carl Heinrich Graun (see n. 64) brought him to Berlin from Siena, and 1744, when he stole fringe from the chapel in Charlottenburg. For this prank, Bottarelli was expelled from the country and went to London, where he continued to write texts to be set to music. See L. SCHNEIDER/OPER, p. 65; GLEIM/UZ, p. 61.
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Algarotti siehet den König auch schon seit Jahr und Tag nicht mehr. Nun fehlt nichts als nur daß noch Voltaire einmal vons Königs Thron in Potsdam Tresse stehle, wie Bottarelli Framsen [sic] aus der Capelle in Charlottenburg stahl. Adieu schreiben Sie mir bald, ich bitte sehr wegen des Domherrn. Ich bin der Ihrige K. Die Macht des Weins Lieder p. 5 Seufzer einer Braut der Bettler Die Monaden Abschied von Chloris: it. p. 14.15.17.19. 20.28. 29. 33. 35. 37. 40.44.49. 52. 53. 57. wäre es in dieser nit möglich, daß das: als sie selbst wegkäme, oder vielmehr, daß das Sein der Rede se nicht so in der Mitte der Zeile abgebracht würde. p. 59. An Phillis. p. 3. Lieder. Konnten Sie hier nicht noch eine Strophe dazu machen. Die lange Nacht am Schluß ist zu ernsthaft zum Singen p. 4 .5 .7 . 8.10.11.12. 14. Aus H. Utzens lyrischen Gedichte] p. 10.12.21.23.25.27. 33 45.48. Neue Bevtrage Die darin edirte 5.B. 4-St: p. 68.92. 93. 94.176. 267. In dieser letzen bliebe aber weg was zwischen den Zeilen Gönnet dir ein wahres Glück— Wenn ich wie ich oft begehre. stehet, p. 271,272 Scherzhafte Lieder 1 Th. p. 19. 34. 39.40.43.62.71. 75.81.85.
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Hagedornes Oden in 5 Büchern p. 19. 30.41.81.116.117.121. 149. 154.166.168. 220. 245. 246. 247. 248. 251. 265189 No. 28 (D-HTgl 2360) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, For the verification you sent, I thank you respectfully. It has helped bring about the judgment of an “appletorii.”1901 have received the Thaler for it, but will not include it here because it is not worth the trouble to spend so much postage for a Thaler that would make the letter heavier. If you have something to pay for here, I await your command. I thank you very much for the poem about Herr von Stille, and the Stifts Calendar with all its saints.191 The latter adorns my parlor, and the first is very beautifully turned out. It is indeed a pity about that honorable man, and he was the last of the friends whom the king had in the hours that he spent as a human being. But isn’t the king unlucky that Heaven always lets him realize in such a painful way that he too can be unhappy. How is the good Herr Sucro doing?192 Is he in good spirits again? Do give him a hearty kiss from me, and do assure him of my continuing friendship. If we only had both of you here! Ask Ramler if he has not heard that I am bustling about capably in the juridical turmoil, and if he has seen that I am happy, as he is, and responsive to a good Lied. That brings me to the Lieder that are already being engraved and printed, and for which I await a preface by you. They are taken mostly from your Scherzhafte Lieder, and from the rhymed Lieder published separately, and I have added some 189 This list is the enclosure Krause mentions at the beginning of the letter. Lieder to be submitted to composers are listed here by page number only. Titles of these Lieder are given, when they are known, in the Appendix. Because Ramler changed not only the words of poems to be set to music, but also the titles, it is often difficult to identify the Lieder in Krause’s list. 190 Possibly “appletorii” refers to an appellant. 191 Although Christoph Ludwig von Stille (1696-1752) embarked in 1715 on a military career, he also attended the university at Helmstedt, and, later, the university at Halle. He continued to take an interest in matters of literary and cultural interest, all the while advancing rapidly in his military career. In 1740 Friedrich II, delighted to meet a military man with an excellent education, promoted Stille to the rank of colonel without first having advanced him to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and appointed him tutor to his (Friedrich’s) younger brother Prince Heinrich (see n. 310). Stille was one of the few members of the king’s inner circle of friends and advisers who tried to persuade Friedrich to pay attention to the works of native German writers. See ADB, vol. 36 (1893), pp. 240-45. 192 Krause’s concern for Johann Georg Sucro (see note 172 and GLOSSARY) was occasioned by the death in childbirth of Sucro’s wife Friederike on 4 April 1752. The young couple had been married about eighteen months, and Friederike’s death saddened the whole circle of correspondents.
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Hagedorns Oden in 5 Büchern p. 19. 30.41.81.116.117.121. 149.154.166.168.220. 245. 246. 247.248. 251. 265 No. 28 (D-HTgl 2360) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Liebster Freund, Für das überschickte Attest danke ich ergebenst. Es hat doch die Erkänntniß eines appletorii veranlassen helfen. Ich habe den Thaler dafür bekommen, schicke ihn aber hier nicht mit, weil es sich nicht der Mühe lohnt, so viel Postgeld wegen eines Thalers auszugeben, als der Brief schwerer würde. Haben Sie aber hier etwas auszuzahlen, so erwarte ich Ihre Assignation. Für das Gedicht auf den Hn. v. Stille, und den Stifts Calender mit allen seinen Heiligen, danke ich auch recht sehr. Der letzte ziert meine Stube, und das erste ist sehr schön gerathen. Es ist auch in der That Schade um den ehrlichen Mann und es war der letzte von des Königs aber Freunden die er zu seinen Stunden hatte, die er als Mensch zubringet. IstA der König nicht unglücklich, daß ihn der Himmel immer auf eine so empfindliche Art merken lässet, daß er auch unglücklich seyn kann. / Was macht denn der ehrliche H. Sucro? Hat er seine Munterkeit wieder? Geben Sie ihm ja einen recht feurigen Kuß von mir, und versichern ihn meiner fortdauernden Freundschaft aufs beste. Wenn man Sie doch beyde hier hätte! Fragen Sie Rammlern, ob er nicht hört, daß ich mich brav in dem juristischen strepitu herumtummele und ob er nicht doch siehet, daß ich vergnügt mit ihm, und empfindlich bey einem schönen Lied bin. nun Ich komme auf die Lieder, die nicht schon gestochen werden und gedruckt; und wozu ich die Vorrede von Ihnen erwarte. Sie sind unlösbar meist aus ihren gereimten scherzhaften, und aus den besonders gedruckten A Liedern genommen
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by Hagedom and Utz [sic] which are written in just that style.193 A few serious ones are among them, for example, “Ja liebster Damon” by Kleist and “Welche Gottheit” by Utz.194 My purpose is as follows: We Germans guzzle too much, and are moved too little when we drink. So we shall have many good drinking songs one day, but they will be sung still less. But we are great lovers of music. We are beginning to have real gatherings. We go for walks, and there, more than one opportunity can be found to sing a little Lied. Now these mustn’t be serious Lieder, for one doesn’t assemble in order to be serious. But, NB, they mustn’t be so (truly) lovelorn as the so-called Hallische Oden.195 Most women are shy of singing them, and men will be laughed at. They must be sharp-witted, pretty, and graceful songs, clever airs, fine portraits in which a lively spirit appears - the friend of good natured banter, the enemy of all that has the appearance of work. Imagine such a gathering, with women, as you had several years ago in Magdeburg with Herr Klopstock and Herr Sulzer, in which one cavorts, springs, and jests, etc., and in which one doesn’t assemble to make music, but will not take it amiss if someone places himself at the harpsichord and plays and sings one - or even sings one without a harpsichord.196 Such Lieder shall ours be. 193 Krause is referring to the anthology Oden mit Melodien which he and Ränder published anonymously, the first volume in 1753, the second in 1755. The Lieder described here as “being engraved and printed” are quite different from the Lieder list by Krause in letter no. 27, D-HTgl 2357 (see n. 189). For detailed accounts of Krause’s collaboration with Ränder in the publication of the first two important collections of Lieder, see ENGELKE/LIEDERSCHULE; FRIEDLAENDER I, pp. 7-8, 13, 16, 115-19, 167-70, and 179-81; BEAUJEAN, pp. 52-62. See also GLEIM/UZ, pp. 147, 149; GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 338,344; II, pp. 6 -7 ,1 8 ,2 4 ,2 6 ,3 7 -9 . 194 The first, from Phyllis an Damon (Brieg 1745), a serious poem about true love, is published in Ewald Christian von Kleist's sämmtliche Werke nebst des Dichters Leben, ed. Wilhelm Körte, pt. 1, p. 209. The words “Welche Gottheit” begin a somewhat moralistic poem, Die Wünsche, first published in Johann Peter Uz’s Lyrische Gedichte (Berlin: Jacob Weitbrecht, and Leipzig: Ulrich Christian Saalbach, 1749). See Sämmtliche poetische Werke von J. P. Uz, ed. August Sauer, Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, ed. Bernhard Seuffert, vols. 33-8, Lyrische Gedichte, p. 36. 195 Krause refers to the Sammlung verschiedener und auserlesener Oden ... (see GRÄFE/ SAMMLUNG), a collection of four volumes of Lieder published in Halle between 1737 and 1743 by Johann Friedrich Gräfe (1711-87) of Braunschweig (the first and second volumes appeared in more than one edition). Gräfe, a postal official and court secretary in Braunschweig, was an amateur musician and poet; the authors of most of the texts of the Hallische Oden belonged to his circle of literary acquaintances in Braunschweig, although the collection also includes texts by Gottsched and Marianne von Ziegler (see GLOSSARY). The title of Gräfe’s collection emphasizes the fact that it consisted of Lieder with newly composed melodies, rather than settings of Lieder with pre-existing melodies, such as the popular Singende Muse an der Pleisse (1736) of Sperontes (Johann Scholze). Most of the melodies are by C. F. Hurlebusch and Carl Heinrich Graun (see n. 64), with whom Gräfe may have studied, and by Gräfe himself. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see n. 52) contributed one setting to the collection, his earliest known Lied: Eilt, ihr Schäfer, Wq 199/2 (H 670). 196 Krause undoubtedly refers to Klopstock’s visit to Gleim in the summer of 1750. Klopstock’s name first appears in Gleim’s correspondence in a letter from Bodmer dated 12 September, 1747 in which Klopstock’s epic poem Der Messias is compared with Milton’s Paradise Lost (KÖRTE/ SCHWEIZER, p. 66). From 1749, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) and his poetry are discussed frequently in Gleim’s correspondence with Ramler and Uz (see GLEIM/UZ, p. 214, and GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 183,200-201,207,210,222). Yet Klopstock and Gleim do not seem to have
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von Hagedorns und Utzen etc. welche dazu gethan, die in eben dem sind Geschmack A . Einige wenige ernsthafte sind drunter, zB. Ja Liebster Dämon, von Kleisten, u. Welche Gottheit, von Utzen. Mein Zweck dabey ist folgender. Wir Deutschen saufen zu viel, und sind beym Trinken zu wenig gerührt. Daher werden viel wir einmals A gute Trinklieder haben, und / noch weniger werden sie gesungen werden. Allein wir sind starke Liebhaber der Musik. Wir fangen an, eine Art von da artigen Gesellschaften zu halten. Wir gehen spatzieren, und j— kann sich mehr als Gelegenheit eine Gesellschaft finden, ein Liedgen zu singen. Dieß müssen nun keine ernsthafte Lieder seyn, denn man ist nicht zusammen gekommen, ernsthaft zu seyn. Aber NB. sie müssen auch nicht so (wirkl.) verliebt seyn wie die sogenandten Haifischen [sic] Oden sind. Die scheuen sich die meisten Frauenzimmer zu singen; und die Mannspersonen werden damit ausgelacht. Es müssen scharfsinnige, artige und zierliche Gesänge seyn, sinnreiche Arien, feine Abbildungen, in welchen sich ein lebhafter Geist, der Freund des artigen Scherzes, der Feind alles desjenigen, was das mit Frauenzimmern vor Ansehn der Arbeit hat, zeiget. Stellen sie sich eine solche Gesellschaft A , wie Sie mit H. Klopstock u. H. Sulzem vor etlichen Jahren in Magdeburg, gehabt, wo man folatirt, springt, scherzt, p. / und wo man nicht zusammen kommt zu musiciren. Wo aber doch keinem übel genommen wird, wenn er sich an einen eines Flügel stellt, eines spielt, und eines singet; oder auch selbst ohne Flügel A singet. Solche Lieder sollen unsere Lieder seyn.
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Some drinking songs shall indeed be included; but more in the future than for the present. We Germans still don’t know at all how to conduct ourselves when a Lied is to be sung at table. If you could bring in some arguments that the French are not so silly with their suppers and Lieder as the Germans consider them to be, it would be very beneficial. In a gathering such as we envision, there are clever people for whom it is pleasant to interrupt the merriment for a moment to hear something excellent and serious, e.g., “Ja liebster Damon,” it. “Ruhn und du geflügelt Gold,” etc.197 To this end some serious songs shall also be interspersed. The first part will have some 30 Lieder. But more parts are to be published.198 One thing more. Here in Berlin, and also, perhaps, elsewhere, everything that one sings is supposed to sound operatic. But the easy style of song that is appropriate for playful Lieder is certainly not found in operatic arias. Now because one can’t let this fine branch of melody be driven out by opera arias, one must produce collections such as ours. Regarding the music (particularly with reference to composition), you just need not say much. For I intend to discuss music in more detail in a letter that will preface one of the following parts. But please do mention that we wish that the melodies of our Lieder were all such that they could be sung without harpsichord and accompaniment, or, musically speaking, that the authors of these would, in composing them, write them without keyboard or bass instrument, and, while composing them, would forget that a bass part should also be played. Along these general lines, I would like to organize my letter proposed above. Herr Ramler made all the texts pass review before they were set to music; and he made Hagedorn’s excellent.199 spent time together before 1750. Gleim’s letters written in the spring of that year mention Klopstock’s expected visit, and a long letter written on 15 July 1750 describes in considerable detail the visit to Magdeburg in Klopstock’s company, and the return journey to Halberstadt. Among those named in the company that gathered in Magdeburg on this occasion were Gottfried Hempel (see n. 206), August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack (see n. 343), his wife, a “Mile Sack,” Johann Georg Sulzer (see n. 55), Sulzer’s fiancée Catherine Wilhelmine Keusenhoff (see n. 151), Heinrich Wilhelm Bachmann (same), and Johann Georg Schultheß (see n. 173). See GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 225-27, 229, 232, 233, and, particularly, pp. 237-42,248, 251,253. 197 Ja liebster Damon, as noted above (see also n. 194), is by Kleist; Ruh’n und du geflügelt Gold cannot be identified. 198 The first and second volumes of Oden mit Melodien (Berlin: Bimstiel, 1753 and 1755) contained 31 songs each. The names of the poets were not given, nor were those of the composers with the exception of Johann Christian Bach (1735-82) who made a setting of Gemmingen’s ode, So fliehst du mich, du tugendhaffte Seele, for the second volume. Although no volumes (“parts”) appeared in this series after the collection of 1755, Krause and Ramler collaborated at least once afterwards, and more likely twice, to publish song collections. They were probably the editors of the Oden mit Melodien published by Bimstiel in 1761 (see n. 356), and they collaborated to publish four volumes of Lieder der Deutschen in 1767 and 1768 (see n. 396). See FRIEDLAENDER I, pp. 167-70. 199 Krause’s remark implies that the changes in texts to be set to music grew out of Ramier’s desire to edit and improve what he read, and Ramier’s correspondence confirms his considerable role in the alteration of texts before they were sent to composers. In a letter written to Gleim on 6 January 1753,
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Es sollen auch zwar einige Trinklieder drinn Vorkommen; aber mehr pro futura als pro praesenti. Wir Deutschen wissen uns gar noch nicht dazu anzustellen, wie bey Tische ein Lied soll gesungen. Könnten Sie da einige Traits anbringen, daß die Deutschen Franzosen bey ihren soupes u. Liedern nicht so närrisch sind, als die Deutschen sie dafür halten, so wäre es sehr heilsam. In einer oberen Gesellschaft, wie wir uns vorstellen, giebt es witzige Köpfe, denen ist es angenehm, auch ohne Absicht einen Augenblick das Lachen zu unterbrechen, um etwas excellentes, ernsthaftes zu hören: zB. Ja liebster Dämon, u. Ruhn und Du geflügelt Gold etc. Daher sollen auch einige / ernsthafte Lieder eingestreuet werden. Der erste Theil wird etliche 30 Lieder haben. Es sollen aber mehr Theile herauskommen. Noch eins. Hier in Berlin und auch vielleicht anderwerts soll alles was man singt, nur Opemmäßig [sic] klingen. In den Opemarien aber ist gar nicht der leichte Gesang, der sich in Scherzlieder schicket. Weil man nun die schöne Branche der Melodien, die Scherzlieder, unmögl. von den Opemarien kann verdrängen lassen, so muß man solche Sammlungen wie unsere ist machen pp. Absicht In Ansehung der Musik (ins besonderer A auf die Composition) so dürften Sie eben nicht viel sagen. Denn ich habe mir vorgenommen, in einem Briefe, der einem der folgenden Theile soll vorgesetzet werden, davon etwas musikalisch wir wünschen, daß ausführlicher zu sprechen. Aber das belieben Sie doch zu inseriren, daß A die Melodien unserer Lieder alle so wären, daß sie, selbst ohne Flügel und Accompagnement gesungen werden können / oder musikalischer zu sprechen, daß die Verfertiger derselben bey deren Composition sie ohne Clavier oder einiges gedachtem u. anderes Beß-instrument A componirten, und bey deren Composition nicht daran gedächten, daß auch ein Baß dazu gespielet werden sollte. Auf diesen General Caracter wollte ich gern meinen Bevorhin gedachten Brief gründen. Herr Rammler lasset hat alle Texte vorher noch die Revue passiren lassen, ehe sie componiret worden; und er hat die Hagedorns excellent gemacht.
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Send me the preface as soon as possible; for the engraver and the printer are working fast. For the rest, I am, sincerely, my dearest friend’s respectful servant Krause, Lwyr Berl. the 29 Dec. 1752 No. 29 (D-HTgl 2361) KRAUSE TO (?)200 Nota. One didn’t know what kind of singer there would be for this cantata; so the composer wrote the voice parts in the soprano clef. But as a rule, it wouldn’t be bad if the first and last aria, likewise the two recitatives, were sung by a tenor, the middle aria by a soprano. The score has become very messy because of haste. But Herr Gleim will probably have the Halberstadt town musician Herr Clemens on hand for his wedding, and he would probably take the trouble to copy out the score; he would copy it out, then, as is customarily done here in the opera. If a harpsichord were available, it would be good. The recitatives are to be sung with expression and slowly. One or two rehearsals ahead of time will be not only useful, but necessary.201
Ramler admits that he has made so many changes in Hagedom’s poems that he can almost claim their authorship (see GLEIM/RAMLER H, pp. 2, 26 and 39). Yet Ramler’s letters indicate that Krause himself, and perhaps other composers, made and encouraged the alteration of texts for musical settings. In a letter to Gleim written at the beginning of April 1752, Ramler notes that “the composer has sometimes taken the liberty to omit some strophes, to change some words, all in the interest of better music ...” (GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 339); in October of the same year, Ramler wrote to Gleim: “He [Krause] wanted to make changes in [Gleim’s Lieder] as well as in Uz’s, Hagedom’s, and the pieces of others, but I argued with him. And now he has brought me all of them, together with his music, so that I may alter them myself, in order that young ladies may sing them and poets read them” (GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 378). Uz and Hagedom responded differently to the changes made to their poems. In his letter of 15 October 1754 to Gleim, Uz deplores (perhaps disingenuously) the unsuitability of his poems for musical setting; although he has taken leave of his lyric muse, he says, he may be so bold as to compose some pieces according to Ramler’s rules (see GLEIM/UZ, p. 251). According to Gleim’s letter of 12 May 1754, Hagedom’s dissatisfaction with the changes to his poems was expressed more publicly, and appeared in Hamburg newspapers (GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 108). 200 This undated note in Krause’s hand, undoubtedly written in 1753 between the end of March and the beginning of May, seems to have been addressed to a friend or an acquaintance of Gleim’s in Halberstadt; it accompanied the score of the cantata that Krause had written for Gleim’s wedding. 201 The name of Clemens is not to be found among surviving records of musicians in Halberstadt. The work to which Krause refers here is doubtless a cantata that he had written for Gleim’s wedding (see n. 200). It would appear from Gleim’s letter of 16 April 1753 to Ramler that the poet Nikolaus Dietrich Giseke (1724-65) was the author of the text (GLEIM/RAMLER, II, pp. 16-17). Krause seems to have been pleased with both the text and his setting of it; Ramler indicated in his letter to Gleim of 6 May that
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Schicken Sie mir die Vorrede, so bald als nur möglich; denn der Stecher und Drucker sputen sich. Ich bin übrigens aufrichtig Meines liebsten Freundes ergebener Diener Krause. Adv Berl. d. 29Dec. 1752 Viel Glück zum Neuen Jahr No. 29 (D-HTgl 2361) KRAUSE TO ? Nota. Man hat nicht gewust, was für ein Sänger zu dieser Cantate seyn würde, des wegen hat der Componist die Singstimme im discant geschrieben. Sonst aber würde nicht übel seyn, wenn die erste u. die letzte Arie ingleichen die beyden Recitative von einem Tenoristen und die mittelste Arie von einem Sopranisten gesungen würde. Wegen Eyle ist die Partitur sehr unsauber gerathen. H. Gleim wird aber wohl den Halberstädtischen Stadtmusicum, H. Clemens, mit bey seiner Hochzeit haben; und dieser würde auch wohl die Mühe über sich nehmen, diese Partitur auszuschreiben; der es denn auf die Art ausschreiben würde, wie man hier in Opern in Gewohnheit hat. Wo ein Gfavyzin Flügel dabey zu haben, würde es sind sehr gut. Die Recitative weisen mit Affect m und langsam zu singen. Eine oder ein paar vorgängige Proben werden so nötig als nützlich seyn.
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No. 30 (D-HTgl 2362) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Berk, the 6 Nov. 1753 My dearest friend, I thank you most respectfully for the beautiful Krautsvogel,202 My wife (who also commends herself to you and thanks you) and I have eaten them thinking of you. I thank you also for the congratulations for my daughter. This time my poor wife had much to bear. The child would almost have died, and is having the greatest difficulty recovering. You can judge my anxiety. But I have an older daughter, who is all the more lively. I would like to save her for you if you were 15 years younger, and I could some day give the girl 15,000 Rth as a dowry.203 But you must be more serious, by more than 15 years - than any wise man I can imagine - after what you have endured this year, my poor friend. I do not wish to open wounds again; because of them I have not even written to you at all, even though I would have liked to comfort you.204 Krause wanted Gleim to send a copy of it to him, so that the group in Berlin might perform it for their own celebration of the day of Gleim’s marriage (GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 26). But Krause was never again to see a copy of his cantata (see nn. 225 and 353). Krause’s remarks provide a glimpse of the performance practice of his day: They suggest that a score was generally considered indispensable for the performance of an opera, that recitatives were usually sung at a fairly brisk tempo (thus Krause may have considered a slower tempo more expressive), and possibly that new works were not always rehearsed, but sometimes performed at sight (cf. Krause’s letter of 20 December 1747, D-HTgl 2340). 202 The word Krautsvogel is not in general use today. In ADELUNG/WÖRTERBUCH, vol. 2 (1764), cols. 583-4, Krautvogel and Krautlerche are listed as corruptions of Gereutlerche, a wagtail, which had nothing in common with the lark but its color, and derived its name from the fact that it lived in cleared (ausgereuteten) areas of woodlands. 203 Krause refers to his second daughter, Frederica Sophia, bom on 6 October of this year (see GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 73, which mentions the birth of this child) and to his oldest daughter, Christiana Dorothea, bom around the end of September 1752, who was Gleim’s godchild (see GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 351,376, and Introduction, Table I). 204 During the winter of 1752-3, Gleim had met and fallen in love with Sophie Mayer, youngest daughter of a Bergrat in Blankenburg, not far from Halberstadt. Körte reports that they became engaged on 15 March. Gleim’s and Ramier’s letters written around this time are full of extravagant praise of Sophie’s merits and Gleim’s good fortune. Yet Krause and many of Gleim’s other friends in Berlin seem not to have been told about his engagement until late in March (see KÖRTE/SCHWEIZER, p. 194). On 16 April, Gleim informed Ramier that the wedding day, originally planned for 1 May, had been postponed. The story of the events that followed is described at length in GLEIM/UZ, 238-43. Sophie allegedly threatened to break off the engagement, asserting that she needed to give her jealous father proof of her affection. Kleist, arriving in Halberstadt to attend the wedding, and Christian von Berg (see GLOSSARY) both accompanied Gleim to Blankenburg in an attempt to intervene on his behalf. They were unable to speak with Sophie, however, for she had been sent to visit her sister and brother-in-law (both of whom disapproved of Gleim). On the return trip from Blankenburg, the coach overturned, and Gleim dislocated his arm. Kleist continued to plead Gleim’s case, and Sophie finally indicated that she was interested in reconciliation with her erstwhile fiancé. But Gleim’s vanity had been too deeply wounded; for a young girl to jilt him - even though her desperate action had been precipitated by her family’s concerted effort to break the engagement-struck Gleim as unforgivable betrayal. He refused to
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No. 30 (D-HTgl 2362) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Berl. den 6 Nov. 1753. Mein liebster Freund Ich danke Ihnen ergebenst für die schönen Krautsvögel. Meine Frau (die sich Ihnen auch empfiehlt, und Ihnen dankt) und ich haben sie auf Ihre Gesundheit verzehrt. Ich danke Ihnen auch für den Glückwunsch zu meiner Tochter. Dießmal hat meine arme Frau viel ausstehen müssen. Das Kind wäre beynahe gestorben, u. hat die äusserste Mühe sich zu erhohlen. Urtheilen Sie von meiner Unruhe. Eine ältere Tochter aber habe ich, die desto munterer ist. Ich wollte sie Ihnen aufheben, wenn Sie 15 Jahre jünger wären, und ich künftig dem Mädgen einmal 15000 rth. mitgeben könnte. / Aber Sie müssen über 15 Jahre ernsthafter seyn, als ich weis nicht welcher Weise, nachdem was Sie, armer Freund, dieß Jahr ausgestanden. Ich will die Wunden nicht wieder aufreissen, ich habe Ihnen auch deshalb davon gar nicht geschrieben, ohngeacht ich Sie gern getröstet hätte. Was macht denn uns
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How is our good Herr Sucro? Greet him for me, and kiss him a thousand times.205 You will have our Lieder by now. Do help us make early sales. Herr Hempel drew the figure gratis, and he is not the man whom one can ask to do much gratis.206 So for the future parts, the publisher is to pay him something for each figure. Hereafter I would very much like for the following parts to be printed on writing paper. And for both, I will encourage the publisher with quick sales. Did the Dean of your cathedral have to be chosen at a time when your work would increase because of this and prevent you from coming here?207 And can’t you work especially hard and come to the opera here anyway - if you come towards the end of December, you can hear both operas. The first: Sylla, is by Graun, and the king wrote the verses; the other: Alexander and Porus, is by Agricola, a philosophical composer, and a successful imitator of Hasse.208 be reconciled with her, and broke the engagement himself. While this tragicomedy was unfolding, Ramler wrote to Gleim repeatedly, asking him to name the day of his wedding, so that friends in Berlin could celebrate it. But Gleim appears to have been so deeply humiliated by what he called his “tragedy” that he could tell Ramler nothing of what had transpired (except for the injury to his arm) until June 8. In the explanatory letters that Gleim finally wrote to Ramler and Uz, he protested that he was blameless in the entire situation. Gleim’s correspondence soon turned to other matters - by 3 October 1753, Sulzer could note with satisfaction that Gleim had recovered well from his disappointment. See GLEIM/RAMLERII, pp. 10-12,15-18,22-6,30-36, 37-9,41; KLEIST/SAUERII, pp. 231,232,238, 239,240,243-4,245; KORTE/SCHWEIZER, p. 194,199,205; KORTE/GLEIM, pp. 68-72. 205 On Sucro see. n. 172. 206 The painter Gottfried Hempel (1720-72) belonged to Gleim’s circle, and is mentioned frequently in the Gleim/Ramler correspondence beginning in May 1745 (see GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 2). Among his paintings are portraits of Ramler, Gleim, Kleist, Krause, Christian Furchtegott Gellert, Bodmer, Klopstock, and Sulzer, most of which are displayed in the Gleimhaus in Halberstadt. Carl Schiiddekopf describes Hempel as “easy-going,” and implies that eventually Ramler found more stimulating company. See BILDNISSE, p. 90, and THIEME/BECKER, vol. 16 (1923), p. 370, and SCHUDDEKOPF/RAMLER, p. 12. 207 Ernst Ludwig Christoph Spiegel zu Diesenburg (see n. 61) had been chosen Domdechant (Dean) of the Cathedral in Halberstadt - a secular appointment - on 25 September 1753. See GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 58,59, and 69. 208 Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-74), composer, music theorist, and singer, attended the University in Leipzig from 1738 to 1741, and studied with J. S. Bach during that time. Shortly after the accession of Friedrich II, Agricola moved to Berlin, where he became a pupil of Johann Joachim Quantz (see n. 96), and an active participant in professional musical activities. During his career, he published numerous articles and pamphlets, the first of which appeared in 1749. His first intermezzo II Filosofo convinto in amore (1750) won the approval of Friedrich II, and, in 1751, Agricola was appointed court composer. In the same year he married the singer Benedetta Emilia Molteni, in violation of the Friedrich’s rule that his singers must remain single. The king not only reduced the couple’s joint salary, but continued to show Agricola his disfavor (see n. 74). The opera that Krause calls Alexander und Porus was performed in Berlin as the second opera of the 1754 carnival season, with the title Cleofide (this and other operas based on a text by Metastasio were also titled Alessandro e Poro and Alessandro nell’Indie). Schneider reports that Friedrich II, who had seen Cleofide, the setting of Metastasio’s text by Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783), during a visit to Dresden in 1728, had recommended it to his court composers for the 1754 season. Agricola’s opera, Schneider continues, was not particularly successful, and he was considered presumptuous for competing with Hasse. See SCHNEIDER/PRACHT, p. 35, and GROVE2, vol. 1, pp. 230-32.
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der ehrlicher H. Sucro? Grüßen und küssen Sie ihn doch tausendmal von mir. Unsere Lieder werden Sie nun schon haben. Helfen Sie doch ja zu einem baldigen umsonst Debit. H. Hempel hat die Figur A gezeichnet, und er ist nicht der Mann, den man viel umsonst muß arbeiten lassen, bey dem künftigen Theilen soll ihm also der Verleger für jede Figur etwas bezahlen. Hiemächst wollte ich gern, daß zu dir folgenden Theile auf Schreibpapier gedruckt würden. Und zu beyden / will ich den Verleger durch einen geschwinden Debit encouragiren. Hat ihr Domdechant zu einer solchen Zeit gewehlet werden müssen, wo die dadurch Ihnen zuwachsende Arbeit Sie abhält hieher zu kommen? Und können Sie sich doch nicht brav fördern, und doch zur Oper herkommen - kommen Sie gegen Ausgang Decembers, so können Sie beyde Opern hören. Die erste: Sylla ist von Graun, und der König hat die Verse gemacht; die andere: Alexander und Porus, von Agricola, einem philosophischen Componisten und glücklichen Nachahmer Hassens. Schicken Sie
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Now do send us some of your newly written Lieder so that I can then have them set to music, and they can appear in the following parts. I haven’t seen much of Herr Ramler for the past six weeks, yet have told him that he should write to you more often. You are still always esteemed and cherished by all of the old friends, including Herr Bergius and Herr Borchward, to whom I therefore need not commend you.209 But come here you must this winter. I am unfailingly your most respectful Krause Berl. the 6th Nov. 1753 No. 31 (D-HTgl 2363) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, I have seen from your letter to Herr Ramler that you do play our Lieder , but won’t come here and let me hear how you play them. Herr Ramler now also wants a dozen serious Lieder in the second part, and - think of it - he can find none that is worth anything. We have your Bauer and your Bauren , and that is all, and they are, after all, more than two thirds playful. You, worthy friend, have composed some, the good fortune, for example, that cannot give a virtuous friend enough worldly riches to equal the ensuing loss of his good heart; also Wo ein Konig in den Wald ruft.210 Ask me why we are now looking for serious songs as well. I can tell you nothing else, but that I have heard the public call for that sort of thing. And one must respect the public. But think of it! In all 4 parts of the Hallische Oden Herr Ramler has not yet found 4 pieces that suit him.211 Fall to, then, and send us something as soon as possible. I would know of a subject for a satirical comic poem (for, NB, my public Yet it is not surprising that Agricola might have wished to imitate Hasse. Hasse was greatly respected throughout Europe, and particularly admired by Friedrich II as one of the most successful composers of Italian opere sene. Between 1721 and 1730, he was active as a composer in Italy (most of this period he spent in Naples). In 1730, he married the famous soprano, Faustina Bordoni (1700-1781). In 1731, he and Faustina visited Vienna on their way to Dresden, where Hasse had become Hofkapellmeister. His tenure in this position, which lasted until 1763, was interrupted frequently by trips to Vienna and Italy. Hasse was prolific as a composer until his death in Venice. See GROVE2 , vol. 3, pp. 894—5, and vol. 11, pp. 96-117. 209 See nn. 35 and 29. 210 Of all of the poems that Krause mentions here, only Der Bauer can be identified. This poem, which Gleim included in the second volume of Oden mit Melodien (1755), had previously appeared in his collection titled Lieder, published anonymously in 1749 (allegedly in Amsterdam, but actually in Halberstadt). Die Bauren, Das Glück, and Wo ein König in der Wald ruft do not appear in any of Gleim’s published collections. 211 Seen. 195.
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uns doch ja einige von Ihren neugemachten Liedern, Sie so damit ich sie unterdessen kann componiren lassen bis und sie mit in den folgenden Theilen erscheinen können. H. Rammlern habe ich die Sechswochen über nicht viel gesehen, doch ihm gesagt, daß er Ihnen öfterer schreiben soll. / Sie sind noch immer allen alten Freunden werth und lieb, also auch H. Bergius u. Borchward, denen ich Sie also nicht erst empfehlen dürfen. Aber herkommen müssen Sie diesen Winter. Ich bin unveränderlich Ihr ergebenster Krause Berl. den 6 Nov 1753 No. 31 (D-HTgl 2363) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Liebster Freund Ich habe aus Ihrem Briefe an H. Rammlern gesehen, daß Sie zwar unsere Lieder spielen, aber nicht herkommen wollen, um mich hören zu lassen, wie Sie sie spielen. Jetzo suchet H. Rammler auch ein Dutzend ernsthafte Lieder in dem 2— Theil, u. denken Sie, er kann keine auffinden, die was taugen. Ihren Bauer u. Ihren Bauren haben wir, und das ist alles, und die sind doch noch mehr als 2A scherzhaft. Sie, werther Freund, haben welche gemacht, zE. eines [unlesbar] das Glück, das einem tugendhaften Freunde nicht so viel Glücksgüter geben kann, als er am guten Herzen / dabey verliehren würde, it. wo ein König in den Wald ruft. Fragen Sie mich, warum wir jetzt auch ernsthafte Lieder suchen. Ich kann Ihnen nichts anderes sagen, als daß ich im Publiko gehört, man wolle auch dergleichen haben. Und das Publikum muß man ehren. Aber denken Sie, in allen 4 Theilen der Hällischen [s/c] Oden hat H. Rammler noch nicht 4 Stück gefunden, die ihm angestanden. Machen Sie sich also dabey her, und schicken uns ehestens etwas. Ich wüste ein Sujet zu einem satyrisch lustigen (denn NB mein Publikum würde zwar das
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would like the comic, but cannot bear mere love and wine), namely, a grumpy industrious person who scolds everyone who asks something of him, and yet grants it afterward; also, I have not yet seen a Lied about an absent-minded person. You remember Hagedom’s Verliebte Verzweifiung [despair of a lover].212 Certainly he is to be pitied. If there were in all strophes such symmetry as in the last lines of the Hagedom Lieder, both the absent-minded person and the grumpy industrious one could be painted in tones, c.a.d., the line where the denouement is could have particularly distinguishing tones. You are a master of symmetry, cf. your Lied: So bald ein Madgen spinnen kann and many others.213 Characteristics that are still more moral would be light-heartedness, misanthropy, impatience, modesty, love of quiet, etc. If you look in my Musikalische Poesie , chapter 4, you will find that many characters, as yet untouched in the works of poets who write odes, can be expressed in music.214 The publisher Bimstiel will be greatly obliged to you if you will be so good as to sell the 50 exemplars that have been sent to you.215 I do not know if I have already thanked you for the Krautsvogel you sent;216 if not, I will do it herewith, together with my wife who commends herself to you. I am and remain your most respectful Krause Berl., the 18 Dec. 53 212 This poem was published in Hagedom’s Oden und Lieder (1747), p. 22 (see nn. 118 and 156). The desperate situation of the lover, and his intent to do away with himself in one way or another, are described in each strophe; the last line of each strophe, in an altered meter, is a humorous depiction of the failure of each of his efforts. 213 This poem, titled Kinder-Frage, appeared in the first of the two volumes of Lieder that Gleim published anonymously in Halberstadt in 1749. See n. 210. 214 It is obvious that Krause is not entirely comfortable with the public’s request for “serious songs,” i.e., songs with a moral message. His views on the suitability of moral and various other subjects for musical treatment are expressed in his letter to Gleim of 22 March 1747 (no. 7, D-HTgl 2337) and, greatly expanded, in KRAUSE/POESIE, chapter 4 (pp. 68-102). Certain characteristics that he believes cannot be clearly and easily set to music are 1) most moral subjects 2) irony or feigned emotion, and 3) affects too violent to be rendered by pleasant music. Characteristics and subjects that he considers most easily set to music are 1) “natural” inclinations or passions (by these he understands gentle, rather than strong, emotions), 2) those affects that are revealed by tone of voice, gesture, or movements of the body, 3) affects, such as contentment, that can also be considered virtues, and 4) “odd or unmusical” subjects that can be represented by musical similes. Most of Krause’s remarks in the fourth chapter of Von der musikalischen Poesie seem to apply to compositions of extended length, e.g., arias; but presumably his prescriptions would apply also to miniatures, e.g., the Lieder that were to appear in the collection of 1755. 215 Friedrich Wilhelm Bimstiel, a publisher and editor of music who was active in Berlin between 1753 and 1782, published several anthologies of compositions by Berlin composers of the time, including Musikalisches Allerley, a weekly collection of keyboard pieces, songs, and a few chamber music compositions (1761-64), and the two collections of Oden mitMelodien (1753 and 1755), the first of which Krause had recently sent to Gleim. Among the composers found in these two collections of Lieder are Johann Friedrich Agricola, C. P. E. Bach, Johann Christian Bach, Franz Benda, Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, Johann Gottlieb and Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Philipp Kimberger, Christian Gottfried Krause, Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, Christoph Nichelmann, and Johann Joachim Quantz. See EITNER/QUELLEN, vol. 2 (1900), pp. 52-3. 216 Seen. 202.
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lustige leiden, / aber nur lauter Liebe und Wein kann es nicht vertragen) näml. ein mürrisch Dienstfertigen [sic], der alle, die ihn um etwas bitten schilt, u. es ihnen doch hernach gewähret, it. habe ich noch kein Lied über einen zerstreuten gesehen. Sie erinnern sich Hagedorns verliebter Verzweiflung. Gewiß der ist beklagenswerth. allen Wenn in de» Strophen eine solche Symmetrie wäre, wie in den letzten Zeilen der Hagedomischen Lieder, so würde auch der Zerstreuete u. der mürrische Dienstfertige in Tönen können gemacht werden, c.a.d., die Zeile, wo die Auflösung ist, könnte distinctirte Töne haben. Sie sind ein Meister in der Symmetrie, conf. ihr Lied: so bald ein / Mädgen spinnen kann, u. viele andere. Noch moralischere Materien wären die Sorglosigkeit, die Misantropie, die Ungeduld, die Bescheidenheit, die Liebe zur Ruhe p. Suchen Sie in meiner musikalischen Poesie, im 4— Hauptstück, so werden Sie finden, daß viele von den Odendichtem noch wenig berührte Charactere sich in der Musik ausdrücken lassen. Der Verleger Bimstiel wird ihnen höchst verpflichtet seyn, wenn Sie die überschickten 50 Exemplaren [sic] gütigst debitiren wollen. Ich weis nicht, ob ich mich schon für die überschickten Krautsvögel bey Ihnen bedankt habe; wo nicht, so will ich es hiemit thun, nebst meiner Frau, die sich Ihnen empfiehlt. Ich bin u. bleibe Ihr ergebenster Krause Berl. d. 18Dec53
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No. 32 (D-HTgl 2364) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, The bookseller Bimstiel has demanded that I inquire of you whether any of the 50 exemplars of the Lieder sent to you have been disposed of, and if you would be so kind as to send in the money for them.217 I discharge this commission with pleasure, because I can tell you at the same time that you are still my dear Gleim, and that I hope I am still your dear Krause. Our Ramler has become quite a distinguished man. Today he spoke with no less than the Princess Amalia, and for no less than a half hour.218 And do you know how he earned this privilege? He has written a Passion oratorio; the princess wants to set it to music. But Herr Graun will also set it to music. Perhaps he has already sent it to you. But no matter; I can still inform you of it.219 I would like to take this opportunity of requesting once more that you write another poem to be set to music. I will attend to the composition of the same. Couldn’t you induce Herr Klopstock and other good friends to compose such like?220 I am the member of a musical society that will publish all kinds of musical works, and there is to be a place in it
217 Concerning Bimstiel, see n. 215. 218 Anna Amalia (1723-87), youngest sister of Friedrich II, was Princess of Prussia, and, after 1755, Abbess of Quedlinburg. She devoted herself early in life to playing musical instruments, composing, and collecting musical materials that grew into a substantial library. Her earliest compositions, most of which have not survived, were for court festivities, but she became increasingly interested in writing sacred music and in composition in a rigorous contrapuntal style that was no longer fashionable. In 1758 she engaged Johann Philipp Kimberger (1721-83) as her composition teacher, doubtless because he was also an advocate of strict training in counterpart as a basis of instruction in composition. The Princess was a merciless critic of her own work and that of others, and was feared for her harsh assessments of compositions that were submitted to her. See SACHS/AMALIE, pp. 181-91; BLECHSCHMIDT, pp. 21-3; WUTTA, pp. 37-54; LEDEBUR, pp. 6-9. 219 The genesis of the oratorio that Graun wrote is recorded in Gleim’s correspondence with Ramler. In a letter dated 18 June 1754, Gleim mentions that Princess Amalia wants a text for a “sacred cantata” that she will set to music. It has been suggested, he adds, that he compete with Ramler for the honor of supplying it; Gleim declines categorically to become involved in such a competition. Ramler’s letter of 29 June indicates that he has already completed much of the text. Ramler writes of a musical competitor: he mentions that Carl Heinrich Graun (see n. 64) also wants to set this “Passions Andacht” to music. Graun’s oratorio, Der Tod Jesu (with Ramler’s text virtually unchanged), was first performed on 26 March 1755, and became Graun’s most popular composition. It was admired long after Graun’s operas were forgotten, and was performed annually in Berlin until 1884. Whether Princess Amalia actually completed her setting of Der Tod Jesu is not known. The first two numbers - the opening chorale, Du dessen Augen flößen , and the following chorus, Sein Odem ist schwach - owe their survival to the fact that Johann Philipp Kimberger (see n. 218) printed them in Die Kunst des Reinen Satzes. See GLEIM/RAMLERII, pp. I l l , 115-16, 117, 121-23, 124, 126, 128, 129, 131, 133, 134, 135, 139, 153, and 187; SACHS/AMALIE, p. 186; KIRNBERGER/KUNST, Pt. 1, pp. 226-8, Pt. 2, Sect. 2, pp. 75-88. 220 Concerning Klopstock, see n. 195 and GLOSSARY. 221 It is not clear what Krause means when he mentions a “musical society.” Possibly he refers to an organization in Berlin that sponsored weekly musical performances, such as the Friday Academies, founded in 1738 by Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-c. 1763), and the Musikübende Gesellschaft,
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No. 32 (D-HTgl 2364) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein liebster Freund bey Ihnen anfragen Der Buchführer Bimstiel hat von mir verlangt, ich möchte Sie versuchen zu melden, ob Sie von den 50 Exemplaren der Ihnen zugeschickten Lieder etwas losgeworden, u. ob Sie die Gutheit haben wollten, das Geld dafür einzuschicken. Ich entledige mich dieses Auftrages mit Vergnügen deswegen, weil ich ihnen zugleich sagen kann, daß Sie noch mein lieber Gleim sind, und daß ich hoffe, ich werde auch noch Ihr lieber Krause seyn. / Unser Rammler ist seit der Zeit ein gar vornehmer Mann geworden. Er hat heute mit niemandem geringem als der Princessin Amalia, und nicht kürzer als eine halbe Stunde gesprochen. Und wissen Sie womit er diesen Vorzug verdienet? Er hat ein Passions Oratorium gemachet, das will die Princessin componiren. Herr Graun wird es aber auch componiren. Er hat es Ihnen vielleicht schon geschickt. Aber das thut nichts. Ich kann es Ihnen doch auch melden. Bey dieser Gelegenheit möchte ich Sie wohl wiederhohlentl. bitten, auch einmal wieder ein Singge- / dicht zu machen. Ich will für desselben Composition sorgen. Könnten Sie auch H. Klopstocken und andere gute Freunde nicht bewegen, dergleichen zu verfertigen. Ich bin das Mitglied einer musikalischen Societät, die wird nächstens allerhand musikalische Sachen herausgeben und da sollen auch dergleichen Poesien drinn Platz haben. Sie werden mich u. die musikalische Welt dadurch verpflichten. Meine Frau empfiehlt sich
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for poetry of that kind.221 The musical world and I would be obliged to you for it. My wife commends herself to you; I present my compliments to our dear Herr Sucro (also a musical poet),222 and am your most sincerely respectful Krause Beri., the 29th July 1754 [Envelope: in Gleim’s hand] Answered the 14th Aug. For 10 exemplars, 5 Rth sent - As to the 40 remaining exemplars, inquired whether I shall give them to the new book dealer To Monsieur Monsieur Gleim Vicar and Secretary of the Great Chapter at Halberstadt No. 33 (D-HTgl 2365) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Worthiest friend, (in Gleim’s hand: answered the 22nd Dec. 1755) The day before yesterday my wife presented me with another daughter, and I take the liberty of asking you, worthy friend, to be her godparent. But because our friend Ramler has told me that you aren’t coming here this winter - which I regret - 1 will ask him to assume the sponsorship. I know you surely prefer to delegate the assignment to another.223 My wife commends herself to you. She and her new daughter and her other children are quite well. You will be happy about this as I am happy. Our Ramler is very busy with the translation of Batteux. I am truly glad of this, because the translation is so very like an original that it must do him honor, even if founded in 1749 by Johann Philipp Sack (1722-63). It is also possible that he refers to a group of colleagues in the Montagsklub (see n. 173) who were interested in publishing music. 222 Concerning Sucro, see n. 172. 223 This was Krause’s third daughter and fourth child (a son had been bom in 1754). Gleim was already godfather to Krause’s first child, Christiana Dorothea (see n. 203). Krause’s letter of 6 August 1758, in which this new daughter, Johanna Wilhelmina, is designated “your little god-daughter Wilhelmine [sic]” confirms Gleim’s acceptance of Krause’s invitation. See GLEIM/RAMLER n , p. 171; letter no. 35, D-HTgl 2359; no. 40, D-HTgl 5898; and n o . 44, D-HTgl 2372.
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Ihnen, ich mache an unseren lieben H. Sucro (auch ein musikalischer Poete), mein Compliment, und bin Ihr aufrichtig ergebenster Krause Berlin den 29 Juli 1754 [Envelope: in Gleim’s hand]: beantw. d. 14— Aug. Für 10 Exemplare 5 Rth. Übersand—wegen der übrigen 40 Exemplare angefragt, ob sie dem neuen Buchhändler geben soll.) A Monsieur Monsieur Gleim Vicaire et Secrétaire du Grand Chapitre à Halberstadt No. 33 (D-HTgl 2365) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Werthester Freund (in Gleim’s hand: beantw. d. 22— Dec 1755) Meine Frau hat mir vorgestern wieder ein Mädgen gebracht und ich nehme mir die Freyheit, Sie, weither Freund, zu bitten, ein Taufzeuge deren zu seyn. Weil mir aber unser Freund Rammler gesagt, daß Sie diesen Winter nicht herkämen, welches ich bedaure, so will [sic] diesen bitten, daß er das Gezeugniß über sich nehme. Ich weis, Sie werden doch einem andern lieber die Commission auftragen. / Meine neuen Frau empfiehlt sich Ihnen. Sie befindet sich samt der A Tochter, und derigen Kindern noch ziemlich wohl, worüber Sie sich auch freuen werden, weil ich mich darüber freue. Unser Rammler ist jetzo über der Übersetzung des Batteux recht fleißig. Es ist ein von Herzen lieb, da die Übersetzung so stark einem Original gleicht, daß sie
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Germans and French are not satisfied with what he himself said about them.224 I hope, by the way, that you still love me despite the fact that you haven’t written to me for so long. I ask that you not forget my (not your) wedding cantata entirely;225 1 remain unfailingly your very respectful friend CGKrause Berlin, the 20th Dec. 1755 No. 34 (D-HTgl 2358) KRAUSE TO EWALD CHRISTIAN VON KLEIST Most worthy friend, I must write you a word to wish you a thousand blessings and the best of health. Promotion shall come too, and perhaps, in time, other benefits. Rumor here has it that if your two majors had had better intelligence, they might perhaps have been attacked, but not taken by surprise.226 But may Heaven grant that the enemy will 224 Krause is referring to the translation Ramier was making of Charles Batteux’s Cours de Belleslettres, ou principes de la littérature (first published in 1747-50, and in a new edition in 1755). This fivevolume treatise, which includes much of the same material as Batteux’s earlier book on aesthetics, Les Beaux Arts réduits à un même principe (1743), contains a considerably amplified treatment of various literary genres. Ramier’s four-volume translation, Einleitung in die Schönen Wissenschaften. Nach dem Französischen des Herrn Batteux, mit Zusätzen vermehret, was published by Weidemann of Leipzig
between 1756 and 1758. A second, revised edition apeared in 1762-63. As Krause notes, Ramier (who was famous for his editorial intervention in almost everything he touched) made an uncharacteristically faithful translation of Batteux’s text. He did substitute German examples when he felt that the German writers rivaled or surpassed their French counterparts, as, for example, in the fable or lyric verse. He departed from Batteux’s theory of drama only in later editions. See nn. 229, 260, and 345, and SCHÜDDEKOPF/RAMLER, pp. 43-5,57. 225 Krause had apparently sent Gleim his only copy of the wedding cantata. It is understandable that Gleim failed to comply with Krause’s request to send him a copy at the time when wedding plans were foundering (see nn. 200 and 201). But Krause’s request in this letter seems to have been equally futile - Krause was to ask for the return of his composition again on 14 December 1759 (see letter no. 48, D-HTgl 2374, and nn. 200,201, and 353). 226 The Seven Years’ War, which broke out when Friedrich II marched into Saxony on 28 August 1756, had been under way for more than six months. Taking advantage of the preparedness of his army, his unencumbered financial resources, and the element of surprise, Friedrich had established himself in Saxony, defeating the Saxons at Pima. He had begun a campaign to engage the Austrians in Bohemia, and had won a battle near Lobositz on 30 September/1 October. He had not yet begun to feel the effect of the overwhelmingly superior numbers of the armies against which he would struggle during most of the war. It would appear from Krause’s letter that he did not yet know about Kleist’s promotion to Major on 20 February 1757. The two majors to whom Krause refers may have been Heinrich Georg von Blumenthal, who had fallen on the night of 31 December/1 January, and von Götze, who had died in battle shortly before this letter was written. See KLEIST/SAUERII, pp. 361-2, 377, 384—6; ADB, vol. 16(1882), p. 116.
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ihm Ehre machen muß, wenn auch Deutsche und Fran- / zosen mit dem nicht darinn zufrieden wären, was er für sich von ihnen A gesagt hat. Ich hoffe übrigens, Sie lieben mich noch, ohngeachtet Sie mir so lange nicht geschrieben haben. Meine (nicht Ihre) Hochzeitcantate bitte ich, doch auch nicht ganz zu vergessen: der ich unveränderlich bleibe Ihr ganz ergebener Freund CG Krause Berlin d 20 Dec. 1755 No. 34 (D-HTgl 2358) KRAUSE TO KLEIST Allerwerthester Freund, Ich muß ein Wort schreiben, näml. Ihnen tausend Segen und die beste Gesundheit wünschen. Avancement wird auch nicht ausbleiben, und vielleicht auch mit der Zeit nicht anderer Vortheil. Hier saget die Verleumdung, daß wenn Ihre beyde Majors bessere Kundschaften eingezogen, sie vielleicht wohl an—aber nicht überfallen werden können. Gebe doch der Himmel, daß die Feinde nächstens Lust
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soon have the urge to attack you, my worthiest friend, and that you receive such early intelligence of it that only as many enemies are left as have hitherto been killed every time. A brilliant exploit must suddenly distinguish our Kleist above others. In my mind’s eye I envision you as quite choleric in this.227 And, joking aside, I know that I wish you nothing unpleasant when I wish you an opportunity in which there is fierce fighting. I know that in any case you will make do with a wound or a couple of wounds if they are not too ugly. I close with a compliment from my wife, who has, no less than I, the best wishes for you, and have the honor to remain your sincerely and keenly respectful Krause Berlin, the 28th Feb. 57 No. 35 (D-HTgl 2359) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, We think much about you and about your courteous Frenchmen.228 Only Herr Ramler has so much to do with the Arte Poetica of Batteux that he says he cannot 227 Here Krause seems to understand the word “choleric” to mean much more than merely “illtempered and irascible.” He and many of his contemporaries were obviously still influenced by the ancient humoral theory (see nn. 92 and 93) even though it had begun to decline; to them the “choleric” temperament undoubtedly encompassed a broad complex of traits and behavior. An example of traditional conceptions of “choleric” that formed this complex can be found in Burton’s description of those who are dominated by “choler,” or yellow bile: Choleric persons might be “stark mad by fits”; they might “sleep little ... In their fits,” one might hear them “speak all manner of languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, that never were taught or knew them before.” They might be “bold and impudent, and of a more harebrain disposition, apt to quarrel, and think of such things, battles, combats, and their manhood, furious, impatient in discourse, stiff, irrefragable and prodigious in their tenets; and if they be moved, most violent, outrageous, ready to disgrace, provoke any, and to kill themselves and others ... fit to be assassins, bold, hardy, fierce, and adventurous ...,” prepared “to endure death itself, and all manner of torments with invincible courage” (see BURTON/ANATOMY, 243). Krause would have considered many of these attributes typical of one who distinguished himself as a hero. 228 Perhaps Krause was using the word “courteous” (höflich) ironically. After winning a decisive victory at Hastenbeck in Hanover (26 July 1757), the French had occupied Hanover and Braunschweig, and a French army under General Louis-François-Armand du Plessis-Richelieu (see Du PlessisRichelieu in GLOSSARY) was occupying Braunschweig and Wolfenbüttel. Archenholtz, the author of an eighteenth-century history of the Seven Years’ War, describes General Richelieu as the most selfserving and ambitious of all the French generals; the French army under his command was notorious for its luxurious and galant ways, and, later, for its predatory and plunderous ways (see ARCHENHOLTZ, pp. 48 and 54—5). The letters written by Gleim shortly before the battle of Hastenbeck indicate that he placed no stock in rumors about the invincibility of the French army (see GLEIM/RAMLER n , pp. 288-9), and that he was inclined to believe that French officers were more charming than many of their
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kriegen, Sie mein Werthester, anzufallen, und daß Sie so zeitig Kundschaft davon bekommen, daß von den Feinden nur so viel übrig bleiben, als bisher jedesmal nur sind getödtet worden. Unseren Kleist muß ein coup d’éclat auf einmal recht / vor andern distinguiren. Ich stelle mir Sie im Geiste recht colerisch dabey vor. Und Scherz bey Seite, ich weis, ich wünsche Ihnen nichts unangenehmes, wenn ich Ihnen eine Gelegenheit wünsche, so es recht scharf hergehe. Ich weis, Sie nehmen allenfalls mit einer oder ein paar Wunden vorlieb, wenn sie nur nicht zu knollig sind. Ich schließe mit einem Compliment von meiner Frau, die nicht weniger die besten Wünsche für Sie thut, und habe die Ehre zu verharren Ihr aufrichtig und eyfrig ergebenster Krause Berl. d. 28 Feb. 57 No. 35 (D-HTgl 2359) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Liebster Freund, Wir denken genug an Sie, und an Ihre höfliche [sic] Franzosen. H. Rammler hat nur mit des Batteux arte poetica so viel zu thun, daß er nicht schreiben könne. Ich
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write.229 As for me, I am not at all afraid of the French. The king has 100,000 men in the field; only for the regiments that have suffered very greatly are soldiers being recruited; here we still have the unranked members of the guard, and the Langish and the Lohnish regiments, also the regiment of the Luderish land militia.230 Wouldn’t the king send all of these people against the advancing enemy (an Austrian word, and therefore attended with boasting and wind) if it were necessary? To whom is keeping the lands more important than to the king, this devoted father of his country? But great minds also know how to lose at the right time. And they lose then in such a way that subsequently they can win twice as decisively again.231 If the king defeats the Austrians, or even keeps them out of Saxony and Silesia, and makes his own lands help more in this cause, then general devastation and the main objective of the enemy will be prevented, so that the Austrians remain enclosed within their lands. For they want only to make conquests, and France will not be allowed by the enemy to keep Westphalia, Hanover, Halberstadt, etc.232 Indeed, when the French and Russians see that the Austrians do not advance after all despite their boast: dissatisfaction, suspicion, etc. over this will ensue. If the king sacrifices so much, moreover, the princes of the Empire will see that he is really not afraid to take risks. And if only the king remains here in Silesia, Saxony, Magdeburg, and the Mark, and keeps the upper hand, and if he should hold out in these lands with his armies: what will not happen this summer nor in the winter, and what could happen the following year is that we acquire more allies, that discord develops among the enemy, that some even back out, that the princes of the Empire become weary of the French guests. Wise people know that time often accomplishes much. Meanwhile, we still have forces enough in the country. Recently about 600 men, fine recruits, arrived from the Kalkstein canton in 8 days.233 They are newly outfitted, and have not yet been drilled once. So the king’s armies must still have great numbers. The king wanted to engage the Austrians in the Lausitz, and had already attacked German counterparts (see KLEIST/SAUER m , p. 219). Even after Hastenbeck, Gleim did not immediately suffer at the hands of the French. Letters written in August contain news of his plans to spend a leisurely summer in the garden that he had bought in the fall of 1756 (see KORTE/GLEIM, p. 85; GLEIM/UZ, p. 81; KLEIST/SAUER m, p. 223). 229 Concerning Ramler and his translation of Batteux, see n. 224. 230 Krause is probably referring to regiments led by Colonel Christian Henning von Lange (c. 1688-1760), commander of the “Jeetzsche” garrison regiment; by Major General Johann Bernhard von Loen (1700-1766), commander of a regiment made up of Saxon prisoners taken at Pima in the fall of 1756 (this unit dispersed and ceased to exist during the siege of Berlin in October 1757 by Haddik [see GLOSSARY]); and by Colonel Karl Friedrich von Liideritz (1702-62), commander of the Berlin garrison regiment. See KONIG/HELDEN, vol. (1789) pp. 366-7,429-30,447. 231 Krause is obviously trying to construe the heavy losses of the Prussian army at Kolin, near Prague, on 18 June 1757 (see n. 235), and the defeat of the Duke of Cumberland’s Observationsarmee at Hastenbeck (see nn. 228 and 238), as positively as possible. See ARCHENHOLTZ, 40-47. 232 The Capitulation of Kloster Zeven (8 September 1757) formalized the French occupation of Hanover, Braunschweig, and Halberstadt. It was not the allies of the French, however, but the Prussians’ allies under Prince Ferdinand, brother of the Duke of Braunschweig (see n. 311), who eventually prevented the French from keeping these territories. 233 Kalkstein, now the Polish town of Wapnik in the district of Lidzbark Warminski, was a small landed estate (Gut) in East Prussia.
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meines Theils fürchte mich vor den Franzosen gar nicht. Der König hat mehr als 100000 Ma[nn] im Felde; blos die Regimenter, die gar stark gelitten, werden recrutirt; hier haben wir noch die unrangirten von der Garde, und das langische u. das lohnische Regiment, auch das luderische Landmilitz Regiment. Sollte der König den vordringenden Feinden (ein Oesterreichisch, also mit Prahlerey und Wind verknüpftes Wort) nicht alle diese Leute entgegen schicken, wenn es nötig wäre? Sollte er nicht hier u. allenthalben in den Städten werben können wenn es nötig wäre? Wem ist mehr an der Erhaltung der Länder gelegen, als dem Könige, diesem treuen Landes Vater? Aber große Geister wissen auch/ zu rechter Zeit zu verliehren. Und dann verliehren sie so, daß sie in der Folge doppelt wieder gewinnen. Schlägt der König die Oesterreicher, oder hält sie doch von Sachsen und wieder Schlesien ab und lässet darüber A seiner [mc ] eigenen viel Länder mehr thun, so wird der Hauptverwüstung und dem Hauptzweck der Feinde vorgebeuget, daß nämlich die Oesterreicher in ihre Länder eingeschlossen bleiben. Denn diese beym wollen doch nur Conqueten machen, und AFeinde wird sich doch Frankreich nicht einkommen lassen, Westphalen, Hannover, Halberstadt p. behalten zu wollen. Wenn auch die Franzosen u. Russen sehen, daß die Oesterreicher ihres Prahlens ungeachtet doch nicht Vordringen, so wird Misvergnügen, Verdacht etc. darüber entstehen. Opfert ferner der König so viel auf, so sehen die übrigen Reichsfürsten, daß er wirkl. vor den Riß tritt. Und wenn der König in Schlesien, Sachsen, Magdeburg und der Mark nur hier/ und bleibt, und die Oberhand behält und sich mit seinen Armeen in diesen Länden mainteniren kann sollte, was diesen Sommer nicht geschieht, nicht den Winter und das folgende Jahr geschehen könne, daß die wir mehr Alliirte bekommen, daß unter den Feinden Zwiespalt entstehet, daß einige noch gar abspringen, daß die Reichfürsten der französischen Gäste A überdrüßiger werden. Kluge Leute wissen, daß die Zeit oft viel thue. Unterdessen haben wir noch Force genug im Lande. Letzthin kamen aus dem Kalksteinischen Canton in Zeit von 8 Tagen an 600 Mann schöne Recruten an. Die werden neu mondirt, und exerciren noch nicht einmal. Also müssen des Königs Armeen noch zahlreich seyn. Der König hat in dem Lausitz [sich] mit den Oesterreichem schlagen wollen, hat
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them.234 But when they saw that the Zietnish cavalry had captured a substantial hill, they retreated from Gebiirg, sustaining casualties, and leaving various cannons behind.235 Today, it is said, Field Marshal Keith goes with some corps to meet the French, who are coming from Mainz and Cassel, and a camp near Leipzig is supposed to have been disabled.236 This corps will surely attract a goodly crowd of deserters from the imperial army, and it has to function well, so that if the king wants to go on the defensive and seek advantageous encampments, they [the imperial army] will not drive him from the 4 lands mentioned above, even if the 3rd French army were to arrive. The weakened regiments in Pomerania will soon be reconstituted, and 10,000 Prussians are holding the Swedes in Pomerania, more than is necessary in Jauver [sic], where they want to come, and can.237 For the French will surely not send their [the Swedes’] armies money any more, and the Austrians, for their part, will not do it so frequently. In view of all of these circumstances, are you afraid of a total or long-lasting military disaster? I am not, and we must allow a short one, and in any case, put up with it. Will you be an unhappy man for life if the French, directly and indirectly, cost you a few hundred Thalers?238 I am risking 234 The eastern part of Saxony, consisting of Niederlausitz (the region around Cottbus) and Oberlausitz (the region around Bautzen, Gorlitz, and Zittau). 235 The services of Hans Joachim von Zieten (1699-1786), who at this time held the rank of Lieutenant General, were of great value to Friedrich II during some of the darkest moments of the war. In the battles of Kolin (18 June 1757) and Lohe (22 November 1757), in both of which Prussians suffered great losses, von Zieten’s cavalry regiment carried out its assignments successfully. In 1763, despite Zieten’s excellent record, a younger, less experienced, man was promoted to a position above him. Thereafter Zieten was gradually retired from military service, although he seems always to have been treated with great respect. See ADB, vol. 45 (1900), pp. 214-20. 236 James R. Keith (1696-1758), younger brother of George Keith, Earl Marshal of Scotland, spent the last ten years of his life as a member of Friedrich II’s inner circle of highly cultivated military advisors. Keith’s military career was so distinguished that Friedrich II was happy to procure his services for the Prussian army in 1747, immediately bestowing on him the rank of field marshal. Keith was killed in the battle of Hochkirch (14/15 October 1758), a disaster which he had predicted, and for which the complacency of Friedrich was largely responsible. The king was deeply grieved over the loss of this most valuable general and trusted companion. He erected a column in Berlin in Keith’s memory, an honor reserved for the most distinguished Prussian military heroes. See GLOSSARY. 237 Doubtless Krause is referring to Jauer, a city in Silesia about 60 km northwest of Wroclaw, at one time part of a duchy: Schweidnitz-Jauer. As with Schweidnitz (see p. 141 and n. 296), Krause, a Silesian by birth, seems to be influenced in his spelling of the name of this town by its Polish name: Jawor. 238 Krause is probably trying to make light of the victory of the French at Hastenbeck and of their conquest of Hanover (see nn. 228 and 231). Rumors of occupying French troops are reported in some of Gleim’s letters written in the month following this conquest. But on the whole, Gleim still does not seem to have been particularly anxious about the effects of the French victory on his life. Halberstadt was not to feel the full force of French occupation until after the signing of the Treaty of Kloster Zeven on 8 September 1757 (see n. 232), according to which the armies of Hanover and England were to withdraw from the war, and Hanover was to be neutral. Gleim’s letter to Kleist of 19 September 1757 reports that the French have occupied and begun to plunder the district around Magdeburg and Halberstadt. Small bands of German volunteers fought back furiously, and the French proceeded to avenge the losses that they suffered at the hands of these groups (KLEIST/SAUER III, pp. 234-5). In the fighting that ensued, Gleim’s garden was laid waste (see KORTE/GLEIM, p. 89; KLEIST/SAUER in , p. 239; GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 293, 299). Letters written in early October to Gleim by Kleist and Ramler contain condolences for Gleim’s loss (see KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 440; GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 295).
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sie schon attaquirt. Als sie aber gesehen, daß die Zietnische [sic] Husaren eine beträchtl. Anhöhe eingenommen, haben sie sich mit Verlust und Zurücklassung verschiedener Canonen aus Gebürg zurückgezogen. Heute sagt man, der / Feldmarschall Keith gehe mit einigen Corps den Franzosen, die vom [sic] Maynz und Cassel kommen, entgegen, u. bey Leipzig solle ein Lager abgestochen werden. Dieses Corps wird gewiß eine tüchtige Menge Ausreisser von der Reichs Armee an sich ziehen, und ist zu pariren, daß wenn der König defensive gehen und vortheilhafte Läger suchen will, sie ihn aus obigen 4 Ländern nicht vertreiben, und wenn auch die 3te französische Armee dazu käme. Die geschwächten Regimenter werden in Pommern bald wieder voll seyn, und 10000 Preussen halten in Pommern die Schweden mehr als nötig in Jauver, wo sie ja kommen wollen und können. Denn die Franzosen werden ihnen doch nicht Geld dazu schicken u. die Oesterreicher ihreswegen auch nicht mehr so häufig seyn. Bey allen diesen Umständen, fürchten Sie sich wohl für einem gänzlichen oder langwährenden Kriegsunglück? Ich nicht, und ein kurzes müssen wir so billig seyn und uns allenfalls gefallen lassen. Werden sie deswegen lebenslang ein unglücklicher / Mann seyn, wenn die Franzosen jetzo Sie directe und indirecte ein paar hundert Thaler kosten? Ich setze viel, aber wir wollen auch viel erhalten, Gewissensfreyheit
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much, but we will also receive much: freedom of conscience, and also the opportunity to give our children positions of dignity, something to which we Protestants could not aspire under Austrian domination; to say nothing of other advantages that we would lose: the freedom to think, etc.239 The Duke of Cumberland will of course do his job when his Englishmen have joined him.240 And we see the deaths of the king of Poland, the Empress of Russia, and perhaps also the king of England before us; we can, with discretion, avail ourselves of this development.241 This is what I think, dearest friend, and, I, with my wife and 5 children and 5 female servants, am not afraid-I am confident that Heaven will not have given us a great man for a king in order to have him discredited by the malice of little minds.242 Herr Ramler is probably not writing poems yet. But he is like the king, who doesn’t yet let anything be written about his deeds, yet certainly is always doing much. Herr Hempel is a lazybones. But I will remind him about the portraits.243 For 239 Obviously Krause believed that the Seven Years’ War would have religious ramifications, even though the war was not being fought in the name of religion-Prussia’s enemies, in fact, included not only the two Catholic countries, Austria and France, but also an Eastern Orthodox country, Russia, and two Protestant countries, Sweden and Saxony. 240 William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-65), was celebrated for his victory over the forces of the Stuart pretender to the throne of England at the battle of Culloden (16 April 1746). His subsequent career was far less successful. In April 1757, he took command of an army made up mostly of Hanoverians, Hessians, and Brunswickers, which was fighting on the side of Friedrich II. Cumberland’s campaign was neither energetic nor successful. After a resounding defeat in the battle of Hastenbeck (see n. 228), he was empowered by George II to negotiate with France at Kloster Zeven (see n. 232). At the time of Krause’s letter, the capitulation had not yet been signed, and the Prussians were hoping that England would not make a separate peace with the French. In accordance with his father’s wishes, however, Cumberland signed a treaty on 8 September 1757, in which England agreed to withdraw from the war. George II’s ministers then persuaded him that the surrender had been a mistake. When the duke returned to London, the king proceeded to throw the entire blame for the withdrawal on his son. Cumberland thereupon resigned his military appointments and retired to Windsor, where he spent the remainder of his life. See GLOSSARY. 2410 None of these deaths occurred as soon as Krause hoped. George II died suddenly on 25 October 1760. The illness of the Empress Elizabeth had been sufficiently serious to cause concern about the change in foreign policy in favor of Prussia that would almost certainly take place after her death; the Empress recovered, however, and did not die until 1761. August III of Poland (see n. 250) died in 1763, soon after the end of the Seven Years’ War. 242 By this time, Krause had three daughters and two sons (the birth of the younger son is reported in Ramler’s letter to Gleim of 29 January 1757). See GLEIM/RAMLERII, p. 277. 243 It is unclear whether Gottfried Hempel (see n. 206) failed to fulfill his obligations because there were too many of them, or because he was lazy and unstable. In a letter of 28 October 1753, Ramler writes to Gleim that some of the vignettes that Hempel drew for the first volume of Oden mit Melodien (see D-HTgl 2362) had to be used twice, on account of the haste of the editors and Hempel’s other obligations. See GLEIM/RAMLER n , p. 76. The Gleim-Ramler correspondence of 1754 and 1755 indicates that, at that time, Hempel had dealings with members of the Prussian royal family and with the Cathedral Chapter in Halberstadt, and that he painted many copies of Kneller’s portrait of Isaac Newton (see GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 102, 108, 170, 171, 215). In a letter to Gleim dated 11 August 1756, Ramler writes that Hempel has recently produced a painting of Friedrich II that portrays the king’s good sense, steady courage, and free spirit better than any other portrait painted so far, including those by Antoine Pesne (GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 247-8). Letters that follow deal with Gleim’s requests for a copy of this likeness for his own collection, and perhaps a dozen more for other fanciers
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unsere Kinder und die Gelegenheit auch A zu Chargen zu bringen, wozu wir Protestanten unter Oesterreichischer Botmäßigkeit nicht aspiriren könnten; andere Vortheile zu geschweigen, die wir noch verliehren würden, die Freyheit zu denken pp. Der noch Herzog von Cumberland wird seine Sachen schon A machen; wenn seine Engelländer zu ihm werden gestoßen seyn. Und sehen wir die Todesfälle des Königs v. Pohlen, der Kayserin v. Russland u. vielleicht auch des Königs v. Engelland vor uns, denen sich die Vorsicht zur Entwicklung der Sachen bedienen kann. So denke ich, liebster Freund und fürchte mich mit meiner Frau und 5 Kindern und 5 Damenstücken nicht, / im Vertrauen, der Himmel werde uns nicht einen großen Menschen zum Könige gegeben haben, um ihn von der Bosheit kleiner Geister zu schände machen zu lassen. Herr Rammler singt wohl glaube ich noch nichts. Er macht es aber wie der König, der noch nichts von seinen Thaten schreiben lässet, und doch gewiß immer viel thut. H. Hempel ist ein Faullenzer. Ich
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Herr von Kleist wishes nothing more than that he may soon parade here in front of his heroes. But isn’t it good that he is no longer with his former regiment.244 My wife presents her compliments; your little god-daughter Wilhelmine chatters away, but is sometimes awfully silent. For she is the most choleric of all my children.245 1 am, with the most sincere friendship, your most respectful servant C. G. Krause. Berlin, the 6th August 1757 (GLEIM/RAMLERII, pp. 252,255,265,277). In January 1757, Gleim had still not received the portrait of Friedrich; in a letter dated 17 April 1757, Ramler offers to send Gleim a miniature of the king for his approval (GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 286). In this letter Krause seems to be prodding Hempel once more to send the portraits of the king. Yet Gleim continues to complain about Hempel’s failure to send him the portraits (GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 294, 301, 305, 313). Finally, in a letter dated 30 January 1758, Gleim writes to Ramler that he prefers the miniature of Friedrich, and has given away the larger portrait (GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 316). Hempel’s name appears for the last time in the Gleim-Ramler correspondence when Ramler reports that Hempel has long been beyond the pale of respectable society. Hempel, after the death of his two children, continues Ramler, has illegally separated from his wife, is living in another part of the city with a housekeeper and maid, and does not see or wish to see his former friends (GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 394). 244 Friedrich II and his brother Prince Heinrich were probably the heroes to whom Krause refers. See, for example, the circular letter to his friends in Berlin of 17 September 1756 (KLEIST/SAUERII, p. 339), in which Kleist exhorts Ramler to write an ode to the king. Kleist found difficult to accept his transfer from Prince Heinrich’s regiment, no. 35, to no. 54, commanded by Colonel Friedrich von HauB. The regiment, newly formed after the surrender of the Saxon army at Pima in the fall of 1756, consisted mostly of commandeered Saxon soldiers. In the circular letter mentioned above, Kleist expressed his views about this unit - and perhaps his fear that he might be called upon to serve in it: “May Heaven preserve me from being sent to such a new regiment” (see KLEIST/SAUER II, p. 337). In February 1757, immediately after his promotion to major, he was indeed assigned to regiment no. 54, which was garrisoned in Halle. Gleim, who saw a notice of the transfer in a Berlin newspaper, wrote to Ramler (see GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 281)-and presumably Kleist-expressing his indignation that “a favorite of the king,” a Major Knobelsdorf, had been promoted to a place in Prince Heinrich’s regiment that should have been Kleist’s. In his reply to Gleim, Kleist explains that the changes in regiment no. 35 were made partly according to the seniority of the captains and majors in line for promotion, and partly to accommodate the king’s favorite, a Major de Quede, and that Kleist’s transfer cannot be considered an injustice. Kleist acknowledges that he is nevertheless distressed by the transfer (see KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 384—5), and his letters continue to reflect his disappointment with the new assignment, and his wish to see more action (see, for example KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 387-90). Yet his new situation was to have some advantages. Regiment no. 54 was immediately moved to Leipzig, where Kleist was able to spend many pleasant hours in the company of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81), who had been in Leipzig since September 1756 (see LESSING/CHRONIK, p. 33), and with other intellectuals. In September 1757, Kleist was placed in charge of the military hospital for Prussian soldiers and their enemies in Leipzig; in this post he served with distinction until May 1758. See ADB, vol. 16 (1882), pp. 113-21. 245 Krause’s use of the word choleric may include meanings accrued from the humoral theory (see his letter to Kleist of 28 February 1757 and n. 227). Possibly he understands the word to mean excitable, giddy, and impatient, as well as irrascible and ill-tempered.
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werde ihn aber an die Porträten erinnern. Denn H. v. Kleist wünsche nichts mehr als bald vor seinen Helden herzuziehen. Aber ist es nicht gut, daß er nicht mehr beym vorigen Regiment gewesen. Meine Frau macht ihr Compliment, Ihre kleine Pathe, Wilhelmine plaudert schon brav, schweigt aber auch mörderlich. Denn sie ist die cholerischste von allen meinen Kindern. Ich bin mit der redlichsten Freundschaft. Ihr ergebenster Diener CGKrause Berlin den 6 Aug. 1757
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No. 36 (D-HTgl 2366) KRAUSE TO GLEIM (In Gleim’s hand: Received the 29th Aug. 1757.) Dearest friend, I have mislaid your last letter, so will just tell you that Herr Ramier, who has since written to you, is now awaiting your answer.246 As to news, I inform you that, by the king’s order, it was announced here that nothing more is to be taken away. This is certain. And several private letters also say that we have nothing to fear. Surely not from the Austrians, for they are being held properly in check; and it is believed of the French that they will not be so thoroughly rash and ignorant as not to remember the defeat of the Swedes at Fehrbellin, and as not to believe that the king would praise his great grandfather in his mémoires, just as we do, and not also imitate him.247 Why else are all young folk brought together than for a campaign in winter? The Austrians cannot hold a position either in Lausitz or in Bohemia on this side of Prague, because everything is laid waste. Shouldn’t the king be able to keep them out of Saxony and Silesia in the coming winter, therefore, and yet also drive the French out of Germany? People say that he said one will see what these our hussars can do in this regard. The Zietnish regiment is supposed to be doubled in strength, for it has suffered little, and 300 recruits are already here, and their recruiting officers are still sending many away.248 Our land militia is also very select; whoever is under 20 and over 40 years, and has less than 2 inches, is not accepted.249 Several letters that arrived from Prussia today say that the Prussian and the Russian avant gardes encountered each other, and the latter abandoned 3,000 dead and 500 prisoners. Here English couriers pass through almost every day. Letters from the army in Lausitz say, moreover, that the Austrians are already moving regiments to Hungary, and the Turks really are putting together a division. Two different letters, one directly from Warsaw, report that the king of Poland had to withdraw to Danzig, that the Poles are arming themselves everywhere, that Brühl is hunted furiously because he has advised the king to extort sovereignty for 246 Gleim apparently received Ramler’s undated letter on 13 August, and answered it on 26 August (see GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 290-91). Krause’s letter to Gleim, possibly written shortly before the latter date, may have prompted Gleim to write Ramler. 247 Fehrbellin: a famous battle in the history of Brandenburg. In the spring of 1675 Swedish troops, taking advantage of the absence of the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I (1620-88), invaded Brandenburg. At the end of May the Elector made a forced march from the Rhine north to the Rhin River. He battered the center of the Swedish army at Rathenow, and isolated Swedish units at Havelberg and Brandenburg. His patrols destroyed a bridge at Fehrbellin, cutting off the Swedish line of retreat, and forced them into battle. Although the Swedes, like the enemies of Friedrich II, vastly outnumbered the Elector’s army, they were defeated, and Brandenburg was freed from Swedish troops. It was this battle that earned Friedrich Wilhelm the nickname “Great Elector.” See TADDEY, pp. 338-9. 248 Seen. 235. 249 When designating height, particularly in the case of military recruits, one counted only the inches beyond the minimal height requirement. See GRIMM/WORTERBUCH, col. 32, col. 33, Zoll2.
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No. 36 (D-HTgl 2366) KRAUSE TO GLEIM (In Gleim’s hand: Empfangen d. 29m Aug 1757) Liebster Freund Ich habe Ihren letzten Brief verleget, also melde nur, daß H. Rammler, der Ihnen seitdem geschrieben, jetzt auf Ihre Antwort wartet. Von Neuigkeiten melde, daß gestern auf Ordre des Königs hier angesaget worden, nichts mehr wegzubringen. Dies ist zuverläßig. Und mehrere Privat-Briefe besagen auch, daß wir nichts zu fürchten haben. Von den Oesterreichem gewiß nicht, denn die hält man recht feste; und von den Franzosen glaubt man auch daß sie nicht so gar etourdis und ignorans seyn werden, um sich nicht / an die Niederlage der Schweden zu bey Fehrbellin zu erinnern, und nicht zu glauben, daß der König in seinen Memoires seinen Urgrosvater nur so wie wir loben, wie und ihn nicht auch nachahmen würde. Wozu wird jetzo alles junge Volk zusammengebracht, als zu einem Feldzug im Winter? In der Lausitz können sich die Oesterreicher nicht halten, und in Böhmen diesseits Prag auch nicht weil alles aufgezehret ist. Sollte also der König nicht sie künftigen Winter von Sachsen u. Schlesien abhalten, und doch auch die Franzosen aus Deutschland drängen können. Man erzehlt, er solle gesagt haben, man wolle sehen, was / dieserhalb unsere Husaren könnten. Das Zietnische Regiment soll auch doppelt stark werden, und 300 sind schon Recruten hier, da es doch wenig gelitten hat, und die ihre Werber schicken noch viele fort. Auch ist man bey unserer ist Landmilitz noch sehr gewählt; was unter 20 u. über 40 Jahr A , und weniger als 2 Zoll hat, wird nicht angenommen. Mehrere heut aus Preussen angekommene Briefe sagen, daß die Preussische u. d. Russische Avantgarden an einander gerathen, und die letztere 3000 Todte u. 500 Gefangene im Stich gelassen. Hier gehen fast alle Tage englische Curier durch. / Briefe von der Armee aus Lausitz sagen ferner, daß die Oesterreicher schon Regimenté nach Ungarn zögen, und wirkl. die Türken eine Division machen. Zwey verschiedene Briefe, einer aus Warschau selbst, sind melden, daß der König v. Pohlen sich nach Danzig retiriren müssen, daß die Pohlen sich überall in Waffen setzen, daß man Brühlen zomigst suche, weil er dem König gerathen, sich durch die Russen die Souverainität zu erzwingen, und daß der
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himself through the Russians, and that the king is staying in Danzig incognito.250 Answer me soon; having made compliments from my wife, I am your most respectful Krause (In the left margin, in Ramler’s hand: What shall I add here, then, to all this fine news? Our friend has told all that we can gather. But one thing occurs to me: There is talk that the king of Poland would come to Berlin himself. A man who has come from the camp says that he saw a Turk in the camp, and with the king. To these two pieces of news I add only the old one, that I remain my dear Gleim’s ever faithful Ramler.) No. 37 (D-HTgl 2367) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest Gleim, How rightly you said in one of your letters to me, that a couple of battles would put the king’s affairs on a completely different footing. May God be eternally thanked for this; and He Himself has taught us the right way this time: that we shall thank
250 The king of whom Krause writes is Friedrich August n , Elector of Saxony (1696-1763), who was also August ffi, king of Poland. Although August was bom a Lutheran, he was separated from his Lutheran surroundings in 1711, and placed under the supervision of Jesuits in preparation for his conversion to Catholicism (his father, August “the Strong” (der Starke), had become a Catholic in 1709 in order to obtain the Polish crown). The young August publicly embraced the Catholic faith in 1717, and two years later married Maria Josepha, the oldest daughter of the Austrian Emperor, Joseph I. In 1733 August succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony; in 1736, after much political maneuvering, he became king of Poland. He was interested primarily in hunting, in Italian painting, and in music - during his reign the Dresden opera flourished, with Johann Adolf Hasse as its principal composer, and Hasse’s wife Faustina Bordoni as its prima donna (see n. 208). August did not care much for affairs of government, and left them to his ministers: first, Count Alexander Joseph Sulkowsky (see n. 323), and after Sulkowky’s overthrow, to Count Heinrich von Brühl (see below). When Friedrich II attacked Saxony in October 1756, August followed his army to the fortification at Pima. After the capitulation of the Saxon army at Lilienstein, he was given safe passage to Poland, where he remained until the end of the war. He died on 5 October 1763, shortly after his return to Dresden. See ADB, vol. 7 (1877), pp. 784-6. Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-1763) has been represented by many historians, particularly Prussians, as one of the most opportunistic, ruthless, conniving, and prodigal of all statesmen. He is said to have engineered the dismissal of Count Sulkowsky in 1738, and never to have left August, the king, out of his sight. He is said to have conceived a bitter hatred for both Friedrich II and for Prussia around the time of the second Silesian War (1743), after Friedrich had expressed contempt for Brühl’s character. Brühl’s biographies are dotted with stories of his political intrigues, particularly against Prussia. After he and August had been exiled to Warsaw in the fall of 1756, Brühl is said to have continued these intrigues. Brühl returned to Saxony at the end of the Seven Years’ War, and died on 28 October 1763, not long after August’s death. See GLOSSARY.
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Kön[ig] schon nach sich in Danzig incognito aufhalte. Antworten Sie mir bald wieder, ich bin nach gemachten Compl. von meiner Frau Ihr erbegenster Krause (in the left margin in Ramlers handwriting: Was soll ich noch zu allen diesen schönen Neuigkeiten hinzusetzen? Unser Freund hat alles gesagt, was wir zusammenbringen können. Aber noch eins fällt mir ein: man redet davon, daß der König v. Pohlen selbst nach Berlin kommen würde. Ein aus dem Lager Angekommener hat einen Türcken im Lager u. bey dem Könige gesehen. Zu diesen beyden Neuigkeiten füge ich noch die alte hinzu daß ich meines lieben Gleims ewig getreue[r] Ramler bleibe). No. 37 (D-HTgl 2367) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Gleim, Wie recht haben Sie in einem Ihrer Briefe an mich gehabt, daß ein paar Schlachten des Königs Angelegenheiten in ganz anderen Stand bringen würden. Gott sey ewig Dank dafür, und derselbe hat uns diesmal recht gelehrt. Daß wir (wie Sie in einem alten Liede an H. v. Kleist schreiben) ihm danken und ihn nicht viel bitten sollen.
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Him (as you write in an old Lied to Herr v. Kleist) and not ask much of Him.251 For who would have been able, in October of last year, to ask God for the things that have happened since then? Would one not have had to construe it as stupid vanity to ask God for miracles? Oh, how I pity our Kleist, that he has no share in the days of glory. Yet he is a Heroe Conservator, and, for his virtue, I wish proper enjoyment of the gentle feelings that this achievement must arouse in him and in others. When you write to him, do tell him this wish for the New Year, for which I wish you ten times more pleasure than the vexation you have had in the past year.252 May heaven, which has given us the present miraculous progress towards peace, also bestow ways and means for the king to be able to make not merely a particular, but a universal, peace, for France to be forced to cede much in America to England, and for England’s wealth to help our devastated provinces once more. But you don’t ask, then, what you are to make of the enclosure? Shouldn’t you write musical poetry as well some time? You, who have such a great share in my Musikalische Poesie, and who write so naturally, and who have such a sensitive heart. But I must tell you that I have already set the first chorus to music. Therefore that must absolutely remain. And just because I believe that the chorus has turned out well for me, I would gladly have an entirety. The rest is only, unmistakably, a sketch.253 Herr Ramler will have sent you his beautiful Christmas cantata, and what do you say to Berlin’s unanimous wish for the year 1758?254 Let us employ all means to bring these and other good poems to the king’s notice now, while he can pay attention to them. Here we have our minds occupied with glorious tidings from Pomerania, of 3000 Swedes who have laid down their weapons, of the arrival of Imperial peace councillors, of the cession of Swedish Pomerania for a sum of money.255 251 Krause is referring to Gleim’s poem “An Herrn von Kleist,” which appeared in the first part of his Versuch in scherzhaften Liedern (Berlin, 1744), p. 3. Lines 29 and 30 of this poem are as follows: “Here we wish to praise Heaven, Praise it, but ask nothing of it.” 252 See n. 238. 253 Krause was evidently making a musical setting of a text, probably by Gleim. 254 Ramler’s text, titled Die Hirten bei der Krippe zu Bethlehem (publ. 1758), was set to music as an oratorio by Johann Friedrich Agricola (see n. 208), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Daniel Gottlob Türk (1756-1813), Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814), Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab (1759-1813), and Joseph Leopold Eybler (1765-1846). Agricola’s setting has not survived. 255 The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) had awarded western Pomerania, the island of Rügen, Wismar, Poel, and the mouths of the Oder River to Sweden. In 1720, Prussia acquired a large part of this territory for a sum of money, but Sweden still retained land west of the Peene River. During 1757 a Swedish army marched into Pomerania, and threatened Berlin. Friedrich responded by sending Lehwaldt (see n. 295) against the Swedes with an army of 30,000; shortly before Krause’s letter, the Swedes had been forced to retreat behind their fortifications in Stralsund. But despite the hopes that Krause expresses here, there was to be no further cession of Pomeranian lands to Prussia for many years. By the Peace of Hubertusberg (1763) that ended the Seven Years’ War, returned Sweden’s possessions in Pomerania to the status quo ante bellum. Prussia would not acquire them until 1815. See ARCHENHOLTZ, p. 72; LLOYD/TEMPELHOF, vol. 1, p. 337.
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Denn wer hätte im October v. J. Gott um die seitdem geschehene [s/c] Dinge bitten können? Würde man es sich nicht für eine Dumme Eitelkeit haben auslegen müssen, Gott um Wunder werke / zu bitten? O wie bedaure ich unsren Kleist, daß er an den herrlichen Tagen nicht Antheil hat. Doch er ist ein Heroe Conservator, und ich wünsche seiner Tugend den rechten Genuß der sanften Empfindungen, die dieses Verdienst in ihm und in andern erregen muß. Wenn Sie ihm schreiben, melden Sie ihm doch diesen Wünsche zum Neuen Jahre, zu welchem ich Ihnen zehnmal mehr Vergnügen wünsche, als Sie im zurückgelegten Jahre Verdruß gehabt. Der Himmel, der die bisherigen wunder- / baren Beförderungen zum Frieden gegeben, gebe auch Mittel und Wege, daß der König nicht blos einen Particulär sondern einen allgemeinen Frieden machen könne, und Frankreich in E» Amerika an Engelland brav viel wieder abtreten müsse, und dafür Engellands Schätze unsem verheerten Provinzen wieder aufhelfen mögen. Sie fragen doch nicht, was Sie aus der Beylage machen sollen? Sollten Sie nicht auch einmal musikalisch dichten? Sie der an der meiner musikalischen Poesie so viel / Antheil haben, und so natürlich schreiben, und ein so empfindliches Herzen haben. Ich muß Ihnen aber sagen, daß ich das erste Chor schon in Noten gesetzt habe. Das muß also durchaus bleiben. Und eben weil ich glaube, daß mir das Chor gerathen ist, so wollte ich gern ein Tout haben. Das Uebrige ist nur ein unvergreiflicher Entwurf. H. Rammler wird Ihnen seine schöne WeynachtenCantate geschickt haben, und was sagen Sie zum einmüthigen Wunsch Berlins zum 1758 Jahre. Lassen Sie / uns doch alle Mittel anwenden diese und andere gute Poesien dem Könige nahe zu bringen, da er jetzo darauf Acht haben kann. Aus Pommern trägt man sich hier mit herrlichen Zeitungen, von 3000 Schweden so das Gewehr gestreckt, von angekommenen Reichsräthen zum Frieden von Abtretung des schwedischen Pommern für eine Summe Geld. Könnte man doch aus Ihrer
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If one could hear something decisive from your region again like your former - 1 mustn’t belittle. My wife presents her best compliment; my children kiss the hand of the man whose name they often hear, and I am, as always, your sincerely respectful Krause Berlin, the 7th Jan. 1758
No. 38 (D-HTgl 2380) KRAUSE to EWALD CHRISTIAN VON KLEIST Dearest friend, If I haven’t yet thanked you for your poems, in which you even mention me, it is because I wanted to send along to you a musical setting of the incomparable Grabbed.256 But I have not yet been able to produce it, and so I send you herewith three of your other songs, because you tell me in your most welcome letter of the 17th that you would like to have something to play. I hope that the music pleases you half as well as the poems please me; then I will be proud of it. If it doesn’t suit you to play them on the flute in the keys in which they are written, just play them from the page on which they are written for the voice, and imagine that the soprano clef is a violin and flute clef; thus it will sound brighter, and the 2 pieces will sound in A Major and the third in G Major, and you need only imagine that, in the first, there is a key signature of C#, F#, and G#, and, in the last, a key signature of F#.257 The love-song you must first try to get into your fingers. Then you will be able to play amorously and rapturously. This style of playing depends on the method, not on the notes. From Lob der Gottheit, I have taken the strophes that contain the most feeling, although the others also please me immensely.258 Because you have so much time, be so kind, dearest friend, and just write a cantata on an amorous subject, perhaps a little story from mythology or the like. Rousseau has written
256 The Grablied is found in Neue Gedichte vom Verfasser des Frühlings, published in Berlin in 1758 by Christian Friedrich Voß (see KLEIST/SAUERI, pp. 113-14 and 366). It contains a reference to Krause that obviously pleased him: “Nor my Krause’s lute, That sighs like Philomel.” It is not known whether Krause finished his musical setting of this poem. In any case, no setting by him has survived. 257 These songs cannot be identified. It is possible that Krause, in accordance with the aesthetic he often propounded, wrote them for a single voice without any accompanying instrument. The first two would originally have been written in the key of F Major; the third in either E Major or E flat Major. Krause’s discussion of these songs reflects an interesting aspect of mid-century performance practice: the adaptability of such pieces to a number of performing media. It also demonstrates Krause’s use of the modem convention of key signatures. 258 Lob der Gottheit, one of Kleist’s earliest works (Brieg, December 1745), is a rhymed poem of 17 stanzas; Krause’s setting of this text survives in manuscript.
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Gegend bald etwas décisives hören, wieder Ihre ehemalige - ich muß nicht schmälen. Meine Frau / macht ihr bestes Compliment, meine Kinder küssen dem Manne, dessen Nahmen sie oft hören, die Hände, und ich bin wie allezeit Ihr aufrichtig ergebener Krause Berlin d. 7 Jan 1758 No. 38 (D-HTgl 2380) KRAUSE TO KLEIST Liebster Freund, Wenn ich Ihnen noch nicht für Ihre Gedichte, und daß Sie meiner gar drinnen erwehnt haben, gedankt haben [sic], das ist daher geschehen, daß ich Ihnen eine Composition des unvergleichlichen Grabliedes mit schicken wollte. Allein ich habe sie noch nicht zu Stande kriegen können, und schicke Ihnen also beygehend drey andere Ihrer Lieder, da Sie mir in Ihrem angenehmsten Schreiben vom 17 d[ieses]. melden, daß Sie gern wollen etwas zu spielen haben. / Ich wünsche, daß Ihnen die Noten nur halb so gut gefallen, als mir die Lieder, so bin ich stolz darüber. Wenn auf der Sie Ihnen für die Flöte aus den Tonen, worin sie gesetzt sind, nicht recht anstehen, so blasen Sie sie nur wie sie von dem Blatte, auf dem sie für die Singstimme geschrieben sind, und bilden sich ein, als wenn der discant Schlüssel, Violin [sic] Schlüssel und Travers [sic] Schlüssel wäre, so wird es munterer klingen, und die 2 Stücke werden aus dem A# und das 3 - aus dem G# gehen, und dürfen Sie sich nur vorstellen, als wenn / bey [den] ersten cis, fis, gis, und beym letzten fis vorgezeichnet wäre. Das Liebeslied suchen Sie nur erstlich recht in die Hand zu bekommen. Als dann werden Sie es auch verliebt und entzückt spielen können. Die Art dieses Spielens hängt von der Methode nicht von den Noten ab. Aus dem Lobe der Gottheit habe die Strophen genommen, die die meiste [sic] Empfindungen haben ohngeachtet mir die andere [sic] auch unvergleichlich gefallen. Weil Sie so viel Zeit haben, seyn Sie doch so gütig, allerliebster / Freund, und machen mir eine Cantate über ein verliebtes Sujet, etwa ein Histörchen aus der Mythologie oder dergleichen. Rousseau hat dergleichen viel gemacht. Sie darf nur
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many of this sort.259 It must have only 3 arias and 2 or 3 recitatives; it can begin with a recitative, but must end with an aria. It must be possible to be sung by only one voice. I must compose such a cantata for someone, and Herr Ramler, whom I would perhaps ask to write it, is ill and, also, hasn’t yet recuperated from his Batteux.260 But in this case, worthiest friend, I and the person for whom the cantata is intended would lose nothing through and with you, if you just have the kindness to write me one; and you will do me a great favor if you will send it to me soon, before you are prevented by other matters. You can well see, my dearest old friend, that my propensity for music does not yet desert me, no matter how rigid jurisprudence makes me. When I am tired of the latter, I think of music, and cheer myself up. And I could have spent this Maundy Thursday morning no better than with a letter to you, with music for you, and with a sermon of Foster’s that my wife read to me.261 She most respectfully commends herself to her husband’s best friend, and because she threatens to bear me a young son at almost any minute, we wish to educate him as an auditeur in the regiment of the future Field Marshal von Kleist.262 I, who am infatuated with children, have been very happy with them. We have five of them who are all as healthy as fishes, and, thank God, who are easy to bring up.263 Herr Ramler wrote a beautiful Passion cantata 2 years ago, and recently, a Christmas cantata.264 The first was horribly plundered by Patzke, Lieberkiihn, and 259 Krause refers to the writer Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (1670-1741). Rousseau, an epigonic poet, took the works of Boileau, Fenelon, and other seventeenth-century writers as his models, and early in his career showed a talent for lyric verse. Although most of Rousseau’s dramatic works of the 1690s comedies and opera libretti - were unsuccessful, he acquired a literary reputation by 1700. His career, most of which he spent under the protection of wealthy or aristocratic patrons, was a stormy one. His satirical epigrams earned him the enmity of writers who were his contemporaries. In 1712, he was declared by Parlement to be the author of slanderous verses against the writer Saurin, and was banished “from the kingdom forever.” He left France for an exile which lasted more than 20 years. In 1738, he returned secretly to Paris for a few months, then traveled to the Hague, where he died in 1741. Rousseau’s writings, particularly his sacred and secular odes, were cited respectfully by Gleim, Ramler, and Uz (see GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 309, II, pp. 168, 205, 215, 224, 302, 375, 396, 398, 399; GLEIM/UZ, pp. 32, 111, 245, 294). But they have been subsequently criticized as hollow imitations of noble and elegant models. Among Rousseau’s works, only the cantate, a genre he transplanted from Italian to French, seems to have been uncontroversial. The texts of most of his cantatas deal with mythological characters, and consist of three recitatives, each followed by an aria. See HOEFER, vol. 42 (1863), cols. 727-37; ROUSSEAU, I-LXXX, pp. 307-68. 260 Concerning Ramler and his translation of Batteux see n. 224. 261 James Foster (1697-1753), a dissenting English clergyman, celebrated for his eloquence as a preacher, spent much of his life propagating and defending his religious views. Beginning in 1744, he published four volumes of sermons. These appeared in a German translation (two volumes in five parts) in 1750-51, with a foreword by August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack (see n. 343). See NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, vol. 20, pp. 54-5. 262 At this time, the title auditeur referred to a military judge who made decisions in the name of the commanding officer at trials and in other legal matters (see ADELUNG/WORTERBUCH, pt. 1, col. 466). The reference to “Field Marshal” is whimsical; the highest rank that Kleist was to reach was Major. 263 See n. 242. The sixth child was a daughter, Caroline (see nn. 299 and 302). 264 Krause is doubtless referring to Ramler’s cantata Der Tod Jesu , set to music by Carl Heinrich Graun (see nn. 64 and 219), and published by George Ludewig Winter in 1756. The Christmas cantata to which Krause refers is Die Hirten bei der Krippe zu Bethlehem (see n. 253).
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3 Arien und 2 oder 3 Recitative [haben?], kann mit einem Recitativ anfangen, muß aber mit einer Arie schließen. Sie soll nur sollen von einer Stimme können gesungen werden. Ich soll für jemanden eine solche Cantate componiren, und H. Ramler, den ich allenfalls darum bitten wollte, ist krank, und hat sich auch von seinem Batteux noch nicht wieder ausgeruhet. Aber dem würde ich und die für die Cantate soll, bey und mit Ihnen, werthester Freund nichts verliehren, wenn Sie nur die Gütigkeit haben wollen mir eine zu machen, und Sie thun mir einen rechten Gefallen damit, wenn Sie mir sie bald schicken ehe Sie durch andere Dinge verhindert werden. Sie sehen wohl mein alter liebster Freund, daß mich mein Hang zur Musik noch nicht verlässet, so steif mich auch die Juristerey macht. Wenn ich der / letzten M müde bin, denke ich an die Musik, und mache mich wieder heiter. Und diesen Grünen Donnerstags Morgen hätte ich nichts besser zu bringen können an Sie als ich mit einem Briefe A, mit Noten für Sie, und mit einer Fosterschen Predigt, die mir meine Frau vorgelesen gethan habe. Diese empfiehlt sich dem besten Freunde ihres Mannes ergebenst, und da Sie mir alle Stunden mit einem jungen Sohne droht, so wollen wir ihn zum Auditeur unter des künftigen Herrn Feldmarschall von Kleists Regiment erziehen. / Ich Kinder Narr, bin recht glücklich mit Kindern. Wir haben ihrer fünf, die alle so gesund sind wie die Fische, und Gottlob sich auch ziehen lassen. H. Ramler hat eine schöne Passions Cantate vor 2 Jahren, u. letzt eine schöne Weynachts Cantate gemacht. Die erste wird abscheulich von Patzken, Lieberkühn,
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even Zacharia, and Herr Ramler is being plagued with requests to write an Easter cantata too.265 Perhaps he will be persuaded this summer. After all, I almost have his word that he will publish some of his poems, with an appendix containing religious poems to be set to music. He, who is perennially dissatisfied with his work, should surely behave differently for once. His friends and the public lose too much from this dissatisfaction. How is our poor Gleim doing? He has long owed me a letter, and I have always hoped that he will publish a description of the splendid Halberstadt operation.266 But so far I hear nothing about it. I wish that he had done it properly, with details. One would scarcely enjoy it so much any more now that the French have really 265 Regarding Ramler’s “Easter cantata,” see n. 287. Johann Samuel Patzke (1727-87) held several pastorates, the first in Halle, the last in Magdeburg. Patzke showed an aptitude for occasional poems, and was a prolific writer of dramas. It is not clear which drama Krause had in mind here as an example of “plundering” - Die Leiden Jesu , which, like many of his spiritual plays, was set to music by Rolle (see n. 13), did not appear until 1776. See GLOSSARY. The Lieberkühn to whom Krause refers was doubtless Christian Gottlieb Lieberkühn (see n. 104), who in 1756 had taken over the task of proofreading Kleist’s poems (see KLEIST/SAUER I, p. LXXXVI). Lieberkühn made some translations of classical authors, and wrote original poetry and theatrical works. It is clear that his literary efforts were not highly regarded by his contemporaries. On 21 September 1757, Lessing wrote Gleim that Lieberkühn had published battle songs under the name of a high-ranking officer and added, “How arrogant bad poets are.” It is not known which of his works Krause refers to as “plundered” from Ramler’s Der Tod Jesu. KLEIST/SAUER I, p. LI, LESSENG/GLEIM, p. 18. Just Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariä (1726-72) began his studies at the University in Leipzig as a candidate in law, but quickly decided to pursue his interest in literature. His early success in this field, together with the recommendation of J. C. Claproth (see n. 14), won him in 1748 the position of Hofmeister at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig (an institution founded by Duke Carl I as a cross between a Gymnasium and a university). In time it became apparent to Zachariä’s contemporaries that his poems, often based on English models, were derivative, and by the end of his life his reputation had sunk irretrievably in the eyes of his contemporaries. It would seem likely that it was Zachariä’s De Pilgrime auf Golgotha (1756) that Krause had in mind as an example of “plundering” from Ramler’s Der Tod Jesu. See GLOSSARY. 266 The district around Halberstadt and Magdeburg had been occupied and plundered by the French in the fall of 1757 (see n. 232). In early November, the Halberstädters had a temporary reprieve from the French - the unexpected and overwhelming Prussian victory at Roßbach on 5 November threw the French into disarray, and on the following day, the occupying general Richelieu (see n. 228 and GLOSSARY) and his entourage left Halberstadt in great haste. But the French returned to create more havoc. In January 1758, Richelieu sent Le Voyer d’Argenson with a small unit to plunder the district and to defeat General Juncken. Gleim’s letters express his belief that the general could have remained and easily defeated the French. But Juncken escaped, and between 11 and 15 January Halberstädters were canvassed by French soldiers and ordered to give up all food supplies and money. Relief finally came on 31 January in the form of “a battalion from Alt-Deßau,” a harbinger of Friedrich II’s plan to drive the French from Halberstadt and from the valley of the Weser. The discussions, in Gleim’s correspondence, of this new French occupation of Halberstadt are voluble. They reflect Gleim’s rage and the indignation and sympathy of Kleist and Ramler on his behalf (see GLEIM/RAMLER H, pp. 310-16, 317; KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 474-6; KLEIST/SAUER m , pp. 278-84). Curiously, Gleim’s letter of 1 February, which reports the deliverance of Halberstadt from the French, is terse, and his letters which follow contain only cursory descriptions of what Krause calls the “splendid operation at Halberstadt.” See GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 316; GLEIM/UZ, pp. 289-90.
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u. so gar Zachariä geplündert, und H. Ramler wird geplagt, auch eine Oster Cantate zu machen. Vielleicht lässet er sich diesen Sommer dazu bewegen. Und ich habe schon halt das Wort von / ihm, daß er einige seiner Gedichte mit einem Anhang von geistlichen Singgedichten herausgeben will. Der Ewigunzufriedene mit seinen Arbeiten sollte doch einmal anders werden. Seine Freunde und das Publikum verliehren zu viel dabey. Was macht unser arme Gleim? Er ist mir mit Antwort schon lange schuldig, und ich habe auch immer gehoffet, er werde die vortrefliche Halberstädische Unternehmung beschrieben herausgeben. Aber ich höre noch nichts davon. Ich wünsche, daß / er es recht mit Particularitäten gethan hätte. Jetzo würde man es bey nahe nicht mehr so goutiren, da die Franzosen schon wirkl. so sehr gestraft sind. Je
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already been punished so much. Good heavens, hardly a month’s time to have themselves driven from all the provinces over the Weser which they occupied.267 That brings them honor. Oh, if we were in a position to have the contributions that we paid here for the hungry given back from the French rosters. May God preserve our great king, about whom I cannot think now or ever without tears, we can hope for it. If this ruler survives this war, then he must have such a steely heart, and such strength of mind, that the collapse of the universe would not frighten him. One now awaits new feats from him in Silesia, and the news of the Russians is so varied that one doesn’t know what to make of it. For reliable reports say that everything over the Vistula that was theirs has come back again. You may well have these people on your estate, dearest friend, for which reason I pity them. Is this letter long enough? Now do send me the cantata soon. I am unceasingly Your altogether respectful CGKrause Berlin, the 23rd March 1758 No. 39 (D-HTgl 2368) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, Some time ago, I wrote to you about a musical matter. You didn’t answer me. I have completely pardoned you for not having sent me the cantata. But because you also don’t inform me that you don’t want to write it, I claim it for myself, and ask you to send it to me by Christmas. But meanwhile, heaven has once again sent us so much that is good that we can sing a Te Deum.26S Herr Agricola’s church music, hitherto performed here, has 267 The king had ordered his brother Prince Heinrich (see n. 310) to Halberstadt to help prevent the French from returning to threaten Magdeburg and Saxony, and to help Ferdinand of Braunschweig (see n. 311), who was fighting the French with an army of British and Hanoverians. The Prince swiftly occupied Regenstein (an ancient mountain fortress near Halberstadt), Goslar, and Wolfenbüttel, and restored Braunschweig to Ferdinand (see GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 321-2). When Heinrich reached Hildesheim, he was ordered to stop and to return to Saxony where he was needed. He complied, although he expressed the belief that if he continued his campaign, he could drive the French out of Westphalia. But Heinrich had given the enemy the impression that he was leading a much larger force than his army of 8,000, and that an even larger Prussian army was following him. The French hastily withdrew behind the Weser river, and began to evacuate Bremen and Göttingen. See EASUM/HENRY, 64-7. 268 During the year 1757, the Prussians had experienced many setbacks, among them the defeats at Kolin on 18 June (see n. 231), at Hastenbeck on 26 July (see nn. 228, 231, and 238), and at GroßJägemdorf in East Prussia on 30 August; the loss of Breslau to the Austrians on 22 November, was followed quickly by the fall of the nearby fortress of Schweidnitz. But the year nevertheless ended with two victories won against great odds: the rout of the French at Roßbach near Merseburg on 5 November, and the defeat of the Austrians in the battle of Leuthen on 5 December (see n. 271). Shortly afterwards the
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kaum Monatsfrist sich aus allen der Provinzen jagen zu lassen, die sie über der Weser innegehabt. Das macht ihnen Ehre. O kämen wir doch in die Umstände daß wir uns aus den französischen Röstern könnten die Contributiones wieder geben lassen, die wir den hungrigen hier gezahlt haben. Gott erhalte unser großen König, an den ich jetzo und allemal nicht / ohne Thränen gedenke, so können wir es hoffen. Wenn dieser Herr diesen Krieg überstehet, dann muß er ein so diamantenes Herz und so viel Stärke des Geistes haben, daß der Einsturz des Universo ihn nicht mehr schrecken würde. Man erwartet jetzo neue Thaten von ihm in Schlesien und von den Russen sind die Nachrichten so verschieden, daß man nicht weis was man daraus machen soll. Denn sichere ge» Nachrichten sagen, daß alles, was von ihnen schon über die Weichsel / gewesen, wieder zurück sey. Sie werden diese Herren auch wohlauf Ihren Gute haben, liebster Freund, weshalb ich Sie beklage. Ist dieser Brief nun lang genug? Schicken Sie mir ja bald die Cantate. Ich bin unausgesetzt Ihr vollkommenstergebener CGKrause Berl. d. 23 Mart. 1758 No. 39 (D-HTgl 2368) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Liebster Freund, Ich habe Ihnen vor einiger Zeit in einer musikalischer Angelegenheit geschrieben. Sie haben mir darauf nicht geantwortet. Ich habe Sie auch vollkommen entschuldigt, daß Sie mir die Cantate nicht geschickt haben. Weil Sie mir aber doch auch nicht melden, daß Sie sie nicht machen wollen, so behalte ich mir sie vor, und bitte mir sie gegen Weynachten zu überschicken. Seitdem aber hat uns der Himmel so viel Gutes wieder erfahren lassen, daß wir Te deum singen können. H. Agricola [sic] bisher hier aufgeführte Kirchenmusiken haben so viel Beyfall erhalten, daß ein Te Deum von ihm öffentl. in den neuen Druck-Noten herauskommen soll.
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received so much acclaim that a Te Deum by him is to be published with the new printing process.269 Only it is to be a German one, because the Latin may not be performed in many Protestant places. Herr Klopstock’s, for many reasons, cannot be used for a musical Herr Gott, dich loben wir, and Herr Agricola would like very much to have a poem, perhaps like Dry den’s Alexander's Feast or Pope’s Ode on Caroline's Day .270 The entire contents of the Latin Te Deum could be divided into 10 or 12 movements, and each could be composed like a strophe in the meter most suitable for it. For it is not necessary for music to have a single kind of rhythm - it is, in fact, boring. It almost goes without saying that the first and last movements are to be written so that a Tutti can be composed to them. The words of the Te Deum also require this. But because a piece of music consisting of several movements is not complete if it doesn’t also have an Adagio, it would be good, where the Te ergo quaesumus occurs to add nothing but such ideas that admit of something tender and beseeching, so that the composer can, in accordance with his art, write a complete Adagio. These slight restrictions, if they may actually be called that, will not deter you, worthiest friend, from undertaking this task. But you would have to be willing to apply yourself to it soon; otherwise the opportunities for the Te Deum will pass by, and the publisher would lose one part of the sale. You have, in the Song of Victory on the Battle at Lissa, expressed so much that is Prussians had retaken Liegnitz and Breslau in Silesia. As Krause wrote this letter, the outlook seemed promising. During the early months of 1758, the Russian and Swedish armies, immobilized by the poor condition of the roads, had been unable to cause the Prussians much difficulty; Prince Heinrich (see n. 310) had conducted an energetic and successful campaign to drive the French out of the western provinces they were occupying; and Ferdinand of Braunschweig (see n. 311) was once more in possession of his own land. At the time of this letter to Gleim, the Prussian siege of Schweidnitz was under way. 269 In response to the adverse circumstances of his life Johann Friedrich Agricola (see n. 208) diversified his activities, and continued to lead an active musical life in Berlin. In the early 1750s he began to publish prose works dealing with aesthetic and theoretical questions about music. In 1755 he sang the leading tenor part in Carl Heinrich Graun’s Der Tod Jesu (see n. 219). In 1757, he began to compose music for the church: cantatas and settings of psalms. Despite the acclaim that Krause mentions, much of Agricola’s church music remained unpublished (see M G G I (1949-50), cols. 160-63 and GROVE2, vol. 1,230-32. A new method of printing music with separable and movable type had been developed in 1754 by Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf of Leipzig (1719-94). George Ludewig Winter (d. before 1772) had introduced Breitkopf s improved typeface in Berlin. A letter written by Ramler to Gleim on 9 April 1758 reads, “I would suggest Breitkopf s printing establishment or Winter’s here. In these the new musical notes are clearest.” See ADB, vol. 3 (1876), pp. 296-303; GLEIM/RAMLERII, 326. 270 Doubtless Krause is referring to Alexander Pope’s Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, which was first published in 1717, and which reappeared in the edition of Pope’s works of 1736 with the note that it was written in 1708. Pope had recast it in 1730 in order that it might be set to music, inserting a new stanza and shortening it considerably. In that year, Maurice Greene (1696-1755) set it to music for the Public Commencement at Cambridge on July 6 (see POPE, vol. 4 , pp. 397^402, and GROVE2, vol. 10, pp. 360-65). Dryden’s ode (published in 1697) was also written, as its title indicates {Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Musique: an Ode in Honor o f St. Cecilia's Day), to celebrate the feast day of the patron saint of music. Handel set Dryden’s text to music as an oratorio, and first performed it at Covent Garden, not on St. Cecilia’s Day (22 November), but on 19 February 1736 (see GROVE2, vol. 10, pp. 747-813, particularly 784). Concerning Klopstock’s Te Deum, see n. 272.
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Allein es soll ein Deutsches seyn, weil an vielen Protestantischen Orten das lateinische nicht darf aufgeführet werden. H. Klopstocks seines ist um vielerley Ursachen willen nicht zu einem musikalischen H. Gott dich loben wir, zu brauchen, und / H. Agricola wünschte gern eine Poesie zu haben oder ha etwa wie Drydens Fest Alexanders, oder Popens Ode auf den Carolinen Tag. Es könnte aH- der ganze Inhalt des lateinischen Te Deum in 10 oder 12 Sätze abgeschnitten und jeglicher wie eine Strophe in der ihm bequemsten Prosart gemacht werden. Denn einerley Prosart ist zur Musik gar nicht nötig, vielmehr ennuyant. Von selbst verstehet sichs fast, daß der erste und der letzte Satz so zu machen sind, daß ein Tutti darauf gesetzt werden könne. Die Worte des Te Deum bringen es auch so mit sich. Weil aber eine aus mehreren Theilen bestehende Musik nicht vollkommen ist, wenn sie nicht auch zu ein Adagio hat, so würde gut seyn A dem Theil oder Satz, wo das: Te ergo quaesumus / vorkömmt, uns lauter solche Gedanken zuzufügen, die etwas zärtliches, u. mit einem bittendes zulassen, damit der Componist doch ex professo ein ganzes Adagio machen könne. Diese geringen Einschränkungen, wo sie einmal so zu nennen sind werden Sie, werthester Freund nicht abschrecken, die Arbeit vor zu nehmen. Sie müsten aber belieben sich bald dabey zu machen, denn sonst gehen die Gelegenheiten vorbey zu dem Te Deum, u. der Verleger würde um einen Theil des Absatzes kommen. Sie haben in dem Siegeslied auf d. Schlacht b. und NB. so leicht Lissa, so viel Vortrefliches und Erhabenes A ausgedrückt, daß viele Musici u.
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excellent and noble - and, at the same time, with so much ease - that many musicians and music lovers agree that you are uncommonly well suited to be a musical poet.271 You have also, in this way, the opportunity - you, Herr Cathedral Secretary - to render to God public and spiritual thanks. And if you were to leave out the specific words about the Virgin’s womb, you would surely find expressions without Klopstockish unction that are theological enough.272 Dear friend, do not deny Herr Agricola (who also begs you, with assurance of his respect, and who is in no regard a man about whom one might regret having engaged him) and the public this favor. And if you just dismiss the first objection that occurs to you, I shall expect to see the musical setting of Gleim’s Herr Gott dich loben wir soon. You no longer have the prejudice that, in a piece that is to be set to music, a poet must have such concern for the music that he cannot write a good poem. And here you really shouldn’t write actual arias, recitatives, etc., but compose each movement in the meter most appropriate for it. My wife commends herself to you; and I am in expectation of an early answer, my dearest friends most respectful Krause Berl. the 1st April 1758
271 The Battle of Lissa on 5 December 1757 is also known as the battle of Leuthen (today Lutynia). The Prussians, outnumbered almost two to one by Austrian forces clustered around the village of Leuthen on the road to Breslau, began this battle with little hope of success - before the battle, the king explained the desperate situation to his generals, and offered to accept the resignation of any of them without penalty. Yet the Prussian army, by means of its Schiefordnung (a formation that gave a false impression of disorder) and other feints, overwhelmed the Austrians, and won the battle decisively (ARCHENHOLTZ, pp. 66-70). Gleim’s correspondence indicates that, as early as 28 July 1757, he was thinking of writing poems about battles from the perspective of a Prussian grenadier (KLEIST/SAUER III, p. 220). By the end of 1759, he had written at least 12 battle songs, which he published anonymously, and which won great acclaim. GOEDEKE, p. 40, lists only Kriegs- und Siegeslieder der Preußen von
einem Preußischen Grenadier. Nebst einem Anhang einiger an des Königs von Preussen Majestät gerichteter Gedichte (Berlin, 1758); Fortsetzung der Kriegs- und Sieges-Lieder der Preussen über die Siege bey Lowositz und Lissa (Berlin, 1758), a collection of 11 songs; Preußische Kriegslieder in den Feldzügen 1756 und 1757 von einem Grenadier. Mit Melodien (Berlin [1758]), of which eight were set to music, and for which Lessing wrote a preface (see n. 298); and Der Grenadier an die Kriegesmuse nach dem Siege bey Zom dorf{\l 59); but Gleim’s correspondence indicates that, at this time, his songs
were often printed singly and in combination (see KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 472, 475, 552, 555; GLEIM/RAMLERII, p. 323). 272 Krause is doubtless referring to Klopstock’s Danklied, which, the author has indicated, is to be sung to the melody Herr Gott, dich loben wir. One of Krause’s objections to this text seems to have been its mawkishness. Secondly, the Danklied is not a paraphrase of the Latin Te Deum, as Krause obviously intended the text to be that Agricola would set to music. Finally, except for six lines of three iambic feet each, Klopstock’s poem is cast in the same iambic tetrameter throughout; thus it did not offer much potential for the variety of musical meters, tempos, and moods that would be expected of a substantial musical composition for a great occasion.
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Musikliebhaber einhellig gesagt, Sie schicken sich zu einem musikalischen Dichter ganz A ungemein. Sie haben dadurch auch Gelegenheit, Sie, Herr Dom Secretair, Gott einen öffentlichen geistlichen Dank abzustatten. Und wenn Sie auch der Jungfrauen / Leib wörtl. wegließen, so werden Sie doch ohne Klopstockische Salbung Ausdrücke finden, die theologisch genug sind. Liebster Freund, versagen Sie nur, H. Agricola (der Sie mit Versicherung seiner Erbegenheit [Ergebenheit] auch drum bittet, und der auf in keinem Betracht ein Mann ist, bey dem man sichs dürfte gereuen lassen, ihn verpflichtet zu haben) und dem Publiko diese Gefälligkeit nicht, und verjagen Sie den ersten Gedanken, der dawieder seyn könnte [sic], so verspreche ich mir das Gleimsche musikalische Herr Gott dich bey loben wir, bald zu sehen. Sie sind über das Vorurtheil weg, daß weil A einem Singgedicht der Dichter eine Rücksicht auf die Musik haben soll, er keine tüchtige eigentl. Poesie machen können [sic]. Und hier vollends dürfen Sie gar keine Arien, Recitative u.s.w. machen, sondern machen Sie jeden Satz in der ihm gemäßigsten Versart. Meine Frau empfiehlt sich Ihnen; und ich bin in Erwartung einer baldigen Antwort. Meines liebsten Freundes ergebenster Krause Berl. d. 1 April 1758
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No. 40 (D-HTgl 5898) GLEIM TO KRAUSE To the Attorney Krause in Berlin Halberstadt, the 9th of April 1758 Dearest friend, The grenadier says in one of his songs: For sing of God and Friedrich, Nothing less, proud song!273 You see that he is in earnest about singing nothing less. Here is his Te Deum according to your instructions.274 I do not know if you and Herr Agricola will be happy with it; but at least it is surely somewhat better than Herr Klopstock’s; in this he is certainly not Klopstock.275 Please commend me to Herr Agricola, whom you praised so highly in one line that I would gladly have written ten Te Deums for him. I do believe that I could write something good to be set to music, but I would have to be near Krause, as Ramler is! Why do you allow our dear Ramler to be so lazy? Because he won’t do anything himself, he could very well be the grenadier’s editor. Perhaps there is much that is not to your taste; so ask him, before you give the text to Agricola, to look through it and alter to your taste whatever isn’t suitable for a musical setting.276 If only I had had so much time that I could have read your Musikalische Poesie, and Pope’s and Dryden’s musical poetry, I would have written something better. But I scarcely have Sundays free for such work, and would therefore have needed much more time!277 1 began a Passion cantata for you
273 Gleim is quoting two lines from his poem, Bey Eröfnung des Feldzuges 1756, the first in the collection titled Preußische Kriegslieder in den Feldzügen 1756 und 1757 von einem Grenadier. Mit Melodien (Berlin [1758]) (see nn. 271 and 298). In his correspondence, as in this letter, Gleim often refers to the author of his battle songs in the third person, as if to maintain the fiction of anonymity (see, for example, GLEIM/RAMLERII, p. 360; GLEIM/UZ, pp. 285-8; KLEIST/SAUER m , pp. 263, 270, 275, 283; LESSING/GLEIM, p. 44). Some contemporary readers indeed do not seem to have guessed the identity of the author (see, for example, KLEIST/SAUER in , p. 302, in which Gleim reports an argument in his presence about the authorship of the battle songs between the Domdechant Ernst Ludwig Christoph Freiherr von Spiegel zum Desenberge and Count Stolberg-Wemigerode, both of whom asked Gleim for his opinion). But most of Gleim’s correspondents - Kleist, Ramler, Uz, Lessing, Krause, and many others who were familiar with his work - knew from the outset, or quickly guessed that he was the author. See, for example, KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 465, 468, 472, 475, 500, 502; GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 308,322, 334, 384; GLEIM/UZ, pp. 285-8. 274 See letter no. 39, D-HTgl 2368, in which Krause asks Gleim for a German translation of the Te Deum which is to be set to music by Johann Friedrich Agrícola. 275 Seen. 272. 276 At this time, Gleim was still seeking critiques of his work from Ramler. 277 Gleim may be referring to specific poems by Dry den and Pope, intended to be set to music; these would include Dryden’s and Pope’s odes for St. Cecilia’s Day (see n. 270) and Dryden’s librettos for two semi-operas, The Fairy Queen and King Arthur, and his songs to be sung in spoken plays. It seems more likely, however, that Gleim is simply paying tribute to the lyric character of the two English poets. I am grateful to Prof. Steven Zwicker of Washington University for his helpful comments about Dryden’s and Pope’s poetry.
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No. 40 (D-HTgl 5898) GLEIM TO KRAUSE An Herrn Advocat Krausen zu Berlin Halberstadt d 9— April 1758. Liebster Freund, Der Grenadier sagt in einem seiner Lieder: Denn singe Gott und Friedrich Nichts kleineres, stolzes Lied! Sehn Sie, daß es ihm ein Emst ist, nichts kleineres zu singen. Hier haben sie sein Te Deum nach ihrer Vorschrift. Ich weiß nicht, ob Sie, und Herr Agricola damit zu frieden seyn werden; wenigstens aber, ist es doch etwas beßer, als Herr Klopstock seines, darin er gewiß nicht Klopstock ist. Machen Sie doch Herrn Agricola, dem Sie in einer Zeile so viel lob [sic] geben, daß ich wohl zehn Te Deums für ihn gemacht hätte, meine Empfehlung. Ich glaube wohl, daß ich für die Music etwas machen könnte, aber ich müste bey Krausen seyn wie Ramler! Warum lassen Sie unsem lieben Ramler so faul seyn? - Weil er doch selbst nichts machen will, so mag er des Grenadiers Corrector seyn. Vielleicht ist manches nicht nach ihrem Sinn, bitten Sie ihn doch also, daß er vorher, ehe Sie Herren Agricola, den Text geben ihn durchsieht, und nach ihrem Sinn ändert, was nicht musikalisch ist. Hätte ich nur so viel Zeit gehabt, daß ich ihre Musicalische Poesie, und Dridens und Popens musikalische Poesien erst hätte lesen können, so hätte vielleicht was beßres gemacht. Aber ich habe kaum nur die Sontage zu solchen Arbeiten frey, u. hätte also noch viel Zeit nöthig gehabt! Eine Paßions Cantate habe längst für Sie
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long ago, but had to let it go because of its length. Our Ramler has surely produced something again, but he never writes to me about himself. Now tell me whether he is still working on his Horace, and whether it won’t soon be ready.278 He must not be happy with the Siegeslieder; otherwise he would have answered me by now.279 One must not try to be perfect; otherwise one produces nothing! One more thing. I request a copy of Herr Agricola’s composition; we have a capable cantor who is to sing the new Te Deum at the first opportunity.280 How I would really love to hear all of your church music that you do there! Herr von Kleist has informed me with the greatest joy that he too is finally going into the field, and will no longer sit behind the stove and take care of the sick! - 1 would wish that he still had to do it. I would very much like to have visited him once again.281 I receive so many letters from the capital, in which there is nothing new; why should we in the provinces write something new to you? The French must all be over the Rhine by now. I told their generals that it would happen thus; but I set Pentecost as the Termino peremtorio - no one imagined such a swift retreat, particularly if he had not seen their miserable infantry.282 The slow operations in Pomerania are completely incomprehensible to me. But surely peace proposals are
278 In 1760, Ramler published his Ode an den Fabius. Nach der Schlacht bey Torgau, den 3. November 1760, an original poem. His translation of selected odes from Horace did not appear until 1769: Karl Wilhelm Ramlers Oden aus dem Horaz (Berlin: Voß, 1769). See SCHÜDDEKOPF/
RAMLER, pp. 58-59; GOEDEKE, vol. 4, pt. 1, pp. 100-103. 279 In an effort to obtain accurate information concerning the battles about which he was writing, and to achieve an authentic tone, Gleim sent drafts of his songs to Kleist, who offered many suggestions for improvements, and later to Ramler, requesting comments. See his letters to Ramler of 9 February and 26 March 1758 (GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 320, 324). Ramler replied - uncharacteristically - that he could find nothing to criticize in these poems. See his letters to Gleim of 18 February and 9 April 1758, the latter written on the same day as this letter from Gleim to Krause (GLEIM/RAMLER n , pp. 322 and 326). 280 The cantor cannot be identified. 281 From the middle of February to the middle of March, Kleist was assigned by Prince Heinrich (see n. 310) to a mission in Bemburg, about six German miles from Halberstadt. During this time, Kleist was visited by Gleim, who stayed a week, and by Samuel Gotthold Lange (see n. 6) from Laublingen. In spite of his hopes for another visit, Gleim was never to see his friend again. In a letter to Gleim dated 3 April 1758, Kleist reported that he had been ordered to leave Leipzig within 14 days in the company of Prince Heinrich’s army. Kleist’s departure from Leipzig was delayed at least a month, however; his letter of 9 May shows that he was still in Leipzig at that date. Finally, on 29 May, Kleist could indicate to Gleim that Prince Heinrich’s army had begun its march to the Bohemian border. See KLEIST/SAUER I, XLIX, KLEIST/SAUER II, pp. 485-94, and GLEIM/UZ, p. 290. 282 In medieval theology, terminus peremtorius referred to the fatal line beyond which salvation was impossible (see, for example, the definition in CALVIN/LEXICON, p. 900). Here it apparently means the final date after which the French would be over the Rhine. At the end of March and the beginning of April, the French, driven by the offensive of Prince Ferdinand of Braunschweig (see n. 311), were retreating over the Rhine in three groups: one between Cologne and Düsseldorf, one at Wesel, and one at Emerich. Gleim, who took great pleasure in predicting the course of the war, had had an opportunity to make his predictions to French generals while they were occupying Halberstadt. See KOSER/FRIEDRICH, vol. 2, p. 154.
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angefangen, aber auch, wegen ihrer länge [sic], müßen liegen laßen. Unser Ramler hat gewiß / wieder etwas gemacht, aber er schreibt mir niemahls von sich selbst. Verrathen Sie mir doch, ob er noch immer an seinem Horatz arbeitet, und ob er nicht bald fertig ist. Mit den Siegesliedem muß er nicht zufrieden seyn, er hätte mir sonst schon geantwortet. Mann [sic] muß nicht wollen vollkommen seyn, sonst macht mann [sic] gar nichts! Noch eins. Von der Composition des H. Agricola bitte ich mir Abschrift aus, wir haben einen geschickten Cantor, der das neue Te Deum bey erster Gelegenheit in unserem Dohm singen soll! Wie gern hörte ich ihre dortige Kirchen Musiken einmahl alle! Der H. von Kleist hat mir mit grosser Freude gemeldet, daß er endlich auch mit zu Felde gehen, u. nicht mehr zu Leipzig hinter dem Ofen sitzen und kranke warten würde! - Ich wünschte, daß er es immer noch hätte thun müßen. Ich hätte ihn so gern noch einmahl besucht. Ich bekomme so viel Briefe aus der Residentz, darin nichts neues steht, warum sollen wir Provintzen etwas / neues dahin schreiben? Die Franzosen müßen nun schon alle über den Rhein seyn. Ich habe es ihren Generalen gesagt, daß es so kommen würde; aber ich setzte Pfingsten zum Termino peremtorio, so geschwinden Abmarsch hat sich wohl kein Mensch vorgestellet, zu mahl, wer ihre elende Infanterie nicht gesehen hat. Gantz unbegreiflich sind mir die langsamen Unternehmungen in Pommern. Aber gewiß sind Friedens Vorschläge die
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the reason .283 Do write something to me from time to time from the big city of Berlin. Perhaps I will visit you soon and talk to my little god-daughter.284 Commend me to your better half and your dear little family, and greet our friend from your dear Gleim No. 41 (D-HTgl 2369) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My very dearest friend, I thank you most sincerely that you let yourself be persuaded to write a Herr Gott dich loben wir. It is also so splendid that you will derive the greatest honor from it, because it is, at the same time, so edifying. You leave Herr Klopstock infinitely far behind you. I have sent it to Herr Agricola, but not yet spoken to him .285 He lives far from me, and, at the moment, is occupied with something. He will certainly set it to music it with the greatest pleasure, and I believe also that for your part, you will be satisfied with his composition. He is setting Cramer’s 21st Psalm; you shall have it for your Herr Cantor, as well as - it goes without saying - the Te Deum.2S61 am responsible for his setting the psalm, as well as for your Herr Gott, etc. You see, if I am not a good Prussian, and if I myself am not clever, yet I do make others display
283 In the spring of 1758 Lehwald (see nn. 255 and 295) was assigned to deal with the Swedes in Pomerania. Around the same time the king of England sent word through Copenhagen that his alliance with the Prussians prevented him from making a separate peace with Prussia’s enemies. In return the Swedes, to show their allegiance to France and Austria, rejected the peace proposals that Lehwald had been instructed to make. See WADDINGTON/GUERRE, vol. II, p. 4 24.1 am indebted to David Lee for calling my attention to this source. 284 Gleim is probably referring to Krause’s daughter Wilhelmina (see n. 223). 285 See letter no. 39, D-HTgl 2368, and n. 269. 286 Johann Andreas Cramer (1723-88), a contributor to the Bremer Beyträge, was respected as a preacher, theologian, and poet. In 1750, he was Oberhofprediger and Consistorialrat in Quedlinburg; in 1754, on the recommendation of Klopstock, he became Hofprediger to King Frederick V of Denmark, a position he held until 1771. Between 1755 and 1764 Cramer published four books of metrical rhymed psalm paraphrases. They lent themselves well to musical setting - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see n. 52) published an entire collection of Cramer’s psalms (1774) for voice and keyboard, to be sung in the home and possibly in church. Many paraphrases contain verses designated by Cramer as choruses. Cramer’s rendition of Psalm 21 (“The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not denied him the request of his lips”), for which Agricola was writing a choral setting, begins “Der König jauchzt, von dir entzücket; In deiner Kraft, Herr, freut er sich! Er lebt von deiner Huld, daß ihn dein Heil beglücket, Wie hüpft sein fröhlich Herz durch dich!” (The king exults, delighted with thee; in thy strength, Lord, he rejoices! He thrives on your homage, and your blessing pleases him; Oh how you make his joyful heart leap!) See ADB, vol. 4 (1876), pp. 550-51, and CRAMER/PSALMEN, vol. 1, pp. 74^-6, and GLOSSARY.
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Uhrsache. Schreiben Sie mir doch zu weilen etwas aus dem großen Berlin. Vielleicht besuche ich Sie bald, und verspreche mich mit meinem kleinen Patchen. Empfehlen Sie mich ihrer lieben Helfte u. lieben kleinen Familie, und grüßen unsere Freunde, von Ihrem lieben Gleim No. 41 (D-HTgl 2369) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein allerliebster Freund Ich danke Ihnen verbindlichst dafür, daß Sie sich bewegen lassen, ein Herr Gott dich loben wir, zu machen. Es ist auch so vortreflich, daß Sie die größte Ehre davon haben werden, da es zu gleich sehr erbaulich ist. Sie lassen H. Klopstocken unendlich weit hinter sich. H. Agricolaen habe es geschickt, ihn aber noch nicht gesprochen. Er wohnt weit von mir, und hat auch jetzo etwas zu thun. Er wird es gewiß mit den [sic] grösten Vergnügen componiren, und ich glaube auch gegentheils, daß Sie mit seiner Composition zufrieden seyn werden./ Er componirt Kramers 21 Psalm den sollen Sie für Ihren Herrn Cantor auch haben, so wohl als es sich vom Te Deum von selbst versehet. Daß er den Psalm setzt, daran bin ich als Schuld, so w ohlAan Ihrem: Herr Gott, p. Sehen Sie, bin ich nicht ein guter Preuße, und bin ich selbst nicht witzig, so mache ich doch, daß andere ihr Genie zeigen. H.
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their genius. Herr Agricola will certainly write to you. Herr Ramler is also writing something, I tell you in confidence, and he wants to write an Easter cantata, among other things. He is already gathering ideas for it .287 You, dearest friend, don’t need my presence in order to write good cantatas. Just run through the Index of my Poesie, paying special attention to music. It is printed separately. If you don’t have it, I will send it to you. Or, also, the last chapters of the book: Then you will know all that you need to, and more.288 For you have sensibility of heart and ease of expression. That is the most important thing in poetry to be set to music. Write my Passion cantata if you wish, but also write something like Alexander’s F east 289 But before you have fully finished it, send the draft here. Perhaps some musical considerations can be taken into account in advance. Or write something allegorical about our king when he shall have bestowed peace on us - with several voices; dramatic; like various poems of this kind in Metastasio .290 We cannot immortalize our king in enough different ways. Our Ramler will also immortalize him in a very beautiful ode. He has firmly resolved to do it .291 For he is as thrilled by this true hero as all right-thinking people must be. You did right to sing his praises so
287 Ramier’s text Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu was published in 1760 and set to music in the same year by Georg Philipp Telemann (see n. 360). Between 1774 and 1780, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see n. 52) made a setting of it which was published by Breitkopf in 1787. Agricola (see n. 208), Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-95), and Abbt Vogler (1749-1814) also made settings of this text. 288 The chapters to which Krause refers here are most probably no. 6: Concerning the Style of Musical Poems; no. 7: Concerning the Meters most Suitable for Musical Poems; no. 8: Concerning the Arrangement of the Parts of a Musical Poem, Recitative, Arias, Ariosos, Ariettes, Cavatas, Duets, Trios, and Choruses ; no. 9: Concerning the Employment of Figures in Musical Poetry; no. 11: Concerning the various Genres of Entire Musical Poems. See KRAUSE/POESIE, pp. 156-430,431-84. 289 Krause seems to have had a particular interest in Handel’s setting of Dryden’s text (see n. 270). Joseph Beaujean suggests that it was at Krause’s instigation that Ramler published a German translation of Dryden’s text in 1766. Krause allegedly composed new music to the arias, but despite the fact that Ledebur lists “new arias” to Alexander's Feast among Krause’ compositions, no such arias have been found. See BEAUJEAN/KRAUSE, p. 19; LEDEBUR, p. 297. 290 Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), bom Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi, was adopted by the famous jurist and classicist Gian Vincenzo Gravina, who changed the name of his protégé, and educated him for a legal career. Gravina also recognized and encouraged Metastasio’s considerable talent for writing verses. After Gravina’s death in 1718 Metastasio left the legal profession; a bequest from Gravina had left him financially independent, and he devoted the rest of his life to writing texts for serenatas, operas, and special occasions. His opera librettos quickly won a reputation as models for for texts of ope re serie. In 1729, he left Italy to succeed another famous librettist, Apostolo Zeno, at the Austrian court in Vienna. During the eighteenth century, Metastasio’s librettos were set to music more than 800 times, often with changes of various sorts. See GROVE2, vol. 16, pp. 510-20. 291 In spite of the urgings of his friends, Ramler had written no short lyric poems or odes since the beginning of the decade. The war inspired him to take up his pen once again, and, beginning in 1759 with the publication of Ode an die Stadt Berlin. Den 24 Jenner 1759, an ode to celebrate the king’s birthday, he produced a number of patriotic poems that appeared individually. Almost all of them celebrate the king, and Krause’s comment seems directed more at Ramier’s general intentions than at a particular poem. I am grateful to David Lee for this information.
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Agricola wird Ihnen gewiß schreiben. H. Rammler macht auch was, im Vertrauen gesagt, und er will auch eine / Ostercantate machen. Er sammlet schon Gedanken dazu. Sie, liebster Freund brauchen mich nicht gegenwärtig zu haben, um gute Cantaten zu machen. Laufen sie nur einmal das Register meiner Poesie musikalisch durch. Es ist apart gedruckt. Wo Sie es nicht haben, will ich es Ihnen schicken. Oder auch die letzten Capitel des buches [sic]: So wissen Sie alles und mehr als Sie brauchen. Denn Sie haben Empfindlichkeit des Herzens, und Leichtigkeit in Ausdruck. Das ist das vornehmste in Singgedichten. Machen Sie meine Passions auch Cantate wenn Sie wollen. / Aber machen Sie A so was wie Alexanders Fest. Davon aber, ehe Sie es völlig fertig machen, schicken Sie die Tranche her. Da werden einige musikalische Considerations vielleicht vorher können gemacht. Oder machen Sie etwas Allegorisches auf unseren König, wenn derselbe uns mit dem Frieden wird beglückt haben; von mehreren Stimmen; drammatisch; wie in Metastasio verschiedene solche Singgedichte sind. Unsem König können wir nicht manigfaltig genug verewigen. / Unser Rammler wird ihn auch in einer recht schönen Ode verewigen. Er hat sichs fest vorgenommen. Denn er ist von diesem wahren Helden so entzückt, wie alle redliche [sic] Leute es seyn müssen. Sie haben recht gethan, daß Sie ihn durch Ihre Siegeslieder bisher schon so vortreflich
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splendidly hitherto with your Songs o f Victory. I am sending along here melodies to 5 of them .292 I hope that your Herr Cantor or someone else will be able to sing them very passionately for you; for I have conceived them thus. And if they don’t displease you, the Lieder could be printed here with these melodies. I would like also to write some more for the others. Our most worthy Kleist must indeed not be shot and killed. Or else my son, soon to come, will lose his future livelihood. I have recently written to Herr von Kleist that my wife threatens every day to present me with a young son. And she wants our future Herr Field Marshal von Kleist to make him an auditeur in his regiment.293 Our dearest king (yes, I am certainly very fond of him, and my children are also so fond of him, that whenever they get wine, they do not fail to drink to the king’s health; may God give him many such devoted subjects as I and mine are, speaking seriously as well) - our dearest king is said to work amazingly in his cabinet, and it must be something concerning enemies or the like. Dohna has become General of the Infantry .294 Lehwald has arrived here .295 Schwidniz wants to capitulate, but not 292 The composer of the eight melodies in the collection of battle songs (see n. 271), like the author of the words, was anonymous. Various composers have been mentioned in connection with musical settings of the collection, among them Johann Heinrich Rolle (GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 320, 326), Agricola (letter no. 39, D-HTgl 2370), Krause, Carl Heinrich Graun, Quantz, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (GLEIM/UZ, 310). Apparently Ramler, with whom the idea of musical settings seems to have originated, never saw the Victory Song after the Battle o f Roßbach, which Johann Heinrich Rolle had set to music at Gleim’s suggestion. Although Gleim, in a letter to Uz written a year after the publication of the collection (GLEIM/UZ, p. 313), names Krause, Graun, and Quantz as contributors to it, it seems more likely that Engelke’s and Beaujean’s attribution of all eight melodies to Krause is correct (ENGELKE/LIEDERSCHULE, pp. 470-71, and BEAUJEAN/KRAUSE, pp. 21-2). This letter and Krause’s letter of 26 August 1758 (no. 39, D-HTgl 2370) indicate that the eight melodies submitted by Krause were chosen for the collection, and suggest that musical settings sent by Agricola, Graun and Quantz were either submitted too late to be printed, or judged unsuitable. Ramler’s letter to Gleim of 3 May 1758 confirms what Krause’s letter implies: “ ... and Herr Krause has sent the latter [Lessing] all of the musical settings of the battle songs. Those which were composed by various people are not yet all ready and can be supplied at another time. These he composed him self’ (GLEIM/RAMLER, n , p. 328). Lessing’s letter of 8 July 1758 provides further evidence: “Herr Krause has composed seven songs; the eighth must be for the song about Kolin. For this has to have a particular kind of melody, because it is imbued with a special character that wouldn’t suit the other melodies” (LESSING/GLEIM, 44). 293 Seen. 262. 294 Christoph von Dohna-Schlodien (1702-62) had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in 1751, and to Knight of the Black Eagle in 1753. He distinguished himself in 1757 in the battle of Groß-Jägersdorf, and in 1758 in the battle of Zomdorf (see n. 303). But in the summer of 1759, Dohna failed to fulfill Friedrich’s expectations, and the king became impatient and critical of his general. He pronounced Dohna too sick to continue in his position of command, and sent him to Berlin, replacing him with Karl Heinrich von Wedel (see n. 314). Dohna never saw action again. See ADB, vol. 5 (1888), pp. 302-303, and ALTPREUSSISCHE BIOGRAPHIE, vol. 1, pp. 142-3. 295 Hans von Lehwaldt (1685-1768) had attained the rank of major general upon the accession of Friedrich II. Lehwaldt saw action in the first and second Silesian wars, sometimes displaying indecision and incurring Friedrich’s displeasure, sometimes defeating the enemy and returning to the king’s good graces. In 1743 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general; the following year he became Knight of the Black Eagle. He was gouvemeur in Königsberg, East Prussia, in 1757, and led the greatly
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besungen haben. Hier schicke ich Ihnen zu 5 derselben Melodien mit. Ich hoffe daß Ihr H. Cantor, oder jemand anders, sie Ihnen recht feurig wird hersingen können; denn also habe ich sie gedacht. / Und wo sie Ihnen nicht mißfallen so könnten die Lieder mit solchen diesen Melodien hier gedruckt werden. Ich wollte zu den übrigen auch noch welche machen. Unser würdigster Kleist muß ja nicht Tod geschossen werden. Denn sonst kommt mein nächstkünftiger Sohn um seine dereinstige Versorgung. Ich habe dem H v. K. letzt geschrieben, daß meine Frau mir alle Tage drohet einen jungen Sohn zu bringen. Und / den solle unser künftiger Herr Feldmarschall von Kleist zum Auditeur unter seinem Regiment machen. Unser liebster König (ja er ist mir wohl recht lieb, und meine Kinder haben ihn auch schon so lieb, daß wenn sie einmal Wein kriegen, sie nie unterlassen, des Königs Gesundheit zu trinken; Gott gebe ihm viel solche attachirte Unterthanen wie ich und die Meinigen sind, auch in ernstlichen Dingen gemeynt) - unser liebster König soll erstaunlich im Cabinet arbeiten, und es / muß etwas von Feinden oder dergleichen vorseyn [vorliegen]. Dohna ist General von der Infanterie geworden. Lehwald ist hier angekommen. Schwidnitz will capituliren, aber das schwere
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give up the heavy artillery; consequently the offer has been rejected .296 Tomorrow is the 16th day after the opening of the trenches; and on the 16th day the Austrians catch it. If only you could, through Herr von Kleist, persuade Herr Lessing to compose a philippic on the French which inveighs against their harrassing, and would close with ridicule of their present retreat. Herr Lessing is best suited to this .297 My wife commends herself, and I am, as always, your loyal, most respectful Krause The 14th April 58 No. 42 (D-HTgl 2370) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, You are like a man without roots, because you don’t write to us at all. But yet I will send you our good newspaper with the enclosure. According to this paper, the king will probably be at work again today. May God stand by him, and preserve his person especially. For the gift of your excellent Kriegslieder I thank you most respectfully. It is a shame that the melodies to only 8 of these are printed. Herr Agrícola has composed beautiful melodies to the others, among which one in particular is incomparable. You too sing praises of the king’s victories of yesterday and of today, don’t you ?298 outnumbered Prussian army in the battle against the Russians at Groß-Jägersdorf (about 75 km. from Königsberg) on 30 August 1757. After losing this battle, Lehwaldt was sent to Pomerania to assist General Manteufel in his struggle with the Swedish army. But once more, Lehwaldt did not act decisively enough to satisfy the king. In April 1758, shortly before this letter was written, Friedrich ordered Lehwaldt replaced by Dohna (see n. 294), who drove the Swedes into a comer, and blockaded Stralsund; Lehwald withdrew to Berlin, allegedly because he was in delicate health. Here he became gouvemeur (1759), and occasionally saw action as defender of the city against the Russians and Austrians. On 1 July 1762, he once more became gouvemeur in Königsberg, where he spent his final days. See ADB, vol. 18 (1883), pp. 166-7. 296 In November 1757, Schweidnitz (today Swidnica), a fortress in Silesia, had been taken by the Austrian army as it overran that province. In March 1758, Friedrich II had commanded Lieutenant General Tresckow (see n. 308) to besiege Schweidnitz and retake it. Two days after Krause’s letter, the city was stormed by Tresckow’s division, and surrendered. See ARCHENHOLTZ, pp. 70, 73, and ADB, vol. 38 (187?), pp. 576-7. 297 Here Krause assumes correctly that Kleist is still in Leipzig, where he will see Lessing frequently (see n. 244). In one respect, Lessing was indeed suited to writing such a philippic. His literary reviews were caustic and derisive, and overwhelmed their victims. But it seems doubtful that Lessing, a Saxon, would have been interested in writing a scathing denunciation of Prussia’s enemies - in his letter of 16 December 1758 to Gleim, Lessing criticizes one of the Grenadierlieder for its excessive chauvinism, and reminds Gleim that he wishes to consider himself a citizen of the world. See LESSINGAVERKE, IM, p. 305. 298 On 11 August 1758, Lessing had, at Gleim’s behest, sent complimentary copies of the collection of eight Preußische Kriegslieder in den Feldzügen 1756 und 1757 von einem Grenadier. Mit Melodien to Sulzer, Ramler, Krause, and Agricola (LESSING/GLEIM, p. 51). It is not certain what
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Geschütz nicht geben, daher der Antrag verworfen worden. Morgen ist der löte Tag nach eröffneten Laufgräben; u. an 16 Tage bekommen es die Oesterreicher. Könnten Sie doch durch H. v. Kleist H. Lessingen bewegen, eine Philippicam auf die Franzosen zu machen, worinn recht auf ihre Plackereyen petiret, und mit einen Spott über ihre jetzige Retraite geschlossen würde. H. L. schickte sich am besten dazu. Meine Frau empfiehlt sich, u. ich bin wie allezeit Ihr treu ergebenster Krause d. 14 April 58 No. 42 (D-HTgl 2370) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Freund Sie sind wie ein loser Mann, daß Sie uns gar nicht schreiben. Ich will Ihnen aber doch unsere gute Zeitung in der Beylage schicken. Nach derselben wird wohl der König heute wieder in Arbeit seyn. Gott steh ihm bey und erhalte sonderlich seine Person. Für das Geschenk von Ihren vortreflichen Kriegesliedem danke ich ergebenst. Es ist Schade, daß nur zu 8ten derselben die Melodien mitgedruckt sind. H. Agricola hat zu / den übrigen auch schöne Melodien gemacht, darunter sonderlich eine unvergleichlich ist. Des Königes gestrigen und heutigen Sieg besingen Sie doch auch. Sie haben wohl vergessen, uns (für Geld und gute
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You have probably forgotten to provide us (for money and good words) with Halberstadt or Brunswick sausage. Now, remember to do that. We think of you often, and have done so just in recent days, although in sorrow, for our youngest daughter, your god-daughter Caroline, has died .299 The poor child had three dreadful nurses, and must succumb at last. She was becoming a sweet child, and our grief is the more acute because we hadn’t lost any till now. May heaven keep you healthy, and also be praised that the new Soubish danger has turned away from you .300 The little Ysenburgish group should also be celebrated in song.301 My wife presents her compliments to you. Our children kiss your hand, and I am as sincerely as I am willingly your respectful Krause Berlin, the 26th August 1758
Krause means by “victories of today.” The battle of Zomdorf (see n. 303), about which Gleim wrote a poem, was fought on 25 August 1758, the day before Krause wrote this letter. Since the battle occurred near the Oder River and not far from Berlin, it is possible that Krause was already hearing rumors about the outcome, and was anticipating that Gleim would also express himself on this event, as he had on previous major battles. 299 Gleim was godfather to at least three of Krause’s children. Krause’s expectation of the birth of this youngest child, Caroline, is mentioned in his letter to Kleist of 23 March 1758 (letter no. 38, D-HTgl 2380). Seen. 263. 300 The “Soubish danger” to which Krause is referring was the threatened juncture of the armies of General Charles de Rohan (1715-87), Prince de Soubise and Marshal of France, and General PlessisRichelieu (see n. 228 and GLOSSARY), while the latter was quartered at Halberstadt late in the summer of 1757. In 1756 Soubise had taken part in the invasion of Westphalia under Marshal d’Estrees. After the victory at Hastenbeck (20 July 1757), Soubise went to Thuringia with the intention of joining General Richelieu. The two generals, says Archenholtz, had only to join, and they could have overwhelmed Friedrich, but Mme Pompadour, wanting to assure Soubise the honor of saving Saxony, prevented this juncture. On 4 November 1757 Soubise’s army, to which posterity attributes overconfidence and an inordinately luxurious style of living, suffered a humiliating rout by Friedrich’s much smaller force at Roßbach near Merseburg. In order that he might live down the disgrace of this defeat, Soubise was placed in charge of another army in 1758; thus the “Soubish danger” was removed. Although Soubise won victories at Sangerhausen near Kassel on 23 July 1758, and Lutzelberg on 10 October 1758, he suffered, on the whole, more losses than victories. His military career was terminated at the end of the Seven Years’ War, and he resumed his life as courtier to Louis XV. HOEFER, vol. 44 (1875), cols. 219-22. 301 Krause is probably referring to the brave, but futile resistance to General Soubise’s army (see n. 300) at Sangerhausen near Kassel on 23 July 1758 by the small unit under the command of Johann Kasimir Count of Ysenburg-Birstein (1715-59). Ysenburg, who spent most of the war fighting against forces that greatly outnumbered his, and having suffered one defeat after another, was killed in action a year after the defeat by Soubise. See ADB, vol. 44 (1898), pp. 609-10.
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Worte) Halberstädtishe oder Braunschweigische Würste zu verschaffen. Erinnern Sie sich noch daran. Wir denken oft an Sie, und haben es noch dieser Tage, ob wohl in Betrübniß gethan, da unser kleinstes Töchterchen, ihre Patke Caroline gestorben hat ist. Das arme Kind hat / 3 fatale Ammen gehabt und Aendlich unterliegen müssen. Es wurde ein niedlich Kind, und ist uns der Schmerz desto empfindlicher, da wir noch keines verlohren haben. Der Himmel erhalte Sie gesund, und sey auch gelobt, daß die neue Soubisische Gefahr von Ihnen abwendet. Das kleine Ysenburgische Häuflein sollte wohl auch besungen werden. Meine Frau macht Ihnen ihr Compliment. Unsere Kinder küssen Ihnen die Hände, und ich bin so redlich als gern Ihr ergebener Krause Berlin d. 26 August 1758
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No. 43 (D-HTgl 2371) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Berlin, the 11th Nov. 1758 Dearest friend, For the two large sausages you sent we thank you most respectfully, and beg you to advise us what they cost. For in your excellent letter, you forgot that. Yet we must inform you that the one that we have opened is somewhat rancid. You can do nothing about that, however; we thank you none the less for them, and request that you order some 20 for us yearly from the “Hofwurstifex.” We will always pay for them promptly, and will eat them with our best wishes for the Herr Procurator’s health. Your little god-daughter is dead. The poor child was unlucky with nurses; with the third, she must die .302 Yet little Wilhelmine, who is also your godchild, albeit through Herr Ramler’s surrogacy, becomes ever merrier and chattier. God be praised that we are still all healthy, even though the Russian and Swedish armies have caused us much uneasiness indeed. Meanwhile we did not truly feel the danger of the battle at Zomdorf, though it was great.303 With frequent terror, one finally becomes numb. But heaven be thanked. Even this danger is now over. The king felt it likewise. On the evening before the crossing of the Oder, he was in a place whose name I have forgotten where there is a large hall in the castle. He walked around in this hall for several hours, spoke with the sentinel at the door, reminded him of Olmiitz, broke off abruptly, called a page, gave an order, occupied himself with a child who had come running into the hall, brusquely sent him away again, and strove to keep his mind alert and to guard it against too melancholy thoughts.304 Now I call that a roi philosophe. In Frankfurt there was really no quarter reserved for him, and he marched through to the second suburb in the 302 Krause apparently forgot that he had already informed Gleim of Caroline’s death in his letter of 26 August 1758 (see no. 39, D-HTgl 2370, and n. 299). 303 Zomdorf (today Sarbinowa) was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Seven Years’ War. In January 1758 a Russian army under General Fermor (see n. 329) had occupied East Prussia and pushed westward to join the Austrian and Swedish armies, with the purpose of capturing the fortress of Ciistrin (today: Kostrzyn) north of Frankfurt an der Oder. As the army of Friedrich II arrived in a forced march from Silesia on 20 August, Friedrich learned that Fermor had drawn back a short distance to the north of Ciistrin. On 25 August 1758 the two armies fought a fierce battle lasting for twelve hours, then broke off without a clear victory on either side (although Fermor claimed to have won). The losses were so heavy - the Prussians had 12,000 casualties, the Russians 18,000 and 3,000 taken prisoner - that both sides withdrew. See TADDEY, p. 1346, and FRIEDRICHAVERKE, vol. 3, pp. 136-9. 304 It is not clear why Friedrich reminded the sentinel of Olmiitz. The siege of this Moravian city, which he had begun on 1 May 1758, was from the beginning fraught with difficulties. The deciding misfortune occurred when a transport from Silesia, bearing necessary supplies, was attacked, and, despite the valiant efforts of Friedrich’s officers, fell into disorder. On 1 July, Friedrich abandoned the siege. The Austrians thought that they had blocked all of the kings’s escape routes into Silesia, but Friedrich eluded the Austrians, and marched into Bohemia instead, then hurried to the defense of Ciistrin against General Fermor (see n. 329). Perhaps it is this successful retreat to which the king referred in his conversation with the sentinel. See ARCHENHOLZ, 73-8, and TADDEY, 1120-21.
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No. 43 (D-HTgl 2371) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Berlin den 11 nov 1758 Liebster Freund, Für die überschickte 2 dicke Würste danken wir ganz ergebenst, und bitten zu melden, was sie kosten. Denn das haben Sie in Ihrem werthen Briefe vergessen. Doch müssen wir melden, daß die eine, die wir aufgeschnitten, etwas galstrig ist. Indessen dafür können Sie nicht, wir danken Ihnen nicht weniger dafür und bitten uns von dem Hofwurstifex jährlich etliche 20 St. zu bestellen. Wir werden sie immer promt bezahlen, und auf des Herr Procurators Gesundheit verzehren. Ihr klein Patchen ist tod. Das arme Kind war mit Ammen unglücklich, und bey der dritten muste es sterben. Doch die kleine Willhelmine, die auch Ihre Pathe, ob zwar par durch Procuration H Ramlers, ist, / wird desto munterer und schnakischer. Gottlob, wir sind noch alle gesund, ohngeachtet die Russische und Schwedische Arme[e]n uns auch viel Unruhe gemacht haben. Inzwischen haben wir warlich die Gefahr vor der Schlacht bey Zomdorf nicht so empfunden, als sie groß gewesen. Bey öfterer Furcht wird man endlich betäubt. Aber dem Himmel sey gedankt. Auch diese Gefahr ist nun vorbey. Der König hat sie gleichfalls empfunden. Den Abend vor dem Übergange über die Oder ist er an einem Orte, dessen Nahmen ich vergessen, gewesen, wo auf dem Schloß ein großer Saal ist. Auf diesem Saal ist er mehrere Stunde herum gegangen, hat bald mit der Schildwache an der Thür gesprochen, sie an / Olmütz erinnert, kurz abgebrochen, einen Pagen gerufen, eine Ordre gegeben, mit einem Kinde das in den Saal gelaufen gekommen, sich abgegeben, es brusquement wieder laufen lassen und sich also den Geist in Bewegen zu erhalten, u. von zu tiefsinnigem Nachdenken zu bewahren gesucht. Das heisse ich einen Roy Philosophe. In Frankfurt ist wirklich kein Quartier für ihn bestellet gewesen und er ist durch, bis in die andere Vorstadt nach Cüstrin zu marchieret [marchieren], und
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direction of Cüstrin, and suddenly stopped in front of a widow’s house that looked clean and neat, and took up quarters there. He doesn’t need much space. For he has only 2 cooks with him, both of whom are on horseback, and no proper washerwoman, but only a slatternly one who has to walk, like an infantryman, because there is only one wagon for laundry and the like. After the battle near Zomdorf, he ate under a tree. You are right, dear friend, when you say: who but a fool can hold the incident at Bauzen against this hero ?305 Yes, he would not be such a great hero if he were not somewhat skeptical. Whoever would believe too easily becomes too hotheaded to accomplish great things. From our Berlin newspaper for today you will see how gloriously the eagle has flown again of late.306 You did not get your battle at Neiße that you prophesied for the 10th.307 But Treskow has already captured some Austrian canons, and our cavalry will probably catch up with even more of them .308 It is a pity that the Tuscan troops did not take part. For nothing more than one unit of hussars would have been needed to throw a battalion into disarray .309 When the king left Saxony just now for Silesia, he first gave the generals a long and forceful speech, and, at the 305 Krause is probably referring to the battle at Hochkirch near Bautzen on the night of 14/15 October 1758, in which the Austrian army surprised the Prussians in their camp. The king thought that the Austrian general, Leopold Joseph Maria von Daun (see n. 331), who enjoyed the reputation then and still does - of being too cautious, would not attack, although several Prussian officers, including General Keith (see n. 236), disagreed. Friedrich even refused to believe the evidence that the Austrians were approaching, despite efforts of Generals Seidlitz and von Zieten (see n. 235) to persuade him. The Prussians losses, which included the deaths of Prince Franz of Braunschweig and General Keith, were devastating. Although Archenholtz praises the Prussian army for its discipline, he acknowledges that, for the Prussians, the battle was one of the worst in the war. See ARCHENHOLTZ, pp. 92-100. 306 The eagle was an armorial device of the Kings of Prussia as well as of the Holy Roman Empire (the double eagle). Here Krause seems to be referring to the Prussian effort to save the besieged fortress of Neiße, despite recent defeats. See nn. 307 and 308. 307 Neiße (today Nysa), a city and an important fortress on the Neiße river, was near the border between Silesia and Bohemia. Friedrich II had captured it in 1741 and fortified it strongly. In 1758 the Austrians hoped to retake it, but were prevented by the brilliant maneuvers of the king and Prince Heinrich. Friedrich, to the dismay of the Austrians, disregarded his recent crushing defeat at Hochkirch (see n. 303). While Prince Heinrich (see n. 310) defended the Prussian rear guard in the Lausitz, the king hurried towards Silesia, blocking the Austrian attempts to enter the province, and rescuing the fortresses of Neiße, Schweidnitz, and Löwenberg. See NEUMANN/LEXIKON, pp. 879-82, and EASUM/ HENRY, p. 87. 308 Joachim Christian von Tresckow (1698-1762) was considered by Friedrich II to be one of his best generals. Tresckow served in the second Silesian war, and, in 1747, was made commander of the fortress of Neiße, and Chief of an infantry regiment under Field Marshal Schwerin. In 1756, he served in the battle of Prague; shortly afterwards, in the battle of Kolin, he was taken prisoner, sent to Vienna, and held until 1758, when he was exchanged for Prince Lobkowitz. Immediately after his return Tresckow was ordered by Friedrich II to besiege Schweidnitz in Silesia (see nn. 268 and 296). After the capitulation of Schweidnitz, he accompanied the king to Olmiitz, then returned to Neiße (see n. 307), where he himself was besieged. Archenholz tells the story of an attempt to bribe Tresckow’s wife to engineer the surrender of the fortress, a proposition which she scorned. See ARCHENHOLTZ, pp. 101-104, and ADB, vol. 38, (1894), pp. 576-7. 309 Krause seems to mean that the Tuscan troops, who were undoubtedly fighting on the side of the Austrians, would have been relatively easy to defeat.
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hat auf einmal vor einer Wittwe Hause, so reinlich und ordentlich aussieht, still gehalten und sich einquartirt. Viel Gelaß braucht er nicht. Denn er hat nur 2 Köche bey sich die alle beyde zu Pferde sind, und keine ordentliche Waschfrau, sondern / nur ein Waschmensch, die wie ein Musquetier laufen muß, weil nur ein Wagen zu der Wäscherey u. d. g. mit ist. Nach der Schlacht bey Zomdorf hat er unter einem Baum gegessen. Sie haben Recht, wenn Sie sagen, lieber Freund, wer kann dem Helden die Sache bey Bauzen übel nehmen, ausser ein Narr? Ja, er würde nicht ein so grosser Held seyn, wenn er nicht etwas schwergläubig wäre. Wer zu leicht gläubt, dem wird der Kopf zu warm, als daß er große Dinge ausführen könnte. glorreich Aus unserer heutigen Berliner Zeitung werden Sie sehen, wie A seit kurzem der Adler wieder geflogen ist. Sie sind um Ihre Schlacht, die Sie / auf dem 10 d[ieses]. bey Neiß prophezeyt haben. Allein einige Kanonen hat Treskow den Oesterreichem schon abgenommen, und unsere Cavallerie wird deren noch wohl mehr ereilen. Es ist Schade, daß die Toscanischen Truppen nicht gestanden haben. Da würde es wohl nicht mehr als eine Rotte Husaren bedurft haben um ein Bataillon übem Haufen zu werfen. Als der König jetzt aus Sachsen nach Schlesien gegangen, hat er den Generals vorher eine lange und nachdrückliche Rede gehalten, und ihnen
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end, introduced his favorite brother, Prince Heinrich, as his best and bravest general, who is to command the army in his absence.310 Do tell me, now, why Ferdinand does nothing any more. Is he really preparing a winter campaign for the French ?311 Or have the French, who have been heedles,s and always stormed ahead, become snails - too cautious, and constantly retreating? Herr Agricola will certainly set your Te Deum to music.312 It has not ceased to please him. But he has not yet been able to get to it. His setting of Cramer’s 21st psalm is now in print.313 If you wish it for your Dom cantor, I can send it to you. Here nothing is believed or said about a deadlock with the Russians and Swedes. On the contrary, the latter are reconnoitering again as far as Oranienburg. But it is said that Wedel is coming back again, and then they will probably lose their venom again .314 If one of your prophecies, dear friend, has missed the mark, I do wish that 310 Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig, Prince of Prussia (1726-1802), brother of Friedrich II, has sometimes been called “the flawless commander.” Heinrich seems to have shown an early affinity for a military career, and, by the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, was an Infantry Brigadier. He was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1757, and took part in many major campaigns of the war. Throughout his career he acquitted himself brilliantly as a soldier and as a diplomat. Friedrich and his brother Heinrich were both talented generals who wished to raise Prussia to a position of world power. The king obviously placed more confidence in this younger brother than in many of his generals. Yet relations between the two were often strained, and Friedrich never promoted Heinrich to the rank of field marshal. See ADB, vol. 11 (1880), pp. 561-8, and EASUM/HENRY. 311 Ferdinand of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1721-92), Prussian field marshal, was trained for a career in the military. It has been observed that he would have been welcome in the Austrian army, but his older brother, the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, persuaded him to enter the army of their brother-in-law, Friedrich II of Prussia. From 1740 Ferdinand commanded a Prussian infantry regiment for which he provided most of the troops. At the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, he served Friedrich well in the eastern campaigns, and received much credit for his part in the rout of the French at the battle of Roßbach (5 November 1757). Following this battle, Ferdinand was invited by the king of England to command the “Allies” in the west, replacing the Duke of Cumberland (see n. 240), who had retired to England after a humiliating defeat. In this position Ferdinand spent the rest of the war, often outnumbered and suffering reverses, but continually seizing opportunities to provide support for the Prussian forces in the east. On 23 June 1758, Ferdinand won a decisive victory at Krefeld, north of Düsseldorf. But Krause, who at the time of this letter, was dismayed by the king’s losses at Zomdorf (25 August 1758) and Hochkirch (14/15 October 1758), was obviously hoping for further encouraging news about Ferdinand and his army. See ADB, vol. 6 (1877), pp. 682-90. 312 Regarding Krause’s request to Gleim that he write the text of a German Te Deum, see letter no. 37, D-HTgl 2368. Although Ramler had reported on 3 May that “Agricola is busy with your Te Deum” (GLEIM/RAMLERII, p. 328), Agricola had apparently put the musical setting of Gleim’s text aside for more pressing obligations. Whether Agricola ever finished the Te Deum is not known - no setting of Gleim’s Herr Gott, dich loben wir by Agricola has survived. 313 Krause must have seen the print of Agricola’s Der ein und zwanzigste Psalm before it was distributed for sale, for it is dated 1759 by the publisher George Ludewig Winter (see n. 269). Its text, which celebrates a victorious king (see n. 286), could well have served for the same occasion as a Te Deum. Agricola’s setting of this text has eight movements in varying tempos and keys, and requires large forces: a four-part chorus and an orchestra of strings, oboes, horns, trumpets, and timpani. 314 By the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, Karl Heinrich Wedel (1712-82) held the rank of colonel, and went into the field at the head of his regiment. His success in the battle of Leuthen (5 December 1757) contributed to its victorious outcome, and earned him a promotion (28 November 1757) to major general. On 25 September 1758 he defeated a Swedish army at Fehrbellin, and on 14/15
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am Ende seinen liebsten Bruder, den Prinz Heinrich, als seinen besten und tapfersten General, und der auch in seiner Abwesenheit die Armee commandiren / sollte, vorgestellet. Melden Sie mir doch, warum thut der Ferdinand nichts mehr? Bereitet er wirkl. den Franzosen eine Winter Campagne? Oder sind die etourdien und allenthalben vorne vor[stürmenden?] Franzosen zu vorsichtigen u. sich immer zurückziehenden Schnecken geworden? H. Agricola wird Ihr Tedeum gewiß componiren. Es hat ihm gar noch nicht aufgehört zu gefallen. Aber er hat nur noch nicht dazu kommen können. Jetzo ist seine Composition des Cramerschen 21 Psalms gedruckt. Wollen Sie sie für Ihren Hn. Domcantor haben, kann ich sie Ihnen schicken. Hier glaubt u. sagt man nichts von einem Stillstand mit den Russen und Schweden. Die letzten streifen vielmehr schon wieder bis Oranienburg. Man sagt aber Wedel / komme wieder zurück, und dann werden sie auch wohl wieder das Gift verliehren. Ist Ihnen, liebster Freund, eine Prophezeyung mislungen, so wünsche ich doch, daß die andere eintreffen, u.
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the other may hit it and that Heinrich may beat the Austrians on the 21st. The Prussian regiments that passed through here with Dohna have powerful armies for attacking, and an excellent artillery .315 Prince Heinrich will infuse Brandenburger blood into this army yet. I pity poor Kleist that he must remain in Maxen .316 Well, how is it with Leipzig? Here they say it is blockaded by the Austrians. Herr Ramler and Herr Lessing will edit the old epigrammatist, Golaud, or Logau, and are busy with this .317 Do also write to H. R. [Herr Ramler] that he should immmortalize Major Heyde and the Collbergers.318 The letter is long enough. My wife commends herself to you; my children kiss your hands, and I am, now and always, your most loyal Krause No. 44 (D-HTgl 2372) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, I thank you very much for the excellent sausages that you sent. My wife does the same, and presents her compliments. Meanwhile I must inform you that duty must have been taken on the sausages en route. For you write me that the 2 marked with a red tag (which came with the rest - and 1 is small and 1 large) belong to the 20 that you sent me. And the remaining 5 still do not make 20, but only I 6 V2. But certainly they cannot have dried out so much en route. Meanwhile, the Lord knows the
October, just prior to Krause’s letter, he had driven the enemy out of the Uckermark (northeast Brandenburg), for which achievement he was soon afterwards (26 February 1759) promoted to lieutenant general, and replaced General Christoph von Dohna-Schlodien (see n. 294). See ADB, vol. 41 (1896), pp. 410-13. 315 Concerning Dohna see n. 294. 316 Maxen (the scene of a Prussian defeat on 21 November 1759) is a town in Saxony south of Dresden, not far from the Bohemian border. Although there were small skirmishes in this part of Saxony in 1758, there was no major engagement while Kleist was at Maxen. 317 Freiherr Balthasar Friedrich von Logau (1602-55) was the author of 3,000 epigrams, first published in 1638 under the pseudonym Salomon von Golau. In 1759 Ramler and Lessing published a selection of his epigrams: Friedrich von Logau, Sinngedichte. 12 Books. Ed. and with commentary by C. W. Ramler and G. E. Lessing (Leipzig, 1759). 318 Heinrich Sigismund von der Heyde (1703-65) distinguished himself in the Seven Years’ War as “Colbergae defensor” (Kolberg’s defender). Three times the town was besieged, the first in October 1758, shortly before this letter of Krause’s. After this successful defense, Heyde was quickly promoted to Colonel. He defended the town again in August and September 1760. After the third siege September-December 176 1- he surrendered, and was taken prisoner. On his return the king named him the “real” commander of Kolberg. Heyde is buried there. Ramler did write an ode in Heyde’s honor, but not until after the successful conclusion of the second siege: Lied der Nymphe Persanteis. Kolberg den 24ten September 1760. See ADB, vol. 12 (1880), pp. 346-7.
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Heinrich den 21 die Oesterreicher schlagen möge. Die mit Dohna hier durchgegangene[n] Preussische[n] Regimenter [sic] haben tüchtige Arme[e]n zum Zuschlag, und eine vortrefliche Artillerie bey sich. Pr. Heinrich wird schon brandenburgisch Blut in diese Arme[e]n blasen. Den armen Kleist beklage ich, daß er in Maxen bleiben müssen. Doch wie stehet es mit Leipzig? Hier sagt man es sey von den Oesterreichem bloquirt. Herr Rammler u. H. Lessing werden den alten Epigrammatisten, Golau oder Logau, herausgeben, und sind fleissig daran. Schreiben Sie / H. R. doch auch, daß der den [dem] Major Heyde und die [den] Collberger Dank [sic] verewige. Der Brief ist lang genug. Meine Frau empfiehlt sich Ihnen, meine Kinder küssen Ihnen die Hände, und bin ein und allemal Ihr treuergebenster Krause No. 44 (D-HTgl 2372) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Liebster Freund, Ich danke Ihnen höchlich für die überschickten schönen Würste. Meine Frau aber thut ein gleiches nebst ihrem Compliment. Inzwischen muß ich Ihnen doch melden, daß unterwegens muß seyn Zoll von den Würsten genommen worden. Denn Sie schreiben mir, daß die 2 mit rothen Orden gezeichnete [sic] Stücke (welches [sic] mitgekommen, u. 1 kleine und 1 große ist) nicht zu den 20 Stücken gehören, die Sie mir schickten. Und die übrigen 5 Stücke machen doch nicht 20 sondern nur I 6 V2 St. aus. Eingetrocknet / aber können sie doch wohl unterweges nicht so viel seyn. Immittelst casum sentit Dominus, sagen wir Juristen, und ich schreibe Ihnen daß
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reason, as we jurists say, and I write all this to you entirely for the sake of the future: that the case was not sealed shut, but only fastened with flimsy nails. But you have forgotten to inform me how much it costs. And I beg you to do that - also the 2 sausages that you sent me some time ago. I will most gladly send everything right away, or pay here upon request. Otherwise I dare not ask for more. And I would seriously like to have done that herewith, the more so because the sausage maker still has something in his smokestack. The 2 have been delivered to Herr Ramler together with the letter. But only today, for it was not until yesterday that I returned with my wife from Biesenthal, where I was for 5 days.319 My 5 poor children all had the smallpox - 1 already wrote to you that your newest godchild died at the age of 16 weeks.320 And of the 5, our oldest son also died of the damned smallpox - a lad whose strong constitution promised vigorous resistance to it. The oldest girl was also at the brink of death for 3 days, and has many marks, but, thank God, has kept her looks. The others got through it more easily, yet we still fear a relapse for little Wilhelmine. You see in what affliction we have lived for a couple of months, and my wife had thereby become quite miserable, and is having difficulty recovering from it. Herr Bach’s composition is quite beautiful as usual. Yet it is too bad that it can’t be sung without the keyboard .321 Today I intend to see him at Herr Sulzer’s. Herr Agricola is now working on the Herr Gott dich loben wir, and it will be incomparable. I have seen one movement, and have scolded him for working so slowly. But he says it will be ready before the peace. Why don’t you write some German cantatas on amorous themes. You have Italian poets, and can see the form from them. 3 arias is the most, for one singer can’t go beyond that. I will see that they are set by our best composers. We have received no news about the undertaking at Erfurt.322 But this must be important because of the connection with Hesse. We have captured Prince 319 A little town about 20 km northeast of Berlin and 10 km southwest of Eberswalde. 320 See nos. 39 and 40 (D-HTgl 2370 and 2371), and nn. 299 and 302. 321 In 1757, Christian Fiirchtegott Gellert (see n. 103) had published a collection of 54 poems titled Geistliche Oden und Lieder. Krause is referring here to the musical settings of the entire collection for a single voice with keyboard accompaniment by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (see n. 52), which had just appeared in print: Herrn Professor Gellerts geistliche Oden und Lieder mit Melodien (Berlin: George Ludewig Winter, 1758). Krause clearly believed that these musical settings violated his aesthetic ideal he insisted that songs should have self-effacing, even dispensable, accompaniments (see, for example, his remarks in letter no. 29, D-HTgl 2360). But most of Bach’s Lieder have essential - often elaborate keyboard parts. Krause may have found Bach’s preface, in which he suggests that the Gellert Lieder can be played as pieces for solo keyboard (without the voice part), especially distressing. 322 Ferdinand of Braunschweig (see n. 311), leader of Prussia’s allies in the western sector, had requested that Prince Heinrich’s army (see n. 310) create a diversion in the Thuringian region, to assist him in driving the French from Hesse. By the first week of March, the Prince had pushed as far as Naumburg on the Saale, and had sent some of his generals further ahead. Part of this army captured towns as far as Fulda on the border between Thuringia and Hesse. As part of this thrust, General Knobloch took Erfurt and held it for 10 days, levying a ransom of 80,000 Rth on the city. See FRIEDRICH/WERKE, vol. 4, pt. 2, p. 3; EASUM/HENRY, pp. 93^1.
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[das?] alles nur um des Künftigen willen, der Kasten war nicht zugesiegelt, sondern nur mit schwachen Nägeln vor machet. Sie haben aber vergessen, zu melden, wie viel das St. kostet. Und das bitte ich noch zu thun, so wohl als von den 2 Würsten, die Sie mir schon vor einiger Zeit gesandt. Ich will alles dankbarlichst so fort übersenden, oder hier auf Anweisung bezahlen. Sonst darf ich nicht um mehr / bitten. Und das wollte ich doch gern hiemit feyerlichst gethan haben; um so mehr da der Würstmacher noch welche im Schor[n] steine hat. Die 2 sind an H. Rammlern nebst dem Briefe abgegeben. Aber erst heute, denn ich bin gestern erst mit meiner Frau von Biesenthal zurückgekommen, wo ich 5 Tage gewesen. Meine arme [sic] 5 Kinder haben alle die Pocken gehabt, denn ich habe Ihnen schon gemeldet, daß ihre letzte Pathe mit 16 Wochen starb. Und von den 5en ist uns auch der älteste Sohn an den verdammten Blattern gestorben; ein Knabe, / dessen starke Leibesbeschaffenheit allen Wiederstand versprach. Das älteste Mädgen war lang auch schon 3 Tage A , am Rande dieses Lebens, und hat viel Zeichen, doch Gottlob noch die Lineamenten behalten. Die anderen sind leichter durchgekommen, doch für Wilheminchen fürchten wir noch eine Nachkrankheit. Sehen Sie, in solchem Kummer haben wir seit ein paar Monaten gelebt, und meine Frau war dabey auch recht miserabel geworden, und hat Mühe, sich wieder zu erhohlen. H Bachens Composition ist recht schön wie gewöhnlich. Doch ist Schade, daß sie nicht ohne Clavier kann gesungen werden. Heute denke / ich mit ihm bey H. Sulzem zusammen zu seyn. H Agricola ist nun über dem: Herr Gott dich loben wir und es wird unvergleichlich. Ein Stück habe davon gesehen, und ihn gescholten, daß er so sehr langsam arbeitet. Er sagt aber, vor dem Frieden würde es doch noch fertig. Machen Sie doch einmal einige deutsche Cantaten über verliebte Materien. Sie haben italienische Poeten, und können daraus die Form sehen. 3 Arien ist das höchste, denn mehr hält ein Sänger nicht aus. / Ich will sorgen, daß sie von unsren besten Componisten gesetzet werden. Von der Fümahme Erfurts haben wir keinen Courier erhalten. Selbige soll aber von Wichtigkeit seyn wegen der Gemeinschaft mit Hessen. In Pohlen haben wir
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Sulkofsky in Poland, and in Posen a magazine.323 A year ago, Sulk, betrayed Prince Hatzfeld to the Russians.324 That’s how it goes. Here one flatters oneself that the Royal employees will receive their salaries again before Trinity .325 Farewell, my worthiest friend; I am your most respectful Krause Berlin, the 13th March 1759
No. 45 (D-HTgl 2373) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, You do not write to me what the sausages cost. My wife is quite angry over this, and believes that she may not eat them up as long as they are not paid for. Do tell us, then. At the moment, I just want to send you a couple of reliable pieces for your history. I have them from Herr---------- [entire line crossed out].326 We captured the Russian courier by mere accident. As it happened, the king had received news from various spies that the Russians were installing a magazine in Cracow. [In the left-hand margin]: This news is from a good source.
323 Alexander Joseph Sulkowsky (1695-1762) came from an old aristocratic Polish family. In his youth he was a page and Hausmeister to the Saxon heir apparent, later August II. After August’s accession (1733), Sulkowsky became General of the Infantry, and finally Privy Councilor. On 5 February 1738 he was suddenly relieved of his command through the machinations of Count Brühl (see n. 250), but kept his rank as a cabinet minister. See GLOSSARY. 324 The Hatzfeld family, originally from Hesse, held estates in Silesia and the Austrian empire. In the eighteenth century members of the family held positions in the service of both Prussia and Austria. It is probably Philipp Franz Hatzfeld to whom Krause refers. Immediately after his conquest of Silesia in 1742, Friedrich II had elevated Hatzfeld, then a count with a castle in Breslau, to the rank of Prince of Silesia. On 25 May 1748, the Austrian Emperor Franz I bestowed on Hatzfeld the title of Imperial Prince. See OESTERREICH/LEXIKON, vol. 8 (1862), pp. 51-2. 325 Although Prussia, unlike its enemies, was free of debt in 1756, the costs of the war had mounted considerably. Many of the royal employees were undoubtedly unable to rely on payment of their salaries. See, for example, Karl Friedrich Zelter’s remark about court musicians during the war in ZELTER/FASCH, p. 16: “Bach, der um diese Zeit schon einen großen Ruf in Deutschland hatte, war hierin glücklicher. Seine Arbeiten, und besonders seine Lektionen, wurden ihm so gut bezahlt, daß er ein gutes Auskommen fand.” 326 The events that Krause recounts for Gleim’s “history” in the first part of this letter had taken place in the past autumn and winter. Gleim took an eager interest in the war, and had announced his intention to write such a work, but then turned to the songs of the grenadier instead (see GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 284-85.) The name of the purveyor of this information is crossed out, possibly to protect him in case the letter fell into the wrong hands. But Krause has no hesitation about recounting the information itself.
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den Fürst Sulkofsky, und in Posen auch schon ein Magazin weggenommen. Sulk. hat vorm Jahre den Fürst Hatzfeld den Russen verraten. So gehet es. Hier schmeichelt man sich, daß die Königl. Bedienten noch vor Trinitatis ihr Gehalt wieder bekommen werden. Leben Sie wohl, mein Werthester, ich bin Ihr ergebenster Krause Berlin d 13 Merz 1759 No. 45 (D-HTgl 2373) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Freund, Sie schreiben mir nicht, was die Würste kosten. Meine Frau ist recht böse darüber, und glaubt, sie darf sie nicht aufessen, so lange sie nicht bezahlt sind. Melden Sie es uns also doch. Gegenwärtig will ich Ihnen nur ein paar zuverlässige Stücke zu Ihrer Historie schicken. Ich habe sie vom H. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Den Russischen Courier haben wir durch einen bloßen Zufall gekriegt. Näml. der König hat von verschiedenen Spionen Nachricht bekommen, daß die Russen in Crakau ein Magazin anlegten. / [in the margin: Diese Neuigkeiten sind von guten Händen.]
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[On the following page in another hand] Other news contradicted this. Now in order to be certain, he sent Major von Pannewitz of the Brown Hussars with 500 men to Cracow, and he found this was not so; so he turned back .327 But as the hussars, in their marches, always send out patrols and flankers, one of the latter meets a post wagon. He rides up to it, and, with his pistol in his hand, commands the postillion to halt, and asks the passenger riding on it who he is. The passenger claims to be a Saxon officer, and the hussar says that he must come with him to his major. The passenger obeys, even though he has a non-commissioned officer with him. But the postillion was mostly afraid of the pistol. To the major, the passenger claims to be an Austrian, and, as he hears that he is a Prussian prisoner of war, he confesses that he is a Russian. As soon as the major, on his part, declares him a prisoner of war, he exacts from him forthwith the dispatches that he has strapped around his body. He also had on his person a great many plans and drawings, mostly of all the Silesian fortifications. The major immediately sends the first [the dispatches] with an officer by relay express to the king, and he himself brought the latter [the plans and drawings] to Breslau, together with the prisoner. [The following again in Krause’s hand] The king immediately had what was in Russian in the dispatches translated by Major Grand [sic], who knows Russian, and sat up with him the whole night.328 The 327 Maximilian Sigmund von Pannewitz (1715-after 1788) led a life of adventure. Bom in the principality of Oels in Silesia, he was orphaned early. When the imperial government sent him and his brothers to a Jesuit institution in Breslau, where they were to be raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Pannewitz asserted his allegiance to the Lutheran confession, and fled with one of his brothers to Oels. From there they were transported by a sympathetic citizen to Sorau (today Zary), where a Baroness von Gersdorf undertook to protect them, and provided for their education. After six years, Pannewitz joined a Leibregiment (a regiment commanded by a prince) as a Junker in the Saxon army; he remained six years in this rank because he was unable to afford the cost of a commission. When Friedrich II began his conquest of Silesia, he issued a call for Silesians to serve in the Pmssian army. Pannewitz obtained his dismissal from the Saxon service to serve Friedrich, and received a commission as second lieutenant in 1742. He participated in a number of battles, including those in Kesselsdorf, Prague, and Kolin, earning a reputation for bravery, and receiving regular promotions. By 1 May 1758, he had been promoted to the rank of major. Anton Balthasar König’s biographical sketch of Pannewitz and Krause’s account disagree in one detail: Krause asserts that Pannewitz did not find a Russian magazine at Krakow; König writes that he destroyed the Austrian and Russian magazine there. Throughout the Seven Years’ War and afterwards, Pannewitz continued to distinguish himself, particularly in 1760, when he came to the relief of the besieged fortress at Kolberg (see n. 318). By the time of his retirement from the army in 1787, he had attained the rank of lieutenant general. See KÖNIG/HELDEN, Bd. 3 (1790), pp. 126-9. 328 Johann von Grant, a Scot by birth, had begun his military career in the Russian army as adjutant to General-Fieldmarshal Peter Count Lasey. He was recommended to Friedrich II, who received Grant into the Prussian army in 1747 as Flügeladjutant, with the rank of captain. On 8 July 1754, he was promoted to major, and accompanied the king in his campaigns during the early years of the Seven Years’ War until the battle of Prague (6 May 1757), after which the king sent Grant on a mission to London for a period of three weeks. Grant returned to the king’s army, and, according to Balthasar
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[in another hand] Diesem haben andere Nachrichten wiedersprochen [sic]. Um nun gewiß zu seyn, schickt er den Major von Pannewitz von den Braunen Husaren mit 500 Mann nach Krackow und dieser findet negativam, kehrte also wieder zurück. Wie aber die Husaren beym Marschiren immer Patrouillen und Flanqueurs ausschicken, also begegnet einem der letzten ein Postwagen, an welchen er heranreitet und mit der Pistole in der Hand dem Postillon anzuhalten befiehlet, auch den darauf sitzenden Passagier befragt, wer er sey? Dieser giebt sich für einen Sächsischen Officier aus, und der Husar sagt, daß er mit / ihm zu seinen [sic] Major müste; selbiger gehorcht auch, ohngeachtet er noch einen Unterofficier bey sich gehabt. Hauptsächlich aber hat sich der Postillon vor der Pistole gefürchtet. Gegen den Major giebt sich darauf der Passagier für einen Oesterreicher aus und wie er hört, daß er ein Preussischer Kriegsgefangener sey, so bekennet er, er sey ein Russe. Gleich wie ihn der Major er ebenmäßig für einen Kriegsgefangenen ekläret, also fordert A ihm so fort die Depeschen ab, die er sich um den Leib geschnallet gehabt. Auch hatte er eine Menge Pläne und Risse meist von allen Schlesischen Festungen bey sich gehabt. Die erstere schickt der Ma- / jor mit einem Officier per Staffette so fort an dem [sic] König und die letztere nebst den Gefangenen, hat er selbst nach Breslau nachgebracht. [the following once more in Krause’s hand] Was in den Depechen russisch gewesen, hat der König gleich durch den Major Grand [sic], der russisch kann, übersetzen lassen, und hat mit ihm eine ganze Nacht
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officer is a young person - a captain and an adjutant of General Fermor.329 His father is a Dutchman living in St. Petersburg, and the poor devil complained that he had brought misfortune upon himself for life, because he had believed, and not without reason, that he would not be able to get a pardon in Poland. Tresko is said not to be exactly a genius, and didn’t take the best measures in Neiß .330 The Austrians’ bombs didn’t reach the city, but only the trenches. But they had a frightful artillery in front of them. In the beginning, Daun wrote to Harsch that on the 14th October he had completely beaten the king, and then Harsch began the siege in earnest.331 But when the king marched to Silesia via Görlitz under Daun’s very nose, there came from Daun to Harsch one relay message after another König, was promoted to lieutenant colonel in January 1758, three months before Krause’s letter in which he is mentioned - thus Krause’s news is at least three months old. Grant received two more promotions: to colonel in December 1758, and to major general on 14 March 1759. Around this time, Grant was made commander of the fortress of Neiße, which he undertook to restore and defend. He died and was buried there in December 1764. See KÖNIG/HELDEN, vol. 2 (1789), pp. 65-6. 329 William Williamowitsch Count Fermor (1702-1771), son of an Englishman who had emigrated to Russia, joined the Russian army in 1720. He participated in Russia’s wars of the 1730s and 1740s, and, during the Seven Years’ War, commanded a division under General Apraxin (see GLOSSARY) in the battle of Groß-Jägersdorf in East Prussia (30 August 1757). After his victory in this battle, Apraxin, anticipating the death of the Empress Elizabeth (see n. 241), and fearing a change in foreign policy, declined to pursue his advantage aggressively, and withdrew into Lithuania. When it became apparent that the Empress would recover, he was called into court because of his mistaken decision, and relieved of his command. Fermor was placed in command of the entire Russian army, and pursued the campaign energetically, occupying East Prussia early in 1758, and marching into Pomerania. On 25 August 1758, he engaged the Prussian army in the battle of Zomdorf near Cüstrin (see n. 303). In 1759, he was in turn relieved of his command because of his indecision. But he was by no means retired in disgrace - he continued to participate in military campaigns, and after the war became Governor-General of Smolensk, and, in 1764, Senator. SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA, vol. 27, p. 308; vol. 28, p. 604. 330 See nn. 307 and 308. 331 The defeat to which Daun referred was the battle of Hochkirch on 14/15 October 1758, in which he had overwhelmed the Prussians (see n. 305). Leopold Joseph Maria Daun (1705-66), count and prince, field marshal, Knight of the Golden Fleece, holder of the first cross of the Order of Maria Theresia, and himself the son of an Austrian field marshal, was trained for a military career. He served in the Sicilian War of 1718-1720, and in various other wars of the 1730s and 1740s. For distinguished service in the Silesian wars, he was promoted to field marshal. After the Peace of Aachen (1748), he undertook to reorganize and reform the Austrian army. Although he was often criticized for his cautiousness, he won a number of important battles during the Seven Years’ War (Hochkirch, Dresden, Maxen). His most celebrated accomplishment was, perhaps, his victory in the battle of Kolin on 18 June 1757 (see n. 231), in which he defeated the Prussian army, and forced Friedrich to abandon the siege of Prague. See WURZBACH/OESTERREICH, vol. 7 (1861), pp. 387-8. Ferdinand Philipp Graf Harsch (1704—1792) was the son of an Austrian master of ordnance. He fought in the Turkish wars and in the Silesian wars of the 1740s, attaining the rank of field marshallieutenant in 1751. In 1753, he left the military to take a diplomatic post as arbitrator in the Austrian disputes with Venice; in 1754, he was appointed to administrative positions in Görz and Friuli. He returned to the army in 1757, failing in the siege of Neiße (1758), but enjoying a victory, along with Laudon (see GLOSSARY) at Glaz in 1760. Whatever the failures or successes of his military career, Harsch seems to have enjoyed a rich life as a patron of music in Vienna and on his estates. He himself was a flutist, and he maintained a 24-piece orchestra, made up mostly of his own servants, with which he entertained himself daily. See WURZBACH/OESTERREICH, vol. 18, pp. 168-74.
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aufgesessen. Der Officier ist ein junger Mensch, und Capitain und Adjutant des General Fermors. Sein Vater ist ein Holländer, in Petersburg wohnhaft, und der arme Teufel hat sehr ge wehklaget, daß sein Unglück auf Lebelang gemacht sey, / weil er geglaubt, und das nicht mit Unrecht, mitten in Pohlen keine Aufhebung zu besorgen zu haben. Tresko soll eben kein Kopf seyn, und hat in Neiß nicht die besten Vorkehrungen gemacht. Der Oesterreicher Bomben haben nicht bis in die Stadt, sondern nur bis an den Graben gereichet. Sie haben aber eine erschröckliche Artillerie davor gehabt. Anfangs hat Daun an Harschen geschrieben, er habe den 14 Oct. den König / total geschlagen, und darauf hat Harsch die Belagerung recht angefangen. Als der König aber dem Daun bey Görlitz vor der Nase weg nach Schlesien marschiert, kann Daun eine Staffette über die andere an Harschen geschickt [sic], er möchte das
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that he [Daun] would like to get the heavy artillery to safety again .332 Because, in Vienna, Harsch bet the first letter of his name [a play on the German word Arsch (English: “arse”)] that he would take NeiB, his name now stinks. Prince Heinrich is said to be with a corps on the way to Bohemia to take out an Austrian magazine near Leitmeritz.333 Fermor is said to be very dissatisfied, and to have shown the Empress the written assurances from the Austrians and French of what they would do in August, at which time they did nothing. And because he demonstrated that he could do nothing further, the courts in Vienna and Versailles actually wanted to send the Russian Empress a general for the head of her army. But that would have vexed her greatly .334 A corps of Russians that had just advanced are said to have got the order to retreat quickly. And it is rumored again that the Tartars have invaded the Ukraine.335 In Greifenberg 1,100 Austrians were buried, and our people did not surrender 332 After his surprise attack and victory at Hochkirch (see n. 331), Daun could have furthered his advantage by pursuing the Prussians aggressively. But he chose, characteristically, to fortify his army where it was camped. It was Friedrich, the defeated commander, who quickly joined forces with Prince Heinrich’s army, occupied Görlitz, and cut off Daun’s army from Silesia, preventing him from coming to the relief of Harsch, who was besieging Neiße (see n. 306). See KOSER/FRIEDRICH, vol. 2, p. 194. 333 Leitmeritz (now Litomerice in the Czech Republic) lies across the Elbe from Lobositz (now Lovosice), where Friedrich had defeated an Austrian army in one of the earliest battles of the war (1 October 1756). Prince Heinrich’s march to Bohemia, which Krause mentions here, is more recent than those events reported in the first part of his letter; it is not altogether current, however - the Prince had destroyed Austrian communications and depots along the Elbe between 11 and 17 April, among them, Teplitz, Aussig, Lobositz, Leitmeritz, Budin, Komotau, and Saaz, and paralyzed the enemy in that area for months. See EASUM/HENRY, pp. 95-6. 334 Dieter Ernst Bangert gives a detailed account of the uneasy relations between the Austrian and Russian armies during the campaigns of 1758 and 1759. Although Austrian diplomats tried to convince the Russians of their good faith in preparing for the 1759 campaign, the negotiations of these allies were conducted in an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust. Fermor (see n. 329), says Bangert, was concerned that his armies be rested for the new campaign, and that the officers who had been lost in the battle of Zomdorf (see n.303) be replaced with equally competent ones. He also hesitated because he knew, as did other Russian officials, that Austria and France were in acute financial straits, and that they claimed for their armies greater strength of numbers than they actually possessed. Austrian, French, and Swedish officials were angered by Fermor’s refusal to take decisive action, and a number of Russian generals supported them in their efforts to have Fermor replaced. Towards the end of March 1759, Fermor journeyed to St. Petersburg to put an end to the intrigues against him and to secure the confidence of the Empress Elisabeth. According to Austrian diplomats, he achieved this end surprisingly well. Yet dissatisfaction with Fermor’s leadership continued to grow; his opponents questioned his strength of character, and even suspected him of sympathy towards Prussia. Around the end of May, Austrian diplomats were notified that the Empress had decided to relieve Fermor of his command, and to replace him with Peter Semonovich Saltykov. See BANGERT, pp. 142-99, particularly pp. 162-5. 335 Krause probably refers to the Calmuck Tartars, a nomadic tribe feared for its savage behavior (see GLEIM/RAMLER II, p. 358). In his account of the war, Johann Gottlieb Tielke includes the following remarks about the Calmucks: “When General Fenner [sic] took the command of the army, he sent home not only a great part of the Cossacks, but also most of the Calmucks, because these latter are still more difficult to discipline than the former ... “These Calmucks, or Calmuck Tartars, inhabit the borders of the Caspian Sea, and the banks of the river Wolga.
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schwere Geschütz wieder in Sicherheit bringen. Weil Harsch in Wien den ersten Buchstaben seines Nahmens gewettet, daß er Neis einkriegen wollte, so ist sein Nähme jetzo stinkend geworden. Der Prinz Heinrich soll mit einem Corps / nach Böhmen seyn, um bey Leutmeritz [sic] ein oesterreichisches Magazin wegzunehmen. Fermor soll sehr unzufrieden seyn, und der Kayser[i]n die schriftl. Versicherungen von den Oesterreichem u. Franzosen gezeiget haben, was sie im August thun wollten, zu welcher Zeit sie doch hernach nichts gethan. Und weil er bewiesen, daß er nichts weiter thun könne, so hätten die Höfe zu Wien und Versailles der russischen Kayserin gar einen General zum Chef ihrer Armee schicken wollen. Das hätte sie aber / sehr verdrossen. Ein Corps Russen, so jetzo vorwärts gerückt gewesen, soll Ordre bekommen haben, sich schleunig zurück zu ziehen. Und heisset es von neuem, daß die Tartaren in die Ukraine eingefallen. In Greifenberg hat man 1100 Oesterreicher begraben, und unser Leute haben sich eher
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until they had no more support: Bok [Beck] in fact became so angry that he said he would have them all cut down because they have killed so many of his people .336 My wife commends herself, and I am your Krause The 27th April 59 No. 46 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER 337 My dearest friend, We have surely lost much in our Graun .338 Everyone is saddened over it. He certainly deserves a beautiful memorial by you. For he d id have the requisite skill and knowledge as a musician. He had the most prolific genius, and always and “They are a free People, but under the protection of Russia; in return for which, they serve when called upon, and (according to General Mannstein) they receive as pay only a rubel yearly, and a pellice of sheepskin. They are properly Wanderers; they have neither towns or villages, but live in tents of felt, and are constantly moving to such places as afford them most forage for their cattle, in which their whole property consists ... “They carry bows and arrows, with which they shoot remarkably far and true, but in wet windy weather, the shot is not so much to be feared. Some do carry also rifle guns, and one or a brace of pistols They are much more cruel than the Cossacks, and have the same dread of fire. They are of the heathen religion.” See TIELKE, vol. 2, pp. 34-5, n.+). 336 Although Philipp Lewin Freiherr von Beck (c. 1700-1768) came of a bourgeois family, he chose a military career early, and rose steadily through the ranks of the Austrian imperial army. Following notable achievements in 1746, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and, in 1755, was awarded the rank of major general. After the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, he distinguished himself in the battle of Kolin (see n. 231) and the ensuing siege of Breslau, and was promoted in 1758 to lieutenant field marshal. In 1759 Beck surrounded the Prussian army at Greifenburg in order to prevent its escape. According to Tempelhof, the Prussian colonel, Diringshofen, might have eluded the imperial army if he hadn’t delayed his retreat until he could ascertain the strength of the enemy. Meanwhile his army was surrounded, and, after a brief struggle, was forced to surrender. As might be expected, an account of this affair by an Austrian writer calls Beck’s actions brilliant (see OESTERREICH LEXIKON, vol. 1 (1856), p. 214). Even the Tempelhof account, clearly sympathetic to the Prussians, and careful to mention their bravery, acknowledges that Beck’s actions were “clever” (see TEMPELHOF, pp. 40-42). But Krause’s description of the affair at Greifenburg - another example of the positive way in which he views all Prussian setbacks - reflects his annoyance that he could not boast of a Prussian victory, and paints Beck as brutal and vain. 337 Krause’s letter must have been sent to Ramler in Kolberg. Although Ramler had planned for many months to visit his family there, his letters to Gleim indicate a lack of enthusiasm for the trip, partly, perhaps, because of his busy social life and professional activities in Berlin, partly because of his anxiety about a possible resumption of the siege of Kolberg by the Russians (see n. 318). Ramler postponed his visit repeatedly, but finally made the visit to Kolberg early in August. He was persuaded to travel by way of Stargard in the company of a friend, Johann Georg Miichler (1724-1819), who had just been appointed Professor of Latin Language and Literature at the Collegium Groningianum, and Subrektor and Lektor in French at the Stadtschule in Stargard. According to Ramler’s letter of 5 August, the two left Berlin on 7 August. See GLEIM/RAMLERII, pp. 337,353,376,384,385,394,395,397,403,404,409. 338 On 8 August 1759, Carl Heinrich Graun (see n. 64) had died rather unexpectedly of a chest ailment, which, it was believed, was aggravated by news of the Prussian defeat at Ziillichau (today
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nicht ehe? ergeben, als bis sie keine Patrons mehr gehabt: Bek ist auch so ärgerlich gewesen, daß er gesagt, er solle sie alle niederhauen lassen, weil sie ihm so viel Leute zu schände gemacht. Meine Frau empfiehlt sich, u. ich bin Ihr Krause d 17 April 59 No. 46 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER Mein liebster Freund, Wir haben freylich an unserm Graun gar viel verlohren. Jedermann ist betrübt darüber. Er verdient wohl von Ihnen ein schönes Denkmal. Er hatte also nur
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everywhere the most charming and captivating song. He was all feeling. If he was sometimes lacking in the philosophical treatment of a text, then at least the ear and the heart were compensated by enchantingly beguiling tones. You yourself know his moral character. Assemble ideas during your trip for a poem about him. Herr Agricola will write Italian funeral music during quiet times. Then your poem can be distributed with it.339 For you must come back to Berlin. Stargard is not for you. The place is small, ruined by the removal of the councils and by the garrison.340 And if you had a couple hundred Rth fixed salary, you wouldn’t get anywhere with it. The extra income could be good, moreover, only if the Gymnasium were filled with nothing but very good people who would attract many young people. But if this did last a few years, and some of these good people died in a few years, how would it be then?341 My former intention for you comes to mind in this connection, namely to bring you to Frankfurt as Professor of Rhetoric in the place of the very old Westermann.342 And when you come to Berlin again, we must work seriously on this, and set everything in motion: an edition of your works dedicated to the Princess; the Princess, Herr Sack, Herr Buchholz;343 the poem on Herr Graun that I Sulechow) on 23 July 1759. The Russian army, which had occupied a position on the Oder near Ziillichau on the Brandenburg border, was threatening to join the Austrians. Friedrich II knew nothing of the strength of the enemy or the surrounding territory. Yet he ordered General Wedel (see n. 314) to attack if it was necessary to prevent the juncture of the two armies. In the battle that ensued, Wedel’s army, greatly outnumbered, was beaten, and the two armies joined. Graun did not live to hear of an even more devastating loss: the defeat of the Prussian army on 12 August at the battle of Kunersdorf (see n. 348). See ARCHENHOLTZ, pp. 130-31. 339 Whether Agricola ever wrote an Italian funeral cantata in Graun’s honor is not known. 340 The War and Domain Councils, provincial governmental boards established by Friedrich Wilhelm I in 1722 to supervise cities and towns within specific areas, were often a source of frustration to Friedrich II. He had apparently abolished the Council in the Pomeranian town of Stargard (presently Stargard Szczecinski in Poland). See JOHNSON/OFFICIALS, pp. 6-7,14, and 42-9. 341 In his letter to Gleim written from Kolberg on 25 August 1759, Ramler mentions that, during his stopover in Stargard, he was offered a professorship there in the Groningianum, with a yearly salary of 200 Thaler, an increase of 56 Thaler more than his Berlin salary (apparently he had already written to Krause of the offer). But after weighing the advantages of Stargard against those of Berlin (and, perhaps, after reading this letter of Krause’s), Ramler decided that it would not be wise to leave his position as Professor at the Kadettenkorps in Berlin. Stargard, he told Gleim, was even farther from Halberstadt than Berlin; he would never again see Gleim if he moved to the Pomeranian town. See GLEIM/RAMLERII, p. 405. 342 Nikolaus Westermann (1678-1758) attended several universities, among them, Bremen. In 1713, he was appointed to the university at Frankfurt an der Oder as Professor of Rhetoric, Poetry, and Greek. Although he accepted occasional commissions (e.g. an appointment in 1727 in St. Petersburg as Imperial Russian Historiographer), Westermann held the position in Frankfurt until his death in the year before Krause’s letter. See MEUSEL/LEXIKON, vol. 15 (1816), pp. 52-3. 343 Concerning Princess Amalia, see n. 218. Pastor August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack (1703-86) was an important link between the Gleim-Ramler circle and the Prussian court. As Reformed Hof- und Domprediger, Oberkonsistorialrat, and member of the Akademie, he had access to the king; Sack’s name appears frequently in Princess Amalia’s letters and in the correspondence of the Gleim-Ramler circle. Sack, who was Oberprediger in Magdeburg before his call to Berlin, met Sulzer (see n. 55) there and became his mentor, introduced Gleim to wealthy society during the latter’s visit there, and was instrumental in having Spalding called to the position of Probst in Berlin (see n. 375). See NDB, vol. 22, pp. 339-40, and DBE, vol. 8, p. 491.
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erforderliche Geschicklichkeit und Wissenschaft als Musikus. Er hatte das fruchtbarste Genie, und immer und allenthalben den reizendsten und Er war nur Empfindung. einnehmendsten Gesang. A Fehlte er auch manchmal in der philosophischen Behandlung eines Textes, so wurde doch wenigstens das Ohr und das Herz, durch reizend entzückend täuschende Töne schadlos gehalten. Seinen moralischen Character wüsten Sie selbst. Sammlen Sie auf der Reise an Gedanken zu einem Gedichte auf / ihn. HE Agricola wird eine italienische Trauermusik in ruhigen Zeiten machen. Da kann Ihr Gedicht mit ausgetheilet werden. Denn Sie müssen wieder nach Berlin kommen. I» Stargard in [ist?] nichts für Sie. Der Ort ist klein, durch Wegnehmung der Collegien, und durch die Garnison ruinirt. Und wenn Sie auch ein paar 100 rth Fixum hätten, damit kommen Sie nicht weiter. Die Nebeneinkünfte hingegen könnten nur gut seyn, wenn das Gymnasium mit lauter sehr guten Leuten besetzt wäre. Die viel junge Leute hinzögen. Wäre dieses aber auch einige Jahre, und es stürben in einigen Jahren einige dieser guten Leute, wie wäre es dann? Meine ehemalige Absicht mit Ihnen körnt mir bey dieser Gelegenheit / wieder in den Sinn, näml. Sie nach Frankfurt als Professor eloquentiae an der Stelle des sehr alten Westermanns zu bringen. Und wenn Sie wieder nach Berlin kommen, müssen wir ernsthaft daran arbeiten, und alles in Bewegung bringen; eine Ausgabe Ihrer Werke der Prinzessin zugeignet, die Prinzessin, HE Sack, HE Buchholz, das Gedicht auf HE Graun, so ich dem HE v.
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will deliver to Herr von Happe; and still more means will be found.344 Couldn’t you also for once engage in a little charlatanry, if I may call it that, namely: since Herr Schlegel is not pleased with you, why don’t you have it printed that you are likewise not pleased with him.345 It really would be extraordinary if we couldn’t get you there. For I won’t believe that the laughter and singing and kisses of the little English girl have made you that fond of Stargard.346 You would be better off in Frankfurt, and closer, and if the students there didn’t want to learn anything from you, you would have no responsibility for this, as you doubtless would have in Stargard. Johann August Buchholz (1706-93), Privy Councilor and, from 1753, Hofstaats-Rentmeister, was a member of Borchward’s circle (see n. 29) and a patron of literature. It is most likely that it is after him that C. P. E. Bach’s character piece La Buchholtz, Wq 117/ 24, H 93, is named. See KULLNICK, 34, and KLEIST/S AUER I, p. LXXXII. 344 Franz Wilhelm von Happe (1687-1760), a shadowy figure in the history of mid-eighteenthcentury Germany, was bom in Berlin, and spent most of his career there. In 1711, after two years in the army, he entered the diplomatic service. Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia appointed him Minister of State in 1727, and Senior Minister of the General Directory in 1731. At Friedrich Wilhelm’s urging, Happe built a palace and garden in the Leipzigerstraße where the king became a frequent guest. Although Friedrich Wilhelm occasionally taxed his minister with negligence, he seems to have been generally satisfied with Happe. Friedrich II was far less convinced of Happe’s competence, however. Reinhold Koser writes that, immediately after his accession, the new king became dissatisfied with this minister, and although he did not dismiss Happe, moved him to positions with less responsibility, and reduced his income. Hubert Johnson’s study of Friedrich’s officials represents Happe as a functionary who, even when he attempted to carry out the king’s wishes, was bound by the collegial system that dominated Prussian government. See KOSER/FRIEDRICH, vol. 1, pp. 350-351 and JOHNSON/OFFICLALS, pp. 76,160, and 162. Heinrich Miesner paints a different picture of Happe, as a patron of music and as a particular friend of the Bach family. He may have been the minister who accompanied Johann Sebastian Bach to his audience with the king in Potsdam during the latter’s visit to Berlin in 1747. In 1748 Johann Sebastian’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, dedicated his keyboard sonata in E-Flat Major to Happe, who was godfather to Friedemann Bach’s oldest son, and to Emanuel Bach’s (see n. 52) younger son. See MIESNER/HAPPE, pp. 113-14. 345 The Schlegel to whom Krause refers is Johann Adolf (1721-93), brother of the literary critic and dramatist, Johann Elias, and father of August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel. Adolf Schlegel studied theology at the University of Leipzig, and subsequently held a number of ecclesiastical positions, finally holding a pastorate at the Marktkirche in Hannover from 1759 until the end of his life. He wrote pieces for the Bremer Beiträge, and was the author of many religious poems. In 1751, he published a translation of Batteux’s treatise, Les Beaux Arts réduits à un même principe, to which he added many of his own, often conflicting, theories. In the second and third editions of this translation (1759 and 1770) he wrote a polemic against Ramier’s translation of Batteux’ Cours de Belles-lettres, ou principes de la littérature (see n. 224), which had appeared in the meantime. In this letter, Krause is obviously trying to goad Ramier into a war of words with Schlegel, thinking that it might contribute to Ramier’s reputation. Ramier refused to take part in such a dispute. See ADB, vol. 31 (1890), pp. 385-7 and SCHÜDDEKOPF/RAMLER, 42-5. 346 According to Ramier’s letter to Gleim of 5 August (see n. 337), Miichler had married an English “Miß Johnson” only five days before. Ramier was apparently taken with her, for he describes her as charming, and expresses the wish that she had a marriageable friend. Frau Miichler, he continues, has offered to choose a wife for him - a pretty Berliner. But, he adds realistically, he would hardly be able to support a wife on the Stargard salary. See GLEIM/RAMLERII, p. 405.
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Happe übergeben will, und es werden sich noch mehr Mittel finden. Könnten Sie nicht auch einmal eine kleine Charlatanerie mitnehmen, wenn ich es so nennen darf, näml. weil HE Schlegel mit Ihnen nicht zufrieden ist, daß auch Sie drucken Hessen, Sie wären mit ihm gleichfalls nicht zufrieden. Das müste doch auch toll seyn, daß man / Sie nicht anbringen sollte. Denn ich will nicht glauben, daß das kleinen Singen, das Lachen, das Küssen der AEngelländerin Ihnen Stargard m lieb gemacht hat. In Fkfurt wären Sie doch immer besser und näher, und wollten da die Studenten nichts von Ihnen lernen, so hätten Sie deshalb keine Verantwortung, wie Sie in gleichem Falle wohl in Stargard hätten. Wir freuen uns, daß Sie bey Ihren Hn
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We are glad that you find it so pleasant with your brother and sister.347 Enjoy your family to the fullest; here we have fallen on troubled times. Yet the king is now in better spirits again, and I will hope that if he is not absolutely victorious this year, yet he will defend what he has.348 And if this happens, then the Russians must go to Poland in the winter, and the Austrians to Bohemia for lack of provisions. My wife respectfully presents her compliments, my children kiss your hands, and I am Your Krause The 20th Aug. 59 No. 47 (D-HTgl 2378) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, We are now sure, alas, that our excellent Kleist is dead.349 You see here a eulogy for him. In the future we will surely be envied because we have had so worthy a friend. For if, during his life, he was more esteemed by the learned world and by the 347 Ramler’s brother Johann Gottlieb (c. 1730-94), was a pastor in the Pomeranian village of Kerstin (today Karscino), two German miles from Kolberg, between 1754 and 1778. The sister to whom Krause refers is very likely Johann Gottlieb’s wife, since neither of Ramler’s sisters was living. See SCHUDDEKOPF/RAMLER, p. 2. 348 The defeat at Ziillichau (see n. 338) had caused Friedrich II to hurry back to Brandenburg on 29 July. An Austrian corps under the command of Laudon (see GLOSSARY) was on the way to join the Russian army as it approached the Oder (the border between Brandenburg and Pomerania). Friedrich’s army arrived by forced march at Kunersdorf (today Kunowice), to the northeast of Frankfurt an der Oder, on 12 August. He attacked the Russians from the east, hoping to drive them to the Oder and block their escape. At first, the Prussians had a distinct advantage; but Friedrich was eager to deal the Russians a decisive blow and contined to fight. The tide turned, however, and the Prussian army, tired from the forced march and unacquainted with the terrain, suffered one of its worst defeats of the war. The king, depressed by the rout, wrote to his minister Count Finkenstein that he was unable to continue, and implied that he was contemplating suicide. The enemy refused to pursue its advantage, however, and allowed the king time to recover from his defeat and his depression. On 1 September, he wrote to Prince Heinrich, describing this reprieve as “the miracle of the house of Brandenburg.” See EASUM/HENRY, pp. 102-106. 349 In the battle of Kunersdorf on 12 August 1759 (see n. 348), Kleist fought fiercely even after he had received several wounds. Finally, a bullet shattered his leg, and he fell from his horse. Not long afterwards, the tide of battle turned in favor of the Austrians and Russians, and Kleist was set upon by Cossacks, who robbed him of his clothes and left him lying naked in a marshy area. He was found later by members of a Russian cavalry unit who had him moved to Frankfurt an der Oder. He was taken to the home of Professor Gottlob Samuel Nicolai, brother of the publisher (see GLOSSARY). There are conflicting accounts of Kleist’s last days, including one report that he chose to die rather than to have his leg amputated. He died early in the morning of 24 August. See KLEIST/SAUER I, pp. LVH-LXII and KORTE/GLEIM, pp. 114-15. Gleim, who had heard reports of the Prussian defeat, and knew that Kleist had taken part in the battle of Kunersdorf, made frantic attempts to learn the fate of his friend. His correspondence reflects the pace at which this news traveled. 20 August: Gleim wrote to Kleist, begging for reassurance that he was safe
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Bruder u. Frau Schwester so vergnügt sind. Gemessen Sie Ihre Familie ja recht, hier ist inzwischen ein trüben Himmel. Doch der König ist nun wieder aufgeräumt, und ich will hoffen, daß er wo nicht dieses Jahr noch brav siegen, doch was er hat, doch beschützen wird. Und wo dies geschieht müssen auf dem Winter A die Russen wieder nach Pohlen u. die Oesterreicher wieder nach Böhmen aus Mangel der Lebensmittel. Meine Frau empfiehlt sich ergebenst, meine Kinder küssen Ihnen die Hände, und ich bin Ihr Krause D. 20 Aug. 59 No. 47 (D-HTgl 2378) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein liebster Freund, Unser vortreflicher Kleist ist leider nur allzugewiß tod. Hier sehen Sie eine Leichenklage auf ihn. Wir müssen uns künftig nur beneiden lassen, daß wir einen so würdigen Freund gehabt haben. Denn wenn er bey seinem Leben m der gelehrten Welt, und der Zahl derer, die ihn näher kannten, schätzbarer gewesen, als
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number of those who were closer to him than among soldiers who do one thing and another with panache, his death has shown that heaven, by design, brought him only at the very last into circumstances in which he could also show himself to be great as a soldier. So it is literally true that his death is admired by the whole army. That a soldier’s wife, who visited her husband in the Schenkendorf Regiment, responded to the simple report cited by my wife that a certain Herr von Kleist had also fallen;350 yes, that would likely be he of whom it is said in the army that he acted so bravely, that he continued to command after he had already fallen. This testimony is certainly reliable. Oh my dearest friend, if I could speak and weep my fill with you over our dear Kleist. I write today to Frankfurt to obtain particular information about his death; but I am writing only to a well-known apothecary there with whom I am acquainted. Write, perhaps, to Herr Baumgarten, so that the account of the magnificent end to his life may be obtained from all kinds of people.351 The smallest details of it will be precious to the world. Let us distract ourselves with these endeavors where possible. For we can do nothing further. My wife presents her respectful compliments, and I am, as always, your loyal and respectful Krause Berlin the 4th Sept. 1759
(KLEIST/SAUER ÜI, pp. 330-331). 25 August: Ramler wrote to Gleim from Kolberg, resolving to visit Kleist if he should be wounded (GLEIM/RAMLERII, p. 405). On the same day, Lessing wrote to Gleim from Berlin. Kleist was wounded, he had heard, but not seriously, and had been taken to Frankfurt (GLEIM/LESSING, p. 98). 27 August: Gleim replied to Lessing that he was relieved to learn that Kleist was in Frankfurt, and hoped that Professors Baumgarten (see n. 27) and Nicolai were there to care for him. Gleim added that he intended to go to Magdeburg to provide help for Kleist through the mediation of enemy prisoners there (GLEIM/LESSING, p. 100). 31 August: Gleim wrote to Lessing that his letter to Kleist of 20 August had been returned to him, and that he had heard there was little hope that Kleist would live (GLEIM/LESSING, p. 102). 1 September: Lessing wrote to Gleim that he had heard that Kleist was seriously wounded, and had shown great courage on the battlefield (GLEIM/LESSING, p. 103). On the same day Gleim wrote to Ramler telling him the same news (GLEIM/RAMLER n , p. 406). 6 September: Lessing wrote to Gleim with the news of Kleist’s death (GLEIM/LESSING, p. 107). 13 September: Gleim wrote to Lessing of his trip to Magdeburg. He had learned quite suddenly from a ladyin-waiting to the Queen that the whole court was mourning Kleist’s death (GLEIM/LESSING, pp. 109-10). 17 September: Gleim added the same news to his letter to Ramler of 1 September (GLEIM/RAMLER II, pp. 407-8). 350 Generalmajor Balthasar Rudolf von Schenkendorf (1699-1771), bom in Rissen in the Neumark, commanded the regiment that made the opening attack at the battle of Kunersdorf, 12 August 1759. Schenkendorf s maneuver is said to have elicited words of praise from the king. See ABD, vol. 31 (1890), p. 73. 351 Krause is referring to Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (see n. 27), who was a professor at the Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der Oder, and who saw Kleist during his last days.
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unter den Soldaten, die mit Schimmer eines und das andere thun, so hat sein Tod gewiesen, daß ihn der Himmel mit / Fleiß nur so spät in die Umstände gelangen lassen, wo er auch als Soldat sich groß zeigen konnte. So buchstäblich ist es wahr, daß man in der ganzen Armee seinen Tod bewundert. Daß eine Soldatenfrau, die ihren Mann+ [In the margin: + vom Schenkendorfischen Regiment] besuchet, meiner Frau auf das blosse Anführen, daß auch ein gewisser H. v. Kleist geblieben wohl wäre, gesagt hat: ja das würde A der seyn von dem man, bey der Armee sagte, er habe sich so brav gehalten, daß er noch immer commandiret, als er / schon auf der Erde gelegen. Dieß Zeugniß ist gewiß zuverläßig. Mein liebster Freund, o könnte ich mich doch satt sprechen, und satt weinen mit Ihnen über unsem lieben Kleist. Ich schreibe heute nach Frankfurt, um besondere Nachrichten von seinem Tode zu erhalten; ich schreibe aber nur an einen belcandten Apotheker, den ich da kenne. Schreiben Sie etwa an H. Baumgarten; damit man durch allerley Leute Nachricht davon von seinem kostbaren Lebensende erhalte. Die kleinsten Umstände A werden der Welt schätzbar seyn. / Lassen Sie uns durch diese Bemühungen zerstreuen, wo es möglich ist. Weiter können wir doch nichts thun. Meine Frau macht Ihr ergebenes Compliment, und ich bin wie allezeit Ihr treuergebenster Krause Berlin d. 4 Sept. 1759
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No. 48 (D-HTgl 2374) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My dearest friend, I hear that we are to have the pleasure of seeing you here soon. But before your departure, I ask you to make arrangements for the 40 exemplars of the Odes, or as many as are still unsold (you may still have them, or the bookkeeper may), to be returned here at once.352 Thereby you will oblige me greatly, and particularly if you do it quickly. I will write nothing more to you - since you are coming here - than a further compliment from my wife, and than to ask that you bring with you that cantata, the music, that is (the score), which I wrote for the projected wedding with Sophie. I would like very much to have this score back.353 I am, as always, your sincerely respectful CG Krause, Attorney Berl., the 14th Dec. 1759 My compliments to Herr Suero No. 49 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER [In the margin in Krause’s hand:] I thank you for the good news about the Allies at Halle. Here no one knows of anything new.354 Dearest friend, I have this moment received your letter of the 28th, and thus have not yet been able to deliver compliments to Herr Lessing et al. My wife and I present ours cordially to you, your dear host, and your traveling companion.355 We are pleased that you 352 Krause is undoubtedly referring to the unsold copies of the second collection of Oden mit Melodien (1755), and perhaps to unsold copies of the collection of 1753 as well (see nn. 193, 198, 210, and 215). It is not known whether Gleim ever returned the unsold copies. 353 There is no way of knowing whether Gleim lost or intentionally destroyed the cantata, or whether he finally returned it. At any rate, this is the last request for it in Krause’s correspondence (see nn. 200,201, and 225). 354 Since Rainier’s letter to Krause has not survived, it is not clear what news Krause may have received. 355 Since May 1758, Lessing had been living in Berlin, where he was occupied with a number of editorial projects. He remained there until late November 1760 (LESSING CHRONIK, pp. 35^44). The “charming host” whom Krause mentions is Gleim, the traveling companion, Friedrich Langemack (see n. 173), the police registrar with whom Ramler shared living quarters. Langemack’s mental health had been declining, and Ramler, believing that a change of scenery and freedom from taxing mental work
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No. 48 (D-HTgl 2374) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein liebster Freund, Ich höre, daß wir das Vergnügen haben sollen, Sie bald hier zu sehen. Ehe Sie aber abreisen, bitte ich noch die Anstalt zu machen, daß die 40 St. Oden+ [in the left hand margin: oder so viel unverkauft] (es sey nun, daß Sie sie noch haben, oder schon der Buchführer) so gleich hieher zurück kommen. Sie thun mir dadurch, u. sonderl. mit der Beschleunigung, den grösten Gefallen. Ich schreibe Ihnen nichts mehr, weil Sie bald herkommen, / als nur noch ein Compl. von meiner Frau, und daß Sie diejenige Cantate, näml. die Noten (die Partien) mitbringen sollen, welche ich auf dero vorgewesener Vermählung mit der Sophie gemacht. Ich möchte diese Partitur gern wieder haben. Ich bin allemal Ihr aufrichtig ergebener CGKrause. Adv. Berl. den 14 Dec. 1759 M. Compl. an H Sucro No. 49 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER [P.l, perpendicular in the left margin: Für die schöne Nachricht v. den Alliirten zu Halle danke ich. Hier weis man nichts neues.] Liebster Freund Den Augenblick erhalte ich Ihren Brief v. 28. und habe also die Complimente an HE Lessing p. noch nicht bestellen können. Meine Frau und ich machen das unsrige bestens an Sie, Ihren lieben Wirth, und auch Ihren HE. Reisegefährten. Wir freuen
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are so happy there. Continue to be so, and likewise return quite happy. I thank you for the description of what you have already seen and enjoyed, etc., and look forward eagerly to the addition to our Lieder, with the assurance that, after your return, the first part will certainly no longer be left to gather dust; at that time we would begin with an entirely new part, in which there were no Lieder that appear in the parts already printed, a situation that Winter might perhaps prefer.356 I have promised Herr Gleim my Italian cantata. But it is not yet as ready as I want it to be.357 But couldn’t you [prepare] a half dozen German cantatas there, for one voice only, with 3 arias at most? Dear Gleim has promised me as much, but I believe that the king’s enemies are keeping him also from writing them. Do ask him if the Court Preacher Cocheus has perhaps written to him.35S From this infernal man I can still get no answer to my last letter about matters concerning Kleist, despite the fact that during the past 6 weeks I have written a few more times about it, and have also had others remind him. He is a slow correspondent, I know. But if Herr Gleim himself wrote to him, he would certainly receive an answer at once. If only the beautiful things in Griineberg would not be damaged by wind and weather.359 Mightn’t a description of them in French be a means of saving them in one way or another from complete ruin? Finally the Easter piece etc. has arrived from Hamburg. Herr Agricola likes it better than the Passion Music, and I tell you that it is altogether incomparable. Telemann has shown in his 80th year that he can do everything. The duet “Vater, deine schwachen Kinder” [Father, Thy feeble children] is so moving that when I sang it twice for myself at the harpsichord, my tears forced me to stop both times. At the words “Gott, Du wirst seine” [God, thou wilt not let his soul remain in Hell] - ’’Sollte der im Grabe” [should he remain in the grave?] - ’’Unser ist der Sieg,” [ours is the victory] etc., there are the most perfect “speaking” tones. The aria “Dir might improve his friend’s health, had requested that Gleim send Langemack an invitation to visit Halberstadt. But Gleim insisted that he was not able to care for Langemack himself, and insisted that Ramler accompany his friend. Ramler’s letter of 20 May indicates that he and Langemack expected to arrive in Halberstadt on Friday, 23 May, and spend two weeks in Gleim’s company. The efforts to restore Langemack’s health were of no avail; he died on 30 September 1761. See D-HTgl 226,200,227, and D-WRgs 149. I am grateful to David Lee and to the late John Osborne for sharing their transcriptions of these letters with me. Prof. Lee is currently preparing an edition of the entire GleimRamler correspondence. 356 Krause would seem to be referring to the collection Oden mit Melodien that would be published anonymously in 1761. This collection, which is arguably attributed to him and Ramler, was evidently the third in the series of Oden mit Melodien; the first two parts had appeared in 1753 and 1755 (see nn. 193,198, 210, 215, and 352). As Krause stipulated in his letter, the collection of 1761 contained Lieder that had not appeared in printed collections. But the Oden und Melodien of 1761 were published by Bimstiel, not Winter. It was Winter, however, who would publish the Lieder der Deutschen of 1767-68 (see n. 396), and it is possible that Krause and Ramler were already planning that collection. 357 This work cannot be identified. 358 On Leonhard Cocheus (1718-79) see GLOSSARY. 359 Krause seems to be referring to Griineberg (today Zielona Gora), a small city in Silesia not far from Ziillichau (today Sulechow).
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uns, daß Sie da so vergnügt sind. Fahren Sie so fort, und kommen Sie auch recht vergnügt wieder. Ich danke Ihnen für die Beschreibung dessen, was Sie schon gesehen, genossen p. und spitze mich aöer recht sehr auf den Zuwachs zu unseren Liedern, mit der Versicherung, daß nach Ihrer Wiederkunft gewiss der erste Theil nicht / länger mehr Ruhe haben soll; es wäre denn, daß wir mit einem ganz neuen Theile anfiengen, wo gar keine Lieder wären, die in den schon gedruckten Theilen sind, welches vielleicht Wintern lieber seyn möchte. HE Gleimen habe ich meine italienische Cantate versprochen. Sie ist aber noch nicht so fertig wie ich sie haben will. Könnten Sie aber dort nicht ein halb Dutzend deutsche Cantaten, nur für eine Stimme zurecht [sic], zu höchstens 3 Arien? Der hebe Gleim hat mir so was versprochen; aber die Feinde des Königs halten ihn auch, glaube ich, davon ab. Fragen Sie ihn doch, ob ihm selbst etwa der Hofprediger Cocheus geschrieben habe? / Von diesem bösen Manne kann ich auf meinen letzten Brief, wegen der Kleistischen Sachen, noch keine Antwort erhalten, ohngeachtet ich seit 6 Wochen noch ein paar mal darum geschrieben, und auch durch andere erinnern lassen. Es ist ein langsamer Briefschreiber, das weis ich. Wenn ihm aber HE Gleim selbst schriebe, bekäme er wohl gleich Antwort. Wenn doch die schönen Sachen in Grüneberg nicht durch Wind und Wetter verderbt würden? Sollte eine Beschreibung derselben, französisch, nicht ein Mittel seyn, sie auf eine oder die andere Art von dem gänzl. Untergange zu retten? / Endlich ist das Oster p. Stück von Hamburg angekommen. HE. Agricola gefällt es besser als die Passionsmusik, und ich sage Ihnen es ist ganz unvergleichlich. Telemann hat in seinem 80. Jahre gezeiget, daß er alles kann. Das duett: Vater deinen schwachen Kindern ist so 2mal rührend, daß als ich mirs beym Flügel A vorgesungen, ich vor Thränen habe aufhören müssen. Auf den Worten: Gott, Du weist seine— Sollte der ein Grabe— Unser ist der Sieg p. sind die volkommensten Tons parlants. Die Arie: Ihr
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Himmelsthore ofn” (Open, ye gates of Heaven) he has set as an overture with which all French operas begin, and which is likewise the most sublime music that there i s 360 H q hag this aria also sung by 2 voices. I am altogether Your Krause Berlin, the 31st May 1760 No. 50 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER My most esteemed friend, I thank you very much for your 2nd letter, and also for Gleim’s most friendly invitation. Give him a kiss for it from me. He must be content with that and put me to shame, and come all the more often to my house. The enclosed will signify that all of your letters have been delivered. Herr Lessing excused himself; because you didn’t write him, he couldn’t come. Now that you have written to him, it is too warm. He has moved out to his garden.3611 was recently at his house with your first letter, and we hatched a project, a letter about the psychological nature of the affections and their relationship to the body.362 They should stimulate some thoughts in our old experienced Quantz.363 360 Krause is writing here about Georg Philipp Telemann’s setting of Ramler’s text Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu (see n. 287). The duet to which Krause refers (no. 9) has a gently
rocking motion and a sighing melody that give the movement a sentimental aspect. Probably it was this aspect that moved Krause so powerfully. It may also have been a sentimental quality in the other cited passages that appealed to Krause: The words “Gott du wirst seine Seele nicht in der Hölle lassen” are found in the long, expressive fugal entries of the opening chorus (no. 2); “Sollte der im Grabe bleiben” occurs in the slow, sighing section preceding the da capo of the aria “Sei gegrüßet” (no. 7); the words “Unser ist der Sieg” in no. 12 may have had a “speaking” quality for Krause, because of the repetition of pitches. The duet “Ihr Tore Gottes öffnet euch” (no. 20 - Krause’s words differ slightly from the text of the Telemann Gesamt-Ausgäbe published by Bärenreiter) follows the conventional scheme of French overtures; it begins with a section in majestic dotted rhythms, and is followed by a livelier fugal section. On Telemann, see GROVE2, vol. 25, p. 99. I wish to thank Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann of Fürth, Germany for information about Telemann’s Auferstehung, and Dr. Ralph-Jürgen Reipsch for generously providing me with a copy of his Diplomarbeit, “Karl Wilhelm Ramlers Libretto ‘Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu’ in den Vertonungen von Georg Philipp Telemann (TVWV 6:6) und Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Wg 240/H 7 7 7 )- ein Vergleich” (Halle-Wittenberg: Martin-Luther-Universität, 1991). 361 During the summer of 1760, Lessing worked in a rented garden house. See LESSING/ CHRONIK, p. 41. 362 Krause’s interest in the affections is doubtless influenced by Baumgarten’s theories about emotions. But some scientific and aesthetic theories of Krause’s time dealt even more broadly with the relationship of the emotions to the body: the transmission of sensation to the brain and, ultimately, to the soul, still generally regarded as the seat of emotions. 363 See n. 96. In his Versuch (1752), Quantz discusses the way in which music and the style of musical performance rouse and still the emotions (instead of “emotions,” Quantz uses the more Cartesian word Leidenschaften: passions). See QUANTZ/VERSUCH, pp. 81,107-108,116,157,226-28.
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Himmelsthore öfn. hat er eine Ouvertüre gesetzt, womit sich alle französische Opern anfangen u. welches die erhabenste Musik ist, die mit ist. Auch lässet er diese Arie von 2 Stimmen singen. Ich bin vollkommen der Ihrige Krause Berlind. 31 May 1760 No. 50 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER Mein Werthester, Ich danke Ihnen höchlich für Ihren 2ten Brief, und auch für Gleims so freundschaftliches Einladen. Geben Sie ihm einen Kuß dafür von mir. Damit muß er sich schon begnügen, und mich beschämen, und desto öfterer zu mir kommen. Daß alle Ihre Briefe bestellt sind wird wohl die Einlage besagen. HE Lessing entschuldigte sich, weil Sie ihm nicht selbst geschrieben, könnte er nicht kommen. Jetzt, nun Sie ihm geschrieben haben, ist es zu warm. Er ist in seinen Garten gezogen. / Ich bin letzthin bey ihm gewesen, mit Ihrem ersten Briefe, und wir haben ein Project ausgehecket zu einem Briefe über die psychologische Beschaffenheit der Affecten, und was dabey im Cörper vorgeht. Unser alter erfahrener Quanz soll dadurch zu Gedanken veranlasset werden. Die Vorstädte zu Cöslin sind
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The suburbs of Coslin are burnt down, and our occupying forces had to surrender.364 That is the bad news that I can report to you this time. Another time I will write to you some good news. My wife commends herself to all of you there; my Wilhelmine is too reserved to give me a kiss for the gentlemen. But her godfather Gleim will probably be so fond of her, and she of him, that when they come together, no kisses will be wanting.365 Farewell to all of you, and enjoy yourselves properly. I am, as always, Your respectful Krause Berlin, the 4th of June 1760
No. 51 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER I have a longing to become an author, and particularly a translator. Yesterday’s Gazette d ’Altona mentions the two speeches that M. Seguier, the Attorney-General, and M. Mole, the President of Parlement, made in Paris - the first concerning the duty of a lawyer to know the parties he represents; the second concerning the duty of a lawyer to know himself.366 Perhaps I would be able to make a good translation, knowing the French legal terms, and wishing to work under your auspices, dear friend, if you permit it - as I beg of you; but in order to accomplish this, do me the favor of writing to M. Reich in Leipzig, in order that he have these speeches sent to me as soon as possible, and offering him the publication of the translation.367 At the same time, he could have two particular works sent to me titled:
364 Coslin was a town in Pomerania, almost due east and about three German miles from Kolberg. The address of at least one of Gleim’s letters to Ramier mistakenly named Coslin (“à Kerstin par Coslin”), instead of Côrlin, the postal way station for Kerstin, the village where Ramier’s relatives lived, and which he visited in 1763.1 am grateful to David Lee for this information. 365 Regarding Wilhelmina, Gleim’s god-daughter, see n. 223. 366 Antoine-Louis Séguier (1726-92) and Mathieu-François Molé (1703-after 1781) were both members of families distinguished by their service to the French government. Molé, who had acquired great wealth through his marriage, was appointed conseiller in 1724; he became Président à mortier in 1731 and Premier Président du parlement in 1757. In 1763 he resigned this post. Séguier, who was related to Molé, became Avocat du Roi in 1741, Avocat général au grand conseil in 1751, and undoubtedly through the solicitation of Molé - Avocat général au parlement in 1755. In 1757 Séguier was elected to the Académie française, replacing Fontenelle. See MICHAUD, vol. 28 [1854], p. 536, and HOEFER, vol. 43 (1864), cols. 6 9 6 -8 .1 am indebted to David Lee and the late John Osborne for information leading to the identification of Molé and Séguier. 367 Philipp Erasmus Reich (1717-87) had begun his engagement with the Weidmann Buchhandlung in Leipzig in 1747. This firm, which had quickly acquired a distinguished reputation after its foundation in 1670, had begun to decline since the death in 1743 of its director, Georg Moritz Weidmann. Reich led the Weidmann Buchhandlung energetically participating in every facet of the business, and restoring its high reputation; he was made an associate in 1762. See GLOSSARY.
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abgebrandt, und unsere Besatzung hat capituliren müssen. Das ist die schlimme Neuigkeit, die ich Ihnen dießmal melden kann. Ein andermal werde ich Ihnen eine gute schreiben. Meine Frau / empfiehlt sich ihren gesammten Herren Gevattern, meine Wilhelmine ist zu zurückhaltend, als daß sie mir für die Herren einen Kuß mitgeben sollte. Ihr HE Pathe Gleim wird aber wohl so für sie, und sie für ihn seyn, daß wenn sie zusammen kommen, es an Küssen nicht fehlen dürfte. Leben Sie allerseits wohl, und belustigen sich recht. Ich bin wie allemal Ihr ergebenster Krause Berlin den 4 Junii 1760 No. 51 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER Il m ’est venu une démangeaison de devenir auteur, et nommément traducteur. La Seguier, Gazette d’Altona d’hier fait mention des deux harangues, que Mr A l’Avocat general, et Mr. Mole President du Parlement ont tenu à Paris, le premier: du devoir d’un Avocat de connoitre les parties qu’il sert, et le second: du devoir d’un Avocat de se connoitre lui meme. Peutetre pourrai-je en faire une bonne / traduction, connoissant les termes du bareau françois, et voulant travailler sous vos auspices cher ami, si vous le permettez, comme je vous en prie; mais pour y parvenir, faites moi le plaisir d’écrire à Mr. Reich à Leipzig, pour qu’il me fasse venir au plutôt ces harangues, et de lui en offrir la traduction pour l’imprimer. En même tems il deux pou voit me fair venir un certains ouvrages, intitulés: /
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Discourse on the Athenian bar and on the Roman by M. l’Abbé le Moine d’Orgival Concerning the customs and practices of the Greeks and the customs of the Romans.368
Judge from the beginning of a translation of Cicero’s oration for Erchias [sic] below whether I do not have the patience for it; the fire, the rhetorical variety, will likewise come to me with your help.369 Why are you so scarce with your presence? Come to see us; also, think of my Hamburger, that is, of the poet who has paraphrased Psalm 104 so badly.370 CGKrause the 19th [no further information concerning the date]
[below, in Ramler’s hand:] Why my friend now wrote in French I have forgotten the 16th Feb. 1793.371 No. 52 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER A moment ago Herr Quantz was at my house, and showed me a letter from him to whom he sent your last ode in Breslau.372 The king read it and asked: who wrote it? 368 Krause’s first item refers to the Discours sur le barreau d ’Athènes et sur celui de Rome (Paris, 1755), by Henri Le Moine d’Orgival (fl. 1749-59). The author of the second item cannot be identified. 369 Krause probably means Cicero’s oration of 62 BCE in defense of the poet Aulus Licinius Archias (c. 120-after 61 BCE), a native of Antioch in Syria. See CICERO/DEFENCE, p. 107-21, in which Cicero defends Archias against charges of the illegal exercise of citizens’ rights. Cicero quickly produces evidence that Archias is not an illegal alien, and devotes the remainder of his speech to the praise of literature, particularly poetry. 370 Johann Andreas Cramer (see n. 286) had just published a paraphrase of Psalm 104 (which would later be set to music by C. P. E. Bach). But it is probable that Krause does not refer to Cramer’s setting here - for it is difficult to believe that Krause could pass such harsh judgment on an author some of whose paraphrases he had praised enthusiastically, and who was so generally admired. 371 This letter was written between 1757 and 1763 - during the presidency of Mold (see n. 366). It is possible that Krause wrote it during a visit to Hamburg, for it seems unlikely that “yesterday’s Gazette d ’Altona” (Altona is a suburb of Hamburg) would have been available to Krause in Berlin so quickly. 372 Krause’s remark towards the end of this letter seems to indicate that the man in Breslau with whom Quantz (see n. 96) had been corresponding, and who showed Ramler’s ode to the king (according to Ramler’s own notes: Ode an den Fabius. Nach der Schlacht bey Torgau), was Franz Benda, violinist in the royal Hofkapelle (see n. 374). Benda mentions in his autobiography that he went with the king to
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Discours sur le bareau d’Athene et sur celui de Rome par Mr. l’Abbé le Moine d’Orgival des moeurs et des usages des Grecs, et des coutumes des Romains.
Juges [Jugez?] par le commencement cyjoint d’une traduction de l’oraison de Cicéron pour Erchias si je n’ai pas de la patience; le feu, le nombre oratoire p. me viendront aussi avec votre aide. Pourquoi etes vous si rar / avec votre personne? Venez nous voir; pensez aussi à mon Hambourgeois, c’est a d[ire], au Poete qui a si mal poétisé le Psaume 104. CG Krause le 19. [1761?] [below in Ramler’s Hand: Warum mein Freund jetzt Französisch geschrieben habe ich vergessen d. 16 Feb 1793.] No. 52 (D-WRgs 75/114) KRAUSE TO RAMLER Den Augenblick ist Herr Quantz bei mir gewesen, und hat mir einen Brief von demjenigen gezeigt, dem er Ihre letzte Ode nach Breslau geschickt. Der König hat
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Whereupon he was told: he who a year ago had already written something about the king-quite a clever person. So then the king said: he could see that from the ode, and, once peace came, he should remind him of the man. Herr Quantz told me on this occasion that he had already told his correspondent your name and your position a year ago, and he will be in the Club with Herr Benda this evening.373 Go there without trepidation, dearest friend, and I wish very much that this path thus opened will lead you to a good destination. Herr Quantz is very happy about it, and it will not hurt you to meet Herr Benda.3741 have said nothing to Herr Quantz about my writing this to you. CG Krause The 29 March [1763?]375 [on the envelope] Krause. [in the right margin: To Herr Ramier] [below, in Ramier’s hand: my friend’s efforts to help me get a better position with Frederick the Great]
Silesia in 1754, that he and some colleagues from the Potsdam chamber group went to Breslau in 1757, intending to stay there for the duration of the war, and that in 1760 the group was called to winter headquarters at Leipzig. Krause’s assertion, that Benda is once again in Berlin and planning to attend the meeting of the Montagsklub, suggests that this letter was written after the Peace of Hubertusburg (15 February 1763) - probably in the year 1763. See BEND A/AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 37. 373 Concerning the Club, see n. 173. 374 Franz Benda (1709-1786), the son of an amateur musician in the Bohemian village of Stare Benatky, spent his early years as a chorister in Prag, and later in Dresden, where he learned to play the viola (and presumably the violin). After his voice broke, he concentrated his efforts on playing the violin. He found employment as a violinist in Vienna (1726) and Warsaw (1729). In 1733, he returned to Dresden to play in the royal orchestra; later in the year, the orchestra visited Ruppin, where Friedrich the Crown Prince was living. Friedrich engaged Benda as a violinist immediately, and seems to have had a warmer personal relationship with him than with most of his musicians. Because Benda’s family, who were Protestants, experienced religious persecution in Bohemia, Friedrich arranged the removal of the Benda family to Berlin. After his accession, the king made Franz and at least two of his brothers members of the royal orchestra. Benda studied composition with the Graun brothers (see n. 64), and composed a number of instrumental works, mostly for the violin. But he was respected primarily as a performer and a teacher, and was known for his lyrical style of playing. See GROVE2, vol. 3, pp. 225-27, and BENDA/AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 375 See note 372 above.
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sie gelesen, und gefragt: von wem sie sey? Worauf geantwortet worden: von dem, der schon vorm Jahre etwas auf den König gemacht; es sey ein recht geschickter Mensch. Da denn der König gesaget: / Das sehe er aus der Ode, und wenn Friede würde, solle er ihn an den Menschen erinnern. H. Quanz hat mir dabey gesagt, daß er seinem Correspondenten schon vorm Jahre Ihren Nahmen und Amt gesaget, und er ist diesen Abend mit Herr Bendaen in der Klobbe. Gehen Sie unbeschwert dahin, liebster Freund, und ich wünsche sehr, daß dieser geöfnete Weg Sie zu einem guten / Zwecke führe. Herr Qu. freuet sich auch sehr darüber, und schädlich wird es Ihnen auch nicht seyn, wenn Sie H. Bendaen kennen lernen. Ich habe H. Qu. nichts gesagt, daß ich Ihnen dieses schreiben wolle. CG Krause D 29 März. [1763?] [on the envelope] Krause. [in the right margin: An Herrn Ramier.] [Below in Ramier’s Hand: Bemühung meiner Freunde mir beym großen Friedrich zu einem bessern Amt zu verhelfen]
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No. 53 (D-HTgl 2375) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Worthiest friend, Our dear Ramler is in Colberg, or rather in Kerstin, at his brother’s home.376 1 have already sent your last letter to him there, and here is one from him to you. The contents of it probably concern a statement by Herr Sulzer that the king was to have Professors of Rhetoric appointed.377 And wouldn’t that sort of position be good for our Ramler. I will speak to Herr Sulzer about it. And, dear friend, please write to him about it as well. Or, if you are coming here soon, as I have heard, it would be all the better. Our friend would like to remain in the country, particularly because his health has begun to be somewhat better again. I will not reproach you, my worthiest friend, for - possibly - having owed me a letter for a long time. I know that you have been overwhelmed with work. Up to now, it has been the same with me, and I am still not in the clear. Otherwise I would have just written to you long ago, without minding whether you owe me a letter or I owe you one. So - when you come here, visit me all the sooner. Our Probst Koppen is dead.378 There is talk of Herr Spalding for his place.379 1 am doubly desirous of this because I have a whole stall in the Nicolaikirche for myself and my family, and want good and rational sermons for us. Farewell. Commend me to your dear niece,380 and believe me to be your loyal servant, Krause Berlin the 22nd Jun. 1763 376 See n. 347. 377 In a letter to Gleim dated 19 June 1763 (D-HTgl 3260), undoubtedly the one that Krause was enclosing, Ramler mentions a noonday meal which he has shared with Sulzer and others, during which Sulzer announced that “Quintus” (Col. Carl Gottlob Guichard was dubbed “Quintus Icilius” by Friedrich II) is looking for four professors to fill vacancies in Prussian universities (see GLOSSARY). Referring to the opening for a professor of Beredsamkeit [Eloquence] in Frankfurt/Oder, Ramler writes that he would be happy to teach rhetoric and poetry to eager students. He expresses a desire for the salary such an appointment would bring, describes his qualifications for the opening, and speculates about influential persons who might help him obtain such a position. I am grateful to David Lee for bringing this letter to my attention. 378 Johann Ulrich Christian Koppen (1694-1763) attended the University of Halle and began his career as Diakon in his native Salzwedel. In 1723, he became Feldprediger of the Regiment Gendarmes in Berlin, and in 1728 he was appointed fourth Diakon of the Nicolaikirche. He became Probst (head of several Superintendenturen or districts) in 1748. See FISCHER/PFARRER, p. 5. 379 Johann Joachim Spalding (see n. 4) had held a pastorate in Lassahn in Mecklenburg from 1747 until 1757, when he became Pastor and Propst in Barth, a town in Swedish Pomerania, about 25 km west of Stralsund. In 1764, Spalding was called to Berlin to replace Koppen (see n. 378) as Propst and Oberconsistorialrat (head of a governing board). He held these posts until 1788, when he was obliged by law to retire. See ADB, vol. 35 (1882), p. 30, and SPALDING/GLEIM, p. 133. 380 In the fall of 1753, not long after the end of Gleim’s engagement to Sophie Mayer, his niece, Sophie Dorothea Gleim (1732-1810), the daughter of his older brother Christian Friedrich David Gleim, tax collector in Aschersleben, had come to live with him. She accompanied her uncle on his travels from
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No. 53 (D-HTgl 2375) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Werthester Freund, Unser lieber Ramler ist bey in Collberg, oder vielmehr in Kerstin bey seinem H Bruder. Ihren letzten Brief an ihn habe ich schon dahin nachgeschickt, und hier kommt einer von ihm an Sie. Der Inhalt desselben wird eine Rede H Sulzers betreffen, daß näml. der König Professores der Beredsamkeit verschreiben lässet. Und wäre denn dergleichen Stelle für unsem Ramler nicht gut. Ich werde mit H. Sulzem davon sprechen. Und, liebster Freund, schreiben Sie ihm doch auch darum. / Oder kommen Sie bald hieher, wie ich gehört habe, so wäre es desto besser. Unser Freund würde gern im Lande bleiben, sonderlich da endl. seine Gesundheit wieder etwas besser zu werden angefangen hat. Ihnen, mein Werthester, will ich keinen Vorwurf machen, daß Sie mir vielleicht seit langer Zeit eine Antwort schuldig sind. Ich weis, Sie haben überhäufte Arbeit gehabt. Mir ist es bisher auch so gegangen, und ich bin noch nicht heraus. Sonst hätte ich Ihnen längst einmal geschrieben, ohne mich / daran zu kehren, ob Sie mir oder ich Ihnen eine Antwort schuldig sey. Wenn Sie hieher kommen, so besuchen Sie mich desto balder. Unser Probst Köppan ist todt. Man redet davon, H. Spaidingen an seine Stelle zu kriegen. Ich wünschte es doppelt, weil ich in der Nicolai Kirche für mich und meine Familie eine ganze Lage habe, und uns gern gute und vernünftige Predigten wünschte. Leben Sie wohl. Empfehlen Sie mich Ihrer liebe [sic] Niece, und halten Sie mich für Ihren treuergebenen Krause Berlin d. 22 Jun 1763
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No. 54 (D-HTgl 2376) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Dearest friend, For the excellent sausages I thank you all the more because, since they are scarce, you are depriving yourself of them. My wife, who, with my children, also commends herself cordially, will see whether we can also now send you something from here. My complaining about the time spent on the Karsch poems shouldn’t be taken too seriously, and must not be construed as saying that you should not take an interest in this German Sevigne.3811 have read not only your edition, but also many other beautiful poems by Madame Karsch - and a genius of this kind certainly deserves encouragement, particularly as you can give it to her, for it is always instructive for you at the same time. I have recently met your Herr brother from Nauen.382 He looks very much like you, and seems to be a very worthy man. Well, of course - he is your brother. Don’t scold Ramler too much. You two will surely be reconciled soon, and he is, in any case, very fond of you.383 He preserves his fragile health, in fact, only by doing little, and both of his young people make a lot of writing for him.384 time to time, and was known to his Berlin circle. Wilhelm Körte describes her as a paragon of womanly virtues, and very skillful at managing a household. Gleim’s friends often referred to her as “Gleminde,” a nickname coined by Anna Louisa Karsch (see n. 381). See KÖRTE/GLEIM, pp. 73-4; MIESNER/PORTRAITS, p. 106. 381 Anna Louise Karsch (1722-91) showed an early aptitude for reading and writing, and, despite a lack of formal education, an impoverished childhood, and two miserable marriages, wrote poetry throughout her life. In 1755, she settled in Großglogau, where her talent came to the attention of affluent and well-educated patrons, and she found that her occasional poems were a means of adding to her subsistence. Through the offices of an admiring patron, Karsch’s alcoholic husband was sent to the army in 1761, and she was taken to Berlin. Her reputation had preceded her there; intellectuals - among them, Sack (see n. 343), Sulzer (see n. 55), and Moses Mendelssohn - admired her talent, and Ramler undertook to give her formal instruction in writing poetry. Gleim invited her to Halberstadt, and, in 1763, arranged for the publication of the first collection of her poems, Auserlesene Gedichte (1764), which he edited, and for which Sulzer contributed a preface. In a note appended to Ramler’s letter to Gleim of 3 September 1763 (D-WRgs 267/303), Krause had implied that Gleim’s time would be better spent on his own poetry than on Karsch’s, and it is to that note that Krause refers in this letter. See ADB, vol. 15 (1882), pp. 421-2. 382 Krause refers to Matthias Leberecht Casper Gleim (1725-89), Königlich Preußischer OberAmtmann in Nauen, about 25 km west of Berlin. 383 Although this remark is the first indication in Krause’s letters of the strife between the two poets, the Gleim-Ramler correspondence reveals that their relationship was almost from the beginning an uneasy one. Gleim, who was, at first, Ramler’s mentor, often taxed his younger friend with laziness failure to write poetry, and failure to keep Gleim informed about the artistic life of Berlin. See LEE/BERLINHALBERSTADT and LEE/RAMLER, in which the tensions that developed during the twenty years of the Gleim-Ramler correspondence are examined. 384 In a letter of 18 April 1761, Ramler mentioned to Gleim that he had taken in the 15-year-old son of Kolberg Landrat Meyer, and a woman whom Ramler had known as a schoolmate. Lucas Friedrich Langemack (see n. 173), with whom Ramler shared living quarters, was suffering from advanced dementia, and Ramler explained that he took the boy in “so that I can actually hear a human voice when I eat or go for a walk [damit ich doch eine Menschenstimme höre, wenn ich esse oder spaziere].” In letters of 8 March and 29 May 1763 Ramler indicates that another young Kolberger is living with him, and that he is supervising both boys on behalf of their parents. I am grateful to David Lee for sharing this information with me.
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No. 54 (D-HTgl 2376) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Liebster Freund, Für die vortrefl. Würste danke ich um so mehr, als Sie bey deren Seltenheit sich derselben doch berauben wollen. Meine Frau, die sich nebst meinen Kindern bestens empfiehlt, wird sehen, ob wir Ihnen auch einmal etwas von hier senden können. Mein Schmälen wegen Ihrer auf die Karschischen Gedichte verwandten Zeit wird wohl nicht weit hergewesen seyn, und kann nicht so ausgelegt werden als Ihr [sic] sollten Sie sich dieser / deutschen Sevigne nicht annehmen. Ich habe nicht nur ahne herausgegebene, sondern noch viel andere schöne Gedichte von Mad. Karsch gelesen— , und so ein Genie verdienet allerdings Aufmunterung, sonderlich wie Sie ihr deren geben können, da selbige immer zugleich für sie so lehrreich ist. Ihren Hn. Bruder von Nauen habe ich letzthin kennen lernen. Er siehet Ihnen sehr ähnlich, und scheint ein recht braver Mann zu seyn. Er ist ja auch Ihr Bruder. / Auf Ramlem schelten Sie nicht zu sehr. Ihr vertragt euch doch bald wieder, und er hat Sie doch
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But he would most certainly find time enough for the edition of your works, and do see to it that something comes of it.385 Of course, no one at all will be more eager to purchase it than I. For my children should learn much from it, and through you would develop into German Sevignes. They have read your Kriegslieder through, I know not how many times. Commend me to your niece.3861 am very much attached to the natural child if she will allow it. I remain, as always, your loyal servant, Krause Berlin, the 2nd Jan. 1764. No. 55 (D-HTgl 2377) KRAUSE TO GLEIM My worthiest friend, It certainly offends me that you have found out the secrets of matrimony from the quid pro quo of my letters. I didn’t get the enclosed back from Herr Weiße until day before yesterday, and he may possibly be just as angry.387 The enclosed came back with packet mail or with a traveler, and even though I immediately sent him [Weiße] the letter that was sent to you by mistake, I have received no answer. You see from this that he does not yet accept my teaching.388 Perhaps it will be better 385 Krause seems to be trying to prevent a breach between the two poets. The growing discord between them was fueled to a considerable extent by the change in their relationship. During the 1750s, Ramler had acquired a reputation as an authority on the works of Horace, as the author of Horatian poems, and as a successful librettist (see D-HTgl 2364 and 2380), and was more sought-after than his former mentor in Halberstadt. Johann Nikolaus Götz, Gleim’s fellow student at the university in Halle, had recently asked Ramler to edit his poetry. Gleim resented what he perceived as his exclusion from this project, and some bitter maneuvering on both sides followed. Krause’s remark in this letter of 2 January 1764 refers to the fact that Gleim had asked Ramler to edit his works, and that he regarded Ramler’s delays in devoting himself to this undertaking as evidence of a lack of respect for Gleim’s less elevated style. See LEE/BERLINHALBERSTADT and LEE/RAMLER. 386 Seen. 380. 387 Christian Felix Weiße (1726-1804) had a long career as a dramatist, editor, translator, and writer of literature for children. He was also a prolific and, in his time, a successful writer of comedies, tragedies, and libretti for Singspiele (including several for Johann Adam Hiller). Throughout his life, Weiße wrote in the forms and styles that he had learned in the 1740s and 1750s - sentimental comedies, tragedies in alexandrine verse, and anacreontic poems - even when they had been supplanted by other styles. And although he seems to have been generally well liked by his literary contemporaries, his work was often criticized as competent, but shallow and unoriginal. Weiße’s name appears frequently in Gleim’s correspondence with Uz between 1758 and 1775. See GLOSSARY. 388 From this passage it may be inferred that Krause had sent Gleim a letter intended for Christian Felix Weiße in Leipzig (see n. 387), which Gleim returned with comments about “the secrets of matrimony” and which Krause then sent to Weiße (Weiße had been recently married; his family and his writings for children were to become models for all of Germany). Presumably a letter meant for Gleim and mistakenly sent to Weiße likewise contained some remarks that Krause feared would offend Weiße. The letter returned by Weiße, and apparently enclosed in this letter to Gleim of 28 January 1764, has not survived.
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allemal lieb. Er erhält seine kleine Gesundheit wirklich nur durch wenig Thun, und seine beyde junge Leute machen ihm auch viel zu schreiben. Zur Ausgabe Ihrer Werke würde er aber doch gewiß Zeit genug finden, und machen Sie nur, daß einmal etwas daraus wird. Es soll sie gewiß nicht leicht jemand begieriger sich anschaffen, als ich. Denn meine Kinder sollen / viel daraus lernen, und sich durch Sie, deutschen Sevigne bilden [sic]. Ihre Kriegslieder haben sie, ich weis nicht, wie viel mal durchgelesen. Empfehlen Sie mich Ihrer Nichte. Ich bin dem natürlichen Kinde recht sehr gut, wenn sie es erlauben will. Ich verharre allezeit Ihr treuergebener Krause Berlin d. 2 Jan 1764 No. 55 (D-HTgl 2377) KRAUSE TO GLEIM Mein werthester Freund Das ist mir gar nicht gelegen, daß Sie durch mein Quid pro quo meiner Briefe hinter die Ehestandsgeheimnisse gekommen sind. Beylage habe ich erst vorgestern von H. Weissen wiederbekommen, und er mag vielleicht eben so ärgerlich seyn. Beylage ist durch Einschuß oder mit einem Reisenden zurückgekommen, und ohngeachtet ich ihm den an Sie verirrt gewesenen Brief so gleich übersendet, so habe ich doch / noch keine Antwort darauf. Sie sehen daraus, daß meine Lehren bey ihm noch nicht recht anschlagen mögen. Mit der Zeit vielleicht besser, oder er kan
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with time, or perhaps he can do without it completely. What are you doing that is of interest? I thank you for the calendar, and in addition send you the New Year’s wish that I forgot to return. Our Carnaval begins on the day after tomorrow. On Tuesday, Prince Heinrich gave a masked ball with 1,500 invitations. 1,300 actually came.389 Although the king is still somber, yet at all times he is a great king, and will, however he lives, live long. May God grant it, and also make his heart more cheerful again. His judgment and taste have improved considerably during the 7 difficult years.390 My wife has at last procured the fish that is being sent to you. One pays for them by the pound nowadays, and that makes them scarce. All of my family commend themselves to you, and I am, as always, Your most respectful K. Berlin, the 28th Jan. 1764
No. 56 (D-HTgl 5900) GLEIM TO KRAUSE To Herr Attorney Krause Dearest friend, I find it absolutely right to ask you whether Herr W. Ramler will be at your house!391 If he is asked, as I must suppose from his conversation with my niece 389 Prince Heinrich’s ball, given on 24 January to celebrate the king’s birthday, is reported in the
Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und Gelehrten Sachen of 26 January 1764. The day began with an
assembly of the court to pay respects to the king: a company consisting of princes of the blood, generals of the army, Prussian and foreign ministers, staff officers, and members of the high nobility. This event was followed by a midday meal for the royal family, a reassembly of the court in the afternoon, a French comedy, VArlequin sauvage, in the evening, and, finally, the masked ball which many “other persons of distinction” attended. Count Lehndorff mentions in his diary that some of the bessere Bürgerschaft (haute bourgeoisie) were invited to the ball - possibly, Krause was among the guests. Lehndorff goes on to describe some of the costumes - Egyptians, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, a troupe of beggars, and French costumes from the time of Marie de Medici. The number of guests mentioned by Lehndorff is 1,400, which does not quite match Krause’s count of 1,300, but it does tally with the number of guests he mentions in connection with a masked ball given by Prince Heinrich in the previous year. See NACHRICHTEN/1.26.64, p. 1; LEHNDORFF/NACHTRÄGE, p. 389; LEHNDORFF/SCHMIDTLÖTZEN, p. 4 5 3 .1 wish to thank Ingolf Sellack of Berlin for calling my attention to these sources, and for other valuable information about the life and times of Prince Heinrich. 390 It is difficult to know what Krause meant by this remark. But however Friedrich’s judgment and taste may have improved, his enthusiasm for the arts seems to have waned after the war in which he struggled to establish Prussia as a world power. 391 A final break between Gleim and Ramler, which was impending in the fall of 1764, seems to have occurred between Ramler’s letter of 22 December 1764 and early January 1765: in the draft of a letter written at Magdeburg and dated 4 January 1765, Gleim says that he was totally insulted by Ramler’s letter of 22 December, that he is on his way to Berlin, and that he does not wish to see Ramler. I am indebted to David Lee for this information.
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sie vielleicht ganz entbehren. Was machen Sie Gutes? Ich bedanke mich für den Calender, und statte noch den vergessenen Neujahrswunsch ab. Unser Camaval gehet übermorgen. Am Dienstage hat der Prinz Heinrich einen mas- / kirten Ball von 1500 Billets gegeben. 1300 sind auch wirkl. eingekommen. Der König ist zwar noch ernsthaft aber doch immer ein grosser König, und wird auch, so wie er lebt, lange leben. Gott gebe es, und er mache auch sein Herz wieder frölicher. Seine Einsichten und Geschmack haben sich während der 7 schlimmen Jahre sehr gebessert. Endlich hat meine Frau das beygehende Fischgen aufgetrieben. Man bezahlt sie jetzo Pfundweise, / und das macht sie was. Alle die Meinigen empfehlen sich und ich bin wie allemal Ihr ergebenster K. Berlin d. 28 Jan 1764 No. 56 (D-HTgl 5900) GLEIM TO KRAUSE An Hr. Adv. Kraußen Liebster Freund, Ich finde höchst richtig Sie zu fragen: ob Herr W. heut bey Ihnen seyn wird! Ist er gebeten, wie ich aus s. gestrigen Gespräch mit meiner Nichte muthmaßen muß,
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yesterday, or if he usually comes, I implore you not to send word to him not to come, but to allow me to remain at home. To my Krause and no one else I say that I positively cannot bear the person who has destroyed all the pleasure of my life, the pleasure of friendship, and with that, my health.392 Recently I made an attempt. A few days ago, in a third place I chanced upon this person, formerly my desire and my joy, who is now distinguished in my eyes and in my entire soul as the most detestable of all people on earth. With a deep sigh wrenched from my heart, I asked God to strengthen me, so that I might persuade myself to endure his presence! God heard me, but Abel’s heart was not more fearful than mine as Cain stood over him with a club in his hand. I must stop, dearest friend, so that I won’t say more. You will philosophize; do it, but make no mistake. It is not an irreconcilable heart or an insurmountable anger that is speaking, no, but the unbearable vexation, the uncontrollable sorrow over the loss of tender feelings that formerly made me so happy, the indescribable pain over the loss of a friend whom I loved as I did Kleist, and who has deprived me of all joy. It cannot be helped-my heart will never again leap for joy at the thought of my friends; my experiences are all too sad, but may the loss of this friend of my heart be enough. I want at least to avoid the occasion that could totally ruin my health. My best friend was my first angel of destruction; I do not want to be the second one myself. So just allow me to stay at home! My fellow lodgers are to assemble; I will say that I want to come later. One thing more. If you love me a little, do not speak another syllable to me about the whole affair. It is all in vain, and my already much weakened health suffers all the more. I am your true friend. Gleim Berlin, the 27th of March 1765 Herr Ramler presented me with his poem: Glaucus ’s Prophecy, with this masterpiece of his muse that I have again defended as such against half the Berlin world! I wrote to him this quatrain about it:393 What a sublime song he sings to the band of Muses That thinks it hears a god. It would sound sublimer and sweeter to my ear If an old friend sang it! 392 Despite Gleim’s avowal, Krause was not the only friend to whom Gleim complained that Ramler had insulted him. In a letter to Uz dated 31 August 1765, Gleim wrote: “Only to my Uz do I complain that through his unpardonable errors of the heart, as well as this ill-mannered crudeness, he has made himself completely unworthy of my future friendship (Nur meinem Utz klag ich es, daß er so wohl durch diese ungezogene Grobheit, als durch unverzeyhliche Fehler seines Herzens, sich meiner fernem Freundschaft völlig unwürdig gemacht hat).” See GLEIM/UZ, pp. 362-3. 393 Ramler’s poem gloating over the defeat of the French world-wide appeared as a separate publication: Glaukus Wahrsagung. Als die Französische Flotte aus dem Hafen von Brest nach Amerika segelte (Berlin, 1765).
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oder kommt er gewöhnlich, so bitt ich inständig es ihm nicht absagen zu laßen, sondern mir zu erlauben, daß ich zu hause bleibe. Meinem Krausen u. sonst keinem sag ichs, daß ich den Menschen, der mich um alles Vergnügen meines Lebens, um das Vergnügen der Freundschaft gebracht hat, u. mit demselben um meine Gesundheit, schlechterdings nicht ausstehen kan. Letztens machte ich einen Versuch. Diesen in meinen Augen und in meiner gantzen Seele von allen Menschen auf Erden als der abscheulichste ausgezeichnete Menschen [sic], der sonst mein Wunsch und meine Freude war, traf ich vor einigen Tagen am dritten Ort an. Mit / einem tief aus dem Herzen geholten Seufzer bat ich Gott, mich zu stärken, daß ich mich überwinden und sein Daseyn ausstehen könnte! Gott erhörte mich, aber ängstlicher als ich ums Herz war nicht Abel als Cain mit der Keul in der Hand über ihm stand. Ich muß abbrechen, liebster Fr! um nicht mehr zu sagen. Sie werden philosophiren, thun Sie es, aber irren Sie sich nicht. Nicht ein unversöhnliches unausstehliche Herz, nicht ein unüberwindlicher Zorn spricht aus mir, nein, sondern der A Verdruß, der Gram unbezähmbare Gram über den Verlust der sanften Empfindungen, die mich bisher so glücklich machten, der unbeschreibliche Schmerz über den Verlust eines Freundes, den ich liebte, wie Kleisten, / u. der mich nun um alle meine Freude gebracht hat. Es ist einmahl nicht anders, mein Herz wird bey dem Gedanke an meine Freunde, nie wieder vor Freude hüpfen, meine Erfahrungen sind allzutraurig, aber dem es mag auch mit diesem Verlust dieses Freundes meines Herzens genug seyn! Wenigstens will ich die Gelegenheit vermeiden, die meine Gesundheit vollends zu Grunde richten könnte. Mein bester Freund war mein erster Würgengel, ich mag nicht der zweite an mir selbst seyn. Laßen Sie mich also immer zu hause! Meine Haußgenossen sollen sich einfinden, ich will sagen, daß ich nachkommen wolle. Noch eines. Sprechen Sie, wenn Sie / mich ein bischen lieb haben, keine Sylbe von der ganzen Sache weiter mit mir. Es ist alles umsonst, und meine schon sehr geschwächte Gesundheit leidet all zu sehr. Ich bin Ihr getr. Fr. Gleim Berlin d. 27ten Marz 1765. Herr W. beschenkte mich mit seinem Gedicht: Glaukus Wahrsagung; mit diesem Meisterstück seiner Muse, das ich wieder die halbe Berlinische Welt als ein solches vertheidigt habe! Ich schrieb ihm darüber das Quatrain: Welch ein erhabnes Lied singt er dem Musenschare, Das den Gott zu hören meint. Erhabener kläng es mir, und süßer meinem Ohre Säng es ein alter Freund!
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Under it he wrote: Is then a creature whose enthusiasm for the band of Muses Is, after all, passionate Even if his passion doesn’t exactly please Daphnis’s ear Not always a friend of their friends?394 And therewith sent me back my poem of praise. How little his thoughts agree with mine! How contemptuously he treats his old friend. No. 57 (D-HTgl 5901) GLEIM TO KRAUSE [in Gleim’s handwriting] To Herr Krause in Berlin
[in another hand]
Halberstadt, the 26th of January 1766 I owe you two letters; in the first you wished for the restoration of my health only because you believe that reconciliation with R. [ander] will depend on it. You are mistaken, my good friend; I am anything but hypochondriacal and in bad spirits. Notwithstanding persistent bodily infirmity, my mind is as much in control of itself, as cheerful and capable of thought as it ever was when my body was healthy: I swear to you that I would not know what sorrow is, what a sad thought is, if only I had never known a R[amler]! To forget him altogether, that would indeed be the only thing in the short lifetime that is left to me that would invariably make me happy! But how is it possible to forget a friend whom one has loved so, and whom one must now abhor? [Insert in another hand follows.] Perhaps again you will find this too vehement. But as I write this, I must once more [illegible] that W. really studied diligently how to make himself abhorrent to me.395 In my letter of the 29th January 1765,1 made the bitter reproach that in critiques of my work he absolutely demanded the last word; yet in the Lieder der Deutschen, he kept the line: My feet must bear me [Mich müssen meine Füße tragen], which I could not stand, merely to annoy me.396 He is wrong, the spiteful man. Since I know what he is, he does not provoke me!
394 Concerning Daphnis, see note 146. 395 “W” refers to Ramler. 396 The four-volume anthology of poetry, Lieder der Deutschen, edited anonymously by Ramler and published by George Ludewig Winter in 1766, had apparently just come out. Included in it were almost all of the poems in the two volumes of Oden mit Melodien published in 1753 and 1755 (see nn. 193,198, and 352), and most of the poems of the Oden mit Melodien of 1761 (see n. 356). The preface
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Er setzte darunter: Ist denn ein Geist, der mit dem Musenschare Es bis zum Eifer endlich meint, Gefällt sein Eifer gleich nicht Daphnis Ohre Ohne Nicht ewig ihrer Freunde Freund? Und schickte damit mir mein Lobgedicht zurück. Wie wenig paßt sein Gedanke auf den meinigen! Wie verächtlich begegnet er seinem alten Freund. No. 57 (D-HTgl 5901) GLEIM TO KRAUSE [in Gleim’s hand] An Herrn Krause zu Berlin. [in another hand] Halberstadt d 26 Jan 1766 Auf zweene Briefe bin ich Ihnen die Antwort schuldig, in dem ersten wünschten Sie mir bloß darum die Herstellung meiner Gesundheit, weil Sie glauben, die Aussöhnung [sic] mit R. werde davon abhangen. Sie irren sich, bester Freund, ich bin nichts weniger als hypochondrisch, und übel aufgeräumet! Ohngeachtet der beständigen Kränklichkeit des Körpers, ist meine Seele so bey sich selbst, so heiter, und des Denkens so fähig, als sie es jemahls bey gesunden [sic] Körper gewesen ist: Ich schwer [sic] ihnen, daß ich izt nicht wüste, was Gram, was ein trauriger Gedanke wäre, wenn ich nur nie einen R. gekant hätte! Ihn ganz vergeßen das wäre das einzige, das mich auch beständig in der mir noch übrigen kurzen Lebenszeit vergnügt machen könte! Aber wie ist es möglich, einen Freund vergeßen, den man so geliebet hat, und den man nun so verabscheulichen muß? [an insertion in another hand follows] Vielleicht finden Sie dis [sic] wieder zu hitzig. Aber als ich dis schreibe muß ich [illegible] nochmahl A daß W. recht mit Reiß darauf studirt sich mir zu einem Abscheu zu machen. In meinem Schreiben an ihn vom 29ten Jan 1765 machte ich den bitteren Vorwurf, daß er bey den Critiken über meine Arbeiten das letzte Wort schlechterdings verlangte, dennoch hat er in den Liedern der Deutschen seinen Vers: Mich müssen meine Füße tragen, den ich nicht leiden wolte, beybehalten, bloß um mich zu ärgern. Er irrt sich der Boshafte! Seitdem ich weiß, wer er ist, ärgert er mich nicht!
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[in Gleim’shand] In the second letter, you told me of your approval and Ramler’s of the Lieder nach dem Anakreon. I have understood you, dearest friend. Der Greis pleased only you and Ramler especially, more than all other [poems], and all the rest of my friends who wrote me their approval were not particularly pleased with Der Greis; not a single one lingered over it.397 Everyone found at least several pleasing; these were not the same “several”-how varied, how uncertain taste is! I send you some of the special newest songs of my muse! They may prove to you that I am indeed ill, but cheerful. It would be no wonder if I became a complete misanthrope. With Kleist, friendship died! Spalding came to Berlin, and I had to learn it from many friends. Well, he no longer knows that there was a Gleim.398 Meinhard could have traveled from Braunschweig to Erfurt by way of Halberstadt; he knew that he would find his best friend there, who would even love to have him there permanently, yet he doesn’t make the half-hour journey to see me.399 Lessing takes the road to Halberstadt, he seeks me in the garden, we find each other, I ask him to stay one day, only one day, and he doesn’t stay an hour. My companion, he says, wouldn’t want to stay. I go to his companion; but Frau von Brenckenhoff assures me in the sincerest way in the world that it was Lessing’s fault alone that they hadn’t stayed at least one day!400 With Kleist friendship died! O that he still lived, and shared my pleasure and all of my happiness with me! For now that I have had some luck which I could share with a friend, where is the friend? Now that I am to the first volume of the collection of 1766 announced that all of the poems would eventually be set to music. This goal was realized: the first two volumes of Lieder der Deutschen mit Melodien (see nn. 198 and 356), edited anonymously by Ramler and Krause, appeared in 1767, the third and fourth, in 1768. The poem to which Gleim refers in his letter is Der glückliche Arme (book 4, no. 41, p. 328). The line that Gleim quotes in his letter is slightly different from the one that finally appeared in the published collection: “Mich können meine Füße tragen” [italics mine]. 397 From the date of this letter, it would appear that Gleim's collection titled Lieder nach dem Anakreon von dem Verfasser des Versuchs in scherzhaften Liedern, published in 1766 in Berlin and Braunschweig by the Buchhandlung des Waysenhauses zu Braunschweig, had just come out. Der Greis, p. 89, is a short valedictory poem that begins, “Hin ist alle meine Kraft! Alt und schwach bin ich” [all my strength is gone; I am old and weak]. 398 Gleim and Spalding had carried on a cordial correspondence during the 1740s. Later Gleim published the correspondence between the two friends without Spalding’s permission, and the friendship cooled permanently. 399 Johann Nicolaus Meinhard (1727-67), bom in Erlangen (the family name was actually Gemeinhard), had a career that moved restlessly between courses of study, travels throughout Europe, occasional employment as a Hofmeister, and increasing attacks of the fashionable malady described by his biographers as hypochondria. At various times during his peregrinations, Meinhard became acquainted with, and sought advice from many literary figures of the day: Zachariä, Ebert, Geliert, Weiße, Winckelmann, Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Ramler, Nicolai, and Liz. In August 1765, as he was returning from Rome, Meinhard paid his only visit to Gleim in Halberstadt. See GLOSSARY). 400 Although Lessing’s activities in January 1766 are not documented, it seems likely that he was traveling from Berlin. The Frau von Brenckenhoff mentioned here was probably a relative of the young Major Leopold Schönberg von Brenckenhoff (b. 1750), who lived for a time in Lessing’s house, and with whom Lessing traveled to Pyrmont in June 1766. See LESSING/CHRONIK, pp. 48-9.
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[in Gleim’s hand] Im zweyten Briefe sagten Sie mir Ihren und R. [anders] Beyfall wegen der Lieder nach dem Anakreon! Ich habe Sie verstanden liebster Freund. Der Greis allein gefiel Ihnen und Ramler vorzüglich vor allen andern und allen übrigen Freunden, die mir ihren Beyfall schrieben, gefiel der Greis nicht vorzüglich; kein einziger hielt bey ihm / sich auf! Einem jeden gefielen wenigstens einige, und diese einigen waren nicht dieselben, wie verschieden, wie unbestimmt ist der Geschmack! Ich sende Ihnen hiebey einige von den eigenen neuesten Liedern meiner Muse! Sie mögen ihnen beweisen, daß ich zwar krank aber doch gutes Muthes bin. Wunder wäre es nicht, wenn ich ganz misantrop würde, mit Kleist starb die Freundschaft! Spalding kam nach Berlin, und ich muß es von vielen Freunden erfahren. Nun weiß er gar nicht mehr, daß ein Gleim war; Meinhart könte von Braunschweig nach Erfurth über Halberstadt reisen, er wüste, daß er da seinen besten Freund fände, der ihn gern auch beständig bey sich hätte, dennoch reist er eine halbe Stunde weges vorbey. Leßing nimt den Weg auf Halberstadt, er sucht mich im Garten, wir finden uns, ich bitte ihn, nur er bleibt lcoino Stunde einen Tag zu bleiben, nur einen Tag, und er bleibt keine Stunde. Seine Gesellschafft [sic], sagt er, wolte nicht bleiben. Ich gehe zu seiner Gesellschafft [sic], nur die Frau von Brenckenhoff versichert mich mit der ehrlichsten Art von der Welt, Leßing allein sey Schuld daß sie nicht wenigstens einen Tag geblieben wären! Mit Kleist starb die Freundschaft! O daß er noch lebte und mein Vergnügen, / mein ganzes Glück mit mir theilte! Denn nun ich es zu einigem Glück gebracht habe, das ich mit einem Freunde theilen könte, wo ist nun der Freund! Nun ich mit dem Garten und dem gantzen Hause fertig bin, das ich mehr für den Freund, als für mich baute, wo ist nun der Freund?
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finished with the garden and the whole house, which I built, more for the friend than for myself, where then is the friend? But I must stop, dearest friend, so as not to make myself a misanthrope by pouring out my heart to you. Commend me to all in whom a spark of old friendship remains. G. No. 58 (D-HTgl 2381) KRAUSE TO GLEIM [except for the signature, none of this letter is in Krause’s hand] The Lieder delivered to me by Herr Professor Grillo are, in part, excellent, and the others are also not unworthy of publication.401 To the first category belong the following: page: 1 0 -1 6 -1 7 -18-19-20-22-23-no. 2-24-27 29-30-35-36402 And particularly to be admired in several Lieder is the art with which the composer successfully manages the business when enjambements occur. Also, one merit of these Lieder is that they do not go very high, and are for all voices. Yet if I were to suggest one thing, it would be that they should not be printed with the thirds, etc., but for a single voice, the top voice; and the bass should be altered slightly in several places where it is needed. Yes, I think that a Lied, a chanson, must have such a melody that it doesn’t need the bass at all, let alone the middle voices. That is why French Lieder are published, likewise, without a bass. For such performances are found in rustic settings and so forth in the ambiance of a merry gathering where one has no keyboard instrument for accompaniment. They serve to please this 401 Friedrich Grillo (1739-1802), a colleague of Ramler, was a philologist, writer, and Professor of Philosophy at the Königlicher Kadettenkorps in Berlin. See MEUSEL/GELEHRTE, vol. 2, pp. 669-70, and MEUSEL/LEXIKON (Lemgo, 1805), vol. 11, p. 294, which corrects the year of Grillo’s birth to 1739. The fact that the Lieder were delivered to Krause through Grillo suggests that the friendship between Gleim and Krause had cooled. Krause’s response to Gleim has no heading, and its tone is detached and businesslike. 402 Krause is referring to a collection of musical settings of Gleim’s Lieder nach dem Anakreon (see n. 397), published anonymously in Berlin in 1767; the music was attributed by Johann Adam Hiller to Carl Ludwig Bachmann (1743-1809), a violist, an instrument maker, and an amateur composer (the composer Johann Heinrich Rolle, see n. 13, would also publish a collection of musical settings titled Lieder nach dem Anakreon in 1775). The pagination of the copy to which Krause refers (presumably a manuscript) does not correspond to that of either the poems or the musical settings in their published versions, and it is impossible to identify many of the songs mentioned in this letter. Possibly Gleim deleted some of them after receiving Krause’s comments. See HILLER/NACHRICHTEN, pt. 3, p. 77; EITNER/QUELLEN, vol. 1, p. 293; MGG, Personenteil, vol. 14, cols. 302-7.
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Aber ich muß [in Gleim’s hand once more] abbrechen, mein liebster Freund, um mich nicht durch Ausschüttung meines Herzens gegen Sie zum Misantropen zu alter machen. Empfehlen Sie mich allen bey welchen noch ein Funke von AFreundschaft übrig ist. G. No. 58 (D-HTgl 2381) KRAUSE TO GLEIM [aside from the signature this letter is not in Krause’s hand] Die mir vom Herrn Professor Grillo zugestelte [sic] Lieder sind zum Theil vortreflich, und die übrigen auch nicht des Drucks unwerth. Unter die ersten gehören die folgende [sic]: pag: 10-16 -1 7 -1 8-19-20-22-23-no. 2-24-27-29-30-35-36. Und ist sonderlich bey mehreren Liedern die Kunst des Componisten zu bewundern, mit welcher er sich glücklich aus dem Handel gezogen, wenn enjambirte Verse Vorkommen. Eine Volkommenheit dieser Lieder ist auch, daß sie nicht sehr hoch gehen, und daß sie für alle Hälser sind. Solte ich etwas dabey erinnern, so würde es darin bestehen, daß sie nicht mit den Tertien pp. zu drucken wären, sondern nur einstimmig für die Ober-stimme; und würde der Bass an manchen nöthigen Orthen, leicht zu ändern seyn. Ja, mir dünkt, ein Lied, eine Chanson soll eine solche Melodie haben, die nicht einmahl des Basses bedarf, geschweige den Mittel Stimmen. Daher kommen auch die Frantzösischen Lieder ohne Bass heraus. Denn solche Sachen sind auf dem Lande, in dem Circkel einer fröhlichen Gesellschaft und so weiter zu finden, wo man kein Clavier zur
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gathering with pleasant song and clever words, rather than to win praise for the singers-and-players for their skill. Therefore, some places in our Lieder, which are not proper for the voice and which it seems advisable to change because they are composed at the keyboard, should perhaps be altered. This alteration will be extremely easy for the esteemed author if he will consider and examine the Lieder once more from this point of view.403 If I might be allowed to make some other little comments, they would be as follows: P. 37: On the words ist mein. I would prefer to put two quarter-notes, rather than a dotted quarter and an eighth-note. On the syllable gränzt[?kränzt?], I would put a G-sharp, rather than an E. At the words einen Held. I would accentuate the latter, rather than the former.404 P. 3: The musical figure on the words Menschen and Träumen, or, rather, on their first syllables, seem to me not comfortable for singing. I would rather put simply a quarter-note.405 P. 5: In the 2nd staff, I would prefer to have written the following 3 measures as follows:
Liebe Götter Blume Then the last of these notes answer the 4th measure of the first part of this piece.406 P. 7: 1 would leave the appoggiatura out. Telemann never puts such appoggiaturas 403 Krause’s advice, which is consistent with the aesthetic ideal that he expresses repeatedly (see letter no. 29, D-HTgl 2360, and the preface to the first collection of Oden mit Melodien published in 1753), was not followed; in the published musical settings of the Lieder nach dem Anakreon, the voice part is printed at the top of the page, and an equal number of measures of the keyboard part are printed below it. 404 Krause refers to Amor ist mein Lied, pp. 66-7 of the published collection of musical settings (there is no syllable “gränzt” in the musical setting, only [be] “kränzt” and “glänzt”). The composer of this collection rejected Krause’s first two suggestions regarding this song, but appears to have accepted the third: although the word Held comes on the second beat of a measure of 3/4, it occurs on a G#”, a note which receives emphasis because it is the highest in the song. 405 Krause refers here to the song Zur Zeit wenn alle Menschen (Amors Nachtbesuch) (pp. 6-7 of the published collection of musical settings). His suggestion was rejected; each of the syllables he mentions has an eighth-note followed by two sixteenths. 406 Here Krause’s suggestion was accepted.
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Begleitung hat. Sie dienen mehr darzu durch einen angenehmen Gesang und sinnreiche Worte die Gesellschaft zu vergnügen / als dem Sänger und Spieler, wegen seiner Geschicklichkeit in der Music Lob zu erwerben. Daher wären auch vielleicht in unsem Liedern einige Flecken zu ändern, welche nicht recht für die Stimmen und nur also gerathen zu seyn scheinen, weil sie beym Clavier componiert worden. Diese Aenderung wird dem Herrn Verfasser höchst leicht seyn, wenn er Lieder die Aaus diesem Gesichtspuncte noch einmahl betrachten und durchgehen will. Dürfte ich noch einige kleine Anmerkungen machen, so würden es etwa folgende seyn. S.37. Sezte ich auf die beyden Sylben ist mein lieber 2 1/4. als 1/4. nebst punct und l/8tel. Auf der Sylbe gränzt setzte ich lieber Gis als E. Bey den Worten: einen Held, accentuirte ich lieber das lezte als das erste. S. 3. Scheint mir die Noten Figur auf den Wörtern Menschen und Träumen, oder vielmehr auf deren ersten Sylben, nicht zum Singen, bequem zu seyn. Ich sezte simple lieber symple 1/4. S. 5. im 2ten Lienen [Linien] System hätte ich folgende 3 Tackte lieber so gemacht:
Liebe Götter Blume als dann Die lezten aöd von diesen Noten antworten A auf den 4ten Tact des ersten Theils dieses Stückes. / Seite 7. Ließe ich den Vorschlag weg. Telemann sezt niemahls solche Vorschläge
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in Lieder407 They serve only for the languishing style in our music which loses thereby much force of expression. The appoggiatura tempts a bad singer to rob the piece of its effectiveness even more, and a good singer adds the appoggiatura, if he finds it appropriate for his feeling, but it should not be prescribed. P. 13: The beginning of this Lied does not seem to be in the style of a chanson.408 P. 16: On the 4 syllables weihen und ein. I would prefer to put 4 quarter-notes.409 P. 17: The syllable: Sehr should probably be accentuated. But this and several of the comments above will perhaps not apply if one considers all strophes of each L ied 410 But I cannot forbear wishing that the esteemed author of this work, which I respect highly as a whole and in its details, might choose to examine the Lieder once more in the light of the above comments, and alter them wherever he likes. For I am convinced that, even without my comments, a re-examination of the Lieder will result in their greater excellence. Berlin, the 17th September 1766. CGKrause
407 Although this song cannot be identified, it is interesting to note that Krause considers Telemann’s works to be models for composers. For an extended account of the regard in which Telemann was held by Berlin composers, see CZORNYJ/TELEMANN. 408 This song cannot be identified. 409 This sequence of words does not occur in the published collection of musical settings. Perhaps the song in which it was found was eliminated. 410 Possibly Krause is referring to the song Ach einen Trunk, ihr Schonen (pp. 28-9 of the collection), in which the word “allzusehr” appears. In the published collection, the syllable sehr, occurring on the final note of a phrase, which is the first beat of a measure of 3/4, is clearly accentuated.
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in Liedern. Sie dienen nur zu dem Schmachtenden in unserer Music, wodurch sie viele Kraft des Ausdrucks verliehret. Einen schlechten Sänger verführt der die Vorschlag, das Stück noch mehr um A Kraft zu bringen, und ein guter Sänger bringet den Vorschlag an, ohne daß er ihm vorgeschrieben seyn darf, wenn er ihn seiner Empfindung gemäß findet Seite 13. Der Anfang dieses Liedes, scheint nicht Chanson mäßig zu seyn. Seite 16. Sezte ich lieber 4 Viertel auf die 4 Sylben weihen und ein Seite 17. Solte die Sylbe: Sehr wohl accentuirt seyn. Allein diese und mehrere der vorstehenden Anmerkungen, werden vielleicht nicht Statt haben, wenn man alle Strophen eines jeglichen Liedes in Betracht ziehet. Ich kann aber doch nicht unterlaßen, zu wünschen, daß der Herr Verfaßer dieser Arbeit [, die] ich im Gantzen und im Detail sehr hochschätze, belieben möchte, in Rücksicht obiger Anmerkungen die Lieder noch einmahl durchzusehen und auf beliebigen Stellen zu ändern. Denn ich bin überzeugt, daß auch ohne meine Anmerkungen eine nochmalige Durchsehung der Lieder denselben eine grössere Vollkommenheit verschaffen wird. Berlin d. 17. Septbr 1766. CGKrause
Portrait of Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim by Hempel, 1750. By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A/2
Appendix
The Lieder that Krause proposed to set to music in the letter that Gleim answered on 28 November 1750 are listed below (* indicates actual appearance in the collection of 1753, ** actual appearance in the collection of 1755 - some of the titles varied from one publication to another). From the first volume of Halberstädter Lieder, published in 1749, with Amsterdam as a fictitious place of publication: p. 5 p. 6 p. 7 p. 9 p. 10 p. 14 p. 15 p. 17 p. 19 p. 20 p. 28 p. 29 p. 33 p. 35 p. 37 p. 40 p. 44 p. 49 p. 52 p. 53 p. 57 p. 59
Die Macht des Weins Seufzer einer Braut** Der Bettler Die Monaden* Abschied von Chloris Belisse Der Bauer** Die Schopf des Weibes An eine Tochter - Antwort der Mutter * Kinder-Fragen Ermahnung eines Weisen Seufzer eines Ehemannes Der Bruder und die Schwester Phillis im Walde Schwur eines Trinkers Die Nachbarin* Ein VernunftSchluß* (Es sagen viele Sittenhehrer) Einladung zum Tanz Ein Selbstgespräch An den Schlaf Amor in Zorn** (Amor sagte zu Cythere) Als Doris in den Wald gegangen war
From the second volume of Halberstädter Lieder, published in 1749, with Zürich as a fictious place of publication: p. 3 p. 11 p. 12 p. 14
An Phillis Ly sander An Chloe Daphne
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From Uz’s Lyrische Gedichte (Berlin, 1749) p. 10 p. 12 p. 21 p. 23 p. 25 p. 27 p. 33 p. 45 p. 48
An Chloen Ein Traum Der Morgen Morgenlied der Schäfer** (Die düstre Nacht ist hin) Frühlingslust An Amor Die Alten und Heutigen deutschen Sitten Die Eigenschafter einer Geliebten * Die versöhnte Daphne
From the Neue Beyträge zum Vergnügen des Verstandes und Witzes, vol. 5, pts. 1, 2, and 3: p. 68 p. 92 p. 93 p. 94 p. 176 p. 267 p. 271 p. 272
Die versöhnliche Schäferin An Herrn XXX Der Sittenrichter Die Wahl Der Mädchenfreund An die Lerche Die entschuldigten Blödigkeit Der Trinker
From Gleim’s Versuch in Scherzhaften Liedern, I p. 19 p. 34 p. 39 p. 40 p. 43 p. 62 p. 71 p. 75 p. 81 p. 85
Bitte um ein längeres Leben An den Winter Lebenspflichten An den Tod An die Liebe Trinklied Die Probe Die Fehlbare an Herrn Die freie Liebe Die Jugendlust
From Hagedorn’s Oden und Lieder in fü n f Büchern p. 19 p. 30 p. 41 p. 81 p. 116
Der Lauf der Welt* An eine Schläferinn An die Freude* Aufmunterung zum Vergnügen Die erste Liebe
Appendix
p. p. p. p. p. p.
117 121 149 154 166 168
237
Der Wink Der Wunsch Das Gesellschaftliche Die Schule* Die Nacht An den Schlaf
(the numbers from here on do not refer to pages containing odes by Hagedorn, but to pages in the appended treatises by La Nauze: Abhandlung von den Liedern der alten Griechen. Most of these are of uncertain authorship.) p. 220 p, 245 p. 246 p. 247 p. 248 p. 251 p. 265
Gesundheit vor allen den Gaben * (Seht, wie Zeus durch Regen-Güsse) Brüder! Netzt die Zungen * (Hört einmal, ihr muntern Brüder) O Bacchis! laß Sorgen und Grillen Heute, Brüder! heut Brüder! warum trinkt ihr nicht? O würdf ich eine schöne Ley er Schlafe süß, geliebtes Paar
Portrait of Ewald Christian von Kleist by Hempel, 1751 (?). By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A /ll
Portrait of Karl Wilhelm Ramier by Hempel, 1749. By permission of the Gleimhaus, Inv.-No. A/19
Letter of 24 October 1747 from C.G. Krause to J.W.L. Gleim, p.l. By permission of the Gleimhaus, Hs. A2338
G lo ssa r y
Algarotti, Francesco (1712-64), bom in Venice and educated in Bologna, traveled widely, visiting Paris, London, and St. Petersburg. While he was staying in Champagne, he met Voltaire, who was impressed with his work. Possibly it was here that he began to correspond with Friedrich, Crown Prince of Prussia. After Friedrich's accession, Algarotti was invited to the court to become a privileged member of the literary circle around the king. In 1747 Friedrich bestowed the title of count on Algarotti and continued to correspond with him after he had left the court. Algarotti is well known for his critique of eighteenth-century opera: Saggio sopra l fOpera in musica (1755). ADB, vol. 1 (1875), p. 340, and vol. 31 (1890), p. 642-7. Apraxin, Stepan Fedorovich (1702-58), began his military career as a private in the regiment of the Preobrazhenskii Guards, and advanced quickly, becoming a major in 1737. Apraxin owed his rapid advancement to political connections as well as to distinguished service in the military. In 1756 he was promoted to general field marshal, and assigned to the campaign against Prussia. Apraxin’s position was complicated by the fact that, if the ailing Empress Elizabeth died, her heir, Grand Duke Peter, would oppose war with Prussia. Although Apraxin was supposed to begin an offensive in the summer of 1756, he deliberated, recommending postponement until the following spring. He finally struck the enemy on 30 August 1757, routing the Prussians in the battle of GroB-Jagersdorf. Instead of pursuing them aggressively, however, he then ordered his army to retreat to winter quarters. Apraxin was recalled to St. Petersburg in October, stripped of his command, and accused of treason. He died on 6 August 1758, before his case could be decided. See WIECZYNSKI/ENCYCLOPEDIA, vol. 2, pp. 68-9. Argens, Jean-Baptiste Boyer, M arquis d ’ (1704-71), from a distinguished family of Aix-en-Provence, served briefly in the retinue of the French ambassador to Constantinople, then returned to Aix around 1730 to devote himself to the legal career which his father had chosen for him. He quickly became disenchanted with the law, and, in 1732, embarked on a military career, which seemed to promise more adventure and less structured schooling. A fall from his horse put an end to D’Argens’s military career, and, rather than return to the law, he fled to Holland. Here he made his debut as a writer with his Lettres juives, chinoises et cabalistiques (1736-1739). After the publication of this work, D ’Argens was eagerly invited to become one of the group of philosophes around Friedrich II. But after his marriage to the dancer Babet Cochois (see n. 179), he lost the king’s favor. See HOEFER, vol. 3, cols. 117-18, BALTEAU/DICTIONNAIRE, vol. 3, cols. 522-5, and SCHNEIDER/PRACHT, p. 32. Arnold, Gottfried (1666-1714), theologian, attended the university at
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Wittenberg, where he came under the influence of Philipp Jakob Spener; under Spener’s direction Arnold went to Dresden, then to Quedlinburg, where he became a Hauslehrer. Here his Pietisic views became more extreme, and his publication in 1696 of a treatise expounding them led to his appointment as Professor of History in Gießen in 1697; returning to Quedlinburg, he embraced an even more radical form of Pietism. In 1702, he was appointed Schloßpfarrer (palace chaplain) in Altstädt; from this time his views gradually returned to a moderate form of Pietism. SeeNDB 1 (1953), pp. 385-6 Batteux, Charles Abbé (1713-80), attended the seminary at Reims; in 1734 he became Professor of Rhetoric at the Collège de TUniversité; he also taught at the Collège de Lisieux, and at the Collège de Navarre, finally obtaining the chair of Greek and Latin philosophy at the Collège de France. He became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1754, and of the Académie Française in 1761. Batteux’s most famous works dealt with aesthetics: Les BeauxArts réduits à un même principe (1747), Cours de belles-lettres distribué par exercices (1747-50), and Principes de littérature (1765). See DBF, vol. 5, cols. 817-818. Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb (1714-62), was the most celebrated pupil of Christian Wolff with whom he studied at the University of Halle. From 1735-40, Baumgarten was Dozent in Halle, and was then appointed Professor at the Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der Oder. He is celebrated for his accomplishments in the field of philosophy: the development of philosophical terminology, the systematization of the field of aesthetics, and the establishment of aesthetics as a branch of philosophy. See EISLER, p. 371. Baumgarten, Siegfried Jacob (1706-57), theologian, older brother of Alexander Baumgarten, attended the University of Halle and became Professor there in 1743; he applied the philosophical concepts of Christian Wolff to theology, thereby buttressing orthodox dogma with rationalistic argument as well as historical-critical exegesis. See NDB 1 (1953), p. 660. Berg, Christian von (1717-89) Royal Prussian Court Councilor, first, Director of the Upper Court of the Uckermark, then Governor of the Uckermark. Berg was also a canon, then Senior of the Cathedral in Halberstadt. See MEUSEL/ LEXIKON, vol. 1, pp. 326-7. Bielfeld, Jakob Friedrich, Baron von (c. 1716-70), left his native Hamburg in 1732 to attend the University in Leyden, then traveled in the Netherlands, France, and England. In 1738 he was in Braunschweig, where he attracted the attention of Friedrich, Crown Prince of Prussia. After his accession, Friedrich II entrusted Bielfeld with missions to Hanover and London. In 1743 Bielfeld became an honorary member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften. In 1745 he was appointed Gouverneur to the king’s youngest brother, Prince August Ferdinand, and in 1747 he became Curator of all Prussian universities, and Director of the Hospital in Berlin (see n. 16). In 1748 he was elevated to the rank of Baron and became a Privy Councilor. In 1755 he left the service of Prussia to retire to his estate in Altenburg. Bielfeld was an active Freemason and held high positions in several lodges. During
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his last years, he was editor of the Wochenschrift titled Der Eremit (Leipzig, 1767-9). ADB, vol. 2, p. 624, and LENNHOFF/FREIMAURER, p. 462. Bodmer, Johann Jakob (1698-1783), historian, poet, translator, and celebrated Zürich literary critic of the early eighteenth century, was expected to become a pastor like his father. After an unsuccessful attempt to go into business, Bodmer turned to teaching school in Zürich, and numbered Salomon Geßner, J. C. Hirzel, J. C. Lavater, and J. H. Pestalozzi among his pupils. He is best known today as a coauthor, with Johann Jakob Breitinger, of the Discourse der Mahler (1721-3). This journal, influenced by Joseph Addison’s journal, The Spectator, established his reputation as a literary critic and aesthetician. See NDB 2 (1955), pp. 362-3. Boileau, Nicolas (Despréaux) (1636-1711), attended the Collège d’Harcourt in 1645, where he was tonsured, then the Collège de Beauvais to study theology; he left in 1752 to study law and was admitted to the bar in Paris in 1656; Boileau’s real interest lay in letters, however: in 1660, he published his first Satires; between 1668 and 1677, his Epîtres, Lutrin, and U A rt poétique. In the latter work, he established standards of literary criticism, and sorted out rules of poetry. Among his friends were Molière, La Fontaine, and Racine; he also made many enemies, and towards the end of his life his works were interdicted by the king. Boileau’s writings nevertheless exerted considerable influence among literati throughout the eighteenth century. See DBF, vol. 6 (1954), cols. 794-5. Breitinger, Johann Jakob (1701-76), bom and educated in Zürich, was a theologian, philologist, and co-author with Johann Jakob Bodmer of the Discourse der Mahler (1721-23). In 1740 he published his most important work, Critische Dichtkunst (with an introduction by Bodmer), in which he propounded a theory of the fine arts. See NDB 2 (1955), p. 578, and ADB 3 (1876), p. 295. Brühl, Count Heinrich von (1700-1763), whose father had been forced to dispose of the family estate, began his career at the Saxon court as a Silberpage. Although he had little education, and no training for the military, he advanced rapidly from one post to another, among them General of the Infantry, General Intendant of the Court Opera, and, in 1746, Prime Minister; he contrived to retain his previous appointments as he acquired new ones, and to amass from them a considerable income, several landed estates, a library of 70,000 volumes, and a large collection of paintings. Accounts of Brühl’s life have generally painted him as a political opportunist, the author of intrigues against Prussia. A more recent assessment of his historical importance describes as significant his contribution to the economic life of Saxony as a manufacturer of porcelain, and to its cultural life through his art collections and his involvement with opera, and also describes his political policies as appropriate to the situation in which Saxony found itself in the eighteenth century. See ADB, vol. 3 (1876), pp. 411-17, and NDB, vol. 2 (1955), 660-62. Büttner, David Siegmund August (1724-68), left his birthplace, Chemnitz, at the age of four to be educated in Berlin under the tutelage of his great-grandfather Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734). When Stahl died, the boy found a stepfather in Professor Michael Matthias Ludolph (see n. 28). In 1737 Büttner, interested in
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Ludolph’s field of botany, decided to devote himself to the study of herbs. After attending the Gymnasium and the College of Medicine in Berlin, he attended the universities at Helmstedt (1744) and Göttingen. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 19,84, 86,88, 89,91,95,103,117,126,129,135,136, and HANNOVER, vol. 1, p. 315. Christiani, C arl Andreas (1707-80), attended the universities both in his native Königsberg and in Halle. In 1736 he was appointed Inspector of the Gröbenisches Stipendienhaus, a post he held until 1749, when he was appointed Professor in Ordinary of General Philosophy at the University in Königsberg. See ADELUNG/JÖCHER (1787), col. 319, and MEUSEL/LEXIKON, vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1803), p. 103. C laproth, Johann Christian (1715—48), bom in Osterode in the Harz region, accomplished much in his short life. He studied philosophy and mathematics, then law, at the university in Jena. He went to Göttingen in 1734, received a doctorate in law there in 1739, became Professor Extraordinary of Jurisprudence in 1741, and was promoted to Ordinarius in 1744. In 1746, he became Royal British and Braunschweig-Lüneburg Councilor. See ADB, vol. 4 (1876), pp. 274-5; HANNOVER, I, p. 368; JÖCHER, vol. 2, p. 1750. Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729), English philosopher, clergyman, and disciple of Isaac Newton. Among his published works are a translation into English (1706) of Newton’s Optics, The Scripture Doctrine o f the Trinity (1712), his correspondence with Leibniz concerning the principles of natural philosophy and religion, and a collection of sermons (1724). See NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, vol. 4, pp. 443-6. Cooper, Anthony Ashley, T hird E arl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), grandson of the first earl, was educated by John Locke, personal physician and political adviser to the first earl (1621-83), according to the principles laid out in Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Shaftesbury had a brief political career as a Whig, but withdrew from politics in 1703 and spent the rest of his life writing philosophical treatises, mostly ethical in nature. Shaftesbury’s name appears in Gleim’s correspondence between 1745 and 1752. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 6, 51, 88, 116, 139, 148, 150, 151, 167, 221, 234, 244, 291, 297, 325, 328, 332, 340, and 351; and GLEIM/UZ, pp. 118, 134, and 207; NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, vol.4, pp. 1055-8 Cocceji, Samuel, Baron von (1679-1755), was the third and youngest son of Heinrich von Cocceji (1644-1719), a jurist who had distinguished himself by his contributions to the development of the theory of jurisprudence. Samuel Cocceji attended the University in Leyden, where he also studied jurisprudence. In 1702, after completing a Bildungsreise through Italy, France, England, and Holland, he was appointed Professor-in-Ordinary of law at the Viadrina University in Frankfurt an der Oder. During the next year, he completed his doctoral dissertation under the direction of his father, who was the most eminent member of the Spruchfakultät (Faculty of Law) at the Viadrina. Although Samuel Cocceji continued to publish treatises dealing with the theoretical aspects of the law, he also directed his efforts to its more practical aspects. See ADB, vol. 4 (1876), pp. 373-6, and NDB 3 (1957), 300-302.
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Cocheus, Leonhard (1718-79), was bom in Königsberg, East Pmssia, into a family whose members had distinguished themselves in ecclesiastical and civil careers. In spite of keen interests in music, Latin, and philosophy, Cocheus became a preacher, like his father. He attended the University in Marburg while Christian Wolff was professor there, and became an admirer of Wolff. Cocheus was Conrector of the College of the Werder in Berlin, then Royal Court Preacher in Potsdam. In 1777, after he had won recognition for his prize-winning monograph, Untersuchungen über die Neigungen (1767), he was appointed by the king to membership of the Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften at Berlin. See DENINA, vol. 1 (1790), pp. 341-2; ADELUNG/JÖCHER, 2 (1787), col. 389. C ram er, Johann Andreas (1723-88), attended the Fürstenschule in Grimma, then the University of Leipzig; in 1745 he became Magister; in 1748 he acquired a pastorate in Cröllwitz (near Merseburg); in 1750-54 he was Oberhofprediger in Quedlinburg, and it was here that he founded a Wochenschrift titled Der Nordische Aufseher, in 1774, he was appointed Professor at the University in Kiel, where he became Prokansler. Cramer was celebrated for his poetic translation of the Psalms in four volumes (Leipzig, 1755-64). See NDB, vol. 3 (1957), pp. 389-90. Cum berland, William Augustus, Duke of (1721-65), second surviving son of George II, was intended by his parents to be an admiral in the navy, but settled emphatically on a career in the army. By 1740 he had become a colonel in the Coldstream Guards, and by the time he was 25, he had defeated the forces of Charles Edward, the Stuart pretender to the English throne, at the battle of Culloden (16 April 1746). This quick victory, together with Cumberland’s merciless pursuit and slaughter of the enemy, earned for him a reputation as a great commander, and also the nickname “butcher of Culloden.” His career was far less successful in subsequent battles with the French, and in 1748 he retired to his estates in England until his entry into his country’s army in April 1757. See NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, vol. 61, pp. 337-48. Darget, Etienne (c. 1712—78) was bom in Paris. Very little is known of his life before 1744, when he came to Berlin as secretary to the Marquis de Valori, who was the French ambassador to the court of Friedrich II. The king, impressed with Darget, requested his services from Valori, giving Darget the double title of Lecteur and Secrétaire des Commandemens, and, because his duties included reading the memoirs composed by the king to the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Darget was made an honorary member of the Akademie. He married the sister of a M. César, whom Denina (1790) describes as “presently” Privy Councilor and General Treasurer of the Excises. Denina reports that, after Darget’s wife died, he became the butt of Voltaire’s caustic wit; he then asked to return to France to consult French physicians about his health, and was granted permission for this. After two years, he received his dismissal from Friedrich II, who continued to furnish him with recommendations for positions (see DENINA II, 352-3). Dippel, Johann C onrad (1673-1734), theologian and “alchemist,” attended the University at Gießen, where he studied theology in 1689; in the conflict between
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orthodoxy and Pietism, he took the part of orthodoxy at first. Dippel tried unsuccessfully to become docent at Gießen, Wittenberg, and Strassburg; he lived for a time in Strassburg, where he became acquainted with the moderate Pietism of Philipp Jakob Spener; he returned to Darmstadt, his birthplace, and then in 1697-98 returned to Gießen, where he was taught by Gottfried Arnold. Dippel was polemical in his radical Pietist views, and from this time on was unable to hold a pastorate, or even at times to stay in places where he had attacked orthodoxy and those persons who held orthodox views (Swedish territories in Germany, the Netherlands, Altona, a Danish territory); in 1729 he fled to Berleburg, where he remained until his death. See NDB 3 (1957), pp. 737-8. Dubos, Jean-Baptiste, Abbé (1670-1742), celebrated and influential writer on aesthetics. Although Dubos was tonsured and called “Abbé,” he never actually became a priest; however, he traveled widely, and acquired much learning; in 1700 he was attached to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at first publishing works on the subject of history and politics. His most famous work was Reflexions critiques sur la poësie et sur la peinture (1719) which appeared in many editions throughout the eighteenth century; this work earned Dubos election to the Académie Française. Dubos believed that “beauty” is relative, being dependent on its country, times, and customs, and that it comes from the creative personality, rather than from precise rules. See DBF, vol. 11 (1967), cols. 1006-1007. Edelm ann, Johann C hristian (1698-1767), whose early religious orientation, derived from a Pietist background, eventually turned against the writings of Arnold and Dippel (see GLOSSARY), and became hostile to the Herrnhuter Brudergemeine (the Pietist sect originally located on the estate of Count Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf). Edelmann was equally opposed to what he considered the hypocrisy of established religions and to the views of Leibniz, which he considered dangerously optimistic, and to those of Christian Wolff, which he considered lukewarm. Unable and unwilling to find a living in the church, Edelmann spent many years as a tutor. Later he traveled from one place to another as artisan and writer, sometimes receiving support and contributions from those who were sympathetic to his views, at other times forced to leave after having aroused bitter opposition to his preaching. In 1747, at the urging of friends, he came to Berlin for the second time. Ludwig Geiger, who describes Edelmann’s career at considerable length, points out that, in retrospect, his views do not seem radical for a man of the Enlightenment. But Edelmann’s excessive language, together with his violent attacks on almost everyone who did not share his views, seem to have made him a center of controversy, particularly when he arrived in Berlin in 1747. He is mentioned at this time in Gleim’s correspondences with Ramier and Uz. See ADB, vol. 5 (1877), pp. 639-10, GEIGER/BERLIN, pp. 343-53, ADELUNG/JÖCHER (1787), vol. 2, cols. 828-30, GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 92 and 98, and GLEIM/UZ, p. 206. Euler, Leonhard (1707-1783), was bom in Basel, where he studied mathematics with Jean Bernoulli, younger brother of Jacques Bernoulli. Euler also studied theology, oriental languages, and medicine; in 1727 he was engaged to
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teach in an academy in St. Petersburg, and in 1730 was named Professor of Physics there; in 1741 he was called to Berlin by Friedrich II and appointed a member of the Berlin Academy (Sulzer seems to have met him shortly after his arrival in Berlin). In addition to his important work in the field of mathematics, Euler made contributions to music, astronomy, hydrodynamics, and optics, and became involved in the German intellectual life of his time. He favored the removal of metaphysics from the field of physics; he was in conflict with Christian Wolff and his followers, who wanted to derive the fundamentals of physics from their principles; he deplored the attacks on the Christian religion by Freigeister (freethinkers, often armchair philosophers with a only smattering of knowledge about the latest developments in the sciences). In 1766 Euler was invited to return to St. Petersburg and spent the rest of his life there. See NDB 4 (1959), pp. 688-9. Fouqué, Heinrich August, B aron de la M otte (1698-1774), who had entered the military service of the King of Denmark, was persuaded, immediately after the accession of Friedrich II of Prussia (1740), to return to the Prussian service. As a trusted adviser of the king, he served in the first and second Silesian Wars and in the Seven Years’ War, and was continually rewarded with honors (including the Order of the Black Eagle and the position of Domprobst in Brandenburg). See ADB 7 (1876), 201-2, and KÖNIG/HELDEN, vol. I (1788), pp. 432-4. On Carl Heinrich Baron de la Motte Fouqué de Saint-Surin, see KÖNIG/HELDEN III (1790), p. 340. See also KLEIST/SAUER III, pp. 67, and II, p. 103. Geliert, C hristian Fürchtegott (1715-70), the son of a Lutheran preacher of moderate means, attended the Fürstenschule St. Afra in Meißen and received his entire university education in Leipzig. He was appointed Professor in the Fakultät fü r schöne Künste, Moral und Redekunst in Leipzig in 1751, and remained there for the rest of his life, earning a reputation as the author of fables, plays, novels, and spiritual poems. See GELLERT/WERKE, vol. 1, pp. 7-26,151-2. Goldbeck, Johann Friedrich (b. 1748), chaplain of an infantry regiment in Gaudenz, West Prussia, was the author of devotional poems (1778), and of books on Prussian literature (1781) and on the education of orphan children (1785). See DENINA, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1791), Supplement, p. 112, and GV, vol. 48, p. 227. Gram m ont, Count Philibert (1621-1707), whose family had envisioned for him a career in the church, soon demonstrated a preference for life at court. He had a short career in the military (1668-72), then occupied a few unimportant posts; it was in his chosen métier that he found the greatest distinction: the life of a dashing, gallant, and frivolous courtier. Exiled in 1662 by Louis XIV, Grammont went to England, where he found the dissolute court of Charles II to his liking. Grammont married Elizabeth Hamilton, and was eventually permitted to return to France with his wife. At the age of 80 he was still famous for his elegance, his galanteries, and his amorous conquests. It was at this time that his brother-in-law, Anthony Hamilton (1646-1720), wrote the satirical Mémoires. Fontenelle, who was then censor, refused to allow them to be published, however, and it was not until 1713 that they appeared in a first edition. See HOEFER, vol. 21 (1857), cols. 622-5. G raun, C arl Heinrich (1704-59), received early musical training as a chorister
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in the Dresden Kreuzschule, and studied with J. C. Schmidt, Kapellmeister of the Dresden opera. In 1725 he was engaged as a tenor in the Braunschweig opera, but soon became vie ^-Kapellmeister, with the responsibility of composing operas. Friedrich, Crown Prince of Prussia, on the occasion of his marriage to Elizabeth Christine of Braunschweig-Bevem in 1733, heard an opera by C. H. Graun, and sought immediately to engage him. By 1735 Graun had obtained leave to enter Friedrich’s service, and became his Kapellmeister, a post that he held until his death. On both Graun brothers see GROVE2, vol. 10, pp. 306-7, and MGG, Personenteil, vol. 7 (2002), cols. 1506-15. Graun, Johann Gottlieb (1703-71), entered the Kreuzschule in Dresden in 1713 as a student, and, while in Dresden, studied with the distinguished court violinist, Johann Georg Pisendel. After leaving the Kreuzschule, he studied the violin with Giuseppe Tartini, possibly in Italy, or in Prague (Tartini spent several months in Prague in 1723). Graun held positions briefly in Merseburg and Arolsen; in 1732 he became chamber musician to Friedrich, Prussian crown prince in Ruppin, and, on Friedrich’s accession to the throne, he was appointed Konzertmeister. Gresset, Jean Baptiste Louis (1709-77), was educated by Jesuits, and joined their order at the age of 16, but left it before long, having displayed a facile gift for elegant poetry, and having won critical acclaim for his verses at the age of 24. Gresset then devoted himself to the study and composition of literature, and settled in his native Amiens, where he found an atmosphere that was quieter than the effervescence of Paris, and more conducive to his work. Between 1740 and 1745 he tried his hand at writing tragedies, but quickly realized that he was more successful at lighter styles. Despite an invitation from Friedrich II to join the other French philosophes in Berlin and Potsdam, he chose to remain in Amiens. See HOEFER, vol. 21 (1857), cols. 937^16, and GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 117-18. Grunberg, Martin (1655-1707), who had held the title of Landmesser (Overseer of Construction) in the Kurmark since 1688, continued the construction of the Berlin Arsenal, begun in 1695, until the project was taken over in 1698 by Andreas Schliiter. See THIEME/BECKER, vol. 25 (1931), pp. 390-91, and vol. 15 (1922), pp. 128-9; LADENDORF/SCHLUTER, pp. 5-32; LADENDORF/ BILDHAUER, pp. 10-14. Guichard, Carl Gottlieb (1724-75), also known as “Quintus Icilius,” was a member of a Huguenot family from Savoy; bom in Magdeburg, Guichard pursued theological, philosophical, and oriental studies in Halle, Magdeburg, Herbom, Leiden, and London; he became useful to Friedrich II because of his varied experience (he had been an officer in a Dutch regiment, and had held various administrative posts); during his career, Guichard was Court Councilor, judge, and syndic; in 1764 he became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences; in 1772 he was promoted to colonel in the army; in 1759 Friedrich II, referring to an alleged Roman centurion named Caecilius, is said to have dubbed Guichard “Icilius,” a name by which he was also known by many of his contemporaries. See NDB 7 (1965), p. 297.
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Hadik von Futak, Andreas Graf (1710-1790), Austrian field marshal of Hungarian descent, was educated by Jesuit,s and originally intended to enter their order; he was persuaded by his father to enter the military, and joined a hussar regiment in 1730; he distinguished himself by a talent for reconnoitering and by his bravery; by 1742 he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel; while stationed in Silesia, he won both the admiration of Prince Lichnowsky and the hand of Lichnowsky’s daughter; Hadik rapidly advanced in rank, and by 1756 was a lieutenant field marshal; his most famous exploit was his expedition to Berlin, which he seized on 15 October 1757 in the name of the Austrian empress; he demanded and received a ransom of 300,000 Taler, which he distributed among his troops; after 24 hours, he then left Berlin, having learned that Prince Moritz of Dessau was a day’s march from the Prussian capital. Hadik was awarded the GroBkreuz of the Maria Theresia Order. See NDB, vol. 7 (1965), p. 417. Haude, Ambrosius (1690-1748), bom in Schweidnitz (today Swidnica) in Silesia, was a resident of Berlin by 1723. In that year, he married the granddaughter of the theologian Philipp Jakob Spener, and received a license as Buchfiihrer (book dealer) from Friedrich Wilhelm I. He published the Journal de Berlin in French and the Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen (later the Haude & Spenersche Zeitung), one of Berlin’s leading newspapers in the eighteenth century. See NDB, vol. 8 (Berlin [1969]), 79-80. Houdar de la Motte, Antoine (1672-1731), prepared at first for a career in law, then turned to the theater; his first comedy (1693) was a failure, and he retired in discouragement for two months, then returned to Paris to write opera libretti with great success. In 1707 he published a collection of Odes, and, in 1710, was elected to the Académie Française. Houdar subsequently became embroiled in a quarrel over the “ancients” and the “modems,” in which he was allied with Fontenelle on the side of the “modems,” and at variance with Anne Dacier, who represented the “ancients.” See DBF, vol. 17 (1989), cols. 1324-35. Keith, James R. (1696-1758), bom in Inverugie, near Peterhead, Scotland, was trained for a career in law, and, according to Denina, had a continuing interest in the sciences and in belles lettres. In 1719, he was forced to leave Scotland because of his involvement in the attempts of the Stuart pretender to obtain the English throne. He served in the army of Philip V of Spain until 1728, when he entered the Russian military service. At the invitation of Friedrich II, Keith joined the Prussian army in 1747, with the rank of field marshal. He was quickly awarded the title of Governor of Berlin and the Order of the Black Eagle; the Akademie der Wissenschaften made him an honorary member. See ADB, vol. 15 (1889), pp. 553-5, and DENINA, vol. II, pp. 321-31. La Mettrie, Julien Offray de (1709-51), was bom at Saint-Malo in Brittany, and acquired an education in the humanities at provincial colleges in Coutances and Caen. Continuing his education at the Collège du Plessis in Paris, he apparently became a Jansenist for a short time. From 1725 he turned to philosophy, natural science, and to the study of medicine. Although trained and certified in French universities to practice medicine, he became dissatisfied with the medical education
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he had received, and in 1733 went to Leyden, where he studied with the renowned Hermann Boerhaave. La Mettrie’s earliest published writings were, aside from translations of Boerhaave’s works, his own monographs on medical topics. After a period of two years (1742-1744) as regimental physician in the War of the Austrian Succession, La Mettrie turned to writing “philosophical” works, many of which earned him the animosity of clerics and physicians. In 1748 he published L ’Homme machine, one of his most celebrated works. See LA METTRIE/ VARTANIAN, pp. 1-12; HOEFER, vol. 29, cols. 212-15. Lange, Samuel Gotthold (1711-81) and Jakob Im m anuel P yra (1715^14) (see Introduction, p. 23, and passim), were co-authors of a book of poems, Thirsis und Damons freundschaftliche Lieder (1745). Lange was the author of other writings which celebrated the mid-century cult of friendship. Lange joined other critics in the attack on Johann Christoph Gottsched, but in the 1750s Lange himself became the target of scathing attacks by Lessing, from which his reputation never recovered. See ADB, vol. 9 (1879), pp. 497-508,578. Laudon, E rnst Gideon, F reiherr von (1717-90), Austrian field marshal, was from a family dedicated to the military; his career included service in the Swedish and Polish armies; in 1753 he became lieutenant colonel in the Austrian army; in 1759 he took part in the battle of Kunersdorf; he suffered losses at Liegnitz (1760) and Bunzelwitz (1761); after the Peace of Hubertusberg, he sought non-military occupations. See NDB, vol. 13 (1982), pp. 700-702. Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1676-1747), known as “der alte Dessauer,” was from an early age inclined to a military career; in 1688 he joined an Imperial regiment, and in 1693 a Brandenburg regiment; he served in numerous campaigns, and by 1712 had attained the rank of field marshal; after a hiatus of almost 20 years, he served under Friedrich II; Dessau was responsible for the Prussian victory at Kesselsdorf on 15 December 1745, a turning point in the Second Silesian War; he was celebrated for his fierce determination and courage in battle, and was instrumental in developing the rigorous discipline of the Prussian army. See NDB 14 (1984), pp. 266-8. M aaß, Nicolaus. Most of the information about Maaß’s life is found in the correspondence of members of Gleim’s circle. Maaß’s name appears in two of Krause’s other letters to Gleim (nos. 4 and 6, D-HTgl 2335 and 2337) and in Gleim’s correspondence with Ramler and Kleist between July 1746 and 8 May 1754 (see GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 42, 63, 72, 83, 87, and 88, and KLEIST/ SAUER D, pp. 82-3, 90, and III, pp. 26, 35, 43, 45-6, 48, 52, 58, and 147). In a letter dated 21 February 1747, Gleim informs Johann Peter Uz that “Herr Maaß,” who has been a tutor to the sons of the government minister Count von Podewils, will leave to become a professor in Stettin (GLEIM/UZ, p. 158). After his departure - probably in September 1747 - Maaß continued to correspond with the circle of friends in Berlin; Schüddekopf describes Maaß as an out-of-town member (“auswärtiges Mitglied”) of the Montagsklub in Berlin (see n. 173). A collection of seven letters from Maaß to Ramler (written between 30 July 1753 and 12 June 1755) deals with Maaß’s efforts, ultimately unsuccessful, to obtain for Ramler a professorate in Eloquence and Poetry
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in Stettin. In a letter to Gleim dated 31 January 1757, Maaß’s death is reported by Johann Joachim Spalding, who says he would have forgiven his friend’s unbelief, had it not derived from a desire to be fashionable. See SCHÜDDEKOPF/RAMLER, p. 25, originals of the letters from Maaß to Ramier in Nationale Forschungs- und Gedenkstätten der klassischen deutschen Literatur in Weimar, copies by Carl Schüddekopf in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel: MS. Novissimi 102, no. 24, pp. 88-103, and SPALDING/GLEIM, pp. 132. M attheson, Johann (1681-1764), a native of Hamburg and arguably the most important German music theorist, journalist, and critic of the early eighteenth century. After leaving the Johanneum (Hamburg’s most distinguished Gymnasium), Mattheson decided to study music instead of attending a university. He spent 15 years (1690-1705) with the Hamburg opera, in which he sang and conducted, and for which he composed; between 1715 and 1728 he was Kantor of the Cathedral in Hamburg. Concurrent with his musical activities, he pursued another career: in 1704 he became tutor to Cyril Wich, son of Sir John Wich, the English Resident in Hamburg. After studying English intensively for two years, Mattheson was made secretary to the Resident, a post that he held until 1755; in 1741 he received the title of Legation Secretary to the Duke of Holstein. In 1744 he was promoted to Legations-Rat. As the translator of many English works into German (including The Tatler, The Spectator, and Richardson’s Pamela), Mattheson played a significant role in the transmission of English literature to Germany during the eighteenth century. In 1713 he published Das Neu-Eröffnete Orchestre, the first of his more than 25 theoretical and critical writings on music. The most famous and important of these, Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), was undoubtedly known to Krause - perhaps it was this book which he sent to Spalding. See CANNON, 18-108, and GROVE2, vol. 16. pp. 139-44. M aupertuis, Pierre Louis M oreau de (1698-1759), a native of St. Malo, studied mathematics and philosophy from 1714 to 1716 at the Collège de la Marche in Paris. After serving briefly in the French army in 1720, he became an adjunct for Geometry in the Académie des Sciences in Paris. As a result of a trip to London in 1728 he became a passionate advocate of Newtonian doctrines. In 1736 he made a trip to Lapland, where he verified the theories of Newton and Huygens concerning the flattening of the earth at the poles. See HOEFER, vol. 34 (1861), cols. 384-94, and ADB, vol. 20 (1884), pp. 691-3. M einhard, Johann Nicolaus (1727-67), matriculated at the university in Helmstedt in 1746 as a student of theology, but left his studies after two years. By 1751, he had once more enrolled in a university, this time studying philology and literature at Göttingen. In 1760, he received a Master’s degree at Helmstedt, and became a Docent for a short time. For the next two years, he attached himself to the literary circle in Braunschweig, particularly to Zachariä (see n. 265 and GLOSSARY), but, when offered a professorate at the Carolinum there, he refused it, and set out once again in search of new horizons. In 1763^4, he published the work that won him praise from Gleim and UZ: Versuche über den Charakter und die Werke der besten italienischen Dichter. See ADB, vol. 21 (1885),
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pp. 232-4; GOEDEKE, pp. 157-8; GLEIM/UZ, pp. 332, 344, 363, 371, 373, 375, 380, 387. M izler von Kolof, Lorenz C hristoph (1711-78), physician, mathematician, and music journalist, was bom in Wettelsheim in the principality of Anspach. He attended the University of Leipzig in 1731-34, and, presumably at this time, became an admirer of J. S. Bach, whom he later invited to become a member of his Societät der musikalischen Wissenschaften. With his lectures on Mattheson’s Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre at the University of Leipzig in 1737, he became the first scholar in 150 years to lecture on music at a German university. In 1743 he became secretary to Count Malachowski of Konskie in Poland. After taking a medical degree at Erfurt, he returned to Warsaw, where he became court physician, and enjoyed a distinguished career as a scholar. He was ennobled in 1768. Mizler’s most famous work was the Neu eröffnete musikalische Bibliothek ... (Leipzig, 1739), a journal in which he tried to establish a musical system based on mathematics, science, and philosophy. See GROVE2, vol. 16, pp. 770-71. Nering, Johann Arnold (1659-95), who held the title of Kurfürstlicher Oberbaudirektor (Chief Architect to the Elector) began the construction of the Berlin Arsenal in 1695, the year of his death. Nering had been entrusted by Friedrich Wilhelm with the construction of many buildings, including the Schloßkapelle in Köpenick, the Stadtschloß and Orangerie in Potsdam, the Alabastersaal in the Berliner Schloß, many private buildings in the Friedrichstadt quarter of Berlin, the Schloß in Oranienburg, and the Parochialkirche in Berlin. See THIEME/BECKER, vol. 25 (1931), pp. 390-91, and vol. 15 (1922), pp. 128-9; LADENDORF/SCHLÜTER, pp. 5-32; LADENDORF/BILDHAUER, pp. 10-14. Nicolai, C hristoph Friedrich (1733-1811), from a family of book dealers, attended the Joachimsthale Gymnasium, Berlin, and the Lateinschule of the Halle Waisenhaus; in 1748, he attended the Hecker Realschule in Berlin; between 1749 and 1752 he entered the book dealership in 1753 after his father’s death, and became its director in 1758; he founded the Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek, a periodical organ of criticism of the arts, and, with other publications, contributed to the growth of literary criticism in Germany; Nicolai was a friend of Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Quantz, Sulzer, and Ramier. See NDB 19 (1998), pp. 201-203. Nicolai, Gottlob Samuel (1725-65), brother of Christoph Friedrich, studied in Berlin and Halle where he received a master’s degree in 1747; from 1749 he held various appointments in philosophy at the University in Frankfurt an der Oder; in 1760 he was appointed Ordinarius; he went on to teach theology and metaphysics at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Zerbst where he also had a pastorate at the Dreyfaltigkeitskirche; in 1761, he received a doctorate in theology from the university in Tübingen. He was the author of many philosophical and theological works. See MEUSEL/LEXIKON, vol. 10 (Leipzig, 1810), pp. 89-101. Patin, Guy (1602-72), a native of Beauvais, France, was directed at first towards a legal, then towards an ecclesiastical career. After finishing his studies at the Collège de Boncourt in Paris, however, he chose to study medicine. An advantageous marriage enabled him to pursue his medical research and to practice
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without distraction, and, in 1654, he was appointed Professor at the Collège de France in Paris. His lectures were attended as much for the elegance of his Latin as for their medical content. Patin achieved his greatest celebrity for his letters to friends, published posthumously, which contain information about medical developments during his lifetime and about the mores and literature of his day. The first collection, Lettres choisies, depuis 1645jusqu'en 1672, was published in 1692, and appeared in expanded editions in 1715-16 and 1725; two further collections were published: Nouveau Recueil de lettres choisies (1695) and Nouvelles Lettres du feu M. Guy Patin, tirées du cabinet de M. Charles Spon (1718). See HOEFER, vol. 39 (1862), cols. 327-31. Patzke, Johann Samuel Patzke (1727-87), after a childhood of great privation, and having succeeded in finishing Oberschule, attended the universities in Frankfurt an der Oder and Halle, where he studied theology. From 1750 he published poems and dramas, two Wochenschriften, Der Greis and Der Wohlthäter, and, in 1760, a collection of Freundschaftliche Briefe. During his lifetime, Patzke held pastorates in various parts of Germany. See ADB 25 (1887), pp. 238-40. Plessis-Richelieu, Louis François A rm and du (1696-1788), Marshal of France and grand-nephew of the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu. Du Plessis was known for his frivolity and galanteries during his youth; in this period of his life he was involved in a duel, and was imprisoned in the Bastille three times. He entered Parlement in 1721; from 1725 to 1729 he was Ambassador to Vienna. Eventually he turned to the military, and by 1733 was a colonel; he became a lieutenant general in 1738. Du Plessis reached the summit of his career in 1745, playing an important role in the battle of Fontenoy; in 1746 he was appointed ambassador to Dresden. In 1756, the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, he drove the English from Minorca; in July 1757, he received command of the army of Hanover, replacing Marshal d’Estrées. The French army, famous for its hedonistic ways, was surprised and routed by the Prussians at Roßbach on 7 November 1757. Richelieu avenged this defeat by pillaging Halberstadt. He was relieved of his command in 1758 and recalled to Paris, where he returned to a life of pleasure and intrigues, and received an appointment as governor of Guienne. See HOEFER, vol. 42 (1863), cols. 220-39. Pyra, Jakob Immanuel (1715-44). See Lange. Quantz, Johann Joachim (1697-1773), learned to play several instruments as a child, and began his career in 1716 as an oboist in the band of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, in Dresden. While holding a six-year appointment (1718-23) in the Polish chapel of Augustus, who was also King of Poland, Quantz found more opportunity for advancement in playing the flute, and devoted his efforts from then on to playing and composing for that instrument. After a short period of study and travel (1724-27), he settled in Dresden again. On a visit to Berlin as a member of Augustus’s band, Quantz met Friedrich, Crown Prince of Prussia, and began to instruct him on the flute. Quantz is known today for his compositions, most of which are for flute, for his treatise, Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere
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zu spielen (1752), and for his addition (c. 1727) of a second key to the contemporary transverse flute, an instrument with a conical bore, originally with one key. See GROVE2, vol. 20, pp. 657-60. “Q uintus” (see Guichard) Ram ler, C arl Wilhelm (1725-98), bom in Kolberg in Pomerania, attended the University of Halle, and came to Berlin in 1745. Between 1746 and 1748 he held several positions as Hauslehrer, one at the home of Gleim’s sister in Lähme. In 1748 he was appointed Professor of Literature at the Kadettenschule in Berlin, a post which he held until 1790. See GLEIM/RAMLER I, p. 97, and the introduction to the present volume, pp. xii, xiv-xvi, and passim. Reich, Philipp Erasm us (1717-87), a native of Laubach in Wetterau, learned the book trade from Franz Varrentrapp of Frankfurt am Main. On completing his training, he travelled to London, then Stockholm, where he was employed as manager of a book firm. After the death of his father in 1747, he returned to Germany, and was engaged as manager of the Weidmann Buchhandlung in Leipzig; he was made an associate of the firm in 1762. ADB, vol. 27 (1888), pp. 610-14. Rollin, Charles (1661-1741), began his career at the age of 22 as Professor of Philosophy, subsequently holding chairs of rhetoric and eloquence, and advancing in 1699 to an appointment as Coadjutor of the College of Beauvais. He lost this position in 1715 as a result of his defense of the doctrines of Port Royal against the papal bull Unigenitus (issued 1713, made a law of France in 1730). Rollin remained a Jansenist throughout his life, declaring his opposition to the papal bull as late as 1739. In spite of his disputes with the church authorities, he was respected by many intellectuals of the eighteenth century. See HOEFER 42 (1863), cols. 569-71. Sanadon, Noel-Etienne (1676-1733), became a Jesuit at the age of fifteen; he studied at Caen, and became a teacher of rhetoric there; he was known for his mastery of the Latin of Virgil and Horace, and composed Latin poems for his students. Sanadon was famous in his time for a translation of the works of Horace, annotated and with commentary. See HOEFER, vol. 43 (1864), cols. 244-8. Schlüter, Andreas (d. 1714), architect and sculptor, took over the construction of the Berlin Arsenal in 1698. Schlüter, a native of Danzig in Poland (today Gdansk), had begun his career in Poland, and was called to Berlin in 1694. Schlüter exerted an even greater influence on the north German architecture of his time than had Nering. See THIEME/BECKER, vol. 25 (1931), pp. 390-91, and vol. 15 (1922), pp. 128-9; LADENDORF/SCHLÜTER, pp. 5-32; LADENDORF/ BILDHAUER, pp. 10-14. Schorlemmer, Ludwig Wilhelm von (1699-1776), originally from Hesse, joined the Prussian service in 1718, attaining in 1747 the rank of major general and the position of chief of a dragoon regiment in East Prussia. His career in the Seven Years’ War was to be less successful. Friedrich II taxed him with inaction in the battle of Großjägemdorf (30 August 1757). Schorlemmer went on to take part in some of Prussia’s most difficult and costly battles, and was even promoted to lieutenant general before being dismissed in 1760. See ADB 31 (1890), 379.
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Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, T hird Earl of (1671-1713). See Cooper. Spalding, Johann Joachim (1714-1804), was bom in Triebsees in Swedish Pomerania, the son of a pastor of Scottish descent. He was trained in theology at a Gymnasium in Stralsund and at the university at Rostock, but was uncertain for a time as to whether he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Between 1733 and 1747 he held a number of positions as tutor, and for a few months was secretary to the Swedish ambassador in Berlin. Here he met Gleim (with whom he spent much time). Spalding finally decided to become a preacher, and left Berlin early in 1747 to take a small pastorate in Lassahn, Mecklenburg. In 1757, he became Pastor and Propst in Barth, a town in Swedish Pomerania about 25 km west of Stralsund. In 1764 he was called to Berlin to replace Johann Ulrich Christian Koppen as Propst and Oberconsistorialrat (head of a governing board). He held these posts until 1788, when he was obliged by law to retire. See ADB, vol. 35 (1882), p. 30, and SPALDING/GLEIM, p. 133. Stille, C hristian Ludwig von (1696-1752), a native of Berlin, spent much of his childhood in Magdeburg where his father was Commandant. Stille pursued a military career, but also attended the universities in Helmstedt and Halle. In 1740 Friedrich II promoted Stille to the rank of colonel and appointed him tutor to Prince Heinrich, his (Friedrich’s) younger brother. See ADB, vol. 36 (1893), pp. 240-45. Sucro, Johann Georg (1722-86), was one of four sons of the Magdeburg pastor Christophoms Sucro (1685-1751). Three of these sons have at times been confused with one another - all studied with Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten (see GLOSSARY) at the University of Halle, and contributed articles to a Wochenschrift, Der Druid, founded and directed by the eldest, Christoph Joseph (1718-56). The writings of Christoph and those of the third brother, Johann Josias (1724-60), have often been attributed to Johann Georg. This brother, who became a pastor, published two or three religious monographs, a translation of Foster’s sermons (see n. 261), and a number of his own sermons for state occasions. See ADB, 37 (1894), pp. 112-15; GLEIM/RAMLER I, pp. 197, 201, 203, 208, 211, 222, 226, 233, 235; KÖRTE/ SCHWEIZER, pp. 116,129. Sulkowsky, Alexander Joseph, (1695-1762), from an aristocratic Polish family, spent much of his youth in the service of the Saxon heir apparent, and became General of the Infantry and Privy Councilor after the accession (1733) of August III of Saxony. At this time, he purchased estates from King Stanislaus Leszczynski, and was given the title of count by the Austrian Emperor Charles VI. In 1735 he took over the high command of the army in Poland; in 1737 he was placed in charge of the Saxon troops that were sent to the emperor for his campaign against the Turks. He was relieved of his command on 5 February 1738, but kept his rank as a cabinet minister. Sulkowsky retired to his Silesian estates, Lissa and Reißen. In 1754, shortly before the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, the Emperor Francis I bestowed on Sulkowsky the title of Imperial Prince. See OESTERREICH/ LEXIKON, vol. 40 (1880), 299-301.
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Sulzer, Johann Georg (1720-79), bom in Winterthur, Switzerland, attended a Gymnasium in Zürich, where he studied theology, and also pursued interests in mathematics, botany, and, under the tutelage of Bodmer and Breitinger (see n. 6), literature and aesthetic theory. After serving briefly as vicar in a village near Zürich, he accepted a position as tutor to the two sons of Heinrich Wilhelm Bachmann (1706-53), a wealthy merchant in Magdeburg. In 1747 Sulzer was awarded the post of Professor of Mathematics at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium. See ADB, vol. 37 (1894), pp. 145-7; GROVE2, vol. 24, p. 705; and KÖRTE/ SCHWEIZER, pp. 5-8. Uz, Johann Peter (1720- 96), left his birthplace, Ansbach in 1739 to attend the University in Halle, where he joined the small circle of poets inspired by Anacreon. In 1743, he returned to the region of his birth, where he became Justizsekretär. Although he continued to write poetry and to correspond with Gleim, his duties as a public official made increasing demands on his time. He died in 1796, shortly after he had been awarded the title of Geheimjustizrat. Vossius, Isaak (1618-89), bom in Leyden, acquired most of his education and spent the greater part of his life in Holland. His gifts were recognized by several rulers of his day: Queen Christine of Sweden, who engaged him as her Greek instructor (1648-54); Louis XIV, who gave him a sizeable allowance for many years; and Charles II of England, who bestowed on him a canonry in Windsor. Much was expected of Vossius, a gifted polymath and the son of a famous polymath. But despite the considerable recognition that he won during his lifetime, he seems to have disappointed many of his contemporaries by producing fewer and shallower works than were expected of him, and by acquiring a reputation for frivolity and profligacy. See ADB, vol. 40 (1896), 370-72. Weiße, C hristian Felix (1726-1804), had a long career as a dramatist, editor, translator, and also as a writer of children’s literature. In 1745 he entered the University of Leipzig, where he met Lessing and fell under his influence. Weiße became a prolific, and, in his time, a successful, writer of comedies, tragedies, and libretti for Singspiele (including several for Johann Adam Hiller). From 1759 to 1765, he was editor of the Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste, and he continued as editor of the Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und derfreyen Künste from 1765 to 1788. Between 1775 and 1782 he published a weekly magazine: Der Kinderfreund. Weiße’s name appears frequently in Gleim’s correspondence with Uz between 1758 and 1775. See ADB, vol. 41 (1896), pp. 587-90); GOEDEKE, vol. 4, p. 72; GLEIM/UZ, pp. 288,296-8, 309, 325,329,332,348,352,355,369,377,380,382,384,392,405. Z achariä, Ju st Friedrich Wilhelm (1726-72), after beginning studies in law at the university in Leipzig, decided to pursue his interest in literature. Under the tutelage of Gottsched (see n. 6), he published his first work in 1744: Die Renommisten, a comic poem in imitation of Pope’s Rape o f the Lock. Encouraged by the success of this work, he left Leipzig in 1746 to study in Göttingen. In 1748 he won a position at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig. His career was at first successful; he was active as the author of poems in several genres—among
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them, comic-heroic, moral, and anacreontic - and the redactor of collections of poems from the time of Opitz to the late eighteenth century. His work was eventually considered by eighteenth-century critics to be derivative and unoriginal. See Carl Schiiddekopf in ADB, vol. 44 (1898), pp. 634-41. Ziegler, C hristiane M ariane von (1695-1760), née Romanus, was the daughter of a prominent Leipzig family; she began to write professionally in her late 20s after she had been widowed twice; Johann Christoph Gottsched became her principal mentor. She published collections of poems titled Versuch in gebundener Schreib-Art in 1728 and 1729, and a collection of letters in 1731. She became a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft in Leipzig, winning its prize for poetry in 1732 and 1734. Mariane von Ziegler also wrote texts that J. S. Bach altered and set to music in 1725 in his cantatas (BWV 103,108, 87,128,183,74,68,175,176).
Bibliography
Manuscript Sources D-B, SA 1399-1402: Ms. copies of Krause’s musical settings of Pygmalion and Ino with texts by C. W. Ramler, in Sing-Akademie collection. D-Berlin/Dahlem, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz: H.A. Rep. 46 W89a, 103,104. D-HTa and b: Stadtarchiv Halberstadt, No. 3617: Johann Heinrich Lucanus, “Notitia Principatus Halberstadiensis oder Gründliche Beschreibung des alten löblichen Fürstenthums Halberstadt,” Parts I (1744) and II (1745). D-HTgl: Gleimhaus, Halberstadt, Germany: Mss. A2332-2381 and A5898, A5900-5901. D-HTgl: Raban Freiherr Spiegel v.u. zu Peckelsheim, Geschichte der Spiegel zum Desenberg und v.u. zu Peckelsheim zugleich ein Beitrag zur westfälischhessischen Heimatgeschichte. Ms., 1956. D-MAla: Landesarchiv Magdeburg, Germany: Rep. U8c XVI, Anhang 77, genealogy of the Hagen family prepared for Ludwig Philipp von Hagen (1724-71) in honor of his appointment as Domherr in Halberstadt. D-W: Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany: Ms. Novissimi 102, #24, pp. 88-103, copies of letters from Nicolaus Maaß to Carl Wilhelm Ramler. D-WRgs: Weimar, Nationale Forschungs- und Gedenkstätten der klassischen deutschen Literatur, Weimar, Gemany, Goethe-Schiller Archiv (GSA) 75/114. Printed Primary Sources ADELUNG/WÖRTERBUCH: Adelung, Johann Christoph Grammatisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart mit beständiger Vergleichung der übrigen Mundarten, besonders aber der Oberdeutschen (Leipzig: J. G. I. Breitkopf und Compagnie, 1793-1801). ADRES-CALENDER: Adres-Calender der Königl Preuß Haupt- und Residenzstädte Berlin, und der daselbst befindlichen hohen und niederen Collégien Instantien und Expeditionen (Berlin: Herausgegeben mit approbation der Königl. Preußischen Academie der Wissenschaften, 1748, 1749, 1751, 1752, 1753-55,1756,1757,1769, and 1770). ARCHENHOLTZ/GESCHICHTE: Archenholtz, J. W., Geschichte des siebenjährigen Krieg in Deutschland von 1756 bis 1763 (Mannheim, 1788). BATTEUX/BEAUX ARTS: Batteux, Charles, Les Beaux-arts réduits à un même principe (Paris: Durand, 1746).
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BELUSTIGUNGEN: Belustigungen des Verstandes und des Witzes (8 vols, Leipzig, 1741-5). BENDA/AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Benda, Franz, A Musician at Court: An Autobiography o f Franz Benda, trans., commentary, and annotation Douglas A. Lee (Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1998). BERLINISCHE NACHRICHTEN: Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und Gelehrten Sachen. (Berlin: 26 January 1764). BERLINISCHE PRIVELIGIRTE: Berliner Priviligirte Zeitung (Berlin: 2 January 1748). BREITKOPF/CATALOGUE: The Breitkopf Thematic Catalogue; the Six Parts and Sixteen Supplements (1762-1787), ed. Barry S. Brook (New York: Dover, c. 1966). A modem edition that includes Catalogo d e’ Soli, Duetti, Trii e Concerti per il Flauto traversiere ehe si trovano in manuscritto nella officina musica di Breitkopf in Lipsia, Parte Πίζα. 1763. BRIEFE/SCHWEIZER: Briefe der Schweizer Bodmer, Sulzer, Geßner aus Gleims litterarischem Nachlasse, ed. Wilhelm Körte (Zürich, 1804). CALVIN/LEXICON JURIDICUM: Calvin, Jean, alias Kahn, Lexicon juridicum Juris Caesarei simul, et canonici: feudalis item, civilis, criminalis: theoretici, ac practice; et in schola & in foro usitatarum, ac tum ex ipso juris utriusque corpora, tum ex doctoribus & glossis, tarn veteribus, quam recentioribus collectarum vocum penus:... (Geneva, 1622) CICERO/DEFENCE: Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Defence Speeches, trans. and annotated D. H. Berry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). CLAPROTH: Claproth, Johann Christian, Sammlung juristisch-philosophisch- und critischer Abhandlungen (Göttingen, 1742-3). CRAMER/PSALMEN: Cramer, Johann Andreas, Poetische Uebersetzung der Psalmen mit Abhandlungen über dieselben, 4 pts (Leipzig: B. C. Breitkopf, 1755,1759,1763,1764). DENINA: Denina, Charles Jean Marie, Abbé, La Prusse littéraire sous Frédéric II (3 vols, Berlin, 1790-91). DUBOS/REFLEXIONS: Dubos, Jean-Baptiste, Abbé, Reflexions critiques sur la Poésie et sur la Peinture (1719), 4th ed., revised, corrected and augmented by the author (3 vols, Paris: P.-J. Mariette, 1740). ENTICK: Entick, the Rev. John Entick, The General History o f the Late War: containing it’s [sic] Rise, Progress, and Event in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Am erica... 3rd. ed. (5 vols, London, 1765). FORKEL/LITTERATUR: Johann Nicolaus Forkel, Allgemeine Litteratur der Musik (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1792). FRIEDRICH/WERKE: Friedrich der Große, Werke, German transi. Friedrich von Oppeln-Bronikowski and Thassilo von Scheffer (10 vols, Berlin 1913). GELLERT/WERKE: Geliert, Christian Fürchtegott, Werke, ed. Gottfried Honnefeider (Frankfurt/M, 1979). GLEIM/RAMLER: Briefwechsel zwischen Gleim und Ramier, ed. Carl Schüddekopf, Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, nos. 241-2, 243 (2 vols, Tübingen, 1906,1907).
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GLEIM/SCHERZHAFT: Gleim, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig, Versuch in Scherzhaften Liedern und Lieder, ed. Alfred Anger, Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke, Neue Folge, 13 (Tübingen, 1964). GLEIM/UZ: Briefwechsel zwischen Gleim und Uz, ed. Carl Schüddekopf, Bibliothek des Litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, no. 218 (Tübingen, 1899). GOTTSCHED/WERKE: Gottsched, Johann Christoph, Ausgewählte Werke, ed. Joachim Birke and Brigitte Birke (Berlin, New York, 1973). GRÄFE/SAMMLUNG: Gräfe, Johann Friedrich, Sammlung verschiedener und auserlesener Oden, zu welchen von den berühmtesten Meistern in der Music eigene Melodeyen verfertiget worden (4 vols, Halle, 1737,1739,1741,1743). GRAMMONT: Hamilton, Anthony. Mémoires de la vie du Comte de Grammont contenant particulièrement Vhistoire amoureuse de la cour d'Angleterre, sous le regne de Charles IL (Cologne, 1713). HAGEDORN/ODEN: Hagedorn, Friedrich von, Oden und Lieder in fü n f Büchern (Hamburg: Joh. Carl Bohn, 1747). Appended to this collection of Hagedorn’s poems are two treatises by Louis Jouard de la Nauze: Abhandlungen von den Liedern der alten Griechen. HILLER/NACHRICHTEN: Hiller, Johann Adam, Wöchentliche Nachrichten die Musik betreffend. (4 vols, Leipzig, 1767-70). KARSCH/MEIN BRUDER: (