Two Boston Brahmins in Goethe's Germany: The Travel Journals of Anna and George Ticknor

Two Boston Brahmins in Goethe’s Germany

Two Boston Brahmins in Goethe’s Germany The Travel Journals of Anna and George Ticknor

EDITED BY THOMAS ADAM AND GISELA METTELE

LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Oxford

LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, MD 20706 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2009 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ticknor, Anna, 1800–1885. Two Boston Brahmins in Goethe’s Germany : the travel journals of Anna and George Ticknor / edited by Thomas Adam and Gisela Mettele. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-2911-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-2912-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-3830-4 (electronic) 1. Germany—Description and travel. 2. Germany—Social life and customs—19th century. 3. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 1749–1832. 4. Ticknor, Anna, 1800–1885— Diaries. 5. Ticknor, George, 1791–1871—Diaries. 6. Ticknor, Anna, 1800–1885— Travel—Germany. 7. Ticknor, George, 1791–1871—Travel—Germany. 8. Americans— Travel—Germany—History—19th century. 9. Boston (Mass.)—Biography. 10. Upper class—Massachusetts—Boston—Biography. I. Ticknor, George, 1791–1871. II. Adam, Thomas. III. Mettele, Gisela. IV. Title. DD39.T53 2009 914.304'730922—dc22 2009006244 Printed in the United States of America

⬁ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

For Eberhard Brüning

Contents

List of Figures

ix

Preface

xi

Introduction

1

PART ONE: A STUDENT DISCOVERS GERMANY: GEORGE TICKNOR, 1815–1817 1 2 3 4

“We reached Göttingen, anxious and doubting.” Studying Abroad, August 5, 1815–September 10, 1816 “A Journey” with Edward Everett, September 13– October 25, 1816 “Germany. Face of the Country”: Youthful Reflections, 1815–1817 “One important step nearer to . . . home.” March 22–April 1, 1817

21 31 62 86

PART TWO: COSMOPOLITAN SOJOURNERS IN ROYAL SAXONY Section I: George Ticknor, 1835–1836 5 “The spires and towers of Dresden were before us.” November 12–December 25, 1835 6 “I was presented at Court.” December 26, 1835–April 22, 1836 7 “To keep . . . as distinct an impression as I can.” A Summary: April 1836 8 “It was not agreeable to leave Dresden.” May 8–June 5, 1836 vii

97 111 133 147

viii

C O N T E N TS

Section II: Anna Ticknor, 1835–1836 9 “Safely arrived at this haven of rest.” November 10–December 25, 1835 10 “I amused myself with a rehearsal of my dress.” December 26, 1835–April 12, 1836 11 “I would fain . . . give an impression . . . of this pretty city.” April 26–May 8, 1836 12 “Once more travellers!” May 10–June 5, 1836

163 179 202 217

Biographical Glossary

233

Bibliography

251

Index

259

About the Editors

273

Figures

Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6.

George Ticknor (1791–1871), Class of 1807, by Thomas Sully, 1831 Anna Ticknor (1800–1885) [“Mrs. George Ticknor”] Map of the Ticknors’ Travel Route, 1835–1836 The Sistine Madonna, by Raphael, 1513–1514 Dresden von der Morgenseite, by Johann Carl August Richter, ca. 1825 Das Dorf Raden in der Sächs. Schweitz, unknown artist, ca. 1830

ix

3 6 7 40 101 225

Preface

Books often have long histories, and it is no different with this volume. The journals of George and Anna Ticknor, written in Europe during their travels (1815–1819, 1835–1836), were bequeathed to Dartmouth College in 1943 by William Dexter, who was their great-grandson. A two-volume edition with selections from George Ticknor’s journals was published by his wife and daughter in 1876, along with George S. Hillard, but Anna Ticknor’s travel journals have not been published. Consequently, their existence is known only to a few scholars. Calls for the publication of both sets of journals have remained unanswered for many decades. Steven Allaback, who coedited a guide to the microfilm edition of the journals, attempted to publish Anna Ticknor’s British travel journals, but unfortunately he did not succeed. Our edition thus provides the first annotated edition of Anna and George Ticknor’s travel journals, albeit only a selection of them with a focus on their travels to Saxony. Our endeavor to make these journals accessible to a wider audience began when Thomas Adam was researching philanthropy and urban society in German, American, and Canadian cities from the 1840s to the 1920s. The Ticknor journals provided an essential source for tracing the intercultural transfers of libraries across the Atlantic. It became clear, however, that they offered much more, and so we undertook their publication. At this point, Gisela Mettele agreed to collaborate on the project and secured the support of the German Historical Institute (GHI) in Washington, D.C. We would like to thank a number of people and institutions for their invaluable assistance on this project over the last two years. Recognizing the importance of this publication, the former director of the GHI, Christof Mauch, as well as current director Hartmut Berghoff, backed the transcription and publication of these travel journals. We deeply appreciate their support. The Dartmouth College Library granted permission to publish these travel journals, which were xi

xii

PR E FA C E

available only in their Special Collections, and in a microfilm edition published by the Dartmouth College Library in collaboration with University Microfilms. This microfilm edition provided the basis for our editing project. In the spring and fall of 2007, eight graduate students from the transatlantic PhD program at the University of Texas at Arlington helped us transcribe George Ticknor’s travel journals as part of their colloquium and research seminar, “German-American Encounters.” Jose Batista, Jeff Dillman, Shirley Frey, Tracey L. Clough, Nedra McCloud, Ashley Sides, Gene R. Tucker, and Jacqueline Zeledon spent a year with these texts, becoming experts in George Ticknor’s handwriting and style. Their enthusiasm and meticulous work were essential to the progress of this edition. We are especially indebted to Jacqueline Zeledon, who also plotted the Ticknors’ travel route of 1835/1836 onto a nineteenth-century map, resulting in figure 3 in this volume. Subsequently, Ashley Sides even decided to write his MA thesis about the travels of George and Anna Ticknor to Saxony. To all of these individuals and organizations, we are truly grateful. Still many more thanks are due for support of this project. The GHI and the provost and the history department of the University of Texas at Arlington provided funding for Ashley Sides (spring 2007 to spring 2008) and Jacqueline Zeledon (summer 2008) to assist in the transcription of Anna Ticknor’s travel journals and in the preparation of both sets of texts for publication. Patricia Casey Sutcliffe of the GHI helped give the text its final shape. Moreover, the National Endowment for the Humanities granted Thomas Adam a summer stipend (summer 2008) to annotate the text and write the introduction. We would like to thank Andrew Lees and Frank Trommler for their support of this application. The GHI also provided the necessary subsidy for publication and, together with the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Arlington, funded the inclusion of images. Paul Rutschmann and Don Kyle assisted us in reading, transcribing, and translating Greek, Latin, Italian, and French phrases within the text. Many archivists and librarians at the City Archive, the State Archive, the University Library, and the Art Gallery of Dresden, as well as at the City Archive of Leipzig and the Archive of the University of Göttingen, helped us identify individuals mentioned in the texts. In addition, Silke Marburg and Josef Matzerath provided hints and tips for the annotations. We would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to all of these people and institutions for making this edition of George and Anna Ticknor’s travel journals possible. Nevertheless, for any errors and omissions that remain, we bear sole responsibility. Thomas Adam Gisela Mettele

Introduction

Boston Brahmins in Goethe’s Germany George Ticknor (1791–1871) and his wife Anna (née Eliot, 1800–1885), belonged to a leisured class of property owners, capitalists, and educated professionals that occupied the top position in the social hierarchy of nineteenth-century American society.1 As Bostonians, they were members of a particularly exclusive group within this class, the Boston Brahmins, a caste of Harvard-educated men of Puritan descent and their families.2 These families could trace their ancestry back to the very first British settlers of New England, and although the Brahmin caste was “not a completely closed class until the 1860s,”3 it was not easy for outsiders to get in. Like the European nobility, the majority of Brahmins were born into the circle. As something of a noble class in the new world, the Brahmins, like the New York Knickerbocker families, looked toward Europe and replicated the aristocratic forms of behavior they witnessed there. Moreover, they sent their children to the famous universities of Paris, Göttingen, Leipzig, and Berlin. Freed from direct participation in the process of production, this wealthy and leisured class traveled often, favoring Europe as a destination for its rich cultural, social, and intellectual life, where they established and were admitted to exclusive social circles. However, in a society dominated by the Protestant work ethic, Brahmins, along with other elite Americans, believed that travel could not exist for pleasure 1. Stowe, Going Abroad: European Travel in Nineteenth-Century American Culture, 6. 2. The term “Brahmin caste of New England” was coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes in his 1861 novel Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny. See Holmes, Elsie Venner, 1–6. 3. Jaher, “The Boston Brahmins in the Age of Industrial Capitalism,” 190.

1

2

T WO B O S T ON BRA HMINS IN G OETHE’S GERMAN Y

alone and felt obliged to transform their enjoyment into something productive.4 Since intellectual work and writing, in particular, were considered highly honorable, they turned to travel writing to justify their social privilege, producing letters to those back home, diaries intended for personal use or publication, as well as books and travel guides.5 Thus disseminating knowledge about other countries, people, and cultures, they complied with the social and cultural pressures to be productive. These pressures explain why over two thousand American travel accounts were published as books before 1900.6 As a member of the Brahmin caste, George Ticknor engaged in these same practices. As a young man, he studied at the University of Göttingen from 1815 to 1817, and twenty years later, from 1835 to 1836, he returned—now with his entire family—to Germany, and particularly to the Saxon capital of Dresden, to enjoy the social and cultural advantages this small kingdom had to offer. On both trips, his social status and connections granted him (and on the second trip, his wife as well) access to the nobility and the intellectual elite. During his study period in Göttingen, for example, Ticknor met none other than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) in late October 1816, and in Dresden, both Ticknors socialized with the Saxon nobility and educated elite, including Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853) and Prince Johann (1801–1873).7 Finally, like his peers, he felt compelled to record his experiences in journals intended for a broader audience. This volume presents extensive selections from his travel journals from these two trips to Germany, as well as his wife’s parallel journal from the later tour.

The Two Trips in the Context of the Ticknors’ Lives George Ticknor graduated from Dartmouth College in 1807, whereupon he studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1813. However, he left after one year of practice and decided to study at the famous University of Göttingen. Ticknor had been enchanted by stories about the library there that “made the Harvard 4 Stowe, Going Abroad: European Travel in Nineteenth-Century American Culture, 11. 5. Taylor, Views A-Foot; Or Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff, 194–214; Willis, “Invalid Rambles in Germany, in the Summer of 1845”; Dwight, Travels in the North of Germany, in the Years 1825 and 1826, 253–305 and 310–93; Brace, Home-Life in Germany, 158–62; Fulton, Europe Viewed through American Spectacles, 19–24. 6. Smith, American Travelers Abroad: A Bibliography of Accounts Published before 1900; Sides, “What Americans Said About Saxony,” 38–42. 7. See, for example, George Ticknor’s journal entries for October 25, 1816, and November 29, 1835, in this volume.

Figure 1. George Ticknor (1791–1871), Class of 1807, by Thomas Sully, 1831. Reprinted by permission of the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Gift of Constance V. R. White, Nathaniel T. Dexter, Philip Dexter, and Mary Ann Streeter.

4

T WO B O S T ON BRA HMINS IN G OETHE’S GERMAN Y

library seem like a mere ‘closetful of books.’”8 Moreover, Madame de Staël’s De l’Allemagne and Charles Viller’s Coup-d’Oeil sur les Universités had apparently awakened Ticknor’s interest in studying there. To prepare himself for the journey, Ticknor learned German during the summer and fall of 1814. Although there were many German Americans living in New England and a few scholars who could have helped him, Ticknor decided to learn German on his own, supported only by a tutor from the Alsace region. He obtained a copy of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, and, as an exercise in language acquisition, rendered the entire text into English.9 Although this task certainly helped Ticknor acquire an extensive German vocabulary, it most likely failed to truly prepare him for living and learning in Göttingen. It seemed that Ticknor had hoped to use French, English, and Latin to get by. Describing his first encounter with a German professor, the orientalist and theologian Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752–1827), for example, Ticknor wrote: “between his gestures and broken French and Latin rendered unintelligible by a German accent and pronunciation we understood one another pretty well.”10Although an admirable accomplishment, translating Goethe’s Werther might not have been the best preparation for a stay in Germany. It took Ticknor some time before he could get by without much trouble. He does not reflect on further difficulties with regard to his ability to communicate with German natives in his travel logs. Ticknor arrived in Göttingen on August 5, 1815, after traveling via Liverpool, London, and Amsterdam, and stayed into the spring of 1817. He originally intended to continue his study of jurisprudence, but he quickly realized that the University of Göttingen had much more to offer. Ticknor took classes in German and French, Greek, the modern arts, archaeology, aesthetics, and the history of belles-lettres.11 During this time, he lived in a three-room apartment on Weenderstrasse with a bedroom, a study, and a room for his servant, Lindt.12 As a later American student in Germany noted, “chumming” was practically unknown there,13 and it was quite common to have servants, who were often responsible, among other things, for heating the apartment with “the inevitable Ofen, a big stove of porcelain reaching almost to the ceiling.”14 Ticknor calcu8. Samuel Thacher qtd. in Tyack, George Ticknor and the Boston Brahmins, 35. 9. See George Ticknor’s added notes to his entry “1817 March. Wetzlar. Frankfurt” in this volume. See also Tyack, George Ticknor, 35–36; Brown, “The American Discovery of the German University,” 48–50; Ryder, “George Ticknor’s Sorrows of Young Werter”; Ryder, ed., George Ticknor’s The Sorrows of Young Werter: With Introduction and Critical Analysis. See also Ryder, “George Ticknor and Goethe—Boston and Göttingen.” 10. See George Ticknor’s journal entry for August 6, 1815, in this volume. 11. Brown, “The American Discovery of the German University,” 81, 135–37. 12. For a description of student apartments in Göttingen from the 1860s, see Hart, German Universities, 19–24. 13. Hart, German Universities, 23. 14. Hart, German Universities, 20.

IN T RODUCT ION

5

lated that his living arrangements cost him only $26 to $27 a month, a very low sum for that time. From September to November 1816, he and Edward Everett (1794–1865), who had traveled with him to Göttingen, took a trip through various German cities, including Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Halle, Weimar, and Jena, which gave him a first glimpse, among other things, of Saxony, where he would return twenty years later. It is this period from August 1815 to April 1817 that his first journal in this volume covers. Between this first German tour and the second from 1835 to 1836 lay Ticknor’s professional career, as well as the founding of his family. In November 1816, while Ticknor was still abroad, the president of Harvard University John T. Kirkland (1770–1840) offered him a teaching position in modern languages and literatures at Harvard effective upon his return. The remuneration for this position was not sufficient to support a family, so Ticknor allowed his father Elisha Ticknor (1757–1821), who would have to provide financial assistance, to decide the matter. His father encouraged him to accept the professorship, which he did. After Ticknor returned from Europe in June of 1819 (he had continued traveling in Europe, including France, Spain, and Portugal following the end of his stay in Göttingen), he was formally introduced at Harvard as the Abiel Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages and Literatures and Professor of Belles Lettres on August 10, 1819. He founded his family in 1821, marrying Anna Eliot just two months after his father had died. Nine years younger than Ticknor, she was the daughter of the wealthy Boston merchant and founder of the Eliot Professorship of Greek at Harvard, Samuel Eliot (1739–1820).15 Her brother Samuel A. Eliot (1798– 1862) was the treasurer of Harvard College from 1842 to 1853, and mayor of Boston from 1837 to 1839.16 Thus, like Ticknor, Anna’s father and brother were Boston Brahmins. Anna was “an intelligent woman who fully shared her husband’s taste for letters and society. Beneath a conventional façade, she was an independent and witty spirit, with a pungent style of writing and conversation and ready affection.”17 Her significant inheritance of about $85,000 and the very modest legacy left to George by his father allowed the couple to live in comfort.18 They “bought a house on fashionable Park Street, where they held court for many years to fashionable and literary Boston.”19 The couple had four children, two of whom died in childhood. The more prominent of the two surviving daughters was Anna Eliot Ticknor (1823–1896), who founded 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Anna Eliot Ticknor, Samuel Eliot, 183–84, 199–200. Doyle, “George Ticknor,” 8; Langtry, ed., Metropolitan Boston: A Modern History, 228–29. Tyack, George Ticknor, 89. Tyack, George Ticknor, 90. Baltzell, Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia, 42.

Figure 2. Anna Ticknor (1800–1885) [“Mrs. George Ticknor”]. Reprinted courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.

IN T RODUCT ION

7

Figure 3. Map of the Ticknors’ Travel Route, 1835–1836. Based on William C. Woodbridge’s map of Central Europe of 1837. Used courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com.

the Society to Encourage Studies at Home to foster women seeking a liberal education.20 Ticknor’s study in Göttingen from 1815 to 1817 had a profound impact on his career. Having experienced German university education, and having visited several German universities and secondary schools,21 Ticknor hoped to integrate some of the advantages of these institutions into the crisis-ridden Harvard College. Reforming Harvard became central to his goals with plans including student grouping in courses by proficiency, dividing the college into academic departments, making room for electives in the curriculum, and admitting non-degree students to take specialized courses.22 Yet as Harvard College was resistant to any change, Ticknor became deeply frustrated, at one point even offering to resign. Professional and familial matters came together to set the stage for Ticknor’s second European tour in 1834: His failure to implement reform at Harvard College and the death of his five-year-old son George Haven precipitated his 20. Bergmann, “‘The Silent University.’” 21. See, for example, his journal entry for October 23, 1816, in this volume, where he describes a visit to Schulpforta, a famous German boarding school. 22. Tyack, George Ticknor, 110.

8

T WO B O S T ON BRA HMINS IN G OETHE’S GERMAN Y

retirement, whereupon he and his family—his wife and two daughters, twelveyear-old Anna Eliot (Nannie) and two-year-old Eliza Sullivan (Lizzy)—undertook a sojourn to Germany, this time to Dresden, the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony. Acquainted with the cultural institutions—the immense collections of the Royal Saxon Library and the Picture Gallery in Dresden—from passing through the city in 1816, and also aware that Prince Johann of the royal family worked on Dante, whose writings Ticknor, likewise, had a keen interest in, he was compelled to pick Dresden as a travel destination. With sufficient funding and a favorable exchange rate, as well as the low cost of residing in Saxony,23 Ticknor and his family were able to live in comfort and luxury. They traveled by coach and had several servants and maids. In Dresden, they stayed in the exclusive and centrally located Hotel de Rome on the Neumarkt. Both George and Anna Ticknor were quickly admitted into Dresden’s noble society, becoming frequent guests at the royal court.24 After they arrived in Dresden on November 20, 1835, George immediately began presenting letters of introduction to important figures such as Ludwig Tieck25 and Baron Bernhard von Lindenau (1779–1854). They welcomed him and introduced him to others who, like the British ambassador in Dresden, Francis-Reginald Forbes (1791–1873), helped to integrate him into Dresden’s high society. Forbes arranged for General Karl von Watzdorf (1759–1840), a member of the Saxon government and advisor to King Anton of Saxony (1755–1836), to introduce Ticknor to the king on December 26.26 Three days later, Anna was presented to the grand maitresse of the prince regent together with a group of ladies who sought admission to court. Following this formal presentation, Anna Ticknor received calling cards from several noble ladies of Dresden. Then on January 8, 1836, George had his first private meeting with Prince Johann. For the remaining four and a half months of their stay, the Ticknors socialized often and exclusively within Dresden’s aristocratic and educated society.27 George was a frequent and intimate guest in the homes of Baron August 23. Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper noticed in the 1820s and 1830s how inexpensive living in Dresden was for Americans. See Brüning, “‘Saxony Is a Prosperous and Happy Country,’” 26; Adam, “Germany Seen through American Eyes,” 154; Sides, “What Americans Said about Saxony,” 147–50. 24. Sides, “What Americans Said about Saxony,” 142–43. For studies about the nobility in Dresden, see Matzerath and Tlusty, “Dresden-Stadt des sächsischen Adels.” See also Matzerath, Adelsprobe an der Moderne. 25. For Tieck in Dresden, see Richter and Strobel, “Der ‘König der Romantik’ und der Adel. Ludwig Tieck in Dresden.” 26. Sides, “What Americans Said about Saxony,” 142. Josef Matzerath discusses the presentation to court in his study of the Saxon nobility; see Matzerath, Adelsprobe an der Moderne, 125–31. See also Matzerath, ed., Der sächsische König und der Dresdner Maiaufstand, 229–32. 27. See, for example, George Ticknor’s entries from February 23–24, April 11, and May 8, 1836, in this volume.

IN T RODUCT ION

9

Karl von Bose (1787–1862), Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg (1806–1868), and Wolf Heinrich F. K. Count von Baudissin (1789–1878), as well as at the royal court, including invitations by Prince Johann for private conversations, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship.28 Even the teachers for the Ticknor’s two daughters came from the highest circles of society. The private German tutor for their daughter Anna, Therese Emilie Henriette aus dem Winkel (1784–1867), was not only a well-established local artist but also the former tutor of the royal family. Avoiding contact with the common people, the Ticknors were sheltered from more critical views of the kingdom.29

Göttingen and Dresden Göttingen, in the Kingdom of Hanover, and Dresden, the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony, were the two major destinations for George Ticknor in his voyages to Germany. As noted above, Göttingen had one of the more famous universities in Europe, which was founded by King George II of Great Britain (1683–1760), who was also Elector of Hanover, in 1737. The University of Göttingen reached the peak of its fame from 1760 to 1800, when [a]ll learned Europe knew its bright lights: J. D. Michaelis and Johann Gottfried Eichhorn in biblical criticism, Ludwig Spittler in ecclesiatistical history, Gustav Hugo in jurisprudence, Friedrich Blumenbach in physiology and anatomy, Christian Heyne in philology, and in history and political science—Johann Christoph Gatterer, J. G. Schlözer, Gottfried Achenwall, and Arnold H. L. Heeren.30

In history, Spittler (1752–1810) was only one among an “intellectual community” of historical scholars including Johann Christian Gatterer (1727–1799) and August Ludwig Schlözer (1735–1809). This community “defined methodological ground rules for the writing of history distinct from other forms of writing,”31 establishing history as an academic discipline. After the Napoleonic Wars, Göttingen lost some of its earlier eminence but was still the foremost university of Germany. It prided itself on its nonsectarian and cosmopolitan character, which derived from the close connections between

28. See Kretzschmar, ed., Lebenserinnerungen des Königs Johann von Sachsen, 144; Briefwechsel König Johanns von Sachsen mit George Ticknor, 1–4. See also Matzerath, “Johann von Sachsen—ein ‘bürgerlicher’ König?” 29. Adam, “Germany Seen through American Eyes,” 151–63. 30. Brown, “The American Discovery of the German University,” 76–77. 31. Berger, “The German Tradition of Historiography, 1800–1995,” 477.

10

T WO B O S TON BRA HMINS IN G OET H E’S GERMAN Y

the Kingdom of Hanover and England.32 The University of Göttingen attracted students from many countries, including Russia and the United States,33 with more than two-thirds of all students in Göttingen being nonnatives of Hanover before 1801 and about one-half thereafter.34 When Ticknor arrived in Göttingen, it was a town of not more than ten thousand people with “tolerably wide” but not very straight streets, “plain and poorly built” houses, and a small number of stone and brick buildings.35 Dresden, by contrast, was a far grander city, the home of the Saxon court. Although the Kingdom of Saxony, located between Prussia to the North and Austria to the South, was, at least after the Congress of Vienna, one of the smaller German states, its rich artistic and cultural sights, and especially those in Dresden, attracted many American and British visitors throughout the nineteenth century. These visitors considered this “Florence on the Elbe” a cultivated residence city with exceptional museums, a famous library, and a scenic landscape no other city north of the Alps could rival. The pious Catholic family that ruled the kingdom was regarded, even by staunch antimonarchists, as exceptionally enlightened and learned. Two members of the Wettin family—Prince Johann and Princess Amalia (1794–1870)—had gained recognition for their intellectual abilities and their literary production: Prince Johann, who was fluent in French and English and had an excellent reading knowledge of Italian, had translated Dante’s Inferno, and Princess Amalia had authored several plays that were staged in Dresden.36 Despite this general assessment of Saxony’s enlightened culture at the time, historians agree that the kingdom was no heaven of political reform. King Anton engaged in administrative and constitutional reform that led to the creation of a constitutional monarchy (1831) and local self-administration only after the popular uprising of September 1830 had forced him to give the people a larger role in government.37 But Ticknor seemed to have been blind to Saxony’s deficiencies in the political realm and praised it as an ideal state in which ruler and those ruled lived in harmony and mutual appreciation. When George and Anna Ticknor visited Dresden in 1835–1836, there were sixty to seventy English people living in that city.38 But the Ticknors, with the benefit of George’s trip there in 1816, were among the first Americans to dis32. Brown, “The American Discovery of the German University,” 78. 33. For American students at German universities, see Becker, “For the Sake of Old Leipzig Days,” 63–84. 34. Brown, “The American Discovery of the German University,” 79. 35. Hart, German Universities, 12. 36. Brüning, “‘Saxony Is a Prosperous and Happy Country,’” 26–31. For Prince Johann, see Neumeister, “Philalethes – König Johann als Dante-Übersetzer.” For Princess Amalia, see Waldmüller, Aus den Memoiren einer Fürstentochter. 37. For the political changes in Saxony in 1830–1831, see Beachy, The Soul of Commerce, 197–221. 38. See Anna Ticknor’s entry from November 29, 1835, in this volume.

IN T RODUCT ION

11

cover this city on the Elbe and to propagate its beauty and culture among their compatriots. Ticknor was, thus, a trendsetter who contributed to the growing attraction of the city on the Elbe among well-to-do American tourists. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Dresden became the home of a small American colony. Visitors from the United States went there “for the purpose of educating their children, especially in the German language and literature, in music, and in the fine arts.”39 Other prominent Americans who stayed in Dresden or Saxony for some time included John Quincy Adams, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, and John Lothrop Motley, among others.40 For these travelers, Saxony was not just a stop en route to Vienna or Berlin but a destination unto itself.

The Value of the Ticknors’ Travel Journals Today Both George and Anna Ticknor wrote prolifically in their travel journals. George wrote four volumes during his stay in Göttingen from August 1815 to April 1817 and two volumes during his stay in Dresden from November 1835 to May 1836. Anna, for her part, wrote three volumes from this same period. Together, they wrote about 1,100 pages covering these travels.41 The sheer length precludes reproducing the journals in full, and thus our edition presents extensive selections.42 These writings are of value today for several reasons. In them, the Ticknors describe the social life in various German cities, educational institutions, and the culture and politics of the Saxon and Prussian monarchies in unparalleled and inherently comparative ways. Further, their descriptions of Saxon court society, its members, and social events provide rare testimony on the pre-1848 court of Dresden.43 The parallel journals of Anna and George together are an especially rare gem, the only known case of parallel travel journals by husband and wife reflecting

39. White, Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, 165. 40. Brüning, “‘Saxony Is a Prosperous and Happy Country’”; Sides, “What Americans Said About Saxony.” 41. George Ticknor’s journal from 1815–1817 comprises 572 pages, Anna Ticknor’s from 1835– 1836 281 pages, and George Ticknor’s from 1835–1836 248 pages. George wrote 150 to 380 words per page, and Anna wrote around 190 words per page. 42. George Ticknor did travel to Germany a third time, specifically to Leipzig and Berlin, in the fall of 1856 to acquire books for the Boston Public Library, but his writing from this journey is not represented here. See Hillard and Ticknor, eds., Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor, 2:310–14. On the Boston Public Library, see Adam, Buying Respectability, 31–38. 43. Matzerath, Adelsprobe an der Moderne, 125–31.

12

T WO B O S TON BRA HMINS IN G OET H E’S GERMAN Y

independently on the same encounters with German society and culture, such as the court ball on January 10, 1836. These journal segments provide a unique opportunity for readers and scholars to explore gender as a factor in their perceptions of the same events and cultural practices.44 George and Anna Ticknor’s travel journals also impart rich insights for cultural historians interested in the study of travel and the exploration of regional and national perceptions in the first half of the nineteenth century. On the one hand, these travel logs open a window to the construction of American identity through travel in continental Europe. On their second German tour, the Ticknors seemed to identify with Saxons, whom they apparently regarded as a mirror image and, to a certain degree, an even better version of Americans. In their eyes, Saxon farmers were educated and possessed libraries, and the rulers were enlightened and engaged in social and political reform. More importantly, Saxons had reached their “civilized state” without violence and revolution. On the other hand, the Ticknors’ observations give evidence of the great variety of regional cultures and identities in the German Confederation. When the Congress of Vienna formed this political body, it encompassed thirty-nine states with their own distinct German dialects, cultures, landscapes, and religions. Both Ticknors often commented on border crossings, interpreting them as not just moving across a political demarcation line but shifting from one mentality to another. For example, Anna Ticknor remarked on traveling north to Berlin that she felt as if she were leaving the highly civilized and cultivated society of Saxony behind. In her view, Saxony’s rich soil and rolling hills made for a civilized population. Prussia’s sandy and barren flatlands, by contrast, predisposed the people there to a state of wretchedness. Since, in her eyes, “a people’s fortunes were determined by the soil on which they lived,” American travelers could hardly expect to find prospering communities in such a wasteland: “the soil is very poor, and cultivation seems to have been given up, as hopeless. The few cottages and people, we saw, looked wretchedly poor.”45 Prussians, thus, became “the other” in opposition to whom the Ticknors defined themselves. In this context, the presentation of George Ticknor’s diverging perceptions of Göttingen and Dresden offers readers the opportunity to explore not only differences in how he saw various regions but also the effects of his stage of life on these views. His first journal from 1815 to 1817 includes a sixty-one-page overview of his impressions of Germany at that time. Valuable as “one of the first attempts at a summary view through American eyes,”46 written even before 44. For travel writing and gender, see Siegel, ed., Gender, Genre, and Identity in Women’s Travel Writing; Susan Bassnett, “Travel Writing and Gender”; Bohls, Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics, 1716–1818. 45. Sides, “What Americans Said about Saxony,” 86–87. 46. Ryder, “An American View of Germany—1817,” 16.

IN T RODUCT ION

13

Henry Dwight’s Travels in the North of Germany of 1829, it has remained largely unknown to larger audiences. In this earlier assessment, Ticknor did not find much to like about German society besides education, and so he propagated many of the negative stereotypes of Germans that dominated American travel writing throughout the nineteenth century.47 He claimed that Germany’s high population density prevented one man from rising except “at the expense of another.” Moreover, he saw the society as divided into insular classes. “Each great class of society, too—is separated from the others by more strict boundaries than with us—and is again subdivided into smaller classes and coteries each of which has its peculiar tone and character and knows little and cares less about the rest.” He described the nobility as “corrupt and dissolute,” the political system as despotic, and the religion of the peasants as “only a superstition mingled with much honesty and fear.”48 Yet Ticknor wrote this lengthy entry in February 1817 as a relatively inexperienced young man, and apparently during a period of depression and homesickness.49 He had gone three months without writing anything in his travel log whereas he typically wrote several entries a week. He had probably been very excited to attend the best universities of his era but had been disappointed by what he found. His negative view of Germany in 1817 contrasts sharply with his idealization of Saxony two decades later. Ticknor believed Saxony represented an exceptional political and cultural entity among the corrupt German states, and it was partly for this reason that he chose to travel to its capital. He preferred Dresden to Leipzig or Chemnitz for its rich cultural life and the absence of significant signs of industrialization. Although Leipzig could boast a university, Ticknor regarded it as dominated by trade and commerce, and he did not even mention Chemnitz in his journals. Moreover, he mentioned the most important infrastructure project, the first German long-distance train route from Leipzig to Dresden—which had been a topic of public debate from 1834 before construction started in March 1836— only once. Clearly, traveling to Saxony for Ticknor and many other Americans meant traveling back to a romanticized premodern society. Ticknor saw Saxony as an ideal society—a well-organized and enlightened monarchy that had come into being by reform and not by a bloody revolution.50 His high esteem for the kingdom and the close ties he established there 47. For a discussion of these stereotypes, see Voss, “National Stereotypes about Germans in American Travel Writings, 1815–1914.” 48. See George Ticknor’s entries “1817. Germany. The People” and “1817. Germany. The Nobility” in this volume. 49. Tyack, George Ticknor, 58. 50. The 1830 reforms have not received sufficient attention in American scholarship on the history of Germany. Blackbourn in his History of Germany 1780–1918, for example, underestimates their significance (95). Beachy, The Soul of Commerce, by contrast, is the first U.S. book to dedicate much space to these reforms (197–221), and Keller, Landesgeschichte Sachsen, provides a good example of German scholarship on them (253–57).

14

T WO B O S TON BRA HMINS IN G OET H E’S GERMAN Y

are particularly evident in his response to the Revolution of 1848.51 When he received news about the revolts in Paris, Berlin, and Dresden in 1848, Ticknor was both disgusted by and disappointed in the people of Saxony. He believed that foreign provocateurs and not natives had started the revolt in Dresden. In a letter to King Johann, Ticknor expressed confidence that this uprising would be short-lived since the “government of your family has been too kind, too faithful, too paternal;—the people are too well off in their material resources and have been too well taught to understand their own position and rights, as well as what they owe to others to be much infected with a spirit of violence.”52 Ticknor was also very concerned for the safety of his noble friends in the Saxon capital and prophesied that nothing good would come from revolutionary violence. If the institutions of Saxon society were destroyed as they had been in Paris, he feared that they would only be restored “on the basis of a military despotism, and in the presence and by the authority of the bayonet.”53 His unique outside perspective deviates significantly from many views and interpretations held so firmly by modern-day historians of German history, raising interesting questions for the field.

The Character of George and Anna Ticknor’s Travel Journals Although we do not know exactly what the Ticknors’ intentions were in writing their travel journals, one thing is clear: they were not for private use only. George Ticknor’s journals, in particular, though not formally published until after his death (and then only partially),54 were circulated among the Brahmin families long before then. In 1822, for example, one Boston resident wrote of reading Ticknor’s 1815–1817 journals, which he had “lent to many people since his return,” who all concurred that it was “the most interesting work of the kind they ever saw.”55 As semipublic documents, George Ticknor’s journals may have served as an introduction to Germany to those who considered traveling there. Moreover, both George and Anna’s journals share many characteristics with published travel accounts and annual reports of associations and public institutions, exhibiting a certain distance between the authors and their jour51. The events of the 1848/1849 revolution in Saxony are described in Ludwig and Neemann, Revolution in Sachsen 1848/49, and Schattkowsky and John, Dresdner Maiaufstand und Reichsverfassung 1849. 52. Briefwechsel König Johanns von Sachsen mit George Ticknor, 39. 53. Briefwechsel König Johanns von Sachsen mit George Ticknor, 28–29. 54. See Hillard and Ticknor, eds., Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor. 55. Elizabeth Peabody to Mary (Peabody), 12 June 1822, Peabody Family Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.

IN T RODUCT ION

15

nals. Intimate feelings, personal information, and secrets told only to diaries are not included in them, nor are descriptions of repetitive actions that provide the structure for the day. Both authors seem to have suspended writing when personal problems such as illness and homesickness occurred. These journals, thus, constitute factual reports that do not open a window to the authors’ souls. Despite this fundamental similarity in tone and intention between George and Anna Ticknor’s journals, there are distinct differences in their responses to Germany. Anna’s experience was entirely dependent on George because he determined all aspects of this journey, even against her wishes; she and her children were brought along. For example, when they traveled to Berlin from Dresden in May 1836, Anna wished to continue on to Hamburg to visit a friend, Elizabeth Gossler, but “Mr. Ticknor would not consent to do it.”56 Moreover, whereas George had learned German and spent many evenings socializing with his Dresden friends, Anna lacked proficiency in the language and spent a good deal of time alone. Yet she never complained about her social isolation in her journal. These different experiences led George and Anna Ticknor to focus on divergent aspects of German society. George’s travel journals are filled with entries about life at the court and meetings with members of Dresden’s aristocracy and elite, educated citizens. He showed little interest in the common people of Saxony, although he once interviewed a woman in Stötteritz about her experience of the Battle of the Nations. Yet in this exceptional case, he had merely wanted to collect an eyewitness account of an historic event and was not concerned with her as an individual. He did not preserve any of the dialogue with her (or of any other commoners in the journals) nor provide her name to convey authenticity, but merely summarized her answers. Anna, on the other hand, tended to comment on her impressions about the common people of Dresden—albeit from a safe distance, such as the window of her hotel room or the windows of the carriage. In one of her entries, she described an encounter with a poor woman who was “drawing an empty coal cart without the small assistance of a dog; and a man sitting in the cart, entirely at his ease, with his arms folded in great dignity.”57 Beyond these different perceptions, there are also clear differences in the way George and Anna Ticknor composed their journals. George frequently conducted background research and relied on secondary sources to provide factual descriptions in his journal. As he stated himself in a note added to the front of the journals in 1868, “I prepared myself by reading ample accounts of all the universities, high schools, cities and distinguished people we were to visit. I took plentiful notes of them, which I plentifully used in my Journal

56. See Anna Ticknor’s additions to her entry from May 11, 1836, in this volume. 57. See Anna Ticknor’s entry from January 15, 1836, in this volume.

16

T WO B O S TON BRA HMINS IN G OET H E’S GERMAN Y

before I got back.”58 These often lengthy segments, easily covering thirty pages, are clearly structured with subheadings and read as if he copied travel guides, statistical reports, and other publications.59 Most of his description of the High School at Schulpforta differs only slightly in content and tone from a description of it published a few years later.60 Sometimes George named his sources, sometimes he referred to books he carried around, and sometimes it is not clear where he received his information.61 As these were not his impressions and, for the most part, are available elsewhere, most of these segments have not been included here. George’s evaluation of the school at Schulpforta, however, has been retained since it provides insight into his ideas about higher learning and a first program for reform of higher education in the United States.62 Anna, by contrast, though she occasionally referred to a book she had read on a topic, does not seem to have conducted much background research. Another difference is that George seems to have maintained his journal with a higher degree of continuity overall, writing frequent, short entries, whereas Anna wrote less often and more at once. Anna wrote a total of 281 pages for the time of her stay in Dresden from November 20, 1835, to May 11, 1836 (172 days). Her travel journal contains sixty-eight separate, dated entries. Sometimes she wrote daily entries several pages in length, and sometimes there were large gaps between postings. For example, there are no entries from February 20 to March 25. The shortest entry is about a page in length, and the longest is thirtyone pages (April 26). For the same timespan, George wrote a total of eightytwo entries comprising 144 pages. Three summarizing entries are of significant length—the longest is a general entry on Dresden written in April and covering twenty-four pages—but many are just one paragraph long, indicating that, in some periods, he committed himself to writing on a daily basis. Another window to the writing process comes from the Ticknors’ own comments. At the end of her stay in Dresden, Anna described how she composed her record of the trip: In reading this history of it, I find many repetitions, and much omitted. I wrote it rapidly, for my time was quite as much filled as my strength would bear, and about once a month sent home the sheets,

58. Qtd. in Allaback and Medlicott, eds., A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the European Journals of George and Anna Ticknor, 3–4. 59. The entry on the University at Halle, for instance, is twenty-eight pages long and is subdivided into four sections (I. History, II. The Constitution, III. The Present Condition with four further subheadings, IV. Its General Tone). The section on the history alone is twelve pages long. 60. Bache, Report on Education in Europe, 472–503. 61. On George Ticknor’s information about German universities, see Brown, “The American Discovery of the German University,” 247–56. 62. See George Ticknor’s entry from October 23, 1816, in this volume.

IN T RODUCT ION

17

to serve as letters to my sisters and several friends. I had therefore not much opportunity to look back and consider defects.63

Although it has been suggested—in the context of the English segment of the Ticknors’ European trip in 1835–1836—that she took notes and composed and copied a coherent narrative from them later,64 Anna herself repeatedly claimed within her diaries that she wrote entries on the spot. She even used this fact as an excuse “for its extreme minuteness in trifles, and for some of its many deficiencies.”65 It is also clear from her remarks that Anna dated her entries for the day she wrote them and not for the day on which the described events occurred. When she resumed writing on March 25 after a five-week hiatus, for example, she noted the long gap and then continued to write in detail about many events that had occurred in that period.66 It thus seems likely that she wrote her travel journals in Dresden and not after she returned to Boston, taking notes during the day and writing entries in the evenings or the next day if she had no social commitments. Regardless of how she composed the journals originally, though, it is clear that she added comments, marked by different handwriting and a divergent writing style, to the margins of her text long after she returned to Boston—around 1850. From the note George inserted at the front of his travel journals in 1868, it appears that his process was rather similar to Anna’s, except for his reliance on background information. Like Anna, he described his journals as an “imperfect and broken account . . . written out in its present form, wherever I stopped long enough to do it from slight memoranda made on the spot in little note books which I carried on my person.” He sent it home to his family “in small parcels” whenever he found opportunities to do so.67 Finally, like Anna, he too added explanations at a later date.

The Principles for Editing Aware of other editions of George Ticknor’s journals, we strove, in editing this volume, to overcome some of the deficiencies of other presentations and provide a highly accessible and readable text. The two-volume set Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (1876), which also presents selections from George Ticknor’s travel writings, is not only old but inadequate. As the editors of the 63. See Anna Ticknor’s entry from May 11, 1836, in this volume. 64. Graver, “Joanna Baillie and George Ticknor,” 31. 65. See Anna Ticknor’s entry in volume 3 of her travel journals dated January 24, 1836. 66. See Anna Ticknor’s entry from March 25, 1836, in this volume. 67. Qtd. in Allaback and Medlicott, eds., A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the European Journals of George and Anna Ticknor, 3–4.

18

T WO B O S TON BRA HMINS IN G OET H E’S GERMAN Y

guide to the microfilm edition of Anna and George Ticknor’s European travel journals point out, it is “grossly incomplete, inaccurate in details both large and small, and fragmented.”68 The microfilm edition is, of course, complete, but it is not easily accessible. Our assortment is much larger than the journal excerpts in the 1876 volume, including about one-third of George Ticknor’s travel journals from 1815 to 1817 and nearly half of the travel journals from his 1835–1836 voyage. The earlier collection omitted George Ticknor’s evaluation of Germany from 1817, as well as much of his assessment of Saxony and Dresden, and so there is little overlap between that edition and ours. The most significant advantage of our edition, however, is the inclusion of Anna Ticknor’s travel logs, which have remained virtually unknown to a larger audience.69 Further, while both the Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor and the Guide to the Microfilm Edition contain indices of people named in the travel journals, these are of little help since they do not identify the individuals. These editions often leave names misspelled and make no attempt to provide additional information whenever the Ticknors mentioned only part of a name. Our edition, in contrast, fills in these gaps and standardizes the spelling or changes them to their modern use. Proper names that have been changed include Amelia, Amelie, and Amalie to Amalia; Leipsic to Leipzig; Melancthon to Melanchthon; Mulda to Mulde; and Naumberg and Naumbourg to Naumburg. In addition to these corrections, our edition furnishes extensive information on people, places, and events that come up in the text. Individuals are identified in the biographical glossary, and events and institutions are described in footnotes. We also decided to make a number of other slight changes in general spelling, punctuation, and presentation to modernize the texts and make them more readable. These changes are listed here for those interested in knowing exactly how the original manuscripts appeared. When the Ticknors added comments later, they marked them with an asterisk. Here, they are set as numbered footnotes just like the editors’ explanations of places and events. However, the Ticknors’ insertions are in italics with the initials “A.T.” (for Anna) or “G.T.” (for George) following them, whereas the editors’ annotations are in roman font. Journal entries have been standardized. George Ticknor’s headlines have been put into a standard format, and sections and section headings have been 68. Allaback and Medlicott, eds., A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the European Journals of George and Anna Ticknor, v. 69. The 1876 edition of George Ticknor’s travel journals did not include any of Anna Ticknor’s travel journals. However, a very small sample of her writing, including her reflections on the voyage across the Atlantic and her arrival in Liverpool, was published as “Polite Travels in the Thirties: From the Diary of Mrs. George Ticknor” in the Atlantic Monthly in 1927.

IN T RODUCT ION

19

added to both George and Anna’s journals to help orient the reader. Entries have been condensed so that each date or each major topic has its own heading. Often more than one headline had to be combined or words had to be deleted from them to match the selected journal text. The format of the paragraphs has also been standardized, whereas George Ticknor sometimes indented the first line and sometimes made hanging indents. Book titles have been italicized throughout. As it was sometimes difficult to recognize that a word or phrase represented a book without italics, we felt that adding them would clarify the prose. A number of other minor changes have been made to improve the journals’ readability. Abbreviations such as ys. (years), chh. (church), cent. (century), govt. (government), mss. (manuscript), o’clk (o’clock), and xtianity (Christianity) have been written out as complete words. Other archaic abbreviations have also been transcribed and written out. Thus, “ye, yr./yeir, yy., yt., yre./yere., ym., wh., yn.” have become “their, they, that, there, them, which, then/than,” and “&” and “&c” have been transcribed with “and” and “etc.” respectively. Fractions originally indicated numerically have been spelled out, except in measurements. Superscripts such as “Mr., Mrs., Dr.” have been changed to “Mr., Mrs., Dr.” Archaic letters have also been altered to conform to current usage: “ƒ” to “s”; “æ” and “œ” to “ae” and “oe.” Roman numerals have been spelled out or written as arabic numerals. In the case of Latin inscriptions, outline numberings, and royal titles, roman numerals have been preserved. Misspelled common words and historical variants have been silently corrected. Proper nouns and adjectives that were not capitalized in the text such as “sunday” and “saxony” have been capitalized in accordance with modern practice. Punctuation has been modernized. Rare missing periods at the ends of sentences have been added without notice. Grammatical mistakes such as subject-verb disagreements and tense mix-ups have also been corrected. Such mistakes occurred frequently when George and Anna Ticknor crossed out many words in a sentence and changed the text, probably overlooking other necessary changes. Words and fragments that were so thoroughly rubbed out or struck through as to be indecipherable were merely left out without remark. Phrases underlined for emphasis have here been put in italics. Words and phrases the Ticknors inserted later were added without special notation. The most significant change to this text is probably the removal of crossedout words. George Ticknor, especially, often went back to his journals and changed his value judgment of places he had visited under the impression of institutions he saw later. Although it was not easy to choose to remove these crossed-out words, like most of these other changes, it was a pragmatic decision in favor of a readable text. Readers interested in precisely such changes are advised to consult the microfilm edition of the complete journals.

20

T WO B O S TON BRA HMINS IN G OET H E’S GERMAN Y

In sum, we hope that the editorial choices we made here have, indeed, rendered the text more readable. We also hope that the advantages of our edition— the greater quantity of excerpts, the unique outsider and parallel male/female perspectives it offers, and the corrections and annotations—will, at last, make these remarkable American reflections on German society in the Age of Goethe accessible to a wide audience. Thomas Adam

PART I

A STUDENT DISCOVERS GERMANY: GEORGE TICKNOR, 1815–1817

1 “We reached Göttingen, anxious and doubting.” Studying Abroad, August 5, 1815–September 10, 1816 [Editor’s note: George Ticknor left Boston on April 16, 1815, sailing to Liverpool. From there, he traveled through London and Amsterdam before arriving in Göttingen on August 5.]

1815 AUG. 5. ARRIVAL AT GÖTTINGEN. ANXIETY. AUG. 6. GÖTTINGEN. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. At nine o’clock we reached Gottingen,1 anxious and doubting—fearing that it might be more like Paderborn than Cassel—and striving in vain through the darkness to learn whether our apprehensions were just. Sunday Aug. 6. The first thing we did this morning was to go out and see what kind of a town we were to live in for the next six months. We found it not so beautiful as the new part of Cassel but still very comfortable and very decent. The streets are not clean like ours in America or like those we had just left in Holland, but they were as good as the streets of “the city” in London and infinitely better than those of Paderborn. The houses are not new, but they seem 1. George Ticknor was traveling with Edward Everett of Boston, who would also be a fellow student at the University of Göttingen, and with Stephen H. Perkins, a young American under Everett’s charge. See Brown, “The American Discovery of the German University.” For general information, see Becker, “For the Sake of Old Leipzig Days . . . Academic Networks of American Students at a German University, 1781–1914,” 63–79.

21

22

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

to be well built and are certainly comfortable, to say no more. The town was originally walled and fortified when it was smaller than it is now, but these walls were destroyed in the 30 Years’ War, and only two towers and some disconnected fragments of them remain. After this another and wider wall was built; but at the end of the 7 Years’ War, this, too, was pulled down and on its ruins a fine rampart erected, covered with trees, which now serves as a public walk not unlike our own mall, and commands a prospect only less beautiful than that of the hills of Roxbury and Brooklyne.2 On the whole, from external appearances, I think we have good reason to be satisfied with our choice.

1815 AUG. 6. GÖTTINGEN. EICHHORN. BLUMENBACH. Monday Aug. 6.3 I have today become acquainted with Prof. Eichhorn. Never were my anticipations more disappointed. Instead of a grave, severe, decrepit old man, worn down with study and grown cold and selfish by retirement, I found him, lively, gay and active—full of vigour, though not young, and interested in everything that passes as much as if his life were not a life of the strictest seclusion. He is now sixty five years old—has been forty years professor, first at Jena, where he was succeeded by Schiller, and then here, where he is the successor of Michaelis; and he told me himself that during all this time he had studied fourteen hours a day. He speaks no English and but little French though in his youth he says that he spoke both; but, his vivacity and earnestness made up for the want of the ordinary medium of communication, and between his gestures and broken French and Latin rendered unintelligible by a German accent and pronunciation we understood one another pretty well. I have also seen Blumenbach—the great Naturalist—somewhat older than Eichhorn, and more broken with age but possessing much the same vivacity. He speaks pretty good English and is very kind to all strangers.—

AUG. 7. GÖTTINGEN AS A PLACE FOR A STUDENT TO LIVE IN. LIBRARY. BENECKE. Aug. 7. The first thing that strikes a stranger on coming here, as we do, to establish himself, would be I think the adaptation of everything to the great object, which seems in some form or other to be present wherever you go. The town is 2. Roxbury and Brookline were towns bordering Boston. Roxbury, in particular, was noted for its hilly geography. 3. Monday actually fell on August 7; Ticknor seems to have misdated this and the four following entries.

1815–1817

23

small, and of course liable to be influenced by so considerable an institution as the University; and the University having been established nearly eighty years has produced its full effect. The fact is that the policy of the government, who thus bring an influx of considerable wealth into the electorate, and the interest of the inhabitants, who find they can make a living out of the students easier than in any other way, have accommodated this little town and all that it contains to the peculiar habits and wants of scholars. Every house I have been into, and as I have been looking for chambers I have been in a good many, seems to be as obviously built for the accommodation of students as the Colleges at Cambridge—every person to whom I have brought a letter has shown me at once that he was accustomed to have such sort of strangers introduced to him, by entering at once into all my interests and showing me how I should proceed to accomplish my objects—the very tradesmen seemed to know my wants upon instinct—and, indeed, wherever I have been, I have found everything, even in its details, suited to my purposes, and everything better prepared to receive me than I could myself have prepared it by forecast and labor. The reason is plain. The town is small and contains hardly ten thousand inhabitants; and it is poor for it has no trade, and is not a considerable thoroughfare like Cassel or Hanover. Nearly forty of its most distinguished citizens and wealthiest men are professors—fifty or sixty more are in some way or other officially connected with the University—Its houses are filled and an immense proportion of its inhabitants fed by the thousand students who resort here from every part of Europe—in short, the whole place subsists upon literature, and it can, therefore, hardly be remarkable that its condition and manners are so adapted to the scholars and men of letters who support and inhabit it. I have been through the Library this afternoon with Prof. Benecke, second librarian. This is the great pride of Göttingen. The Museum is but an ordinary collection of natural curiosities, ill preserved and works of art of little value—the botanical garden is neither extensive nor sufficiently well kept—but the library is rich and ample—containing what a scholar can reasonably desire, arranged in the best order and accessible on the most liberal terms. It consists of more than two hundred thousand volumes, selected solely from a regard to what is useful, and contained in the original building destined for the library and the University Church, which Jerome4 added to it.5 There are six librarians and the four catalogues, which Heyne caused to be made in above one hundred and fifty immense folios, are a model for an institution of this kind, as the plan prevents the necessity of a new catalogue ever being made out, and shows you at once every 4. Jérôme Bonaparte. 5. In doing this, the graves of Michaelis, Mosheim, etc., were disturbed and these great men are now left without a monument. The skull of the last I saw in a strange collection of curiosities natural and artificial, kept by Prof. Osiander, at the lying-in hospital. [G.T.]

24

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

book in the library. Every student can take out six separate works, and exchange them if he pleases every day; and those of us who come from a great distance and may, therefore, be supposed to be particularly anxious to use the library freely, are not restricted as to the number of books we may take out. I have received assurances that I may call for them indefinitely. The mode of taking them out is simple and at the same time singular. You send in the name of the book you want on a slip of paper with your own name, and the librarians look out the book in the course of twenty four hours. The next day, you send another slip of paper with your own name, the name of the book, and the name of a professor who becomes thus your surety, as it is impossible the librarians should know the hand-writing or even the person of all the scholars. The consequence of this wise regulation is that the books are seldom lost and are in far better preservation than any collection I have ever seen. Prof. Blumenbach told me that in the course of the last forty years he had countersigned many thousand of these papers, but had never yet been called on as surety.

1815 AUG. 8–10. GÖTTINGEN. BALL AT PROF. EICHHORN’S. MY LODGINGS SETTLED. GÖTTINGEN MATRICULATION. Aug. 8. Yesterday Prof. Eichhorn called on us, and asked us to his house this evening, after inquiring whether he should not first send his servant to renew the invitation. I found the ceremony there such as this hint intimated. It was a ball. The company assembled with great punctuality at six o’clock and long before dark the elder division of the party were seated at whist in two rooms, while the younger were dancing in a third and had a fourth for their drawing-room. These two coteries remained entirely distinct. The party consisted of several of the professors—a few of the students, among whom were two princes of Lippe, well enough for princes but for scholars rather ordinary—and a considerable number of the citizens making altogether about an hundred and forming, I suppose, a fair specimen of Göttingen. I augured well from it. The young men, though not very graceful, seemed to have good manners, and the girls, though not beautiful, were obviously good-natured. The manners of all were, in general, simple though I was sometimes distressed with ceremony and their dress more proper than that in England and less clumsy than in Holland. The dances were Waltzes and contra-dances; but, as I was a stranger, I took no part in the amusement. Aug. 9. Today I am settled in my apartments. They are No. 66. Wender Strasse6—zwey Treppen hoch7—and consist of three very good rooms—one to

6. Apparently, this refers to Weenderstraße. 7. Two flights of stairs up, that is, on the third floor.

1815–1817

25

sleep in—one to study in—and the other for my servant. Living here is cheap. Nearly Every body boards in his own rooms—makes his own tea and coffee—and has his dinner brought from a hotel or a restaurateur. A monthly bill of Expenses will, I think, run thus— Rooms Dinner Servant (Lindt himself) Tea, coffee, bread etc. Washing and incidentals Fire and candles

6.– 5.10 8.– 8.– 4.– 6.– 37.10 which is between $26 and 27.

Aug. 10. I have today subscribed the Pro-rector’s book, who for this semester is Planck, and have received his certificate that I am matriculated in the University. For this I paid Th.8 3.20 and thus am entitled to the use of the library and the privileges of the University for five years.—

1815 AUG. 15. GÖTTINGEN. BEGIN GERMAN. Aug. 15. I took my first lesson in German of Prof. Benecke today. These lessons are called Stunden (hours) from the circumstance of their continuing an hour, and a German professor is so punctual that he is at his table when the clock strikes and will not remain there after the hour is finished. If I wished to teach anybody the value of time, I would send him here where it is sold, as it were, in the gold-beater’s scales.

1815 AUG. 20. GÖTTINGEN. FRENCH RESPECTED GÖTTINGEN. Aug. 20. By some strange caprice Göttingen was respected by the French. In 1803 when Hanover was seized Heyne wrote to the first Consul asking his protection for the University, and very civil answers were received from Berthier and Talleyrand. They were accompanied by assurances from Bonaparte himself that “he considered Göttingen as an University belonging neither to Hanover nor Germany but to Europe and the World.”—He was faithful to his promise. Wolfenbüttel was plundered, and Jena abolished and other institutions of Germany suffered more or less from his depredations, but Göttingen was 8. Thaler.

26

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

spared and under the Westphalian dynasty, was even treated with kindness and liberality. Jerome built or rather made out of the University church a new hall for the Library—he gave many books, some of which, to be sure, were stolen from Wolfenbüttel—and he began to build them a fine stone observatory, which the P. Regent9 now finds it expedient to finish. The consequence is that Göttingen at this moment stands higher than any other university in Germany. All the others are in some measure unsettled and have suffered, in consequence, a diminution of their students; but, this is firmer than ever, after having escaped unhurt from so many convulsions, and now numbers on its rolls more than nine hundred and forty regular pupils.

1815 AUG. 22. GÖTTINGEN. MICHAELIS AND KÄSTNER. Aug. 22. Michaelis, I find, was not much respected here. He had a quarrelsome and fretful temper, and a mean and avaricious heart. A great many stories are told to his discredit, and to the credit of the wit and good feeling of Kästner, who was at the same time professor of Mathematics and was always a thorn in Michaelis’s side.—A scholar here, whose poverty has not extinguished his love of learning, went to Michaelis and told him the whole truth—told him that he was extremely desirous to hear his lectures but had no money—explained the reasons of it and begged him to admit him without the customary honorarium. Michaelis hesitated—said he had a family to support, etc. etc., but observing that the young man wore silver buckles in his shoes, told him that he did not think one in his circumstances should wear such ornaments and actually had the brutality to hint that he would receive them instead of his fee. The young man gave them to him, and with a heavy heart and unstrapped shoes went to Kästner on the same errand.—Kästner forgave him the fee but added: “If you are so poor, you must like to buy clothes cheap”—and went to his wardrobe and brought out a pair of old leather-breeches. “Here” said he “are a pair of breeches—very good, too, though you don’t seem to like them—which you shall have for half nothing. What will you give?”—The young man was confounded—tried to excuse himself—said he did not want clothes, etc., but in vain. The Prof. insisted—said they were as good as new, though in truth they were not fit to be seen—and ended by telling him that he should have them for a half a dollar. The poor fellow took from a purse nearly all the money that remained in it—gave it to Kästner—and went home more overwhelmed with this insult than the first. He sat down in his chair in despair—and threw the breeches on his table. They fell like something heavy and on examination he found a purse of gold in the 9. George Augustus Frederick (1762–1830).

1815–1817

27

pocket. He hastened with it to the Professor. “No,” said Kästner, “a bargain is a bargain—When you bought the breeches—you bought all there was in them”— and pushed him out of the room to avoid his thanks and gratitude. Kästner lost no occasion to trouble and vex Michaelis, and at last his persecution proceeded to open insult and the regency at Hanover interfered and ordered him beg Michaelis’s pardon. On receiving the intimation, Kästner, the next morning at day break, dressed himself in a full suit, with a sword and chapeau bras and went to the house of Michaelis. The servant said her Master was not up, but Kästner insisted on his being called and instead of waiting till he came down followed the maid directly into his chamber, and pretending to be surprised beyond measure at finding him in bed with his wife, started suddenly back, cried out “I beg ten thousand pardons”—turned on his heel and never made the professor any further satisfaction or in any other way fulfilled the commands of the regency.

1815 OCT. 1. GÖTTINGEN. FIRE. Oct. 1 Sunday. There was a considerable fire broke out here this morning at 3 o’clock. I went out from curiosity to see how this tardy and inefficient people would manage, when they were pressed by immediate difficulties; but, I found the confusion, idleness and indifference so great that I was very glad to work in order to forget the impatience which such a scene awakened. The fire had its course for nearly an hour, and if there had been any wind or if the houses had been built of combustible materials, I know not where the devastation would have stopped; but, luckily it was a dead calm and everything was made of brick and mortar and tile, so that it was well nigh impossible a fire should do much mischief. Two houses, however, were nearly destroyed, though with us, I think, only one would have suffered and that not considerably.—My servant, Frederick, earned a civic crown or at least deserved one for his exertions. In a long term of conscribed service under the French, this good fellow acquired a degree of intrepidity which seems unknown to the simple and peaceful burghers of Göttingen, and when it was discovered, as it was very late, that a student was still asleep in the house, he sprang forward to save him. The bystanders remonstrated against his rashness, but he persisted—they caught him by his coat—he tore it off and left it with them—made his way up stairs through a burning entry and chamber to where the young man slept and brought him down, bed, bed clothes and all together, through the smoke and flames, and amidst the shouts and congratulations of the mob. The poor fellow, when he knew the danger from which he had been so desperately saved, was almost crazy—fell on his knees amidst the crowd and thanked God and his deliverer in the same breath and almost with

28

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

the same feelings—and could with difficulty be prevented from committing a thousand extravagances in a situation where, indeed, composure would have been something above or below a man.—His name was Mayer and he had been here only six weeks.

1815. OCT. 4. GÖTTINGEN. EVERYBODY SWEARS. Oct. 4. The people about here are a strange people. They are certainly very orderly and moral in their lives; but, in their conversation, they are extremely extravagant and profane. The practice of swearing is universal. Rupstein, who comes to talk German with me and is a student in divinity, swears—old Hofrath Feder, one of the most venerable old gentlemen I have seen, swears—Eichhorn swears abominably—Blumenbach has not learnt better though he was sometime in England and is more tinctured with English manners than anybody I have met—and even their ladies, in whom such an intimation is horrible—even their women are grossly profane. Their clergy, too, are equally inattentive to the injunctions of the apostle. I was today told a story of a very respectable minister in this vicinity, which will illustrate it. He was in the habit of catechising the children very regularly, and, with equal regularity, struck his hand upon the table at the end of every question. The children took notice of this and fixed a pin with the point upwards on the spot where he was accustomed to strike. The exercise commenced out of Luther’s holy Heidelberg, which is still the textbook—he struck his hand repeatedly on the table without effect—and the little mischief makers were quite in despair. At last he came to the question: “Who led the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He hit the pin. “That the d____d boys did!” he exclaimed, ignorant of its double application.—The practice extends even to their writers, of which I have found many offensive instances, though none, I think, so much [as] one I have just met in Engel. He is one of their favorite moral writers—is very vehement against the new philosophy—and is at the moment complaining of the bad tendency of Werther. “Ich weiss nicht, sagt Werther, wass dass heisst, Leben, Sterben. Ich weiss es, bey Gott! auch nicht.”10 Such an exclamation would not be tolerated in English—and I think not in French, under such circumstances.— Sunday, too, is very ill observed here. The bell of preparation is indeed heard on Saturday afternoon—the service-bell calls on the people on Sunday—and on 10. Philosoph für Die Welt zweites Stück. Lessing, too, in writing to his father, a clergyman, under critical circumstances, where his language would naturally be cautious and solemn, says, Ich verspreche ihnen, bey Gott, Daß, so bald es gewiß ist, ich sogleich nach Hause kommen will. Leben p. 93. [I promise you that by God I will come home as soon as it is certain.–ed.] Compare with these the Edinburgh Rev. of Erskine’s Speeches. [G.T.] [I don’t know, says Werther, what it means, living, dying. By God, I don’t know either.] This quotation is from Lessing, ed., Gotthold Ephraim Lessings’s Leben, 92–93.

1815–1817

29

Monday morning the same bell announces to them that holy time has gone by. But these are the forms which have come down from a more religious age, and have long since ceased to be anything but forms. The churches are empty and the streets are full, and the shops are open—in short, it is a holiday. The country people come in from the villages—the town’s people put on their best clothes and sit down to work and knit and sew and smoke before their doors—the professors hold their levees11 and make their visits—and the students go into the environs to gardens and other places of entertainment or stay in town and lounge round the ramparts. They do anything but remember and worship God.—

1815 OCT. 18. GÖTTINGEN. CEREMONIES OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORY AT LEIPZIG. Oct. 18, 1815. Today is the anniversary of the great Battle of Leipzig—a day of proud recollections for Germany. It has been very appropriately celebrated here. In the morning all the citizens assembled in the principal church—listened to a short but not ineloquent harangue delivered by its pastor—a brother of the two Schlegels12—then voluntarily took anew the oath of allegiance to the King13—sang a thanksgiving unâ voce14—and separated.—In the afternoon, the most considerable citizens—the professors and such of the students as they permitted to be invited, making altogether about seventy, dined together. The toasts were few and short—“The 18th Oct. that gave us liberty”—“The land of our fathers”—“Waterloo,” etc., were drunk standing, touching glasses all round the table, and crying out Es lebe hoch! repeatedly, as the citizens do in the first scene of Goethe’s Egmont.15 The company seemed to enjoy themselves very much, though to me who drink no wine and care nothing about politics, it was rather dull. At seven o’clock everybody went home in German sobriety. In the evening fires were kindled on the hills in the neighborhood and rockets thrown from the principal height. The women were out with their children, and, as I walked round the ramparts and heard them explaining the reason of 11. Every professor keeps open doors on Sunday to all his friends—and from eleven to twelve receives the visits of any students who may choose to call on him, whether he is acquainted with them or not. I have never been at any levee but that of Bauer now Pro rector. This was very dull, though Eichhorn went with me; and I am told they are seldom more lively. As to going to church, I do not believe there is a professor out of the forty in Göttingen who does it habitually or frequently. Planck, being the head of the Theological faculty and the most orthodox of the body, goes sometimes pro forma—Blumenbach never—and Eichhorn, they say, does not know where the church is. [G.T.] 12. Karl August Moritz Schlegel. 13. George III (1738–1820). 14. In unison. 15. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play Egmont (1788), in which the author depicts the fight of the Flemish Count Egmont against the Spanish intruder the Duke of Alba.

30

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

the exhibition even to those who were so young they could hardly understand any better than little Peterkin what a battle or a victory meant, I almost caught the contagion of their feelings and patriotism.

1816 APRIL 6. GÖTTINGEN. END OF FIRST SEMESTER AT GÖTTINGEN. RESULTS. April 6. Today the semester properly so called came to a close. For me it has been the most industrious and, I hope, the most profitable period of my life, for I have sacrificed happiness enough to purchase it. I have had two lessons daily with Dr. Schulze in Greek—three every week with Prof. Benecke in German—two every week with Prof. d’Artaud in writing French—and have besides attended Eichhorn’s and Blumenbach’s Lectures and, for exercise, taken instruction part of the time in Fencing and part of the time in Riding. I could not, I suppose, have done more than I have without endangering my health, and it is a pleasure to me on looking back to find that what I have done I have done thoroughly, for of all these lessons I have missed just one during the whole semester.

1816 APRIL 8. GÖTTINGEN. MR. AND MRS. PERKINS AT GÖTTINGEN. April 8. Mr. and Mrs. Perkins16 arrived here, the 28th ult.—and remained till three days ago—we then accompanied them to Kassel and parted from them yesterday morning with a bitterness of regret, which is hardly compensated by the happiness which their visit gave me. Two days have since passed away, and everything in Göttingen has become absolutely distasteful to me from a kind and degree of homesickness which I have not before felt in Europe.—Whether I shall entirely overcome these impressions and be again as contented here as I have been, I know not, but, of this I am sure, that the recollection of the last short and happy week will never return to my memory without bringing at the same time a sense of desolation such as I have not known since I felt the shock of the vessel as it finally parted from the wharf a year ago and separated me, perhaps 16. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel G. Perkins accompanied Ticknor and Everett during their voyage across the Atlantic and traveled with them through Holland, parting with them in Utrecht, when Ticknor and Everett left for Göttingen. Samuel G. Perkins was one of the most prominent merchants of Boston. His wife, a daughter of Stephen Higginson, was reputed to be one of the most beautiful women of her time. Everett supervised the Perkins’s son, who attended a high school (Gymnasium) in Göttingen. They visited Ticknor and Everett in Göttingen in spring 1816. On the Perkinses, see Hillard and Ticknor, eds., Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor, 1:13; Tyack, George Ticknor and the Boston Brahmins, 57–58. On the Perkins family, see Crawford, Famous Families of Massachusetts, 197–211.

1815–1817

31

forever, from my home. I know that I now write in a moment of unusual and even unnatural depression, and I feel that the sensation of the loss I have just suffered makes me ungrateful for the happiness I have just enjoyed, but still I do not think that I could desire to meet Mrs. Perkins again to be again separated from her. Indeed—indeed—I never felt so entirely alone in the world—so forsaken—as in the two days which have just passed, and I can hardly imagine a form of happiness which I could wish to purchase at so dear a price.

1816 SEPT. 10. GÖTTINGEN. END OF SECOND SEMESTER. RESULTS. Sep. 10. Today closes my second semester in Göttingen, and I am grateful to Heaven that another period of my imprisonment has passed, for five so miserable months as the last have been have never before darkened my life. Perhaps, however, all this may be well and fortunate for its effect has been to keep me constantly and severely at my books and that is the object for which I have remained here. During this semester I have had six lessons a week in German and six in Greek both with Dr. Schulze—four in Italian from Hofrath Ballhorn—three in writing French from Prof. d’Artaud—and six during the last nine weeks from Prof. Saalfeld on the present Political and moral condition of Germany. Of all these I have missed not one lesson and if such perpetual study was but monotony and wearisomeness while it lasted, it leaves something like peace of conscience now that it is passed.

2 “A Journey” with Edward Everett, September 13–October 25, 1816 [Editor’s note: Between September 13 and November 5, 1816, Ticknor and Everett traveled to several cities in central and northern Germany on “a Journey,” as Ticknor wrote, “whose object is to enable me to see as much as possible of the German Universities and the modes of education in them.” The primary cities they visited were Leipzig, Meißen, Dresden, Berlin, Potsdam, Wittenberg, Halle, Naumburg, Weimar, Jena, Erfurt, and Gotha.]

1816 SEPTEMBER 13–14. JOURNEY TO LEIPZIG. Sep. 13, 1816. Everett and myself left Göttingen early in the morning with the intention of hastening directly to Leipzig, as our visits to the places on the way

32

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

could be more conveniently made on our return.—The weather proved fine and our journey was pleasant. At Heiligenstadt, while our horses were changing, we looked at a few of the many remains of Catholicism with which, as may be conjectured from its name, the city abounds; and regretted that our short stop did not permit us to visit the Gymnasium for Catholics and Protestants, which has been lately much improved by the Minister von Dohm, whose memoirs of his times17 are now the subject of frequent conversation, and were partly translated by the late Prof. Villers. Again at Mühlhausen, which was one of the famous Imperial cities, we saw abundant remains of ancient splendour and superstition, and what is more remarkable, very few traces of recent decay, though the multitude of revolutions have long since extinguished its proud privileges. At Langensalza it was already beginning to be dark, and, therefore, when we came to Erfurt so famous in the earlier history of Germany and so much more famous in its recent history from the meeting of Bonaparte and his vassal Kings, we saw no more of it than could be shown by the full light of the moon as it fell on the massy walls, and high towers and steeples of the city; and when I awoke in the morning with the rising sun, we seemed to have passed from Virgil’s Tartarean realms to the bright fields of his Elysium, for Weimar with its turrets and castle stood before us and around us was its beautiful territory broken everywhere into fertile hills and valleys and interspersed with woods and villages. There on the 14th we breakfasted with the names and poetry of Schiller, and Wieland and Goethe often on our lips and oftener in our recollections.—In the forenoon we left this interesting little capital, and continued our way still through an admirable country bearing everywhere the marks of fertility and comfort, and of which our very postillion was proud and thanked God that he was born in Weimar with a pious patriotism that seemed almost as exclusive as the religion of the Pharisee when he rejoiced before heaven that he was not like other men. Our way was often on the banks of the Saale which has repeatedly borne witness to the progress of Bonaparte sometimes in success and sometimes in defeat, and after going through to Eckartsberg, we passed the beautiful plain of Auerstedt, where the Defeat of the Duke of Brunswick18 and the King of Prussia19 by Davout gave him the title of Duke of Auerstedt. Farther on upon a small branch of the Saale, we passed the gates of the Pforte Schule,20 just as the boys were coming out to the number of sixty or seventy with an instructor apparently for the purpose of pursuing some branch of natural history. After dining at Naumburg, we continued our journey again through a fine country, which like 17. See Dohm’s five-volume series, Denkwürdigkeiten meiner Zeit. 18. Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (1735–1806). 19. Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770–1840). 20. For the history of the high school at Schulpforta, see Heyer, Aus der Geschichte der Landesschule zur Pforte.

1815–1817

33

that we saw in the morning had been so often ravaged by the French, and yet always recovered again by its own fertility, until we came near by Lützen21 into the immense plains of Leipzig and passed on our right the village of Großgörschen, where Blücher fought the tremendous battle of May 2, 1813, and which the peasants are now just rebuilding. From Eckartsberg to beyond Lützen, we were in that part of Saxony which was given up to Prussia,22 and I was curious to see what was the feeling of the people on their new transfer. I therefore spoke freely with all I met on the point, and I found that all, even the lowest classes, who generally feel so little here, felt a bitter regret and sometimes indignation at the change, and two, in particular, in speaking of the days of the Saxon Government, called them “their golden times”.—Two or three miles from Lützen we, at last, entered Saxony, shorn of its glories and strength, and at nine o’clock in the evening after still driving over the same immense plains, entered, at last, the gate of Leipzig, by which Bonaparte fled. [Editor’s note: Ticknor and Everett spent four days in Leipzig, where they became acquainted with the Thomasschule, the Ratsschule, and the university, as well as with several notable academic individuals. Spending about a day in Meißen, they visited a school and the porcelain factory there.]

1816 SEP. 20. TO DRESDEN. In the afternoon, we set off for Dresden. The road was fine—the weather fair—the Elbe occasionally enlivened by a boat, and its banks always covered with cheerful vineyards. It was a gay ride to us, and we almost regretted it when we came in sight of the capital with its beautiful bridge and imposing steeples and towers.

1816 SEP. 21. DRESDEN. BÖTTIGER THE ARCHEOLOGIST. LECTURE. WERNER. ITALIAN OPERA. Sep. 21. The first thing we did this morning was to deliver our letters to Böttiger, the inspector of the famous collection of Antiques, etc. etc., and undoubtedly the 21. Lützen was the site for two important battles. In 1632, Gustav Adolph, king of Sweden, was killed in the Battle of Lützen. Here the Swedes faced the army of the Holy Roman Emperor under Albrecht E. W. von Wallenstein. In 1813, Napoleon faced the combined Russian and Prussian forces. 22. According to the peace treaty between Russia, Prussia, and Saxony from May 1815, Saxony lost 60 percent of its former territory and 40 percent of its population (including parts of the Lausitz, the territories to the north of Leipzig, and parts of Thuringia). See Kötzscke and Kretzschmar, Sächsische Geschichte, 309–10.

34

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

first Archeologist in Germany. As he had a lecture at ten we naturally went to it. It was held in a room in the Japanese Palace23 adjoining the chambers in which the whole of this collection is kept, so that in regard to situation nothing better could be desired for a course of archeological lectures. The audience consisted of about thirty persons—twelve or fifteen of whom were students or pupils of the Academy and two ladies. The lecture itself was excellent—full of learning and yet delivered with ease and elegance. His subject was the ancient caftan of the Persians, which he compared with the Greek ␹␭␣ ´␮␫␵24 and the Roman toga—showed how naturally the Greek associated the idea of Barbarism with the effeminate clothing of the Eastern nations—and supported the whole by many remarkable passages from Xenophon, Plutarch, the Minor Latin Poets, etc.—most of which he cited memoriter25 even to the book and chapter. His division was lucid and philosophical; and his manner easy and even elegant, so that I consider his lecture one of the best I have heard in Germany. When the Lecture was over we were carried through the collection of Antiques in almost an hour by the cicerone appointed for the purpose; but I must go there many times before I can speak of it. In the afternoon, by the kindness of Mr. Böttiger, we were introduced to the famous Werner, claimed here to be the first mineralogist and geologist living. He is now about sixty six—a short thick man with mild blues eyes, and manners which expressed the good-nature which an hour’s conversation proved him to possess. He talked much—spoke on the literary condition of Saxony with liberality—and on his own famous establishment at Freiberg26 con amare27—with the paternal interest which alone forty years of devotion to it would naturally inspire. His general information beyond his department did not seem extraordinary, but here, he is a man of whom any country might be proud. In the Evening we went to the Italian Opera.28 The building is not large but convenient and neat—and the scenery good. The orchestra, however, is said to be the finest in Germany and the singers the best that the King,29 who is an amateur, can collect. The royal family was chiefly present; but the King stayed only one act.—The actresses were dressed with propriety and the dancers made no indecent jumps or gestures. As to the music I am not a sufficient judge, but the or23. The Japanese Palace was built in 1715 by Count Jakob Heinrich Graf von Flemming (1667– 1728). In 1717, Friedrich August I (1670–1733) acquired the building. He extended it in 1729–1731 to store his porcelain collection. In 1786, it became the home of the Royal Saxon Library. 24. A short mantle or cloak. 25. Memorized. 26. The Bergakademie Freiberg founded in 1765 is the oldest university of mining and metallurgy worldwide. 27. With devotion and love. 28. The opera house was built in between the Porcelain Pavilion and the Taschenbergpalais by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. It was opened in 1719. 29. Friedrich August I of Saxony (1750–1827).

1815–1817

35

chestra seemed to me too numerous for the size of the house and the voice of the first female singer, like her person, rather coarse, though I was certainly pleased on the whole, and particularly with the tender passages sung by the hero.

1816 SEP. 22. DRESDEN. AMMON, THE PREACHER. CATHOLIC SERVICE IN THE ROYAL CHAPEL. ROYAL FAMILY. DR. WEIGEL. Sep. 22. Sunday. This morning, we went to hear the Oberhofprediger Ammon, formerly professor of theology at Göttingen, and now the Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, and said to be the most eloquent preacher in Germany.30 We were disappointed and heard only the second preacher to the court, who gave a very plain and respectable discourse, without pretensions and with little effect. After the service, however, we visited Mr. Ammon, to whom we had letters, and found him a tall handsome man—with lively manners—and a fine voice—well calculated, in short, to give effect to a powerful discourse, as I hope we shall learn next Sunday. From the Protestant Service, we went to the Catholic; and heard mass in the Royal chapel.31 The effect was grand. The church is large and high—the roof arched as to give effect to the music—the organ powerful and of a sweet tone—the band very numerous and perfectly practised—the service, as high mass always is, solemn and touching—and the whole audience, especially the King, apparently devout and attentive, formed an imposing as well as moving scene. I know not why I did not fall on my knees before the altar at whose feet I stood when I saw every body kneeling around me, for there were not many there whose hearts, I suspect, were more penetrated with devotion at this moment than mine. When the service was over, we placed ourselves in a long entry which connects the chapel with the castle and saw the Royal family pass within two or three feet of us. The King is an old man—near 70 but looks well and hearty, and has a respectable appearance—The queen is old too, and neither handsome nor remarkably ugly.32 The brothers are like the race of princes generally and look dull,

30. I should, perhaps, rather say Protestant preacher for I imagine Werner, who after writing the Tragedy of Luther has become a Catholic, is more eloquent than Ammon. At least I hear so. [G.T.] 31. The royal family of Saxony had been Catholic since the late seventeenth century. Elector Friedrich August I (1670–1733) had converted from Protestantism to Catholicism to be eligible for election as king of Poland (1697). From then on, all Saxon kings were Catholic while the majority of the Saxon population remained Protestant. See Kötzscke and Kretzschmar, Sächsische Geschichte, 267–69. 32. He married Maria Amalia Augusta of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, the countess of the Palatinate and the sister of King Maximilian I of Bavaria, in 1769. They had four children, of which only one daughter survived childhood.

36

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

though the son of one of them is a fine looking young man, who bore a striking resemblance to William Prescott. The King passes here without any guard and an inconsiderable attendance through the midst of his people who love him, it is said, more truly than any people in Europe now love their sovereign; and here at an appointed place, everyone who chooses is permitted and requested to deliver his petition in person, which it is certain the King himself as personally reads and considers, for he is a man of much character and independence.33

1816 SEP. 23. DRESDEN. PUBLIC LIBRARY. EARLY PRINTING. PICTURE GALLERY. THE MADONNA DI SAN SISTO 23 Sep. This morning, we passed two hours in the Library. It is in the Japanese Palace,34 as it is still called, though it now contains only [a] collection of antiques and the Cabinet of coins in the lower story and the Library in the two upper stories. It is a good building in the form of a parallelogram, surrounding a court of the same form and well fitted up for the uses to which it is destined. It was built by Field Marshal Fleming in 1715 for his own use, but the expense had been too great for him, and in 1717 he was obliged to sell it to Augustus the II,35 who destined it for a kind of country-residence. In 1730 it was altered throughout and, indeed, nearly built anew—the Japanese ornaments which gave it its style of architecture and its name were as much as possible removed—and Jean von Bodt,36 who superintended the improvements, gave it its present beautiful front. The reigning Elector, however, (now King)37 has given it a new destination,

33. In the P.M. we called a few moments on Dr. Weigel, a favorite Physician here—son of the late famous antiquary at Leipzig—and formerly Professor there. He is said to be a classical scholar—has collected much and collated many manuscripts in his extensive travels towards an edition of the Greek writers on medicine, some of whom have never been published—and has actually proceeded as far as µ in a large and learned vocabulary of Greek medical terms, which is alluded to in Schneider’s preface to his Lexicon. He showed us his collections for these enormous works, which are, after all, merely subsidiary in a profession, which prevents him from pursuing steadily any regular literary labour, and filled me for the hundredth time with wonder at the diligence and zeal of a German man of letters. Dr. Weigel is now, I suppose, about 38 or 40 years old—and as he has made considerable progress in these works which constitute now his favorite occupation, I should think it nearly sure he will complete them. [G.T.] Ticknor had visited Carl Christian Leberecht Weigel (1769–1854), a court physician. Ticknor was suggesting that he was the son of Johann August Gottlob Weigel (1773–1846), who had founded a famous business in book trading in Leipzig, but Ticknor was mistaken. The two men were brothers. See Schneider, Kritisches Griechisch-Deutsches Handwörterbuch. 34. The Japanese Palace initially housed August the Strong’s porcelain collection. Since 1786 it had also housed the Royal Saxon Library. See Falkenstein, Beschreibung der königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden. 35. Friedrich August I became Friedrich August II with his accession to the Polish throne in 1697. 36. The Japanese Palace was remodeled and extended by Zacharias Longuelune, Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, Johann Christoph Knöffel, and Jean de Bodt. 37. Friedrich August I of Saxony (1750–1827).

1815–1817

37

and fitted it up for scientific purposes at an expense of 83,000 th., which, when added to the original expense 100,000 makes it, indeed, a noble establishment. On its beautiful front ornamented with statues but still not showing are the three following inscriptions—In the middle Museum usui publico patens.38

On the two wings Condiderunt Augusti primi tres39

and Frid. August. El. instauravit, auxit, ornavit.40

The library is beyond praise. It was commenced about the year 1560–65 by the first Augustus41—was, like everything else in Dresden that belongs to science and the arts, much increased and improved by Frederick Augustus I—and finally removed into its present situation in 1786—and arranged on its present liberal plan by the reigning Elector.42 It was at different times increased by collections of learned men, particularly by that of Seebisch in Oriental manuscripts, who was also librarian here—and Matthaei’s of Greek manuscripts chiefly from Moscow and the convent at Mt. Athos, which was purchased in 1788. The whole Library amounting to above 200,000 volumes—nearly 2000 manuscripts—90,000 pamphlets and dissertations—and 12,000 maps was brought into its present order, by the famous Adelung, the German Lexicographer who died here as Librarian in 1806, it fills twenty one chambers and three large halls. Among its rarities and peculiar attractions is a collection of what relates to the progress of Printing—in which they have 1. in the block printing, which are believed to be before the middle of the fifteenth century, the Biblia Pauperum on 40 leaves—the Ars moriendi on 14—and the Ars memorandi notabilis per figuras Evangelistarum43 [on] 30 leaves— all in small folio and all mere wood-cuts with wide explanations sometimes in 38. This museum is open to the public. 39. The first three Augusts established this museum. This refers to Elector August of Saxony (1526– 1586), Friedrich August II (1670–1733), and Friedrich August I (1750–1827). 40. Elector Friedrich August created, expanded, and decorated it. This refers to Friedrich August I (1750–1827). 41. August (1526–1586) became elector of Saxony in 1553. 42. The Royal Saxon Library was founded in 1556 as a private library for Elector August of Saxony. Throughout the eighteenth century, its collections grew significantly. The acquisition of various libraries owned by noblemen turned it into one of the most important libraries in Europe. In 1786, the library was moved from the Zwinger to the Japanese Palace. Johann Christoph Adelung (1732–1806), who became its chief librarian in 1787, opened the library to the public in 1788. See Frühauf, “Von der kurfürstlichen Privatbibliothek zur Sächsischen Landesbibliothek,” and Bürger, “Wandel und Kontinuität in 450 Jahren.” 43. On these works, see Falkenstein, Beschreibung der königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek, 467–69.

38

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

rhyme and sometimes in prose.—2. The first regular book, printed with blocks being a Psalter of Fust und Schöffer 1457.—3. The first book printed with moveable metallic types, being Guillaume Durand Rationale Divinorum Officiorum44 1459, whose execution proved a prodigious improvement in the art in two years.—They have, also, books of 1460–1462–1465, etc.—the first edition of the Vulgate—a stupendous collection of Bibles—a collection of Arabic manuscripts taken at the rout of the Turks before Vienna in July 1683 and at the capture of Ofens in 1686;45 among the first of which is a beautiful illuminated copy of the Koran that had belonged to the library of Bayezid the Great46—and a Mexican book on 30 leaves, opening like the Spanish missals, which some of the learned take to be a calendar,47 and which Meyer of Weimer lately thought a book of taxes; but which, whatever it may be, is a curiosity, as the Spaniards when they came to Mexico destroyed almost everything of the kind on the ground that they belonged to the idolatry and witchcraft of the heathen. The whole of this collection, which was before kept nearly inaccessible, is now thrown open for public use every day four hours by the public spirit of the reigning elector48—a librarian, now Hofrath Beigel, a learned man particularly in the Eastern languages, some of which he speaks—a sub-Librarian and four secretaries are there to supply every want in an antechamber fitted up with suitable conveniences for study—and the whole establishment is annually increased by a fund that produces 3000 thaler every year and which is exclusively devoted to this purpose.49 In the afternoon, we went through the Gallery of Pictures, which has made the name of Dresden so famous through the world; and though I had read the admiration of Lessing, and Herder and Winckelmann, it surpassed my expectations. From looking at a collection of above thirteen-hundred an hour or two, I cannot, of course, say anything; but of the effect of one piece50 on my unpracticed eye, I cannot choose but speak, for I would not willingly hereafter lose the recollection of what I now felt. I mean the picture of the Madonna holding the child 44. Guillaume Durand’s Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (written in 1286) was first printed by Fust and Schoeffer in Mainz in 1459. 45. Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I recaptured the city of Ofen, the former capital of Hungary, from the Osman Empire in 1686. 46. This Koran (dated 1184) stems from the collection of the Sultan Bayezid II (1447/1448–1512). It was given to the library in 1712. See Falkenstein, Beschreibung der königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek, 271. 47. This refers to the so-called Dresden Codex—one of the few surviving Maya Codices. Johann Christian Goetze, the director of the Royal Saxon Library, acquired it in Vienna in 1739. It is considered the most beautiful and complete. See Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico. 48. Friedrich August I of Saxony. 49. There is, I apprehend, no Library in Germany to be compared with this except the Göttingen.—Each has its advantages—This has a greater number of old books—the Göttingen a greater number of recent ones—This is better arranged on the shelves and more elegant—the Göttingen has a catalogue which is beyond any work of the kind extant and is a more practical library—Both contain about the same number of works and are administered with the greatest liberality. [G.T.] 50. Madonna di San Sisto by Raphael.

1815–1817

39

Jesus in her arms—with Sixtus V and St. Barbara below adoring the vision, which is brighter and holier than ever appeared to the imagination of devotion—and two angels at the bottom of the piece lost in contemplation, though too highly raised above all mortal feeling to be moved with surprise or wonder like the earthly saints above them. I had often heard of the power of fine paintings, and I knew that Raphael was commonly reckoned the master of all imitation, and that this was one of the highest efforts of his skill; but I was not prepared for such a vision. I did not before imagine it had been within the compass of human talent to have formed a countenance of such ideal beauty and purity as the Madonna’s, on which a smile would have seemed earthly and unholy—or a child, like Jesus, where the innocence of infancy is consecrated and elevated but not marred in any of its natural sweetness and fascination by the inspiration of the divinity which beams forth in the mild but fixed earnestness of his look. I was not prepared for this, for I had never before seen a work of one of the great masters—and even now that I have seen it and felt the influence of Raphael’s Genius descend upon me, I find it almost impossible, on looking back, to believe that there is still a point in the art which ought to produce the effect that this piece produced on me, as I stood before it, even while I was still ignorant that it was the great work which Europe had come here to admire and enjoy.—

1816 DRESDEN. SEP. 24–25. THE PICTURE GALLERY. BÖTTIGER’S LECTURE. GALLERY OF ANTIQUES. Sep. 24. I passed the whole day in the Picture Gallery; and still am very far from having a distinct idea of anything.51 The pleasure of running over the multitude and passing from one piece to the other as my eye catches new attractions is so unexpectedly great that I have found it thus far impossible seriously to pause and examine, as it ought to be examined, even a single picture. Tomorrow, I will begin more systematically. Sep. 25.—I began this morning a study of this remarkable collection—and, in a way, too, which I think is the best to study any large collection of paintings. I divided them, first according to the schools, and then according to the masters, selecting such of the last as were most worthy, since the few days I am here will be far from sufficient to see half the gallery with any discretion, and then going 51. The Picture Gallery attracted many American visitors who praised it as the best art collection north of the Alps. Its collections were assembled by August II (1670–1733) and August III (1696–1763). Both were electors of Saxony and kings of Poland. From 1747 to 1855, the gallery was housed in the former royal stables at the Neumarkt. See Brüning, “‘It is a glorious collection’ Amerikanische Bildungsbürger des 19. Jahrhunderts auf ‘Pilgerfahrt zur Dresdner Gemäldegalerie.’” For more on the views of American visitors to Saxony, see Brüning, “‘Saxony Is a Properous and Happy Country’: American Views of the Kingdom of Saxony in the Nineteenth Century.”

Figure 4. The Sistine Madonna, by Raphael, 1513–1514. Reprinted by permission of the Gemälde Galerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

1815–1817

41

through the works of each master I had selected that I might get, if possible, some idea of his manner.— I. I commenced, therefore, with the Florentine School as the oldest—and went through, also in the order of time, the pictures in the Gallery by Leon. da Vinci—Mich. Angelo—Vasari—Andrea del Santo52—and Carlo Dolci.— II. As the next oldest, I took the Roman and there went through the pictures of Perugino—Raphael’s Master—and commenced with Raphael but could get no farther than his Madonna, which had carried captive all my admiration yesterday and the day before.— I left the Gallery to go and hear another lecture by Böttiger It was on the head dress of the ancient Persians—and was equally learned as the last and more amusing. The audience was the same or nearly the same as before, and were attentive, though the lecture is public. After the Lecture was over, Mr. Böttiger himself conducted us through a part of the Gallery of Antiques and explained to us the most important statues with learning and eloquence one hour and promised to finish them in another hour tomorrow. It is a collection which does honour to Dresden, and is not a small item in the account which goes to make it, as Herder calls it, the Florence of Germany. Its origin is traced to the first Augustus,53 who reigned from 1553 to 1586 and who in 1560 began to gather a few antiques and casts. John Geo. III added to it a number of figures in bronze and, for the time, a respectable collection of ancient urns, weapons, etc.—but still it was an unimportant thing and the whole was hardly sufficient to fill a few rooms in one of the offices of the palace. At length came the famous reign of Augustus II, who between 1720–1730 did so much for the splendour of Dresden and the honour of Germany.54 At the same time that he filled the Gallery of Pictures, he spared no pains to assemble materials for a Gallery of Antiques.55 The present collection was substantially made by his munificence and taste and consists 1. Of the Gallery of Prince Chigi at Rome,56 which he bought entire and for which he paid 80,000 Reichsthaler—2. Statues from Cardinal Albani’s gallery—and 3. The famous Mummies brought to Europe by della Valle.—To these Augustus III added the three Herculaneum women and some less considerable works of art, so that the only great want now remaining was that of a proper place to preserve and exhibit them in and a proper arrange52. Andrea del Verrocchio (1435–1488). 53. August (1526–1586) became elector of Saxony in 1553. 54. See Kötzscke and Kreztschmar, Sächsischer Geschichte, 267–85; Czok, ed., Geschichte Sachsens, 249–62. 55. During the Seven Years’ War, the Gallery was kept at Königstein, an impregnable fortress a few miles East of Dresden, which the Prussians considered neutral during the whole of this bloody and useless war. They were brought there again in 1812–13 and did not return until the King was liberated.—The collection of Antiques, Gypsum casts, etc., were never removed on such occasions, as the risk of transportation seemed greater than the risk of war. [G.T.] 56. A member of the Chigi-Albani princely family in Rome.

42

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

ment. This was provided by the reigning Elector and King57 when he devoted the Japanese palace to learning—and in Nov. 1785–Jan. 1786 the whole collection was removed thither and arranged in twelve fine rooms in the lower story, where they are still to be seen publicly two days in the week.— 1816 OCTOBER 3. DRESDEN. DIE FRAUENKIRCHE. In the afternoon, we went to the top of Frauenkirche,58 a beautiful building on the outside but ordinary within. The spot on which it stands has been from the eleventh century holy ground, rich in relics and miraculous legends, to which many pilgrimages were once made; but the present church dates only from 1726–1734, and is altogether in the simple style of Protestantism. The architect obviously took St. Peter’s for the model of his dome, which is of massive stone, and was found to be bomb-proof in the siege of the city in 1760, in consequence of which the French used it for a magazine when they were here in 1813.— From the top is the finest view I have yet seen of Dresden and the neighboring country—of the Elbe, and its beautiful stone bridge—of the New-city—the innumerable villages with which this luxuriant valley is filled—and, in short, of the whole scene of the achievements of the Seven Years’ War and of Bonaparte’s last campaign in Saxony, from Meissen on one side to Königsstein and the mountains of Bohemia on the other.— 1816 OCT. 5. PARTINGS AT DRESDEN. ANTIQUES BY TORCHLIGHT. BÖTTIGER. October 5th. The day was, of course, chiefly spent in making visits and taking leave of the many friends, who during our visit of a fortnight have been so kind to us. From our old and enthusiastic friend Bischoff,59 I did not part without tears, nor was he less moved, albeit not of the melting mood, for he looks upon one from America as necessarily pure and virtuous, and, of course, worthy of his best regard; and he sent me a note this evening saying “our friendship is indeed new but I hope it is strong enough to grow old.” I went, too, once more through the Gallery of Pictures and bade a lingering farewell to the beautiful Madonna, the recollection of which I trust I shall never lose, unless it be effaced by Raphael’s greater works in the Vatican. 57. Friedrich August I of Saxony (1750–1827). 58. The Frauenkirche was a large Protestant cathedral in the heart of Dresden built between 1726 and 1734. 59. According to Ticknor in a journal entry from September 26, 1816, Bischoff was a member of the King’s council and years earlier had been a professor in Braunschweig.

1815–1817

43

In the evening, by the unwearied kindness of Mr. Böttiger, we saw the Gallery of Antiques by torch-light. It was, indeed, a striking exhibition—unlike anything I had expected. The light fell on them as from the lamp of Prometheus and the long row of Gods, heroes and Kings seemed to start into life under its influence. The mild majesty of Jupiter’s—the benevolent skill of Aesculapius— the unutterable sorrows of Niobe—the anatomical truth in the body of the wrestler—and the beautiful proportions of the Venus were all more distinctly displayed in a light for this purpose, more striking than that of day. The drapery, too, of all the figures, particularly of the Minerva and the three Vestals, was very beautiful, and the whole gallery thus lighted, and what was almost more, thus explained and illustrated by the appropriate eloquence and learning of Mr. Böttiger, made an impression on me, which, I think, I shall never forget.— 1816 OCT. 6. LEAVE DRESDEN FOR BERLIN. October 6.—This morning, early we set off from Dresden, and by the light of the moon bade farewell to the banks of the Elbe, and to a scenery more beautiful than we shall see again until we have left Prussia.—On our road to day we passed through Grossenhain, where Prussian Blue was discovered in [———]60 and entered the ceded part of Saxony at Elsterwerda, where Oudinot had his army on the 10th August 1813, when he was about to begin his unfortunate expedition against Berlin.61 Late at night we passed through Luckau, but the bright light of the moon enabled us to see distinctly the marks of the wanton ravages made by Oudinot in his retreat, after having been beaten by Bülow and the Prussian militia with the butt-end of their muskets at Großbeeren on the twenty third of August. From here we saw literally nothing except the barren sand plain, which had commenced at Elsterwerda, and grew every mile worse and worse, compared with which the pine-plains of New Hampshire are spots of fertility and abundance. [Editor’s note: From October 7–13, Ticknor and Everett visited the university and various notable people in Berlin. They then spent a day in Potsdam on their way to Wittenberg.] 60. Ticknor left a blank space here, perhaps intending to return and fill it in later with the proper word. Prussian Blue (a very dark blue pigment) is a synthetic dye, one of the first, which was discovered accidentally by the chemist and paint-maker Heinrich Diesbach and the alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel sometime between 1704 and 1705. 61. On the way, I took pains to speak with every man I met in the ceded part of Saxony on the subject of the cession. Without a single exception, I found a decided dislike of Prussia openly expressed even by those in Prussian pay—and as open an attachment to Saxony. The number of persons was not, to be sure, above six or seven; but so distinct an expression of their feelings to a stranger showed a rooted dislike of their present masters in a country where it is so rare to hear an opinion expressed on politics as it is in Germany. [G.T.]

44

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

1816 OCT. 15. WITTENBERG. SPITZNER AND HIS POVERTY. LUTHER. PETER THE GREAT. GRAVES OF LUTHER AND MELANCHTHON, LUTHER BURNING THE BULLS AND DECRETALS. JOURNEY TO LEIPZIG. We . . . arrived in Wittenberg at ten o’clock on Tuesday Oct. 15th—which even at a distance announced its age and its calamities. We immediately called on the Rector of the Gymnasium there Magister Spitzner to whom we had a letter, and who, with considerable talents and much learning, showed in his depressed spirits and subdued manner more of the res augusta domi 62 than any man of letters I have yet seen in Germany. He is a young man of about 30—is married—has published a book on heroic verses, which has merit—and is here at the head of a school of six hundred63 boys with five assistants; and a salary of 300 thaler a year. It is, indeed, a hard case—such an one as we often read in a number of the Spectator or Rambler but never trust ourselves to believe it has occurred in real life.—He went with us, the whole day round the city and its environs, and showed us all that a stranger can now find in it to carry back his recollections and fancy to the days of the Reformation and perhaps to the days, when by a natural anachronism, Shakespeare brought Horatio and Rosencrantz here to be instructed.64—The first thing we went to see was the church of the Virgin or, as a Protestant would rather call it, the church where Luther used to preach.—It is a venerable building but has been too often repaired, especially since the Seven Years’ War, when it was used for a magazine, and the last war, when it was used for a hospital, to retain many traces of its ancient form. An Altar-piece, however, by Lucas Cranach, which is one of the best of his beginnings in painting—and especially his grave-stone, which says he was once a Burgomaster65 of the city and died here in 1576—an ancient sacristy, which has escaped all the wars and desecrations—and the stone steps of the pulpit, which are the same that Luther ascended, are still mementos of the past, which, trifling as they are, are still interesting. Luther’s chamber, too, we saw, and it moved a very different class of feelings from those I had experienced in the apartments of Frederick66 and Voltaire at Sanssouci,67 for a moment after entering it I found myself without knowing it uncovered.68 It is a room in the University-house, formerly a Cloister—very large,

62. Concerned for the well-being of the institution. 63. It looks like Ticknor may have originally written “four” or something similar and then written “six” on top of it, or perhaps vice versa. 64. These are two characters from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet who studied at the University of Wittenberg. 65. Mayor. 66. Ticknor refers to Friedrich II (1712–1786). 67. Sanssouci was a royal summer palace in Potsdam built by Friedrich II. 68. Ticknor meant he had taken his hat off.

1815–1817

45

dark and desolate—with two windows of small ancient glass—an unwieldy stove of earthen on whose tiles were the twelve apostles and some other personages from sacred history—rude seats all round its sides—and the still ruder and more unwieldy table at which he used to study in one corner. The sides of the room and the stove were quite covered with the names of visitors—and on the door of the small adjoining chamber, in which Luther used to sleep, but which has been altered, was the name of Peter the Great, written in chalk and in Russian characters as he was on his way to Holland, and now preserved by a glass covering. The Album, too, was full of names, among which were half the crowned heads in Europe, but I sought in vain for an American, though I trust some have been there before us.—I have seen few things in Europe that have more deeply moved me than this, and I came away with a higher trust in the gratitude of the world, when I had seen that this humble and obscure room had been preserved three centuries and amid such tremendous revolutions, unchanged out of respect to the memory of the great man who had once lived in it.— In the Afternoon, we went to the Schloss-Kirche,69 which also dates earlier than the reformation and afterwards became the University Church. It has been often repaired, and now lies nearly in ruins, almost without the hope of restoration from the useless, and I had nearly said wanton, bombardment of the city by the Crown Prince of Sweden on the 27–28 Sep. 1813 and from the barbarous desecration of it by the French, who placed a horse-mill in it to grind corn and tore away the grate before the altar to make Slug-bullets.70 The Graves of Johann the Steady and Frederick the Wise, who refused the imperial crown, are still to be seen though the French attempted to force them open in consequence of a tradition that their coffins were of silver.—What is more, however, than the graves of two Electors, we found still the grave of Luther who died in Eisleben but was buried here under the pulpit as it then stood—and directly opposite on the other side of the church the grave of Melanchthon.—They are both marked by plain inscriptions on brass plates 2 ½ feet by 2 ft., I should think, which are sunk a few inches under the pavement and covered by trap-doors. As the last monument we could see of Luther’s times, we went to a fountain about 3 miles from the city to which he often resorted—and where an idle tradition says he wrote much of his translation of the Bible. It bears his name, at any rate, and the Album there shows how many strangers have been to it within the last twenty years in honor to his memory. On our way, we passed just outside the gate, the spot on which Luther on the 10th Dec. 1520 sealed the Reformation, by solemnly and publicly burning the Bull of his excommunication for heresy 69. Church of the palace or castle. 70. The Schlosskirche is the church on whose doors Luther is said to have nailed his famous ninetyfive theses. The church was seriously damaged during the Seven Years’ War and during the Napoleonic Wars.

46

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

in the presence of the university and the magistrates.71 The fountain itself is a clear spring over which has been erected a small stone building, and near it is an inconsiderable house of entertainment such as is always found near any place in Germany to which strangers are likely to resort. We remained there half an hour—poured out a libation to the Naiads of the fountain—wrote our names in the Album—and returned to Wittenberg. Thereafter drinking tea with Rector Spitzner, we again ordered our horses for the night to save time and at six o’clock crossed the Elbe and looked back for the last time from the opposite shore upon the city with which the whole history of the reformation during the sixteenth century is connected. As it was night, we saw nothing and, indeed, in this flat and sandy country there is nothing to be seen. At Düben, however, I did not fail to recollect that Bonaparte’s fate at the battle of Leipzig was here in no small degree sealed by the fidelity of the people, who would at no price give him notice of the movements of the allies, and thus he remained here in a state of ignorance and indecision from Sep. 9th to Sep. 13th and lost the opportunity of fighting the Bohemian Army under Prince Schwarzenberg alone.72 Just at daylight, we passed the famous field of Breitenfeld73 where the great victory was won in the Thirty Years’ War in 1631 and at seven o’clock in the morning entered Leipzig.—

1816 OCT. 16. LEIPZIG. THE GREAT FAIR. THE JEWS. SCHAEFFER. HERMANN. SCHLEUSNER. THEATER. Sep. [sic] 16.—The first thing that struck us in coming into the city and in attempting to go about it was, of course, the throng of the Fair, of which we have now the third and last week. This is an ancient institution. It was first established in 1155—but did not well succeed and was finally settled on the foundation and nearly the system on which it has ever since subsisted in 1175. It is remarkable how an inland town like Leipzig, whose situation does not seem to favor commercial enterprise, should still have gained such importance that 71. He erected a kind of funeral pile, surrounded with scaffolding, etc., as for a public spectacle, and when the multitude was collected, he came bringing the decretals of the popes—the constitutions, etc., and finally the bull of Leo X—set fire to the pile—and with his own hands cast in the books, etc.—saying “because ye have troubled the holy of the Lord, ye shall be burnt with Eternal fire”—Roscoe’s Leo. X. c. XIX. [G.T.] Ticknor is referring to the English historian William Roscoe (1753–1831) and his book, The Life and Pontificate of Leo X in 4 vols. (London, 1806). 72. An eyewitness has detailed Bonaparte’s desolation, ennui and impatience during the four days he was here without the least occupation or amusement, waiting for news, in terms that made me shudder—See Bonaparte’s “Feldzüge in Sachsen.” [G.T.] 73. This small village to the north of Leipzig was the site of the important battle in the Thirty Years’ War in which King Gustav Adolph of Sweden (1594–1632) defeated the Imperial Army under Count von Tilly (1559–1632).

1815–1817

47

Merchants come here from the walls of China to the North Sea—from Asia, from Africa, and America to buy and sell and get gain. In passing through the crowded streets, which like the squares are filled with booths and temporary shops of all kinds, I have met this morning not only Jews of all characters, countries, and dresses, but Turks, Greeks, Persians, Russians, and Americans—nay more, one third of the signs in the city are written in Hebrew as well as German for the benefit of the circumcision, and the number even of Russians and Greeks is so considerable that I have seen many in their tongues also.—Indeed, in this respect Leipzig is the Cairo of Europe—the common point in which all the nations of the earth meet to trade and traffic. The great support of the Fair is, however, the Polish Jews who come here in immense numbers with specie only—purchase goods of all kinds—and spend the interval between Michaelmas and Easter in traveling through the North of Europe and Asia and retailing them to the Swedes, Norwegians—Russians—Siberians—Kamschatcans— Cossacks, etc., etc. All the streets are filled with them, and even if they were not distinguishable by their fur caps, their long dirty Gabardines—and their thick, flowing beards, they have still that original Asiatic turn in their features and complexion—that sensual expression in their sharp, crooked nose and full ruddy lips—and above all that acute low cunning sparkling from their sharp black eyes and betrayed in every tone of their voice and movement of their persons, which would mark and set them apart for the descendants of the wily son-in-law of Laban in an assembly of all the nations of the earth. It is remarkable, too, that though I have seen on the roads, in the taverns and finally here in Leipzig many hundred of these Polish Jews, I have not yet seen one that looked like a truly respectable man. They may be well built but can never be handsome—they may be well-dressed but never look neat—and they may be old with grey hairs and a flowing white beard, but they are never venerable. The traces of cunning and sensuality prevail over all that is either amiable or imposing;74 and though all my prejudices are in favor of them and against their oppressors, I can rarely look on one of them but with disgust. The fair this season has been as full as usual of purchasers, but the number of sellers is so much greater than common that complaint is heard and many have gone home dissatisfied. As at the late fair at Frankfurt, a great cry is made against the English, who are reproached with selling their wares for less than cost merely to ruin the manufactures of Germany, etc., etc., which is really doing too much credit to the patriotism of the Englishmen of Birmingham and Manchester, and too little credit to their skill and shrewdness.—The amount of Goods introduced here cannot be calculated, as a great proportion is subject to no excise—but, the number of persons who

74. This word cannot be discerned with certainty.

48

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

have been at the fair is estimated at nearly or quite twenty thousand—the lowest estimation I have heard being sixteen and the highest twenty three.— After having wandered an hour or two up and down in the Fair, compared with which Bunyan’s Vanity Fair75 was dull and empty, we made a visit to the good Prof. Schäffer, who seemed half broken hearted at the sale of his lexicographical Manuscripts, which indeed is not only like parting from the oldest of his friends, but is, in fact, a sort of literary death to him, for all the labors of his literary life are contained in them, and now they are to be cast into the wild chaos of the English Stephanus,76 where his merit will never be properly acknowledged or distinguished. We went, too, to see Hermann, who amused us an hour with a most vivacious abuse of all philologists and Thiersch in particular, who has lately attacked him pretty rudely but whom he will not answer. In the afternoon we saw Schleusner, who is now on a visit here from Wittenberg, which he refused to leave when the other professors were removed to Halle. He is, I suppose about 65—strong and hardy; and looks as if he would last yet 20 years. From 1785 to 95 he was Prof. at Göttingen and since then has been always at Wittenberg, where I saw the ruins of his old house just by the University church which was burnt in the Swedish bombardment, and was shown his new house near the market, which is one of the best in this poor town. We talked with him, of course, about his own works, and he told us that his edition of Biel’s Thesaurus77 was quite ready for the press, but he should keep it still a year or two by him to revise and amend. He added that he should insert in it many critical emendations of the text of the Septuagint, and that the whole work would amount to four stout 8vo volumes. Of his Lexicon N. T.,78 he said that he had prepared copious materials for a 4th edition—and complained bitterly of the style in which the Scotch edition has been got up. The truth is, he is a little avaricious, as our friend Spohn told us, and does not like a republication of his works which takes money out of his pocket, so that when we told him of a projected translation and edition of his Lexicon N. T. in America, there was an obvious struggle between his love of fame and his love of money, which was not a little amusing.— In the Evening, we went to the Theater, which, though it promises little, amused me more than that at Berlin.—One of the female actresses was, in particular, very happy, and an old man, himself seventy years old, played the character of an old man better than I ever saw it in my life. 75. This refers to John Bunyan’s Vanity Fair in his book Pilgrim’s Progress published in 1676. 76. The Stephanus text (the Greek version of the New Testament) was produced by the Parisian printer Robert Estienne (Stephanus is the Latin equivalent of Estienne) around 1550. This text is also known as the “royal edition” in England. 77. Schleusner, Novus Thesaurus Philologico-Criticus. This is an edition of Biel’s Novus Thesaurus Philologicus. 78. Schleusner, Novum Lexicon Graeco-Latinum in N.T.

1815–1817

49

1816 OCT. 17. LEIPZIG. THE BATTLE FIELD OF 1813. Oct. 17.—We could not, of course, think of leaving Leipzig for the last time without visiting the modern Marathon—the field on which the flood of barbarism was a second time prevented from deluging Europe. Today, therefore, the anniversary of the battle, we took a Guide, who understood the positions, and just after sunrise set out to visit the spot on which three years ago one half of Europe was assembled in battle-array against the other. The day was such as we should have chosen it, if our wish could have been made the choice and the plan of the environs, which we carried with us, and the knowledge of our guide left us nothing farther to desire. We went out at the Dresden gate—passed by the spot on which Bonaparte fixed his headquarters as soon as he arrived here from Düben on the 14th, and which by a singular accident is only divided from the public gallows and scaffold by the road—and, after being shown a house in the suburbs, where he slept each of the five fearful nights he passed at Leipzig, we turned suddenly to the left—quitted the Dresden road—and went to Schönefeld on the banks of the Parthe, where the left wing of the French army under Marmont stood against Blücher. It needed no military skill to see that the position of the French here and at Gohlis and Möckern was fine and that Blücher’s brave impetuosity and Gneisenau’s cool judgement must have been necessary to win the fight of the afternoon of the 16th, which had left everywhere melancholy traces of its desperation. After having remained here some time, we visited the ruins of the village church, which, after all, made an impression hardly more unpleasant than that of the new cottages which stood at its side constructed of the broken and burnt fragments of the old, and there we took a circuitous route which carried us over the battlefield in the direction of Taucha and crossing the Dresden road by Sellerhausen went up to Stötteritz. I overtook on the way as I was walking toward Stötteritz a poor woman who was wheeling a large load of tobacco, which, by the way, was cultivated in Stötteritz before it was cultivated anywhere else in Saxony. I was naturally curious to know how she felt on the anniversary of the famous victory, and asked her many questions, which she gladly answered, for I observe that the Saxon peasants are more communicative than those of Prussia or Hanover. She said that she never left the village during the battle and spent most of the time in a cellar to keep out of the way of the balls and bombs—that she did not know but the country had gained by the victory and she hoped it had, for she had lost enough by it—that she had two sons killed in the battle—and that her husband and remaining son had died of the hospital fever which immediately after the campaign ravaged Saxony—and that now she was left quite alone in the world to get her bread as she could. The village, which is small, suffered terribly, she said, during the battle, and it was easy to see that many houses had been burnt down; but this was nothing,

50

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

she went on, to the times when they all had the hospital fever that came out of Leipzig and there were not well ones enough left to take care of the sick or to bury the dead, so that in one house which she pointed out to me a man and his wife remained many days unburied till assistance came from Leipzig.—I walked with this woman as far as I could, and when I left her offered her money, which, however, she declined, and parted from me.—I now rejoined Everett and the guide, and we took our way towards Probstheida, leaving on our right three ancient limes under which tradition says Gustavus Adolphus was dining one day during the Thirty Years’ War when one of Wallenstein’s balls fell through his table. Es ist übel Essen hier; said the monarch—“It is poor eating here”—and from that time the shot has been called übel Essen—“poor eating”.—Before Probstheida, we made a pause. Here stood the French center on the 18th—here Bonaparte commanded in person—here he fought with desperate perseverance the whole of that bloody day, though his plans had been broken by the battle of the 16th and the maoeuvering of the 17th, and here, too, was the decisive point on which he was irretrievably beaten. On the morning of the 19th, the allied army occupied the spot which the French the day before had vainly attempted to defend—and on the very point where I now stood, the three monarchs first met and Prince Schwarzenberg came to announce to them that the victory had been complete. It was then that, on this spot—with the smoking ruins of Probstheida behind them—the storming of Leipzig before them—and the carnage of a generation wherever they turned their eyes—it was then amidst the shouts of the conquerors who were passing on to the gates of the city in one interminable column, and the groans of the wounded and dying, who at this point covered the whole plain—it was then that an altar of turf as simple as the ages of the patriarchs was erected, and these three monarchs of three different religions knelt down, and offered up their thanksgivings to him who alone giveth the victory. Such a moment as this does not occur twice in centuries. If these masters of the destinies of the world went to the contest with pure hearts, I know not that God himself could give them in this world a higher reward than the exultation of such a moment—if they fought from vulgar ambition or dishonest revenge, it should have been a moment which would be a foretaste of the punishment their crimes will receive hereafter. But, however this may be, the spot is still holy ground to him who comes there with the feelings it ought to awaken—the altar before which the Greek, the Catholic and the Calvinist bowed in common devotion is still there—and a cross erected on the first anniversary of the battle records and consecrates the whole.79 79. On the cross is the following inscription placed there of course by the Russians, as they were still in possession in Oct. 1814. Ja: Wer nach Deutschlands Ehrentag Fragt, Den nenne Dies Kreuz Die Leipziger Schlacht

1815–1817

51

We passed on now southerly to Liebertwolkwitz, which, by a singular concurrence, is the place where, on the part of Austria, the peace was signed that closed the war of the Polish succession in 1706, and now a little more [than] a century afterwards fought on the 16th the great battle for her own existence and the emancipation of Europe. On a neighboring height we had again a fine view of all the field of battle from Taucha to Markkleeberg, and after we had again compared the positions we turned to the right and driving about a mile came opposite to Wachau, which on the 16th was the contested point and was thrice taken and lost. In 1714 Rabener, the German wit, was born there! We did not, however, enter the village, for we could see nothing but ruins and new houses, both of which, as the indications of recent suffering, looked equally melancholy to me; but continued our way to Markkleeberg where the right of the French army stood on the 16th, and from which we could see across to the steeple at

Damit wenn Der Erbfeind wieder erwacht Das Feldgeschrey Sey Die Leipziger Schlacht. This, to be sure, is poor enough whether written by Russian or German; but on a contribution-box for rebuilding the church at Probstheide, which I observe is the last building thought of on such occasions, there are some verses that are better than common:— Unter Schutt und Asche liegt Die Stätte! Wandrer der beym glaubigen [sic] Gebete Sonst des Herrn Gemeine sah; Jene Trümmern die hervor dort ragen Ach! Die jagen Dir was in Den Tagen banger Schrecken hier geschah. Freudig Denkst Du bey des Kreuzes Zeichen Deiner Rettung doch an Diesen sichen Mahnt auch seltner Thaten Beispiel Dich Blut floß hier für Deine höchsten Güter Weiß auch Du denn gern Dem Wohl der Brüder und der Nachwelt Dank freut denn Dich. The box and this inscription stand between the cross and the Altar, which are a few rods in front of the village.— The cross has lately been torn down in the night by some patriotic, ill-disposed Saxon. Feb. 1817. [G.T.] [Verily: He who inquires of Germany’s honorable day be thus reminded by this cross of the Battle of the Nations. When the archenemy reawakens the battle cry will be remember the Battle of the Nations. The place lies beneath ashes and rubble. The wanderer, wanting to pray, who otherwise would see the Lord’s congregation, is startled by the rubble which reminds him of the terrors that previously occurred here. You think joyfully by the sign of the cross of your salvation. The cross is a reminder of the extraordinary deeds, and that the flow of blood sacrificed was for the highest good. Know you too then the gratitude for the well-being of your fellow man and its future generations will prepare you much joy.]

52

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

Gautzsch and judge how well Prince Schwarzenberg had chosen the point from which to observe and direct the movements of his army. At Markkleeberg we turned again to the right, passed through Dölitz and Lößnig, which bear, like every thing else on the plain, traces of the victory that are not to be mistaken— passed on our left Connewitz, where poor Poniatowski maintained his position to the last moment—and then returned directly to Leipzig, having made in all a tour of about fourteen miles. In the afternoon, we went out again into the fair and amused ourselves particularly in going through the part of it by the Peter’s Gate, which forms the Leipzig Bartholomew’s fields, and where Goethe and Lessing used to see the popular Dr. Faustus acted, which first gave them an idea of their tragedies. We did not, to be sure, find the stage, which used so much to delight the city and students of Leipzig in the last century or hear anything of the Haupt und Staats Action80 that has inspired so much poetry; but we found in a booth a Mulatto dressed up as our North American Indians are in picture-books and passed off on a wondering crowd, among which I saw the second master of St. Thomas’s school, as a Cannibal caught near Philadelphia! It was a most gross and disgraceful deception.

1816 OCT. 18. LEIPZIG. THE BATTLE OF 1813. PONIATOWSKI. THE FAIR. INJUSTICE TO SAXONY. Oct. 18.—Immediately after breakfast this morning, that I might enjoy the terror of the day that set Europe free, I went upon the old Pleißenburg,81 which for above five centuries has been the witness of all the great political and military events which have happened in Leipzig—where the great Saxon Diets used to be held—where the enemy in their sieges of the city always made the chief attack—and finally where three years ago Bonaparte placed some of his most skillful officers to observe the movements of the armies—and send him information of the fate of the day.—The whole field of battle was now before me and after all that I had heard and seen the day before, it required no great effort of the imagination to bring the events of those three dreadful days again upon the plain that surrounded me. I looked through the Glass, and first sought for the cross where the three monarchs had offered up their devotions—then I turned it to Wachau—and Connewitz and Schönefeld—and gazed on the field and the streams till the mist that was just beginning to rise seemed to be the dust and smoke of the battle—and when I had looked and thought and imagined till my 80. Major event. 81. An old castle in the southwest corner of the old city of Leipzig, which was used for the royal administration of the city.

1815–1817

53

eyes grew dim, and my head swam and throbbed with the effort, I descended from the tower filled with feelings which will probably never be repeated and which I shall certainly never forget.— Without being able to give any good reason for it, I went from here by a kind of instinct to Reichenbach’s Garden, and visited Poniatowski’s monument with feelings which a Pole would not have thought unworthy of the spot.82 From there I wandered down the stream where so many brave men perished on the morning of the nineteenth and finally went upon the bridge which Bonaparte’s cowardice has made so famous, and then returned home to my lodgings.83 In the afternoon, I went through the fair again for the last time, and called on a few friends in Leipzig—and in the evening took leave of my good friend Spohn with more regret than I should of many whom I have known much longer.— The last two days which I have passed in Leipzig are the most memorable in its memorable history, and yet they are an anniversary which the Leipzig people do not notice. It was the emancipation of Europe; but it was partly by the ruin of Saxony that this great battle was won; and therefore no true Saxon now rejoices in it. Indeed, I have seen many who could not quite conceal their 82. Poniatowski’s Latin inscription is very neat. Hic in undis Elystri Josephus Poniatowski Princeps Summus Exercitus Polonorum Præfectus Imperii Galli Mareschallus tribus vulneribus Lætiferis acceptis ultimus ex acie descendens Dum receptum magni Gallorum exercitus tuetur Vitâ gloriæ et patriæ sacrata functus est Die XIX Octobris Anno CI)I)CCCXIII Anno ætatis impleto LII. Popularis populari, Duci Miles Hoc monumentum lacrymis suis irrigatum Posuit Alexander Rozniecki [G.T.] [After having been wounded in battle three times, Prince Joseph Poniatowski, Supreme Commander of the Polish Army and Marshall of the French Empire, fell into this River Elster while the French Army withdrew. His blessed life was sacrificed for glory and the fatherland on the Nineteenth of October 1813. He was in 52 years of age. A comrade of the people, a soldier for the ruler. Alexander Rozniecki established this monument, wet with his own tears.] 83. When it became clear that Napoleon’s troops had lost the battle, Napoleon ordered the destruction of the bridge over the Weisse Elster to prevent the enemy’s units to follow closely the French army. Poniatowski and his men who were to provide cover for the troop withdrawal, were still on the other side of the river when the bridge was prematurely blown up. Separated from the French troops and under attack from the enemy, the already wounded Ponitawski attempted to cross the river on his horse. He drowned in the process.

54

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

regret that the French times were gone by, and spoke of coming troubles and revolutions in Europe with a kind of suppressed satisfaction which showed how bitterly they feel their wrongs. In this feeling all Europe, except the two countries that have profited by the unjust division, sympathizes with them. England and France, who agreed on almost no other point at the Congress of Vienna, agreed in protesting against this violence—Spain and Portugal, though so distant from the interest, were not indifferent—and even all the little states of Germany, who on common occasions are glad enough to pull one another down, united generally against this piece of injustice. Glad, therefore, as I should be to see the Battle of Leipzig celebrated with all pomp and thanksgiving, I cannot claim it at the hands of the Saxons.

1816 OCT. 19. LEAVE LEIPZIG. HALLE. Oct. 19. Early this morning, we left Leipzig and passed over that part of the field of battle where the extreme right wing of the allies under Blücher fought against the left of the French under Marmont. The country still bears witness to it, for the trees are mostly cut away—the houses often in ruins or newly built out of motley materials half old and half new—and Gohlis, the only village which here remains nearly entire looks as if the buildings were painted in chequers of black and white, so full are they of balls. After leaving the field of battle we passed through Schkeuditz and one or two less considerable villages and arrived at Halle to dinner.—

1816 OCT. 22. LEAVE HALLE. LÜTZEN, BATTLE OF 1813. BATTLE OF 1632, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND WALLENSTEIN. Oct. 22. Tuesday. This morning early we left Halle and made our first station in Merseburg, famous for its beer of which above 26,000 tons are brewed every year and sold for 60,000 thaler.—On our way to Lützen from this, we left on our right hand the field of Rossbach, where the great battle was fought in 1757,84 and on our left hand passed in sight of the village of Alt Ranstädt, where Charles the XII signed the peace of 1706,85 and where on a window are, it is said, still to be seen some farewell verses in French, which he then wrote there. At Lützen, of course, our first object was to see the famous field of May 2nd, 1813, where

84. In the Battle of Rossbach on November 5, 1757, in the Seven Years’ War, Friedrich II of Prussia led his army to victory over the armies of France and Austria. 85. In the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706) between Karl XII of Sweden and August II of Saxony, Saxony had to give up its claim to the Polish throne. See Kötzschke and Kretzschmar, Sächsische Geschichte, 269.

1815–1817

55

the first great battle was fought for German freedom and, which, if it were not entirely lost by the allies, was so far unsuccessful that it became necessary for Prussia to call in the assistance of the Southern Princes, and thus on this field, too, Stein’s great plan for dividing Germany into two grand empires was defeated. For this purpose we procured a guide and a vehicle and, going out at the Naumburg gate, turned to the left from the great road and went to Kaja, where the left of the French stood—to Großgörschen, where their center stood—and then leaving the field of battle, strictly so called, went about a mile farther south to a small elevation on which the two monarchs stood and from which the whole plain may be best seen. It is a part of that immense flat which begins at Naumburg and extends to Meißen, a distance of sixty English miles, and is one of those grand amphitheaters which seem by nature intended to be the fields of such exploits, as have been so often achieved on this. From this point we could easily see with what consummate military skill Bonaparte had chosen his position. A battle here he certainly did not expect, and yet he was not surprised. The strong reconnoitering of the allies under Wintzingerode by Weißenfels the day before had put him on his guard, perhaps, though as no enemy was to be seen on the morning of the 2nd and treachery was not to be purchased in this campaign, he could not know distinctly what he had to apprehend. He knew, however, that he had young and inexperienced troops with whom the first impression was everything and that the allies were veterans alike accustomed to victory and defeat—and he knew too that he was in an open plain without cavalry, where cavalry could most efficiently act, and that his enemy was here very strong and formidable. He posted his troops, therefore, not on the road or in Lützen as a less experienced commander might have done; but he went three miles farther South from both and posted his troops behind a small stream with high banks which had once served as a support for the right wing of Gustavus Adolphus’s army, and in the midst of four small villages forming an irregular parallelogram each about a mile from the other and each serving as a point d’appui 86 for the remaining three. In this position it is obvious on the map, and much more so on the field, that the cavalry of the allies could be brought into the contest only through great difficulties, while at the same time the young troops of Bonaparte were in a kind of natural fortification where they could fight in partial security till their heated blood should make it indifferent to them, whether they were covered or in the open field. In this very remarkable position Blücher attacked them with his usual vehemence at one o’clock in the afternoon, by a furious cannonade on Großgörschen, which with Kleingörschen and Rahna were soon taken, and still bear the marks of that fearful day. Bonaparte, however, continually threw in fresh bodies of troops, and the whole afternoon the fighting was pursued with 86. Point of reference.

56

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

various success, though on the whole the allies advanced and kept possession of nearly the whole of Großgörschen; but at six o’clock Murat, who had been at Merseburg, crossed over about half a mile from Lützen on the road to Leipzig and appeared nearly in the rear of the allies between Meuchen and Meyhen and compelled them at once to retreat on Zwenkau. The point on which we stood and surveyed this scene, so full of fearful recollections and associations, is a small, abrupt elevation—so abrupt that it seems almost artificial—from which the two monarchs watched the fate of the day. The peasantry of Großgörschen, since they have fallen under the Prussian Government, have erected a plain, white stone there and planted a few trees “in memory and monument to ages.” I know not that they have much occasion to be grateful to the King of Prussia that he chose their village for his battlefield, but this is the inscription on the stone which they erected on his birthday last year— Denkmal unserm guten König Friederich Wilhelm III. welcher, sich am 2ten Mai 1813 – am Tage der Schlacht hier anwesend befand, – gewidmet am Huldigung’stage den 3ten Aug. 1815 von der Gemeinde Grossgörschen.87

A little to the East of this, on a small bank apparently raised to separate two fields, is the spot where the Prince of Hesse Homburg88 was brought from before Großgörschen to die. It is marked by an oak which has been planted there and the following inscription on a post by its side. Jeder der sich diesem Baume nahet wird sich selbst die Pflicht auflegen zu schützen und zu ehren diese Deutsche Eiche, gepflanzet zum Andenken an einen edlen Prinzen Leopold von Hesse Homburg entsprossen aus altem Fürsten-Stamme Deutscher Helden, der in der Schlacht am 2ten. Mai 1813 den Helden Tod fürs deutsche Vaterland hier starb.89 87. This memorial is dedicated to our King Friedrich Wilhelm III, who was here on the day of battle, May 2, 1813. It was created by the village of Großgörschen on August 3, 1815. 88. Leopold Victor Friedrich (1787–1813), prince of Hesse-Homburg. He was killed in the Battle of Grossgörschen. 89. Anyone who approaches this tree accepts the responsibility to protect and honor this German oak, which was planted in memory of Prince Leopold of Hesse-Homburg, who came from an old noble family. He died a hero’s death for his fatherland in the battle here on May 2, 1813.

1815–1817

57

After visiting these monuments and going to much about the field that we could understand the relative positions, distances and manœuvers of the two armies, we returned to Lützen by the village of Starsiedel where the French reserve lay before the battle, and passing directly through the city and out at the Leipzig gate came again at once upon ground which military achievements have made classical—the field on which Gustavus Adolphus in 1632 purchased a bloody victory for the cause of Protestantism by his own death. It is a little singular that the great road from Lützen to Leipzig which did not then exist now marks the line of the Imperial Army under Wallenstein 35–40,000 strong, with the city on its right, which he strangely set on fire to prevent himself from being outflanked by an army of only 27,000 men—and the same stream on its left, which two hundred years afterwards served for the front of a General who surpassed even Wallenstein in skill, conduct and cruelty.—A thousand paces to the south of this the King of Sweden posted his little army with its right and rear on the stream and its left unsupported, in a position which at once reminded me of that of Prince Schwarzenberg and the Bohemian Army before Leipzig, where everything was calculated for victory, and where a reverse would be utter ruin. Here on the 7th Nov. these two extraordinary men, the first Generals of their time, fought one of the most terrible battles of that most desolating war—the Thirty Years’ War, where the Swedish army beat a foe superior in numbers and better posted, but achieved their victory at the price of him who was the leading star of their cause.—We did not, of course, fail to visit his monument. It is but a rude stone by the way side, which looks much more like the boundary of a field than the monument of the first monarch of his age—resting on a cross buried in the earth and formed of a few more stones equally rude and unworthy—the whole surrounded by nine poplars until the French, who crossed exactly at this spot under Murat on the 2nd May, cut down seven of them for firewood. On the stone, which stands upright on the point of junction, are engraved G.A. 1632 but evidently not long since—and on the head of the cross in more ancient letters, but still not as old as the occasion, is the following inscription— Gustav Adolph König v. Schweden fiel heir im Kampfe Für Geistes Freiheit am 7. Novem. 1632.90

We remained on this interesting field and still more interesting spot as long as we could—then returned to Lützen—passed over the road by which the French 90. Gustav Adolph King of Sweden was killed in battle here for the freedom of religion on November 7, 1632.

58

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

had come into the battle—changed horses at Weißenfels—where the body of Gustavus was embalmed and where the traces of his blood are still sacredly preserved—and arrived late in the evening at Naumburg, which we considered merely as headquarters from which we could most conveniently visit the SchulPforta.

1816 OCT. 23. SCHULPFORTA.91 PROFESSOR ILGEN AND HIS WIFE. A LESSON. DINNER. PROF. LANGE. Oct. 23—This morning, therefore, as early as it was proper, we set off for the Pforta, which lies about 2 ½ English miles from Naumburg on the road to Weimar. It was a delightful morning, and as we walked, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the banks of the Saale along which the road extended, and more than once, as we approached the school, we stopped to admire the taste of the monks, who as usual had here chosen one of the most beautiful spots in the country for their convent. I did not pass without awe under the massy portal from which half the classical learning of Germany has gone forth, or look round without emotion on the scenes amidst which Klopstock says he conceived nearly the whole plan of his messiah. The old Gothic chapel which dates from the twelfth century did not diminish these feelings and the long, arched passageways where every tread was echoed as far as the ear could follow the sound gave me a full idea of what Gray meant by his “long-drawn aisles and fretted vaults.” At length, after many a turn and winding, we were brought to the Apartments of the Rector—Prof. Ilgen—formerly of Jena and famous for his Oriental learning, but who since 1802 has been established at the head of this Institution. He is somewhat above fifty, I suppose, a tall dark-complexioned man with hard, decided features and manners rigid if not awkward, who seemed not ill-suited to an establishment which was once actually a cloister and still savors strongly of its origin.92 He introduced us to his wife, to whom as well as to himself we had letters from Wolf; but she seemed as little like one of Milton’s nuns demure as possible. She had formerly been pretty—is not yet old—and still gives herself the airs and expects the admiration of a beauty. They both received us very kindly, and as Prof. Ilgen

91. A former Cistercian monastery that became a famous public boarding school in 1543. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Friedrich Nietzsche were among its students. For its history, see Heyer, Aus der Geschichte der Landesschule zur Pforte. 92. This retired and even monkish character of Pforta is one of its chief advantages. The children are thus, for six of the most dangerous years of their lives, taken out of the world, and not returned to it till they have acquired or ought to have acquired learning, principle and reason enough to keep them from its worst temptations. It is very seldom that the scholars prove dissipated at the university, and still less frequently that they prove bad men in life.—I know several at Göttingen, all of whom are models, and I hear the same from persons to be depended upon who know others. [G.T.]

1815–1817

59

was then preparing himself for a lecture, his Famulus was summoned to show us round the establishment. He carried us first into the five Auditoria, one of which is at the same time a chapel—then into the studying rooms—and finally into the sleeping rooms, where we found everything in good order, neat and healthy, though, perhaps, the same strictness in these respects is not observed that is observed at Meißen, where I thought it was a little extravagant. From these, we went to Prof. Ilgen’s Lecture, which was the correction of a Latin Exercise. The number of Hearers present was about 26 from 16 to 19 years old, all of whom except two were attentive. The Rector came in about five minutes after the clock had struck and on ascending his cathedra asked—adsunt omnes? to which a scholar at the head of every two benches answered—omnes adsunt.93 He then took up a Latin Essay, written by one of the young men present, and remarked first on its subject, matter and disposition, which he praised—then on the manner in which the writer had unfolded and managed his ideas, which he said was not clumsy but showed that it was not the work of a practiced writer— and finally on the Latinity, where he went more into details. He began now and read it sentence by sentence—when he found a fault, asked the author how he should himself correct it—and if he did not know, sometimes asked another— then explained the rule and reason himself—and ended by giving examples to illustrate it and make it clear. In this way he went through nearly 4 pages of the Essay, in which he found only three grammatical errors and not many offenses against the idiom and, then, as the hour was up left the rest to the writer corrected but without remark.— It was now eleven o’clock, and as this is the dinner hour here, we were carried to the hall, which has been preserved nearly in the condition in which it was the coenarium94 of the monks of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Two long tables were set or rather two long rows of tables each containing a room and the entire school of 160—neat and simple—with a good table-cloth—and all the furniture of clean pewter. The scholars came in two and two, as regularly as they ever did in Bonaparte’s Lycea, where they were marched to the beat of the drum—and took their places standing each having his napkin in his hand. One of the collaboratores95 then mounted a small pulpit and said a short prayer, consisting chiefly of the Lord’s Prayer, after which all the scholars burst out in a Latin chorus as old as the house in which they live—beginning—Gloria tibi trinitas,96 etc., and at its conclusion sat at once down to their dinner, which consisted of a soup, two dishes of meat and a salad. At the conclusion of the meal the whole choir sings a German verse, but we did not remain to hear it.— 93. 94. 95. 96.

Are you ready to begin? We are ready to begin. Assembly hall or dining room. Colleagues, fellow students. Glory to the Trinity.

60

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

After going round the building somewhat more with the rector—looking at the Dancing hall, the fine play ground, etc., etc., we went to dine with him. At table we found nine scholars who do not study on the foundations but are sent to the school as boarding-scholars by their parents and pay for everything. The dinner was plain and frugal, but good and the time passed pleasantly away.—In the afternoon, we went to the Library, which consists of about 4,500 volumes, to which the scholars have free access—and among which we were shown a copy of Göschen’s beautiful edition of Klopstock’s Messiah, which the poet himself presented in 1800 when he was almost transfigured with age—and which was received with great ceremony into the Library, and is now shown to strangers together with a Palm leaf from the Mt. of Olives which Klopstock received from Niebuhr. After this, we drank coffee with Madame Ilgen—called on Prof. Beck, brother of the Hofrath97 at Leipzig—on Prof. Lange, a young and very pleasant man, where we met Thiersch of Munich—and then took the same beautiful way back to Naumburg, which, however, had lost much of its splendor by the change of the weather.— In the evening we had a visit in our lodgings from Prof. Lange, who explained to us again the whole system of instruction and discipline at the Pforta, so that I think we understood it pretty well. [Editor’s note: Here Ticknor wrote several pages detailing the history of Schulpforta, its structure, and its daily and weekly schedule.] There are several things in this remarkable school, which I would gladly see transferred to others. First—the Peculiar kind of guard over each student—who is first under the general superintendence of the Rector and all the Professors—2nd under the superintendence of the Professor who has the immediate care of the School for the week and who sees him at least five times a day—3rd under that of the collaborator, who sits almost in the same room with him all the time he is not at his lectures or at play—4th of the Boy to whom the care of the room is given, and who, as Inspector—is responsible for its cleanliness, and order, and for the good behavior of its members—and 5th if he be one of the two lower classes he is under the care of one of the two upper ones who sits at the same table with him to study.—By means of a very gentle operation of all these five guards, a boy is easily kept in order and diligent without feeling himself oppressed. Second—The alternation of an hour of Labor with an hour of study, in which the young man is able to refresh himself—look over the notes he has taken in the last lesson—and prepare himself for the one to come, has a salutary effect. 97. Christian Daniel Beck.

1815–1817

61

Third—The collaboratores, who without sitting in either room have a perfect oversight of both or of 26–32 boys in a wise arrangement. Fourth—the teaching the younger by the elder, which has often been the ground of friendship for life, is a facility for both parties. And Fifth—the Examinations, as I have already explained them, are a powerful machine to work on the zeal of such inexperienced boys.— [Editor’s note: Ticknor and Everett continued their trip to Weimar.]

1816 OCT. 25. WEIMAR. GOETHE. Oct. 25. We sent our letters this morning to Goethe, and he returned us for answer that he should be happy to see us at eleven o’clock.—At eleven o’clock, therefore, we went to him. He lives on one of the public squares in a very good house which the Grand Duke98 gave to him and permitted him to finish and ornament as suited his taste. We came punctually, and he was ready to receive us. He is something above the middling size—large but not gross—with grey hair—a dark ruddy complexion—and full rich black eyes, which though dimmed by age are still very expressive. His whole countenance is old and, though his features are quiet and composed, they bear decided traces of the tumult of early feeling and passion. Taken together his person is not only respectable but imposing—and yet I saw little in it that indicated the character he ascribes to his youth—little of the lover of Margaret and Charlotte—and still less of the Author of Tasso, Werther and Faust.99 In his manners, he is simple. He received us without ceremony but with ease and elegance—and made no German compliments, but led us directly into his inner parlor and gave us seats. The conversation rested, of course, in his hands and was various. He spoke naturally of Wolf as one of our letters was from him—said he was a very great man— had delivered thirty-six different courses of lectures on subjects connected with the study of Antiquity—possessed the most remarkable memory he had ever known—and in genius and critical skill surpassed all the scholars of his time. In alluding to his last publication, he said Wolf had written his Life of Bentley with uncommon talent because in doing it he had exhibited and defended his own character—and, in all he said, showed that he had high admiration and regard for him.—Of Lord Byron, too, he spoke with interest and discrimination—said that his poetry showed great knowledge of human nature and great talents at description—Lara, he thought, bordered on the kingdom of specters—and of

98. Karl August von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1757–1828). 99. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

62

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

his late separation, he said with happiness, that in its circumstances and the mystery in which it is involved, it is so poetical that if Lord Byron had invented it, he could hardly have had a more fortunate subject for his genius. All this, however, he said in a quiet, simple manner which would have surprised me much, if I had known nothing of him but from his books, and which made me feel how bitter must have been Jean Paul’s disappointment,100 who came to him expecting to find in his conversation the characteristics of Werther and Faust. Once, his genius kindled, and in spite of himself he grew almost fervent, when he deplored the want of extemporaneous eloquence in Germany and said what I never heard before but what is eminently true that the English is kept “a much more living language” by its influence. Here—he added, we have no eloquence—our preaching is a monotonous middling declamation—public debate we have not at all—and if a little inspiration sometimes comes into our lecture-rooms it is out of its place, for Eloquence does not teach.—We remained with him about an hour, and when we came away, he accompanied us with the same simplicity with which he had received us, as far as the door of his parlor only, and there bade us good morning without any German congratulations. [Editor’s note: Ticknor and Everett spent a few more days in Weimar then visited Jena for the sake of its university and battlefield, Erfurt for its university and association with Luther, and Gotha to see a couple of schools and a library. They returned to Göttingen on November 5, 1816, for another semester of study.]

3 “Germany. Face of the Country”: Youthful Reflections, 1815–1817 1815–1817. GERMANY. FACE OF THE COUNTRY.101 Before I leave Germany, I will, as the only suitable opportunity that can ever be offered to me, note down some of the differences between the character of the people and country here and the people and country to which I have been accustomed at home.—To say that they are very different—to feel this difference with a sensibility and heaviness which will prevent me from ever forgetting it, is 100. Jean Paul attracted the attention of Goethe and Schiller after the publication of his novel Hesperus (1795). Schiller attempted to win him over to participate in his journal Horen, but Paul turned down this invitation. “Jean Paul was particularly repulsed by Goethe, in whom he saw what he called ‘the egotism of genius’: ‘Goethe’s character is horrendous; genius without virtue is bound to fail.’” Beutin et al., A History of German Literature, 232. 101. This section was probably written sometime in January and February 1817 shortly before Ticknor returned to the United States. He seemed to have started this entry on January 4, 1817.

1815–1817

63

little if I do not, while their oppression is still upon me, note the circumstances and causes of it so that I can hereafter recur to it as a source of instruction. I. Differences of the Country. 1. Little as I know of Geology it is impossible to go through Germany without being struck with the difference between its form, outline and physical condition and that of America. I do not now refer to the well-known circumstance that on our continent everything is on a larger scale, though in Europe I have first learned what this means; but, I refer to the difference in more inconsiderable particulars than the Rivers and Mountains—I refer to the difference in those little circumstances which, after all, go to make up the general character of a country more than the greater ones which are looked upon as exceptions for wonder and admiration—that belong not to a particular land but to the World.—It is little to say Germany is a more flat country than N. England, for its hills and plains have a different character—the hills are not so rude and abrupt, and the plains are generally wider and more absolutely plains—more flat and level than with us.—I think I could tell a German hill from its outline alone if it were thrown down in the middle of one of our chains of mountains—certainly I could by its produce and internal construction and contents—and a German plain whether it has been touched by the hand of cultivation or not has a character all its own. It is little to say Germany has a more composed and settled and, if I may say so, more ancient, character. Compared with the hills and mountains here, ours seem to have been just thrown together by the rude hand of Nature and hardly yet to have settled down into a fixed form and regular consistency—to be yet waiting for the great processes by which time will melt them down from their present forms into the milder and gentler outline they wear here.—This difference most apparent in comparing parts of both continents where great revolutions have taken place in nature as for instance in comparing two alluvion countries like this round Göttingen and the western part of Vermont towards Lake Champlain—two countries where violent changes have been wrought by the water courses as on the banks of the Saale and the Connecticut—or two where earthquakes have occasioned even more obvious, fearful and abrupt convulsions as in the neighborhood of Münden and on some parts of White River. In both cases, the general marks of violence have a striking resemblance which instantly forces the comparison, and marks of variety in the details which as instantly show a difference. Here you see only the great outline left which the convulsion has occasioned, as, for instance, at Tharandt, near Dresden—with us, you still see the traces and minutiae of the mode in which the operation was effected as at Orford in New Hampshire. In America the sands which the great floods brought with them and deposited in alluvion are yet hardly covered with mold and

64

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

vegetation—the masses of schistus which so often pierce the soil in all directions have lost little of their prominence and sharpness—and the very rocks themselves are still as naked as the convulsions of nature left them, or at best seem almost newly covered with decayed vegetation and moss.—But here this is different— There are no longer vast bodies of sand in the neighborhood of the rivers, as there are on the Connecticut—the Merrimack the Schuylkill, the James, and if I mistake not, the Mississippi—the tribes of schistus and argilloid seem long since to have melted away and become a part of the fertile soil—and the greater masses of rock, when still apparent above the surface, have seldom that rude and sharp character which ours have. All seems, in short, to have settled down into milder forms and the traces of the earlier revolutions, and convulsions of nature seem to have been gradually mellowed or obliterated by the slow process of time, and the gradual operation of the great chemical agents contained in the Earth or Air.—I am no Geologist but an hundred times when I have been traveling in this country—when I was in the flat lands, between Holland and Hanover—when I was at Jena, at Plauen and at Schulpforta—on the Banks of the Rhine, the Elbe and the Saale—among the hills that separate them from each other or in the plains they water—an hundred times I have asked myself whether the changes I witnessed were not of an earlier date than those to whose traces I had been always accustomed on our larger rivers and amidst our ruder mountains—whether, in fact, ours be not a portion of the Earth where the great revolutions and convulsions at least of Nature are of a comparatively recent date?102

1817. GERMANY. FORESTS. 2. Germany is no less different from America considered as a country partly cultivated and partly still in Forests. The forests are different not only from Nature and Nature’s operations but from the Police exercised over them.—By Nature they resemble more those I saw in Pennsylvania and Virginia than those we have in New England, chiefly I suppose because the mildness of the climate permits the trees to grow with more regularity and grace here than with us; but, after all, this is the only resemblance, for they are not so rude, large and thrifty and their verdure is not so deep, various and luxuriant.103—I do not believe Germany could show a Forest like those which cover the Green-Mountains and the declivities towards New York.—The

102. The rivers, lakes, etc. are less clear in Germany than in New England—I observed the same thing in England. What can be the reason?—Perhaps, partly, because our soil is so much more gravelly. And why this?—[G.T.] 103. The difference between our forests and the German is extremely apparent in the fall, when the season has changed the leaves, for then the latter are by no means shaded in such rich and various colors as ours are. [G.T.]

1815–1817

65

Government, however, takes upon itself the care of them all, since their protection upon a regular system is necessary to the public welfare, and this, together with the scarcity and value of wood, gives the forest a still greater difference of appearance, than nature has made. When you go into a wood in America, you see the wreck and ruin of a thousand years. You walk over great masses of decayed vegetation, which yield under the tread like sponge—your way is intercepted by fallen trees—by impenetrable thickets—or by dense bushes—all, in short, is the work of long ages—of a luxuriant nature or of fickle accident. Here, however, the wants and power of man have brought distinct marks of design even into the fastnesses of nature. The bushes are cleaned away because they exhaust the soil of nourishment it should afford to more profitable trees— thickets are not permitted, for they stifle their own growth—fallen wood is not seen, for the moment the wind or any other accident has prostrated it, it is out of the power of the forest—police and owner eagerly seizes it for his wants or his profit—and—as for the masses of half decayed vegetation which so fertilize our soil, they have long since become a part of the solid mold and are no longer permitted to accumulate, since, in all parts of Germany, the smallest sticks and, in many, the very leaves are too precious to be suffered to rot.104

1817. GERMANY. CULTIVATED LAND. VILLAGES. AGRICULTURE. If the Forests are so different, how much more so must the open and cultivated country be, where the hand of man has been so much longer and so much more sedulously busy?—The first difference which strikes a stranger’s observation is that there are no fences or hedges—no divisions of the land apparent wherever you go, which I suppose is the case throughout the continent. This arises, doubtless, from the feudal system, which has been so much more distinctly handed down here than in England and which so long prevented and still to a great degree prevents the lands from being held in small parcels or, if it is, still finds the old way cheapest.— The next difference is that there are no cottages scattered through the country; but that the people live together in compact villages. This, too, comes down from the

104. I may, perhaps, best observe at the end of these remarks on the wilder nature and physical state of Germany that the winds, clouds, etc.—indeed, the whole Empire of the Atmosphere differs considerably from what it is with us. The winds are seldom so violent—hurricanes such as we have are unknown or extremely rare—showers and lightning are infrequent, so that in two summers I have not known above three or four— and the clouds seem thinner and more fleecy; because, I suppose, less acted upon by the winds. Only once or twice since I have been here, the sky, clouds, etc., have looked as they do at home, and these instances were immediately after pretty violent storms, such, for instance, as we have had today (January 4, 1817) when the vane of one of the churches was blown off and excited as much astonishment here as the blowing down a steeple would with us. [G.T.]

66

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

middle ages. Finally, the culture itself is entirely different.—The lands are generally held to a certain degree in common and undivided, and all those belonging to one village are separated into three lots—on each of which alternately a crop of grains or vegetables and a crop of grass are cultivated for two years and the third it is given up to pasture. Every owner or farmer or tenant, of course, by a well known rule and ratio labors and turns in cattle in proportion to the amount of his property or right and reaps at the harvest his proportion of the crop. How fatal this must be to improvement in Agriculture is obvious.—The part that is cultivated, or two thirds of the land, is ploughed up in strips about 20 ft. wide each rising in the center just in the form of one of our turnpike roads, so as to cast the water—and then is sowed or planted—so that the whole of this part of the land has an uncommonly regular and not unpleasing appearance.105 The remaining third, which is left in pasture, is spotted with herds of cattle, of sheep and goats, followed by their shepherd and his faithful dogs and now and then by his little moveable house, mentioned in Voss’s Louisa,106 which more resembles one of our Baker’s hand-carts than any thing else.—On the whole surface there are, of course, neither rocks, stones nor stumps, and except that it looks sometimes a little monotonous for want of fences and houses, it is certainly beautiful—particularly in Autumn, when each of the strips sowed with grain has its peculiar hue and in the more fertile parts of the country as in Weimar, on the Banks of the Elbe, the Saale, the Weser, etc.—

1817. GERMANY. TOWNS AND CITIES. VILLAGES. 3. The Difference between our Towns and Villages, and Theirs. The first great difference here is that in Germany all the towns and cities and especially all the villages are old and squalid and in America they are almost universally new, fresh and neat.107 The consequence is that our villages are incomparably handsomer than the vast majority of those in Germany or, I suppose, in Europe.—Here, in a village, the houses are as crowded together as they are in the cities—the streets are either rudely paved or almost impassable with mud—and the whole has a stifled and filthy appearance, which is far removed from the representations we are accustomed to make of the freedom and purity of a country life, and to which our neat and open villages with their streets and squares are a nearer approximation, I doubt not, than ever before was 105. I, of course, need not remark that where the population is so dense, there is no appearance of our slovenly and unthrifty cultivation. [G.T.] 106. Johann Heinrich Voß’s idyllic poem “Luise” (1795). For an English translation, see Voß, Louisa: From the German of Voss. 107. I am not disposed to except from this remark even Berlin or Kassel, for in the first it is only the New City or that part built since 1740 which is handsome—and in the last only the part called French-town, which again is in a great measure recent. Just so at Dresden, etc. [G.T.]

1815–1817

67

made except in poetry. The difference is the difference of origins, which in both countries is still apparent. In the days of Tacitus, it is clear there were no villages in Germany, or at any rate none that we understand or that the Romans understood under that name, and the first change in the modes of living and habitation was made by Christianity and by the troubles of the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. In these dark and dreary ages, for the first time, individual safety was lost and the solitary and weak were obliged to seek protection by combination under the strong. The strength of the land however then resided in the Barons and Ecclesiastics and, in consequence, wherever a church or a castle was built, there a village was constructed in the hope of peace and protection. The situation of the villages to the present moment would prove this, if it were not often a matter of historical record. They are most of them at the foot of a hill or in the midst of some fertile valley;108 in the first situation because the Baron had erected his fortress on the top and they were thus fully under his protection—and in the second because the shrewd ecclesiastics always sought out the choicest parts of the land for their establishments. In many instances, the traces and proofs of this are wanting—historical records are not to be had and even the ruins of the castle, the convent or the church may have disappeared, but wherever these are still to be found—wherever the remains of a baronial or ecclesiastical establishment can be seen there will be found a village, though in many cases as those of the Gleichen, the Plessis, Gübigenstein, etc., etc., the situation is in all other respects inconvenient and uncomfortable. In consequence, therefore, of their having been brought together merely for protection, when personal safety was the only thing, or almost the only thing, thought of by every man in the land, whether Baron or Serf—Prince or Peasant—nearly all the circumstances which would now be thought of in founding a village were overlooked.—In location, they thought only of being as near as possible to the strong hold of some powerful Baron, who, in his turn, thought only how he might post his fortress to the greatest military advantage, so that many villages are still inconveniently situated at the foot of a precipitous hill or perpendicular rock on whose projecting brow stand the bold ruins of some fallen castle—Or they thought of being as near as possible to some church or convent which the monks seem always to have placed without the least regard to anybody’s comfort but their own,109 so that here again as to the means of access and other agricultural advantages, the villages are generally clumsily situated.—In building, too, they thought much of being as near as possible to one another that, in case of danger, they might afford one another prompt and efficient assistance—and in consequence of this, the houses are still 108. The same thing I often observed in England as at Denbigh–Llangollen, etc., etc. It is, in fact, a result of the common instincts of man. [G.T.] 109. I need not, of course, say that the clergy very gladly saw the people collect round them in this way, and encouraged them to do so, because it kept them more under the inspection and in the power of the church. [G.T.]

68

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

built close together,110 and in all that respect comfort and health are far behind even those in England, where the operation of the same circumstances can still be traced; and infinitely behind ours, where none such have operated and where, on the contrary, the villages have been built with a main regard to the unconstrained advantage and convenience of the people who inhabit them. The larger towns and cities are as different as the villages.—In those of the middling class, like Münden, Göttingen, Paderborn, Halle, Jena, Erfurt, Wittenberg, etc., etc., the influences of the troubles of the times in which they arose and were formed is almost as apparent as it is in the villages. They are crowded together within narrow walls—have still their gates and guards, though in most cases gates and guards have long since ceased to be anything but matters of form and police; their public buildings were evidently sometimes built as much for strength as for convenience, and the council-house often looks, as it does at Nürnberg—Lützen, Göttingen, Münden, etc., as if it were a fortification or a castle as much as a house of legislation and justice—and the whole of such towns have a confined, stifled, appearance and an actual squalidness and filth of which we have no notion, because we have no towns so old and none built under such circumstances as these were.— In the first class of towns—the capitals and residences of the Governments, as Hanover, Kassel, Dresden, Berlin, etc., though in their origin they had the same character with the second and third classes, yet it is now nearly obliterated. Since the latter half of the fifteenth century, the splendor of the courts of Europe has been continually increasing, and this, as well as the introduction and progress of commerce since the sixteenth century, and many smaller causes, have changed the character of the capitals. They have long since passed beyond the narrow limits of their walls—the luxury of the court has filled them with large squares, fine public buildings and spacious streets—and the accumulation of wealth, which, since the failure of the feudal system has always flowed to the capital instead of remaining in the country, has brought convenience and splendor into the fashionable parts of the great cities. That the remainder is as dark, poor and wretched as in the smaller towns, or perhaps even more so, is, of course, to be expected, since one extreme produces its opposite in equal extravagance; but, still, in the first class of their towns, the character of the metropolis has obliterated every other, and the traces of the middle ages are rarely and indistinctly seen in, now and then, the fragment of an old tower or the ruin of a forgotten wall. This appearance of the Villages, the towns, and the Capitals is such as might be expected. They are establishments formed in the middle ages—chiefly or en110. I ought here to note the difference in the form and construction of the houses, and particularly of the roofs, which are extremely acute and covered with red tile. When Winckelmann came from Italy, this appearance of the buildings wrought so on his sensitive system that it gave him a fever and he was unable to finish his journey. [G.T.]

1815–1817

69

tirely for protection—and have been continued and modified in latter times by utterly different circumstances and causes. These circumstances and causes have chiefly gone forth from the court and the highest class of the people—partly from the middling interest, which has been formed with the cities—and still less or almost not at all from the peasantry. The consequence is that the character of the villages, like that of their inhabitants, is proportionally little changed since the end of the 16th century—and that the towns of the second and third-rate though much altered, retain still decisive proofs and marks of their origin and formation in times of fear and danger—while at the same time the capitals and royal residences, and the few towns that are supported by commerce, have lost nearly all impressions of those earlier ages and have a character almost entirely modern and distinct. In America, of course, things are different. The population is scattered through the land as interest or choice has led it, without fear or molestation. The villages have been formed for purposes of agriculture or convenient intercourse— the towns we have in the interior are the natural and unconstrained results of the wants and convenience of the agricultural or commercial interest—and our large cities have sprung up on the coast under the Midas touch of the unnatural and unparalleled foreign commerce we have [had] for the last thirty or forty years. All, therefore, is new, is free—is, in short, the sudden and spontaneous growth of a rude and luxuriant soil. But, here, almost everything is old, squalid and constrained—all, in short, bears the marks of the past fear and violence—or of the two present extremes of luxury and want. All that I have said, however, and all that I can say, would give no one but him who has seen and felt the same circumstances any sufficient idea of the difference between America and Germany in the external appearance of the two countries. It is little to say that the outline of the land is different than that of the forests fields—the villages, towns and capitals have each and all a character which bears witness to the past as well as the present state of society here—it is little to give some of the most obvious marks and causes of this difference, for it is composed of an infinite number of minute details rather than of a few strong and rude general features, and he can never thoroughly understand the whole who has not felt them.

1817. GERMANY. THE PEOPLE. II. Difference of the People. Here I sought in vain for the manly or rather gigantic forms, which Caesar has given to the Germans or the blue eyes and light complexions of which Tacitus

70

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

speaks; but, perhaps, this is because I myself belong to a Teutonic race and, therefore, the difference is not so obvious to me as it was to one who came from the short, slight forms, and dark complexions and black eyes of the Romans; it may be that I myself shall feel it more when I have been among their descendents in Italy.—Certainly, however, the universally red hair of the Germans, which almost all the writers of the age after Augustus mention and which introduced first the fashion of staining their hair, and then that of red wigs among the Roman ladies, has disappeared. In Prussia, I thought I found still some traces of it; but, in the other parts of Germany where I have been, I do not think I have seen so much red hair or so many light complexions as we have in New England.—I think, therefore, upon the whole, that the race of men in Germany has changed since the times of Caesar and Germanicus. They approach undoubtedly nearer to us than they or we do to the southern tribes; but still they differ from us even in the structure and forms of their bodies. In size and height I do not know that there is any material variety; but their bodies are certainly rounder than ours—that is, it is farther from their sternum to their spine. In Physiognomy the difference is more material. The face is broader and the forehead generally lower—the cheekbones too are oftener prominent and the chin shorter than ours. As to the expression, too, there is a difference; but that is a matter for Lavater and not for me, though as far as feeling goes in this terra incognita, I think we have the advantage. As members of Society we differ much from the Germans and this difference arises to a great degree, I suspect, from two causes—from the freedom of our Government, and the sparseness of our population. Germany is overstocked with people—not perhaps according to the doctrines of Writers on Political Economy; but according to the feelings of one who comes from a country not yet full—for one man cannot rise here but at the expense of another. Over this dense population reign Governments in most points despotic, though in many cases as in Saxony, Weimar, etc., I doubt not they exercise their power gently—and these Governments by their very form—and especially by their system of police, which has been for centuries forming and ripening and which now extends to every man in all his relations, must still press heavily upon this dense population and tend to keep every man in the place where birth or accident has cast him and every class of society within the limits which ages have been forming for it. The consequence is that each individual considered as a member of the great community is more strictly an individual111—lives more entirely for himself and by himself—has less connection and intercourse with 111. I mean by this that an individual is less interested in those whom the accidents of neighborhood, citizenship, etc., have brought near to him, and knows less of them—though at the same time, he knows more of those in the same profession and class with himself wherever they may be if they come within his periphery, for they are persons here who prevent him from success or must contribute to it. [G.T.]

1815–1817

71

other persons about him—and is, in short, more entirely given up to his own profession and knows much less of the professions of other people than with us. Each great class of society, too—is separated from the others by more strict boundaries than with us—and is again subdivided into smaller classes and coteries, each of which has its peculiar tone and character and knows little and cares less about the rest. The result of this is that, in the great mass of society, there is less collision than with us, for the parts are too far removed from each other; but in the subdivisions the jarring and jealousies are greater, for the individuals are brought nearer together and one can press forward to success only over the fallen body of another. Here, therefore, is a dense population divided into many small classes, each of which is closely connected in itself but has little connection with the others, all of which are kept in their several places and made to form one whole by the strong arm of a strong government—while in America from the sparseness of the population and the consequent facility of success and from the freedom of the Government, which creates an universal political interest and compels every man to look widely around him, the people of themselves form one whole more generally connected and acquainted, though for the same reasons the individuals who compose the parts are less brought into collision than here.

1817. GERMANY. PEASANTRY. The great classes and divisions of Society are the same in all the civilized countries of Europe, viz., Nobility, the middling interest—and the lowest class, which is now composed chiefly of Peasantry in the country and mechanics, etc., in the towns. Of these only two have come down from the middle ages—the Nobility and Peasantry, which from the changes of the last three centuries now form the least important parts of the community in any point of view except as regards their dead physical strength. 1. The lowest class— a. Peasantry. The condition of the Peasantry, though it has changed less in all respects than that of any other class in a country where nearly all changes come from above and descend gradually, has still changed considerably in two respects within the last four centuries—in the first place, by the introduction of more knowledge and improvement among them—and in the second place, by taking away from them their political interest. As to the improvement of the peasantry, it is different in different parts of the country. In Austria, Bavaria and all the South, they remain still comparatively ignorant and gross—in the North it is better, though here a real reform has been effected only in Saxony, the Saxon Houses, and a part of Prussia, and nowhere, I think, is their condition

72

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

as good as it is in Scotland and probably not so good as in England, if I take for my ground the comparisons of Goede112 who was a Göttingen Professor and has written really good travels in England. At any rate in East Prussia—Polish Prussia and Swabia, they were till 1808 serfs and are still many of them so—in the country between Hanover and Kassel on the one side and Holland on the other, much of which is Catholic, almost nothing has been done as I understand— and when you have crossed the Rhine, the peasant, as all admit, becomes much an animal—so that it is only in Old Prussia, Saxony, the Saxon Houses—and to a good degree in Kassel and Hanover, or in about 7 to 8,000,000 of the population, that reading and writing among the peasantry is fairly common in Germany.—In other respects, improvement has made still less progress among them. They are still gross in their manners, except in Weimar and Gotha—filthy in their dress and comfortless in their houses—and in the relationships of father, child and husband are below what might be expected from their intellectual improvement. As to their political interest in the state, they feel it through their oppressions and taxes. This is a great misfortune. In countries where the population is full, and one in the lowest class has little chance to rise either by accumulating wealth or information, it is exceedingly important, as it seems to me, that the few ties which bind him to society—to his duties and to his country—should be carefully maintained and strengthened. The chief of these are religious and political feeling. The first, the German peasant has still retained little uninjured, though I doubt whether he will retain it much longer if his pastors are formed in the way they are now. The second he has lost altogether, for the only way in which under a severe monarchy it can be continued is by giving the peasantry a military spirit; but since the introduction and general use of standing armies, and the consequent disarming of the people, the peasantry have lost many important traits in their character and become to an extraordinary degree—dull, tame, and uninterested.—On the whole, therefore, though the four last centuries have given them more improvement, yet as they have taken from the peasantry nearly all political interest and feeling and made them, though the most numerous portion of the population, a dead mass in the system of Government, it cannot be said that they have gained much, if anything. Compared with American Farmers, (for a Peasantry we have not) the German boors are degraded in all points.113 In information ours are decidedly above them 112. Christian August Gottlieb Goede wrote a book on travel in England that was translated from German into English in 1807 under the title The Stranger in England; or, Travels in Great Britain. 113. One remarkable proof and instance of the degraded condition of the peasantry here is the servitude of women. They work in the fields everywhere like the men, and though not generally at the same kinds of labor, yet I have seen women ploughing and reaping, etc.—Their part of the labor is to bear the burdens—and such burdens, too, as a Pharisee would think intolerable; when the harvest is cut down, for instance, the women carry it home in baskets as ingeniously fitted and fastened to their backs as an ass’s panniers—when the husband has

1815–1817

73

and above the best of them—whether in Prussia or Saxony—in general improvement, the disproportion is still greater—and as to the modes of living, etc., an American Farmer enjoys more comforts in one winter than a German Peasant in his whole life.—Above all, there is a circumspection and shrewdness—a dexterity in all mechanical employments and in using the circumstances of life—in short a practical skill and adroitness in what our Farmers do and think and intend— together with a general interest in society and a partial acquaintance with the world—which place them in an entirely higher order of Animals than the German Peasantry.

1817. GERMANY. MECHANICS. THE GUILDS. LOWER CLASSES. b. The lower classes in towns, such as mechanics, laborers, etc.—Here is a remarkable instance in the establishment and nature of the Guilds, of that exclusive separation into small societies, disconnected from each other but closely united among themselves, of which I have already spoken. Guilds have existed in all countries from the Romans down, as soon as the population began to be crowded, for they are nothing more than an association among those who are skilled in an art to prevent their numbers from increasing too much for their own success or convenience; but, I suspect they are in no country such strong and important corporations as they are in Germany. Each Guild here is composed of Master, Journeymen (Gesellen) and Apprentices. When an Apprentice has tolerably learnt his trade, he is not permitted to settle in the same town with his master but must go on a pilgrimage to some other place, and if on the way he falls into want, the Guild in any town must give him either work or money.114 This practice comes down from the times when the mechanical Arts were cultivated with success in Italy alone and the young men were compelled to go there to perfect themselves in their trades; but now it is an useless and bothersome form continued only to make the access to a trade more difficult. When he wishes to become a Master, the Journeyman must make his Masterpiece, and give it to the Guild, and this is another hard expense and difficulty—and, after all, he must not now work within a given distance of the man who taught him; sawed and split my firewood, his wife uniformly brings it up three pair of stairs on her back—and wherever I go I see this, at least, weaker part of creation toiling and bent nearly to the earth under burdens to which habit does not in the least reconcile me.—When I first came here I observed that many of the lowest class of children were deformed and on inquiring the reason of a famous Accoucheur [obstetrician–ed.] was told that these burdens to which the women are accustomed from their earliest youth so distort the pelvis that the children are often injured before birth, and that in parturition many more mothers of this class die, and of three cases, it is necessary to use extraordinary instruments with one to facilitate the travail which has been made difficult by this distortion of these bones.—This is a kind of fact which speaks for itself. I received it with all needful explanations at the Lying-in Hospital in Göttingen. [G.T.] 114. Qu.–Does our word Journeyman come from this practice or from the French Journée? [G.T.]

74

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

meantime, until he becomes a master he is kept in hard bondage.—Compared with people of the same class in the peasantry here they are, I think, neither so well taught nor so honest, though from this compulsory journeying they get more knowledge of men and things—Compared with the same class in America, they lack shrewdness and dexterity and in workmanly skills are far behind our mechanics, chiefly from two causes—from the shortness of the term of Apprenticeship which seldom exceeds two or three years but more from their compelled journeys, which occupy much useful time. I do not doubt, therefore that the lowest class in Germany, whether composed of Peasantry, Mechanics, Laborers or other persons is much below the same class in America, in all respects; but chiefly in practical shrewdness.

1817. GERMANY. MIDDLING CLASSES. MERCHANTS. 2. The Middling Class, composed chiefly of the Inhabitants of towns, and including all occupied in commerce—all persons in learned professions—all inferior officers of the Government, etc., etc.— This is a class unknown to the middle ages and can be traced no further back than to the time when learning was first brought into Germany and the Universities established or from the foundation of Prague in 1348115—and to the time when commerce began to assume an entirely new and much more important character to bring more wealth and industry into Germany—or, from the discovery of America and the East Indies about a century and a half after the establishment of the Universities. From this time, or from about the year 1500, the middling class and interest, by the progress of knowledge, by the influx of wealth—and by the increase of industry—has risen to be the most important body of people in each country of Europe. This naturally comes under two divisions—the first including those persons who owe their consequence directly or indirectly to commerce, and the industry it has brought with it including manufactures—the 2nd those who owe their consequence to their mental cultivation. The few persons belonging to it who do not come under one of these divisions are of too little consequence to be mentioned separately. a. Those produced by Commerce. Germany, from its situation, has never had much foreign and maritime commerce but much internal and land commerce, since through its immense fairs at Frankfurt, Leipzig, etc., goods are circulated from the Alps and the Pyrenees—from Switzerland, France, England and Holland, to Poland, Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Siberia, etc., chiefly by means of the Jews. This, however, forms in Germany, independently on the children 115. This refers to the foundation of the Charles University in Prague in 1348.

1815–1817

75

of the circumcision, a powerful body of small active merchants, manufactures, etc., etc., who have much political importance and a very distinct character.—Of their political importance it is easy to judge by the amount of taxes procured from them—by the towns they support—by the fairs they fill, etc., etc.—Of their peculiar character it is easy to form an estimate by their occupations. Their business is small—there is little risk in it—and it requires, therefore, no great extent or boldness of thought and design. This remark applies not only to their internal commerce but to that carried on in Bremen and Hamburg which is chiefly a commerce of commission and deposit which the merchants there carry on between the states on the Baltic116 and the rest of the world in which they venture little capital and less thought and skill. The consequence is that, compared with our merchants, those of Germany have less talent, less knowledge, less skill and less liberal modes of thinking. They are, at the same time, mere merchants, for the interests and occupations of political life do not come to them, and being exclusively confined to this sort of trade, and having, moreover, for their rivals and coadjutors so many Jews, they acquire a narrowness of character, which is distinguishable often in the tone of their voices in the lower classes of them, and which in all is different from the proud character which our adventurous and liberal commerce gives to our merchants.

1817. GERMANY. CLASSES WHO HAVE INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. EDUCATION. TEACHERS. b. Those produced by Intellectual culture. This includes all who have been instructed at the Universities or at the higher Gymnasia and, therefore, not only all in the three professions and all who teach, but nearly every person in the civil employment of the Government, with the exception of the lower officers of the Police. And here it is not to be denied or concealed that, whatever advantage we have over the Germans in other classes, they have a prodigious advantage over us in this as far as mere learning is concerned. The great reasons why they enjoy this advantage over us are, 1. that their education is begun earlier and continued longer, though in this respect the difference is not very important, as a young man is commonly fitted to enter the world by about twenty two or three, 2. that it is incomparably more thoroughly given, which is chiefly the result of the greater number of instructors employed so that each is more perfect in his branch—and of a more practical, philosophical plan, which is the result of long and faithful experience—3. that it is not interrupted as it is with us, where the transition 116. The Baltic Sea.

76

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

from the school to the University is a violent change and that from the University to the study and practice of the Profession one still more so, whereas here it is one tolerably even course and system from the time the boy enters school till he comes out into the world—4. that it is not a barren, general education as it is with us, but an education adapted to the individual and to his peculiar destination in life, beginning often even in the Gymnasium, where as the Göttingen, Gotha, etc., regard may be had to the future profession, and always so adapted at the University—and, finally, and above all, 5. that no time is lost, while half of it is lost with us at least, from idleness, from want of system—and want of knowledge in the Instructors and the other half very rarely applied with severe attention or skill. When to these particular reasons is added the general consideration that learning here is as much a profession and occupation as merchandise, and that a man is fitted for it only as one means of getting his bread, which he must have completely in his power or starves, while in America learning is generally only an accomplishment and a show—a gala dress but not homely wear—the difference between the two countries is easily explained.— I am aware, however, that in our practical country, the merely practical parts of learning which generally give employment and wealth, if not reputation, are often not below the same conditions here. I know our lawyers are as able and as skilful, though perhaps seldom as learned and hardly ever with that systematic, philosophical and comprehensive view of their profession which they have here—I know that our physicians are as shrewd and discerning—perhaps in many instances as practically efficient as those here but certainly not so thoroughly formed in the schools and hospitals—and I know, too, that our preachers are more eloquent and honest than the clergy here but certainly vastly less learned in their professions—I am aware of all this, yet I know that the want of thorough, practical learning among us is grossly apparent in every class of occupation in from the Treasury Department of the Nation down to individual cultivation of the Soil—in all the professions—and in the whole structure and tone of society. As to the general character of the men of learning here, I do not think it by any means as honest and pure as it is with us.117 Infidelity is common—perhaps, I should say, prevalent among all classes of them, even to an alarming degree among the clergy—and among some classes—the natural philosophers, etc., Atheism is nearly universal. Among all, there are bitter quarrels, jealousies and hatreds growing out the very competitions and excitements which make them so eminent; and 117. There is, too, vastly more open immorality among them—take, for instance, the coteries of Wolf [Friedrich August–ed.], Semler and Bahrdt at Halle, etc., etc.—It is not uncommon for a Professor to have a Mistress, as Thibaut and Mitscherlich at Göttingen, Oken at Jena, etc. The stories of Villers [Charles Francois Dominique–ed.] and Heeren I will not note. [G.T.] On Villers, Ticknor probably is referring to his relationship with Dorothea von Rodde-Schlözer.

1815–1817

77

among all an exclusive, selfish, and confident spirit, which is perhaps necessarily to be expected in those who are every day obliged to assent and defend their places in the republic of letters and science or else at once abandon them.— In society, we have again the advantage of them, for our men of learning are pleasanter companions.—The reason is that the Germans are compelled to study so incessantly that they are unfit for the world and unacquainted with it—not to say that their thoroughness in their peculiar branches prevents them generally from acquiring the light, general knowledge which is the current coin of common intercourse. From the very circumstance that the men of learning, the professional men, etc., are so exactly fitted for the place each is to occupy, not by a great amount of general knowledge but by thoroughness in the kind of acquirements each must use, it happens again that they are fitted for little else and are divided in consequence into coteries according to their occupations and objects, which have little connection with each other. Indeed, the whole of this middling class, whether composed of men formed by the progress of commerce or the progress of culture, is remarkably divided into little circles, etc., each of which has its peculiar interests, feelings and tone and all very little in common with each other.—This is the effect again of their dense population—the difficulty of success—and their despotical Governments—for such a constitution of society and particularly of this class of society could not exist in a freer country where there should be room for the enterprise of all.

1817. GERMANY. NOBILITY. 3. The Nobility.—Of this class, I could, of course, say little, as I have seen but little, if they were not by their very importance open to the observation of all and continually the subject of conversation in the society which I have lived. They form a class which has come down from the middle ages, and it is their misfortune and fault that they have changed too little with the changed spirit of the times. At first and, in fact, down to the beginning of the 16th century, they may be said almost without qualification to have possessed with the clergy the property and intellectual culture of the times—and, of course, the privileges, honors and powers of the Government and the distinctions of society rightfully came into their hands. Since then, however, everything has changed. The peasantry have emancipated themselves and now own a good proportion of the soil—and commerce and culture have formed a third class who have more wealth and improvement than they. But still they have never ceased to claim all the rights and distinctions they had in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the consequence is that for an hundred years great irritations and often collisions have

78

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

occurred between them and the third estate, which feels itself what it really is, the most important class in the community. The Nobility have in many points been obliged to recede; but still their prerogatives are too great for their fallen importance in the system of things. In many parts of Germany their possessions are not taxed—in many, hereditary nobility even for many generations is necessary to the higher civil offices of the Government and in some even for military advancement. This is against the spirit of the times, and there will be no quiet in the land till it is removed. In pride of rank and etiquette they exceed other European Nobility, for in Russia different principles prevail—in England, they are but the heads of the Republic—and in the Roman nations there have been such tremendous revolutions that they, with every thing else, have been shaken from their places and influence. Here, however, they remain in almost baronial stiffness and dignity. The distinctions of old Nobility and recent are so strictly observed that at Hanover, where one would think all Nobility was a farce, they have different readingrooms, and billiard tables—do not visit one another, etc.—in a court even so small and polished as that at Weimar no native nor noble is permitted to appear at court118—and this is carried so far that if a nobleman marries a simple citizen he cannot bring his wife to court, while at the same time a noble lady marrying a citizen loses her rank—and throughout all Germany the line which divides the noble from the unhonored blood of the country is as difficult to pass as the Styx and as irremediable to those who are over.—Among themselves, they are divided into societies, coteries, etc., even more perhaps than the middling class, for, in addition to motives common to them both for such a subdivision, the Nobility have family interests—inherited feuds and jealousies—court-quarrels and distinctions, etc., etc., all of which are nearly or quite unknown to the other classes. In Morals they are, as the same class is everywhere in Europe:—the most corrupt part of society, for the obvious reason that they have more opportunities and temptations to excesses and fewer restraints than the other classes. By all I can learn, however, there has been an improvement in this respect within the last twenty years, and the reason of it is that in the revolutions that have happened and the sufferings that have prevailed in the land, they as the highest and wealthiest have been most affected. The loss of their wealth has taken from them a part of their means and temptations and, at the same time, compelled them to resort to exertion and occupation—to attend to their affairs personally more than they used to, etc., all which has raised their character.

118. In the theater at Weimar, the Duke’s box is in the center in front—the nobility’s boxes are on the right hand—and the bourgeoisie on the left—and on no occasion, I understand, is there a confusion of places, so that a citizen is never seen on the right hand. In the opera house at Berlin there is a distinction made in the same spirit though not in the same form. [G.T.]

1815–1817

79

In information and culture, they are behind the educated portion of the middling interest, though at the same time, as the administration of affairs, the offices of Government, etc., have been almost exclusively in their hands, they are often more practical men. They are, too, undoubtedly becoming better informed than they used to be from the influence of the very comparative poverty, which is purifying their characters. In influence, they are much fallen within the last thirty years, and are destined to fall more, for they are still too much revered and dreaded by the common people, even if they be admitted to have the talents, virtue and positive power which anybody claims for them. On the whole, therefore, the Nobility, though still corrupt and dissolute, and considering their prerogatives and influence ignorant, are no doubt improving, partly from the force of circumstances and partly from the progress of general culture. But will they at last accommodate themselves entirely to the spirit of the times and be contented with the place in the system of things which justly belongs to them? If they do not, still greater changes will follow than have yet happened for the war between the Nobility and the middling class has now been carried on three centuries, during which the substantial success has been uniformly on one side, and therefore compromise is not likely to effect much. The Nobility must come down and take the place their Rank merits and wealth united will give them—not, as now, that which their Rank alone gives—or they will, by popular violence and revenge, by the talent and wealth of the middling class and the physical power of the lowest, be stripped at some favorable moment of more of their influence than it will be well for the country that they should lose. After having thus gone through the physical and moral differences between the Germans and the Americans I might stop, as having finished the comparison which, to be sure, is throughout like Plutarch’s parallel Lives, a mere comparison of differences; but I wish yet to speak of the Germans as a whole, under some of the more important heads of national character.

1817. GERMANY. RELIGION. i. Religion.— In speaking of Religion, I do not refer to the different sects which divide Germany, the chief of which are, of course, Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed (Calvinism), but to the feeling and practical belief in any one of these forms of Christianity. The Peasantry are religious; but their religion is only a superstition mingled with much honesty and fear; but which has less of feeling in it, I think, than

80

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

in the corresponding class in America, from the simple and obvious reason that the common people are more dull and insensible.119 Whether the peasantry will long maintain their religious character is uncertain; but must soon be decided. Their Pastors, formed at the Universities, are often unbelievers in any meaning we could give to this term, and for many years it has been the fashion to preach even to the lowest people without piety; but the tone is changed a little of late— the newest theologians do not go so far as Eichhorn, De Wette, etc.—and the preachers are beginning to add unction and even dogma to their discourses; but whether this be a thorough commencement of a revolution is uncertain. If it is not, in a few generations, the peasantry will be without religion. In the Middling classes120 it is difficult to speak of the state of Religion because the standard of outward observances and dogmatical faith by which it is measured is so different from what it is with us.—In the towns, the forms of religion are little observed. The people go seldom to church—and perhaps never to confession or the sacrament; but then this is considered no proof of a want of religion. In the same way, creeds are little thought of—and forms of faith little talked about, for these too are things which have ceased to be a part of religion. Where, therefore, it exists at all, it exists only as a dark and indistinct feeling—as something which has no connection with society—except so far as it is shown in honesty in common life—as a sentiment which is very rarely talked about and which, if it be cherished at all, is cherished as a kind of mystery between the heart and God. This is, of course, such a religion as can exist only in persons who have a considerable degree of refinement and even of sentiment.—In other portions of the middling classes I have found no trace of religion. The active part—the commercial, laboring men of some property—do not think of it except as it brings them Sunday for a day of rest and pleasure—and the learned part of the Middling class either reject or utterly neglect and forget it; with very few exceptions of old dogmatical theologians, and recent mystical enthusiasts. In the highest class of all it is nothing new to say there is no religion known. The Emperor of Austria121 is a good, simple gentleman—the King of Prussia122 is as honest a man as there is in his states—and the King of Saxony123 is faithful in heart and in observance to a religion which his predecessors considered only an engine of state. These are all good men—and perhaps they have influence on the manners of their courts, especially the last; but everywhere else the system of 119. One great difference between our farmers and the German peasants in this respect is that the German knows nothing of religious sects, their feelings, quarrels, etc. His religion and his politics, if they deserve to be called politics, are alike the unsought result of his situation. [G.T.] 120. In speaking of the middling classes here, I speak only in relation to the Protestant parts of N. Germany which I have seen. [G.T.] 121. Ticknor refers here to Franz I (1768–1835). 122. Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770–1840). 123. Friedrich August I of Saxony (1750–1827).

1815–1817

81

mistresses is common and public, and the nobility are by no means behind their princes in grossness, though they may be in splendor. In such circumstances, the most that can be desired or done is not to introduce a serious religion but to hide the contempt of it from the lowest classes by a partial observance of its forms. In consequence of this most of the courts in Germany go to church once a day on Sunday nearly as regularly as they go to the play every other day; but no more of the Nobility accompany it than are obliged to attend on the King. At least this is the general rule. This is a strange state of things and brings with it strange consequences. One consequence is that as the spirit and warmth of piety has been vastly more preserved in the Catholic portions of Germany, a great many persons who are seriously disposed to be religious become Catholics. Without mentioning any other names less considerable, it is enough to mention those of Frederick Schlegel, the two counts Stolberg, and Werner, who after writing his “Luther” is now the most eloquent Catholic preacher in the dominions of Austria.124—Another consequence is that those who consider religion merely in a political point of view— and these are now the most numerous and important portion of the thinking community—they or rather a great many of them are desirous to unite more or less of the forms of Catholicism to their Protestantism in the hopes of giving it more spirit and power. Of this way of thinking is Planck, and it is said too that many of the members of the Frankfurt congress125 are willing to do something if something can be done politically to succeed in this object, partly no doubt to quicken the failing spirit of Protestantism and still more to unite again the North and the South, which have been in fact two distinct Empires ever since the Reformation and the Peace of Westphalia.—These two consequences flow from the general indifference to religion and the habit of regarding it merely politically or philosophically, which has followed from this indifference; but there is yet a third consequence which flows from the nature of religion in the hearts of the few who cherish it as a secret mystery. They form a school by themselves and talk a language as unintelligible to me as the unknown tongue of St. Paul’s converts. At their head is Schleiermacher of Berlin, a man of extraordinary powers, but who has fitted himself for this way of thinking by his Platonic studies and has rendered his style of writing and teaching almost unintelligible. He and those he gathers round him are called “mysticists” even in Germany and are such in the strictest sense of the word, and it is from them chiefly that a reform in the Protestant Religion of Germany is hoped, for they are nearly the only class 124. A great many young German Artists go to Rome, and it is observed that many of them become fanatical Catholics—perform the most cruel penances, etc., etc. — [G.T.] 125. This refers to the Federal Assembly in Frankfurt (Frankfurt Diet), which was created in 1815 with the formation of the German Confederation. It was not a parliament but a permanent conference of envoys from all thirty-nine member states of the German Confederation.

82

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

among the Protestants who have any deep and serious feeling in Religion and at the same time an Esprit de Corps among them which may enable them to act with force. The exceptions to this are among the Calvinists.

1817. GERMANY. MORALS. ii Morals.— This being the State of Religion, it will, at once, be inquired what is the state of Morals—and how far this want of piety is felt in the common relations of life and how much it is seen on the surface of Society.— In this point of view I set the Peasantry at once aside. They are still religious and if less shrewd than our farmers are a more sober, faithful body of men among whom the little cheating so common with us is unknown—who are rarely intemperate—and who, in fact, are more worthy to be trusted than the same class with us.— As to the other classes, I think the want of religion is severely felt, especially in their domestic relations. In the first place infidelity is extremely common, and it is an appalling proof of the laxity of moral feeling that it excites little sensation in the public and apparently little unhappiness at home. The reason of the first is that it is so common, and the reason of the last is that one party is seldom less guilty than the other, for in Germany alone, I believe, the infidelity of a wife is looked upon as not more heinous than that of a husband, and I do not question it is equally common in both.126 In the next place, parental authority is weak, and this again is one cause of immorality, since it is here almost impossible to restrain or govern children much, after they are once sent to school. And finally there is, as far as I have been able to judge, a great want of that very tender affection between parent and child which is, in fact, almost one of the forms of piety, and whose place here, if it be filled at all, is filled by a barren and fulsome sentimentality.127 In the relations of society the want of religion is not so visible as far as respects the state of morals. The reason is that, as the restraints of religion have been removed, the Police and the Laws have been made more severe and have come in therefore to take its place. Indeed Crimes such as are punished by the Laws seem to me to be less common in Germany than in any part of Europe, though at the 126. Ex. gr. Hofrath Richter—von Jasmond—von Herseele—Doct. Schrader—Michaelis and Heyne’s daughters, etc., etc. [G.T] 127. The whole of this state of the domestic character of the Germans is easily to be recognized in their Romances and Plays, where the representations of domestic life are so far from sober happiness only because they have no originals to draw from, and drawing from their imagination become extravagant and fantastic. I do not mean by this to say there are no happy families in Germany but merely that their happiness is of a different sort and rests on different principles and feelings from ours. [G.T.]

1815–1817

83

same time it should be observed that many things are not crimes here that would be such in England or America and that the course of Justice here is so much more secret and noiseless that it is more difficult to follow its steps.

1817. GERMANY. MILITARY SPIRIT. iii. The Military Spirit.— Of a military spirit such as is understood by this term in Europe we have no notion whatever, and I hope we never shall have; for it is not the genuine result of love of country and cannot be so long as the grinding system of standing armies is managed as it is now. The military Establishments in Germany cost, in times of Peace, more than half the Revenues of the different countries—a circumstance which sufficiently indicates the extent of the disease and the danger of its influences. That a system like this must produce very visible effects in all parts of society is not to be doubted. Of its effects on those parts that take no immediate share in it, I have already incidentally spoken—By disarming them, it takes from them all spirit and thus the Peasantry, etc., lie here a dead mass at the bottom of Society.—So much the more, therefore, it works on those classes to which its direct influences are confined. To the middling class of Society it operates as an irresistible temptation, since it is the obvious means in most parts of Germany by which they hope to rise in office.—To the Nobility it is the natural stimulus— the only employment almost which they think it consistent with their dignity to exercise.—In this way the military spirit is a ruling spirit, and gives its tone to society. The most curious and decisive proof of this is the fact that he who has once been in service either as officer or private—as volunteer or conscribed—will wear no full dress but his uniform. In society therefore the majority are partly colored, and when you go into a ballroom you might easily imagine yourself in a camp. This is the inversion of the maxim arma cedent togae128—and it is an inversion of the practice in England where an Officer even seldom appears in company with his uniform—much less the whole rank and file of the Army, though at the same time the true spirit of military patriotism was, I doubt not, higher in Rome, and is still higher in England, than it is here.—Of its effects I have observed three in all classes of society that are bad—The first is that the military character not only ranks above the civil in public estimation and military success above civil talent and virtues, but that the last follow the first longo post intervallo129—that, in short, military reputation is not only the first merit in the eyes of the people, but the second and third.—The second is that the long

128. Weapons yield to the toga. 129. After a long interval.

84

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

continuance and operation of this state of things has brought military notions of honor, and conduct and a general military tone into society of all the upper classes.—The last circumstance is that it has diminished the value set upon human life—a circumstance which I have had occasion to observe whenever I have heard remarks made upon the death of anyone whatever; for after very many instances which I have each time carefully considered, I am satisfied that, under similar circumstances, the death of an individual citizen, friend or relation makes less impression here than with us. This is an unnatural and a painful state of things, and yet if it be considered collectively rather than individually—as a whole rather than in its parts—it is still more unnatural and painful. The present military system which has been growing up since the 15th century and which has been greatly developed in the last twenty-five years is essentially founded on the presumption of a perpetual state of war. And is not this an approximation to a state of nature or barbarism? Can the most civilized and cultivated portion of mankind endure this—and if peace and comfort are to be restored to Europe must it not be done by first of all breaking down this military spirit?

1817. GERMANY. POLITICAL SPIRIT. iv. The Political Spirit. The want of that invisible but tremendous tribunal, which in America and England passes under the name of public opinion, the want of any real liberty of the Press, as far as newspapers and the politics of the day are concerned—and finally the want of a substitute for these in a system of representation or assemblies of the people, prevents the formation of a political Spirit, in any meaning one could give to the term. I do not speak now of the Peasantry, who lie cold, dark and unmoved like the depths of the Ocean—nor the Nobility who stand next to the Princes and whose cause is the cause of the Government—but of the third and middling class, who have motives to a political spirit which the upper class has not and means which are unknown to the lower. Even here, however, few traces of it are to be found. The tremendous convulsions of the last twenty years have indeed partly shocked men into something like sensibility, and the rude and indistinct outlines of party feelings are beginning, for the first time, to appear in Germany, but still with so little force and character that they may easily be obliterated. If it were to be necessary to make a division—a thing which has not yet been thought of—these parties might stand thus—1. The party of the Indifferent, consisting of the old men who are so weary of the violence and changes of the last thirty years that they are glad to retreat within themselves and live in peace—to whom should be added [a] great proportion of those who

1815–1817

85

have taken no share in the last revolution. This party is not large or important. 2. The friends, dependents and decided supporters of the present condition of things consisting chiefly of the Nobility and those in employment, whose object is to prevent the Princes from making any considerable changes, but to keep the relations of Government and people where they were in 1780–90. This party is the smallest in numbers but the strongest in influence, and is found especially in Bavaria, Hanover and Baden. 3. A party which has grown out of the Revolution of 1812–13 who say that during that awful interval, when everything trembled in uncertainty, the people were promised a representation; freedom of speech and freedom of the press by their princes repeatedly, if they would put forth their strength—that they did come into the contest under this promise and under this hope achieved the victory—and that now they find themselves deceived and trifled with— assured at Paris that something should be done at Vienna—assured at Vienna that they should be satisfied at Frankfurt—and finally the whole of their claims submitted to a commission so restricted and constituted that it will absolutely do nothing. This party is composed of the body of volunteers who served in the two last wars and is strong in Prussia in the imperial towns—and at the universities, especially Berlin, Halle, and Jena. 4. A genuine Jacobin Party,130 composed of the disjecta membra of the original French Jacobins and others who have joined them in the last years of trouble. Their number is small, and their influence does not extend beyond their number. The Rhenish Mercury was their head—Wieland (son of the Poet) one of their writers, etc., etc.—but it is so little respected there is not much to fear from it. What character and turn these Parties will take must depend partly on accident, and entirely on the political condition of the country in the coming years. If there were means to work, something good or bad might be formed from them; but how is it possible under the present circumstances? How restrained the newspapers are may be estimated from the circumstance that those which circulate the most are the Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Bremen papers because these are free cities, where the people can speak a little more openly; but that even here, there is never a word of real, hearty political discussion in the newspapers, and that even the news comes in a regular, fixed form, which proves that it is often accommodated to the state of the times instead of being faithfully copied.131 How narrow a range political conversation takes may be estimated by the circumstance that its materials are gained from these newspapers, which are looked upon as Oracles; and when to this are added the want of assemblies of the people or any free representation, 130. Revolutionaries. 131. In Weimar a representative constitution and liberty of Press has recently been given to the People, and the consequence is that what is called an opposition Paper has at once been set up there—but what is it? A weak, dull, inefficient thing which is remarkable not for opposing anybody; but for praising nobody, and this silence is as far, I doubt not, as the liberty of the press dares to go even in Weimar.— [G.T.]

86

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

it seems difficult to imagine how a public opinion, or a political Spirit, can readily be formed, unless other great changes should happen which would probably bring with them consequences that every man should deprecate.

1817. GERMANY. SPIRIT OF SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. v. Spirit of social Intercourse. This, whether with strangers or among themselves, is confined within certain fixed forms out of which it never passes. As to strangers, they are very kind, so far as the communication of useful information, assisting them in their immediate objects, etc., etc., are concerned; but as to the fullness and heartiness of genuine and generous hospitality, in which we no doubt surpass other people,132 it is a thing here unknown—utterly unimaginable in Germany; and he who relies upon it will find himself unhappily disappointed wherever he goes.— Among one another, for reasons which I have already given, they are divided into close coteries united among themselves and separated from the rest of the world. This union, however, it should be observed, is oftener the result of circumstances and a kind of compassion than of spontaneous feeling, so that close as it is nothing is more common than to see it broken. Indeed the constitution of society here and in America is exactly opposite in its effects—In America, the tendency is strongly and decidedly to bring people together—and here the tendency is, on the whole, to separate them; but not politically. Göttingen, Feb. 1817

4 “One important step nearer to . . . home.” March 22–April 1, 1817 1817 MARCH 22. GÖTTINGEN. Göttingen, March 22, 1817. Today, I have closed the last wearisome semester of my labors and imprisonment here. During this interval I have heard every day a 132. That we are the most hospitable people in the world is the common voice of all Europeans whom I have seen who have been in America. This hospitality is, I am persuaded, partly the result of what still remains to us of a colonial character—partly the result of the youthful state of society—partly of our early and sudden wealth, etc., etc., together with the great general reason which comes into all our relations that there is still room enough for everybody, whatever may be their objects or occupations, and therefore we are not afraid to see strangers come among us, and do not treat them as intruders, as is often the case in Europe from the very instinct of self preservation. On the contrary, we invite them. We want them. [G.T.]

1815–1817

87

course of Lectures on the modern Arts by Fiorillo in Italian—a course of European Statistics every day from Prof. Saalfeld in French—a course of Archeology five times a week by Prof. Welker—and four times a week I have ridden in the Manège.133 Besides this, I read Greek with Dr. Schulze till January and then gave it up in order to be able to hear Bouterweck’s course of Aesthetics—and during the whole winter have averaged two hours in the week in Italian recitations with my friend Ballhorn.134—Thus these six months have passed away and now that all my duties are fulfilled I look forward with an impatience I have never felt before to my emancipation, which will bring me one important step nearer to the time when I shall once more see my home.— [Editor’s note: Having finished his studies in Göttingen, Ticknor’s next destination was Paris. On March 26, 1817, he departed Göttingen. Everett and Perkins accompanied him as far as Kassel. From there, Ticknor continued his journey alone.]

1817 MARCH. WETZLAR. FRANKFURT. FRIEDRICH VON SCHLEGEL. OLBERS, THE YOUNGER. PRESIDENT VON BERG. I soon entered Darmstadt135 and dined at Giessen, another inconsiderable University founded in 1607. The temptation was strong upon me to go a few miles out of my way and visit Wetzlar—not because the great tribunal before which German Princes were for centuries tried like common men here held its seat till everything was overturned in the great convulsion of 1805; but because this is the very valley where the whole scene of Werther was laid—the temptation was so strong I could not resist it.136—I went, then, though I had previously resolved not to go—bought me a Werther and took a guide and set off to see how much was history and how much imagination. Before the Wildbacher Gate I instantly recognized the fountain which makes such a figure in the letters frequently and once in Hermann and Dorothea137—and then taking horses set off for Garben, a couple of miles distant, which is the Wahlheim of the Romance. On the way I imagined that we passed the valley where the scene between Werther and Char133. Riding academy. 134. Friedrich Ballhorn-Rosen. 135. Darmstadt here does not refer to the city but rather to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, also sometimes called Hesse-Darmstadt. 136. Before I left home I translated the whole of Charlotte and Werther—my first real exercise in German—and I have ever since had a great attachment to that book. I have still the original copy of my translation. 1870. [G.T.] He refers to Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. This novel depicts the unfulfilled love of Werther for Lotte who is engaged (later married) to Albert. Werther met Lotte in the fictional village of Wahlheim (based on the town of Garbenheim near Wetzlar). 137. Hermann and Dorothea was an epic poem by Goethe.

88

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

lotte’s distracted lover happened, and the chilly wind which blew as we went through it gave me a sensation of sadness such as I have seldom felt. I was still quite alone. A little farther on, I mounted the rocks where Werther passed the dreadful night after he had left Charlotte—and in the village itself, I needed no guide to show me the old church—the lime-trees—the burying ground, and the village houses which he has described with such fidelity.—On returning to the city, I stopped again on the rocks—read the description of his despair—and stayed until the parting sun had almost descended behind the hills.—Then I hastened to Wetzlar, and as a final farewell went a few moments to the Hilbol Gardens, which Goethe had in his recollections and fancy when he described the parting scene in the last letter of the first Book.—I am, on the whole, glad I went. This cold and cheerless spring has, indeed, saddened the valley in which Charlotte and Werther lived so thoughtlessly together; but still it is impressed on my memory as it is, and, as to the rest, even in its brightest and gayest form the scenery would have disappointed the expectations with which Goethe’s poetical feelings had filled my imagination.138 After leaving Giessen, I first began to observe a difference in the character of the population which is found, it is said, to take place in wine-countries. At Friedberg, where I passed the last night, and at a small village where I passed an hour this morning, I first saw wine taken in tumblers as cider is with us, and it is certainly no mere imagination of mine that in Frankfurt, where I arrived at eleven this morning, I see every moment before me a carelessness and lightness of character in the people which I have never seen at all in North Germany. The first person I went to see this afternoon was Frederick von Schlegel; and never was I more disappointed in the external appearance of any man in my life, for instead of finding one grown spare and dry with deep and wearisome study, I found before me a short thick little gentleman with the ruddy vulgar health of a full-fed father of the Church. On sitting with him an hour, however, I became reconciled to this marvelous discrepancy, or rather, entirely forgot it. So fine a flow of rich talk I have rarely heard from anybody in Germany, for in this respect the Germans are certainly behind the English and us, and Schlegel and Luden of Jena are the only two men I have yet found who reminded me of the genuine hearty talk of English conversation. Afterwards, I went to see young Olbers, son of the famous Astronomer and Secretary to the Bremen Legation here—a fine little fellow, full of enthusiasm, whom I learnt to like in a half an hour more than I do most people in a week, and of whom I hope to see more before I leave Frankfurt.—

138. I translated the whole of Werther as an exercise in learning German before I left home. 1850. [G.T.]

1815–1817

89

The evening I spent at President von Berg’s—a man who was an important member of the Congress of Vienna139 and is now an important member of the Diet here,140 representing many small Principalities, Oldenburg, Nassau, etc., and thus uniting in himself six votes. There was considerable company there— the French minister, the Saxon minister, etc., etc., but above all Frederick Schlegel, who this evening was very gay and talked with much spirit and effect upon a variety of subjects, chiefly literary and political.—Berg is a man of extensive knowledge—and knows more of the minute history of our Revolution than anybody I have yet seen in Germany, and on hearing that I was from Boston told his wife to give me a very poor cup of tea, if indeed she would give me any at all, for that in Boston once we rebelliously wasted and destroyed several cargoes of it. He talked only on political subjects and chiefly on the Diet, of which, though he had no very great hopes, he still thinks some good will come, as considerable progress has been made of late.

1817 MARCH. FRANKFURT A/M. PALM SUNDAY. DANNEKER’S ARIADNE. THE DIET. DISTINGUISHED STRANGERS. DR. SCHLOSSER. F. SCHLEGEL. Sunday—This morning I went to the Catholic Cathedral—an ordinary building—where a large quantity of budding willow twigs were distributed to a crowd of noisy quarrelsome children, under pretence of its being Palm Sunday. There was anything in the church but dignity or devotion, and I soon came away; and went to two or three others where I found nothing better, so that if I am to take these as a fair specimen of Frankfurt, which I presume I ought to do, the observances of religion are as little thought of here as everywhere else that I have been in Germany. Just outside of one of the gates, I was shown the house of Bethmann, the famous banker, where Bonaparte slept the night before he crossed the Rhine for the last time in his life. I went to it and was shown to a kind of Summer house in the Garden where he has collected a few casts of the best statues among which the only rare one was a copy of the Diana holding the Stag, which was brought to Paris by Frs. I, and which I now saw for the first time. It is beautiful and only increased my impatience to see the original.—The work, however, which I came here to visit and which brings here all the strangers that come to Frankfurt is Danneker’s Ariadne riding on the Panther, finished in 1814. It is certainly 139. The Congress of Vienna (1814/1815) was a meeting of representatives from all major European powers. Dominated by Austria, the conference was charged with restoring monarchical power and redrawing the borders of many European states after the defeat of Napoleon. 140. The Federal Assembly in Frankfurt.

90

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

worthy of much of the admiration it has excited; and yet the position of the left leg is constrained and the attitude of the head affected—defects which I recollect now but hardly felt at the time. The figure is said to have been taken from Miss Duplat whom I knew at Göttingen and is a compliment to her beauty if none to her modesty—but the face and especially the mouth and the eyes—are of ideal perfection.—The Panther is clumsy and bad.— On coming from Bethmann’s I walked round the city, for like many German towns it has a pleasant mall running round it. It is a fine city, now containing about 65,000 inhabitants, and bears more marks of comfort, and of a flourishing, increasing population than any place I have seen in Germany. It is one of the few remaining free Imperial cities—is, at the same time, almost exclusively a commercial town—and has a free character such as I have not seen since I left England, and a mercantile cant and tone which is the same whether in London, New York, Amsterdam or Germany.—The People no doubt live contentedly with one another; but I am told they do not much like this session of a splendid Diet among them, which darkens and diminishes the dignity of their own independent little city and its authorities, and, at the same time, consists of a proud nobility that forms a diplomatic society for itself which, if it looks down on the citizens at all, looks on them only with condescension. From its freedom there are always many strangers residing here who cannot so well live elsewhere. At this moment, for instance, I am lodging in the same house with the former King of Sweden,141 who has lived here in a desolate and regular solitude above a year—and a few doors off is the wife of Joseph Bonaparte,142 living no less retired than he, but with a dignified propriety and unpretending simplicity which has won for her the respect of the people here. Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Englishmen I meet every day at the Table d’Hote where I dine, so that, on the whole, I question whether there be a city of the same size in Europe which at this moment contains within its limits such a curious medley of Inhabitants, visitors, etc., as Frankfurt. The Afternoon I passed with Dr. Schlosser, an interesting young man who has spent three or four years in Italy, and if he has brought back some foppery with him may be pardoned for the sake of the greater weight of classical taste and knowledge with which it is amalgamated. If I am not mistaken, Germany will learn something from him in the History and Criticism of the Arts if he should live long enough. The Evening I spent very pleasantly and protracted to an extraordinary hour for Germany, at Frederick Schlegel’s with the élite, as he said, of the literary society here—several members of the Diet—a few ladies, etc., etc.—I sat,

141. Gustav IV Adolph (1778–1837). 142. Marie Julie Bonaparte.

1815–1817

91

however, much of the time in a corner and talked with him.—He is certainly a remarkable man—and his history is sufficiently singular.—He is the youngest son of a Consistorial Rath at Hanover and in his earliest youth was found dull of apprehension. At 13–14 his father, finding nothing better was to be done with him, sent him to Leipzig to make a merchant of him; but the person into whose counting house he was put returned him in two years as unfit even for merchandise. More in despair than in hope, his father now set him down to study; in which he still made no progress till his brother Augustus came from the University and, probably by hitting the right tone in his influence, brought him in 6 months far forward in Latin and Greek. After this he studied at Göttingen and went to Dresden and Berlin to complete his education and prove his fortune. At Berlin, he came into connection with the Jews—was a great deal in the house of Moses Mendelssohn—and had an intrigue with a married daughter of his, whom he afterwards carried to Aix la Chapelle and married, and who is now one of the ugliest, coarsest women in her appearance I ever saw.143—At Aix he lived some time, and there changed his religion, as some pretend, from interest; but, as I rather think, from principle and feeling, for since this time his character has also changed and he has become another man. From 1802 to 1804 he studied the eastern languages with zeal and success at Paris, and afterwards went at the solicitation of his brother Augustus to Vienna, where his lectures on German History, on Literature, etc., excited attention and admiration. Finding himself coming forward in the world, he became a Politician—was immediately promoted—received soon after a patent of Nobility—and has now been above a year here as Secretary to the Austrian Embassy at the Diet, where his influence is considerable.—He is, I suppose, something more than fifty years old—perhaps near sixty—short—fat and good humored, animated—and witty in conversation—unaffected and even nonchalant in his manner—and making no pretensions but, on the contrary, receiving information and facts with singular simplicity on subjects where he is not sufficiently informed, while at the same time he is bold and decisive on those which he has studied.

1817 MARCH. FRANKFURT A/M. THE ROEMER. DINNER OF MERCHANTS. SENATOR SMIDT’S AND MEMBERS OF THE DIET. BARON VON GAGERN. Monday.—This morning I went to see the Römer—the famous Stadt-Haus in which so many Emperors have been chosen; but where another will probably 143. Dorothea von Schlegel.

92

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

never again be seen.144—The moment I began to ascend the great stairs I was at home, for all the descriptions in the first volume of Goethe’s Life were present to my recollections. These descriptions, indeed, were all that rendered the place remarkable to me.—The rooms are ordinary and the pictures of the Emperors worse, so that if I had not remembered the interest with which Goethe as a child had stood before them, I should have found little in standing there myself.— I dined with Beauvillers, a rich banker—and a party of 18 or 20 merchants, many of them foreigners who have come to the Fair which is now going on here. My chief amusement was to observe how exactly these people from Hamburg, and Vienna, Königsberg and Trieste are like the Merchants in Amsterdam, London and Boston—and to listen to the comical abuse which all the true Frankfurters poured out against the Diet, its members, their operations—their pride, etc., etc.—The fair is in importance next to that at Leipzig, and the only useful piece of information I brought away from my Dinner was that the whole number of persons who come to the one at Michaelmas, which is fuller than the one at Easter, is estimated at 30,000 from which I should, without any hesitation, deduct one third, and be sure I had still left enough for the truth. I passed an extremely pleasant evening at Senator Smidt’s—Ambassador here from Bremen, a man of talent and influence in the Bundestag.145 There was a large supper-party consisting of Count Goltz, the Prussian Ambassador—a good, honest man, but not very powerful here—The Darmstadt minister, a man of plain sense and good business talents and skill—Baron Gagern, the Minister of the King of Holland for Luxembourg—the most eloquent member of the Diet and one whose influence over public opinion is probably greater than [that] of any other, and his influence over the Diet, as great as any body’s—Frederick von Schlegel again to my great satisfaction etc. etc.—Baron Gagern reminded me of Jeremiah Mason, for the moment I entered the room, he came up to me and began to question me about my country, its great men, etc., like a witness on the stand, till I began to feel almost uncomfortably at this kind of interlocutory thumb-screwing; but when he had learnt all he wanted to—and his questions were very shrewd and showed he knew what he was about—I found him an extremely pleasant, instructive man—a true German, full of enthusiasm and hope—and, trusting as it seems to me too much to the present flattering pros-

144. The Römer has been the city hall of Frankfurt am Main since medieval times. Here Ticknor is alluding specifically to the Emperor Hall, which was used for coronation ceremonies. 145. The chief members of the Bundestag are—in splendor and dignity—derived from the states they represent. Count Buhl from Austria now at Vienna—and Count Goltz from Prussia—but in talent, skill and personal influence, the most important are von Berg, Baron Gagern—the Mecklenburg minister whose name I have forgotten—and Senator Smidt. They were all members of the Congress at Vienna, except Goltz. [G.T.] By “Bundestag,” Ticknor means the Federal Assembly in Frankfurt am Main that was created with the establishment of the German Confederation in 1815. It was a permanent assembly of representatives from each of the thirty-nine member states.

1815–1817

93

pects of a more intimate union and consolidation of these independent and discordant principalities. He told me many curious anecdotes and, among the rest, one of his being present at a levee of Bonaparte where our minister Livingston was so ignorant of all propriety as to ask the Emperor, “whether he had received good news from St. Domingo lately,” at a time when everything had gone by the board there—of his having seen a letter from Napoleon to Jerome, when he was King of Westphalia, beginning, “Mon frère, tu ne cesse pas d’etre polisson”146— etc., etc.—Smidt told me that when the Crown Prince was in Bremen, he told him that when Napoleon sent Leclerc to St. Domingo (who died soon after his arrival), he sent him not only for the purpose of subduing and governing that island; but also with regular instructions and plans for extending his influence and power to the United States—and named, at the same time, four persons in France and one in America who were privy to the design, all of whose names Mr. Smidt had forgotten excepting that of Talleyrand.—The conversation, however, was not entirely political, as there were a number of ladies in the party and, besides, Frederick Schlegel’s good nature, literature and wit would have anywhere formed a counterpoise for the spirit of Diplomacy, so that on the whole, it was one of the pleasantest evenings I have passed in Germany.— Tomorrow I shall leave Frankfurt, regretting nothing except that I have not seen Baron Stein, who is now in Westphalia; the great man of all.

1817 APRIL 1. LEAVE FRANKFURT FOR PARIS. FALCKE. DARMSTADT. WINE UNIVERSAL. Tuesday April 1.—Before leaving Göttingen I had made an arrangement with Hofrath Falcke, member of the chancery at Hanover, to travel with him from Frankfurt to Paris. This morning, therefore, we set out and came to Darmstadt.—The change of character in the Population on this side of the Main is decisive. I have seen no such full, strong, contented peasantry—no such neat, comfortable houses—no such commodious, well-built villages anywhere in North Germany. Our Postillon, too, today for the first time took half a pint of wine instead of the liquid fire he would have taken under the name of schnaps if he had lived North of Frankfurt—and the very lowest classes of people, I find, already consider wine necessary to their subsistence, so that it is to the people here what cider is in New England. I do not suppose all the changes I have witnessed today proceed from wine-drinking, but I do not question that many of them do, for besides that wine has a kindly effect on the constitution, it is the source of incalculable benefit by preventing the introduction of the burning 146. My brother, you are not going to stop being naughty.

94

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

destruction of their whiskey, etc. The rest is to be accounted for from the increased fertility of the soil and the consequent greater facility of subsistence. [Editor’s note: From Göttingen, Ticknor embarked on a long European tour. He spent April–August 1817 in Paris, October–March of the following year in Italy, and April–October 1818 in Spain. He then returned to Paris until January 1819 before journeying to England. He departed for Boston in April 1819.]

PART II

COSMOPOLITAN SOJOURNERS IN ROYAL SAXONY

SECTION I

George Ticknor, 1835–1836

5 “The spires and towers of Dresden were before us.” November 12–December 25, 1835 [Editor’s note: The Ticknors departed for Europe on June 1, 1835, arriving in Liverpool on June 25. From there, they traveled through England, Ireland, Scotland, France, and the Netherlands to Prussia. This segment picks up with the Ticknors’ travels through German lands on their way to Dresden.]

1835 NOV. 12. RHINE. SNOW STORM. MAYENCE. Nov. 12. Everything is changed. We rose this morning and found ourselves in the midst of a snow storm—altogether extraordinary and unexpected at this season of the year in a country where for four years past hardly any snow at all has fallen. It has, however, proved a thorough one today; so thorough that our prospect has been entirely cut off, or, if we have occasionally seen the abrupt remains of an old castle, it has seemed to rise like a specter through the storm, which strove in vain to shroud it. Very often we could not see the river that flowed beneath us—so thick was the fall of the snow, which, however, did not much accumulate. Of course, we did not stop at all; but getting on as well as we could and as far as we could through a country quite as picturesque and interesting as that through which we passed yesterday, but of which we saw almost nothing, we came by Bacharach and Bingen to Mayence, the capital of Hesse-Darmstadt which we reached about two o’clock and were glad to get into quarters for the night.—

97

98

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA VEL J OURN AL

1835 NOV. 13.—THE MAIN. FRANKFURT AM MAIN. HANAU. Nov. 13. Very cold; -12˚ of Reaumur,1 as I was told, which is as much as they had at any time last winter. After considering the matter as well as we could, we determined to push on for Dresden without any more stops than should be necessary for rest and refreshment—being desirous with children to avoid this premature winter, which seems to have come from Switzerland and Italy, where they had it some weeks ago. We, therefore, crossed the Rhine by the Bridge of Boats and following the Main came to Frankfurt, where we found the fashionables going about the streets in all sorts of awkward contrivances, fearing they should not long enjoy a pleasure which they have not enjoyed before for some years, and which they do not seem to know how to enjoy now it is really within their reach. We were detained in Frankfurt a couple of hours to arrange our passports and see my banker, but after that we came on as far as Hanau to sleep. At Frankfurt, I heard from the Bethmanns that the American chargé at Paris had demanded his passports, so that it is quite possible we may go back to the United States without visiting France. This would be disagreeable, to be sure, but if there were no other ill consequences but such as this to come from the passions of Genl. Jackson and the [blunder]2 of the French Ministry, the results would seem to be suited to the causes. I cannot, however, but think there is too much common sense and decent discretion left in the two governments, or if not in the two governments, in the two nations, to prevent them from committing a crime which will be as paltry and ridiculous as it will be abominable. It really seems as if the world were too far advanced to permit a war to be declared on such a preposterous occasion.

1835 NOV. 14. SEVERE COLD. FULDA. NOV. 15. BUTTLAR. EISENACH. Nov 14. Again a very cold day—so cold that in our tight and most comfortable carriage, the contrast was so great between the temperature within and that without that, except for about an hour at noon, we could not keep the windows so free of ice that we could see abroad at all. We lived absolutely in a little world of our own; did not feel incommoded by the weather at all; and when the early darkness came on, lighted our own reading lamp and made ourselves as merry as possible. The sun shone brightly all day, but it was only for a very short time that it produced the least effect on the snow even in the most exposed situations. We traveled from Hanau to Fulda. 1. -12° Réaumur is equivalent to -15° Celsius or 5° Fahrenheit. 2. This word is unclear in the manuscript.

1835–1836

99

Nov. 15. The weather has been more moderate today, and as we approached the end of our journey, we found the snow, which we left four or five inches deep on the Rhine, almost gone. There had fallen but little and the cold has been less severe. We came on through Buttlar and Marksuhl to Eisenach, stopping nowhere.

NOV. 16. GOTHA. ERFURT. WEIMAR. Nov. 16. Day before yesterday, after leaving Hanau, we rode one post in the Kingdom of Bavaria, since which we have been in the dominions of the Elector of Hesse Kassel, until the two last posts before Eisenach when we came into Saxe Gotha, which, however, has ceased to be an independent Government, having fallen by inheritance into the Coburg line of the family. Today, we passed through Gotha—then through Erfurt, which is Prussian; and then came on in good season to Weimar—the weather mild and no snow to be seen. There was a great appearance of comfort along our road; and that peculiar air of advanced civilization which provides not only for the physical well-being of the whole people but for the enjoyment of what is beautiful in nature and the arts, I think, is characteristic of the rule and influence of the Saxon families, wherever they have been extended. The ground was familiar to me. Some of it I passed over more than once in 1816; and I was not sorry to find that I had a fresh recollection of what I saw, and that my impression of the humanity and wisdom of these little governments from the appearance of the country and the people is the same now that it was formerly. Everybody here can read and write, and it is even a punishable offense in parents not to send their children to school. The love of what is beautiful, too, descends much lower in society, I think, than it does anywhere else.

1835 NOV. 17. WEIMAR. GOETHE’S HOUSE AND FAMILY.3 THE CITY. In the afternoon, we went to see Goethe’s House. I remembered the simple, handsome staircase and the statues that ornament it perfectly well; but the rooms we saw, not being the common household rooms, were entirely new to me. His study and bedroom adjacent were exactly as he left them at the moment of his death—the chairs, the table—the cushions—the books, the papers—everything, 3. For Ticknor’s interest in Goethe, see Ryder, “George Ticknor and Goethe—Boston and Göttingen.”

100

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

in short, as if he were only gone out for an hour. They were, however, anything rather than cheerful and agreeable rooms—I should, indeed, hardly have called them comfortable—but he occupied them for nearly forty years and they are, therefore, curious, but nothing else. The sleeping room was a wretched little closet with one window and no fire place—a very ordinary bed without curtains—and the poor armchair in which he died. The whole was, indeed, very triste.4 I was most interested with looking at a copy of the last Edition of his own works, which was a good deal used, and with turning over the original manuscripts of Goetz of Berlichingen and the Roman Elegies.—The other rooms contained his different collections in science and the arts; a very good cabinet for mineralogy and geology—a great deal in Botany—quantities of small remains of antiquity, Roman and Greek and copies of such remains—medals and coins in great abundance—drawings and Engravings. Of the last, the number was enormous—many thousand arranged according to the schools and masters, and on the whole, more interesting than anything else I saw in the House.—The whole, in the way it is now exhibited, seemed to me a monument of the vanity of a man who was spoiled by a life—a very long life—of constant, uniform success—every wish not only fulfilled but anticipated—so that he came, at last, to think whatever related to himself to be of great consequence to the whole world. He, therefore, published or left orders to publish everything he had ever written, much of which is mere wastepaper; and now his will further directs all the little commonplace arrangements of a very ordinary study and sleeping room to be shown to strangers as matters of moment and interest. The whole German nation, however, is in some degree responsible for this—for during the last five and twenty years of his life, he was humored and worshipped in a way that I think no author ever was before. Goethe left only a daughter-in-law with young children as his heirs; and his will directs that his property should remain unchanged until these children are of age; the house, in the mean while, so far as his collections and private apartments are concerned being required to be shown to such persons as may desire to see them. The family occupy the rest of it, and with them Mrs. Jameson is now passing the winter; but she is, at this moment, ill and confined to her bed. We walked about the city—in the Park; round the Palace, the town house etc., and found everywhere traces of that humane and advanced civilization, which does so much credit to the Saxon character, and renders the Saxon population so contented and moral. [Editor’s note: From Weimar, the Ticknors traveled to Dresden via Naumburg, Leipzig, and Wurzen.] 4. Sad or melancholic.

1835–1836

101

Figure 5. Dresden von der Morgenseite, by Johann Carl August Richter, ca. 1825. Reprinted by permission of the Städtische Galerie Dresden, Kunstsammlung.

1835 NOV. 19. THE MULDE. WURZEN. THE ELBE. MEISSEN. Nov. 19. We left Leipzig immediately after daylight in the morning—with a very pleasant but windy day, and came on as far as Meissen. We crossed the Mulde by a fine bridge at Wurzen, and, for the few last miles of our drive, were on the banks of the Elbe, which seemed to be as well covered with vineyards as if good wine could be made there.

NOV. 20.—FAST-DAY. ELBE. FINE SCENERY. DRESDEN. DEATH OF BÖTTIGER. Nov. 20. A beautiful mild morning—a few of the peasantry at work in the fields ploughing, but in general the whole country was on the way to church—this being one of the two fast days recognized by the Lutheran church. Our drive was for only two or three hours—constantly on the banks of the Elbe, and constantly in beautiful scenery, which we enjoyed very much in this spring-like weather. For the last hour the spires and towers of Dresden were before us—and at ten o’clock in the forenoon, we passed through the Neustadt5 and over the magnificent bridge 5. Neustadt refers to a part of Dresden that was built in the early eighteenth century on the right side of the River Elbe.

102

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

that connects it with the old town, where we immediately established ourselves in excellent quarters at the Hotel der Stadt Rom on the fine square of the Neue Markt6—having in consequence of the premature cold that overtook us on the Rhine been driven into our winter establishment about a week sooner than we intended to reach it. It seems as if our arrival in each considerable place where we are to stop were to be marked to us by some striking and sad event. We had hardly reached London when we were overtaken with the news of James Mason’s death, in whose grave were buried as many fond hopes as could well be at once disappointed. In Dublin, the letters we found waiting for us announced to us the death of our sweet niece Catherine Dwight,7 one of those sorrows for which a long anticipation does not prepare the hearts of those who are most familiarly attached; and the death, too, of Mrs. Kenyon,8 with whom only a few days before we had dined in London, full of vigorous health and the gayest spirits—a dreadful contrast to the letter of her husband to me written the day before her burial. And now here in Dresden, the first letter I opened on my arrival this morning was one from his uncle announcing to us Lord Milton’s9 death of a violent typhus fever, whom yet at this moment I seem to see before me eager with life and spirits leading off in the fox chase at Wentworth, little thinking that, in a short month, he would be laid with the rest of his family in York Minster, where I had seen him constantly at the Festival with his young and happy wife. Such changes, perhaps, strike us more when we are away from home and from our usual support and resources, but certainly four such coming in such rapid succession would be remarkable at any time, and must feelingly persuade us what shadows we are and what shadows we pursue.10 Again in the Evening, we had another admonition. A bright but flaring light illuminating the high buildings around the square on which we live and flashing in at our windows, we started up and saw about an hundred young men with large torches moving slowly and solemnly forward in a hollow square, surrounded with a dense crowd that pressed on in silence. It was a body of students connected with one of the public institutions of the city going to sing hymns after the fashion of the country before the house of Böttiger, the night previous to his burial; and the effect of the silent multitude illuminated by the torches

6. New Market. 7. She was the daughter of Anna Ticknor’s eldest sister. 8. This was probably the wife of John Kenyon (1784–1856), whom Ticknor had met with during his stay in London in 1835. Kenyon was independently wealthy and spent his time in society, traveling, and engaging in charity. See Noyes, “Wordsworth: An Unpublished Letter to John Kenyon.” 9. William Charles FitzWilliam, Viscount Milton. 10. A short time after this, we had another piece of sad news of the same sort—in a letter from my friend Longfellow announcing the death of his wife at Rotterdam. We had hoped to have seen them at Dresden this winter.—See post [1836 March. Dresden.] for another such solemn event. [G.T.]

1835–1836

103

which the young men tossed wildly about as they advanced in absolute silence was very picturesque and inspiring. To me, it was very sad. When I was here in 1816, I had known Böttiger better than anybody else; and I had counted much upon meeting him again and profiting by his great learning. I was even bringing him a book from Welcker in Bonn, and was charged with messages for him from Schorn and Froriep in Weimar—so sudden had been his death, though in advanced years, for he was seventy-six years old. In his particular department, which was Archaeology, he has left no man in Germany who can fill his place.

1835 NOV. 21. DRESDEN.—BÖTTIGER’S FUNERAL. Nov. 21. This morning, just at breakfast-time, we saw Böttiger’s funeral pass. It was as splendid as anything of the sort ever is in Germany, and was followed by a crowd of the populace; but I do not think such things are in good taste. First came a man dressed in black and bareheaded—then four women in black with white caps who are supposed to have prepared the body for burial—then the hearse drawn by six black horses, the pall splendidly furnished with gold ornaments and supported by six principal officers of state—then came the procession on foot, and then all the carriages of the city, I should think, including some of the King’s,11 with a footman in livery at each side of each carriage. Last of all and, at a measured distance behind all, came the empty carriage of Böttiger himself entirely open so as to show that it was become masterless. It was solemn, perhaps, but it was too showy—too dramatic.

1835 NOV. 22. DRESDEN. THE CITY. ITS PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND RESOURCES FOR THE RESIDENCE OF STRANGERS. OUR ROOMS IN THE STADT ROM. OUR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE WINTER. Nov. 22. In the beautiful, spring like weather of the last three days we have been a good deal about the city and its neighborhood. It is a fine capital—in many respects the finest we have yet seen in Europe, and we hope, from all we can now understand of it, to pass here a pleasant and useful winter. In the number of its inhabitants, Dresden is just about as large as Boston—having about 70,000 without reckoning the garrison. A large part of this population, including the court, is in the older part of the city, on this side the Elbe, where are, also, the principal churches and all the principal public collections, except the Library 11. King Anton (1750–1836).

104

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

and the Gallery of Antiques. This is a great advantage to a stranger; and one which is further increased by the circumstance that the houses being built very high, often six, seven, and eight stories—the whole is brought within a very moderate compass. The greatest advantage of all, however, is one that results from the former history of Saxony. It was once a rich Kingdom. From 1697 to 1763, the Electors of Saxony were Kings of Poland, and had great revenues at their command, which were still very ample12 until the fall of Bonaparte and the cruel partition of Saxony in 1815, when it was reduced to its present limits of a million and an half of population, with an income of a little less than three million three hundred thousand dollars of our money applicable to the purposes of the state.13 But in the days when Saxony was rich and powerful, its Princes were munificent and even wasteful in their expenditures. They erected large Palaces, and made magnificent collections in the arts and established institutions out of proportion even to the ample means and resources they then enjoyed. These large and grand establishments have been inherited and are well kept up by the present [diminished]14 sovereignty—so that we have here a city of the size of Berlin with three or four Palaces, two grand churches; a Library of three hundred thousand volumes; a collection of about 200,000 Engravings; the most valuable and curious cabinet of Porcelain in Europe; the finest collection of casts from the Antique in Europe; the finest single gallery of Pictures in Europe; besides many interesting collections of other sorts, all accessible on the easiest terms to strangers. Add to this that the streets of Dresden are as clean and nice as possible, the public walks fine and numerous and the drives in the environs on both sides of the Elbe beautiful—that the theater, both in opera and tragedy and comedy, is excellent; that there is a plenty of pleasant society where English is spoken; French; or German—that the means of instruction in Drawing and Music, as well as in the language of the country, are as good as they can be anywhere; and that the whole tone of the place is quiet, intellectual and cheerful, the court becoming a part of the society the winter season—and I must needs say that, for myself, I feel as if we should not fail of fulfilling all our purposes in the next six months if we all have our health, especially in whatever relates to Anna’s15 education, which is, after all, the most serious matter, except health, we have in hand. Indeed, for its size, no city, I suppose, in the world can now be compared to Dresden in whatever relates to intellectual culture and the arts.

12. See Kötzscke and Kretzschmar, Sächsische Geschichte, 269–85. 13. According to the peace treaty between Russia, Prussia, and Saxony from May 1815, Saxony lost 60 percent of its former territory and 40 percent of its population (including parts of the Lausitz, the territories to the north of Leipzig and parts of Thuringia). See Kötzscke and Kretzschmar, Sächsische Geschichte, 309–10. 14. This word is difficult to read in the manuscript. 15. The Ticknors’ daughter, Anna Eliot Ticknor.

1835–1836

105

I have employed myself chiefly since I have been here in getting well established for the winter—and I think I have succeeded. We have engaged in the Hotel de Rome, a suite of six excellent rooms opening into each other, and another one quite near them for my manservant; the principal parlor being five and twenty feet by twenty, and the whole very comfortable, and I have engaged a nicer carriage than I could get in London with a coachman and footman so that we have capital quarters to live in, an excellent table to ourselves; and five servants of our own, besides the attendance at the Hotel, which is more prompt than I have yet found anywhere else. Mrs. T. thinks we are better off than we were at the Clarendon. Perhaps we are, though we do not dine from plate— certainly we are better off than we were at Dublin or anywhere else except London since we came from home. Our rooms are on the Neue Market—a very neat, lively square, the pleasantest in Dresden, and exactly opposite the great Picture Gallery and the collection of Casts; near the Palace and the Theater; and, as to the society, in a position that seems to be about central. NOV. 29. DRESDEN. ANNA’S INSTRUCTORS, ETC. TIECK. LINDENAU. FORBES. SOIREES AT GENL. WATZDORF’S.—COUNT BOSE November 29. We have been now in Dresden ten days, and it is a week since I wrote the preceding record of our position, with which we find more reason to be contented the longer we stay in it as the Hotel proves an excellent and quiet one—in fact, the best in a city which is so much resorted to by strangers, especially Poles, Russians and English, that good accommodations are more abundant than they are anywhere else in the North of Germany. The last week I have given partly to making the necessary arrangements for Anna’s education during the next six months and partly to making a few acquaintances such as I feel pretty sure we shall be glad to preserve. On the first point—that of teachers—the number of those who are good is so great that I have been a little embarrassed in the choice, but I trust I have chosen well, for I have taken the service of the best persons I could find. In Music she has Miss Darmstadt, who teaches at court and is often called there to play, she does it so exquisitely—in drawing Mr. Sparmann, about whose eminence, I believe, there is no question; and in German Miss von Winkel,16 who has had great success with others, and will, I have no doubt, succeed with Anna. These with the instructions I shall give her myself will fill up her winter, I think, profitably; and as she has already really begun with all of them, I feel as if we were well en train.17 16. Therese Emilie Henriette aus dem Winkel. 17. On track.

106

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

In the way of acquaintances, it so chanced that I began with Tieck, who, since Goethe’s death, is the acknowledged head of German Literature. He seems past sixty—stout and well-built, with a countenance still fine and which must have been decidedly handsome, but a good deal broken in his person and bent with the gout. He has an air of decision about him that is not to be mistaken, and is, I dare say, somewhat whimsical and peculiar in his opinions and notions, as some of his books intimate, particularly what he has published on the English Drama. But, I think, he is agreeable; and he has a great deal of knowledge both in old English and old Spanish Literature. His collection of Spanish Books surprised me. It is a great deal better than Lord Holland’s18—a great deal better than any one collection in England—but still, on most points, not so good as mine. He has been forty years in gathering it, and he has a very minute, curious and critical knowledge of its contents, but his knowledge of Spanish Literature goes no further than his own books will carry him, and, in some parts of it, I remarked quite a striking ignorance, which surprised me very much, until I found how it happened. I have passed two evenings with him; and as he keeps open house very simply and kindly after the German fashion, I think I shall go there frequently. The next acquaintance I made was that of the Minister of State von Lindenau. He is a mathematician and astronomer by education and choice; and after Baron Zach left the observatory in Gotha was for several years the head of it. How he came at the Head of affairs in Saxony I know not—but up to 1830 and, indeed, for some time after that revolution, he had the Portfolio of the Interior. He is liberal in his opinions; but still not being satisfied with the course of affairs, he resigned his place two or three years ago. This, however, created so much uneasiness in the country that he was induced to keep the place of President of the Council, and, in order to have something to do, chose the Public Libraries, the Collections in the Arts and Sciences, etc., and the institutions for the Poor as his departments, but took no Portfolio. His salary is a thousand Rix dollars, fixed by himself; but being a man of good property, he subscribed the same day fifteen hundred dollars toward the support of the Poor. He is about fifty years old—a bachelor—lives very simply—goes into no company and receives little—studies mathematics in his fine Library of about 10,000 volumes—and, though he has so little charge in the state directly, has the reputation of controlling its policy and its more general interests more than any other of the ministry. I found him prompt, ready, businesslike. On the points where I wanted some information from him, he was clear and precise— kind and useful. On the points where he was disposed to make conversation with me, especially in all that relates to America, he was acute and sagacious—the only person I have yet found who seemed to have right notions about Tocqueville’s book.19 His manner is very alert and uncommonly agreeable. 18. This possibly refers to Henry Richard Vassall Fox. 19. Tocqueville, Democracy in America.

1835–1836

107

Early in the week I delivered my letters from Lord Palmerston and Miss Edgeworth to the British Minister20 here, and we have, in consequence, been most kindly received. He is the son of Lord Granard21 and the nephew of the late Marquis of Hastings22—(better known as the Prince of Wales’s Earl of Moira and the South Carolina Lord Rawdon)—and he lives here in a very pleasant, hospitable, and comfortable style as a bachelor. His sister, Lady Rancliffe, now I think just about fifty—pleasant and good-natured—is here on a visit to him. Mr. Forbes himself is, I should think, not far from the age of his sister; and has been, for a great many years, in the diplomatic service of England at Lisbon, Vienna, etc., but he has never been a full minister till he was sent as such to this court two or three years ago. He seems extremely good-humored and much disposed to do what will be useful and agreeable to us, and came with Lady Rancliffe and spent a part of last Evening very pleasantly with us. One evening, he carried me to the House of General Watzdorf, the principal officer in the King’s Household—who receives once a week. There were about sixty or eighty persons present—including the whole diplomatic corps and those who are attached to the court. The rooms were very good and comfortable—up two pair of stairs according to a fashion I find very common in Dresden—the entertainment, tea, fruit, ices, etc., with three or four card-tables—and everything as easy as possible. But it is the lightest form of society. French was the only language spoken; and no two people seemed to talk together above five minutes. It began, I believe, about half past eight o’clock—we went at nine—and by half past ten it was all over. This, however, is the custom here, where all the hours are early both in families and in society. I was presented to most of the foreign ministers and leading persons present; and though it was neither a very interesting nor a very amusing evening—I dare say, I shall go there occasionally to see what it is.—The old General Watzdorf himself—between 70 and 80—seemed a very kind, good person. He was Saxon minister in St. Petersburg in 1810–12 and knew Mr. Adams very well, to whose son Charles he was Godfather.

1835 DEC. 6. DRESDEN. DINNER AT COUNT BOSE’S. DINNER AT MR. FORBES. OPERA. We dined one day at half past one o’clock at Count Bose’s—that being half an hour later than the King’s dinner hour. Everything was in the German style— five or six courses—but not long continued. The ladies rose with the gentlemen. 20. Hon. Francis-Reginald Forbes. 21. Earl of Granard is a title in the peerage of Ireland and was created in 1684. 22. George Augustus Francis Rawdon.

108

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

We had Lohrmann, the astronomer, at table; Carus, the King’s Physician, a very pleasant man, whom I knew before, and a Swiss Baron; and the conversation was chiefly in French. We reached home about half past four o’clock. The truth is, the Germans and especially the Saxons know nothing about giving dinners and give them very rarely. Their amusements and intercourse all come in the Evening.

1835 DEC. 20–21. DRESDEN. CHRISTMAS FAIR. OPERA—PICTURE GALLERY. HISTORICAL MUSEUM. December 20. The weather has been very mild all the week—not below the freezing point at all—but today it snows and freezes a little. During the last two days the square in front of our lodgings has been very amusing. It has been crowded with a Christmas fair, to which the country people are admitted to sell playthings for the children’s festival next week; and the variety in the dresses of the peasantry; the constant movement of the picturesque multitude; and the vast heaps of playthings of all sorts exhibited in the booths, which seemed sufficient to supply all Saxony, afforded us constant entertainment. I was struck, too, as I have been ever since I have been here, with the good order and quietness that reigns everywhere. This is partly owing to the good police, no doubt; but much more to the good character of a population which is well taught in all respects— where everybody can read and write, where industry is universal, and where the result of both is a gentleness in temperament and a good faith in conduct which it is impossible not to feel when you live among them. There is never any disturbance or bustle in the streets at night; and the most respectable ladies go to the theater and return home in perfect assurance of quietness and protection, accompanied only by a servant-maid who carries a lantern before them. 21. Dec. We went to the Picture Gallery today for the first time. It is the great attraction in Dresden—the finest of all their admirable collections, the finest single gallery in the world; but we have not earlier been to see it, because we have been much occupied, and because, as it is not regularly open in the winter, and strangers who go in are expected to go only once,23 we did not wish to visit it until we could have leave to visit it freely. This I obtained about a week ago from Baron Lindenau, who kindly sent me an order for our admission every day—a special favor which he denied me not to make known to other strangers—but which he gave us in the pleasantest manner. However, we could not conveniently avail ourselves of it till today—and today, we could only walk through it and get the most general impression of its contents. It is certainly a magnificent 23. The phrase “only once” is unclear in the manuscript.

1835–1836

109

gallery—and greatly improved since I saw it in 1816. It is much larger for the fine pictures of the late King have been added to it, and it now contains in the whole above two thousand—with fewer bad pieces than it would be supposed possible in such a number. Besides this, it has been arranged entirely anew, and the pictures are now placed according to the schools and masters to which they belong, so that it is possible here to study the history of the art chronologically— a great advantage, and one which, so far as I know, can be enjoyed nowhere else. We passed nearly two hours in walking through the princely halls in which it is so nobly exhibited, and came away feeling that we had but just touched upon pleasures which will take a long, long time properly to enjoy.

1835 DEC. 24. DRESDEN.—CHRISTMAS EVE. BARON STERNBERG’S.24 Dec. 24. Dresden has been entirely full for the last three days—its streets swarming with picturesque crowds from the country—and the fair in the alte-markt25 overflowing. It has been altogether a beautiful sight to see, and I have been abroad in it a good deal. Christmas is their great festival here, and everything for the last fortnight has been a preparation for it—and as the children and the presents to be made to them tonight are more considered than anything else, it is quite incredible what a variety and amount of playthings have been exhibited in the vast bazaar of the alte markt; in the shops and by the sides of the principal streets. It was almost confusing to walk about; and in the evening when the whole was lighted up, so as to show it off to the best advantage, it glittered as if it were only arranged for exhibition and stage effect. I should not suppose it possible that one fourth part of what we saw could be sold; and yet I am told, so powerful is the national feeling and habit that makes the giving of presents to children universal, from the royal family to the family of the poorest peasant in the Kingdom, that, in general, little is left to be carried home by the people who bring their goods and toys for sale. In the Evening, we witnessed some of the results of this very peculiar national feeling and custom—that, I mean, of the children giving presents to the parents and the parents to the children on Christmas Eve. We were invited to witness it at Baron Ungern Sternberg’s, and Nannie26 and I went. At first, in the saloon, we saw the Baron and his wife, whom I had met at Tieck’s—people of a good deal of taste and cultivation—and we amused ourselves with looking over some of the drawings and curiosities which his intimate friend the Count Stackelberg 24. Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg. 25. Old market. 26. Nannie is a nickname for his daughter Anna.

110

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

brought from Greece—a remarkable collection still lying in Baron Sternberg’s house and constituting the materials for the beautiful work which Stackelberg is now publishing. As we were in the midst of looking them over, a little bell rang, and we went into a room where were the presents which the children had secretly prepared for the elder members of the family placed under the tree, filled with little wax lights, which is peculiar to these occasions. They were all prepared by two little girls of 12 and 14, and though there was nothing beyond their own handiwork, it was all very pretty and showed their great interest in the occasion. One thing pleased me very much. They had prepared a little table, a few inches high, brightly lighted up and covered with confectionary and small presents for a nice little child between two and three years old, the daughter of a sister who died last year. Though so young, the little thing evidently had some notion of the occasion, and indulged herself at once in the gourmandise27 proper to her age, seizing directly on the sugar-work. The parents and the elder brother—a young man of seventeen or eighteen—were much moved and interested in the proofs of affection which were distributed to them in the shape of night-caps, purses, etc., which the secret industry of the little girls had prepared for them; and though there was nothing very valuable or beautiful in what was given, yet it was all received with so much pleasure by the parents and elder brother that the little children were delighted and kissed us all round very heartily. While this was going on, a bell rang in another part of the house and we were led through a passageway purposely kept dark, where two folding doors were suddenly thrown open and we were all at once in a large and handsome saloon which was brilliantly lighted up and where were the presents which the Parents had prepared for the children. In one part of the room was a large fir tree filled with wax lights and round it tables covered with what was to be given—one table for each child—besides a fine organized Piano for the son, which delighted him beyond measure. The girls had pretty dresses, ornaments, engravings, etc., and the son had besides a table full of books, drawing materials, etc.—Nannie had a little table with a tree lighted up on it and some presents by herself; and the Old Baron afterwards brought me, with a courtly air on a silver waiter, a copy of a volume of poems he had printed but not published and a fine medal which he had struck in honor of Tieck. The whole was indeed quite brilliant—for, I should think, five or six hundred thalers’ worth of presents were distributed—and the delight of the children was in proportion, though hardly less than that of the elder part of the party. It is certainly a fine national fête—or rather a fine national usage, which works very deeply into the hearts and characters of the whole population. I witnessed its effects twice in Göttingen in 1815 and 1816, and I have no doubt it is the same everywhere—everywhere, I mean, where the German nation is found. 27. Greediness.

1835–1836

111

After our return home, we saw the same fête over again, as it was given by our Landlord to his three little children—the oldest about six or seven years old. It was in a pretty room—the table with its illuminated trees—covered over with a profusion of confectionary and playthings, which explained, in some degree, the quantity of such trifles with which not only four or five hundred stalls in the great Bazaar of the Alte Markt were filled, but the shops and the streets of the whole city. It was a very pretty show in our Hotel, but the children were so small, they seemed quite as much astonished as anything else; though they have been talking about it constantly for the last two or three weeks. It is, however, by beginning this early and continuing it to extreme old age—and by making it a matter of so much consequence and conversation long before and long after the festival, that it comes, at last, to produce so deep an effect upon the domestic character of a whole people.

1835 DEC. 25. DRESDEN.—CHRISTMAS. MUSIC, ETC. December 25. I thought we had got through with the Christmas Eve last night; but we had it again this morning before we were up—before daylight indeed—when Nannie brought into our chamber a large Christmas tree, full of lighted wax tapers and hung with all sorts of cakes and confectionary—gilded apples and gilded walnuts. It had been prepared by the Head-Waiter in the Hotel for Lizzy28 and made quite a brilliant appearance. About the same time, too, guns were fired—the bells rung—music was heard—and the first of the three great feast days, which the whole country gives to rejoicing and idleness, was announced in a way not to be mistaken. The churches were all opened and beautiful music was to be heard in the Catholic church both at midnight; at morning’s mass; and at Vespers in the Evening. But it is not a day of dinners or of visiting as with us; and I went nowhere except very quietly for an hour in the Evening to the English minister’s, Mr. Forbes.

6 “I was presented at Court.” December 26, 1835–April 22, 1836 1835 DEC. 26. DRESDEN.—PRESENTATION AT COURT. ROYAL FAMILY. COURT. Dec. 26. I was presented at Court today—or rather I was presented to the King. The Royal family now consists of the King Anton, who is eighty years old 28. Eliza Sullivan Ticknor was George and Anna Ticknor’s youngest child.

112

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

tomorrow—his brother Maximilian, who is 76 years old—and his niece Augusta, who is 53 years old. The King has been twice married, but both his wives are dead—and Augusta was never married, so that the family of Maximilian is to succeed to the throne. The present King succeeded in 1827 on the death of his brother, who was but too honest and faithful a man, and so lost half his Kingdom when Bonaparte fell—but, in 1830, there was a revolution here in imitation of the three days at Paris—a constitution was obtained with representative forms—and, Maximilian having first renounced his personal rights to the crown, his oldest son, a popular favorite and very respectable man, was, with the sincere concurrence both of his father and of the reigning sovereign, made co-regent. This prince, however—Frederick29—though twice married, has no children, so that it is probable his younger brother John30 or some of his children will eventually come to the throne. Frederick is 38 years old and a wise and valuable man—John is 34 years old and a man of quiet, studious habits and a good deal of learning. Nothing can be more respectable than the private character of the whole of the royal family—they seem, too, to be much respected and valued by their subjects—especially the old King, who is universally regarded as perfectly honest and well-meaning, and the co-Regent, who is looked upon as a capable and efficient governor of the state. I was presented by the English minister, and all the forms usual on such occasions anywhere were fully observed. The entrance to the Palace on the side where we were admitted is bad; but the guard made a good show on the stairs and there was presenting of arms and ceremony enough. After passing through two or three antechambers, we came to one quite full of Saxon nobles and officers—in every possible variety of uniform and costume—who were to be received by the King after the Diplomatic audience should be over. We crowded our way through them with some difficulty—and then entered a room where were gradually collected about forty or fifty persons—the foreign minister and the strangers at Dresden who have the entrée31 of the court. The Prussian minister, Baron Jordan, went in first, having an especial, private audience to present the King with the order of the Black Eagle, as a compliment on his birthday from the King of Prussia.32 After he came out, the rest of us were admitted. It was a good room into which we came with a canopy for the throne—but no throne was there. On that side of the apartment stood four officers of the Guards with their caps on—the Court Marshall, the Master of ceremonies and two or three other officers of the palace. Those who came in formed a circle opposite the throne—and under the canopy stood the King—a small, ordinary looking 29. 30. 31. 32.

Friedrich August II (1797–1854). Prince Johann (1801–1873). Admission. Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770–1840).

1835–1836

113

man, much broken with years—in a general’s uniform with boots and spurs—a large diamond ornament over his breast, and the order of the Black Eagle which he had just received rather awkwardly hung round his person. He bowed to us kindly and then spoke to the Minister who happened to be on his right hand. It was the Russian, who made him the compliments proper for the occasion and then presented one or two of his countrymen. Mr. Forbes came next, and, having spoken to the King, presented me. The King asked me how long I meant to remain in Dresden; said he hoped I should find it agreeable, etc., etc., and then passed on round the rest of the circle, saying only a word or two to anybody and often merely bowing. He is too old to do more than he can help of such formalities, and though he is childish enough, I believe, such things are too common to attract him. When he had been quite round, he returned again under the canopy and bowed to us all. We all bowed in return; and then gradually retired without turning our backs upon his majesty, which could not be done without some slight awkwardness. The audience lasted, I should think, a little less than half an hour—and was as empty a ceremony as was ever gone through.

1835 DEC. 27. DRESDEN. KING’S BIRTHDAY. PROCESSION. MILITARY PARADE. DINNER. ILLUMINATION. Dec. 27. Today being the day when the honest old King, who made so ordinary a figure yesterday, attains his eightieth year, there were great rejoicings throughout the city—rejoicings that were creditable to the good feelings of the population. Preparations on quite an extensive scale had been going on before us in the square where we live, as well as in other parts of the city, for above a fortnight; and the celebration began in good earnest this morning at five o’clock, and has been a continuous fête during the whole day, which ended with an illumination of the entire city and the suburbs that is not now, at ten o’clock at night, fairly over. I do not know that I ever saw anything of the kind carried on without interruption for so many hours.—At five in the morning cannon were fired—the bells were rung; vocal music, after the German fashion, was performed on the tower of one of the churches; and the fine military music of the garrison paraded the streets. All this happened, of course, in total darkness. At daylight, which arrives now at about half past seven, we found the square before our house filling with troops and people, and by eight o’clock the mass was really enormous— embracing, I should think, twenty thousand people at least. Soon after eight the civic procession began to appear. First troops—not of the line but sort of national guards in very good uniform and very well drilled—then the city authorities in their costumes of office—then eighty girls dressed in white with green chaplets on their heads and flowers in their hands—then the different guilds and trades

114

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

with appropriate banners—and finally the military again to close up the whole. It was a fine show and well managed. When they reached the Palace, the Burgomaster made the proper compliments to the King, the eighty girls representing the 80 years of his life presented him a Poem—and then they all breakfasted with his majesty. But this was hardly over before the square began to fill again with troops and with the multitude. The troops of the line, in fine order, and with the finest military music in Europe, came over from the Neustadt, commanded by the Prince Regent and being joined by the Civic troops under the Command of Prince John defiled before the King and the rest of the royal family—to the number of seven or eight thousand. Immediately after this—that is punctually at two o’clock—there was a grand dinner in the Hotel de Saxe, just by our quarters with the military music of the garrison in the square, which, when the health of the King was drunk, produced, I am told, a great effect by a tremendous crash of all the instruments of a large number of bands; but I was not there to witness it. I went as an invited guest to a dinner of about thirty or forty Englishmen who celebrated the day by themselves. It was a very good dinner, and we had a very good time after the English fashion—with a plenty of speeches—tant mauvais que bous33—all under the management of an old officer who saw hard service in the peninsular campaign. But, I was not sorry when it was over—and when I came out at six o’clock, the whole city was in a blaze with the universal illumination, and the streets so full of people, that, having in vain endeavored to drive home, I got out and walked and the carriage which I left not two minutes from the Hotel did not reach there under half an hour. While we were waiting for it, the King and the Royal family passed through the square and by our lodgings to see the show of the Evening—making themselves no small show as they swept along. First came two running footmen in full livery with large torches—then two outriders in the same livery on horseback with torches and then the royal carriage with four outriders and torches; after which followed the Regents carriage with torches and outriders, and about ten or twelve more with more or less of the same accompaniments. A vast multitude followed the cortège34 with cheering, not so loud as an English or American mob would have made, but still hearty and full; and the effect of the torches as they were wildly tossed about upon the animated faces and eager gestures of the crowd was certainly very fine. They went in this way all over the city. We soon followed them. Every house was lighted—generally with a little row of lamps in the first-story windows placed as near as possible together so that ten or twelve seemed to make in each opening a solid line of fire—sometimes they were in two or more stories—sometimes they were suspended in fanciful forms—and sometimes there were large iron

33. Just as bad as dung. 34. Procession.

1835–1836

115

vases or pots in the street supplied with fuel which sent a broad and flaring light over the whole neighborhood. In our own square was an obelisk about seventy feet high covered with transparencies which produced but little effect—in the Old Market was a pillar of about the same height, with a figure of Fame on the top, which was finely lighted by the red rays produced from Bengal fire reflected upon it by a large mirror in a neighboring house—in the Neustadt was a Temple with the King’s bust quite splendidly illuminated—and in the Friederichstadt,35 on the bridge, a triumphal arch, which seemed all on fire. The guard-house in the Neustadt—the Treasury house, near the Palace, and a couple of hundred orphan-children drawn up in a double row for the King to pass through, each holding a lantern in the shape and with the colors of a tulip, attracted the most attention. Twice, as we drove about we met the Royal cortège, that swept by us with its flaring torches and shouting mob in a very picturesque manner—and wherever we went we found, every few moments, something brilliant, strange or striking while from the suburbs or when crossing the Elbe, the whole city could be seen sending a bright light far up into the heavens, resembling a vast conflagration. The effect of the whole was very fine—and the crowds that were abroad to enjoy it and added much to its brilliancy or at least [made] its picturesqueness more immense. Many, many thousands must have come into the city from the neighboring towns and villages; and altogether it was a fête extremely creditable to those who gave it, and to the Old King to whom it was given, for it was a tribute to mere honesty and good intentions; the King, having, I believe, no other attractive qualities whatever.

1835 DEC. 28. DRESDEN. PROCESSION OF PEASANTRY, ETC. December 28. We did not, it seems, quite get through the King’s Birthday yesterday, though we had, I believe, all that one day could contain. This forenoon, observing the Square in front of our house filling with a dense crowd, I asked what it was for; I was told that the Peasants were coming to wish the old King joy of having reached his eightieth year. Soon after, their procession appeared—all on horseback or in the nicer sort of carts used for agricultural purposes—and was very characteristic. First came a band of Trumpets and horns—then twenty or thirty men on horseback much ornamented with flowers, wreaths, etc., then a cart containing seven old men—from 80 to nearly 100 years old—then some more peasants on horseback—then ten carts containing eighty girls, in variegated dresses, with variegated silk kerchiefs about their heads, and many wreaths both on themselves and on the vehicles on which they were conveyed and which 35. This city quarter is located left of the river Elbe and is part of the old city.

116

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

were uniformly drawn by four fine black horses—and finally, the whole was closed by several hundred peasants on horseback—all well dressed—ornaments with flowers, evergreens and ribbons and riding good, substantial horses. It was one of the most picturesque sights I ever saw; popular, national and striking in its whole character. After going through the square, they went to the King and carried him the finest fruits of the all kinds—the produce of their own farms—as tokens of their loyalty and affection—the old men made him an address as to one younger than themselves—the girls gave him their flowers and good wishes, and some verses with more patriotism than poetry in them—and then the old King kissed them all round, and they went back to their cottages, as happy as anybody they left behind them, showing off their picturesque national costumes through all the principal streets of the city as they went along.

1836 JANUARY 7–8. DRESDEN. WEATHER. COUNT LIPPE. PICTURE GALLERY. PRINCE JOHN. We have had disagreeable weather lately—dull and snowing a week ago—and nice then a thaw—but today it has been very clear and beautiful. At one time there were about four inches of snow on the ground, which, I was told, is more than they have had at any time before since 1829. In the midst of the bad weather, we had a visit last Monday Evening from Count Lippe36 and his daughter—and one very dull forenoon we made most agreeable at the Gallery, where we went carefully through the pictures of Titian and Paul Veronese; and saw seven or eight persons in an antechamber at work making beautiful lithographic drawings from the principal work in this great collection. It was very interesting.—The Picture that detained us longest and gave us the most pleasure during this visit was the Christo della Moneta of Titian—or the Pharisee trying to entangle the savior on the question of Tribute to Caesar.—The spirit of rebuke in the expression of the principal figure with the feeling of deep sorrow and pity that it was necessary is most true and admirable. 8th January. I passed, by appointment made according to the court ceremonies here, an hour this afternoon with Prince John. Nothing could be more simple and unpretending than his manners. I wanted to see him on account of his knowledge of Dante of whose Inferno he has printed a translation with very good notes; and during the greater part of the time I was with him, he was occupied in showing me the books and apparatus he had collected for the study of the great Italian master. Some of them were quite curious; but, I had another engagement and could not stay long enough to look them over, as I wish and 36. This was a member of the noble family Lippe-Weissenfeld who could not be further identified.

1835–1836

117

intend to do—especially as he wanted to talk about America and the President’s message, which has just come here and made a good deal of noise. In all respects, I found him well informed—in same, learned—and he was truly agreeable because it was plain he desired to be so. His establishment is very elegant and luxurious; and his study where he received me looked truly scholar-like and comfortable. Among other things, he showed me a beautiful collection of drawings in an album relating to Dante, which had been from time to time given to him by his family—all original of course—and two or three by Retzsch, of the greatest vigor and beauty, and executed in pencil with the most delicate finish.

1836 JAN. 9. DRESDEN.—DINNER AT RUSSIAN MINISTER’S; ETC. Jan. 9, 1836. I dined today with the Russian minister, Baron Schroeder, where I met all the foreign ministers, the Prince37 of Hesse-Darmstadt,38 the Prince of Löwenstern,39 Count Harrach, the father-in-law of the King of Prussia,40 Count Stroganoff, and a party, in all, of thirty persons. The service was not of silver; but except this, it was as elegant a dinner as I ever saw, this fine suite of six rooms opening in a line into each other produced such an effect, no doubt, as he desired, for he spends all his large appointments in a few entertainments of this sort every year. Nearly every person present congratulated me on the President’s Message, which seems to have given universal satisfaction on the subject of France.41 The French minister, however, when he spoke to me and said he trusted we were now to have peace evidently felt the pressure of opinion, which is here strongly against his government. The Russian, on the other hand, would have been glad if Genl. Jackson had sent an angry message that would have embroiled the matter still more—but he, too, was full of praises.—All this amuses me very much—the more so as nothing of the kind could by any possibility have happened when I was on the continent twenty years ago. We passed the Evening in a small party at Mr. Forbes and Lady Rancliffe’s— which we found dull. 37. Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt (1809–1877). 38. This Prince, who passed the winter here, is brother to the reigning prince of Darmstadt. He served sometime in the Army of the Queen of Portugal, became a Catholic, etc. He has altogether the air of an adventurer, and received here just as much attention as his rank could strictly claim for him and no more. [G.T.] 39. Count Carl Otto von Löwenstern. 40. After the death of his first wife, Friedrich Wilhelm III married Auguste Countess of Harrach (1800–1873), who was a daughter of the Count Ferdinand Joseph of Harrach (1763–1841), in 1824. 41. This refers to the conflict between the United States and France over unpaid compensation for the plundering of American ships destined for Great Britain by the French. Although the French had agreed to provide compensation, they did so only after Jackson threatened to confiscate French holdings in the United States.

118

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

1836 JAN. 10. DRESDEN. COURT BALL AND SUPPER. January 10. This Evening happened the first grand court Ball—for the season of Carnival from Christmas to Lent is the season into which all the amusements both at the court and in private houses are crowded—and after the reception and good wishes on new year’s night, we are now to have a ball every fortnight until the period of gaiety is over. Like everything else here, it began early. We were invited for 6 o’clock and arrived a few minutes afterward, found ourselves among the last. Six fine, large halls were open for the reception of the company—all well lighted and most agreeably heated—the last but one being arranged for dancing—and the last, which was the presence-chamber, being arranged for cards. Round three sides of the dancing hall were barriers covered with tapestry behind which stood, I should think, five hundred of the common people who seemed to enjoy the show very much and were perfectly quiet the whole evening; in the center were about four hundred invited guests comprehending the nobility of Saxony and the principal foreigners now in Dresden—all in full dresses. It was a fine show in a fine hall. Soon after we arrived, the King and court entered preceded by the officers of the Guard and the officers of ceremony and went through the crowd in different directions, speaking to as many as they could. They evidently wished to be kind and agreeable. When this was over, the King took the Princess Marie42 and walked a Polonaise round the room, followed by a part of the company; but he tottered about very sadly. The party now divided, a few went into the presence-chamber and sat down at a dozen tables to cards—the rest remained in the ballroom and dancing began in good earnest. The dresses were handsome and in excellent taste—not gala as they were on New Year’s night—but still the Princesses, especially Marie and Augusta—had very splendid diamonds. The Regent danced constantly; and repeatedly gave great pleasure, I am sure, with great good nature by taking for his partners the little Countess Bose43 and the little Countess Baudissin,44 who were presented at court for the first time and thus had a double zest added to their first ball. The old King, too—who has been a great dancer in his day—determined to have it said that he had danced after he was eighty years old—and actually went through a cotillion with Miss Watzdorf. By the great skill of his partner, he was prevented from falling, but it was painful to see him. Three of the Princesses danced a good deal and seemed to enjoy it very much—sending for those persons whom they chose to have as their partners. Most of the dances were waltzes; but the Mazourka was well danced—one or two françaises and a German cotillion, which is, however, nothing but a complicated series of Waltzes. The King disappeared soon after he 42. Princess Marie of Bavaria (1805–1877). 43. This was likely a daughter of Count August Karl von Bose. 44. This was likely a daughter of Wolf Heinrich Friedrich Karl Graf von Baudissin.

1835–1836

119

had finished his dance, and at a little before ten o’clock the Regent led the way to supper, which was beautifully arranged in two large halls at tables of ten persons each. Each of the Princes and Princesses had a table to which very early in the Evening such persons as they selected were invited. Immediately after our arrival, one of the officers came to us with a written list, and invited us to the table of Prince John—and when we reached the table, we found the list on it, and that our company consisted of the Wife of the Minister at War;45 Countess Herzberg; Mrs. Pole, Count Baudissin and enough more to make up the ten. It was a hot supper, consisting of many courses of very nice dishes, excellent wines, ices, etc., perfectly well served to everybody—for we were all comfortably seated in chairs and remained at table about an hour and an half. The quantity of silver must have been immense—for the plates were all of silver for the whole four hundred and fifty persons, and were changed at least four times for each and sometimes six or seven times. No distinction was made in the service or arrangements of the tables of the Princes and those of the rest of the company except that the Royal family chose who should sup with them, and that the rest of the company chose their own places, which was done without the least bustle or confusion because there was room enough and a perfectly well-ordered system. At our table we had a very good time. Prince John was very agreeable and spoke pretty good English as well as excellent French. Count Baudissin, who is about to publish some translations from Ben. Jonson, Massenger, Fletcher, etc., talked very well upon our early literature. The Prince talked a little about Dante, but, of course, made himself as agreeable as he could to the ladies. On the whole, it was an exquisitely nice supper, and we enjoyed the conversation round our comfortable little table very much.—Soon after eleven the Regent rose and returned to the ballroom. We all followed and found that it had been aired and that a new set of about four hundred of the people had been let in behind the barriers to see the show. When, however, one Waltz was over, we left it all—and reached home just before midnight, having been there, of course, nearly six hours and yet not being very near the end of the whole matter. It was an elegant entertainment in all its parts—the most so of its kind I ever saw—and the company had an air of quiet gentility and good taste about it, which, I am sure, is rarely to be found anywhere.

1836 JAN. 16–18. DRESDEN. PRINCESS AMALIA’S OHEIM. THE WEATHER. 16 January. I went to the play tonight to hear the comedy of The Uncle—Der Oheim, a regular piece in five acts by the Princess Amalia, the sister of Prince 45. Johann Adolph von Zezschwitz.

120

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

John. It is a good comedy and amused me very much.—She wrote it quite secretly, having no confidant in the matter but one of her ladies of honor; and sent it anonymously to the theater here; where without much reflection or examination, it was rejected.46 She then sent it to Berlin, where it was acted and had a great success—the incognito being strictly preserved. From Berlin, it passed to other theaters with great applause; and, then, when acknowledged, it was, of course, acted here, but the embarrassments and the explanations and apologies were, necessarily, manifold and mortifying. It is now one of the regular, acting plays throughout Germany; and, no doubt, deserves to be. It seems, however, quite remarkable how such a dried up old-maid who has seen nothing of the world but what is to be found in the formalities of the court here should have shown so much knowledge of human nature or been able to cultivate so much easy humor.— The weather, for the last week, has been generally mild and bright, with the thermometer rarely below freezing. But I long to have the sun get up a little higher in the heavens, for it looks very dreary to see him casting long, disproportioned shadows at noon-day, to say nothing of burning candles till eight in the morning and then before four in the afternoon.

1836 JAN. 20. DRESDEN. PRINCE JOHN’S LIBRARY. TIECK’S LIBRARY; OPINIONS ON SHAKESPEARE. Jan. 20. I passed an hour this forenoon very profitably with Prince John in looking over the Apparatus criticus47 he has used in his study of Dante. It was less complete than I expected to find it, but more curious. I made a good many memoranda and shall turn the visit to good account. He was, I thought, free in showing me everything—conscientious in confessing to some little oversights and ignorances—and glad to get any hints that will be useful to him hereafter— but, on the whole, it is quite plain his study of Dante has been most thorough, and that his knowledge and feeling of the power and beauty of the Inferno and Purgatorio are really extraordinary. With the Paradiso, he has not yet made a beginning—I mean with its translation. Early in the afternoon, I made a similar visit to Tieck and looked over his collection of books and manuscripts in old English Literature and especially the 46. Tieck was the responsible person in this case as he is in all similar ones; and suffered accordingly for his mistake. But one of his friends—Count Baudissin—told me that there was something malicious in the mode in which this piece was sent to Tieck—that it was thrust in with a large number of other dramas that were poor in order to make him read it carelessly or neglect it altogether; and that, in fact, he does not remember having seen the piece at all. On the other hand, it is said the Oheim was sent with several other dramas that its authorship might be entirely concealed and that the judgment might be entirely fair. [G.T.] 47. This comprises supplementary information or additional reading on a topic.

1835–1836

121

Old English Drama. Few Englishmen have so fine a Library in this Department as he has—fewer still have a knowledge in it at all to be compared to his. Many of his notions are very bold—as, for instance, that the fair Emmee48 is by Shakespeare. He told me today that he thinks Milton superintended the Edition of Shakespeare to which his sonnet is prefixed—because the changes and emendations made in it upon the first folio are poetical and plainly made by a poet.—It would be a beautiful circumstance, if it could be proved true.—When he was in England in 1817 for the purpose of studying Old English Literature, he (Tieck) bought a great many curious books and even had eight or ten manuscript plays copied in the British Museum—so far and so thoroughly has he pushed his inquiries on this interesting and delightful subject. I talk with him about it more or less almost always when I go to see him, and he never fails to be agreeable and instructive. This afternoon, he was particularly so.

1836 JAN. 21. DRESDEN. TIECK. HIS READING OF SHAKESPEARE—ETC. In the Evening, I went to Tieck’s by appointment, and heard him read the whole of the First Part of Henry IV 49 in Schlegel’s admirable translation. He has universally the reputation of being the best reader in Germany and certainly, I am not at all disposed to gainsay his fame.—His reading was admirable in all respects— sometimes very curious and striking to me; because his tones and manner now and then gave a small shade of difference to the interpretation of a passage from what I have been accustomed to give it or hear given to it on the stage. His conception of Falstaff’s character was more like Cooke’s50 and less like Bartley’s than any I recollect—that is, more intellectual and less jovial; less vulgar—and the conception of the King’s character was more violent and angry than I have been used to. Very likely, he was right in both cases—certainly he was quite successful in the effect he produced. This reading is an exercise of which he is very fond and in which he often indulges his friends and the society that assembles at his house every evening;51 but for the last two months, he has had a cough and abstained entirely, so that I have never heard him before tonight.—He gave 48. A Pleasant Comedie of Faire Em, the Miller’s Daughter of Manchester, with the Love of William the Conqueror is an English play written in 1590 whose authorship remains unclear. 49. Henry IV is a historical play by William Shakespeare. Falstaff, a fat and cowardly knight, is a fictional character of this play. He is the chief friend of King Henry IV’s son Hal with whom he spends too much time in taverns. This way of life endangers Henry IV’s grip on power and leads the nobility to rebel openly. 50. This seems to refer to the poet William Cooke and his treatment of Falstaff in his Conversation: A Didactic Poem (1796) and a comedian who frequently played Falstaff. 51. He never goes out to walk or take exercise; and his physician, Carus, says these readings are physically useful to him, as substitutes. [G.T.]

122

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

me my choice of which he should read, after I arrived, so that there was no possibility of preparation; and he read the whole through at once, without the least pause—without speaking or being spoken to. It occupied a little more than two hours and a half, and did not fatigue him in the least; so fine is his organ. Only Baron von Quandt and two or three ladies were present—a circumstance, which added much to my enjoyment. The Evening before, when I was obliged by a late dinner to break my engagement to go to his house, he read to an audience of twenty or thirty persons, among the rest Count Circourt, who told me he enjoyed it very much, which I thought remarkable as he is a Frenchman; and, therefore, less likely to enjoy such a pleasure than a German or an Englishman; especially as it was one of Shakespeare’s plays that was read—Winter’s Tale. I hope I shall hear him often.

1836 JANUARY 22. COUNT BAUDISSIN’S. January 22. There was a small party at Count Baudissin’s this evening—not above thirty or forty persons and generally among the most intellectual and distinguished in Dresden, collected to hear a famous performer on the Pianoforte—Miss Clara Wieck, only seventeen or eighteen years old. She played with more expression than I have been accustomed to hear from persons who play so scientifically and produced certainly a great effect upon the audience. Once when she was accompanied on the violin by Schubert52 in a remarkable piece which they had never played together and which she did not know he would ask her to play, the astonishment of those who had the best right to judge of her merit seemed to reach its utmost limits. Indeed the whole affair was above me, and as very little conversation could be enjoyed, I did not stay it out.

1836 JANUARY 31. DRESDEN. THE CIRCOURTS. CONCERT. PRINCE JOHN’S DANTE AND MANUSCRIPTS. January 31. Last Evening, I went to a concert given by Miss Clara Wieck, the famous pianist whom I heard a few days ago at Count Baudissin’s. It was too scientific for me to understand or to enjoy it; but I happened to sit with the Strogonoffs, the Circourts and the Baudissins, and found my time pass agreeably enough. There is one great comfort, however, in these concerts and indeed in all 52. In Hillard and Ticknor, eds., Life, Letters, and Journals, the editors suggest that this was “Probably F. Schubert, for many years first violinist of the Royal Chapel in Dresden,” 1:474.

1835–1836

123

public amusements here—they begin early and are not continued long. We were at home soon after eight—but then there is such a passion for music in this community that, in the case of a concert, where there is any remarkable performer, the crowd collects long before the doors are opened. This evening, I had an entertainment of quite a different sort. Prince John invited four of us, Prof. Förster, the translator of Petrarca; Dr. Carus; Count Baudissin and myself to hear Tieck read a part of the unpublished translation of the Purgatorio. I went punctually at 6, but they were there before me and the Prince was waiting. After coffee and a little conversation, we all sat down at a table and Tieck read most admirably five cantos, beginning with the eighteenth. The rest of us looked over the original text, and, at the end of each canto, observations were made on the translation. There was not, however, one word of compliment offered—or the smallest flattery insinuated. On the contrary, errors were pointed out fairly and honestly, and once or twice where there was a difference of opinion between the Prince and Carus, Carus adhered even with pertinacity to his own, which, in one case, I thought, was wrong. The translation, however, was as close as anything of the sort well can be; and, in general, I have no doubt, most faithfully accurate. After the reading was over, and refreshments had been handed round, the conversation was very gay and fell at last into downright storytelling and commerage.53 About nine o’clock, however, some message was brought to the prince—as nearly as I heard it—of a visit from his sister—and he bowed to us and left us.

1836 FEB. 2. DRESDEN. ELBE BREAKS UP. Feb. 2.—Last Evening cannon were fired from the borders of Bohemia down the Elbe to the Prussian frontiers in order to notify all persons living on the river’s banks that the ice above has begun to move, that they may take care of their boats and anything else that might be injured or carried away by the fresh. This Evening the shots were repeated and as crowds of people rushed towards the Bridge, we drove down there for a moment; but there was nothing to be seen except great numbers of persons watching for what had not arrived. The arrangement, however, is a wise and humane one; and would save both lives and property if adopted on the Connecticut, the Kennebeck and the other large rivers of New England, where so much loss and suffering are the consequence of unexpected freshes.54 53. Gossip. 54. Flooding.

124

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

1836 FEB. 8. DRESDEN. DINNER AT MR. FORBES’—BARON VON HERDER’S VISIT TO SERBIA AND PRINCE MILOSCH.— ENTERTAINMENT AT KASKEL’S THE BANKER. February 8.—I dined today at Mr. Forbes’ with only Jordan, the Prussian Minister, and Baron von Herder.55 The latter is the son of the famous Herder and Head of the great Saxon mining Establishment56 and school at Freyberg.57 He has lately, with the consent of his Government and at the request of Prince Milosch of Serbia, been there to examine a tract of country believed previously to be rich in mineral wealth, some portions of which are supposed to have been mined by the Romans. M. von Jordan58 and myself were invited today to hear him give some account of his journey and adventures.—The whole was very curious. Prince Milosch is an intelligent person—much in advance of the condition of the country over which he presides. His private possessions are immense—he himself does not know how large, either in territory or in the number of serfs attached to it. One part of his income consists in swine, and, of these, he sends annually between one and two millions to the neighboring countries for sale. But still, notwithstanding his wealth and his intelligence, his castle and domestic establishment were on the footing of those of one of the Barons on the Rhine in the Middle Ages. The Princess spins and sews with her maids—their cookery does not savor of French skill, though it is healthy—and their hospitality is abundant if not luxurious. Baron von Herder was abroad on the mountains and in the mineral district, which he did not find very rich, sixty-three days. The country is everywhere perfectly safe for travelers, but he had a guard of honor of thirty persons sent with him besides all that was necessary for his civil purposes and his cuisine. He showed us a musical instrument on which the ladies of Serbia play—very little more deserving the name than an African Banjore, which it much resembled—and several specimens of the handiwork of the Princess Milosch and her maids which were given him as parting presents. They consisted of handkerchiefs, gloves, turbans, embroidery, etc., as simple and unsophisticated as the work of the middle ages.—Baron von Herder is a very spirited, activeminded person about sixty years old and made his accounts quite interesting. I was sorry, therefore, to leave him before he seemed to have entirely finished them—but we were engaged to pass the evening at the house of Mr. Kaskel, a 55. Siegmund August Wolfgang Freiherr von Herder. 56. The Bergakademie Freiberg, founded in 1765, is the oldest university of mining and metallurgy in the world. 57. His proper title is Berghauptmann—“captain of the mountains”—a picturesque title which has come down from the middle ages; and his dress is no less picturesque. I saw him in costume at the Court Ball yesterday. [G.T.] 58. She was the wife of Johann Ludwig von Jordan.

1835–1836

125

banker here of good fortune, who, as well as his wife, is a Jew, but whose children to the number of eight or nine are all baptized. It is a respectable family, and today being the father’s birthday, there were to be great doings and we were expected to be punctual.—On our arrival we found about an hundred persons assembled, of whom we knew only a few English—for, as society in Dresden is very strictly divided into exclusive circles, and as this circle was altogether bourgeois, we found ourselves almost without acquaintance. However, as far as I saw, the people were agreeable, and the entertainments of the Evening required little sociability. First, we had tea and refreshments. Then a large room was opened, at one End of which quite a neat little theater with scenes and painted curtains had been arranged, where first a German farce in one act and afterwards a French Vaudeville in two acts were very well performed almost exclusively by the children of the family, all of whom are grown up. Between the two, some Italian music was sung by Zezi, one of the Opera singers from the stage here.—These entertainments occupied about an hour and an half—and when they were over, we went back into the other rooms where, the doors of the one we had just left being closed, ices were handed round and confectionary during as it seemed to me only a few moments; after which, the doors of the Theater room were again opened, everything had been cleared away, and the whole was now changed into a ballroom where dancing began with great spirit and where we left them at eleven o’clock just as they were going to supper.

1836 FEB. 17. DRESDEN. THE COLD OF THE WINTER. 17 February—According to the observations of those curious in such matters, winter should now be, in a great measure, over. Ash Wednesday is, indeed, the day marked for the change in the Saxon calendar—but I perceive none. In fact, except the premature cold we suffered on the Rhine about the middle of November; which did not reach Dresden, and the cold and snow we had here about the first of January, we have had nothing at any time that at all resembled a New England winter. The Elbe continued frozen over with a very thin sheet of ice— not thick enough in most places to permit the boys to skate on it—for about five weeks—but since the 3rd of February, it has been quite broken up, and for the last fortnight the weather has been decidedly mild though sometimes with a little snow that does not remain; sometimes with rain; but occasionally also with clear beautiful weather. Very little use has been made of sledges of any sort; nor, during the whole winter, has it been possible to use them, I should think, more though from sixteen to twenty days. And yet this is the coldest winter that has been known in Dresden since 1829–30—six years ago. Indeed, the simple fact which I took pains to ascertain immediately after my arrival here—that, in

126

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

making my arrangements for using a carriage during the winter, it was not at all necessary to provide for going on runners—and that the use of sledges is a luxury for which you pay just double what you pay for going on wheels, shows the state of the case, I believe, exactly as it is.

1836 FEB. 22. DRESDEN. GREAT ANNUAL FAIR. 22 February. The great Jahr-Markt—the annual fair—begins today, preparations for which have been apparent for some time past. Like all these fairs—of which we know nothing in the United States, it rests on the principle that the regular inhabitants of each place, village or city have the exclusive right to sell in it—a principle for which there is some foundation, as they generally pay heavily for their privilege in the shape of a special tax to the government. This privilege, however, is always subject to the inconveniences and curtailments arising from the established fairs—most of which have come down from very ancient times— for, at these fairs, either certain districts, as happens frequently everywhere; or the whole country where they occur, as on the present occasion; or the whole world, as at the great fairs of Leipzig, Frankfurt, etc., have a right to come and sell. Of course, while it lasts, there is a great bustle, competition and crowding; and as soon as the legal time is over, the shopkeepers are careful to see that the booths are closed and the intruders from abroad, as they are considered by the city trades-people, sent home or brought to them to sell the remainder of their goods at reduced and ruinous prices. Today, it seems as if all Saxony were crowded into Dresden; for not only are all the public squares full of booths, goods, and wares; but all the principal streets and even many of the smaller ones; while up and down the whole circulates a ceaseless crowd of country people and townspeople; buyers and sellers in picturesque dresses jostling each other and elbowing each other as they bustle along. The quantity of goods, too, is immense—greater than I should think credible if I had not seen it. To say nothing of the squares and marketplaces which are as full as booths and men can stand—the large street that passes by one side of our Hotel is filled with two rows of booths running its whole length and containing stockings—a little further on, two or three streets more, are filled with boots and shoes—a little further, a street is full of baskets and so on. But, how all the things, or half of them, or the tenth part of them are to be sold—where the feet are to be found for the shoes and stockings or the business for the baskets, passes my comprehension. The linen-goods, tablecloths, napkins, etc.—and the blonde lace are in enormous quantities and proportionably cheap—and everything is well arranged and orderly, each class of trades’ people, down to the seller of spunk and matches, having the appropriate places

1835–1836

127

assigned them, so that the buyers may find together all that they seek. The whole fair, however, I observe, is a business thing. There are neither shows of animals, fandangos, puppets, booths for drinking, nor any other of the usual accompaniments of such crowds. Except the miners from Freyberg who go about, five or six together, to make bad music, I saw nothing that could be considered an amusement. This is owing to the Police.

1836 FEB. 23–24. TIECK’S READING.— MAD. DE LÜTTICHAU’S. In the Evening, I went to Tieck’s to keep the engagement we both broke three days ago; and was surprised to find a party of above thirty persons, consisting of the Sternbergs, Count Baudissin, the Circourts, Falkenstein, Vogel59 and Dahl, the Försters, etc.—The fact was that it had got noised abroad, he was to read the Second Part of Henry IV, and they had all come to hear it. And it was worth the coming for. He read it admirably—above two hours and an half without the smallest pause. 24 February—This Evening, we had a counterpart to the amusement of last evening. Tieck read As you Like it; and showed another aspect of his remarkable talent in this way. I noticed as peculiarities only that he read the part of Orlando, especially in the opening scene, with more of an angry movement than I have been accustomed to hear it, and that he made Sir Oliver Martext stutter, which, of course, was arbitrarily done. It was throughout very amusing. The reading took place at Mad. de Lüttichau’s—and there was only a small party collected to hear it—the Krauses,60 Madlle. de Nostitz,61 Countess Baudissin,62 etc., and we had a nice supper afterwards. It was the first time Mrs. T.63 has heard Tieck, for, as only German is spoken within his precincts, she has, of course, never been there, and he rarely reads anywhere else. Perhaps a better proof of the skill of his reading and the niceness of his inflections and intonations cannot be given than the simple fact that she was able to follow him line for line exactly in the English while he read in Schlegel. Nannie, too, enjoyed it very much; but she could understand the German. 59. George Ticknor refers here to Karl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein. 60. Jacob von Krause was the Austrian General-Consul in Dresden. 61. This was possibly a daughter of August Ludwig von Nostitz. 62. Julie Friederike Gräfin Baudissin was the wife of Wolf Heinrich Friedrich Karl Graf von Baudissin. George Ticknor records her presence at this gathering because, in the interval between the evening at Tieck’s and the date of this journal entry, Countess Baudissin suddenly caught scarlet fever and died. 63. This refers to George Ticknor’s wife, Anna Ticknor.

128

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

1836 MARCH. DRESDEN. BURIAL OF MÜLLER, THE MINISTER CULTUS. DEATHS IN THE BAUDISSIN FAMILY. One morning, I witnessed a totally different scene—the burial of Müller, the Minister of Public Instruction, who died very suddenly a few days ago. He is the only person beyond the limits of the class of the nobles that ever rose to the rank of Minister of State in Saxony, and this would not have been possible before the adoption of the present constitution in Sept. 1831.—His death, therefore, produced a considerable sensation, and his funeral would, no doubt, have been magnificent, if his family had not forbidden it. So much the greater, however, was the interest shown at the grave. I went early, for according to the German fashion the interment was in the morning soon after seven o’clock. The religious ceremonies took place at the house, and Lindenau, as President of the Council of Ministers, Ammon, as head of the clergy, and Franke, as his own pastor said a few words over the open grave, after which each person near it threw in a handful of earth and the whole was closed. There was a great crowd, but a perfectly silent and orderly one; and the whole scene was very solemn. Lindenau was eloquent—Franke moving. Most of the principal persons in the Government in Dresden were present, and a great many seemed touched—not a few shed tears and more showed that they with difficulty suppressed them.— In the course of the last week, we have had one of those sad admonitions of which, as in the case of Mrs. Kenyon and Lord Milton, we have had so many since we left home. Shortly after I was at the Theater with Count Baudissin, I met him in the street, and he warned me not to approach him, because the scarlatina had appeared in his family. It was the eldest child of Mad. de Cubières that had been seized, and as she was nursing the youngest, who was already much weakened with whooping cough, both the mother and youngest child had been sent from home, as the scarlet fever is a very fatal as well as a very contagious disease here—much more so than it is with us. The sick child, therefore, was left chiefly in the charge of the Countess Baudissin, who devoted herself to it with a mother’s affection. After an illness of four or five days, it died; and immediately afterwards the Countess was seized, and being already debilitated by fatigue, her constitution offered little resistance, and in less than seventy hours she followed her charge to Heaven. The family, I am told, is completely overwhelmed—but their measures, I hear, are already taken. Count Baudissin is a Holstein nobleman of fortune who has lived in Dresden for a few years past merely because the society pleases him. The Marquis de Cubières,64 a Carlist,65 who has married his 64. Amédée Despans-Cubières. 65. Carlism was a political movement in Spain that had the goal of establishing a separate line of the Bourbon family on the Spanish throne. It was created by Carlos V who was excluded from succeeding

1835–1836

129

eldest niece, had determined before the death of his child to go to France with his family, and Count Baudissin will now go with him taking his remaining niece and breaking up his establishment here altogether. It will be a loss to Dresden, for their house was one of the pleasantest in the city, and they were always to be seen in its most agreeable society. When I think of the beautiful family group I have seen there so often—the Count and Countess, with their two very handsome nieces Madame de Cubières and the young Countess Baudissin—the Marquis de Cubières and the two little children, it does not seem to me possible that it should be already scattered; even while we, who are only transient travelers, have not yet completed our short visit in Dresden.

1836 MARCH 22. DRESDEN. GALLERY. 22 March. We passed some time in the Gallery today, which is always a delightful place and grows more so, the more any one becomes acquainted with its treasures. Indeed, it is one of the few great collections in the arts in Europe which not only fulfill but surpass the expectations and which grows upon you the oftener you visit it. The reason, I apprehend, is that if, while you are there, you happen to think of any considerable or even merely respectable master, you have only to turn to the catalogue and you will be almost sure to find him well represented by at least one or two good pictures. This is quite satisfying, and I know no other instance in which, both by its contents and arrangements, the history of the art can be so well studied.

1836 MARCH 31. DRESDEN. LADY RANCLIFFE. CIRCOURT’S. GRÜNE GEWÖLBE.—CREDEUZE. 31. March. We spent the forenoon with Lady Rancliffe and Count Circourt in what is called the Grüne Gewölbe,66 or a suite of basement rooms in the Palace, quite arched over with stone—secured and separated by iron doors—and, in other respects, made fireproof and safe to contain the jewels and curiosities in ivory, precious stones, etc., belonging to the Crown of Saxony. There are eight of these rooms—large and completely filled—and from the circumstance that their ceilings are arched and painted green they get their name—“the green arch.” The immense collection itself embraces, it seemed to me, every variety of toy, his brother Ferdinand VII in 1833 by the birth of Ferdinand’s daughter Isabel II in 1832. It was the underlying cause for the Carlist Wars from 1833 to 1876. 66. Das Grüne Gewölbe (The Green Vault) was founded by Friedrich August II (the Strong) in 1723. It contains the largest collection of treasures in Europe.

130

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

plaything and ornament that could serve to amuse royalty, and consists of the most ancient articles of this sort which belonged to the early electors, and were first collected into one room about 1560; but owe their present arrangement and extent to the Kings of Poland, beginning in 1694.—Their value can hardly be estimated—but it runs very high up, in the country of millions, probably to between twenty and thirty—and their mass makes even the treasures of the same set in the tower of London seems less considerable than I have been wont to regard them. The variety, too, here is much greater; and the interest of the whole, as materials to explain and understand history, and the mode of living in earlier times, is much higher. The first room contained beautiful works in bronze, among which a crucifixion by John of Bologna, eighteen inches high, was very fine indeed. The next room contained works in Ivory—many ornamented with precious stones—and some of most exquisite finish, particularly a scourging of our savior.—The third chamber was full of works in mosaic of all ages; coral of enormous size; mother of pearl in the most fantastic forms; and amber in such quantities that cabinets, their doors and drawers were entirely made of it; as we make them of mahogany—one of them being 3 ½ ells high and 1 ell 19 inches broad, and filled, besides its drawers, with chessboards and chessmen, snuffboxes, etuis, etc., etc. The paintings in Enamel in this room, however, are more interesting as works of art than anything else, beginning with the rude essays at Limoges in the thirteenth century and coming down to an exquisite copy of Rembrandt’s mother by the father of Mengs. The fourth chamber, filled almost entirely with ancient massive vessels in silver and gold—goblets, wine coolers, etc., is curious for its name, as well as its wealth. It is called the CredeuzKammer, from Credeuza, the Italian for faith, because it contains great numbers of those goblets with which Princes used to pledge each other, both drinking out of the same cup, and prefacing their draught with words, credete-me, “trust me,” as an assurance that there was no poison in the cup—from which such cups were at last called credeuze. Many in this room wrought into the fantastic forms of Elephants, deer, owls, etc., are ornamented with quantities of rubies and diamonds—but four of massive gold are curious because they were given by John George I in the seventeenth century to his four sons with directions that, as each family should fail, their golden goblet should return to Dresden. The last came back in 1764.—The next room or cabinet contain goblets and cups of chalcedony, Jasper, Agate, Sardonyx, Amethyst, etc., to which there seemed no end. Three were pointed out to me, each of which cost 4000 of our dollars, and of each sort there were, I think, from fifty to an hundred specimens. The sixth cabinet is full of works in diamonds, rubies, pearls—about four hundred in all, besides a quantity of ancient and magnificent watches of curious workmanship. Some of the pearls were of monstrous size—but few of the works in good taste.—The seventh room contains the dresses, etc., used at the two crownings

1835–1836

131

of Electors of Saxony as Kings of Poland [in] 1697 and 1733, splendid, but not remarkable.—The last, besides quantities of other things, contains the Royal Jewels as they have come down with additions from the days of the great Elector Maurice. The Diamonds are enormous in value—out of all proportion to the size and wealth of the Kingdom, even in its palmiest days. Three of them—neither the largest nor the finest—cost above 150,000 dollars apiece. The famous green diamond is the wonder of all mineralogists, as well as the envy of all connoisseurs in jewelry, being unique. There were historical matters here, too—a ring of Martin Luther’s, swords of Maurice, etc., seven orders of the Golden Fleece, which have come into the family, etc., etc. But we were dazzled and tired long before we got through; and brought away chiefly the impression of enormous wealth, squandered generally, in whimsical or useless objects. Some, however, it should be remembered were beautiful as works of art and most of them curious as illustrating states of society and manners quite gone by.

1836 APRIL 11. BALL AND SUPPER AT THE PRINCE REGENT’S. 12th April. Last evening the Regent gave a ball to make up for one he would naturally have given during the carnival, if he had not been prevented by the death of his wife’s aunt.—It was the most splendid entertainment we have had, because the suite of several apartments which he opened on the occasion were all fitted up since he was made Regent in 1831, and, if they are Less grand and solemn than the King’s, are better fitted by their beautiful and fresh tapestry and furniture for such a fête. The ballroom was all white and gold—one of the other rooms was in crimson satin and gold—the throne room in velvet—and two others still more beautifully tapestried with fine pictures, for which the Regent has more taste than any of the family. There was the usual quantity of dancing—but the lateness of the season and its mild spring weather has abated something of the spirit with which such things are carried on.—The royal family, however, who get fewer choices for such amusements than their subjects, danced as much as ever; and the princess Amalia had a fall in a waltz. I never saw a lady fall before in a ballroom—but in this instance, at least, it was no joke. It was a solid and tremendous fall—the fault of her partner—a young officer of the guards—who was on the floor first and drew her after him. She had, however, the good sense and kind feelings to take another turn with him as soon as she could recover herself and readjust her headdress; but she looked dreadfully pale, and much discomposed.— The supper was, like all the suppers at the palace, truly magnificent, comfortable, and in good taste. I sat at the table of the Princess Augusta—where, as the room for the Royal party was smaller than heretofore, so that each member had not a table—I found, also, and was glad to find, Prince John. I had talked with him a

132

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

good deal already during the evening67 and now the conversation was very agreeably kept up, Mr. Forbes, Countess Stroganoff, Countess Einsiedel,68 Mad. de Zeschau and two or three other pleasant persons making up the party. Among other things, we talked about Mary Stuart, and there was a great disposition in everybody present to defend Elizabeth,69 except in Mr. Forbes and myself, which was curious, as two or three of them were Catholics. Mr. Forbes, apropos of this discussion, said that, in his family, they still preserve the autograph letter of one of his ancestors, who was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth, begging her friends to let her come home to them, because her life was made miserable at court by the Queen’s ill temper, who she said was just then in constant bad humor about her lovers, and plagued her (the writer) all day long with “sly pinches and privy nips,” which last Mr. Forbes said were the very words of the letter.70

1836 APRIL 22. DRESDEN. MAD. DE STROGANOFF’S. I spent the evening after nine o’clock, when her saloon opens, at the Countess Stroganoff’s, where I was amused with a repartee of the Princess Löwenstein’s.71— From some accident, we fell into a conversation in German, and Count Gourieff, the Russian Ambassador at Rome, changed it back to French, saying that, though he spoke German fluently enough, he always felt awkwardly when he talked it with such persons as were round the table then; because, said he, je le parle si rarement en bonne compagnie.72 The thing was very simply said, and very truly said—and he meant by it only that talking German with servants and tradespeople every day, and French in all good society, he had come to separate and distinguish the two languages accordingly. But the Princess Löwenstein’s German blood was up; and, turning rather shortly but very gaily upon him, she said, Mais vous parlez l’Allemand si parfaitement, Mons. le Comte, qu’il parait que vous avez beaucoup de pratique.73 The Count laughed as heartily and as good naturedly as anybody; but, as he said to me—Il n’y a pas de reponse à cela—j’irai jouer74—and he went off to the whist-table, not more disconcerted, 67. The words “the evening” are unclear in the manuscript. 68. This was possibly the wife of Count Detlev von Einsiedel, Jr. 69. George Ticknor here refers to Friedrich Schiller’s play Mary Stuart (1800) and its depiction of Queen Elizabeth I’s hesitancy to sign the death sentence of the Scottish queen. 70. This was the last time we saw the good natured Lady Rancliffe, who left two days afterwards for her home at Paris, declining to take formal leave of her more familiar acquaintances here. [G.T.] 71. This probably refers to Princess Löwenstern, the daughter of Count Carl Otto von Löwenstern, who maintained a house in Dresden. 72. I speak it rarely in such good company. 73. But you speak German so perfectly, my dear count, it seems as though you have had a lot of practice. 74. There is no reply to that—I am going to play.

1835–1836

133

perhaps, than a well-bred gentleman may be permitted to be when a handsome, fashionable and spirituel 75 lady gives him a hard hit.

7 “To keep . . . as distinct an impression as I can.” A Summary: April 1836 1836 APRIL. DRESDEN. HISTORY OF THE CITY. ITS SIZE AND APPEARANCE. ITS STREETS. ITS POLICE. THE PALACES. THE ZWINGER, ETC. ITS CHURCHES. ITS GENERAL APPEARANCE, ITS WALKS, GARDENS, ETC. THE GROSSE GARTEN;76 OTHER GARDENS, ETC. Dresden.— We have lived now so long at Dresden that we feel as if we were familiar with it, and with its institutions and society; and, therefore, before we leave it, I will say a few words about them to keep for myself, hereafter, as distinct an impression as I can of each.— Dresden is situated in the midst of a rich plain on the Elbe in fifty-one degrees of North Latitude and fourteen of East longitude. It is, no doubt, one of the oldest places on the river, but the traces of its antiquity have been obliterated by its misfortunes. As early as 1270 it had risen to so much consequence as to be the residence of the Saxon Princes, and from 1320 till 1817, it was a fortified town. The great Elector Maurice,77 who did so much in everyway for Saxony between 1541 and 1553—who placed its general education so nearly on the ground, where it has ever since rested, and, as the head of the Protestant union, contended successfully against Charles V, did, also, a great deal for Dresden. But the time when its character was mainly determined, was the period between 1697, when Frederick Augustus became King of Poland78 and the beginning of the Seven Years’ War in 1756, for this was the period when its Palaces and finest churches were principally built, when its admirable collections in the Arts were made, and when its best institutions were founded. It was the period, too, in which, for these and less worthy objects, debts were contracted that still press upon Saxony and which the honesty of her Government still continues to pay. 75. Witty. 76. Der Grosse Garten [The Great Garden] is a park in the southwest corner of the inner city. It was created in 1676 and in the 1680s turned into a baroque-style park. In 1813 the walls surrounding the park were razed and the park was declared public in 1814. 77. Elector Moritz I of Saxony (1521–1553). See Kötzschke and Kretzschmar, Sächsische Geschichte, 194–201, 211–19. 78. Friedrich August I (1670–1733) became king of Poland in 1697.

134

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

But these debts, together with the miseries of the Seven Years’ War, when Dresden was besieged and bombarded by Frederick the Great, produced a permanent effect on the city. The last Prince, whose long reign, including his minority, extended from 1763 to 1827 and who was made a King by Bonaparte in 1806, did all he could for his capital, and during his greatest prosperity from 1806 to 1814, this was not a little.79 But, after the fall of Bonaparte, to whose fortunes he attached himself with more honesty than wisdom, he was shorn of his territories by the allies; and Saxony, since 1815, has been reduced to a moderate principality, which can no longer minister liberally to the resources of its capital. The efforts of the Government, therefore, during the last twenty years, have been directed to a thorough and faithful support of all their great existing collections and institutions rather than to their considerable increase. That this has been most effectively80 done—and even that additions of moment and value have been made to some of them, especially to the Library and Picture Gallery—is greatly to the credit of the reigning family. The general appearance of Dresden is good. Including its military, it is a city of something more than seventy thousand inhabitants, or just about as large as Boston. It stands on both sides of the Elbe. The old city, as it is called, comprehending the great mass of the population and the most important public institutions, and buildings, stands on the Southern bank—The new city, containing the Library, etc., in the Japan Palace, and the Barracks for the Military, stands on the Northern Bank and is the best built of the two divisions of the city and contains the most agreeable residences for summer. These two divisions are connected by a fine stone bridge of sixteen arches, which received its present character 1727–1731, though some parts of it are older. Besides these, there is another division beyond the little stream called Weißeritz, which comes from the Plauensche Grund and falls into the Elbe, but this, though called ceremoniously the Friedrichstadt, is, in fact, only a suburb, like two or three others. The whole city is clean and nice, and has arched sewers of solid stone masonry running under all its streets, which are so high that men can walk through them and clean them out—an operation which now, (April) is just performing. The streets themselves are well paved, and constantly swept; they have sidewalks, which are not common on the continent; and they are beautifully lighted at night with gas. The police is good—not severe nor obvious—for the population is, by its very nature, quiet, orderly and industrious. Ladies can traverse the streets and do traverse them constantly in the dark evenings of winter and late at night with only a single female attendant, and in above five months that we have now been here, I have not seen a single instance of those unseemly rudenesses and irregu79. Friedrich August III (1750–1827) was elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806, when he was declared king of Saxony. 80. This word is unclear. It seems most likely to be “effectively” but may be “effectionally.”

1835–1836

135

larities which are so common in most of the cities of the continent. The only disturbance I have seen was made by a drunken Englishman. Indeed, in the great points of cleanliness, lighting by night and quiet order, I do not know that a city can be more respectable. In each of these particulars, it is much in advance, for instance, of even Boston.81 But, though the general aim and look of Dresden is good, it has hardly any really fine buildings, architecturally considered. The three palaces—enormously large and out of all proportion to the wants of a Kingdom like Saxony even when its wants were greatest—produce hardly any effect. The Principal one, called by way of eminence the Schloss,82 is about 4000 feet in circumference and has been built in a most straggling manner at different times since 1534. [. . .] But the King does not live here. He was so old when he came to the throne in 1827—being past 7283—that he had the good sense to say he would rather continue to live where he had lived for half a century in the “Palace of the Princes”—a large and fine Palace, where he is as comfortably off as he would have been in the more magnificent old Schloss and where, also, live Prince John and his family and the Princess Amalia, while the Regent lives in the Schloss in one set of apartments and the Princess Augusta in another, some of which belonged to her late father, the King, and are very fine. Prince Maximilian, with his young Italian wife, lives in the Brühl Palace, originally built by the Minister of that name, whose unprincipled extravagance at the beginning of the last century Saxony still feels and pays for.84—But though these would seem to be enough and more than enough for all the possible wants of such a Kingdom or even one much larger, they are as nothing compared with what was devised in the wasteful days of the Polish Kings, of which traces yet remain. It was proposed to pull down both the Royal Palaces and build a single one in their stead, larger and more magnificent; and the Zwinger, as it is called from being built near the old ditch in 1711, was intended to be its vestibule—the Catholic church begun in 1737 was to have been its chapel—and the present Picture 81. On another much more serious point, the comparison between Boston and Dresden is yet more disadvantageous to us—I mean, the point of incendiarism. We have been here now above five months, and there have been but two alarms of fire in all that time—one for a small barn burnt in the neighborhood of the city and one quite groundless. This comes from the mode of building houses generally—from the excellent construction of their stoves; and from their great carefulness about the use of fire. But, still the arrangements for extinguishing fire are as perfect as if the danger were much greater. Near all the public fountains stand, on a sort of sledge, barrels always full of water, which two or three men can drag in an instant to the point of danger and with which the engines can be in an instant filled, so that larges fires are excessively rare. Moreover, the government insures every man’s house in the kingdom for one fifth of its value, whether he chooses or not; but he may insure it still three-fifths more, in the same way, if he pleases; and, at the end of the year, the losses are divided and assessed in the whole country, as in a mutual assurance, the government refusing all profit, and collecting in the shape of a tax the losses it has paid out. [G.T.] 82. Palace. 83. King Anton was born in 1750. 84. Heinrich Count von Brühl.

136

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

gallery with its fine halls, and the collection of Mengs’ casts below, were the stables begun in 1729 for 300 horses. All this was, no doubt, very magnificent, but it was very absurd. The same extravagance induced Marshall Flemming in 1715 to erect the enormous building in the new city which, from its unseemly ornaments, is called the Japan Palace, and, being ruined by it, he sold it to the King in 1730, who made it, with its beautiful garden behind, a summer palace. But all these establishments are more wisely and usefully arranged now. The Zwinger contains the magnificent Museum of Armor and historical souvenirs together with the collections in Natural History—the Stables are made into Galleries of the Arts—and the Japan Palace is devoted to the Library of three hundred thousand volumes and the collection of Antiques. Not one of these, however, can be considered a beautiful building, though several of them are massive and even imposing. The churches of Dresden are better, though not much better, than its palaces. The Frauen-Kirche, or Notre-Dame church, which is exactly opposite the principal window of our parlor, is the best of them. It was built between 1726 and 1745, and it is considered here quite a successful imitation of St. Peter’s. The truth, however, is that it has merely a fine dome of solid stone, which produces an excellent effect from whichever side Dresden may be approached; but the basis on which it rests is most disproportionately small and looks as if it were intended merely to support this ornament of the city. In other respects, it is a truly massive building, which resisted the bombs of the Prussians in 1760, when almost everything around it was in ruins. The Catholic church, which was built 1737–1756, stands finely near the bridge; and is very much ornamented— too much so—though still an imposing building. The Altar piece representing the ascension is by Raphael Mengs, and is one of his best works—perhaps his very best work. The church and its ornaments cost above a million and an half of our money.—Two other churches are sometimes noticed, the old Protestant court Church—St. Sophia’s—where the court worshipped before they became Catholics; and the Kreutz Kirche;85 but I do not think either of them beautiful or interesting.86 Still, the appearance of Dresden is good, taken as a whole. The public buildings, if neither magnificent nor in remarkably good taste, are numerous and respectable. Besides these, there are a great many substantial, well-built houses in the old city, and a great many light, airy ones, with cheerful and tasteful gardens round them in the new city and between both the Elbe sweeps majestically, 85. This probably refers to Kreuzkirche. Originally founded under the name Nicolaikirche around 1215, it was reconsecrated as Kreuzkirche in 1388. 86. Perhaps, the prettiest building in Dresden—for it is not large enough to be more than pretty—is the new Guard house erected 1832—but it is entirely hid away behind the palace and cannot be noticed unless it is looked for. [G.T.]

1835–1836

137

opening fine views down towards the Prussian frontiers and up to the Saxon Switzerland and Bohemia.—It has been improved, too, and has increased materially in size since I was here twenty years ago and especially within the last ten years, so that, in many parts of the city there is an air of freshness and in all a neatness that belongs only to what is well-sustained and preserved—an air which it is always gratifying to witness and which brings with it ideas of contentment and cheerfulness.87 Another thing, too, that adds to the pleasant and cheerful look of Dresden is its gardens and public walks. They are very numerous and some of them are both agreeable and picturesque. Even in the winter, we found the walk round the city on the basis of the old ramparts pleasant, and now with the gardens of the wealthier inhabitants pressing it for a large part of its course, it is quite beautiful. So is the terrace called the Bruhl Gardens overlooking the Elbe—and the new city has pleasant walks on all sides, most of which have been laid out within a few years—the first, perhaps, being that behind the Library or Japan Palace and overlooking the Elbe from the other side. The one, however, which is the most frequented of all on either side of the River is called the Grosse Garten—the great Garden—and consists of a Palace with several lodges, about a mile from the city, situated in a park a little more than a mile long and a half a mile wide, which has been so judiciously managed that there are a great many pleasant drives and walks on it.88 Great crowds of persons resort there for their afternoon pleasures in the mild weather—take their tea and coffee in the open air—and enjoy the music which, several times every week, is furnished gratis, as it is in many smaller and more private establishments of the same sort which are found all round the neighborhood of Dresden and most of which seem to be thronged in the afternoons whenever the weather is favorable. The effect is most agreeable. The wives and daughters of the good citizens sew and knit—the fathers and brothers smoke, talk and listen to the music—and their number is so great, distributed round the coffeehouses or under the trees; or lounging in the allies or on the grass, that the air of the whole is riant.89 Indeed the whole of the neighborhood of Dresden on a pleasant spring afternoon, especially if it be 87. Dresden looks well from whatever side you approach it—and I think every one of its gates or entrances is open and free in its appearance. The Leipzig gate is fine and the houses just outside of it with the gardens round them very pretty, while the square within the guard houses and the Japan Palace are imposing. It was by this gate we entered. [G.T.] 88. The Great Garden was chiefly arranged with its Palace, etc., by Augustus II about 1720—but he forgot to pay the persons whose lands he took to make his pleasures-grounds. Things remained in this unseemly state till after the present century came in, when the late King, chancing to hear about it—for the creditors had long ceased to make any demands—immediately ordered the matter to be inquired into and, finding the true state of the case, caused all the representatives of those who had originally suffered to be notified to appear and paid them their dues with compound interest. This fact, so characteristic of the late King, was related to me in 1816 by old Bischoff, one of his council, who transacted the whole business.—The Great Garden is now merely a public walk, drive and lounge; and its Palace its quite neglected, though not suffered to decay. [G.T.] 89. Mirthful.

138

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

a Sunday or a holiday, whether you go to Finlater’s Garten, the Linkisch Baths, the Valley of Plauen, the Great Garden, or to twenty other similar but smaller places, has a gay appearance which I do not remember to have seen anywhere else, united with so much tastefulness and decency. 1836 APRIL. DRESDEN. GALLERY OF PICTURES. HISTORICAL MUSEUM. COLLECTION OF ENGRAVINGS. LIBRARY. GALLERY OF ANTIQUES. COLLECTION OF PORCELAIN. CASTS. PUBLIC COLLECTIONS. ARTS AND ARTISTS. But Dresden attracts strangers, I think, chiefly by its remarkable public institutions and collections in the arts; and by the state of society which such institutions and collections naturally create.—Among these the first place is to be given, no doubt, to the Gallery of Pictures; and of this, therefore, I will first speak. The Gallery of Pictures in Dresden was begun, as I suppose such galleries have been begun almost always, by the private collections of the Princes. In this way it can be traced back to the Electors Augustus 1553–1586 and John George II 1656–1680, both of whom had a love for the arts not common in their time. But, as in everything else that relates to the splendor of Dresden, its period of the Polish Kings is the period when the Gallery was put upon the footing it has maintained ever since. Frederick Augustus II90 bought the whole Gallery of the Duke of Modena, containing about one hundred and twenty pictures of the great masters, for a million, eight-hundred thousand Rix dollars, or about 1,300,000 of our dollars—he bought the penitent Magdalen for the enormous price of 13,000 Ducats—and finally he bought from a convent in Piacenza the magnificent Raphael’s Madonna for 17,000 ducats. Having now a collection of pictures such as was not to be found north of the Alps, he removed it from the rooms of the Palace in which it had up to this period been scattered; and, in 1747 threw it open to the public in the halls where we now see it. But since his time, it has been greatly increased and undergone great changes. Large additions have been made to it in the old German school; in the French school; in the Spanish; and, especially, in the Netherland schools. When I was here twenty years ago, it did not number quite 1300 pictures—and now there are full 2000, the late King, among other things, having given to it a rich and rare collection which was his own private property. Moreover, within the last four years, under Baron Lindenau’s direction, it has been arranged entirely anew; the halls have been divided and lighted differently; and the whole made 90. One of the chief counselors and advisers of Fred. Aug. II in whatever related to the arts was the well known Count Algarotti. [G.T.]

1835–1836

139

by further exchanges, purchases and additions the first gallery in the world to show the history of the art in all countries from its first appearance to the present time. It is distributed through fifteen halls, all of them thirty-six feet high, and some of them of great length. Each school is arranged by itself—and, as much as possible, each master’s works are put together.—In some cases, too, as for instance, Correggio, the individual pictures of the master are arranged so as to show his changes of manner and his progress in the art. The history of painting, therefore, I have no doubt, can be better understood here than anywhere else. Perhaps more pleasure would be enjoyed in the Tribune at Florence than in any single hall of the Dresden Gallery—but south of the Alps there is no such collection of the northern schools as there is here; and neither in France nor England is there such a collection of the Italian masters. As a whole, therefore, I look upon the Dresden Gallery as unrivalled. Another of the remarkable collections in Dresden is the Historical Museum, formerly called the Rüstkammer, because, I suppose, originally it may have contained more Arms than anything else, though this is by no means the case now. It existed as early as the times of the Elector Maurice about 1550, and was made of consequence in the times of Frederick Augustus III—but its present excellent arrangement, which makes it so much more intelligible and useful than it was formerly, is due to Baron Lindenau and is the work of the few last years. It is now distributed through seven or eight fine halls, two of which, in fact, are long galleries, and the whole of which constitute one side of the Zwinger. The first Hall contains articles of furniture, etc., from early times—toilets; a chest of drawers that belonged to Luther with a wig that was his, his drinking-vessel, and a sword which he kept as his “house-weapon”—drinking-horns such as were used through the North of Europe in the earliest ages, of which we have any notice, some of them much ornamented and looking as if they might have come from “Odius Hall”—some curious articles—and many other curious matters not at all connected with each other but all illustrating times long since gone by.—The second Hall contains weapons for the chase, and instruments for gardening and husbandry, some of which seem as curious and as well fitted for their purpose as those we now use. Spears, crossbows of great power and all sorts of hunting knives were very abundant; and among other things, I noticed the Hunting-horn of Henry IV of France. After this follows a long, grand gallery filled with Knightly armor, trappings and weapons of all kind. Here the heavy armor that marked the age of general violence when man fought singly against man, and which became useless from its extreme weight when war was made by united numbers, can be distinctly seen and separated. From this state, defensive armor can be traced down till it gets to be a show of gold, silver and precious stones wrought into polished steel—then flexible mail of different kinds; then the coat of leather embroidered

140

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

so as to make it more solid; and finally the brocade coat and waistcoat of court ceremony covered with silver and gold. Some of the armor is magnificent. One of the suits—that of the Elector Christian I—cost originally 14,000 thalers—and Baron Lindenau told me that they were lately offered from somebody in Berlin who, as it appeared afterwards, acted for the Empress of Russia, 30,000 thalers, (about 22,000 dollars) for another suit; but, of course, refused it. Several of them are very rich in inlaid jewels, and in one or two everything is so completely preserved that the little flaps, with which their followers distinguished their lords, still float from the ends of the spears. The Knights are well mounted on horseback or stand in a formidable line on foot, and the whole is so well arranged that the show is very grand—much more so than in the Tower of London. The next Gallery contains armor and weapons that were used in real war, among which I was most interested with a suit that belonged to Gustavus Adolphus, and with a mail coat and helmet that belonged to John Sobiesky.91 After this comes a hall containing all the forms of firearms, from a clumsy sort of pistol which is supposed to have been made by the Monk Schwarz, who invented gunpowder, down to the nice weapons of the present day. Some of the specimens, like the pistols of the Elector Maurice, and a pair worn by Charles XII of Sweden at the moment of his death, have historical value. In the next following room are horses and men dressed out in full suits of armor and trappings covered with gold, silver and precious stones which were used at the crownings of the Kings of Poland—mere works of show but more splendid than anything of the sort I ever saw.—The next hall, called “the Turkish chamber,” is filled with oriental armor and furniture—much of it obtained as spoils when the Turks were so terribly routed before Vienna—after which follow still three rooms—more filled with dresses, ornaments, and weapons of all kinds—generally splendid—but among them all I chiefly noticed lying together in one place a very plain hat which had belonged to Peter the Great with a wooden bowl which he turned; in another place the two swords of Peter and Charles XII, which never rested in peace together while their owners were alive.92 The curious collection in the Grüne Gewölbe which has a good deal of relationship to some parts of this collection in the Historical Museum, but consists almost entirely of works of luxury, ornament and show, will repay several careful visits with rare and pleasant Knowledge—but I have spoken of it at large when we first went to see it, March 31. I have, however, said nothing of the very valuable and interesting collection of Engravings and Drawings, which, like the Gallery here, would do honor to any monarchy in Europe, however rich or 91. Jan III Sobieski (1629–1696). 92. This Gallery has been arranged entirely anew within a few years and so increased from the old stores in the Palace and country residences of the Royal family that it is altogether a different thing from what it was when I was here before. [G.T.]

1835–1836

141

splendid. It was founded by Augustus II; was increased by his successor, has at all times been well kept up, and received a very valuable addition by bequest from the late King in 1827. It is now kept in the Zwinger, where it is arranged with great taste, and the most neat and exact order, chiefly in a long and fine hall and a small room adjacent where the engravings, in volumes and Portfolios, are deposited in cabinets—but since 1828, another most comfortable and pleasant room has been built to contain the original drawings, and to exhibit in the most agreeable manner to visitors whatever they may wish to see.—Two things are remarkable about this establishment. First its completeness and extent; for it now comprises above 220,000.93 Engravings beginning with the rudest specimens of the art and coming down to all the luxuries of the present period; and between 29 and 30,000 drawings, beginning soon after the year 1300 and coming down through drawings of all the great masters by themselves, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Correggio and every other artist, I believe, that I ever heard of, quite to our own times—very rarely less than three or four of a master, and sometimes, as in the case of Rembrandt, above an hundred.—Secondly, it is remarkable for its exact arrangement—so that you can have in a moment what you ask for; and for the entire comfort with which you can sit and see the very small fraction, it is possible to see of such an enormous mass of what is beautiful, interesting and curious. For, the Engravings from Raphael alone fill thirteen vast94 volumes; from Titian six; Rembrandt thirteen more, and so on. Perhaps the most curious thing that can be done here is to trace the history of Engraving from the earliest times down by the very best specimens of it; and to look over the Drawings by the hands of the great masters, generally signed by themselves. This is what we have done, and we have found it very interesting. But for artists to whom the whole is always open, and, for whose convenience every kind arrangement is made, it affords means for any degree of study they may be able to give to it. Much the same kind of remark should be made about the Library. It was begun as the private library of the Electors 1555–1600—was early enriched with curious collections of books bought from individuals—received a large quantity of Arabic, Turkish, and Persian manuscripts after the rout of the Turks before Vienna [in] 1683 and the capture of Buda [in] 1686 since which no opportunity has been spared to make it what it now is—one of the librarians, for instance, about a century ago, having been sent to travel through Europe to collect books for it; and two private libraries one of 42,000 volumes, and one of 62,000 having been added to it in 1764 and 1768. Since 1788 it has been in the Japan Palace, where it fills two stories, comprising three very grand halls and twenty two rooms—all airy, light, and in excellent taste, a part of them looking 93. This is the number set down in the printed account; but Fränzel, the inspector of the collection, has since told me there are quite 300,000 Engravings now. [G.T.] 94. This word is not clear in the manuscript.

142

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

out upon the river and the beautiful garden behind the Palace. The number of Printed books is now about 320,000—the number of manuscripts 2700; the number of pamphlets 130,000; and the number of maps and charts, 25,000. Its order is as perfect as anything well can be, every book standing according to its subject; and the whole is open every day, with all conveniences for writing and studying, and a librarian (Falkenstein), two secretaries, a sublibrarian, and three other attendants ready to furnish books to all who ask for them. I have sometimes had fifty or sixty volumes at my lodgings; and there is no limit to the time a stranger may keep them, unless somebody else asks for them, when, at the end of a month, they are sent for. I have books now that I have had three months. Its excellent arrangement is due chiefly to Adelung, the well-known Lexicographer who was chief Librarian here, I think, above 20 years and died about 1806; as well as to Ebert, the Bibliographer who was Librarian until quite lately. Its order, indeed, is as good as that of the Göttingen Library; and I do not know that it can be better—and its administration as liberal as can be asked. Probably in History and the related Branches, it is the first library in the world. When we went over it, however, to see it as a curiosity, we gave more of our attention to the earliest specimens of printing, because they are all here and the history of the invention can be seen by its authentic monuments95 in a moment, beginning with the first books—if they deserve the name—printed on blocks of wood—of which there are eight, Biblia Pauperum, Ars Moriendi, etc., and going on with the first printed book with moveable type and date, Fust’s Psalter 1457 of which books there are fourteen before 1470. And nearly 1700 before the year 1500, the excellent arrangement of the whole of which makes them but truly instructive, and extremely curious. The Gallery of Antiques, which fills the lower story of the same Palace with the Library, and is equally well arranged in ten fine halls, is, however, much less valuable. It was begun by the Augustuses, one of whom bought the Chigi collection96 in 1725 for 60,000 thalers, and it has been as well kept up since as almost anything of the sort North of the Alps. Moreover, whatever else we may think of it, we are not to forget that it was in this very collection, and with the help of the Library now over it, that the genius, the taste, and the skill of Winckelmann were developed—and I rather think that much of its direction was here given to the spirit of Lessing. Some of the specimens, however, would be valuable and beautiful in any collection in Europe. A triangular pedestal to a candelabrum, with bas-reliefs on three sides representing Hercules carrying off the tripod of Delphos is curious as showing the early style of the art in Greece, and a Pallas

95. This word is unclear in the manuscript; it might, in fact, be “movements.” 96. The Chigi Collection was assembled by Cardinal Flavio Chigi (1631–1693) and expanded by his descendants. The Chigi family was an influential family with Rome and the Vatican.

1835–1836

143

promachos, restored by Rauch—the torso of an athlete; and the three first statues found in Herculaneum in 1706 and better than anything found there since, one of great interest from their beauty. Under the whole—that is, in a sort of basement of the Japan Palace; partly underground—is the curious collection of Porcelain arranged with scientific skill in eighteen rooms. The Japan and Chinese portions of it, which fill eight rooms, are accounted the most valuable in Europe. They ought to be so, for Augustus II gave the King of Prussia a whole regiment of cavalry fully mounted, officered and equipped for about twenty vases which do not fill a single room, and elsewhere we were shown single pieces that cost 600 ducats each.97 The most interesting part, however, of the whole was that in which the history of the Meissen or Dresden ware could be traced, in many hundred specimens, from the rude, red fabric of 1704 to the fine white porcelain first produced here in 1709. As this was the Earliest porcelain made in Europe, and as every step in the progress of the discovery by Böttcher, its inventor, can be here plainly traced, the Saxon Government has well done to collect, also, specimens of all other European porcelain, so that each can now see well arranged in historical order choice and often magnificent specimens of the Vienna, Berlin, Sevre, Russian, Copenhagen, and English porcelain, to which, Baron Lindenau told me the other day, they are about to add our Philadelphia ware.98 The completeness of this collection renders curious and even valuable what would otherwise attract the notice only of amateurs; while some of the specimens especially of the Sevre ware given by Bonaparte and of the Vienna ware given by the late Emperor are as magnificent as I can suppose anything of the sort to be anywhere. The collection of casts is the best, no doubt, in the world and is an excellent introduction to the study of the antique, wherever statues and bas-reliefs are to be found. Mengs, “the Philosophical painter,” began it. Though a subject of Saxony and educated here, he was court painter to Charles III of Spain, who employed him at any cost to collect for him casts of all the good works of antiquity to be found in Italy. Mengs did so, causing fresh moulds to be made with great care, and by the permission of Spain taking always a copy of each for himself. In this way, he obtained as good a collection as the Spanish, which has long since been destroyed, and better than anybody else. After his death it was bought by Saxony and in 1782 arranged in the fine and very large Hall under the Picture Gallery—a vast room arched and supported on rows of pillars. The 97. One composition—a group—made at Meissen, cost above 20,000 thalers. It represents the crucifixion. [G.T.] 98. The Preface to the little book that describes this collection by Klemm, octodecimo 1834, is very learned and curious on the history of European Porcelain. It is the intention now to keep this collection a complete document for the history of the Art in Europe and America. [G.T.]

144

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

collection has been constantly increased and now amounts to some thousands, among which are, of course, all the great works that have come down to us from antiquity, or nearly all of them. We saw it one evening by torchlight, and some of the figures, the Apollo, the Laocoon, the group of Menelaus and the body of Patroclus, the symplegma, etc., produced a great effect from the masses of the shade and from the changes of shade so easily effected by the change of the position of the light, which being screened behind, falls only on the object and only as you desire to have it. There are several other public collections here, but I took less interest in them from their subjects, and they are, besides, less valuable in themselves, though I believe they are all useful and respectable and certainly all arranged with scientific skill and taste. Among them are those in Natural History, including Fossil remains, which are quite large, and the Halls for the Minerals, Animals, etc., are so spacious and grand that I could not help recollecting a remark I long ago saw of Bonaparte’s that “in Dresden the Arts and Sciences most truly dwell in Palaces.” The state of the Arts in Dresden is not, perhaps, so high as might be expected from the great opportunities offered to form artists and from the great number of artists who constantly avail themselves of these opportunities.—Of sculpture or sculptors I heard almost nothing, and certainly nothing that induced me to visit a single atelier. An architect has not been named to me. But a great deal is done in lithography and well done, as the beautiful work now publishing on the Gallery proves beyond all doubt—and there is, at least, one distinguished engraver here—Steinla—who says that in Weimar in 1816, he called on me and asked me if I would advise him to emigrate to America, and that I dissuaded him on the ground that he showed much promise in his art and that, in America, he would not be able to form himself to such eminence as he could at home—a piece of advice which was, I think, judicious; but which I do not at all remember to have given.—Of painters, there are enough. Retzsch, though his coloring is bad, is undoubtedly at the head of the whole, and one of the most genial, original and interesting persons I have ever known; but Retzsch has not been formed by Dresden and has had little influence on it. Just so it is with Dahl, the Norwegian, who is a very gifted person; but who has taken too much to northern, wild and fantastic scenery. Vogel is a true child of the gallery, and is as stiff and hard as mere imitation need to make a man; but he paints chiefly portraits. Sparmann, a young man from Meissen, gives promise in landscape where he has studied nature most faithfully; the Baroness Buttlar makes quite pretty likenesses, especially of children; Grahl paints miniatures very well, and Mad. Locqueyssie give them even a higher finish, but fails in the resemblance. This is all I can say of the arts in Dresden, except that I see constantly great numbers of persons studying, working and copying in the gallery, and that, I understand, the

1835–1836

145

great advantages offered here by the government so liberally are most diligently used by those to whom they are opened.

1836 APRIL. DRESDEN. SOCIETY. OUR OWN LIFE THERE. Of the Society, I have already said so much in this volume, which records hardly anything except our connection with it, that very little remains for me to say. As a general remark, it may be observed that it is divided into many circles and coteries; which know little of each other; but that, like all the continental cities, except those which depend on commerce and a few of the very largest, it is only in the highest circle that real elegance or real ease is to be found. The reason is plain. There is little wealth in the other circles; and little habit of receiving or entertaining company.99 Fortunately, the court of Saxony is a truly moral, respectable and, in many respects, quite an intellectual court, so that the love of the society about it is good. All the parties given by it this winter were very elegant, and though, of course, many foolish and disagreeable people were admitted to them from their mere rank and station, yet it is quite certain the tone of the whole was good—was eminently respectable.—The diplomatic gentlemen, who form a very prominent part of this circle necessarily, are very pleasant persons, have no difficulties with one another, and add their full proportion to its agrémens,100 though I think none of them is a highly gifted person, except Count Colloredo. Of the Saxons who belong to it by their birth and position, nothing can be more respectable than Lindenau, the Watzdorfs, the Zeschaus, the Lüttichaus, Leysers, etc. The rich and luxurious Russians and Poles who swarm here in the winter form a sort of Appendix to this society of the court; but not very closely connected with it; Their headquarters this winter have been at Count Stroganoff’s, where Count Gourieff, the Potoskis,101 etc., were always to be found.102 If you leave this highest circle, you come at once either into that of the rich Bourgeois and Bankers—some of whom are quite as rich as the richest of the Nobles, or into that of the Men of Learning, or into that of the Artists. Of the 99. Nor are the Nobility very rich. The Royal family have great private fortunes and vast wealth in jewels—but the richest nobleman in Saxony, Prince Lynar, whom I have constantly seen this winter without desiring to know him, has, as Baron Lindenau told me the other day, only about 20,000 Rix dollars clear income a year, and there are only a few who have above 10,000.—But living is cheap and they keep fine equipages, have pretty country seats, etc., and live very well. [G.T.] 100. Charm or pleasure. 101. This might refer to the family of Count Alfred Jozef Potocki (1785–1862) and his wife Princess Jozefa Czartoryska (1787–1862). 102. There are a good many English living here, but none of them are interesting persons; and all but two families are living here from motives of economy. [G.T.]

146

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

first we saw little. I avoided acquaintance with my own Banker, Bassenge, the most considerable of them; and saw but little of the Kaskels, a very kind and respectable Jewish family to whom we had letters, but where the society with a good deal of luxury had very little that was interesting in any way. Of the Artists, none but Vogel and Grahl are able to receive society, and the dinner I have described at Vogel’s is a fair specimen of this class of entertainments and intercourse; To the men of letters, I went whenever I wanted their highly cultivated knowledge and conversation, and nothing else; for they are best seen in their studies. Tieck, indeed, receives every evening, but his soirées would have been very formal and dull, except for his own racy talk and his admirable readings; besides which the res augusta domi103 are perceptible, though after all he is not so poor but that he has the great luxury of a capital and curious library. Count Baudissin’s, however, and Mad. de Lüttichau’s houses should be noted as places where elegance and letters—the first society in rank and the first in intellectual culture—were always to be found. We have had great pleasure in visiting both of them.104 After all, however, though we have been now more than five months in Dresden, we have not really been of it. The accounts, which speak of us only in our connection with society here, might leave the impression that it has consumed a great deal of our time; but such an impression would be entirely false. We have been abroad a good deal, it is true; but still we never before passed so much time—not nearly so much—in quiet enjoyment and occupation at home.105 We seldom went out in the forenoon till one o’clock, when we took a drive and a walk for exercise, till after two; on our return we have dined, for there is much less dining out in Dresden than in Berlin—the afternoon, too, has brought its regular occupations with it—and even the majority of the Evenings have been spent at home, where I have read aloud the whole of the Paradiso Lost and, indeed, nearly the whole of Milton’s Poetry; the whole of the Task; and Eleven of Shakespeare’s Plays, besides doing a great deal of writing and 103. Concern for the well-being of the house. 104. The substitutes for the pleasures of society in the middle classes at Dresden, and, indeed, throughout Germany are in winter the Theater and Concerts and in summer the public Gardens—all cheap and generally in good taste. The theater is very bad, as far as the building and accommodations for the spectators are concerned—very good in all other respects—the scenery well contrived, the dresses appropriate and a wardrobe of six thousand suits, and the actors generally excellent.—The Concerts happen often twice a week and are as good as German skill and taste would naturally imply.—But both theater and concerts are abandoned for the public gardens in the pleasant season from April to November; and nobody but one who has seen it can believe how many thousands resort to them every fine afternoon to hear the music, enjoy the fresh air, and the pleasant prospects, and meet their friends. It is, indeed, a most innocent and reasonable pleasure and very characteristic of the Germans—more perhaps of the Dresdeners than of any at the North. [G.T.] 105. One great difference, in this respect, has been that of receiving hardly any company—another, that of living in a hotel and having no cares of housekeeping—and so on. Our life, too, has been as regular as it has been tranquil, each day as we have advanced having been an echo of the one that preceded it and a reflection of its successor. [G.T.]

1835–1836

147

talking. And it is owing mainly to this—though I would not undervalue the very picturesque, new and striking society we have seen so much of, from the court down—that I think we feel, as Washington Irving said to me in New York about his own visit here, that the Dresden winter has been one of the pleasantest winters of our life.—

8 “It was not agreeable to leave Dresden.” May 8–June 5, 1836 1836 MAY 8. DRESDEN.—PRINCE JOHN—MR. KRAUSE OF WEISTROPP. ESTATE—WORKS OF ART. May 8. This morning, Prince John being in town for mass, sent to me to come and see him. He was, as he always is, agreeable and kind, offering us letters for Berlin, and for his brother-in-law, the Grand Duke of Florence,106 which I gladly accepted. But I could not stay with him, more than just a few moments, for we were engaged to dine with Mr. Krause, the great landed-proprietor, at Weistropp, nine English miles from Dresden. The drive was beautiful—through the open fields cultivated like gardens to the very wheels of the carriage and commanding gentle and striking views of the Elbe, along whose banks it stretched. Weistropp itself, a fine estate with a comfortable village belonging to it, stands high on a promontory which rises from the plain of the Elbe, and its picturesque pleasure grounds extend down through a gorge and have been very well managed with their pretty streams so as to produce a good effect. The house is a large, straggling building in the chateau style so common on the continent; but we saw six or eight nice rooms and halls in it—one or two of them, indeed, quite rich and grand. All contained treasures of art. Four very good copies of Canova’s Hebe, Graces and Dancing Girl—two beautiful original works of Thorwaldsen, his Ganymede. His Shepherd with the Dog, sitting quietly, a most admirable work—a picture called a Murillo, of a sleeping hunter, perhaps not his but a capital picture; an original portrait of Mengs by himself; a Virgin and child by Leonardo da Vinci; and a quantity more of pictures with less famous names but almost all of them well selected.—We had a good dinner. The party consisted of Mrs. Walpole, wife of a brother of Lord Orford,107 with her daughter, Lord Folkestone,108 son of Lord Radnor, with his compagnon du voyage,109 Mr. 106. Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1797–1870). 107. This probably refers to Horatio Walpole, Third Earl of Orford (1783–1858). 108. This refers to Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, Viscount Folkestone (later fourth Earl of Radnor) (1815– 1889), the son of William Pleydell-Bouverie, third Earl of Radnor (1779–1869). 109. Travel companion.

148

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

Woodward of Christ’s Church Oxford; two or three more English; and a few of his own connections, but English was the only language spoken. It was all well and in good taste, but not particularly interesting, for none of them were very intellectual people, except Mr. Woodward. Mr. Krause, however, is very intelligent and has seen a great deal of the world. After dinner, he carried us over his sheep establishment, which is among those of highest repute in Saxony.110 He has now thirteen hundred and fifty, and his arrangements are very ample and excellent, the sheep being sheltered at night in large stone buildings, clean and well ventilated.—I was very glad to see so carefully one of these large establishments, which are so characteristic of Saxony and so important to its wealth. The whole made a visit of five or six hours quite interesting, and we did not get back to Dresden, which we left soon after twelve, until nearly nine in the Evening.

1836 MAY 10. DRESDEN. VISITS P.P.C. DINNER WITH PRINCE JOHN. BARON LINDENAU. May 10. Today was spent like yesterday in going about. I went to the Library; to the collection of Engravings, and to the Gallery—I visited Falkenstein; Tiedge, who is always lively and agreeable; Mr. Forbes, who has been so uniformly kind to us; and Reichenbach, besides which I sent round about eighty cards p.p.c.111 to the rank and file of my acquaintance. I dined most agreeably with Prince John— nobody present but the Aid de camp de service,112 who did not open his lips, though the conversation was extremely various as well as voluble. I do not know whether this was etiquette or not. The Prince told a good many stories—a habit into which persons of his rank often fall, from the circumstance that it tends to relieve them from the embarrassment of either answering or asking questions. But he tells them very well, and quite apropos. He was pleasant, and kind, and protracted the conversation after dinner, until he was obliged to get into his carriage for Pillnitz.113 I was sorry to part from him—for if I were to see many more princes in Europe than I shall see, I should not find one so good a scholar and few so entirely respectable in their whole characters public and private.—I spent the Evening with Baron Lindenau and had much interesting and exciting talk with him, for he is one of those men who always stir the minds of those with whom they converse, partly

110. Saxon sheep of the very finest quality are still sold and, therefore, I suppose always will be sold at great prices. Mr. Krause sold several last year from 700 Rix dollars to 1000—($525 to 750.) [G.T.] 111. P.P.C. cards announced a person’s departure from a town or social event. The abbreviation derives from French pour prendre congé, “in order to take leave.” 112. A military officer acting as secretary and confidential assistant to a superior officer. 113. The palace at Pillnitz had served as the summer residence for the electors and later kings of Saxony since 1765.

1835–1836

149

by kindness and genuine bonhomie,114 partly by great acuteness. I think he is, on the whole, the wisest man I have seen since I left America.

1836 MAY 12. LEAVE DRESDEN. BANKS OF THE ELBE. MEIßEN. CATHEDRAL. 12 May. It was not agreeable to leave Dresden today, even though we intend to be there for a short time again in two or three weeks. We have been, in all respects, well there—comfortably and even luxuriously settled in good quarters, almost six months—kindly received by everybody—and much regarded by a few. It has more—much more than fulfilled the expectations we indulged when we entered it last November, both as a place of agreeable and of useful residence; and, I think, not one of us—not even one of our servants—left it without a strong feeling of regret.—But the time was come for this, as for everything else it comes sooner or later; and at twelve o’clock today, we drove by the Picture Gallery and the Palaces; over the fine bridge we have crossed so often, and out by the Leipzig gate, through which we first entered the city. We drove in beautiful weather along the bank of the Elbe through vineyards, just putting forth their shoots; and, looking across the stream, still ample with the spring floods, and frequently enlivened with sailboats of all sizes, saw, on the other side, the fine chateau of Weistropp, where we dined a few days since—Scharfenberg, a more formidable mass of buildings belonging to Baron Miltitz, and Siebeneichen, a heavy but comfortable looking pile where he lives. It was a very different ride from the one by which over the same road we approached Dresden six months ago. At last we reached Meißen, the ancient capital of Saxony; and perhaps the oldest city in the Kingdom—since it is known to have existed before the year 1000. It has altogether an old look, though it is a thriving place still of about six thousand inhabitants, built chiefly on the sides and top of an abrupt hill crowned by the Cathedral and Palace, which give it a picturesque look from whichever side it may be approached but especially from the fine bridge we crossed to reach it. We went out at once to see it. The Cathedral has nothing imposing about it, though some of the sculptured figures over its doors are quite remarkable considering their age. It was built by Otho I, and two of its three fine towers of open stonework were destroyed by lightning in the sixteenth century, but from the third, there is a magnificent view of the Elbe from the mountains of Saxon Switzerland down.115 The most curious part within is the chapel of the 114. Geniality. 115. Construction of the Meißen Cathedral began sometime between 1240 and 1260. It was built on the site of an older chapel that dated from 968. This older chapel was built by Otto I (912–973) on the occasion of the creation of the Diocese of Meißen.

150

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

Princes, where ten of the earliest Dukes and Electors, beginning with Frederick the warlike, lie buried; but there are some other ancient graves that are shown and an altarpiece in the old German style that claims Lucas Cranach for its painter and is good enough, no doubt, to be his. The Palace is adjacent to the Cathedral, of about the same age and much in the same style. Since 1710, it has been used for the Manufacture of the famous Meißen Porcelain; but it was a holiday—the feast of the ascension—and we did not go in, which we regretted very little, as we have seen the whole history of the Meißen ware better at Dresden than it can be seen here; and elsewhere the manufacture of Porcelain generally.—The rest of the afternoon, I lounged about, and Mrs. T. and Anna sketched with Mr. Sparmann, their kind teacher in Drawing and painting, whom we brought with us as far as Meißen, where his mother lives.

1836 MAY 13. LEIPZIG. ITS THRIFT. MR. KEIL. BROCKHAUS. 13 May. We drove today from Meißen to Leipzig—part of the way on the Elbe and the whole of it through a fertile and thriving country. We crossed the Mulde by a beautifully constructed stone bridge erected in 1831, where, twenty years ago, I crossed it by a clumsy ferry; and on our left hand saw, as we also saw at several other places in the course of our ride, the beginnings of the railroad, which is now constructing between Leipzig and Dresden, and in whose stock the most absurd speculations have been made during the last winter. We passed over the great plain, where the decisive battle against Bonaparte was fought in October 1814, and in exploring which I passed the entire day of its anniversary in 1816, so that it now looked quite familiar to me. The suburbs, however, are more extensive than they were then and much embellished with gay gardens and walks; but as soon as we entered its gates, we found ourselves in the midst of the bustle and stir of a merely commercial city. The great Easter fair has now been over four or five days and the streets, filled with wagons loaded and lading, bore witness to it; while the quickened step of the population and their eager look left no doubt of the extraordinary activity and prosperity which now reigns among them. The inhabitants are now about 43,000 in number, and rapidly increasing—partly owing, I suppose, to the thrift of trade everywhere, but more to the beneficial operation of the new regulations made by the influence of Prussia respecting duties on goods, which are probably more important to Saxony than to any other country embraced by them. At any rate, the bustle, spirit and movement of things here constituted the most complete contrast to the quiet and tranquil state of things at Dresden.

1835–1836

151

I went out and made a visit to Mr. Keil, a man of fortune here who is said to live more elegantly than any other person in Leipzig. I should think it might be so from what I saw, for his house stands in a beautiful garden,116 and its fine and elegant rooms are richly furnished, and covered with pictures. He is a man of letters; has published an edition of Calderon in the original, which does him credit; and is very agreeable in conversation. His wife and family, too, seemed pleasant and intelligent; but I could not stay with them long, for I wished to see, partly on business, and partly as a curiosity, Brockhaus,117 the great German publisher who, to a great degree, controls the whole bookselling trade of Germany. I found him a young man118—for the father has been some time dead and his two sons have taken the business, one of printing and the other of publishing, and, by dividing, have greatly increased and extended both. Their business and speculations, which are immense, are understood to have been thus far successful, but are thought to be very adventurous. The one I saw seemed to me a ready and sagacious person, entirely imbued with the spirit of trade.—

1836 MAY 14. LEIPZIG. MR. KEIL’S PICTURES. PRUSSIA. DESSAU. 14th May. I promised, last evening to come again this morning to Mr. Keil’s and see his pictures by a better light.119 I did so; but I might have spared my time; for, unless the Dresden Gallery has spoiled me, Mr. Keil’s collection was not worth the trouble. There were not more than two or three good pictures in it; and a man of as much taste as he is would hardly, I think, have collected it. He received it in fact from his father-in-law and, of course, takes good care of what, no doubt, cost a great deal of money; but one of Mr. Krause’s cabinets contains more that is worth seeing than is to be found in the whole of the very large collection that tapestries the walls of Mr. Keil’s ten or twelve really rich and beautiful rooms. As we did not care to stop in Leipzig, we left it as soon as I returned from seeing Mr. Keil’s pictures and, passing out of the city by the same gate by which we had entered it, drove round nearly one half of its outer circumference, skirting 116. Löhr’s Garden was located north of the city of Leipzig. It was a large estate in the style of an English park created in 1770–1771 by the Leipzig banker Eberhard Heinrich Löhr. 117. Brockhaus was the famous German publishing house and a noted publisher of encyclopedias. Brothers Heinrich and Friedrich Brockhaus together had taken over the publishing house from their father Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. 118. This refers to Heinrich Brockhaus, who was just nineteen when his father died and he became the director of the publishing house. He was thirty-two when Ticknor met him. 119. Keil had inherited the collection of pictures from his father-in-law, Carl Eberhard Löhr, as well as an extensive collection of copper engravings from his wife’s grandfather, Johann Friedrich Bause.

152

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

all the time pleasant gardens and walks, and then striking off towards the North, traversed another portion of the famous battleground—that on which Bernadotte made the attack. We soon entered Prussia—for since the treaty of 1815, the limits of Prussia come nearly down to Leipzig. We passed through Delitzsch and then took our direction towards Dessau, which is a little to the left of our route to Berlin but is worth seeing for the beautiful gardens in its neighborhood. It is situated in a vast plain, and the approach to it is through an extensive pine forest, neither very promising—but it is one of the neatest and pleasantest looking towns of 10,000 inhabitants I have ever seen. The houses are almost all two stories high with good fronts and the streets spacious, clean and quiet. The Palace of the reigning duke, like almost all the German palaces, especially in the smaller states, is much too large for the wants of his principality and a clumsy, awkward building; but the Mulde flows near it, and though encumbered with mills in its very precincts, still gives an opportunity for pleasant gardens and pretty walks, besides which the dam which gives the needed water power for the mills is managed so as to produce a very good effect. We enjoyed a walk around them all very much and then came back to as comfortable and nice lodgings as we have had in Germany.

1836 MAY 15. WÖRLITZ. GARDENS AT WÖRLITZ. ECLIPSE. STORKS. WITTENBERG. LUTHER’S MONUMENT. LUTHER’S ROOM. SPOT WHERE HE BURNT THE POPE’S BULLS. MELANCHTHON’S HOUSE. 15th May.—We drove to Wörlitz this morning120—the beautiful gardens— which are so much talked about all over Germany, and which constituted our principal object in visiting Dessau. They are about seven or eight English miles from the city, and the drive to them, though through a flat country, was various and very pleasant—once in sight of the Elbe and often on the borders of the waters with which this part of the country abounds and which are here everywhere managed so as to produce a good effect.121 The gardens themselves are about two or three English miles square, but for several miles further the woods and waters and prospects are arranged so as to contribute more or less to their beauty. What is remarkable about them is that one man—the last Duke122—lived long enough

120. We should have stayed in Dessau a day or two if the reigning Duchess had been there, for I had letters to her and was curious to see a Princess so intellectual and gentle as she is represented to be. But both she and the Duke are gone to Carlsbad, and both, I suppose, will have left Carlsbad before we get there. [G.T.] 121. On our way we passed a picturesque looking house called Gustavus Adolphus—because he was concealed under a bridge near it while the opposing army passed over it without discovering him. [G.T.] 122. Leopold III Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau (1740–1817).

1835–1836

153

both to plan them and see them grow to perfection—for he governed from 1751 to 1817; sixty-six years and died at last nearly eighty years old. That he was a man of taste, these gardens, which are still well kept up, prove plainly enough. The waters are everywhere beautifully distributed—the walks are arranged and led about with great skill—and almost all the little buildings are well placed and form good points of view. There are a great many of them, besides a large and comfortable palace; and a house called the Gothic house, where the old Duke passed nearly all his time. In this respect, Wörlitz reminded me of Stowe;123 but at Wörlitz there is a much freer and finer nature, and a more judicious and tasteful arrangement of everything. The Gothic house—built in Gothic taste—and filled with suitable furniture—old and fine pictures—and a great deal of what is rare in the ornamental work of former ages, is quite a bijou in its kind. We stayed in it a long time and left it with regret. So, in fact, it was with the whole gardens. We walked round them three or four hours—listening, for the first time, to great numbers of nightingales, who are unpoetical enough to sing most sweetly in the daytime; where, or here, they multiply greatly and are never disturbed—and enjoying the beautiful and gentle varieties of prospects which such picturesque gardening on so large a scale opened on all sides, changing every moment as we advanced.124 At last, we went to a comfortable, nice inn, built by the late Duke, just in the borders of the garden and, having had an excellent dinner, drove on about a dozen English miles further to Wittenberg, the city of Luther. The drive was dull—through a sandy country—but we were interested by fine views of the great solar eclipse, which, as the sun was often slightly veiled with thin, drifting clouds, we saw to great advantage. We saw, too, on the top of a peasant’s house, the first stork we have seen—a picturesque bird, quite common in Westphalia and in some parts of Prussia proper as I well recollect. We crossed the Elbe at Wittenberg on a long wooden bridge; and entered the city through a formidable apparatus of fortifications—partly the work of the French; chiefly that of the Prussians. The first thing we saw that told us truly where we are was in the market place, through which we drove to our lodgings—a colossal statue of Luther, standing in his robes with a copy of his own translation of the scriptures in one hand, to which he points impressively with the other. On looking at it several times afterwards, I thought it a fine work of art and very characteristic in its attitude and countenance. It is of iron, as well as the little Gothic building in which it stands, but by the use of slight chemical means is made to look like bronze. As a just tribute to his memory, it was erected Oct. 31, 123. This refers to the Stowe Landscape Gardens just outside of Buckingham, England. 124. It might seem strange that a little principality like this with hardly sixty thousand inhabitants should have been able to furnish the means for so costly a luxury as these gardens. But the Dukes of Anhalt-Dessau have long been very rich. They have great personal possessions in Prussia and Silesia, independent of their Duchy. [G.T.]

154

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

1817, just three centuries from the day when, in the same city and almost on the same spot, he publicly announced and defended his 95 theses against the sale of indulgences—involving in them, at the risk of his life, of course, all the great principles of Protestantism. Almost as soon as we had alighted at the inn, we went to see another curious monument to Luther—his room, preserved with some of its furniture, exactly as he lived in it—dark, large, and massive with a solemn old stove in it covered with tiles in bas relief representing scripture subjects. It is holy ground. The walls are chalked over with obscure names—among which under a glass is preserved that of Peter the Great scrawled by himself.—In an adjacent room are kept some of Luther’s wife’s needlework, a plain drinking can that was his own and some other curious relics. The whole is situated in the building of the old Augustine monastery which, after its dissolution, was given by the Elector of Saxony to Luther125—and this again is near one of the gates of the city, out of which we passed and saw enclosed the spot where, in 1520, he burnt the Papal bulls, and decretals—defying thus publicly the whole power of the church. Afterwards, too, I saw the house where Melanchthon died in 1560; and, I was glad to find as I walked about the city that, though things looked well-preserved and thriving,126 and though like all Prussian towns there was a good deal of military show and stir, still it had an ancient look about it, and much of what we saw seemed as if it might have come down from the times with which the main glory of the city must always be connected.

1836 MAY 16. LUTHER’S CHURCH. HIS GRAVE AND MELACHTHON’S. DRIVE FROM WITTENBERG TO POTSDAM. May 16.—We went this morning to the Schlosskirche where Luther defended his theses, where he often preached, and where he regularly worshipped; and saw his grave. It is marked by a plain, bronze tablet with a plain inscription, which is under the floor of the church and covered by a locked door. Under the opposite and corresponding aisle, similarly enclosed, is just such a tablet for Melanchthon, who was buried there in 1560—fourteen years after Luther’s death. In the chancel of the church are two very good statues of the two great Electors; who sustained the Reformation—Frederick the Wise, who died in 1525—and John the Resolute, who died in 1532—and I was glad that no other monuments were shown to us in the body of the church, though there are some others to be 125. Martin Luther lived in this house, which was given to him by Friedrich III (the Wise), elector of Saxony (1463–1525), from 1508 to 1546. 126. It contains about 10,000 inhabitants, which is more than it contained after the war of 1813–14 in which it suffered considerably. [G.T.]

1835–1836

155

seen in other parts of it.127 Four such men should have none others near them to stir contradictory thoughts and associations. I was glad, too, to find that the inside of the church, which was in a very disordered state when I was here in 1816 from the wars and troubles of the period when Germany was emancipated, had been much cared for and put in excellent repair, though, to be sure, its two massive towers, by a slight change, have been separated from the main building and made a part of the outer fortifications of the city—an arrangement made, I believe, at first by the French but now continued by the Prussians. [Editor’s note: The Ticknors spent May 16 and 17 in Potsdam, where they visited Sanssouci Palace. Between May 17 and 29 they were in Berlin, where they called on several notable individuals, including Alexander von Humboldt,128 and toured the important galleries, institutions, and monuments of the city.]

1836 MAY 29. LEAVE BERLIN. MAY 30. FROM POTSDAM TO HERTZBERG. MAY 31. FROM HERTZBERG TO DRESDEN. MORITZBURG. DRESDEN. TIECK. May 29. Late in the afternoon, we drove out of the magnificent Brandenburg Gate and bade farewell to Berlin. Our road back to Dresden is partly the same by which we traveled to Berlin; and today, we came as far as Potsdam, finding everything beautifully refreshed by a rain that fell this morning. 30 May.—One of our neighbors near the Hotel where we lodged had eight cages of nightingales hung out before his house that sung all night long, besides which every hour, there was a chime of bells in one of the church steeples, so sweet that Mrs. T. at first mistook it for a band of music. We were not kept unreasonably awake by either of them; but whenever we were awake it was in the enjoyment of great pleasure.—This morning, we drove on by a fine road through a dreary country and, passing Treuenbrietzen and Jüterbog, came to Hertzberg to sleep, where we found a body of regular troops come to assist in training the militia, who now have some weeks’ service in the field to make them soldiers. The old town was all alive with military dresses and showed more than its due proportion of that warlike character which is present through all the borders of Prussia, and is, to strangers especially, very striking. We have found it everywhere that we have been from Wittenberg round to the borders of Saxony again.— 127. These Electors are buried below. [G.T.] 128. For the relationship between Ticknor and Humboldt, see Schwarz, “Transatlantic Communication in the 19th Century: Aspects of the Correspondence between Alexander von Humboldt and George Ticknor.”

156

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

31 May. This forenoon, we found ourselves again in the pleasant, quiet land of Saxony—surrounded with more fertility than we have seen before since we left it, and in the midst, if not of a better population, of one that inspires more confidence, and seems more contented and comfortable. We dined at Großenhain in an old, well-ordered inn; and came the next post to Moritzburg, an old castle built in the middle of a lake by the Elector Maurice and finished in its present style by Frederick Augustus I. It is a striking pile of buildings with some of the insignia of a hunting establishment hung about it; and producing a very good effect, as it is seen over the waters of the little lake, with whose shores its towers are connected by a drawbridge. The road after this, for a considerable distance, is shaded with old and rich trees, which continue, I think, till rising a hill, Dresden, with its fine steeples, and the dome of the Frauenkirche, opened at once upon our view. We felt refreshed by the sight, and as we drove through its fertile plain and well-known, friendly streets, it seemed as if we were returning to a home—so natural and cheerful did everything appear to us in a place where we had passed nearly six agreeable and useful months. As we intended only to pass the night in Dresden, I went out immediately to see Tieck, whom I had promised to see again on our way to Vienna. By chance it was his birthday, and I found him surrounded by a large party of his friends, many of whom I knew perfectly well. It was an agreeable surprise to me to be greeted by so many once more whom I had not thought to meet again. Among the rest, I found there his brother, the sculptor,129 whom I had failed to see at his atelier in Berlin—a grave but agreeable person—younger, I suppose, than the Poet. But I could not stop long with them—so exchanging once more all sorts of good wishes and kind thoughts with them, I left them in the midst of their cheerfulness, and came back to our excellent quarters in the Stadt Rom and completed my arrangements for leaving North Germany.

1836 JUNE 1. LEAVE DRESDEN FOR SOUTH GERMANY. PILLNITZ. SAXON SWITZERLAND. THE BASTEI. SCHANDAU. June 1, 1836. It was quite accidental and, therefore, perhaps, the more striking, that we should begin the second great division of our European Journeyings— our proposed travels to Austria and Italy—on the anniversary of the day when we embarked at New York—which, also, merely by chance again, is Nannie’s birthday.—Such a coincidence added not a little to the varied thoughts and feelings which the renewed undertaking naturally brought with it as we drove out of the gates of the kind and hospitable Dresden, and looked back for the last time 129. Christian Friedrich Tieck.

1835–1836

157

upon its picturesque turrets and towers.—We leave it, however, with one more person added to our party than we had when we entered it; for I have made an arrangement with Sparmann, the landscape painter, whom, in the course of the winter we have all learned to like very much, that he should go with us into Austria, etc., and continue the instructions to Mrs. T. and Nannie, which have thus far given them so much pleasure. We were not, however, advanced far through the rich and beautiful plain in the midst of which Dresden stands before it came on to rain—a disagreeable circumstance, as we had sent our own carriage to Tetschen on the Elbe south of Dresden, and were now in a couple of calèches,130 with the immediate purpose of passing two or three days in visiting some of the more striking portions of the picturesque country, which, in the mountains that divide Saxony from Bohemia, passes under the name of the Saxon Switzerland. At first, the rain was inconsiderable. We went on towards Pillnitz, the summer residence of the royal family, and crossed over to it by a flying bridge, so very nicely adjusted that we drove in and drove out of the boat as if it had been a solid road. There we got out of our carriages and, passing under a fine avenue of trees, entered the court of the Palace. It is larger and more striking than I expected to find it; something in the oriental style of Architecture which seems to have struck the taste of Augustus the second very much, but better accommodated to the European character and wants than I should have thought possible. It was, however; a good deal remodeled about 1788, and one end of it was quite newly built after a fire which destroyed it in 1818.—It has a quiet, cheerful and comfortable look; and was interesting for131 the recollections it brought of the period—(I think 1791)—when the conferences were held there that resulted in the wars which both created and destroyed Bonaparte and which were ended only with the entry of the Allies into Paris, and his Exile to St. Helena.—But the rain increased and we got into our carriages—closed them as well as we could—and saw little more till we came to the famous Bastei—a grand pile of rocks rising about six hundred feet from the Elbe, something in the shape of the bastion of a gigantic Fortification. There was a pretty good house of entertainment there; but it was crowded with visitors dripping and disappointed like ourselves, so that it was not without difficulty we found accommodation and a dinner; accompanied as usual in such places with music. After it was over, we went out, notwithstanding the rain, and notwithstanding our purpose to return again, and enjoyed the prospect up and down the Elbe. It is very grand—and looked today very picturesque from the mist that shrouded the enormous masses of rocks heaped up in all directions around us, while below, the river wound along smooth as a mirror directly under our feet,

130. These were four-passenger carriages with folding tops. 131. This word is unclear in the manuscript.

158

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

but at such a distance that the men on its huge freighting-boats could scarcely be distinguished. We stopped, however, only a few moments and then, getting again into our carriages, drove to Schandau. On our way, we saw little. Once or twice, the peculiar character of the country in its piles of sandstone rocks built up like basalt was revealed to us; and when we passed on the heights above the valley in which Hohenstein is situated, the ruins of the old castle, lifted high upon one of these piles of rock and wreathed in mist, looked very grand and spectral. We were glad, however, to reach Schandau where, in a good inn, erected near some slightly mineral waters just beyond the village and in a pleasant valley with the Kirnitsch, a rapid, brawling stream immediately under our windows, we have found most cheerful and comfortable quarters.

1836 JUNE 2. SAXON SWITZERLAND. VALLEY OF THE KIRNITSCH. June 2. We made an unsuccessful attempt today to see the Kuhstall—another of the striking points in the Saxon Switzerland, and failed, being prevented by rain. But we had a beautiful drive—one of the most beautiful I ever enjoyed in my life. It was entirely along the banks of the Kirnitsch, which we followed for about six miles as it comes rapidly down a narrow valley enclosed by high palisades of rocks on each side, and with a rich meadow bordering it all along. Now and then a rustic bridge crossed the stream; frequently banks of flowers132 in such numbers and profusion as we never see them at home, literally, not poetically, enameled it; and all the way, the rude and perpendicular rock that often shelved over our heads at the height of fifty or an hundred feet and then towered up again one or two hundred more covered with large trees in their richest verdure produced a various, sometimes wild, sometimes gentle, effect—that, I think, I never experienced before to the same degree. We talked of the Wye133 but, on comparing the two scenes which seemed to resemble each other a good deal, we thought this finer—more grand in its wilder portions, more winning as a retired, highly cultivated little valley cut down deep in a much more magnificent mass of rocks and watered by a more rapid and picturesque stream. But, at last, we reached the point where the road ceases to be much used for carriages, and found gathered under a shadowing rock that about formed a cave, six or eight men, cowering over a fire, whose sole employment is to carry persons up the steep sides of their mountain in comfortable chairs. Just at this moment, it began to 132. Among the other flowers that grow wild in great abundance is the ladies-delight, which we cultivate in pots and gardens at home. We have seen it for the last month in such quantities that it would sometimes discolor and give its character to an entire field.—The daisy, too, is hardly less frequent. [G.T.] 133. The River Wye flows along the border between England and Wales.

1835–1836

159

rain. The rest of the party, therefore, placed themselves under some other sheltering rocks on the opposite side of the little brook that here cuts its way into the Kirnitsch through the mountain barrier, and I stepped over it and sat down by the fire with the poor “bearers,” as they are called. They seemed simple and honest men, ten in number, who receive permission to exercise their vocation and take a certain sum as pay from each passenger who employs them; but who, in turn, are bound to be there constantly from April to November to fulfill their task. It was a strange and wild scene, and we were not sorry to stop there for half an hour and look round upon it. But the rain did not cease or give token of ceasing—so that at last we returned to our carriage and drove back to our nice quarters in Schandau—feeling little disappointed about the Kuhstall because we determined at once to come again, even if it should only be to see this beautiful and romantic valley.

1836 JUNE 3. SAXON SWITZERLAND. THE BASTEI. KÖNIGSTEIN, AND LILIENSTEIN. June 3. The weather was very fine this morning, and we seized the opportunity to drive back about ten English miles, and visit the Bastei, which the rain and mist, though they gave us some wild and striking views from it day before yesterday, yet prevented us from enjoying as it ought to be enjoyed. We had a magnificent drive, chiefly over hills that brought us up to the height where the Bastei juts134 over the Elbe; and obtained from it the first satisfactory idea I have had of the nature and formation of the picturesque country we are visiting. It is, in fact, the mountains dividing Bohemia and Saxony135—which originally constituted a vast dam confining the waters of the Elbe in Bohemia, so that nearly all Bohemia was an inland sea; and, when these waters broke forth, divided and cut up this immense dam into the picturesque country now around us, settling down at last into the Elbe and its tributary streams. The nature of the rocks, constituting the mass of the mountains themselves, contributed in no small degree to give to the whole its present peculiar character. They are of a soft, yellowish brown sandstone, which the floods were able to wear away into the most fanciful shapes and which yet had consistency and firmness enough afterwards to resist further change and to retain still the rude, marked features the waters left impressed upon 134. This word is unclear in the manuscript. 135. It is most unmeritably called the Saxon Switzerland, for—picturesque as it is—it has certainly nothing of the Swiss character about it. The kind old King of Saxony illustrated this fact rather whimsically last winter by saying to Mr. Forbes—On l’appelle la Suisse Saxonne; mais elle ne ressemble plus à la Suisse, que moi, je ne ressemble à la Venus de Medicis—et regardez moi, Monseiur—regardez moi; said the old gentleman, pointing to his shrunk and withered little person. [G.T.] [One calls it Swiss Saxony; but it resembles Switzerland about as much as I resemble the Venus of Medici. Sir, just take a look at me. . . .]

160

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

them. Sometimes, as in the neighborhood of Schandau, they rise up in needles like clusters of pillars and look like basaltic columns, such as are found in the Giant’s Causeway,136 showing on all their sides the traces of the floods which had ground and washed them into their present shapes. Sometimes—as in the valley of the Kirnitsch, and in fact all the valleys of the little streams which in these mountains flow into the Elbe and of which we have seen several—the waters have merely cut themselves a channel through which they still flow, leaving a solemn range of palisades rising from fifty to several hundred feet on each side, and a fertile beautiful meadow at the bottom. And sometimes, as in the cases of Königstein and Lilienstein, the great flood itself, as it subsided into the Elbe, left rocky islands with fertile summits rising perpendicularly out of the immense fertile plain in which they stand, and still showing on their bare and broken sides how certainly they were once islands rising perpendicularly out of the waters that dashed around them, as they are now islands, rising eight hundred, a thousand and fourteen hundred feet from the meadows below. It is, therefore, a most curious and picturesque country—not at all Swiss, to be sure, in its character—but very strange and very imposing in some parts, and very gentle and beautiful in others—extending from the neighborhood of Pillnitz to the frontiers of Bohemia, or about fourteen English miles one way—and stretching in width about five or six the other—showing everywhere not only in the outline of its hills, rocks and valleys, but in the remains of shells, fishes, and similar fossils of all kinds, the original presence and movements of the great flood that broke through the mountains and formed the present Elbe. Just before we reached the Bastei, we were caught in a smart shower and thought we should again be disappointed in our hopes of seeing its extraordinary views. But at the moment when we arrived, it cleared up again, and from the projecting rock—something like Table Rock at Niagara—we enjoyed the grand and varied prospect in a beautiful light—frequently shifting as the clouds from the recent shower hurried along and cast their transient shadows over it. It is certainly very remarkable and gives as much a feeling of surprise and astonishment as any prospect I ever remember to have seen. You come upon it suddenly—the height is great—the Elbe almost perpendicularly under your feet—the rocks in the neighborhood, especially those on which there are slight remains of an old castle, are piled up in very fantastic forms—the mountains about are wild and grand—and as the plain of the river widens and opens more broadly, the Königstein and Lilienstein start up in the midst of it directly in front of you, and look so strangely like islands in the midst of vast meadows that, at first, you hardly know how to interpret them. They are indeed quite singular 136. The Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland.

1835–1836

161

phenomena. Königstein is a mass of perpendicular rock that rises from the rich and flat plain around it fully 800 feet—is above a mile in circumference—and is crowned with a strong fortress, called impregnable because it has never been taken—but in the Seven Years’ War and in the War of 1813, it was declared neutral ground. It was, I believe, quite anciently a fortress; but, in 1516, it was made a cloister—the last one established in Saxony and very soon dissolved by the conversion of the Prior and monks, and in 1539 it became the military position it has continued ever since. Directly opposite to it—on the other side of the Elbe—stands Lilienstein—another similar mass of perpendicular rock, but yet higher, which has never been occupied, but which might, I doubt not, be made a position that would entirely command Königstein, as Königstein itself now entirely commands the Elbe and the pass into Bohemia. Both are very curious and are specimens of a sort of rock-island seen in different proportions and sizes all through the Saxon Switzerland, and explaining with great distinctness its geological formation, while they constitute no small part of its wild and picturesque beauty.—We remained on the Bastei about three hours and enjoyed it very much—had a comfortable dinner—and then returned to Schandau by the same road we passed in the morning—wondering for the hundredth time at the fantastic shapes into which the floods have worn the sand stone mountains and left them to stand in the midst of so much fertility and beauty.

1836 JUNE 4. SAXON SWITZERLAND. THE KUHSTALL. June 4. We drove again this morning up the romantic valley of the Kirnitsch and visited the Kuhstall. The weather was fine as we went up—the valley was in all its beauty, picturesqueness and grace—and we found the good-natured chairmen waiting to offer their services to any who, like ourselves, needed them. The ascent of the mountain, by pleasant paths cut carefully in its side and looking down into the beautiful valley and over a wide prospect, lasted about half an hour, when we came suddenly to a large, wild opening in the rocks that built up the hillside like a massive wall before us—not a cave merely but an opening which quite pierces the mountain and comes out to a precipice of many hundred feet on the other side. This is the Kuhstall—the “cow’s stable”—so called, according to a popular and probable tradition, that, the herdsmen and their cattle from the neighborhood took refuge here during the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War. As we approached it, we heard music, and when we entered, found a family of Bohemians—the father playing on a violin, the son on a flute and the daughter rather a pretty damsel, singing quite sweetly to her harp. It was the best music of the sort we have ever heard, and showed how near we were already come to the land of popular Ballad music—which I suppose Bohemia may be

162

GE O R GE T IC K NOR’ S G ERMA N TRAVEL J OURN AL

fairly enough considered. We remained there two or three hours, enjoying the wild and striking scenery, which was part of the time beautifully lighted up with bright sunshine, and part of the time, shrouded in a shower which drove us for shelter under the mountain arch, where we were again regaled with the sweet national airs of the Bohemian family.—At last the sun broke forth again—we descended the mountain, all fresh and glittering with the recent rain—and rejoining our carriage drove back to Schandau by the picturesque valley which we had now traversed four times with so much pleasure.

1836 JUNE 5. SAXON SWITZERLAND. GONDOLA ON THE ELBE. BOHEMIA. TETSCHEN. June 5. We left the Saxon Switzerland this afternoon in a boat—resembling a gondola a little—and managed by three men, of whom one steered and the two others drew it with a tow rope, at the rate of about three miles an hour up the river. It is the best mode of conveyance and not an unpleasant one, except that it is unpleasant to see men working so hard and so much like the lower orders of creation. The mountains on either side of the river during the fourteen or fifteen miles we passed through them in this way are grand and picturesque—showing gradually less and less of the peculiar character of the Saxon Switzerland, and in several parts, reminding us of the Highlands on the North River.137 We had one slight shower, from which, however, the covering of our boat entirely protected us—the light fell variously and often with fine effect on the changing outlines of the mountains— and our passage was easily made in four hours and an half, including a quarter of an hour that we stopped on the frontiers of Bohemia, and had our passports examined by the Austrian authorities. At last, just as the mountains begin to subside into gentler forms and become covered with cultivation, we came in sight of Tetschen—an enormous mass of buildings standing on a bold rock above the Elbe with a corresponding rock still bolder on the other side; round the bases of both which are gathered, as is so often the case with the castles that have come down from the middle ages, a village, formed at first for protection, but now thriving with industry and trade that have made it a little town of two thousand inhabitants. [Editor’s note: The Ticknors continued on to Prague and Vienna and then to Italy, where they spent the next nine months. Thereafter, they spent another six months in Paris and about four months in England. In July 1838, more than three years after leaving for Europe, the Ticknors sailed home to Boston.]

137. The North River is the southernmost portion of the Hudson River between the states of New Jersey and New York.

SECTION II

Anna Ticknor, 1835–1836

9 “Safely arrived at this haven of rest.” November 10–December 25, 1835 [Editor’s note: The Ticknors departed for Europe on June 1, 1835, arriving in Liverpool on June 25. From there, they traveled through England, Ireland, Scotland, France, and the Netherlands to Prussia. This segment picks up in the middle of Anna Ticknor’s entry on a day spent seeing the sites in Bonn, including a tour of the library and museum in the afternoon with Professor Welcker of the University of Bonn, whom George Ticknor had known previously as a professor in Göttingen.]

1835 NOVEMBER 10TH. BONN. After this, we returned to the hotel. At five o’clock, Prof. Welcker took Mr. Ticknor to one of his own lectures on Mythology, and at eight again called to accompany him to the house of Prof. Naumann. I have been quietly writing for I did not feel up to an evening visit to strangers, and this matter of language is a serious obstacle to getting acquainted with people. I am sorry not to have seen Mr. Schlegel;1 he has called twice to-day, once, when we were all out, and this evening, while Mr. Ticknor was gone, and, forgetting he spoke English, I was afraid to ask him up; I have not French enough for a professor. This is a queer fashion in Germany of making people use their sleeping rooms for parlours, and I cannot think it altogether agreeable. But we certainly do travel with as much comfort, and as little trouble, as is possible; and we have all things so systematically arranged 1. August Wilhelm von Schlegel.

163

164

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

that their order deserves notice. We have breakfasted at six since leaving Brussels every morning that we were to travel, and, in consequence, have started at or very near seven with the first entire daylight. We ride till one or two without stopping, except to change horses; and then a stout metal bottle that we always have filled the night before with nice rice soup supplies our lunch and the children’s dinners. Our stop is often not longer than half an hour for it takes but a short time to heat the soup, and every moment of daylight is precious. We sometimes run on while they change horses, but the weather is not often tempting enough. We always stop by five for it is then quite dark; and then, when the fires are made and we have dined, we continue our trade of writing. Horses we find good every where, and we generally are not detained for the change, ten minutes. The stages are frequently long, fifteen or sixteen miles, but the postillion and horses are steadily industrious, and we never feel that we are losing time. Since entering Prussia, the postillions have been quite point device in their personal equipage. Their livery is blue and orange, round their right arm is a band of orange colour with the black eagle upon it; and slung under the left arm is a bugle much ornamented with cords. This they use most sonorously to remove obstacles in the road, and to inform their friends that the little glass of eau de vie2 must be brought out, which they generally take without stopping the walk of their horses. In France and Belgium, the signals were given by the cracking of the whip, which they execute with great science. But this is real gossip.

1835 NOVEMBER 11TH. ST. GOAR. St. Goar, Wednesday, 11th November. We drove from the quiet, cheerful little town of Bonn, exactly as the sun was appearing in it, and the active, neat market women were arranging their commodities for their daily market. I have not seen so pleasant a town on the continent; but I believe I have already said so. We have travelled sixty two miles to-day, almost constantly on the banks of the Rhine; and it is by no means too strong to say that we have not ridden one half mile without seeing some such strikingly picturesque object as one of those fine old castles perched upon the very pinnacle of a rock, or the ancient towers that formerly protected the little villages, which nestle at the foot of the bold and massive hills, or a church with its strange and awkward towers. I had no expectation of finding so much beauty and interest in one day’s experience. This glorious river is perfectly studded with beauty and historic recollections. How I wish I could put any portion of it on my page! But a rapid winter drive in a close carriage allows of a plenty of enjoyment certainly, but not that clear and 2. Brandy.

1835–1836

165

quiet understanding that enables one to describe. We find the weather cold and the days so short that we frequently wish ourselves in Dresden, and have within a few days determined to go on with less delay than we had planned.

1835 NOVEMBER 11TH. NEUWIED. We passed one town this morning on the opposite side of the river, which, in this land of superstition and bigotry, is quite remarkable. It is the little town of Neuwied, almost opposite to Andernach, the last, the most ancient, the other, the most modern of the towns upon the Rhine. It is built rather regularly and principally of white stone, which gives it a very cheerful appearance. Two steeples rise from amongst the buildings, and at one extremity of the town stands a large and stately looking palace with a fine avenue of poplars leading to it, which look elegant if not graceful. The town lies upon a beautiful piece of meadow land; as it were, sheltered on all sides by fertile hills and, looking a little down upon it, as we did from the opposite side, it was a fine sight. But it was not its beauty that I was going to speak of, but the liberal and enlightened spirit of its rulers. It is a little principality, governed by the counts of Wied. Prince Alexander, who inherited the estate in 1737, gave the rights of citizenship to all foreigners with liberty to enjoy openly their different religious opinions. The Protestant is the established religion; but Catholics, Calvinists, Moravians, and Jews worship according to their own creed, and live together in good fellowship. What is quite as curious here, each sect supports its own clergy, the system of tithes being unknown. It is, of course, a flourishing little place, though it suffered a great deal from the French; for it was too free for their tastes, and its population is now only 5,000. There is an establishment of Moravians, a college for Lutheran schoolmasters, and a Bible Society. The whole principality consists only of this city, two boroughs and forty five villages. All this, of course, I get from my guide book; but it struck me so much, I thought it worth abstracting.

1835 NOVEMBER 17TH. WEIMAR. Tuesday November 17th. The weather to-day has been so delightful that I almost felt sorry not to be making progress towards Dresden; but we have enjoyed it here tranquilly, and refreshingly, and it is hardly probable we shall be in Weimar again. The early morning we remained in our room, writing and reading. Between 11 and 12, Dr. and Miss Froriep called, and I was glad to find that they both spoke English. They have true German kindness, intelligence, and knowledge. The Dr. is very famous for a vast amount and a vast variety of learning; and his daughter

166

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

has that quiet, intelligent dignity of manner which thorough education generally gives. She is tall, and they are both as plain as is common to their countrymen and women. They invited us to go to see the public library, which was quite near our lodgings, and we were well pleased to go.3 We found it a collection made by the Grand Dukes of Weimar to the amount of 130,000 volumes; which, for a population of 10,000, is quite magnificent and admirable. It is kept in two large rooms; one, quite large and much ornamented with carving, gilding, busts and pictures. The pictures are all portraits, chiefly of the Ducal family for many generations, but English kings and statesmen and a few distinguished artists and scholars are also there. Two or three marble busts of Goethe and as many of Schiller give various representations, and show how much their distinction pleases and interests their townsmen. Under this room are two small ones, apparently directed to the occupations and cares of the Librarian; and one adjoining them I supposed was a sort of reading room, hung with prints and maps, and having large volumes of prints and atlases on shelves. The other part of the library, being entirely filled with prints, show books, military plans, etc., is kept in a sort of tower, which is entered nearly at the top from a balcony or platform which connects it with the main building. The centre is filled by a spiral staircase, and the books, placed in different tiers round the building, are very accessible by means of it. It was so cold that we did not stop to look at separate books, except one or two albums, of which they have a most curious collection of all shapes, sizes and ages, a fresh exemplification of the well known fact that there is nothing new under the sun. The oldest came down from the 15th century; but I do not think I saw that one. It was curious to see the scrawling of children on the pages, and the bad drawings so often made for their amusement. In some, the drawings were quite beautiful. They all belonged to gentlemen however, so that fashions change, if inventions do not increase. The last Duke, the liberal patron of scholars and the arts, provided that this room should be kept constantly warm, but his successor is more economical. We dined at the table d’hote at one, and at three went to see Goethe’s house and collections, which, by directions in his will, remain exactly as they were at his death six years ago,4 and are to continue so till his three grandchildren are of age, when the estate may be sold. His daughter in law lives in the house with her children, and I hope for her sake that the part she occupies is more comfortable and cheerful than the rooms we saw.5 His study was interesting from the amount 3. This refers to the Herzogin Anna Amalia Library that had been established by Duchess Anna Amalia in the Green Palace in 1766. Goethe suggested expanding the library by connecting the Green Palace to the old city tower (1803–1805). Twenty years later, the former city tower became a storage facility for books. 4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe died in 1832. Anna Ticknor was mistaken in believing that Goethe had died six years before. He had only died three years previously. 5. Ottilie von Goethe, born Freiin von Pogwisch.

1835–1836

167

of talent and mind so long exercised within its walls; and the fresh impression, we felt, of their power to lay the world and its treasures under contribution, and to claim and excite its sympathy, while enclosed within such narrow space. But it is a small and very ordinary room, as far as physical accommodations go. His sleeping room adjoining is still smaller, having space only for a small bed, one arm chair, in which he died, and a small table. We saw the manuscript of his Goetz of Berlichingen, and one other, of which I do not remember the name. A handsome and large cabinet held the rest of his manuscripts, but the tables, desks and shelves were all of unpainted pine. We were carried to another room through most extraordinary highways and byeways, up stairs and down, where are kept his collections of medals, prints, casts, bronzes, his botanical collections, his own drawings, coins, a good deal of old china, and, scattered about it a little of every thing else. Vandyck’s skull and a cast of Schiller’s were amongst other honoured curiosities. We saw most of these things only through glass doors, and the medals, coins, plants and drawings were not visible at all, being safely locked up. We looked at the portfolio of the prints of Raphael’s works, which was large and curious. All the engravings are arranged according to schools or periods. The whole was interesting as an expression of the vast variety and thoroughness of Goethe’s knowledge and interests and of the energy and industry by which, besides all that he executed in writing, he acquired so many of the physical sciences and brought to his aid so many illustrations of them.

1835 NOVEMBER 18TH. WEIMAR. NAUMBURG. Wednesday 18th November. We breakfasted this morning at six, anticipating a journey of thirteen hours. We were off at half past six, which I think is very energetic and respectable of a cold November morning, and what is better and more respectable still, we were all good-natured. It has not been very agreeable weather. There was a slight fall of snow in the night, and little showers of rain and sleet have frequently visited us all day. But it has not been cold, and being able to see out of the windows, we have been quite contented. The Duchy of Weimar is every where thoroughly cultivated, and had a more finished and comfortable look than some of its neighbours. The multitude of spires gives a civilized appearance to the country, nine being once in sight together; and the great nicety of the roads, which are bordered by trees through the whole Duchy, I believe, adds to that impression. About an hour before reaching Naumburg the country was quite changed from level, tranquil agriculture to wild and broken masses with deep ravines but no high hills. It looked very strangely cut up. Then we descended a long and abrupt hill, and found ourselves again on a plain with a series of moderately high

168

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

hills on our left, the river Saale winding its way to and about them. A mile from Naumburg, we passed the Schule Pforta, long a very famous school. It seemed an enormous establishment, quite enclosed by a stone wall, and beyond and directly above, a well wooded hill. Naumberg looks most ancient and dull. One of the squares was quite filled with the booths and stalls of the market people; but it did not look animated. We lunched there, and then industriously pursued our way to Leipzig. We reached Lützen before dark and talked of Gustavus, the hero of the north, and of Capt. Dugald Dalgetty;6 but did not see the place where he was killed,7 which Mr. Ticknor says is marked by a stone! We did not reach Leipzig till an hour after dark.

1835 NOVEMBER 19TH. LEIPZIG Thursday 19th. We drove into Leipzig, last evening in entire darkness, and drove out of it this morning in so qualified a light that I think I may safely say I have not seen it. Mr. Ticknor protests that there is nothing to see; and, since I cannot have the credit of discovering any thing, I willingly believe him. The battle field we looked at with interest, though it is a perfectly flat piece of country, without beauty or ornament. Indeed we found little variety through the day, till, approaching the Elbe, we encountered some very bold hills, sometimes shewing us the stern and solid rock of their foundations, which occasionally obtruded itself again at their summits. Fortunately, the road wound beneath them, giving us striking exhibitions of their forms and masses. We reached Meissen before dark, and, at the little inn, just under the high and precipitous hills on which the ancient castle stands, we found the chamber, just reeking from the liberal hands of a scourer, and were obliged to pack ourselves into two small rooms, which, as usual in Germany, were to be sleeping, dressing, eating and sitting rooms. The matter of sitting we cut quite short by going to bed soon after our coffee, intending to be very bright to morrow for entering Dresden.

1835 NOVEMBER 20TH. DRESDEN. Dresden, Friday, November 20th.—Safely arrived at this haven of rest. I cannot tell how grateful I have felt that, after so long a journey, at such a season, and through such terrible cold, we are here perfectly well, not having met with the

6. Dalgetty was a character in Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel, A Legend of Montrose (1819), set during the Thirty Years’ War. 7. Gustav II Adolph (1594–1632) was killed at the Battle at Lützen.

1835–1836

169

slightest accident, nor been detained an hour by violence of weather. I thought it hardly possible that we should any of us escape colds, at least; but, in fact, we have none of us had one, so thoroughly and faithfully have we been cared for and protected. It is, indeed, an experience to be dwelt upon, and to stimulate us to gratitude, faith and hope. We were quite lazy this morning, and it was almost daylight before we finished our breakfast; we were not sorry to have a little help from the sun to see the strange old castle, which on the top of a high precipitous hill, from the little window of our room, seemed, like the tower of Babel, to have been intended to reach unto the heavens, so high and so precipitous are its foundations, and substructions. We counted seven stone terraces, built one above the other to strengthen them. It is used now only for a porcelain manufactory. The country between Meissen and Dresden is smiling and pretty, and quite thickly settled. A series of gentle hills covered with vines, though they do not now look very picturesque, promise beauty at other seasons. Then, for a mile or two, the country, at a little distance from the road, was quite green with pine trees; and, on each side of it, large fields of winter grain just making its appearance with the morning sun glancing over it almost helped us to a recollection of the lovely hue of summer, so long replaced in our view by the russet leaf, whitened earth and lowering sky. It was a pleasant, mild morning, and our entrance to our new home was altogether promising and agreeable. There are no fortifications round Dresden, and the walls being low look only as if belonging to the exterior houses. The gateway, which is a simple iron railing, is broad and spacious; the two guard houses, though without ornament, except handsome pillars in front, have the same appearance of grandeur and elegance from their fine proportions and the liberal space around them. A palace of handsome proportions built of stone stands just within the gates, called the Japan palace,8 with a large square in front and extensive gardens behind it; and, as we drove on, the breadth of the street and a large gravelled promenade planted with fine trees gave an impression of elegance that I have not received from the first sight of any other capital. Passing through some rather narrow streets, we came to the Elbe, which divides the new city from the old, and, crossing the splendid stone bridge, saw the Catholic Cathedral directly before us. The palace where the family reside is connected with it; and, passing it, we found ourselves immediately in the principal square or Neumarkt, on one side of which is the picture gallery, and, on the opposite side, two large hotels, in one of which, the hotel de Rome, we found at once very nice rooms. A third side is formed by a long line of very large high houses; and, on the fourth, stands the large Lutheran church or Frauen Kirche. It is a handsome square, and a most animated scene. Streets cross it 8. This refers to the Japanese Palace.

170

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

from all directions, and there is not a moment that it is not nearly covered with passengers, and vehicles. I was a good deal disappointed not to find letters here from home, and very much shocked at a piece of news in one of our letters from England. Mr. Chaloner writes us of the death of his nephew, Lord Milton.9 The young, vigorous, happy creature, full of energy and intelligence!—I can hardly imagine it possible that he should cease to breathe and to act. I cannot think of any thing else, so terrible is the blow to the large circle we have so lately been with, and so well do we realize the happiness it takes away, and the well-founded hopes it crushes for this world. But little more than a month since, we saw him in the exuberance of the health and spirits of two and twenty lead the course in a fox chase, and, the same evening, preside at a dinner of fifty persons, in his father’s noble halls. How often during our visit did I perceive his father was entirely satisfied and gratified with his powers, and with the promise he was giving, for the period when he should succeed to his great place, and duties, and honours—and now, what a change! His sweet little wife was excessively attached to him, and there was a freshness and simplicity in the manner in which she followed him, sat by him, and would put her arm in his, quietly and gently, and without the smallest shade of egotism, that was perfectly winning. How will she bear it? Death is before us, as well as behind us; for it was but a short time after, when looking over our letters of introduction, we heard that Böttiger10 was dead! We brought a letter and a packet of books for him from Bonn, and I anticipated seeing him with considerable curiosity and interest. He has been dead just four days! While sitting at tea this evening, I was much startled at the flashing of a very bright light upon the walls of the room, and, running to the window, witnessed such a scene as I never thought to have known out of a book. Two hundred young men, at least, were carrying large and very bright, flaring torches, walking in a hollow square, and frequently tossing these torches wildly about, and flinging from them burning pitch and cinders. This was to make them flash and flame more brightly merely, but it added to the singularity and wildness of the scene. They were surrounded by an immense crowd. Indeed, in the partial light from the lamps, the whole surface of this large square seemed one moving mass. The light from the torches on those nearest to them gave the red and unnatural hue so often described. They moved across the square slowly and solemnly, and no sound was to be heard but the tread of feet. It was almost appalling. I almost expected to hear the shouts of “Arvalan, arvalan,” so much it brought to my 9. This apparently refers to William Charles FitzWilliam, Viscount Milton (1812–1835). 10. This refers to Karl August Böttiger, who was initially a close friend of Goethe. However, after he criticized Goethe’s poem Hermann and Dorothea publicly, he broke off relations with Goethe.

1835–1836

171

mind the scene described by Southey.11 On inquiry, we found that they were students belonging to two public institutions with which Böttiger was connected going to sing hymns before his house, according to German custom.12 A half hour after, they returned in the same manner. It seemed to me a very striking and solemn as well as picturesque mode of honouring the dead. This grand and mournful scene, and my thoughts of the family at Wentworth, forced upon my mind how much this is a world of death, and of how small value the highest distinctions of learning or of rank can be at the moment when we most need aid and support. Such news comes to us too with such suddenness, and in strong contrasts, that it dwells upon my mind with its full power. How much of the same sort has followed us since our arrival in England! So much that the opening a letter is now an anxious moment. We arrived in Dresden a little after ten in the morning, and gave the day to the necessary arrangements and equally necessary rest.

1835 NOVEMBER 21ST. DRESDEN. Saturday November 21st. The first object that met my eye this morning from the window was Böttiger’s funeral—and it struck me curiously that, after having heard so much of him, his hearse should be all that we should see of him. It was a strange hour for a funeral—just after eight—but early as it was, an immense crowd surrounded the bier, and a long train of carriages followed it. The bier itself was a sort of platform raised in the centre to support the coffin, and the whole of it was covered down to the wheels with an immense cloth of black velvet, richly embroidered in the centre with gold. Round this embroidery was apparently an inscription wrought in silver. The edge was again worked in gold and finished with a gold fringe. It was rich and solemn. I describe it because it was so new to me; but the same is usual at all funerals, I believe. One of these palls cost 1200 Thalers. The hearse was drawn by four black horses; four mourning coaches followed, and then came a great number of handsome and elegant carriages belonging to his friends. Three women preceding the hearse on foot, dressed in black, with plain white lace caps, attracted my attention; and we were told that they were those who made the arrangements for the funeral. It is a strange custom.13

11. This is an allusion to a scene from the poem “The Curse of Kehama” (1810) by Robert Southey (1774–1843), a British author. 12. I was quite sorry afterwards that we did not follow the crowd, and hear the singing, for it was the only opportunity of the kind we had—but we had arrived only that day, and were tired, and strangers. [A.T.] 13. Each of these women, as well as three or four men who walked near the hearse, held an [sic] lemon in their hand. [A.T.]

172

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

Mr. Ticknor was occupied through the day with delivering letters, and seeking information about rooms; and was as active and energetic, as usual; but I found myself utterly stupefied and lazy, either from losing the excitement from the fresh air and constant motion, or from fatigue. But it matters not much which. I wrote a little, sewed a little, and looked out of the window a good deal, for a most animated scene is constantly before us, and I have quite a love for watching manners, customs and costumes in a strange place. I thought the square was gay yesterday, which was a fast day and all the shops were shut, but to-day, when all is busy again, and it is market too, the whole space is covered, and every variety of dress and occupation is to be seen. A little before dinner, which is at two, I took a short walk with Mr. Ticknor, going first to a place called the Zwinger, being a gravelled area surrounded by highly ornamented stone buildings, all devoted to public uses, and I believe affording a promenade on a part of their roof, as well as below. It is a nice sheltered place for the coldest weather. Then, going round the cathedral, we passed the end of the bridge, and ascending a flight of broad stone steps, found a nice gravelled terrace called Brühl’s garden, directly upon the Elbe. The new part of the city was very conspicuous on the opposite bank, and a pretty view of the hills in the distance, up and down the river. A number of trees and a plenty of seats that are there must make it a pleasant rendezvous in summer. The day was no farther varied than by our meals, and our occupations. The weather has been mild and pleasant, our accommodations are very comfortable, and the children are very bright and well.

1835 NOVEMBER 22ND. DRESDEN. Sunday, November 22nd. Beautiful weather again. The dampness of the streets and the hue of the sky looks like spring. All about us is as tranquil and quiet as on a Sunday morning at home. It is pleasant to feel oneself in a Protestant country. The bells of the great Lutheran church opposite to us rang this morning at eight o’clock, loud and sonorous, and apparently it was soon filled. It seemed a strange time for a service, but I believe the churches are opened repeatedly to accommodate different classes. Not knowing yet whether we should find any English service here, we went a little before eleven to the Catholic Church, knowing that there we should at least hear fine music. It seems strange that the king of a protestant people should be a strict catholic. [. . .] The rest of the day, we remained quietly in our rooms, reading, writing, and thinking, feeling all rather languid from the effects of so long a journey. We are much struck with the good order and quiet of this pleasant city. Perhaps they are too quiet for much gaiety of spirits, for I have not heard a shout, nor even a loud voice from the streets, since I have been here.

1835–1836

173

1835 NOVEMBER 29TH. DRESDEN. Sunday 29th. November. The week has passed so evenly and tranquilly that I have had but small matter to write of. But it has been industriously and busily filled, each hour receiving its stated duty. Anna’s three teachers in German, Music, and drawing have commenced their instructions. Mad. Roman has twice visited me to put a little French into my mouth, or rather to bring a little out of it, and they all together require industry and promptness. We have all taken a drive and a walk every day, for the weather has been most mild and beautiful, and Mr. Ticknor is very spirited in the matter of exercise. But we have not yet visited any of the sights, finding the business of arranging, and settling ourselves, enough for one week. Mr. Ticknor went Wednesday evening with Mr. Forbes to a soirée at General Watzdorff’s, but he came back so little interested that I really know but little about it. The fashion on the continent of the stranger calling first on the residents leaves a lady very free to her own choice, and here, I really enjoy it; for, besides my ignorance of the language, I enjoy the quiet of our life extremely and its independence too, and hear but little of society that excites my curiosity. Last evening, while sitting sewing, and Mr. Ticknor reading, Mr. Forbes and his sister Lady Rancliffe came in, made a cheerful little call, asked us to dinner to-morrow very socially, and departed. It was quite a pleasant interruption. They both seem kind and good humoured. A little bustle and selfsatisfaction is harmless, and, I doubt not makes them more good natured. I was sorry to learn from them that there is no English service here on Sundays; and it is a want that I think ought to be supplied, for they said they thought there could not be less than sixty or seventy English people here now. The absence of some religious service that can be understood makes Sunday the least cheerful day of the week to me, for, in the midst of people using it so differently from my habits and tastes, it is difficult to pass it as one would wish. To-day, we went to dine at half past one at Count Bose’s, and I was struck by seeing the eldest daughter bring her sewing after dinner, as if it were a common regular habit. And, so it is, and universal too. It is only I that am so strange. We found them a pleasant and cultivated family, speaking English pretty well, and French, of course, as fluently as German.

1835 NOVEMBER 30TH. DRESDEN. I am constantly struck with the comfort, good sense and good taste expressed in Dresden. I do not mean English or American comfort; but the lower classes and poorer people are warmly and neatly clothed, the poorest houses, I have seen, are substantial, well protected against cold, and quite neat externally. There is no

174

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

beggary to be seen. The sight that troubles me the most is the hard labour and heavy burdens the women are condemned to. All through Prussia and Saxony, it made me groan to see them bending under the large and weary baskets bound upon their backs. There, one never can look from the window without seeing whole groups of them with straps and cushions arranged, as if they were beasts of burden. Then they have carts for coals, which men and women draw with almost a regular harness, and though sometimes a dog draws with them, he seems a very small help. It is truly terrible to see the hard work these poor women do. They saw wood as much as men do, holding one end of the saw while a man holds the other, they chop it into small pieces, and then, piling it into their large baskets carry it up stairs on their backs, no one knows how many stories, sometimes five or six. One would think a country must be immensely thriving where men’s labour is so valuable that women are called to take their place so often; or that civilization was rather low to allow of wives and mothers being used in fields and streets with but little more consideration than is fit for a vigorous horse; perhaps with less, for, after labour, a horse is fed and left to rest, and I doubt not the majority of these poor women are expected, when their work is done abroad, to prepare food for their lords, and, of course, the care of their children comes upon them. Hospitals should be large in such a state of things, and they must generally be full, I fear. I meet constantly old women almost bent double; as many dreadfully lame; and the number of dwarfs, both men and women, is very striking. All this is sad; but, as I remarked just now, they look well clothed and cared for, and I must say that contentment is expressed in every face, and in the cheerful, kind greetings that one hears constantly exchanged in the market places, and by the way-sides. Their dress is of every variety. Short, wadded jackets of woolen stuffs or of calico are common. Sometimes, a poorer person may be seen with a skin jacket, lined with some shaggy material. The better sort of women wear high necked calico dresses, very thickly wadded, fitting them with great nicety. The next step is a woolen dress with fur collar and cuffs; and all that can afford it wear on their heads a plain white lace cap, the frill very full and beautifully quilled. They sometimes tie a bright coloured handkerchief over the head and cap and under the chin; and this, with or without the cap, is universal among market women and those obliged to saw and drag carts. The men frequently wear a sheep skin frock coat, sometimes lined with a coloured stuff, and often with the original wool still on.

1835 DECEMBER 2ND. DRESDEN. Wednesday December 2nd. Walking through the Altmarkt (old market place) with Mr. Ticknor to-day, we came to a group of women, selling, among many

1835–1836

175

other things, beautiful wreaths of flowers, made most tastefully and skilfully, and, just after we had bought one of myrtle with the most lovely little rosebuds interwoven with it, I took up a little bunch of flowers, which, to my amazement, proved to be our own sweet, delicious blue violets, in full perfection and sweetness. I brought them home with great joy, and they have perfumed the whole room. They have them in flower pots also for sale. What a tasteful care!

1835 DECEMBER 6TH. DRESDEN. We went . . . to Mr. Forbes, where we found Lady Rancliffe alone, who welcomed us as if she were glad to have the quiet a little broken. I was much amused for the hour with her Irish volubility and botheration of ideas. What would have sounded quite sensible and smart from other people comes from her head jumbled up with such a rubbish of notions that they are not worth the trouble of sifting. But, kind and hospitable as she is, I have no business to say such things. Mr. Forbes came in from a visit, and, the question being put as to my going to Court, it was carried by acclamation that I should go, Lady Rancliffe promising to superintend my toilette. The question whether worth or not worth the trouble has kept me undecided, but it certainly was not worth a long hesitation. As no one can be asked to the regular Court balls nor to the ministers’ parties who has not been presented, and as my husband and all my acquaintance would go, though it is not entirely to my taste, I thought I should feel a little excommunicated if I, at least, were not able to refuse. A train is inevitable. No one is admitted at the first presentation without this graceful appendage; but what strikes me as truly ridiculous, no lady but a princess is allowed to have them a part of her dress. Upon poor commoners they must be tied!! It remains to be seen how we shall look with these long things hanging from our waists.

1835 DECEMBER 19TH. DRESDEN. Saturday 19th December. This morning, we made our first visit to the magnificent picture gallery. We were there but an hour, and though we only stopped a moment or two at a half dozen of the most remarkable pictures, it did not give us time to walk through all the rooms, or rather halls. They seemed interminable, and the treasures they contain, inexhaustible. I do not know how many rooms there are, but there are two thousand pictures. They are arranged not only by schools, but chronologically, making it at once a school for the history of painting, as well as for the art itself. This arrangement is new to me, and is not yet completed. A catalogue in French is nearly ready, in addition to the very

176

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

thorough one in German. I imagine this is partly to be attributed to the good taste of Baron Lindenau, who has the direction of such matters. He was kind enough to give us, unasked, a written permission to visit the gallery whenever we pleased in the morning, so extra a liberty that he requested us not to mention it, as it was generally refused. The hours of admission end at twelve, but we were told by the keepers to come and to stay the hours we pleased without reference to any thing else. But, as from care of the pictures or economy, there is no fire in the halls, it is too bitter cold to remain long. Of course, I shall not yet speak of the pictures, further than to say that I found there my ignorance of the power of the art, and that there was pleasure and profit for many hours’ occupation. The rest of the day was quiet and happy, as usual, our drive, Anna’s drawing, and music lessons, filling some hours, and some of the others being enlivened by Lizzy’s sweetness and gaiety, and by the strong interest of hearing Shakespeare read.

1835 DECEMBER 21ST. DRESDEN. Monday 21st December. To-day, it has been most bitter cold, and we were not sorry to give up our parlour a few hours, for the comfort of having a nice Brussels carpet put down. It is indeed an immense improvement, it makes us feel instantly more at home, as well as warmer. The morning was quite interrupted by the interesting assistants, so necessary on the subject of a Court dress, but we found time for a short visit to the Altmarkt, which certainly presented a most extraordinary sight. It was the first day of the city Christmas fair; and, by the arrangements, one would think that the world was merely peopled with children, and that here were the supplies of playthings for the four quarters of it. All along the streets are fixed tables covered with toys of metal, wood, and glass, with scaramouches made chiefly of white fur with the frames for hanging the presents upon ornamented with coloured papers in the most fanciful manner; besides which, there were whole baskets of dolls, and booths full of bags and purses. A great object besides variety is to produce the cheapest pleasures, and satisfy purchasers of all measures of purses. The streets were literally full, so that it required care to get along. The market place was wholly covered with large wooden booths in double rows, forming alleys between, each of which was nearly running over with distinct productions. One was filled by the arts and powers of the confectioners, another was given to wooden playthings of every possible variety; dolls in whole armies, dolls’ houses, kitchens entirely furnished, drawing rooms, and chambers, with farm yards, gardens, theatres, Castles, all upon quite a grand and enticing scale. There were alleys supplied by iron mongers, and brushmakers; others filled with caps, etc., temptations for the older

1835–1836

177

children, and then the lovely metal playthings, to furnish a whole house, the earthen ware, the basket work, in short, enough to drive a rich person crazy, and a poor one to despair. But it was so cold we could not stay long, or quite empty our purses, and we could not but wonder how the poor women could endure it, sitting as they did, wholly exposed to its power.

1835 DECEMBER 24TH. DRESDEN. Thursday 24th. This being the last day for Christmas purchases . . . we were obliged to drive about in a thick snow, to complete our collection of Christmas presents, for, where every one is giving and receiving, from the highest to the lowest, it is necessary to do one’s part. It was not cold, and the snow melted immediately, but it amazed me to see the streets full of women with nothing but caps or handkerchiefs on their heads, or sitting thus by their goods, without notice of the elements. The shops were as full as the streets; and then, as well as all the rest of the day, it was striking to see the whole of a population moved and interested by one feeling and one sympathy. Many women who appeared among the poorest of the hardworking class carried some little plaything in their hands, but more frequently the pine tree or the ornamented paper frame for hanging the toys upon, and very, very few families in Dresden have passed this evening without a “Christ Baum” in some form or other. We were anxious that Anna should see one in the true German style; but, after several inquiries could not hear of any accessible to us, but on returning home this morn., we found that Baron Sternberg,14 a gentleman Mr. Ticknor had met at Tieck’s, had very kindly called and invited us to his house at six o’clock. I did not feel inclined to go, but Mr. Ticknor and Anna went and saw the Christ Baum and the celebration of Christmas Eve in a thorough and beautiful style. The first part of the pleasure was the opening a room at the sound of a little bell, where were arranged presents, made and procured by the children, for their parents and for one another; a pair of slippers for the father, a vest for the brother, etc. These had been prepared in secret, and gave the sincerest pleasure; and, when that was over, the bell was rung again and the folding doors of a large room brightly lighted were thrown open. Here, a large tree was in the centre of the room, but around it were little tables for each person and a chair on which were spread the presents for each from the parents. Dresses, ornaments, books were on tables, a large musical instrument, between an organ and piano, was given to the son, and, as the family is wealthy, I presume the daughters’ portions were not less valuable. A little tree

14. Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg (1806–1868).

178

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

was arranged for Anna which she brought home with a basket filled with cakes, and all manner of sugar inventions, in great glee. We had asked our landlord to let us see the “Christ Baum” prepared for his children; and at seven he invited us up stairs, and it certainly was a bright and pretty sight. Three little pine trees, lighted with multitudes of tapers hung with little cakes and comfits, were on a long table, which was perfectly covered with all manner of toys for four little children. I was a little troubled that they had procured a splendid dolly for Lizzy, and an Annual for Anna; but Lizzy was in high ecstasies jumping and singing. It is a pretty sight.

1835 DECEMBER 25TH. DRESDEN. Friday, Christmas. We were waked this morning between four and five by three cannon and the ringing of the bells, which, however, lasted but a short time. Soon after, we heard a band of music; but, though I got up and tried to discover the performers, it was too perfectly dark to learn any thing. While standing at the window, listening to the music, with nothing to be seen but the dim lamps, the hour, the sounds and the occasion seemed to me a singular and striking union; and I did not lay myself on my pillow again without thinking of the music, once heard on this morning, in greater solitude by some less blessed with light and knowledge than those who, listening to these short but rich strains did not, I fear, feel their hearts burn within them with faith and joy, as the poor shepherds did, in the midst of their wonder and ignorance. We were soon again roused by a knocking at the door, and, using my best efforts to get my eyes open, I was amazed at seeing a brilliant illumination at the door, while Anna’s voice sounded the wishes for the merry Christmas and happy New year, so often heard at home. I soon discovered it was a “Christ Baum” covered with cakes and apples and tapers brought by Carl, our pleasant, respectable waiter, for his little favourite, Lizzy. My nap, after these various interruptions, though quite refreshing, shortened my morning; and; not feeling inclined to brave the crowd at the catholic church, we took the children, and drove to the barracks in the new town to hear the music, of what is said to be the best military band in Europe. It was certainly extremely beautiful; they played nearly ten minutes the most exquisite andante movements with the greatest delicacy and precision, though there must have been twenty or twenty five musicians. After a short drill, we followed one body of the soldiers to the guard house, where we heard a little more music, but the weather was disagreeable, and we came home. The rest of the day was very still. Mr. Ticknor went in the evening to Mr. Forbes, but I did not want to go, and stayed at home and amused myself with writing.

1835–1836

179

10 “I amused myself with a rehearsal of my dress.” December 26, 1835–April 12, 1836 1835 DECEMBER 26TH. DRESDEN. Saturday 26th December. The interest of the morning was the investment of Mr. Ticknor with his beautiful Court dress, and his departure to be presented to the old king.15 He returned in about an hour, and described the scene and ceremony as very simple and quiet. A dinner given by the Ministers and grandees of the nation to the members of the royal family and to the foreign Ambassadors at the Saxe hotel directly opposite to us afforded us some amusement, in seeing the arrival of the equipages of these distinguished personages, in their gala style, for to-day is the second Christmas fête day. There is no market in our square, and the shops are all shut. Mr. Forbes’ equipage with white lining and hammercloth to his carriage, his footman in white dress, almost covered with gold, his white plumes and sword at his side, was much the most elegant, but the French Minister’s, with dark blue hammercloth and bright red liveries, is brilliant and handsome. The royal carriages are rich, but not showy, the livery is simply a drab, ornamented with blue, and white lace, and chapeau bras with silver lace. The dinner was at half past two, and all were gone by four. A walk with Nannie while Mr. Ticknor was at court, and a drive afterwards were refreshing, for the weather was more agreeable than it has been. It has not been cold since Tuesday, but hardly an hour has passed without a little shower of snow or rain. It has been more mild than with us at home, in November or March. To-morrow is the king’s birth-day, and great things are to be done, I understand. The obelisk is not yet quite finished; but they don’t mind working Sundays here. A letter from Longfellow,16 telling us of the death of his wife, has shocked us much. We were looking to see them here in the Spring, and I counted upon his bright and cheerful face and spirits to brighten my own—But sorrow is universal. How one changes by time and experience! I expect it now, and it seems but a few years since it was a thing unthought of, and undreaded by me.

1835 DECEMBER 27TH. DRESDEN. Sunday 27th. The cannon and bells opened the fête at daylight this morning, quite unnoticed by us; but, a little after eight, the square was so thronged with 15. King Anton (1755–1836). 16. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife Mary died in Rotterdam on November 28, 1835.

180

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

the people eagerly expecting a procession that it was quite a sight in itself. Before nine, there must have been 20,000 people before us, and yet the place was not wholly covered. The sound of their voices and their feet was most peculiar. It was more like the ripple of the waves along a great stretch of coast than any thing else. The quiet and docility of such a mass struck me repeatedly in the day. Though pressing earnestly together, it was perfectly easy to pass through the densest part; a token also of kind and accommodating tempers. The approach of the procession was announced by music; and the projecting sort of turret window at the corner of our parlour, which not only overlooks the whole square but the whole length of the Moritz Strasse, gave us a striking view of the thousands that were standing and moving beneath us. First, of course, came the military; this morning in the shape of militia, or, more properly speaking, National guards, uniformly dressed in dark frock coats, a white band round the left arm, the white strap over the shoulder necessary for the cartouch box, and some sort of a white ornament in the round stiff cap, but I really forget what. After them came the city authorities, and then the main interest of the procession, eighty young girls to represent the king’s eighty years dressed alike, according to theory, in simple white with a green wreath round their heads. Each carried a wreath in her hand, also; but, alas! it was chilly, and a little snow would fall, and cloaks were necessary, though they very bravely, according to the fashion of the country, kept their heads uncovered. Deputations from the different trades, each carrying a descriptive and very handsome standard, followed, and some, I observed, had either presents for the old king or tokens of their business on velvet cushions. It was a very long and respectable procession. They went to the palace and the houses of the royal dignitaries, and the young girls were admitted to the king’s private room, where they gave him a poetical address and their wreaths, and the old gentleman was much pleased. He has been highly delighted at the notice taken of the day, and I suppose has as much right to be as any such puppet can have; for he has been harmless, civil, and honest, and I have been told so often that he is loved here that I begin to believe it. But it remains to be seen, or rather to be heard, where the suggestions for these honours and the money to pay for them come from. They were busy at work all day upon the obelisk, and did but just get it finished. When the crowd had quietly dispersed, we had two or three hours for tranquil occupation; but, before twelve, military companies and troops of horse were gathering in the square, and the sound of the trumpets near and cannon at a distance drew us again to the windows. This was to form a procession of the regular troops with the national guards to please the old boy, as Col. Cox calls him, and, after passing before the palace, (where the king and his family stood in a balcony to see them,) they came into our square, dividing at the different streets, and then dispersing. It was a fine and martial sight. The perfect discipline

1835–1836

181

of all, and particularly of the cavalry, struck me much, while the neat and serviceable dresses, and the fact that some of them had seen the realities of their trade, and that perhaps all would, made it interesting. There were many fine and very large bands, each commanded by a drum major, who here appears more like a leader and less like a toy than at home. The troops of the line were commanded by Prince Frederick, the Regent,17 and the national guards by Prince John, his brother. After this second display, we took a little drive just to find out where to go in the evening for the illumination, and returning by the palace, saw, issuing from the gate a royal carriage, in full costume, and two running footmen preceding, in the dress and cap peculiar to their office. It is the first time I have seen them. When we returned to our rooms, we again found amusement in watching the arrival of guests at a great city dinner at the Hotel de Saxe. Mr. Ticknor at half past two went to a dinner given by the English residing here, to which he and a Mr. Krause were the only invited guests. He returned between five and six, describing it as a regular English dinner, with speeches and toasts. At three, Anna and I were much amused at the number of musicians arriving at the Saxe Hotel, two full bands of fifteen or twenty men first, then a band of fifteen, merely horns, trumpets and bugles, and the kettle drums seemed almost without end. When they (the kettle drums) were all placed in a double line, in front of the hotel; we counted thirty-six. Nearer to the house stood the trumpets and horns, and the other bands were on a balcony in front of the dining hall. These three bands played alternately, but the only performance by the drummers was the salute, when the king’s health was drunk, and a second at the prince regent’s, when drum and trumpet rang forth in a right glorious peal. The crowd attracted by the music was immense, and I was again struck with their quiet and gentleness. There were but few guards, and they were without arms, but simply raising their hands was enough to make the people fall back, or clear a passage. By five, all were gone, and then commenced the illuminating the obelisk, which was not only to be lighted by transparencies placed in the sides but by little glass lamps hung all over it. It was no small labour, especially as, unfortunately, the wind was high, and the lamps would blow out. We were much interested in watching the windows of houses emerge one by one from the darkness by means of little lamps placed very close to each other on the window sills, and, as here the buildings are in immensely high and extensive blocks with numberless windows, the effect was pretty. About six, the royal cortège passed through the square, and it made quite an illumination of itself, for besides that, of course, the carriage lamps were lighted, nearly every one of the fifteen carriages was preceded by two

17. Friedrich August II (1797–1854).

182

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

livery servants on horseback bearing torches. Before the king’s carriage, there were two running footmen carrying torches, which are very brilliant, and, when they throw them up to get rid of the ashes and cinders, it has a curious and wild effect. They were followed by an immense multitude, who, every now and then, gave their sweet breaths to the wind, and, I hope, pleasure to the old king, in pretty hearty shouts. Anna’s little friend Miss Bose was with us, and, soon after royalty had disappeared, we got into our carriage, and drove to the most brilliant exhibitions. The houses were very generally lighted, but there were few devices or transparencies in this part of the city. The English had extended a transparency before the windows of their dining room, which was the best that was done, being simply the banners of the two nations, the Saxon arms and “God save the king” in English, below. Some of the gentlemen remained at table till the king came by, and when he stopped to examine the painting, they came out and gave nine English cheers, which, I heard afterwards, delighted the old gentleman excessively. Some inscriptions were put in windows, such as “Health to the king,” “We pray for thee, father”, etc., but efforts and interests were chiefly confined to two or three points. In the old market place, they had erected a round wooden pillar 70 or 80 feet high with a figure of Fame on the top holding a wreath in each hand; the pillar, like the obelisk, was to have been covered with lights, but, as with that, there was only partial success. But the figure of Fame was most beautifully lighted by a Bengal fire reflected by mirrors from the upper window of an opposite house. This fire produces a brilliant red light, and, as we entered the square a little at the side behind the pillar, we saw the red rays striking across in the most picturesque manner. The effect upon the figure was very beautiful. This light is, I understand, produced by burning certain powders, which are said to cost, in burning, a little over two spanish dollars a minute. Round the pillar, and at intervals round the square, were placed high wooden posts with iron frames on the top to hold wood, which were kept constantly filled with pitch pine, which gave a broad and flaring light, quite fine in its reflection upon the buildings and the crowd. Four standards were raised in this square, and their motion in the red and yellow light was picturesque. A band of music in a balcony was still another attraction to the crowd, which covered every inch of surface. Driving from this market, we went to a little bridge leading to a part of the city called the Friedrichstadt, over which had been built a famous arch with great plans for brilliancy, but the mischievous wind put an end to all but the candelabras of pitch pine. In a sort of mall in the Friedrichstadt, we found a queer illumination made by paper lanterns of the shape of tulips gaily painted placed upon the ends of long sticks, and held by the boys of the orphan asylum, as we were told; there must have been over a hundred of them; and, as the boys were

1835–1836

183

within the enclosure, the crowd without allowed us to see only the lanterns, and it looked droll and pretty. Returning again over the bridge, we passed the front of the palace, which was lighted with wax candles in the windows and larger ones on the balcony. Before this part of the palace, there is a considerable open space formed by the union of many streets in their approach to the bridge over the Elbe, with the cathedral on one side, and the treasury, a common looking building on the other. On each side of the carriage way to the bridge stand two common iron posts for gas, which, this evening, were furnished at the top with extra pipes in the shape of a pyramid, which, being lighted, sent forth a blaze that might have been seen for miles. It was perfectly dazzling. The treasury forms also the corner of a street; and here was a large transparent A. (the king’s romantic name being Anthony,) surrounded by a wreath of white roses, and evergreens. At each of the windows also was a similar wreath; and, at each white rose, was a lamp, and, none of them going out, it was the most tasteful and successful of the attempts. On the bridge, we met the royal party for the second time in our progress; but it caused only a few moments’ pause and no trouble. In the Neustadt, they had built a little temple, in the centre of which was a bust of the king crowned with evergreen. It was lighted with coloured lamps and looked quite pretty. Pitch pine lent its aid here too; and it looked well, burning on the top of gateposts before a house that we passed. But the most brilliant of the whole illumination was the front of the guard house just on the other side of the bridge over the Elbe. Here, they had formed a crown and an A. entirely of lamps, the whole of which was so large as to fill the entire height of the front; and, at each side of this centre, high frames of pyramidal shape were one mass of light. From this point, we came home, feeling, as I do now, that we had done full justice to the glories of the illumination. And so the day ended, happily and peacefully, no disturbance, no noise, no hurry—I should have liked it better if there had been more noise and token of gay spirits; but it is a quiet population.

1835 DECEMBER 29TH. DRESDEN. Tuesday, 29th. My morning was, like its fellows, quiet and regular, and filled with pleasant occupation. At four in the afternoon, I drove to18 Mrs. Sligo’s, and, taking her to Mad. de Jordan’s,19 found the ladies mostly there, so that we soon took up the line of our droll circuit, forming a cortège of nine or ten carriages. I 18. A Scotch lady, to whom I was introduced at Mad. de Jordan’s—stiff and prim enough, but shy too, and she seemed glad to have a companion in these ceremonies. [A.T.] 19. She was the wife of Johann Ludwig von Jordan.

184

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

had the curiosity to inquire of Mad. de Jordan where we were going. This visit proved to be to the Grande Maitresse20 of the princess Regent; and, after ascending two pair of stone stairs, going through a long passage and an ante-chambre, we found ourselves in the august presence of a little, round, thick lady, dressed in a dark brown silk with a cape of the same and a close cap. She vouchsafed a few words to those happy enough to be near her, and, bestowing upon the rest of us some patent Court courtesies, we left her alone in her grandeur. From the palace, we had the pleasure of a drive about the city, now and then stopping though without knowing why and then proceeding again till, at last, when it came to the tenth pause, word was brought us that we had got through, though we were perfectly ignorant what we had achieved! We were not sorry, however, to return to our homes. I do not know at all who the ladies were upon whom we called; they were, of course, connected with the court, and I presume that, to save Mad. de Jordan the fatigue and exposure on a cold evening of going up so many stairs and introducing such a horde of ladies, it was arranged that our cards should be received. It was entirely satisfactory to me.

1835 DECEMBER 31ST. DRESDEN. Thursday 31st. Neither Lady Rancliffe nor myself had quite concluded our preparations for the evening of the first; so, in spite of snow, we travelled to some shops. It was disagreeable enough. Before going out, while sitting quietly at work, a royal servant in full livery walked into our room and delivered a card inviting Mr. Ticknor to dinner with the king on Sunday next. Yesterday, he brought a printed paper announcing the Court, which is to be held to-morrow evening, directing also that the ladies should appear in manteaux21 or trains. Mine was brought home this morning, and this evening, I amused myself with a rehearsal of my dress. It suits me quite well. Shall I not enumerate it for the benefit of my great grand children (to whom this valuable work is to be handed down?—) First, a robe of white satin, full enough for a hoop, garnie22 with a very pretty little piece of blonde all round it, in festoons!! ditto, over the shoulders; train of dark blue velvet edged with satin of the same colour, and lined with white silk; barbes, or more intelligibly, a scarf of blonde fastened in my hair, and hanging a little below the waist, feather flowers, necklace and earrings of acqua-marine, and, as the French descriptions say, gloves of white kid, and shoes of white satin!! 20. The highest lady of the court. 21. A cape or cloak. 22. Trimmed.

1835–1836

185

1836 JANUARY 1ST. DRESDEN I have been much amused yesterday and to-day with the cards that have been sent me, almost by dozens, from Madame this—and La Baronne—that—whom I have never heard of before—the fruits, I suppose, of my mysterious drive the other evening behind Mad. de Jordan. Our morning passed as usual in industrious preparation for lessons, though, to-day being an universal fête, none were received. I intended to have made some new year’s calls; but Mr. Ticknor absolved me on account of the sheets of snow that were falling, and my title of stranger. Col. Cox came in in the afternoon for a little call, and, as soon as he was gone, I commenced the interesting duties of the toilette, though not four o’clock. As it was, I was late, for, driving to Mr. Forbes at half past five, we met them on the way, and were obliged to turn and follow them to our destination.23 Such are the primitive hours kept at Court! We went first up three pair of stone stairs to the apartments of Mad. de Tümpling,24 the round, respectable lady we visited the other afternoon, who, as Dame d’honneur 25 to the princess Regent, (who fills the place of queen,) receives the compliments of strangers. Her room was brilliantly lighted and filled with ladies in feathers and gentlemen in uniforms, chiefly red and gold, so that it looked much like a bed of good sized tulips. Our stay here was but short, and we were then led down one pair of stairs and through long, cold, stone passages to the state apartments. The entrance to these was through a long, unfurnished hall, well lighted, where was part of a company of infantry, the guard of the evening, in full uniform and armed. Whenever a military officer, minister, or distinguished foreigner entered, he was regularly saluted, which, to my simple, unpracticed ears, seemed a terrible clatter.26 From this hall, or small ante room, we entered another very large one with two fire places, large glass chandeliers, and a few seats. Here, there was a large group of servants in the royal livery, and, amongst them, two of the running footmen with their queer caps on their heads. Their livery is a tight yellow dress trimmed with blue lace and dark low caps with cock’s plumes. 23. (That was a real tease. My dress being more complicated and important than common, Marie was terribly particular, and I thought slow—Mr. T. was ready a great while . . . and, knowing Mr. Forbes’ nature, felt sure he would not wait, or would be in a high fidget, if we were not there to the minute. So he sent me a message or two and made me two or three accelerating visits—but with all efforts we were decidedly late—I had promised to take Anna to see Lady Rancliffe’s dress, but as we approached Mr. F’s home, we saw his carriage driving away, and we of course followed it. So poor Anna had her drive in the dark for nothing, and went home from the Palace under Louis care. He always went with us to the Palace, followed us to the Ante chamber, and took our cloaks, and was then with them again when we left the halls.) 1850. [A.T.] Marie and Louis appear to have been the Ticknor’s servants. 24. Marie von Tümpling, the chief tutor at the court. 25. Lady of honor. 26. (The salute of course). [A.T.]

186

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

Turning to the right in this ante-chamber, we passed through a beautiful, high, square apartment, hung with light blue damask, lighted only moderately but looking excessively cheerful from a large, bright wood fire, which blazed in an open fire place. It was reviving to look at it in this land of stoves. Opening from this by a common sized door is the throne room hung with crimson damask, and having a regal canopy and cloth of state, both, of course, crimson. This being the reception room, where no one sits but the king, there are no seats. In this room, we found M. de Reitzenstein, the grand marshal of the Court, in the uniform worn by all the chamberlains of the household, scarlet, enormously embroidered with gold, and having a small golden key attached with a knot of ribbons just above the right pocket flap. There were about fifteen ladies and perhaps ten gentlemen to be presented, and we were introduced by Mad. de Jordan to this distinguished marshal, that he might know who answered to the names he held in his hand. He soon left the room by a door opposite the one by which we entered, and, by the time we had arranged ourselves in a semicircle without attention to rank, he came in again at the same door preceding the aged king, who scuffled along as if unable to lift his feet. He is quite small, and having a little squint in rather large and inexpressive eyes, joined to the appearance of a feeble old age, it was rather a sad sight to see him tottering round the circle in a bright red dress almost covered with diamonds. We were presented to him by the Marshal; but I did not observe whether he spoke to either of the ladies. Immediately after him came the princess Marie, wife of prince Frederick, the regent—an immensely tall, stiff and plain person, dressed in pink silk embroidered with silver with a train as long as herself and a diadem of diamonds of immense size. Such a blaze I hardly ever conceived of. It must have been five inches high and made nearly the circuit of her head. Poor lady! I saw her afterwards express the pain such a weight of glory gave her. She is, I understand, good and highly cultivated. Mad. Tümpling introduced us. Her husband the regent followed, a good natured, awkwardly formed person, in a military uniform; introduced by Mad. de Jordan. After these, we were presented to the rest of the family; but they came so rapidly, and it was so confusing, that it was as much as I could do to answer such highnesses suitably, and I entirely forget the order; so I will just give a little family history. The present king, Anthony, was brother to the last sovereign,27 who left no children. He has been twice married, but has no children. A third brother, prince Maximilian, who is also an infirm old man, has three children, prince Frederick, the regent, John and Amalia. The regent has no children; but John has six or seven. The king has adopted Amalia as his own child. A niece of the king’s, daughter of the last king, the princess Augusta, lives in the palace, and is reputed 27. Friedrich August I (1750–1827).

1835–1836

187

good and intelligent. Princess Louisa, the wife of prince Max, is younger than either of his children, I believe; and I was told that she said she preferred marrying him to remaining to be beat by her mother.28 She was a princess of Lucca and is 32, while he is 76; but he looks good and respectable, and, I dare say, is kind to her. His sons are highly cultivated, sensible men, and appeared this evening full of easy good nature and cheerfulness. Prince John is quite a scholar, having printed part of a translation of Dante with notes, which would distinguish any man, more particularly a prince. He told Mr. Ticknor this evening that he had heard of his knowledge of and love for Dante.29 The most remarkable part of the dresses of the family was, of course, the jewelry, and to me it was very curious. The king’s dress was red. On his breast was a star or order, I know not what to call it, quite as large as my hand; on the left side, towards his arm, was another ornament of the same description, not quite so large, on each of his shoulders, an ornament connected with his collar by long loops; and all these were solid diamonds. Under his right arm, a little behind, hung another mass, but I cannot remember the form; his knee and shoe buckles were diamonds, each stone of which we should think a superb ornament; from beneath his vest hung two watch chains of small diamonds with tassels or something resembling them at the ends; his fingers were covered with immense rings—and, to finish the history, his sword hilt was covered with them, and his chapeau bras was looped up with a conglomeration of the same precious things as large as the first I mentioned, exhibiting, amongst others, a very large green diamond, as yet unique and of priceless value. I have, after all this, omitted his buttons, each of which consists of one large diamond; set round with smaller, so as to be as large as the end of my thumb, and each button costing 10,000 Thalers. The princess regent’s dress I have mentioned. A diamond necklace, earrings, bracelets, and an immense Sevigné added to her splendour. She was the only lady among two hundred whose train swept the floor; the rest of us had the pleasure of sporting them upon our arms.30 The next wonder was the princess Amalia’s diamonds. She is quite small, and seemed literally covered with them. Her diadem was of a different form from that of the Princess regent, but nearly as large and as brilliant, and her neck, arms, and fingers could not be seen for the diamonds. From her hair fell a scarf of gold embroidered lace, so that she looked one blaze. Her train was of crimson

28. Maria Louise Carlotta von Lucca. 29. (The Princess John was not present this evening). [A.T.] Princess John refers to John’s wife, Amalie of Bavaria (1801–1877). 30. This was etiquette.—I happened to let my train fall for a moment, in Mad. de Tümpling’s apartment, and Lady Rancliffe, who was next [to] me, immediately checked what perhaps she feared might be republican independence. [A.T.]

188

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

velvet, embroidered with large flowers in gold. The little princess Louisa; her mother in-law, was not so splendid; but what she wore would not be unacceptable divided amongst ten. The princess Augusta wore diamonds and emeralds enough to buy a kingdom; “plastered,” as Mr. Ticknor says, over her turban, neck and belt, to say nothing of her gloves. All these royalties intended and wished to be civil and kind, and each spoke to each of the ladies and to most of the gentlemen; but, besides the difficulty of finding a variety of subjects, they are all awkward and shy to a great degree. Having made the circuit of the room, they bowed, and, I dare say, very gladly returned whence they came. We too retraced our steps to the ante-chamber, which we first entered, (where I mentioned that the servants were waiting). From this, we went into a high and very spacious hall, looking quite ancient and hung with scarlet cloth. This was brilliantly lighted by wax candles in antique lustres and sconces, and against the wall were two very large and beautiful ancient Buhl clocks. Here, a few officers and attendants were waiting; but we passed directly on through a moderately large octagon apartment fitted up with shelves, frames and stands to exhibit a superb collection of ancient china of every form, variety and hue that can be imagined. But we did not linger for this, even, entering from it, another vast hall, hung with venerable tapestry and lighted very brilliantly in the same manner with the first. Still beyond this was a third hall, equally large, hung with a deep crimson velvet; and this was the presence chamber, having two canopies and a very large cloth of state, also of velvet, which covered the whole upper end of the hall. Here, a most brilliant scene presented itself; for the apartment, which was light as day from wax candles, was quite filled by those who have the entrée; and as all the gentlemen who stood on one side of the hall were in elegant and showy uniforms, and all the ladies on the opposite side were in full Court dress, it made a rich and beautiful spectacle. The feathers, flowers and lace, the velvet and satin trains, some embroidered in silver and gold, mingled with white dresses and with the scarlet uniforms or superb dresses of the foreign ministers, and the caps and white plumes of the military men, made a really dazzling picture. A few minutes after our entrance, a little knock was heard on the floor, which announced the approach of the king, and produced entire silence. Four guards with their caps on and side arms, a half dozen chamberlains, gorgeous in red and gold lace, and the Chief Marshal, preceded him; and he was followed at proper distances by the princes and princesses that I have named, and their dames d’honneur. They walked slowly between the ladies and gentlemen to the upper end of the hall, bowing and speaking courteously and kindly; and, some minutes after, I found them mingled with the ladies, again walking the whole length of the room, chatting socially; even the old king. In due time, all these royalties were arranged at their card tables, the Chamberlains having been busily

1835–1836

189

employed in finding and arranging their partners.31 Tea, coffee and cake were handed about by attendants whom I might have mistaken for guests, so handsome was their dress of blue coats with a silver embroidery on the collar and rich lace ruffles, white small clothes and stockings, and swords by their sides. Afterwards, sherbet, and I believe punch, were offered. The whist continued till nearly eight, and the company formed themselves into groups conversing much at their ease. The only civility expected from them being to pass once near each table, and, when “royalty” looked up, to courtesy and bow. When the card tables were broken up, the princess Marie and the king took pains to speak and talk a little with the strangers and natives. I escaped all but prince Maximilian, whose venerable appearance and simple courteousness made me want to talk with him; but infirmity of teeth, or peculiarity of enunciation, was a considerable obstacle to my hearing what he said. They all slowly left the room, and it was not many minutes before it was wholly empty. We were again at home at half past eight. And so ended this great little solemnity. (I have thought often since of Bacon’s description of this world, as “an anthill, where some ants carry corn, some carry their young, and some go empty, and all, to and fro a little heap of dust.” He says such a view of it “taketh away or mitigateth the fear of death or adverse fortune;” and its power seems to me quite as sovereign to measure the value of such things as I have been describing.)32 Lady Rancliffe and Mr. Forbes wanted us to go home with them; but, returning to our rooms, as we had promised Anna, and to get rid of a little finery, we did not feel inclined to set off again. I have given no hint of my husband’s costume, and he looks so handsome in it, it is an absolute omission. The coat is blue, single breasted, standing collar, which, with the cuffs, are of black velvet, very handsomely embroidered with gold in oak leaves and acorns. White small clothes and vest, of course, white stock and stockings, gold buckles, a neat sword, and a chapeau bras. I wish gentlemen were dressed so always. I saw no dress more tasteful. The military uniforms were, of course, more showy, and the ministers’ dresses were stiff with gold, very splendid, but very uncomfortable; Forbes says he cannot deal cards in his coat, it is so stiff. There were no ladies’ dresses which deserve entry in this staid and respectable work. It was all sufficient but nothing splendid. (Indeed, they have not the power here; and to wear jewels, where such as I have described are to be seen, would be pure folly. But enough and enough.)

31. (Each Chamberlain held a little card upon which the names of persons to be summoned to play were written, and he sought them amongst the crowd. Each member of the family had a table, and therefore needed three players.) [A.T.] 32. Montagu, The Works of Francis Bacon, 182.

190

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

1836 JANUARY 7TH. DRESDEN. (Thursday 7th. The weather has been most exhilarating and strengthening today, as well as yesterday, and I passed the whole of a short morning in the air, walking first with Anna to some shops, and then with Mr. Ticknor to the promenade and the terrace. We went in to see the Meissen porcelain as we passed the Niederlage or dépot, and then followed the guards for the sake of the music—fell in with the Poles and went with them to a music store, came home, and, soon after taking Lizzy in the carriage, drove in the Grosse Garten till dinner. Mr. Ticknor went to the theatre in the evening to hear a play of Lessing’s. I gave myself to French and journal, and Anna to drawing; but really such a day, though a cheerful, happy one, does not deserve to see its own history.)

1836 JANUARY 10TH. DRESDEN Sunday 10th. I might give an account of my morning that would sound tolerably rational; but it would be much less startling and queer than to say that most of the afternoon was spent in preparing for a Court ball, which occupied exactly all the evening. How well it is that goodness does not depend upon place! We were obliged to go to the palace at six, and, even then, were nearly the last to arrive; we got home again at half past eleven; and I must say that, (though perhaps a little heavy,) for quiet, thorough elegance, and for kindness of manner in the entertainers, it seems to me to have been quite the perfection of all balls. The company were assembled in the hall, which I have already described as hung with tapestry, adjoining the presence chamber. Though a less gorgeous scene than on the presentation evening, it was still very brilliant and pleasing. The uniforms of the gentlemen were a little more simple; and the ladies’ dresses, from the absence of trains, looked lighter and gayer. Feathers were exchanged for flowers, and many more young ladies in extremely tasteful dresses were present than honoured the solemnity on the evening of the 1st. The royal family came in, in the same order, and with the same attendants, as on the other evening, but were not so much oppressed with ornaments. The king was in a red uniform with many orders but, I believe, no diamonds. The Princes wore blue uniforms, and the Princesses were richly and elegantly dressed. The princess regent’s dress was very tasteful. It was of white crape embroidered in front with colours, and her diamond necklace earrings, bracelets and sévigné in modern setting were as magnificent for size and brilliancy as I can imagine. In her hair, she wore one red and one white japonica and wheat represented by small diamonds. The princess Augusta’s too deserves notice, for it was worthy of a princess. It was a rich brown velvet dress, the waist made pointed; and, for a girdle, she had a chain made in

1835–1836

191

large links of brilliants, so long as to be passed twice round and to hang some distance below the waist with diamond tassels at the bottom. It had a beautiful effect. A large ornament like a branch of flowers in her turban, her necklace and sévigné were also of splendid diamonds. The ball opened by a Polonaise when the king led the princess regent, the other dignitaries following in proper order, and, as they passed the circle, it had a beautiful appearance, but the poor old man could do no more than walk once round.33 Then the waltz commenced, and, interrupted only by one quadrille and the Mazourka, was danced with short intervals till ten, when we went to supper. It was a beautiful sight. They dance here extremely well and simply too; and the gay dresses of the dancers and of the spectators, the brilliant lighting of the spacious hall, the ample space and the fine music made it altogether animated. In the presence chamber, there were plenty of card tables, where the king and the ancient diplomatists and warriors passed their time, and where tired chaperones found quiet seats. Tea, coffee and cakes were handed quietly about by attendants with swords at their sides. It was a strange and painful sight to see the old king attempting to dance the quadrille. He has always been excessively fond of dancing, and was determined it should be said he had danced after he was eighty. He got through without falling, which seemed wonderful, but he had a gentle, careful partner, a daughter of General Watzdorf, minister of the household.34 He left the rooms, I believe, directly after this. The supper was very elegant and truly comfortable, for every one of the four hundred present was seated. The ladies all supped at small tables in the hall hung with scarlet beyond the china room; and the gentlemen, who were without families, or were not invited by any lady to join her party, supped in the large ante chamber beyond. Each of the royal family had a table large enough for ten persons, and, before the dancing commenced, the chamberlains had given notice to the ladies and gentlemen who were honoured by a summons to them. We were invited to Prince John’s table, where we had a very agreeable supper. The wife of the minister of war, two old military officers, Count Baudissin, two Countesses, Mrs. Pole, and ourselves made the party. The plates and dishes were of silver, and, when the number present is considered, and that there were at least six changes, it gives an idea of a great abundance of the precious metal. The supper was luxurious and various, and the attendance quite perfect. Conversation was easy and gay, and we sat at table very contentedly more than an hour. Then the Prince regent rose, the music sounded, and we found the ball

33. The elder part of the company and the married ladies joined in this promenade, and I thought it quite a compliment that Mr. Forbes selected me, but unluckily I discovered my shoes string was untied, and he left me with, “ah! it is impossible.” [A.T.] 34. A chamberlain also stood close beside him the whole time. [A.T.]

192

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

room cool and clear. One curious and agreeable peculiarity in this first ball, and which is a specimen of the amiable desire to please which exists in this family, is that on one side of the dancing hall, a low screen of red cloth is placed, behind which the people from the streets or of the lowest classes may stand and enjoy the sights and sounds. At one end a gallery was built over the door for the same purpose, and behind the musicians, who were in a gallery over the opposite door, was room for more. Here was the populace interested and pleased, almost in their working dresses, but neat. When we returned from supper, this audience had been changed, a new set was admitted, and the tiers of faces one above another made a curious lining to an otherwise empty room.35 The princesses seemed happy and gay, and were social and polite. They danced a good deal, and the prince regent frequently and very good-naturedly with young ladies, who had been presented that evening. We came away a little after eleven, but the ball did not close till two—a most enormous length of time for such an amusement. The recollection gives me the same impression I received at the time of a perfectly elegant, comfortable, and cheerful entertainment. There was no pressure from crowd, no noise or confusion, no over dressed person. Generally very good taste was visible in the dresses; and the manners of all were so gentle and yet animated that good feeling was to be believed in as much as the effect of refined society. It must have a powerful influence upon so small a society as Dresden contains, and where the reigning family is so much connected with it, to have the tone of that family so high in all points. The two last kings have been distinguished for their honesty and integrity, and now, in the large family dwelling together, (at least nominally so) the domestic affections, the literary cultivation, and absolute literary labours would make several families notorious. I think I have already mentioned Prince John’s translation of Dante’s Inferno, which he has printed with notes, the historical portion of which, Mr. Ticknor says, are equal to any yet printed, and, in some respects, better. He is still constantly at work upon the Paradiso, and has all the appearance of an intelligent, kind-hearted man of letters.36 His sister, the princess Amalia (adopted by the king) has written two plays, one of which, the first, was offered anonymously to the manager of the theatre, and, being rejected by him, was sent in the same manner to Berlin, where it has had great success. Of course, it has

35. (I have made a little mistake here—there was a gallery at each end of this dancing hall, always not built for the occasion, one was given up to the people, while in seats behind the musicians in the other were young people belonging to good families. I saw some little nods from mamas below directed [to] them. For the other balls, there was a large band in each gallery, which played alternately. And how well they played Strauss’ best waltzes and others. It was pleasure enough to hear them. The people admitted behind the screen, which was only as high as their shoulders, were so quiet and motionless that one very soon forgot them—it had a queer effect however when we returned from supper—as I was of Prince John’s party, I went into the dancing hall among the first, and this line of heads was very strange.) [A.T.] 36. Dante’s Divine Comedy consists of three canticas: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

1835–1836

193

since had equal success here, and both are now frequently performed here and elsewhere.37 Prince John’s little family of seven children, the oldest only nine, are well brought up and cared for. The smallest particulars concerning them are known and discussed by the people, and, as the good sense and kind heartedness of the heads of the family are equally known, their influence is strong and useful. The whole of this evening’s entertainment expressed a sincere desire, not only to have all things worthy of royalty, without ostentation, but to give pleasure to all, from themselves down to the grisettes,38 shopboys, market women, and labourers that filled every inch of room allotted to them, and so quietly that their presence was almost forgotten.

1836 JANUARY 15TH. DRESDEN. I am constantly more and more struck with the pleasant and excellent character of this agreeable little city. I have not yet seen any thing in the streets or houses painful or revolting; no rags or misery, no half clothed children, no ill-tempered mothers or attendants, witching and dragging children, no idle loungers, no intemperance. On the contrary, every body is warmly and thoroughly clothed, the children particularly so, their nice little wadded dresses and warm cloth or velvet caps looking as comfortable as possible. The poorest I have seen are dressed with regard to warmth, though the materials are of the cheapest kind. I have seen but one really ragged person since I have been in Saxony. The good temper of all is equally striking and agreeable. I have before written of it; but I never look out of my window, never walk or ride, that it does not strike and interest me. The good-humoured smile accompanies the greeting of the heaviest loaded market women, and the workmen along the ways, the porters and roughest looking people I have seen pause to speak and smile with little children of their own degree; I never see children quarrelling with each other or teasing smaller ones or creatures. I have never yet detected a sour or a sulky look, even, amongst them, and though not a deep observer, I am a very minute one. Then the arrangements in the city for the comfort of its inhabitants are in the same tone of a gentle kindness. In frosty, slippery weather, wherever there are paths across the square, and along the sideways of the streets, they sprinkle

37. This was a sad contre-temps—the Princess’ play was sent to Tieck, who was the Censor for the Theatre, as it were—it was sent back but when it came back with a Berlin reputation, Tieck said he had never seen it. This did not prove much care in examining the manuscript sent him, but it was a hard corner to get out of. The Princess has since written several volumes of excellent plays illustrating domestic life in Germany, in such classes as it would seem quite impossible for her to comprehend, in the separate existence of a royal Princess. [A.T.] 38. Working girls, usually seamstresses.

194

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

red gravel, and when mild weather again produces mud on the top of the ice, it is swept away with the greatest neatness. The last week, there has been a full market every day, and every day, the whole square has been swept so thoroughly that, though the weather is mild and frost is coming up and constantly producing mud, and it is the uniting point of seven streets, a lady can walk without annoyance in any part of it. The same cleanliness exists all over the city. In most of the streets, there are broad flag stones along the sides, but every where, one can with a little care as well walk in any part of the centre of the street. Another little expression of the city’s character is shown in this pretty market before us, where hundreds of women bring their large, flat baskets of various bright coloured vegetables, kale, cabbage, carrots, etc., frames for pots of flowers and baskets full of wreaths and cut flowers, and without fear of rough carters or rude hack drivers, place them on the ground, regarding nothing but to have the thoroughfares free. Then, at night, the baskets and a little sort of sentry boxes in which they sit to protect themselves from the cold, are arranged compactly to wait till the morning, fearless of robbery. I like them much. I like even what strikes some people as too great closeness, the small and economical mode in which every one lives, choosing not to exceed a small income, but glad to enjoy all amusements and society within their reach. I have said there was nothing painful to be seen in the streets, but I ought to have excepted the poor burdened women, whose labours I have already spoken of largely. A day or two ago, I saw a sight which seemed to cap the climax of the degradation of our sex here; which was a woman drawing an empty coal cart without the small assistance of a dog; and a man sitting in the cart, entirely at his ease, with his arms folded in great dignity. I hoped for his character’s sake that something was the matter with him.

1836 MARCH 25TH. DRESDEN.39 [. . .] The evening of Wednesday40 (however) we passed pleasantly at Mad. de Lüttichau’s, who had invited us to hear Tieck (who is extremely fond of her) read a play of Shakespeare. I was curious to know his manner, and, having an English copy, was interested and amused. He does not read better than I have heard, but, as he reads the whole play without pause, except to name the changes of scenes and persons, the interest is more continued and the spirit greater. He has a wonderful organ, or he could not read two hours and more, as he does, without fatigue. The play was As You Like It, and amused Anna very much, who had read 39. This section was written on March 25, but deals with the days of Wednesday, February 24, and Sunday, March 20. 40. February 24.

1835–1836

195

it in German before going. There were a dozen ladies and gentlemen, (the Countess Baudissin41 among them,) and, after the reading was over, we had a nice little hot supper at a round table. We were at home a little after ten. Sunday, 20th March. It was most lovely weather to-day, and we passed more than an hour in the Grosse garten, roaming through the paths and over the grass, resting ourselves on the seats and observing the green buds just starting, the butterflies, thousands of little red bugs called soldaten crawling about, and other tokens of the approach of a more cheerful season. It is very early for such things, and we are threatened with renewed cold after it. In the evening, we went at half past eight to the apartments of the princess Augusta, who held a soirée for the drawing of a raffle which offered 120 prizes amongst 800 tickets. The peasants and villagers round Dresden manufacture quantities of blonde, plain lace, and thread lace, of a very beautiful quality. They embroider muslin, and cambric too, very beautifully, and, unluckily, society in general not being wealthy enough to do them full justice as to prices, they are often obliged to sell their exquisite articles most ruinously cheap. The royal family buy a great deal for themselves, but to add still more to the receipts of the poor manufacturers, the princess purchases still further a large quantity of the most costly articles. She then sends tickets to a certain number of those admitted to the royal circle who take as many or as few as they choose, paying a dollar for each. The money, of course, is sent to the poor peasants, and from among those who have taken tickets, she invites a few to her apartments to tea, and in the evening, the raffle takes place. Unlike the regular etiquette of receptions at Court, which prescribes that the guests should assemble previous to the entrance of the family, we found the princess in her drawing room, receiving her visitors herself, which she did with her usual dignity and affability. A large tea-table was arranged in the same apartment, richly, but simply, and when all the family had arrived excepting the king and prince Max, the Dame d’honneur made tea. The ladies quietly seated themselves at or near the table, while the gentlemen stood by, making themselves agreeable. The party of course was very select; I think not exceeding fifty. The foreign Ministers were there; but the Count and Countess Strogonoff, the princess Soltikoff, the Countess Circourt, Lady Rancliffe and ourselves were the only foreigners. Tea, with all its ceremonies, lasted a long time, and, when we finally rose from table, the company passed into the beautiful hall adjoining, which is hung with the splendid tapestry I have already mentioned. There we found at the further end several large tables, where were spread the articles which were to 41. Julie Friederike Gräfin Baudissin was the wife of Wolf Heinrich Friedrich Karl Graf von Baudissin. Anna Ticknor records her presence at this gathering because in the interval between the evening at Tieck’s and the date of this journal entry, Countess Baudissin suddenly caught scarlet fever and died.

196

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

be distributed, and which all the ladies flocked to examine. There was a great variety of beautiful articles, such as blonde lace dresses, veils, scarfs and shawls, both black and white, white thread lace of various widths, embroidered muslin in various forms, exquisite embroidered pocket handkerchiefs, worsted work for screens, tabourets42 and lamp rugs, and many other things that I cannot stop to enumerate. Each article, of course, had a number attached to it. Superb sofas stood in the centre of the hall; and before one of them a table was placed with two large porcelain vases upon it. In one of them were papers on which were inscribed the names of all who had taken tickets. In the other were numbers, of which duplicates were attached to the articles upon the tables. The princess regent seated herself before one vase, and her sister the princess John before the other, and, each drawing out a paper from the separate vases, the person, and the article for that person were designated. The princesses handed the papers to their chamberlains, who stood behind the sofa, and they passed them to the Dames d’honneur, who hastened to the tables to find the articles, which were drawn by those who were present. Once or twice, the princess Augusta went herself to select and present the pretty things, and showed an animation and enjoyment of the scene, which did something to lessen the stiffness of a small circle and the dulness of rather a stupid process. Once or twice, there was much amusement at hearing some one of the princesses call out “Fritz”! “Fritz”! and to find that the prince regent had drawn a few ells of narrow thread edging, and again about as much narrow blonde. But, when it was announced that his highness had drawn a rich blonde dress, there was almost a shout, and some ladies looked as if it might have been more appropriately bestowed. Another beautiful blonde dress was drawn by a little ugly Portuguese, an attendant upon the Duke of HesseDarmstadt, who said he did not know what he should do with it, for he had no female relations. I gained a beautifully embroidered pocket handkerchief and felt quite content; but the countess Circourt was a little disconcerted at drawing nothing but a common sheer muslin pelerine, very little embroidered. After the drawing was over, the company walked about, ices, cakes, etc., were handed round, and there was rather a buzz of voices. But, in an hour, the princesses retired, and we came away. And so ended another attempt to get some amusement, in the dull and retired life of royalty. The ladies seem little better to me than state prisoners. The princess Augusta is rather more independent than her cousins, for she is wealthy, and single, and, now and then, takes a journey, and makes excursions, which are rare amongst princesses. She has too, in her establishment for young ladies in Dresden, a constant interest. It is an institution where the daughters of widows, of decayed noble families, are supported for a certain number of years, and prepared to be themselves teachers and governesses. She visits it 42. Footstools.

1835–1836

197

several times a week, and occasionally goes in unexpectedly at meal times, that she may be certain the treatment is good. The children love her warmly, it is said.

1836 MARCH 26TH. DRESDEN. This evening, I have made my first visit at Tieck’s, finding there Count and Countess Circourt, Mme. de Lüttichau, Mrs. and Miss Kaskel,43 and one or two others whom I did not know.44 They were at tea when we went in, and things looked rather poor and ordinary. But such things are not minded here. Talent and acquisition attract respect and interest, and attention too, however poorly provided in externals. Mme. Tieck is a confirmed invalid; but she looked tranquil and pleasant, and divided the time between knitting and sleeping. Miss Dorothea, the eldest daughter, is a regular blue, but seems simple and goodnatured, and knits away most diligently. Her manners are quiet and amiable, and her knowledge, I believe, thorough. She has translated several of Shakespeare’s plays, and, I believe, frequently adds to her own, or the family revenues, by her literary labours. The other daughter was absent. Tieck himself is of a short, thick form and much bent from gout. His head is finely formed, and his eyes dark, bright and expressive, but his face generally cannot be called pleasing or very interesting. His conversation, I understand, is strong, concise, and much in the form of aphorisms. Though he understands English perfectly, he will not speak it, so that I cannot judge for myself. He is pleased to receive visitors every evening, and is pleased, too, to use his uncommon powers of reading for their amusement. Sometimes, he reads some of his own compositions, but, more frequently, Shakespeare’s or Goethe’s plays. This evening, he read to us the Taming of the Shrew with extraordinary spirit and expression, giving distinctiveness and life to each character. Indeed, more character to each speaker than I have ever before found in them, making Petruchio, from the very first word he spoke, the blustering, rough, headstrong person that Gremio describes him, not the dignified fine gentleman that puts a force upon his temper to treat Kate harshly, as Cooper and Charles Kemble have made him, but enjoying it and doing it naturally, and heartily, so that every word he says is consistent. Gremio he made a foolish, weak old man, for which there is abundant text. It was a most agreeable entertainment. Immediately after it was finished, we came away, though only nine o’clock, but such is the fashion of the house.45 43. The wife and daughter of Michael Kaskel. 44. For the relationship between George Ticknor and Ludwig Tieck, see Zeydel, “George Ticknor and Ludwig Tieck.” 45. William Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew (1590/94) was one of his earliest plays. It features the nobleman Petruchio, who marries an irascible woman named Katherine, whom he manipulates and tames into becoming a subservient wife.

198

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

1836 MARCH 30TH. DRESDEN. Wednesday 30th March. I went early this morning to Mad. Butler’s room (in the Italian village) with the children for their first sitting for their picture; and after half an hour given to it, called for Lady Rancliffe, and went to the Grüne Gewölbe, or collection of treasures, meeting there Mr. Ticknor and Count Circourt. This is a series of eight large halls in the basement story of the palace arched over with solid masonry, and each closed with iron doors. They contain the most valuable and curious collection of jewelry and ancient specimens of art and invention in all Europe. The first room is filled with bronze and brass copies (small) of celebrated statues and monuments. The only thing there that was interesting to me was our Saviour on the cross in bronze by John of Bologna, 18 inches high. The next room contains works in ivory of all dates and all forms, but, almost uniformly of beautiful execution—small bas-reliefs, crucifixes, and small figures representing the scourging of our Saviour are very remarkable, as are also little vases, small drinking cups, large, immense tankards with most prominent bas-reliefs, etc. etc. As a curiosity and tour de force the most remarkable was a representation of the fall of the angels from heaven in a single block of ivory, a foot and a half high, so excavated, so wonderfully wrought, that what at first sight seems a light and beautiful branch of white coral proves an accumulation of exquisitely finished figures in every possible attitude and position, each figure not being larger than a common sized pin, and yet, in the very centre of the mass, they look well formed. In another room were remarkable specimens of enamel, in plates, dishes and cups; heads painted by Ismael Mengs, father of Raphael Mengs, scagliola tables46 of most wonderful workmanship, and some with borders of flowers and fruit represented by different coloured polished precious stones, an art no where practiced but at Florence, and always excessively expensive. Here too were ancient tea-pots, and cups, and tumblers, and various little things of most brilliant ruby glass, an art almost extinct. Lady Rancliffe told me the Bohemian manufacturers of glass said they could make it, but that so much gold was necessary to produce the colour, it was too costly. I suspect it was a story to conceal their ignorance. Drinking cups and wine vessels made partly of ostrich eggs were in great numbers of every variety of forms. Sometimes placed on one end in a silver frame, they were divided near the other end, and made a drinking vessel with the cover ornamented with wrought silver. Many were in the form of ostriches, the egg being the body, and all the rest of the bird made of exquisite Filigree silver. Others were pelicans made in the same manner. Another hall was devoted to gold and silver drinking vessels and horns of all shapes, ages and dimensions.—Some were grotesque, like figures of ladies in the 46. Scagliola is a composite substance that resembles marble.

1835–1836

199

ancient costume, holding in their hands raised above their heads a cup to drink from. Four gold, wrought simple tumblers with covers were curious from their history. They were given by John George I Elector47 in 1656 to his four sons, each the head of a house, Saxony, Weißenfels, Merseburg, and Zeitz, with directions that, when the families were extinct, the cups should be brought to these halls. The last was returned in 1764, little more than one century extinguishing three families that perhaps, when the cups were given, the father flattered himself might exist many centuries. Here too were immense gold urns and coolers almost large enough to float a ship in, and heaps and heaps of idle riches. A chamber filled with articles in precious stones follows, quantities of large and small vases, and ornaments for a lady’s table or toilette of agate and jasper, ancient spoons and cups also of agate in piles in glass cases. Other vases of lapis lazuli and serpentine, and some very large vessels, 1½ feet high, wrought from solid crystal and ornamented with very beautiful bas-reliefs. The largest crystal I ever imagined is there in a solid globe, weighing 15 lbs.! Here too were toys of gold and precious stones made in the 15th century, and little caricature figures, the bodies of enormous pearls irregularly shaped. One toy was a silver egg of the common size which, opening, discovered an imitated yolk that opened and discovered a perfect hen sitting within of gold and enamel. Opening the poor bird, a rich seal appeared set with precious stones, and, dividing the seal, a diamond ring was found last, the whole a pretty piece of workmanship. The last room was surrounded by glass doors exhibiting an amount of jewels quite amazing to unaccustomed eyes. The diamonds worn by the king when we were presented, a set worn only by the queen when there is one, a second belonging to the king, and also other entire sets of rubies and sapphires for the queen. I mentioned, when seeing them worn, the unique green diamond, which is a splendid stone indeed, entirely different in hue from any other green stone, beautifully cut, and of the size of a common teaspoon, a little lozenge shaped. In the ornament for the shoulder, which is a mass, full six inches long by four broad, there are three stones, by no means the largest in the set, each of which cost $150,000! Sixty buttons are there, each one large stone surrounded by small ones, which cost 10,000 thalers for every button. I mention these accidentally, for it is impossible to give an idea of the quantity and magnificence of the collection. The ornaments for the queen are nearly equal in amount and value. An ornament for her head looks enough to crush her; her ear-rings are each of two diamonds, the drops as large as the green stone, and the rings for size and variety were most extraordinary. An 47. Johann Georg I (1585–1656) became elector of Saxony in 1611. This story refers to Johann Georg’s last will and his decision to leave three of his four sons in charge of smaller sections (principalities) within the duchy while the first son inherited the electorate of Saxony and thus was superior to his three brothers. This last will created the principalities of Sachsen-Weißenfels, Sachsen-Merseburg, and Sachsen-Zeitz. These three families died out in 1718 (Zeitz), 1738 (Merseburg), and 1746 (Weißenfels). See Kötzschke and Kretzschmar, Sächsische Geschichte, 263–64.

200

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

opal was excessively beautiful. The rubies and sapphires were as choice, large and brilliant as the diamonds. But it is a hopeless task to describe such sights. The rest of the sides of the room, were filled with rich swords, staffs and canes, much ornamented with precious stones, and ancient collars, orders and chains. Many uninteresting works of art stood round, but only one is worth mentioning, which was a tea service of gold enamel arranged in tiers on a solid frame, apparently for the centre of a table, with many little useless gimcracks48 and ornaments of the same material. Each cup and each saucer bore a miniature portrait, whose colours are perfectly fresh. But by this time, I was too wearied to examine, and too cold from the power of the marble floors, to be any longer interested, and, at length, tore away the never wearied Lady Rancliffe, and gladly came home. Anna, to her honour, sat down from her own impulse to her German lesson, but I was pretty useless till after dinner. It was a curious and interesting exhibition, showing us forms of luxury of past ages, which are often read of, but which I think will never be again seen except in such quiet repositories. It gives too an idea of the state of the arts at those periods and a little perception of manners. Still it is melancholy to think of the time, taste and talents wasted, and of the immense amount of idle riches hoarded here—for what! To be sure, it would be still worse to destroy such things, and some body must hoard them, or they would not be riches. It was a celebrated collection in 1640, and was put into its present state in 1724.

1836 APRIL 4TH. DRESDEN. Monday 4th. A quiet, contented day, for Mr. Ticknor has been much better, and, the weather not being agreeable, we have not been tempted to leave our pleasant occupations. This evening, to be sure, I was not only obliged to go out, but to go alone to the royal Concert at the palace; a thing so little agreeable to me that I begged Mad. de Circourt to accompany me; and, calling for her a little before six, we went through the well known passages and guards and up the many, many stone stairs to the same apartments where the balls were given; which, I believe I have never said, are in the third story. The staircase is broad and handsome, but perfectly simple. At each landing place stand two guards; and it is our amusement to hear the salute pass up from one to another as an officer or distinguished visitor arrives. Mad. de Circourt and I agreed that it was best always to be preceded by a prince or a general, the salute to them sounding as if intended for us. About 150 persons were present in full dress; for, it being Easter Monday, it is the second fête day, and all were in gala costume. On one side of the hall (which was the tapestry hall, next beyond the china room,) stood 48. Flimsy objects.

1835–1836

201

the royal chapel musicians in a simple, uniform, green coat, slightly embroidered on the collar, white small clothes and swords. In the centre of the hall, a large Turkey carpet was spread, and chairs with backs placed on it for the royal family. Large velvet tabourets were arranged in a semi-circle, at each side of the carpet; and, when the ladies in satins, velvet, lace, feathers and flowers were seated on them, the king and princesses brilliant in diamonds, the guards and officers of the court in full uniform standing behind the chairs, and gentlemen and the Diplomatic corps, also in uniform, in groups behind the ladies on the tabourets, it made a brilliant and striking coup d’oeil.49 The king came in with the same form and attendants as at the balls; and, after he and the rest of the family had accosted most of the guests, technically called, forming the circle, they seated themselves, and the music commenced. The overture to the Magical Flute50 was beautifully performed, a song by Pacini was well sung, and the rest of the instrumental music was fine; but the whole of it did not occupy more than an hour and a half. In an interval of 15 minutes, the circle was again formed, and much pleasant conversation was promoted by the sociability of the princesses and princes; but the old king was determined his supper should not be delayed long, and ordered the musicians to commence again, sending to recall the princesses from their conversation. Tea, coffee, and, immediately after, ices were handed about, but the king not allowing us time before the music again commenced, the waiters were obliged to move about in the midst of a grave duet, which I thought must have considerably annoyed the singers. The king left the room, I believe, soon after the music was finished; but I was at the upper end and could not see. The princes and princesses remained fifteen or twenty minutes, full of civility and courteousness, and I have not seen any thing more dignified and elegant than the manner in which the prince and princess regent, stepping gradually back from the circle of ladies at the upper end of the hall till they stood on the carpet again, there looked round, courtsied and bowed, and turning again, passed on to the group at the lower part of the hall. It was the last night that Mad. de Circourt was to be in society, and a group of us stayed in the hall gossiping till the attendants began to put out the candles, which I showed Mad. de Circourt as a rather strong hint; I was at home again with my invalid by nine. The more I see of this family of princes and princesses, the more their respectability and good feeling strikes me. The two Bavarian princesses, wives to prince Frederick and prince John,51 who are sisters, are intelligent and cultivated, and in society, evidently desirous to please and to be pleased. The princess Marie speaks 49. View. 50. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute (1791). 51. Friedrich August II married Princess Marie of Bavaria (1805–1877) in 1833. Prince John married her sister Princess Amalie of Bavaria (1801–1877) in 1822.

202

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

English very well indeed; and so, I understand, can her sister, the princess John, but she is too timid or lazy. Princess Marie has this winter taken lessons of Miss Darmstadt, who teaches Anna on the piano, and she was told by Mad. Tümpling, the grande maitresse, that she was to tell the princess of her mistakes and faults, that she “desired to learn more.” The princess John has seven little children, which is enough occupation and care. Princess Louisa, the young wife of the old prince Max, is industrious and cultivated; she speaks English very well indeed, French and German, Italian being her native tongue. She plays and sings too very well, I am told. The princess Amalia’s talents and industry I have already spoken of; she has just produced a third play, which is much liked. Princess Augusta’s good deeds I have mentioned also. Her gentle, quiet good sense and excellent heart have gained the respect of all, most particularly of the whole of her own family.

1836 APRIL 12TH. DRESDEN.52 Friday, we were surprised by a visit from two American gentlemen who have been studying all winter at Berlin. One was a Mr. Walker, a cousin of the clergyman at Charlestown, and the other, Mr. Lane from New-York. They seemed pleased to see compatriots and to get newspapers, but have not yet caught much European ease. Mr. von Raumer called too, bringing letters and directions for us with a kindness and thoughtfulness that astonished me in one so much a stranger to us; but my surprise is often excited in the same way. I forgot to mention our having met at Tieck’s Tuesday evening a young Dr. Henry and his wife from England, who have travelled exactly the same course we wish to follow this summer. Mr. Ticknor, discovering this, asked leave to visit him, and make some enquiries about it. He was called suddenly away from Dresden Thursday, but found time and kindness to write a sheet full of advice and hints, adding a polite invitation to visit him in England when we are there again.

11 “I would fain . . . give an impression . . . of this pretty city.” April 26–May 8, 1836 1836 APRIL 26TH. DRESDEN. (To-day, Anna and I, with Mr. Sparman, drove again to Plauen, and passed three hours nearly sketching most agreeably. It was refreshing to sit under the trees in a most soft and delicious temperature, and listen to birds and rural 52. This section was written on April 12th but deals with the events of Friday, April 8.

1835–1836

203

sounds with an interesting occupation. I was content to leave talking to Anna. My want of German is but small trouble to me, for drawing is so easily taught by example, and when difficulties come, I have a kind interpreter always at my side. Coming into town at one, I finished the morning at the atelier all by myself, where Mr. Ticknor joined me with kind letters from Mr. Savage and Wm. Prescott. How many pleasures I have! A little walk at sunset, and Shakespeare this evening, complete the list for to-day.) Sunday 24th, we took a short walk at noon, and in the afternoon, in spite of little summer showers, we drove three or four miles to the hill on which is placed the simple monument to Moreau. It is a commanding spot, for it overlooks the whole city and country. A very few small trees shade it, and they are the only ones to be seen over the whole hill, which is wholly cultivated. It is striking when standing on such a spot in the present calm and thriving state of all around to think of the horrid contrast, at such a moment, as the one when Moreau was called to his account. A solid, square block of granite is surmounted by a colossal casque of bronze, a sword and a wreath of the same metal, and the inscription is simply, “Here fell the hero, Moreau, at the side of Alexander.” Russell says the word “traitor” was deeply cut over the word “hero”; but it is not there now.53 The monument was surrounded by gazers. Indeed, all the roads, paths and public gardens were filled this afternoon with well dressed, contented groups, walking and playing with children, or sitting round the little square tables in the gardens or court yards of the cafés, and drinking coffee or beer, knitting, smoking and chatting. And a pleasant sight it was, though not according to our notions for a Sunday; but all was orderly, good-humoured and respectable. Driving home through the Grosse Garten, we found that, too, enjoyed in the same manner by hundreds in perfect quiet and with good manners. In the evening, Mr. Ticknor read Cowper’s Task54 till Anna left us, and then I wrote. I have never attempted a description of the Grosse Garten, and it really deserves one from me, for it has been a great pleasure and refreshment to us. It is just outside the city, and it is only a mile long, half a mile wide, but so tastefully and ingeniously arranged as to appear double the size. Nearly in the centre is a small pond enlivened by swans, in front of which is a small palace, or Maison de plaisance,55 built many years ago in the palmy days of Saxony and in the same style of overloaded ornament as the Zwinger.56 The ground in front of 53. Anna Ticknor refers here to Russell, A Tour in Germany: And Some of the Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empire, in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, 261. 54. William Cowper, The Task (1785). 55. Pleasure palace. 56. The Zwinger refers to a royal building that includes six pavilions connected by large galleries. It was built according to plans by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann in collaboration with the sculptor Balthasar Permoser between 1710 and 1732.

204

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

this building is a green lawn surrounded by borders of large flowering shrubs, and ornamented by statues. At the other end of the pond stands a large and very beautiful marble vase, a figure of Psyche being cruelly twisted into a sort of handle, while two little loves on the edge of the opposite side are busy with flowers in their hands. A broad avenue passes on each side of the palace and pond, and afterwards, branching off into green and shaded ways, one can drive about this little piece of ground an hour with constant variety and beauty to please and amuse. Some portions are planted with pines and firs, others with forest trees in groves, and rich clusters. Then one finds an open lawn with vistas so arranged as to give an idea of great extent, then again the woods seem wild as untouched nature, underwood and vines straggling about, though now, flowers and beautiful foliage betray the careful selection. Then a broad avenue of tall and venerable trees stretches the whole length of the garden, and, as the road crosses it several times, forms a striking feature, for it is so placed, as to exhibit at one end the towers and steeples of the city. Foot paths kept in the nicest order wander all about, and seats are kindly placed under fine old trees at agreeable distances. Just within the gate of the garden are two small stone buildings standing quite at the sides, where coffee tables invite the flocks of pedestrians who ramble about the walks. Six stone pavillions or summer houses stand at regular distances at each side of the palace and pond, the avenue passing between. These little buildings are lent by the king, I believe, to families to whom he wishes to be kind, or who are employed about the Court for the season; and, in the afternoons, they go out, take coffee, and give it to friends who join them, returning to town to sleep. Other small and more ordinary buildings offer refreshments in many parts of the garden, but they are so placed, and so hidden by trees, that you come unexpectedly upon them, and only one can be seen at a time. Round them, tables and seats are placed under trees, and sometimes a tent or rural roof protects from the sun and offers a variety. Here, quiet, contented groups may be seen at almost any hour; but, in the afternoon, and particularly on Sundays, all the streets and paths to the garden are filled with citizens, who enjoy right well the fresh air, the rural scenery, the gossip and the music which they find there. It is a great blessing to the city, affording a simple, healthful pleasure, thoroughly used, and, I doubt not, producing real benefit. Our happy life in Dresden and my history of it will soon be finished, and I would fain, before I leave it, give an impression of the appearance of this pretty city, but I doubt if I can; I will however partly try. Dresden stands on a broad and level plain, many miles in extent, round which the Elbe flows in almost a semicircle.—This is the oldest part of the town. On the other bank of the river, which is bolder and which stretches away in the distance with quite respectable hills, is the newer part, nearly as large as the

1835–1836

205

other; but both together, when seen from a short distance, do not appear like a large city. From wherever it may be seen, however, it is always a beautiful and an elegant object; for four extremely pretty steeples rise in just the right spots, the tower, or dome, rather, of the principal church is a fine object, and from some points, the palace in the new city looks grand and imposing. An abundance of foliage adds to the grace of the general view. Except in the Grosse Garten, the environs of the old city are entirely without trees, the crops extending to the very carriage wheels and encroaching on the foot paths. The country on the other side of the Elbe is better clothed, and the houses there are so much liked that people move into them for the summer, as they do with us to Brookline or Cambridge. Of separate buildings, there is little to say. The Catholic church, which stands most imposingly near the end of the bridge in the old city, is pretty well proportioned, but is so covered with statues and ornaments as to look finical,57 and to lose all appearance of grandeur or massiveness. The palace is very near it, directly opposite the bridge, and looks as like a warehouse or manufactory as it does like a palace. It is enormous, filling one whole square, and a great part of another, covered galleries crossing over the street that divides it. In the passage, which connects it to the church, any well dressed person can stand on Sundays, when the royal family pass to the service, and speak to the king, or deliver a petition, if they wish. The whole of the buildings that accommodate the family and their suites are entirely without pretensions to beauty. The Frauen Kirche, the principal Lutheran church, stands in the square called the New-Market, and has a fine dome; but the rest of the building is so ill adapted to it that, seen from the square, it looks like the top of a church sliced off, and put flat and unfinished upon the ground. The church was completed in 1734, but the dome was not put on till 1745. The interior boasts of nothing remarkable. The other churches in the city are so little interesting for architecture or beauty that I find nothing to say of them. Taken as a whole, Dresden cannot boast of much architectural beauty, but it is all well, thoroughly, and neatly built. The enormous dwelling houses accommodate some dozens of families each. They are uniformly covered with a brown plaster, the windows are small and very numerous, the staircases all of stone and not very light. In the new city, they seem learning the fashion of building smaller and prettier houses, and, in some cases, these houses are occupied by only one family. The shops are small, and I have found only two or three that contain rich or pretty things. The numberless booths for second hand articles, and the little bits of rooms where all sorts of cheap, ready made, common things are offered express the wants and habits of the population. Two French shops uniting piece

57. Finicky.

206

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

goods, millinery, perfumery, and bijouterie are about as good as Whittaker’s used to be, and are not nearly so much thronged. French goods are hardly as cheap here as with us. The cheapest things that I have found, comparatively, are blonde lace and embroidery. It is in the character of the people, the gentle and humane tone of its government, and its public institutions, that the little kingdom of Saxony finds its distinction now. Education is carefully provided for, laws are strictly and impartially enforced, and therefore observed, and great attention is now beginning to be paid to the regulation of prisons, and the best modes of punishment. The more I have seen of the poverty of the peasantry, and known of the circumscribed means of the nobility, the more wonder I feel at the splendour and riches of the collections in art, and for instruction; for the contrast grows constantly stronger to me. The reigning family is very rich by long inheritance; they do what can be done to increase the prosperity of the people, and their private liberality is honourable to them. At the same time, they are able to preserve these beautiful collections, and to add some treasures to them; and, having had the good sense to place over each men fitted by science and taste, to preserve and improve the articles and arrangement, the justice done to such treasures is as gratifying as the information gained by them, and the pleasure from their intrinsic beauty. The picture gallery that I have often mentioned is arranged in immense halls, not remarkably well lighted, for no light comes from above; but it is so splendid a collection, and so well arranged, that, to complain of any thing seems truly captious, as well as ungrateful. When Mr. Ticknor was here in 1816, there were 1300 pictures; now, there are 2000, arranged first by periods, then by schools, and, with any sort of attention, one cannot help gaining knowledge on the subject. There is an excellent representation of all the first masters and a good selection from all the schools; but the Italian and the German collections are rich indeed. I suppose Correggio is better seen than the other great masters, but perhaps Raphael’s masterpiece is here,58 and of Titian, Claude, Ruysdael there are such first rate specimens that a fair judgment of their different powers can be formed. I cannot stop here to mention my favorites, or to describe pictures, much as I should like to. Our visits there have been fresh and strong pleasures to me, giving me a perception of the talent and force of character of past generations that I have never had before, for to have done so much and so perfectly requires more than a love and talent for the art. This gallery, after the 1st May, is open to all in the mornings.— The next most remarkable collection is that of the engravings, of which there are 300,000, very beautifully and accurately arranged. Visiting it the other

58. Raphael’s Sistine Madonna (ca.1513–14).

1835–1836

207

day, we said we should like to trace the progress and history of the art by specimens of it; and the two attendants brought us, in rapid succession, volumes and portfolios which, commencing with the very first attempts, showed us its gradual improvement down to the exquisite productions of the present day. The whole is arranged in 12 classes, the different schools of painting each forming one, and portraits, architecture, antiquities, others. All the ancient distinguished engravers are here seen and known. In many cases, copies of their engraving are placed upon the same page with the original engravings, showing strongly the superiority of the genuine originals. Here, too, are preserved 29,000 original drawings and sketches of all the considerable masters, arranged by periods and schools. This was a great pleasure to us; not that they are so beautiful, but that they are so characteristic and so free—the first bold thoughts of the inventive genius. One was a true relic, almost a mere piece of waste paper with detached limbs, faces and heads scrawled over it in pencil and red and black chalk, dirty and wrinkled, but every line had power in it, and it was the hand of Michael Angelo that traced them, his name scrawled in the same careless manner by himself, adding to the curiosity and value. Several were shewn us by Raphael; and, to complete the series of antiquities, an album of Rembrandt’s, a little parchment bound book filled with sketches, which were truly rough notes, but full of talent, and evidently, hints for his imagination. I was astonished to find the book nearly filled with landscapes, or sketches of them, for my idea of Rembrandt confines his genius to portraits, interiors and groups of peasants. I know but little of him yet. All these treasures are in a beautiful hall forming a part of the Zwinger, hung with many curious specimens of drawing and engraving. Opening from this is a small room which is warmed through the winter with tables and seats arranged in the best manner for seeing. Once a week, any one can go and have the full pleasure and advantage of this choice collection, free. The collection of ancient armour, also in the Zwinger, I have already spoken of as the most curious and interesting display of past times, of manners, arts and luxury, that can be imagined. In other halls, in the same building, are toilette and work tables of most elaborate arrangement and ornament; one of each of which was actually used by the princess Anne, wife of the Elector, Augustus I. Her little spinnet, forming part of the work table, and her thimbles and playing cards and combs are still lying in their places. Drinking horns and innumerable specimens of the furniture of those times interest the spectator, but bewilder the describer. Other rooms show us, first, the hunting apparatus and the knives and forks of past centuries. Enormous things that look like butcher’s cleavers commence a series that finishes with small knives ornamented with coral, and in several instances with a little head painted and covered with crystal, probably likenesses of beauties, so soon forgotten. Here, too, were the hunting bags, embroidered

208

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

in rich silks, gold and pearls. Of the more serious business of life, in wars and tournaments, here is full teaching, many rooms being filled with all kinds and descriptions of armour, scientifically arranged, so as to show the first rough workmanship, and the progress of art to the period when the trappings of both man and horse were so strong and their ornaments in precious stones so rich and magnificent that art could not go further. The boots and hat of Napoleon seen there show us the change in war. Relics of heroes that one reads of in youth were interesting, and one room fitted up with a Turkish tent actually taken at the siege of Vienna59 and filled with trophies and weapons also taken there was particularly curious. There I saw the horse tail standards, so often heard of, and, for a period, such a fearful signal. This collection is open to the public twice a week in the summer. Of the Grüne Gewölbe, or collection of various treasures in art and jewels, I have already spoken so fully, I will not say more than that it forms, with the exhibition I have just been describing, a more distinct and lively instruction of life and manners in past centuries than exists any where else. This last is the only collection for which money is demanded through the year. Under the picture gallery is a very large hall where are arranged the celebrated casts made by Raphael Mengs, (the distinguished German painter,) from the most beautiful and remarkable works of antiquity. Being painter to Charles III of Spain, he was employed by him to make moulds for casts at his own will and pleasure. He made two sets, one, of course, for Spain; and when he died, he directed that the other should be offered for a certain sum to the king of Saxony, but that, if he did not buy it, double that money should be demanded for them of any other sovereign. Saxony was wise enough to take them; and, the thorough and elegant arrangements (here, as in all the other exhibitions) allowing us to see the casts by torch light, I enjoyed it extremely. What a new and strong pleasure such things are to me! I would I had time to describe some that pleased me much; but I cannot do it here. This also is open free in the summer one day in the week. The library is yet to be spoken of, a splendid Colossus in literature, a collection of 300,000 volumes lodged in a palace and scientifically arranged.60 One whole story of an immense quadrangle is devoted to history, and its concomitants of Geography and maps. Above this, another story is filled with 59. In 1529, the armies of the Ottoman Empire reached Vienna and laid siege to the city for close to a month. 60. The Royal Saxon Library was founded in 1556 as a private library for Elector August of Saxony. Throughout the eighteenth century, its collections grew significantly. The acquisition of various libraries owned by noblemen turned it into one of the most important libraries in Europe. In 1786, the library was moved from the Zwinger to the Japanese Palace. Johann Christoph Adelung, who became its chief librarian in 1787, opened the library to the public in 1788. See Frühauf, “Von der kurfürstlichen Privatbibliothek zur Sächsischen Landesbibliothek.”

1835–1836

209

the Classics and belles lettres. One good room is occupied by the librarian and his secretaries, with attendants in the royal livery standing ready for commissions, and to wait on visitors. Another room is warm and filled with writing apparatus and tables for scholars and examiners. Here is seen thoroughly and distinctly the progress of printing, from the very first book printed from solid blocks through all the later elegancies of illumination and painting. One book called the Bible for the Poor and the Ars Moriendi (the Art of Dying) were without date, and the first date in a book was 1457.61 The first almanacs ever printed were here, most curious inventions. Many beautiful manuscript books were among the treasures, and one, the drawing book of Albrecht Dürer, was extremely curious. It was thoroughly scientific, anatomy and perspective being fully exemplified, I should think, not only by figures, lines and numbers, but by text, all extremely neat, and expressing great labour and patience. A Runic book, being little tablets of polished wood with words cut upon them and strung upon a ribbon, and a complete manuscript of Mexican hieroglyphics, were among the curiosities furnished by distant ages and countries. Here, we saw too, by way of contrast, the magnificent work of Lord Kingsborough, just completed, exhibiting the ancient Mexican literature with, I suppose, as good explanations as can be given. It is a splendid work of an Atlas folio form, elegantly bound. Only a few hundred copies are printed, and they are given, not sold. The halls containing these treasures are of magnificent size, one occupying the whole front of the palace, the ceiling supported by fine marble pillars. The administration of this wealth of mind is as liberal as of the mere ornamental departments, any respectable resident in Dresden being allowed to take books freely; and strangers who are introduced by a note from a foreign Minister or a well known native may have books at his lodgings to any amount. In the same palace is a large collection of antiques in marble and bronze, many curious, but only a few beautiful.62 One small room has one end arranged like an ancient Columbarium,63 and on the floor stand several Egyptian mummies. Three statues found in Herculaneum64 soon after the excavation was commenced are striking and beautiful, more so than any thing that has been found there since, but I confess, though the absolute, identical marbles, the collection did not please or interest me as that of the casts did.

61. See George Ticknor’s description of these books in his entry for September 16, 1816, in this volume. 62. The Japanese Palace had housed the Collection of Antique Artifacts since 1759. 63. A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns. 64. Herculaneum is an ancient Roman town that was buried, together with Pompeii, by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Exploration and excavation of the town began in the middle of the eighteenth century.

210

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

Descending to still another story in the palace, we found a mess of porcelain of all countries and ages, enough to feed all the inhabitants of Saxony from.65 Heaps upon heaps, some very beautiful, and a great deal very curious. In one room, there is the whole chronology of Saxon porcelain, showing the unpolished brown ware, the progress of polishing, first the outside, then the whole, then marking it with vines, then gilding, then giving it another colour, and, at last, reaching white. Our conductor pointed out one set of vases from China, blue and white, very large and handsome, which tradition says were given by the king of Prussia, to Augustus II for a regiment of cavalry. Whole rooms were crowded with China, Japan and Meissen porcelain, and there was an abundance of Sévres. Three vases given by Napoleon are very magnificent; but the device on one struck one as revolting to the feelings, for it represents Napoleon on horseback, taking his hat from his head as a token of respect for a wounded Austrian officer. The cold mockery of such a thing to a man dying by means of the well dressed gentleman, who could bow so gracefully, struck me forcibly. Some Vienna vases are very beautiful, indeed flowers cannot be better painted than in some of these specimens. This completes the list of the collections that I have seen; and I have sketched them even worse than I suppose if I have not given an impression of great wealth, liberality, and thoroughness. They are well used and enjoyed too, for the Saxons have taste, and they visit all these establishments with attention and pleasure. Of the society of Dresden, I have little to add to my many detached descriptions. When we first arrived here, I had no desire to visit, or to be visited, and made but very few acquaintances, and those chiefly English. In the interval, I heard but little of the Saxon ladies of rank, which made me desirous to know them, and, afterwards, at Court, the few who pleased and interested me I easily became acquainted with. The ladies of the higher ranks appeared to me rather frivolous, and but few of them elegant; and from many, many remarks made to me by others, I suppose them much given to insipid amusements and gossip far from insipid. Their accompaniments in the shape of husbands and beaux were of the nature always produced by a low tone among ladies, uninteresting and inelegant. These are sweeping remarks. Of course, as I have said, some ladies were interesting from their minds and manners, and (as every where else) some first rate and striking characters can be found among the mass of both gentlemen and ladies. The gentlemen of the diplomatic corps do not offer any great attractions,

65. The Japanese Palace had housed the porcelain collection created by August the Strong since 1737. With more than 35,000 objects, this was the largest collection of porcelain in Europe, eclipsing Louis XIV’s porcelain collection at Versailles. When the Royal Saxon Library was moved to the Japanese Palace, the porcelain collection was moved to the basement of the building.

1835–1836

211

but are all respectable and civil. M. de Jordan is the only one of the foreigners that is married, and Mad. de Zeschau the only conspicuous lady of the home departments. Leaving the circles of the nobility, one falls into the hands of the bourgeois, as they are called, second rate elegant, with enough wealth, considerable education now and then, and a plenty of warm hearted kindness and hospitality. They are truly contented, feeling none of that restless ambition which, in England, keeps people of this rank constantly aspiring to circles they cannot reach, or trying to prove that they are within the right atmosphere. They have their own pleasures and of rather a high order in music, painting and dancing. The evening, we passed at the Banker Kaskell’s, I suppose a specimen, though the talents of his family are spoken of as rather uncommon. The circles of the literary men form an entirely separate resource to the foreigner, and Dresden contains many of a high standing and most distinguished eminence. Tieck, so long known as an author and savant, is looked upon as a sort of oracle, and is undoubtedly a high authority upon literary subjects. Baron Lindenau is as thorough an astronomer and man of letters as he is an acute and wise statesman, and his sound, practical sense and quick perception make him equally valuable in private as in public. But he acts upon society only in the measures of government which he promotes, for he never visits and receives only calls of business. Reichenbach is a famous naturalist, having the care of the large collections in Natural History in the Zwinger, which I ought to have mentioned, though I have not seen them. He has been a very kind friend to us. Mad. Reichenbach speaking nothing but German, I have not made her acquaintance. Falkenstein, the chief librarian, is a young man of great intelligence and most uncommon learning, modern and minute, tasteful and elegant, as well as ancient and abstruse; and, being very handsome and agreeable in manner and conversation, seems to unite all powers. Mad. Falkenstein has been shut up all winter, and I have not seen her, but we went to his room one day and saw his immense and valuable collection of autographs, his little cabinet with some choice paintings and one of his albums filled with beautiful little sketches and paintings from pencils full of talent. Five were by Retzsch, full of his peculiar character and beauty, one or two, merely memoranda, little scraps of paper, looking as if he had simply tried his pencil. But I do not think that, in his hand, it could come in contact with paper without producing beauty. Among the autographs, I was much interested in one of Gustavus Adolphus, and another of the great General Wallenstein. The exact order and finish with which all these treasures are arranged struck me very much as a proof of untiring industry and interest, for, besides being the scholar and the man of so much care, as I have mentioned, Mr. Falkenstein is much sought in society and appears to enjoy its demands very much. The artists, I suppose, form still another circle of their own, for I have met only one in general society. Dresden is full of them, good, bad and indifferent.

212

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

Mad. de Locqueyssie is a highly finished miniature painter, without talent to get a likeness giving much time, and getting much money for copies from the gallery. Miss von Winkel,66 Anna’s teacher in German, has spent many years in painting, gaining a great part of her subsistence from the sale of poor copies. Vogel67 is a portrait painter of whom I have spoken, and Dahl, a Norwegian, has been long known. Our young drawing master, Sparmann, will, I should think, be distinguished as a painter of nature, so strong is his love for it, and he has already gained so respectable a point. Each that I have named, though I have seen but little of them, is intelligent and cultivated, having that real love of art which refines the mind and feelings, so that if I had ever felt the want of resources, or had not found my own parlour and the society that belonged to it, more agreeable than any other place or society, I was surrounded by persons of talent who could, at least, drive away ennui. The lowest class of hard working shop keepers, mechanics, and those who fill the streets at their various employments strike me very much, they have so quiet, contented and industrious an appearance. I believe I have not mentioned the booths which nearly fill the centre of the old market place, where women constantly sit to sell ready made articles, caps, capes, bags, suspenders, gloves, stockings, ribbons, small hardware articles, and, in short, a greater variety than I can mention. These women are always sewing or knitting. Apple or cake stalls you stumble over at every corner, and the venders have their hands always occupied. What is very funny is to see men who have been sitting at the sides of the streets lately with dried herrings on a wheel-barrow, knitting most busily. There are no urgent solicitations, no teasing to buy, but all try to gain an honest penny; and they live so simply, are so contented with light fare, and so thankful, cheerfully, agreeably thankful for your patronage, it is a pleasure to buy. I have repeatedly seen the hack drivers at their stand, at the regular dinner hour, sitting in their carriages with a little coffee pot, a cup, and a small loaf of brown bread, making it their dinner with entire satisfaction. The women who sell in the streets do the same, and the other morning, I saw five men who were paving the street seat themselves in a row in the shade, and with a jack-knife in one hand, and a lump of brown bread in the other, eat and chat as merrily as if their fare was the thing they most preferred, and as if care was far from their hearts. It often makes me think of the unwise breakfasts and dinners of meat, vegetables and cider or beer which those of the same class think necessary with us, and of the careless, wasteful misery in Ireland, where there need not be more poverty than there is here. There is, I am told, terrible poverty among the peasantry in some parts of the country, but quiet and order are still universal. There is no beggary in the streets.

66. Therese Emilie Henriette aus dem Winkel. 67. Karl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein.

1835–1836

213

There is, to be sure, a vigilant police, and sentinels before the palaces and public buildings are hints not to be disregarded, but there is nothing to repress, no symptoms of mischief or ill-temper or rudeness. Ladies go to and from the theatre, concerts or private parties, escorted by only a female domestic with a lantern. Coming out of the box at the theatre, it has amused me to see the good natured stout girls with their heads wholly uncovered standing in the lobby with their mistresses’ cloaks and hats in their hands. It is a kind-hearted, gentle, industrious people, giving a stranger the pleasant sensation of confidence in their honesty and good intentions, and affording the pleasure of a sort of sympathy. I have expressed but small interest in the Saxons of the higher classes, but I ought to have mentioned the number of agreeable ladies and gentlemen whom we have found among the residents for the season only. Russians and Poles flock here in great numbers, some under pretence of their health requiring the Carlsbad waters, several seasons, and some for I don’t know what reason. One gentleman, as I believe I have mentioned, was here avowedly for the health of his dogs. Amongst them, we have found great pleasure in the acquaintance of the young Count and Countess Circourt, whom I have often mentioned, the princess Löwenstein68 and her sister, the Baroness Kahlden, both elegant and intelligent ladies, the princess most particularly gifted with esprit, and both most kind and flattering to us. The Count and Countess Stroganoff 69 have also been extra polite to us, and afford some interest as distinguished and rather striking persons; but both seem a little wearied with a life of externals, and sometimes excite one’s commiseration by their look of ennui. The Countess Bose with her three very pleasing young daughters have interested and gratified us by their kindness to us and their domestic habits. Count Gourieff, the Russian ambassador at Rome, is, I understand, full of intelligence and resource, but I have seen but little of him. Count Colloredo,70 the Austrian minister here, is evidently a man of uncommon talent, and has pleasant, animated manners. The young princess is very amiable and accomplished, but is a little too fashionable. I might mention others; but to string names and epithets is not amusing, nor very expressive. Two things strike Americans very much on their first knowledge of Dresden: one, the great numbers of soldiers, always visible, as if war or disturbances were constantly present; and the other, the little heed people of the lower classes take of externals, and of each other. Female domestics and workwomen pass through the streets without any change of dress or addition to what they wear 68. This probably refers to Princess Löwenstern, the daughter of Count Carl Otto von Löwenstern, who maintained a house in Dresden. 69. Probably Sergey Grigorievich Stroganoff (1794–1882) and his wife Nataly (1796–1872). 70. Reichsgraf Franz Colloredo-Waldsee.

214

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

in the houses; Nurses carry children about for hours wearing the head-dress of the peasants, black ribbons passed round the head, long ends hanging behind, and a crown piece of white or coloured embroidery, short sleeves, and nothing below them, looking as round and contented as possible. Other women seem to live and work almost entirely like men, wheeling wheelbarrows, dragging in carts equal burdens, and sweeping the streets, so that in the country they do every thing but plough, and in town, every thing but build houses. But this life of hardship and exposure does not seem to harden or demoralize them as such things do in England and France. They are decent and quiet in their appearance, always trigly71 and comfortably dressed; and, though, when a hundred and perhaps more are sitting together in the market places, one hears the hum of cheerful chatting, there are never boisterous or rude voices heard, and the expression of face is amiable and good. I like to pass amongst them, and observe their different faces and dresses. The only very peculiar and antiquated customs that I have discovered relate to the earliest and last moments of life. Infants are tied up in a sort of bed which leaves only the head and arms visible, and remain in this miserable state of restraint and confinement till they are six and seven months old; and, when I asked why such a wretched practice continued, they could give me no reason, but that it had been done so long! I cannot but imagine some portion of their many lame and ill formed children must owe their troubles to such a treatment. The other odd customs prevail at interments. When a person of good family, or among the higher ranks, dies, it is the fashion for all friends to send their carriages and servants to the funeral, unless particularly requested by the family not to do it. When the family is restricted in means, as is so common, they are obliged to make this request, because it is the custom for the coachmen to receive at the funeral four thalers, and each footman, two, so that frequently the sum amounts to 80 or 100 thalers. The hearse or bier I have described. It is drawn by four, sometimes six, horses, a man leading each pair dressed in black with a chapeau-bras. At each side of the hearse walk three men dressed also in black small clothes, black stockings, buckles in shoes, chapeau and small black cloak; but the most curious thing is that each carries a lemon in his hand. Following the hearse come two, sometimes four, black antiquated coaches, drawn by black horses, and a man in the dress I have described at each side. At Böttiger’s funeral, which was the most elaborate I have seen, a long line of carriages followed with a footman in livery walking on each side. A woman in black, sometimes two, and occasionally a man with them in full black dress carrying a chapeau under his arm with a long weeper, precede the hearse. These are the most showy arrangements. The more common one is to have only two 71. Neat.

1835–1836

215

mourning coaches; and, the other morning, I saw what seemed very melancholy, a hearse, wholly unattended, save by the man who led the horses.

1836 MAY 8TH. DRESDEN. Sunday 8th May. The morning was, as usual, filled partly with Anna, partly with writing till 12, when, prince John having sent to Mr. Ticknor to visit him, at that hour, I drove with him to the palace to make his excuses to the prince; for, being engaged to dine at Mr. Krause’s in the country, he could not make such a visit as became the occasion. While waiting, I had the pleasure of the noon-day music when the guard for the whole city is changed. It is always most exquisite, as I believe I have often enough said, and always attracts crowds of all ages and ranks to hear it, particularly on Sundays. Mr. Ticknor soon came out, and we drove to Weistropp, Mr. Krause’s country place, as fast as we could, reaching the house in a little less than two hours. It is just outside a village, on the top of one of the highest hills which encircle Dresden, and commands a beautiful and extensive view up and down the Elbe. Mr. Krause has a large estate there, and owns many sheep. The house is very large, and the grounds immediately round it are neatly arranged and finished. On entering, we found the hall simple, but looking rather massive, all of stone, and many fine plants standing in it and on the staircase. The party was all collected, and twenty names were mentioned to me on my entrance into the saloon in alarming succession. It was not a particularly interesting circle. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mr. Sligo, Mrs. Walpole and her daughter, Lord Folkstone and his tutor Mr. Woodward, Mr. Aspinall, or some such name, and Mrs. Krause’s three nieces. I had heard that Mr. Krause had some fine statues and pictures, but I was quite surprised to find how many, and how beautiful they were. One very large salon, nearly or quite 30 feet long, I think, is hung with really fine pictures, one by Murillo is most striking and remarkable, and one by Vandyck, equally remarkable, though less pleasing. The Murillo represents a Spanish Bandit sitting under a tree asleep, of full size almost; he rests on his hand, his hat pulled a little over his eyes, while his two dogs are evidently watching, and protecting him from intruding steps. It is a peculiar, grey picture. It has not the rich and mellow golden hue of some of Murillo’s that I have seen, but it is striking. That by Vandyck is the first group I have seen by him, and I should never have imagined it to be his. The subject is our Savior lying dead with the three Maries round him. A beautiful, speaking likeness of Thorvaldsen by Vogel hangs in another room, and there were many others that pleased me among the pictures; but, seeing them among so many people, and hearing the names of painters in the midst of conversation, I remember too little to specify them.

216

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

But the statues I shall not forget for a long time, for they gave me much pleasure. Six full sized marble statues stand in the large salon I have mentioned; four are copies of Canova’s Hebe, Dancing Girls and Graces, and two are originals by Thorvaldsen, Ganymede, and a little huntress; both exquisitely delicate and finished. On a table stood his little Cupid playing on the tortoise shell. But what delighted me most, and what is really a magnificent piece of art, was his shepherd boy, sitting, thinking and listening in so utterly easy and graceful a position, with such entire repose and so much beauty, that I can hardly imagine power over marble going farther. His dog sits at his feet, and resembles the famous one called Alcibiades’ Dog by Myron, which we saw at Duncombe Park, last summer.72 Many other pretty things of smaller size ornamented the rooms, one a small copy of a sleeping female called Cleopatra from the Vatican, and a little sleeping Love. Copies of some of the antique famous groups in alabaster stood on pier tables and secretaries. The furniture was rather more rich than any I have seen in a private house here, and the seven rooms we saw looked comfortable as well as wealthy. The billiard room opened from the sitting room, and, beyond that, Mrs. Krause’s chamber, where were many little niceties and elegancies that spoke of England, as well as Italy. Mr. and Mrs. Krause have travelled a great deal, and, from the excellence of their English, I should think must have been long in England. The dinner was good with variety of wines. While taking coffee, a party of nine artists arrived on foot from Dresden to see Mr. Krause’s pretty things. We left them to take a walk about the grounds, which we found broken into hill and dale, wildly and prettily. There has been little done, except making nice paths. The highest points give very pretty views of the valley of the Elbe. Returning to the house, we met Mr. Krause, who took us to see his sheep, and I was amused at the mode in which he examined them, and made me do so too. He put the creatures upon a sort of table, and opened the wool to the very skin. He gave us some specimens which amazed me by their fineness. We passed a group of children on the way who, he told me, were his shepherds. I was pleased with the custom which made two little barefooted boys come from amongst them take my hand and Mr. Krause’s and kiss them silently and bashfully, but promptly and decidedly. I do not know whether I have before described Mr. and Mrs. Krause. There is indeed little to say of them, but that they are kind hearted, intelligent and wealthy, have been a good deal in England and in Italy, and have known well how to select from both. He is sixty five years old, and Mrs. Krause, at a suitable

72. The antique sculpture Alcibiades’ Dog is said to have been the work of Myron, a Greek sculptor from the fifth century BC. The sculpture was discovered at Monte Cagnuolo and brought to England. Lord Ferversham acquired it and displayed the sculpture in his mansion surrounded by Duncombe Park in Helmsley. See Whellan and Co., History and Topography of the City of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire, 250.

1835–1836

217

distance only. Our drive home was rather late; but, as I did not say so before, I ought to now, that the whole of it was very pretty, for, immediately on leaving the city, we drove through undivided, cultivated fields, following the river till we came to the foot of the hill. We found the young Miss Sternbergs with Anna, who came to console her during our absence. Lizzy passed the afternoon in the Grosse Garten with the women and Louis, listening to music, and having a grand time.

12 “Once more travellers!” May 10–June 5, 1836 1836 MAY 10TH. DRESDEN. Tuesday 10th. To-day, packing commenced in earnest. We have, by degrees, lost much of that home look, which books, music, pictures and et ceteras give a room. A short visit to the gallery consoled me however for all such désagrémens.73 Today, it was quite quiet, only two or three persons were there, and I took my last look at the beauty and power that have interested and delighted me so many hours this winter. Mr. Ticknor dined with Prince John most agreeably. I went to some shops with Anna, and, after his return, took one more walk with him through the Brühl gardens74 and by the promenade, the whole now beautiful from the fresh foliage of the trees, which stand in profusion all its length, and the flowers and pretty arrangements of the garden, and the gay groups one sees and meets every where. Dresden is bright and gay as possible now, for hardly a window is unornamented with flowers, wall-flowers, roses, stock gilliflowers are in such profusion, standing in frames in the windows of every story, that, looking down a street, it has a very pretty effect. It was rather cold this afternoon, and people were driven under shelter to take their coffee, and eat their suppers. One little building we passed was filled with genteel looking people, the ladies knitting, and all listening to a band of music which was stationed in a corner of the hall. 1836 MAY 11TH. DRESDEN. Our last night in Dresden.—I could write a long time and many pages before I should say all I might of our contentment here, of the happiness we have found 73. Displeasures, annoyances. 74. The Brühl terraced gardens were created by Count Heinrich von Brühl between 1739 and 1748. They were installed on the ramparts that were to protect the old city. After a monumental staircase was built connecting the Schlossplatz with the terrace in 1814, the gardens were opened to the public. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called it “Balcony of Europe.”

218

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

in our home occupations and intercourse, the interests of society, kind friends, and instructive exhibitions, and of my regret at breaking up such good and pleasant habits, at not again seeing one or two who interest me deeply, and the beauty of nature and art which reach the soul by the delight of the eye. But it is better “to steer right onward;” I have enjoyed and recorded as the hours have passed; I can be grateful for what I have been blessed with while exploring and enjoying other scenes, but will not stop to regret or recapitulate. To note, however, that we arrived here the 20th of last November, a period within a few days of six months, and that the whole circle has had unbroken health with the exception of two days when Mr. Ticknor was unwell, and one day that our Courier suffered slightly, seems only right, and certainly remarkable.75

1836 MAY 12TH. MEISSEN. Meissen, May 12th. Once more travellers!—We have come only these twelve miles, as a sort of essay of our powers of flight; or rather, as we saw this ancient place only in the gloom of a November morning, we thought it only convenable to pay it a more respectful visit. We left Dresden at twelve as quietly, and with as little care or trouble, as we had yesterday in starting for Tharandt; indeed less, indeed for then, many messages, notes and tradespeople interrupted us, while to-day, so thorough and active were our domestics that every thing was done well 75. These six months of life in Dresden were certainly full of contentment, and rich resources for improvement and enjoyment—my endless repetitions prove this, as well as that, owing to a very delicate state of health and much impaired nerves, it was often necessary to convince myself that I was contented. There was much friendliness, much real goodness, a great amount of intellectual power, and learning in the circle we mixed with most—it was a pleasure to feel that the mass of the people were so good and true—but there was a terrible amount of gossip and scandal in the same circle, and, it must be confessed, much dullness also. There were two or three most delightful ladies—whose intellectual power and cultivation are most distinguished and whose manner expressed the moral qualities and feelings which fill all want.—Mme. de Lüttichau preeminent in all—Mme. de Circourt noted all over Europe,–but the majority of ladies were small and worldly or tame good housekeepers. The circle of gentlemen was full of talent, remarkable learning, and most pleasant manners, from Prince John and the Baron Lindenau, Count Circourt, Count Baudissin, Tieck, and Count Bülow, to Falkenstein, Reichenbach and the diplomats. Neither my spirit nor my confidence in my French, however, permitted me to engage far with such companions. An animated greeting, a little light talk, and then I let them pass on preferring to listen. The kind and respectful personal attentions and expressions I received from such persons were constant proof how much good will and good nature are understood and accepted when more brilliant things are not to be had. They saw I meant well, and [I] was grateful. My health and spirit improved a good deal in the course of the winter from my enjoyment of drawing and painting—all that I saw and heard stimulated my faculties, too, and I look back upon the winter in Dresden with affectionate gratitude. In reading this history of it, I find many repetitions, and much omitted. I wrote it rapidly, for my time was quite as much filled as my strength would bear, and about once a month sent home the sheets to serve as letters to my sisters and several friends. I had therefore not much opportunity to look back and consider defects. We left Dresden simply for a visit to Berlin intending to return, and start again from the friendly city, for our summer tour, through Upper and Lower Austria, the Tyrol, over the Alps, to Italy. I wished very much to go to Hamburg to see Elizabeth Gossler, but it would have taken a month to do it, the country we should have traversed is wholly flat and uninteresting and, in fact, Mr. Ticknor would not consent to do it. [A.T.]

1835–1836

219

and easily, and I sat at my rug work, talking to the little girls with entire quiet till the carriage was announced as ready. We had asked Sparmann to come with us to Meissen, where his mother lives, and he joined us in season for our early dinner. We left our pleasant abode, the comfortable, cheerful rooms we have occupied so long, not without a little bit of sincere sorrow; and, as we drove through the city, and left it by the same gate we first entered at, it did not wholly pass away, so bright and pretty every thing looked. It is a little droll that the day we arrived at Dresden was a fast day, and to-day was a fast day, the shops empty and the churches full. Lizzy was quite delighted to be in the big carriage once more, and we all had a home feeling in it, which was agreeable. Nothing can be more comfortable than it is. The country had a very different hue from its appearance when we saw it before, though the vines are not yet clothed, and the forest trees are not wholly full of leaf. It is covered with nice, comfortable villages, and garden houses, small chateaux, and vine houses scattered all over the hill sides. It took us but little more than an hour and a half to come the twelve miles; and, finding our rooms cold; we set off to walk while they were put in order. Mounting a regular but winding set of stone steps, we found ourselves on the top of the sharp hill, which is quite covered with ancient buildings, one large mass having been the residence a part of the year of the regal Electors before Dresden was made their capital; but since 1710, it has been used for the manufacture of porcelain, and, I suppose, of course, has nearly lost its original character and form. Adjoining it is a noble old church or cathedral, as it is called, a striking work of the ancient Germans, and I have certainly seen no finer specimen of Gothic on the continent, except at Cologne.

1836 MAY 13TH. LEIPZIG. Friday, 13th. We left Meissen at 8 this morning, and, for two or three hours, found extremely pretty country the road following the Elbe, and winding between gentle hills, sometimes cultivated but generally covered with forest. The whole of the forty miles to Leipzig, the country was well cultivated, well peopled, and looked thriving and cheerful. The weather has been still windy and cool, but it is no annoyance to us in our nice warm house, and, when we walked on, while they changed horses, it was not disagreeable at all. We began today, the regular lessons in History and French, for which we are to be rewarded by a reading in the morning from Mr. Ticknor in Thomson’s Seasons,76 and in the afternoon, in Quentin Durward.77 76. James Thomson’s The Seasons is a long nature poem from 1730. 77. Quentin Durward is a historical novel by Walter Scott. It portrays the life of a Scottish mercenary under Louis XI of France.

220

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

Entering Leipzig about five, I recollected well how dismally it looked in November, and was struck with the change produced by the season. The suburbs are rather pretty from the great numbers of trees in them, but are nothing compared to those of Dresden. After entering the gates, we found the narrow streets filled with a most cruel succession of disagreeable odours and ugly people, no side walks, and the pavement so poor and so dirty. But it looks very busy and active, the impulse of the great fair has not yet passed away, for it is but just over. We have met quantities of Jews on the road to-day. My husband, with his usual energy, has been making two visits this evening, which I could not but feel thankful did not fall in the line of my duty.

1836 MAY 14TH. LEIPZIG. DESSAU. Saturday, 14th May. Leipzig is certainly an unsavoury and uninteresting place to a visitor of one night. I was waked this morning with a rattling and clattering of tongues, as if of an army of monkeys; such as is never heard in my good refined city of Dresden, and, looking out upon the narrow street below, found a butter and egg market beneath the windows, vegetables, flowers and all sorts of things stretching away in the distance, there being certainly more women and tongues than any thing else. Mr. Ticknor made a second visit to a gentleman he saw last evening to see some pictures, which I had not curiosity enough about to take me out. We left Leipzig about ten, finding the city stretching beyond the walls to a vast extent; the country perfectly flat with extensive groves of trees occasionally, but the trees neither fine nor large. The soil is poor enough, and it did not improve in value or beauty through the day. The last four or five miles before reaching Dessau, the road passed through a solid, compact forest of pines. A small, queer brick building stood at the end of the wood, giving a strange termination to the vista. I suppose it was the forester’s residence, built rather fancifully. Near it stood another building also of brick, and near that, a little monument or statue of a stag. This seemed a sort of tea garden, and, standing so separate from other buildings on the outskirts of so deep a forest, it had a queer effect. We found Dessau quite a pretty town of 10,000 inhabitants, the houses of two stories very neatly built and with much good taste. But it looked sadly still, and many poor, ragged and shabby people met our first sight. The hotel is new and nicely furnished, and kept by two young men who are blessed with a capital cook. We walked round the palace of the Duke of Dessau,78 an old building, massive and ugly, standing on a little tributary of the Elbe, the Mulde, which 78. Duke Leopold IV (1794–1871).

1835–1836

221

turns very near it three substantial grist mills. A little garden within the palace gate seems a perfect thoroughfare, and two small buildings originally prepared for fountains to flow from them and ornamented with statues are quite idle themselves in the midst of whatever throng and dirty mechanicals there may be in Dessau. Crossing the stream by a little bridge just beyond the garden, we found a pretty wood tastefully arranged with walks and rustic seats, neatly kept and undivided, open, without let or hindrance to the public. Every thing we have seen in this little principality has a civilized and tasteful air. Amongst other tokens of it, a very good band of music passed round the town at seven o’clock this evening, well appointed and well taught. It is a pretty way of announcing the approach of night, for they tell us it is done every evening.

1836 MAY 15TH. WÖRLITZ. WITTENBERG. Sunday 15th. We left Dessau this morning at 8 o’clock, and had a most beautiful drive of ten miles to Worlitz, where the late Duke built a handsome palace and laid out gardens and pleasure grounds with great taste and beauty.79 They are renowned all over Germany, and deserve more imitators than they have found. The ten miles between Dessau and Worlitz are precisely like an English park, not kept with the most precise care. Fine noble old trees stand alone, and are neighboured with young groves; open lawns and pretty vistas gave other varieties; a little stream ran sometimes by the road side, and was sometimes enlarged into ponds and small basins. A foot path was nicely arranged the whole distance, always under the shade of trees, and, at judicious intervals rustic seats offered rest. One or two lodges were tastefully built, and once, two urns on pedestals looked like the picturesque commencement or relics of a gateway. We came first to the little inn which stands just by the garden wall, and, ordering our dinner and taking a guide, set off to explore the grounds. It is in vain to attempt any description of beauty produced by tasteful, judicious arrangement of woods, water, statues, a hermitage, a well built ruin, three or four quite pretty, small temples, many lovely spots shaded by fine trees, flowers and shrubs enlivening them, while tasteful seats offer repose, and pretty vistas attract the eye on every side. I wish I could give any idea of it all, for I enjoyed our two hours’ walk excessively, finding the whole more to my taste than any such place that I saw in England. The palace is very handsome, built in the Grecian style with an inscription in Latin on the pediment, importing that it was raised in honour of the Duke’s well beloved wife Louisa. This was the great uncle of the present Duke, who,

79. Duke Leopold III Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau (1740–1817) created with this park one of the first and largest English parks in continental Europe at the end of the eighteenth century.

222

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

being in possession of the title and estates fifty six years, had the pleasure of seeing the result of his efforts in these beautiful grounds. He himself lived almost entirely in a small Gothic house of brick hid in thick woods in the centre almost of the grounds. We went over it, finding it in its form and arrangements a most beautiful relic of past times, and filled with fine pictures and specimens of ancient art of almost every species. Delicious and splendid cabinets and boxes, ancient enamel porcelain, miniatures, old engravings, articles in amber and agate, some of them playthings given to the Duke in his infancy, toy tea cups and saucers, tables and chairs of amber, a horse and sleigh with all their trappings in filagree silver, and other nicknacks too numerous to mention. Quantities of ancient glass, particularly beautiful specimens of ruby glass such as we saw in Dresden, some old armour, some painted window glass brought from Switzerland and given by Lavater to the Duke. In a small pane is a memorandum, written with a diamond, by Lavater himself. I have never seen so beautiful a painting on glass. In one window is painted with great minuteness the story of the prodigal son; in another, the history of William Tell. Our Saviour’s crucifixion is represented on a third. Many pictures pleased me very much; but I can hardly describe them, the visit was so short. They were chiefly portraits. One, of the emperor Maximilian, was a beautiful head; one of Charles I of England very fine; two of Rubens and his wife were striking; and others, of Wallenstein, Oxenstiern, Tilly, Gustavus Adolphus, and some others of the same period were very curious. There were many other pictures which interested me by their beauty or their age; but I saw them so rapidly, I cannot even now recollect them. It was a very interesting visit to this little Gothic treasure box; for, as I have said, it was full of curious antiquities, and it is kept in most beautiful order as a bijou of past times. The rooms and passages are all small, all paneled with oak, the staircase of fine black oak, and the fire-places of white marble. In several rooms, the ancient dais was still against the wall, sometimes in a recess filled with pictures. One room, a little larger, a good deal higher than the others, was arranged as a knightly hall, all of oak. A noble table and two large stately chairs stood in the centre as of yore, and on the table stood a silver salver of antique workmanship with a withered wreath of oak leaves given together to the late Duke by the Duchess on one of his birth-days some fifty years ago. It was a dear, lovely collection of old things, and I wish I could see it again. That old Duke must have been a nice person. One curiosity I have not mentioned; which was a fine engraving, or drawing with a pen, I don’t know which, of the family of Sir Thomas More with physionomical observations below by Lavater. It hung in one of the passage ways. Returning through the grounds to the little inn, we saw a queer round building which our guide told us was a Jewish Synagogue, which the Duke permitted the Jews to build and to perform their service there; a piece of toleration remarkable in this part of the world at any period, and most particularly so at the

1835–1836

223

time it was built.80 Our dinner was refreshing, and immediately after we drove off to Wittemberg, leaving all beauty behind us, and finding nothing but flat, sandy plains. We reached Wittemberg between four and five, finding it strongly fortified, pretty large, of 10,000 inhabitants, and a very ugly and ordinary looking town. We still had time to visit Luther’s room in a large building, once an Augustine monastery given to him, after the dissolution by the Elector of Saxony.81 All but Luther’s two rooms has, of course, been many times repaired and altered; but they remain just as when he sat in them, groaning at the darkness of the world, and ruminating upon means of spreading the light and courage that were in his own soul. There is but little there to aid the imagination besides the four walls, now dim and discoloured, and covered with the names of visitors whose enthusiasm took a strange expression in leading them to put their own unknown names in a sanctuary sacred to the memory of so gigantic a spirit. The windows are unchanged, formed of little, round pieces of glass, now admitting but little light, though the whole window is quite large. A large, clumsy table is said to have been used by him constantly, and a queer sort of seat is under the window, which passes my art to describe; a bench is fastened to one side of the room. In another room, we were shown a piece of hieroglyphical embroidery in gold by his wife, and a mug that belonged to him. This building stands near one of the gates, and we followed Luther’s path to the spot where he burnt the pope’s decretal and bull. It is surrounded by a railing, and covered by an oak tree planted there in 1817, on the 300th anniversary of the event. On the same day, a striking iron statue of him was raised in the market place. It is an ugly place, this Wittemberg. Monday, 16th. It pleased me no better this morning when we walked to an old church to visit the graves of Luther and Melanchthon. There was, of course, nothing to be seen but two brass or iron tablets in the floor with inscriptions. Portraits of both are in the walls over them. My husband thought me sadly wanting in enthusiasm, and I know not why it excited me so little. In the chancel of the church are some fine, old iron monuments to the Electors who supported and protected him. The church is simple and spacious. The only beautiful thing in it is an iron font, small, a little in the shape of an altar, with groups and bas reliefs appropriate and tasteful. It is a queer sight in a protestant church to see candles on the communion table, and queerer still that they should be lighted during the communion service. We drove immediately out of Wittenberg from the church, and I was glad to get away from the ugly old place. 80. This synagogue was built in 1789/1790 as part of the park. See Kalmar, “Moorish Style.” 81. Martin Luther lived in this house, which was given to him by Friedrich III (the Wise), elector of Saxony (1463–1525) from 1508 to 1546.

224

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

[Editor’s note: The Ticknors then spent two weeks in Potsdam and Berlin, returning to Saxony via Herzberg on May 31.] 1836 MAY 31ST. DRESDEN. [. . .] I have felt a certain satisfaction that every mile brought us nearer to Saxony, and, when we had absolutely passed the barrier, I found or imagined that I found immediately a great difference in the appearance of the people, as well as in the cultivation of the country. There is good reason for it, however, for the soil in this part of Saxony is vastly superior to what we have seen in the adjacent part of Prussia, and the people are notoriously contented with their rulers. About four, we passed the Castle of Moritzburg, a hunting establishment where the last king went frequently for the love of sport. It is a fine massive pile in the midst of a pretty lake, but we had time only to look at the outside. A noble avenue of old horse chesnut trees lines the road for some distance beyond it. We walked through a part of it while the horses were changing, and I shall not soon forget Lizzy’s pretty frolic with a little white kid that was going home with a pleasant, good-natured peasant woman. I was delighted at the first sight we had of Dresden, for it is always beautiful, and now it looks friendly. We got into the city about five, and one or two kind nods from acquaintances, and the animated reception from the good people of the hotel who came out in a body to the carriage, and seemed to want to carry us all in their arms into the house as they did Lizzy, made us feel once more at home. One or two notes were waiting for us, and they were pleasant tokens that we were not wholly strangers. One from Baron Lindenau disappointed us sadly, for he had offered to make a day’s excursion with us from Dresden if we would give him a day’s notice. But he wrote us that the king was ill,82 and that his fears with his many important duties must prevent his going. I had counted much upon seeing this extraordinary man once more. Mr. Sparmann, our drawing master, came in, and, after a little talk, agreed to Mr. Ticknor’s proposition a fortnight since to go with us to Vienna and Upper Austria. It will be pleasant and I hope improving. 1836 JUNE 1ST. DRESDEN. PILLNITZ. SCHANDAU. Wednesday, June 1st. (Just one year is concluded since we parted from the faithful friends who followed us to our Ocean home; since the commencement of the crowd of new interests and excitements which we have dwelt among from that hour. How much of blessing and enjoyment have we experienced in this appar82. King Anton died a week later on June 6.

1835–1836

225

Figure 6. Das Dorf Raden in der Sächs. Schweitz, unknown artist, ca. 1830. Reprinted by permission of the Städtische Galerie Dresden, Kunstsammlung.

ently brief space—long when we consider how much has been done, seen and felt by us all! It is Anna’s birthday too, and we hoped it would have produced a bright and gay one, but the heavens did not smile, and long before noon, there came on a steady rain.) We found many small things to arrange this morning, for we left Louis with the carriage and baggage to meet us in a day or two at the Castle of Count Thun83 at Tetschen on the borders of Bohemia, it being necessary to take lighter conveyances through the hilly country called the Saxon Switzerland we were to visit.84 These arrangements, with a little uncertainty about the weather, delayed our departure till ten. Sparmann joined us, and a visit from a Mr. Bromme, a good natured bookseller who seems to have “un grand tendre”85 for Mr. Ticknor, filled a few minutes. At last, we bid our hosts good bye, and drove through the pleasant streets of Dresden, for the last time. It was any thing but exhilarating. The road was constantly through undivided fields of grain and thriving villages till we arrived opposite to Pillnitz, the summer residence of the royal family. Here, we 83. Friedrich Count of Thun and Tetschen (1810–1881) or his brother Count Leo of Thun and Tetschen (1811–1888). 84. We took two small carriages, our party being seven—they were really calêches, which could be wholly open by throwing the top back, but could not be wholly shut against the rain, though when the sides were down we could see nothing but each other. [A.T.] This passage was added at a later date; the handwriting of this addition is consistent with others which Anna Ticknor dated 1850. 85. Great affection.

226

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

crossed the Elbe by a ferry boat, and, getting out of the carriage, walked through the Court of the palace, not feeling inclined to do more though the Baron D’Endé did say a fortnight ago with much solemnity that we should, of course, pay our respects to the king when we passed through Pillnitz. (I was glad to hear from Sparmann that our friend, the Baroness, had a daughter; she is a pleasing, kind-hearted person.) Pillnitz is a large, strange sort of building, looking half oriental with its many little turrets or minarets, its flat roof, open corridors, and awnings spread beyond them. (The walls too are painted with oriental designs, and it altogether looked more queer than comfortable. Servants were constantly passing along the corridors or piazzas, which seemed in both stories to serve for communication with the apartments; but, otherwise, it was very quiet, and exhibited none of the bustle and animation which one would imagine at a summer palace filled with its royal owners.) It began to rain while we stood under some fine old trees which line the avenue, and we soon got into the carriage and drove on. The rest of the day was so much occupied with defending ourselves from a serious rain, and with disappointment at not being able to see any thing of a very beautiful and extraordinary country, that I believe it is best to say but little of it. We dined at a little inn at a spot called the Bastei, a most remarkable cluster of sandstone rocks which stand bare and separate, occasionally like aged, enormous pillars, on the borders of the Elbe, and at the Bastei, (so called because the form of one mass resembles a bastion,) rising six hundred feet perpendicularly above the river. The house is a mere summer arrangement where parties constantly go from Dresden to dine, being only a few hours distant from it; and we dined in a room filled with many groups as much disappointed as ourselves. Occasionally some made desperate efforts to walk and to see, but their wet, dripping condition when they came back quite satisfied us to be quiet. Directly after dinner, when we hoped the rain was lessening, we made one attempt to look down upon the Elbe, but we only got wet, and giving up sight seeing, took refuge in our wet carriage, and pushed on about ten miles farther to the village of Schandau. It was through beautiful scenery, but we enjoyed it very little, and were glad to find ourselves in the little valley and in the prettily situated rural inn just in the midst of it. We soon made ourselves comfortable, determined to wait more favoring skies. It is the first day during this year of travelling that rain has absolutely interfered with our plans and pleasures, so that we have no right and no inclination to complain. Indeed, we are now extremely well off.

1836 JUNE 2ND. SCHANDAU. Thursday, 2nd June. Still raining—so we set ourselves to work with writing, drawing and painting, and found the morning very short. At two, it was again

1835–1836

227

quite clear and delightful, and we set off directly for a drive through a valley to see a curiously perforated rock. The valley, six miles long, is certainly as beautiful as water, rocks, trees, and moss can make one, and is vastly more picturesque than any we saw in England or Wales. (There are no villages in it, but cottages are placed in just the right spots for the picturesque; the little stream dashes along over rocks, or glides tranquilly under overhanging trees, and trees, rocks and banks are dressed with the richest moss I ever saw. It is narrow, shut in by tremendous parapets of hills and rocks, the first clothed with rich woods, and the latter broken and precipitous.) I enjoyed the drive excessively; but, just as we arrived at the end of it, and were to commence the ascent of the hill, it began to rain again. We got out of the carriage, however, and, finding the chairmen who were to carry us up the hill standing in a sort of deep niche under an overhanging rock over a fire, we joined them, and found them as good natured as they were picturesque. Here, we sat in their nice chairs, and talked and tried to sketch, and wished it would stop raining, and, at last, tired of these employments, got into the carriage and drove back. While we were sitting under the rock some boys let off some water from the top of the high rock we were partly protected by, and, for a minute or two, it made a very pretty cascade. It is reserved, except upon such great occasions, for the mill above. Some poor gentlemen travelling on foot came up, and I thought their case rather worse than ours. When we reached home, it again cleared pleasantly, and our evening was tranquil and agreeable. After the life we led in Berlin, the peace and rest in this lovely valley and good inn are most refreshing.

1836 JUNE 3RD. SCHANDAU. THE BASTEI. Friday, 3rd June. A most brilliant sun shone upon us this morning; and we determined to use it to see the Bastei; but, to indulge my love of painting, Mr. Ticknor would not start till ten. It is certainly a most interesting and delightful occupation to me, and it would be to any one that had all things arranged and prepared so nicely for them. Coming into the parlour at seven this morning, I found all things standing waiting for me and Sparmann ready to mix the colours, and do all for my assistance. At breakfast, the waiter brought us in an immense bunch of lilies of the valley; (and this reminds me of the pleasure and interest I find in the wild flowers of this season and country. I never realised, till since we left Dresden, what an absolute “bank of flowers” was; but now I have seen the banks on the road side literally one mass of flowers, and so delicate and beautiful that it is a perfect delight to look at them. The single daisy cultivated with us is here like the common milk-weed for abundance, the Ladies’ Delight, or Heart’s ease, makes whole fields blue; the little blue hare-bell is equally common, and

228

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

many others which are entirely new to me. Among them, the bluebottle grows profusely.—Just as we reached Pillnitz the other day, a little boy threw into the carriage an extremely pretty wreath made of them, hoping for the few groschen, which he received.) Our drive to the Bastei was extremely pleasant, the weather was delightful, and the scenery very interesting, a high hill that we had to ascend giving us a view of the whole land. (The Castle of Königstein on the summit of a mass of rock that stands separate, like an island in a lake, was a most striking object. About a mile from it, another higher mass called the Lilienstein rises equally precipitous and detached in a level country, and, covered in parts with trees and moss, formed a noble accompaniment to Königstein. This castle is said never to have been taken by any assailant; and since Bonaparte failed when he had such good reasons for desiring its possession, we may believe it. All the treasures of Saxony were placed there during the war. Before us at some distance, we saw the extraordinary parapets and pillars of rock which form the peculiarity of this part of Saxony, and which seem to me most passing strange. I can no more describe them than account for them. They may appear to one either like exhalations hardened into rock or like the relics of some horrible convulsion in nature, when rocks were rent into strips and whole mountains cleft, and, in the midst of the agitation, the word had been uttered, “Rest thus.” As we approached the Bastei, some portions of the rocky hills were beautifully clothed with trees and moss; but, at the Bastei, they stand in unadorned singleness and strength.) About half an hour before we reached the house, the clouds we had been admiring, poured down floods upon us, and we had to close our open carriage with what haste we could, and rejoice when the torrents lessened. The rain ceased when we reached the house, and, to make use of the interval, we ran directly to the rock, which for safety has an iron railing around it; and looking below, saw the Elbe winding for many miles through its rich meadows, but diminished in appearance to a mere brook. (The country lay exposed to our view for an immense distance, looking fertile and beautiful, and Königstein and Lilienstein forming striking points.) The clouds too, which were hurrying across the sun, produced pretty effects of shade, and we enjoyed all. We soon dined that the afternoon might be long for exploring and sketching, but showers were constantly falling. At last, we found some moments to visit the most striking points; but it was at such a risk of a wetting; and Mr. Ticknor was so fearful we should have a rainy ride home, that we determined to give up sightseeing. (Traces are to be seen that even these abrupt detached masses of rock were used in ancient times for some sort of habitation; such as a flight of steps wrought in their very substance, and holes evidently arranged for large gates and others for beams, but it is too long ago to have any thing known of their history.) Before we reached home, we found the rain had been only with us, and we heard

1835–1836

229

from the women that not a drop had fallen at Schandau. The weather was fine again, and we began to think that our excursions were not to be smiled upon. Lilly we found gay and happy as ever in spite of a cold which all this wet weather has given her. The evening, as usual, was given to writing.

1836 JUNE 4TH. THE KUHSTALL. Saturday, 4th June. To-day, we intended to have gone on to Tetschen; but we are so comfortable here and find so much beauty to be seen that we determined to remain another day. The morning was fine, and, not to be disappointed by our own delay again, we set off directly after breakfast for the Kuhstall, the rock we tried to see Thursday afternoon. A few drops fell as we got into the carriage, but we were courageous and went on and fortunately had no more, so that we enjoyed again the beauties of the lovely valley of the Kirnitsch that I found so impossible to describe. Reaching the end of the road, for the valley is closed by high hills and rocks, we found the chairmen ready, and, putting Anna into one, set off to ascend the hill on the top of which was the rock. A nice, smooth path we found most prettily formed, winding along the side of several hills, completely covered with trees, and disclosing so many beauties in graceful foliage, moss covered stumps and rocks, flowers and plants that I felt in no hurry to reach the top. Sparmann’s educated eye and strong pleasure in the beauty of nature, I find very agreeable; and, by his means, I see more that is picturesque than I should otherwise. Occasionally, as we rose higher, the trees were cut away to open views, seats were made of branches, and all seemed as finished almost as if it were in England. In half an hour, we reached the top, and, passing through an alley of closely planted trees, so formed, I suppose, that the sight of the rock should come suddenly upon the visiter, we saw before us at a sudden turn an immense high mountain wall of solid rock with a wide natural arch running through its whole depth, and showing the country beyond. The caverns must be at least 30 feet high and more than double as long with cavities worn in the roof and sides that look as if no material but water could have produced them. On the side opposite to the entrance, the rock is a perfectly perpendicular precipice86 2 or 3 hundred feet in height, and beyond, at but a short distance, rises a thickly wooded hill, the interval being also one mass of trees in the deep valley below. This is the Kuhstall, or Cow’s Stable, so called because in the Thirty Years’ War,87 the peasants sheltered

86. So perpendicular that a railing is placed for safety along the opening of the cavern. [A.T.] Anna Ticknor apparently added this passage later (probably in or around 1850). 87. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) was a confrontation between Protestant and Catholic alliances and fought on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire.

230

A N NA T I CK NOR’ S G ERMA N TRA V EL J OURN AL

and hid their creatures in it. As we approached, we heard music, and, going on, saw within the cave a pretty girl playing on a harp, her father on a violin, and a brother on the flute, and, for simple, unpretending music, I have never heard pleasanter. The girl soon began to sing to this accompaniment, and gave us some Bohemian and Tyrolese airs, to our great pleasure. After looking about the cave and rock a little, and wondering a great deal at such a formation, Sparmann, Anna and I sat down to sketch. An hour escaped, and then, heavy clouds warned us of more rain, and running into the cave, several violent showers passed over us in succession, leaving us no resource but to be thankful for shelter and the pretty music and try to draw. There seemed little prospect of better weather, however, so, sending for another chair, wrapping ourselves in our cloaks, and taking the great umbrellas for painting, we descended by the same beautiful pathway. We found the carriage ready below, and made the best of our way home; but it rained very little more. (I am constantly puzzled to know how the peasantry and lower artisans live in this crowded land. I heard in Dresden of hundreds of peasants with families of six or seven children who could not possibly gain more than six groschen a day, about 18 cents. At the fairs held in the city, those who made 25 cents a day were entirely content; and these poor men who carry people up the hill have 12 groschen for going up and the same for going down; but, as most people prefer to walk down, 36 cents is the average, and ten men having the privilege to themselves, three chances a season is as much as each man generally gets. How do they find lodging, clothing and food? Another striking thing to an American produced by this abundance of population is the ease with which one can find all sorts of accommodations for travelling, as well as for abiding. If a light carriage is wanted, or a boat or mules, they are waiting, and information as to distances, houses, roads, and objects of curiosity can be obtained so easily and accurately from the people one employs that I am not surprised at the tease travellers get into in America at the indifferent, uncertain answers so frequently given by the busy and independent tavern keepers or hostlers.)

1836 JUNE 5TH. SCHANDAU. BOHEMIA. Sunday, June 5th. We were very desirous to reach Tetschen to-day; but, as we were to go up the river six miles in a boat, we feared the heavy showers, so frequent lately, and the clouds were so threatening in the morning, that we postponed our departure, hoping for the improvement which came about eleven. We then took a little dinner, and, summoning the boatmen, walked down to

1835–1836

231

the river side at one; but, on the way, a slight rain rather dampened our courage. However, we found the boat nicely covered, and we were otherwise so well protected, that a very heavy shower, which soon fell, did not harm us. We enjoyed the sail afterwards a good deal, it was so calm and peaceful. The river is quite wide, nearly as large as the Connecticut at Springfield, and its banks are constantly varying. (Sometimes, huge, precipitous palisades of rock are succeeded by thickly wooded hills, and occasionally, cultivation added beauty to their slopes.) The stream was the whole distance very rapid, and the two poor men who towed the boat for five hours seemed to have very hard work. Soon after we entered Bohemia, Mr. Ticknor landed a few moments to exhibit passports at the appropriate place. [Editor’s note: The Ticknors continued on to Prague and Vienna and then to Italy, where they spent the next nine months. Thereafter, they spent another six months in Paris and about four months in England. In July 1838, more than three years after leaving for Europe, the Ticknors sailed home to Boston.]

Biographical Glossary

Adams, Charles Francis (1807–1886). Lawyer and politician. Adams, John Quincy (1767–1848). President of the United States from 1825 to 1829 and the American ambassador to Russia from 1809 to 1814. Adelung, Johann Christoph (1732–1806). Grammarian, philologist, historian, and librarian. He was the chief librarian of the Royal Saxon Library from 1787 to 1806. Adelung opened the library to the public in 1788. Albani, Allesandro (1692–1779). Roman aristocrat and cardinal. His collection of antiquities was first catalogued by Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Amalia, Princess of Saxony (1794–1870). Oldest sister of Prince Johann who authored several comedies that are available in Dramatische Werke der Prinzessin Amalie, Herzogin zu Sachsen, six vols. (Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz, 1873–1874). Ammon, Christoph Friedrich von (1766–1850). Lutheran theologian and philosopher, as well as a theological writer and court preacher of Saxony. Anna of Denmark (1532–1585). Daughter of King Christian III of Denmark and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. Anton, King of Saxony (1755–1836). Ruler of Saxony from 1827 to 1836. d’Artaud, François Soulange (1769–1837). Teacher of French at the University of Göttingen from 1799 to 1837. August I, Elector of Saxony (1526–1586). Ruler of Saxony from 1553 to 1586. August III, Elector of Saxony (1696–1763). Ruler of Saxony from 1733 to 1763. Augusta, Princess of Saxony (1782–1863). Daughter of King Friedrich August I and thus the cousin of Prince Johann. Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich (1741–1792). Protestant theologian and writer who was accused of an immoral lifestyle. He was a professor in Leipzig, Erfurt, and Giessen before he began lecturing in Halle in 1779. 233

234

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

Ballhorn-Rosen, Friedrich (1774–1855). Philologist and legal scholar. From 1807 to 1817 he was professor at the University of Göttingen. Bartley, George (1782?–1858). Comedian born in Bath who frequently played the character Falstaff. Bassenge, Heinrich (1776–1840). Dresden banker. Baudissin, Wolf Heinrich Friedrich Karl, Count of (1789–1878). Author and translator of French (Molière) and English (Shakespeare) plays. He moved to Dresden in 1827 and worked with August Wilhelm Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck on the translation of Shakespeare’s plays. Bayezid II (1447/1448–1512). Sultan who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. Beck, Christian Daniel (1757–1832). Classical philologist and professor at the University of Leipzig from 1782. Beigel, Georg Wilhelm Sigismund (1753–1837). Saxon diplomat and mathematician. He was the director of the Royal Saxon Library from 1813 to 1826. Benecke, Georg Friedrich (1762–1844). Philologist and specialist for Old German literature and language. He was a librarian at the University of Göttingen from 1789, as well as a professor of philology from 1805, until his death. Berg, Günther Heinrich Freiherr von (1765–1843). Lawyer, statesman, and publicist. He represented the Duchy of Oldenburg at the German Diet from 1815 to 1821. Bernadotte, Jean-Baptiste (1763–1844). French-born officer of the French army; later known as Charles XIV John as king of Sweden, and Karl III Johan as king of Norway (1818–1844). Berthier, Louis Alexandre (1753–1815). French general and marshal of France. Bethmann, Johann Philipp (1715–1793). Merchant and banker. Together with his brother Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782), he established the trading partnership and banking house Gebrüder Bethmann in 1748. Blücher, Gebhard Leberecht von, Prince of Wahlstatt (1742–1819). Prussian general wounded in the Battle at Lützen in 1813. Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich (1752–1840). Anatomist and anthropologist considered the father of modern natural history. From 1776 until his death, Blumenbach was a professor of medicine at the University of Göttingen. Bodt, Jean de (1670–1745). Huguenot who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He was trained as an architect in Holland and settled in 1698 in Berlin. In 1728, he relocated to Dresden and took up the position of superintendent of the Royal Works. Bonaparte, Jérôme (1784–1860). Brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and king of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813.

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

235

Bonaparte, Marie Julie (née Clary) (1771–1861). Wife of Joseph Bonaparte, Queen Consort of Naples and Sicily, and Queen Consort of Spain and the Indies. Bose, Count August Karl von (1787–1862). Royal chamberlain of Saxony. In 1811, he married Catherina, a daughter of Baron Löwenstern. Böttiger, Karl August (1760–1835). Educator, writer, philologist, archaeologist, and theater critic. After his university training at the University of Leipzig, Böttiger was appointed director of the gymnasium in Weimar in 1791. Böttiger and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were close friends initially, but Goethe broke with him when he criticized Goethe’s book-length poem Hermann and Dorothea publicly. In 1804, he moved to Dresden, where he became the director of the antiquity museums in 1814. He wrote reviews about theater performances for the Dresdener Abendzeitung. Johann Ludwig Tieck later succeeded him in this position. Bouterweck, Friedrich Ludewig (1766–1828). Philosopher, author, and literary historian. Bouterweck taught history and philosophy at the University of Göttingen from 1789. Brockhaus, Friedrich (1800–1865), and Heinrich (1804–1874). Brothers who carried on the business of the eponymous publishing house when their father Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus died (1772–1823). Brühl, Heinrich Count von (1700–1763). Court favorite who embezzled millions. In 1737, the Brühlsche Palace was built for him. Brühl introduced a general sales tax. Bülow, Friedrich Wilhelm, Freiherr von, Count of Dennewitz (1755–1816). Prussian general. Buttlar, Auguste Freiin von (1796–1857). Dresden painter. Byron, George Gordon (1788–1824), later Noel, sixth Baron Byron. Romantic poet and satirist. Caesar, Gaius Julius (100–44 BC). Famous military and political leader of Rome. Canova, Antonio (1757–1822). Italian sculptor of the neoclassical period. Carus, Carl Gustav (1789–1869). Medical professor and royal Saxon physician (1827); also renowned as a naturalist, painter, and writer. He counted Ludwig Tieck, Alexander von Humboldt, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe among his friends. Charles I, King of England (1600–1649). Ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1625 until he was executed in the course of the Second English Civil War. Charles III, King of Spain (1716–1788). Also king of Naples and Sicily 1735– 1759 (as Carlo VII and Carlo V), and duke of Parma 1732–1735 (as Carlo I). Married Maria Amalia of Saxony (1724–1760) in 1738.

236

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

Charles V (1500–1558). Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 to 1556. Circourt, Count Adolphe de (1801–1879). French writer who contributed to the Bibliothèque Universelle. Circourt, Anastasie Christine Comtesse de (1808–1863). Russian wife of Count Adolphe de Circourt. Colloredo-Waldsee, Reichsgraf Franz (1799–1859). Austrian ambassador in Dresden from 1830 to 1837. Correggio, Antonio Allegri da (1489–1534). Leading painter of the Parma School during the Renaissance. Cowper, William (1731–1800). English poet and hymnodist who wrote about everyday life and scenes from the English countryside. Cranach, Lucas (1472–1553). Famous painter and woodcutter who was mayor of Wittenberg in 1531 and 1540. Dahl, Johan Christian Clausen (1788–1857). Norwegian painter who lived in Dresden. He was famous for his landscape paintings in the Romantic tradition. Dannecker, Johann Heinrich von (1758–1841). Sculptor. Davout, Marshal Louis Nicolas, Prince d’Eck-muhl and Duke of Auerstedt (1770–1823). Received the title of duke of Auerstedt after his victory in this battle against Prussia (1806). Despans-Cubières, Amédée (1786–1853). French career soldier and politician. Diesbach, Heinrich (dates unknown). Painter and colormaker in Berlin who, with Johann Konrad Dippel, accidentally discovered one of the first synthetic dyes, “Prussian blue,” in 1704/1705. Dippel, Johann Konrad (1673–1734). Pietist theologian, alchemist, and physician whose laboratory Heinrich Diesbach was working in when the two discovered “Prussian blue” dye. Together, they founded a factory in Paris. Dohm, Christian Wilhelm von (1751–1820). Historian and political writer. Dolci, Carlo (1616–1686). Italian painter of the Baroque period. Durand, Guillaume (1237–1296). Canonist and important medieval liturgical writer. Dürer, Albrecht (1471–1528). Famous painter and printmaker from Nuremberg. Ebert, Friedrich Adolf (1791–1834). Chief librarian of the Royal Saxon Library from 1826 to 1834. Also a writer and editor, Ebert created the Allgemeines Bibliographisches Lexikon in two volumes (Leipzig, 1821–1830), considered to be one of the first bibliographical encyclopedias in Germany. Edgeworth, Maria (1767–1849). Anglo-Irish novelist whose stories had a moral purpose, usually making upper-class landowners perceive their duty to their tenants.

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

237

Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried (1752–1827). Orientalist and historian who taught philosophy at the University of Göttingen from 1788. Einsiedel, Count Detlev von, Jr. (1773–1861). Cabinet minister under King Anton before being dismissed in 1830. He also inherited the businesses of his father, which included the Lauchhammer Iron Works. Engel, Johann Jakob (1741–1802). Poet and central figure of the Berlin Enlightenment who wrote Der Philosoph für die Welt in two volumes (Leipzig: Dyck 1775–1777). Erskine, John (1721–1803). Scottish theologian who preached a moderate Calvinism and was intensely interested in political affairs. Falcke, Georg Friedrich Freiherr von (1783–1850). Lawyer and Hanoverian minister. Falkenstein, Constantin Karl (1801–1855). Chief librarian of the Royal Saxon Library from 1834 to 1852. Feder, Johann Georg Heinrich (1740–1821). Professor of philosophy at the University of Göttingen from 1767 to 1797, then director of the Georgianum (1797–1811) and the Royal Library in Hanover. He retired from all offices in 1811. Fiorillo, Johann Dominicus (1748–1821). Painter and art historian who moved to Göttingen in 1781 and became the keeper of the collection of prints at the university library. In 1799, he was appointed professor at the University of Göttingen. Flemming, Jakob Heinrich, Count von (1667–1728). Statesman and general. The Japanese Palace in Dresden was built for him in 1715. Forbes, Hon. Francis-Reginald (1791–1873). British Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Saxony, appointed in November 1832. He apparently remained in this position until 1858. Förster, Karl August (1784–1841). Author and translator. He belonged to “Accademia Dantesca,” an academic society formed to support Prince Johann in his translation of Dante’s Inferno. Other members were Count Wolf Baudissin, Ludwig Tieck, and Carl Gustav Carus. Fox, Henry Richard Vassall, third Baron Holland (1773–1840). British politician and a patron of arts and letters. Fox, Henry Edward, fourth Baron Holland,(1802–1859). Son of Henry Richard Vassall Fox, third Baron Holland. He was also a British statesman and a diplomat to Vienna (1835–1838) and the German Confederation (1838). Franz I of Austria (1768–1835). Emperor of the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1835. Friedrich August I of Saxony, “The Strong” (1670–1733). Elector of Saxony from 1694 to 1733; first Saxon elector to become king of Poland as August II from 1697 to 1706 and from 1709 to 1733.

238

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

Friedrich August I of Saxony (1750–1827). Reigned as Friedrich August III, elector of Saxony, from 1763 to 1806, and as Friedrich August I, king of Saxony, from 1806 to 1827. He had to accept the peace treaty with Russia and Prussia in May 1815 that significantly diminished Saxony’s territory. Friedrich August II of Saxony (1797–1854). Appointed prince coregent of Saxony in 1830 in response to social unrest and revolution. This appointment marked the beginning of the reform era. In 1836, Friedrich August II became the king of Saxony. Friedrich II of Prussia (1712–1786). King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. Friedrich III of Saxony “The Wise” (1463–1525). Elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1525. Although staunchly Catholic, he was Martin Luther’s protector. Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia (1770–1840). King of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. Froriep, Ludwig Friedrich von (1779–1847). Surgeon and obstetrician who moved to Weimar to become the director of his father-in-law’s publishing house, which specialized in geographic and cartographic publications. Fust, Johann (ca. 1400–1466). Early printer. Gagern, Hans Christoph Ernst Freiherr von (1766–1852). Statesman and political writer. From 1816 to 1818, Gagern was the ambassador of Luxemburg at the Federal Diet in Frankfurt am Main. George III of Hanover (1738–1820). King of Hanover from 1814 to 1820. George Augustus Frederick (1762–1830). Ruled the United Kingdom and Hanover as prince regent from 1811 to 1820 and as King George IV from 1820 until his death. Germanicus, Julius Caesar (16/15 BC–19 AD). Commander of the Roman forces in the province of Germania and a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was the father of Emperor Caligula, the brother of Emperor Claudius, and the grandfather of Emperor Nero. Gneisenau, August, Count Neidhardt von (1760–1831). Prussian officer and reformer of the Prussian Army. Goede, Christian August Gottlieb (1774–1812). Travel writer whose book on travel in England was translated from German into English under the title The Stranger in England; or, Travels in Great Britain, in three volumes (London: J. G. Barnard, Snowhill, 1807). Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832). Poet, playwright, theater director, natural scientist, art theoretician, and statesman who was a leading figure of Weimar Classicism. Goethe, Ottilie von (née Freiin von Pogwisch) (1796–1872). Married Goethe’s son August in 1817. They had three children. Goetze, Johann Christian (1692–1749). Chief librarian of the Royal Saxon Library from 1734 to 1749.

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

239

Goltz, August Friedrich Ferdinand von der (1765–1832). Prussian diplomat appointed foreign minister in 1807. In 1816, he became the Prussian ambassador at the Federal Diet in Frankfurt am Main. Göschen, Georg Joachim (1752–1828). Publisher and bookseller in Leipzig. Grahl, August (1791–1868). Renowned miniature painter who resided permanently in Dresden from 1835. Among his famous paintings is the portrait of Queen Adelaide of England (1833–1897), which he painted during his stay in England in 1831. Grey, Thomas (1716–1771). English poet, classical scholar, and professor. Gustav II Adolph, King of Sweden (1594–1632). Ruler of Sweden from 1611 to 1632 and the military leader of the Protestant faction in the Thirty Years’ War. He was killed at the Battle at Lützen. Gustav IV Adolph, King of Sweden (1778–1837). Ruler of Sweden from 1792 to 1809. Heeren, Arnold Hermann (1760–1842). Historian appointed professor of history at the University of Göttingen in 1799. Herder, Johann Gottfried (1744–1803). Poet, philosopher, and literary critic in Weimar Classicism. Herder, Siegmund August Wolfgang Freiherr von (1776–1838). Son of Johann Gottfried Herder. He was an expert on mineralogy and mining. Although he was not the head of the mining school at Freiberg as Ticknor believed, he was a curator there. Hermann, Gottfried (1772–1848). Classical philologist and professor at the University of Leipzig from 1798. Heyne, Christian Gottlob (1729–1812). Philologist and specialist for Roman and Greek literature. He was professor of literature at the University of Göttingen from 1763 to 1809. He also was a librarian at the university library and developed the new library catalogue organized alphabetically by authors’ names (1777/1787). He also engaged in the reform of education and teacher training. Ilgen, Karl David (1763–1834). Classical philologist who became the rector at Schulpforta in 1802. Irving, Washington (1783–1859). American author who lived briefly in Dresden in 1822. Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845). President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Jameson, Anna Brownell (1794–1860). Irish author and a Goethe family friend. Jan III Sobieski (1629–1696). One of the most notable monarchs of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth. He was king of Poland from 1674 to his death. Johann Friedrich Alexander zu Wied (1706–1791). Count of Wied-Neuwied from 1737 to 1784 and the first prince of Wied from 1784 to 1791. He was

240

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

the grandfather of the famous Prince Maximilian Alexander Philipp zu Wied Neuwied (1782–1867), who traveled twice to the New World: first to Brazil from 1815 to 1817, and then together with Karl Bodmer to North America from 1832 to 1834. Johann Georg I of Saxony (1585–1656). Elector of Saxony from 1611 to 1656. Johann Georg III of Saxony (1647–1691). Elector of Saxony from 1680 to 1691. Johann of Saxony (1801–1873). Prince of Saxony until he became king in 1854. Sharing an interest in Dante’s poetry with George Ticknor, he became close to him. Johann was widely respected for his excellent translations and commentaries on Dante’s Divina Commedia. Johann the Steady of Saxony (1468–1532). Brother of Friedrich III, he was the elector of Saxony from 1525 until his death. Jordan, Baron Johann Ludwig von (1773–1848). Prussian ambassador in Dresden from 1819 to 1848. Kahlden, Baroness Dorothea von (1791–1860). Karl August, Duke of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1757–1828). Duke of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach from 1758 to 1815/1816 and the archduke from 1815/1816 until his death. Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (1735–1806). Career soldier considered the best military leader at the end of the eighteenth century. He served in the Prussian army and was promoted to field marshal in 1787. He was the general in command of the Prussian army in the Battle at Jena and Auerstedt. Karl Wilhelm Ludwig, Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt (1809–1877). Brother of Archduke Ludwig III (1806–1877). Kaskel, Michael (1775–1845). Successful Dresden banker who ran the private bank Bankhaus Kaskel, which became the Dresdner Bank in 1872. Kästner, Abraham Gotthelf (1719–1800). Mathematician appointed professor at the University of Göttingen in 1756. Keil, Johann Georg (1781–1857). Specialist in and editor of Italian and Spanish literature. He moved from Weimar to Leipzig after he had married the daughter of the Leipzig banker Carl Eberhard Löhr. From 1806 to 1812, he edited an eleven-volume collection of Italian literature that included writings by Tasso, Dante, and Boccaccio. He also published Calderon’s Comedias. Keil had inherited the collection of pictures from his father-in-law Carl Eberhard Löhr and an extensive collection of copper engravings from the grandfather of his wife, Johann Friedrich Bause (1738–1814), who was a prominent copper engraver. King, Edward, Viscount Kingsborough (1795–1837). Irish antiquarian who sought to prove that the indigenous people of the Americas were a lost tribe of

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

241

Israel. To prove his theory, Kingsborough arranged for the publication of the earliest reports about pre-Columbian civilizations. Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico (the first volume appeared in 1831) included the first complete publication of the Dresden Codex. This Maya Codex was acquired by the Royal Saxon Library in 1739. Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb (1724–1803). Poet who became famous for his Messias. Knöffel, Johann Christoph (1686–1752). Dresden architect who was a pupil of Zacharias Longuelune. Lange, Adolph Gottlob (1778–1831). Philologist and educator who was educated at Schulpforta and the University of Leipzig, where he studied with Beck and Hermann. In 1804, he was appointed professor at Schulpforta. He succeeded Ilgen in 1831 in the position of rector there but died shortly thereafter. Lavater, Johann Caspar (1741–1801). Swiss poet and physiognomist. Leclerc, Charles Victor Emmanuel (1772–1802). French general and brotherin-law of Napoleon. In 1802, Napoleon appointed him commander of the expedition that was supposed to reestablish control over the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. He died there of yellow fever in November of 1802. Leopold I (1640–1705). Holy Roman Emperor from 1658 to 1705. Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1797–1870). Married Prince Johann’s sister Maria Anna (1799–1832) in 1817 and was grand duke from 1824. Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1740–1817). Duke of AnhaltDessau from 1807 until his death. He created one of the first and largest English parks in continental Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. Leopold IV of Anhalt-Dessau (1794–1871). Duke of Anhalt-Dessau from 1817 until his death. Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1729–1781). Writer, philosopher, and dramatist of the Enlightenment era. Leyser, August Friedrich Wilhelm von (1771–1842). General in the Saxon army. Lindenau, Bernhard August von (1779–1854). Lawyer, astronomer, politician, and art collector. He was the prime minister of Saxony from 1830 to 1843. Lindenau joined the observatory in Gotha in 1804 and became its director in 1808. Livingston, Robert (1746–1813). Member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence who served as U.S. minister to France from 1801 to 1804. Locqueyssie, Emilie Lachaud de (née Hebenstreit) (1793/1797–1863). German artist specializing in oil, pastel, and miniature paintings.

242

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

Löhr, Eberhard Heinrich (1725–1798). Leipzig banker. Lohrmann, Wilhelm Gotthelf (1796–1840). Astronomer, cartographer, and meteorologist. In 1828, he founded the Dresden Technical School. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807–1882). Eminent American poet. Longfellow, accompanied by his wife and a friend, visited Europe from 1835 to 1836 in preparation for taking on Ticknor’s vacated position of Smith Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard. Longuelune, Zacharias (1669–1748). French artist and architect who settled in Dresden in 1715. Lorrain, Claude (1600–1682). Landscape painter of the Baroque period from the Duchy of Lorraine. Lucca, Maria Louise Carlotta von (1802–1857). Second wife of Prince Maximilian from 1825. She was the daughter of Maria Louisa Josefa Antonietta Vicentia of Spain (1782–1824) and King Ludwig I of Etruria. After the occupation of Etruria by the French in 1807, she lived in various places before she was given the Duchy of Lucca by the Congress of Vienna in 1814. Luden, Heinrich (1778–1847). Historian who received a professorship at the University of Jena in 1806. Lüttichau, Ida von (1798–1856). Wife of Wolf Adolf August von Lüttichau (1785–1863), the director of the Royal Saxon Court Theatre. She led an influential salon in Dresden and was one of the most important women of the Romantic period. Ludwig Tieck and Richard Wagner both admired her, and Wagner dedicated his opera Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) to her. Lynar, Hermann Rochus, Count von (1797–1878). Owner of castle in Lübbenau who commissioned several paintings by Christian Gottlob Hammer. Maria Amalia of Saxony (1724–1760). Daughter of August III, elector of Saxony and king of Poland. Maria Anna, Princess of Bavaria (1805–1877). Wife of Friedrich August II. Her sister, Princess Amalie of Bavaria (1801–1877), married Prince Johann in 1822. Marmont, Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de, First Duke of Ragusa (1774–1852). French general and marshal of France. Mason, James Jeremiah (1806–1835). Son of Jeremiah Mason. In 1832, he moved to Boston. Mason, Jeremiah (1768–1848). U.S. senator from New Hampshire who also served for several terms in the New Hampshire legislature. He was an old friend of George Ticknor. Matthaei, Christian Friedrich von (1744–1811). Classical philologist who, after obtaining his degrees from the University of Leipzig, received a professorship

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

243

at the University of Moscow where he taught literature from 1772 to 1784 and from 1805 to 1811. Maximilian I (1459–1519). Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. Maximilian, Prince of Saxony (1759–1838). Son of Frederick Christian, elector of Saxony, and Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis of Bavaria. In 1830, Maximilian renounced his right of succession in favor of his eldest son Friedrich August (1797–1854), who became king of Saxony as Friedrich August II in 1836. Melanchthon, Philipp (1497–1560). Humanist, philologist, and theologian. He was a driving force in the Lutheran Reformation. Mendelssohn, Moses (1729–1786). Philosopher and major figure of the Enlightenment. Mengs, Anton Raphael (1728–1779). Eminent painter who became the first painter of Elector Augustus I in 1749. Mengs, Ismael (1688–1764). Accomplished painter and the father of Anton Raphael Mengs. Michaelis, Johann David (1717–1791). Biblical scholar and orientalist. He was professor of philosophy at the University of Göttingen from 1746 until his death. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarotti Simoni (1475–1564). Famous Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. Miltitz, Karl Borromäus Alexander Stephan von (1781–1845). Poet and composer whose wife, the daughter of General Karl Friedrich Ludwig von Watzdorf, served Prince Johann’s wife. Miltitz succeeded Watzdorf as Prince Johann’s educator in 1824. Milton, Viscount, William Charles FitzWilliam (1812–1835). Son of Charles William FitzWilliam, fifth Earl FitzWilliam, and Mary Dundas who married Lady Selina Charlotte Jenkinson, daughter of Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson, third Earl of Liverpool in 1833. Mitscherlich, Christoph Wilhelm (1760–1854). Classical scholar and professor at the University of Göttingen from 1785. More, Sir Thomas (1478–1535). English author and statesman who gained a reputation as a leading humanist scholar who started a tradition of utopian writing with his book Utopia (1516). He was executed when he refused to sign the Act of Supremacy declaring Henry VIII the Supreme Head of the Church in England. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935. Moreau, Jean Victor Marie (1763–1813). French general involved in a conspiracy against Napoleon in 1803 who was imprisoned and then exiled. He served as an adviser to the anti-Napoleonic forces and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Dresden in 1813. The monument dedicated to him is in Räcknitz (south of Dresden).

244

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

Moritz I of Saxony (1521–1553). Duke of Saxony from 1541 to 1547 and then elector of Saxony from 1547 to 1553. Mosheim, Johan Lorenz von (1693–1755). Protestant theologian and historian, professor of theology at the University at Helmstedt from 1723 to 1747 and thereafter in Göttingen. Müller, Christian Gottlieb (1776–1836). Saxon minister of education from 1831 to 1836. He was the first member of the government who did not come from nobility. Murat, Joachim-Napoléon (1767–1815). Grand duke of Berg and Cleve, the king of Naples and Sicily from 1808 to 1815, the first Prince Murat, marshal of France, and a brother-in-law of Napoleon Bonaparte. Murillo, Barholomé Esteban (1618–1682). Spanish painter of the Baroque period. Naumann, Moritz Ernst Adolf (1798–1871). German physician and professor at the University of Bonn. Niebuhr, Carsten (1733–1815). Geographer, cartographer, and explorer known for his travels in Africa and the Orient. Nostitz, August Ludwig von (1777–1866). Prussian general. Obrenovich, Milosch (1780–1860). Autocratic prince of Serbia from 1815 to 1839 and from 1858 to 1860. Oken, Lorenz (1779–1851). Natural scientist who became professor of medicine at the University of Jena in 1807. Olbers, Georg Heinrich (1790–1861). Bremen senator and the son of the astronomer and doctor Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (1758–1840). Osiander, Friedrich Benjamin (1759–1822). Physician and famous obstetrician, who received a professorship at the University at Göttingen in 1792. Otto I (912–973). Duke of Saxony, king of Germany, king of Italy, and the first of the Germans to be crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 962. Oudinot, Nicolas Charles (1767–1847). French military commander and marshal of France. Oxenstiern, Axel Count (1583–1654). Swedish statesman and favorite minister of King Gustav Adolph. Palmerston, Henry John Temple, third Viscount (1784–1865). British statesman who twice served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. Paul, Jean (1763–1825). A poet and writer, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter. Permoser, Balthasar (1651–1732). Leading sculptor of his time who collaborated with Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann on the Zwinger Palace (1710–1728). Perugino, Pietro (1446–1524). Leading painter of the Umbrian School in the Renaissance period.

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

245

Planck, Gottlieb Jakob (1751–1833). Evangelical theologian and church historian who was appointed professor of church history at the University of Göttingen in 1784. Plutarch (c. 46–120 AD). Greek historian and biographer. Poniatowski, Prince Józef Antoni (1763–1813). Polish general, minister, and marshal of France who died in the Battle of Nations at Leipzig. Pöppelmann, Matthäus Daniel (1662–1736). Architect who designed the Zwinger Palace and the palace at Pillnitz. Potocki, Count Alfred Jozef (1785–1862). Prime minister of Austria and governor of Galicia who married Princess Jozefa Czartoryska (1787–1862) in 1814. He also authored works in French. Prescott, William (1726–1795). Colonel in the American Revolution. Prescott, William Hinkling (1796–1859). Historian and an intimate friend of George Ticknor’s. He was the author of History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (Boston: American Stationers Co., 1837). Quandt, Johann Gottlob von (1787–1859). Art historian and collector as well as a wealthy Leipzig merchant. Both von Quandt and his wife Carla Bianca von Quandt were the subjects of some of Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld’s paintings. Rabener, Gottlieb Wilhelm (1714–1771). Writer of satires. Rancliffe, Elizabeth-Mary-Theresa Parkyns, Baroness (1786–1852). Wife of George Augustus Parkyns, Baron Rancliffe. Raphael (Sanzio) (1483–1520). Famous Italian painter and architect of the Renaissance. Rauch, Christian Daniel (1777–1857). Sculptor who created a number of public monuments including a sleeping posture of Queen Louisa of Prussia and a large equestrian monument honoring Frederick II of Prussia in Berlin. Raumer, Friedrich Ludwig Georg von (1781–1873). German historian who held a professorship at the University of Berlin from 1819 to 1847. Raumer traveled to England in 1835, Italy in 1839, and the United States in 1843. During his visit to the United States, he was received by George Ticknor. Rawdon, George Augustus Francis (1754–1826). British officer who fought against the American colonists in the American Revolution. He was a peer in the House of Lords, and a governor-general of India from 1813 to 1823. Reichenbach, Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig (1793–1879). Botanist and ornithologist. Reitzenstein, Eduard von (1800–1871). General in the Saxon army. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669). Famous Dutch painter and etcher. He is considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history.

246

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

Retzsch, Friedrich August Moritz (1779–1857). Dresden painter and etcher who illustrated Goethe’s Faust for Cotta Publishing House and also copied the Sixtine Madonna from the collections at Dresden Picture Gallery. Rubens, Peter Paul (1577–1640). Prolific painter of the Flemish Baroque. Rupstein, Friedrich (1794–1876). Theology student at Göttingen who later became a theologian and abbot of the Loccum Abbey. Ruysdael, Jacob Izaaksoon van (c. 1628–1682). Celebrated Dutch landscape painter. Saalfeld, Friedrich Jakob Christoph (1785–1834). Historian who was appointed professor of philosophy at the University of Göttingen in 1811. Savage, James (1784–1873). Close friend of George Ticknor’s from 1809 who together with him founded the earliest savings bank in Boston. Savage was an antiquarian very active in local and Massachusetts state politics who edited a number of important works, including a five-volume collection of William Paley’s works (Cambridge, 1828) and a four-volume Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Boston, 1860–1864). Schäfer, Gottfried Heinrich (1764–1840). Philologist famous for editing Greek prose for publication by Leipzig publishers such as Tauchnitz and Weigel. Schäfer also collaborated on the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. Schiller, Friedrich von (1759–1805). Famous poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist of Weimar Classicism. He was appointed professor of history and philosophy at the University of Jena in 1789. Schlegel, August Wilhelm von (1767–1845). Poet, translator, critic, and one of the foremost leaders of German Romanticism. He was professor of literature at the University of Bonn from 1818. Schlegel, Dorothea von (1764–1839). Novelist and translator, the oldest daughter of Moses Mendelssohn. In 1783, she married the merchant and banker Simon Veit but began an affair with K. W. Friedrich von Schlegel after meeting him in Henriette Herz’s salon, later divorcing her husband and marrying Schlegel. Schlegel’s novel Lucinde (1799) is seen as a literary account of their affair. Schlegel, Karl August Moritz (1756–1826). Theologian and brother of the two famous poets of the Romantic period, August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel. From 1796 to 1816, Schlegel was a pastor in Göttingen. Schlegel, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von (1772–1829). Poet, philosopher, critic, literary historian, and translator; also the younger brother of August Wilhelm von Schlegel. He was also an important figure in German Romanticism. Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst (1768–1834). Famous Protestant theologian and philosopher. Schleusner, Johann Friedrich (1759–1831). Protestant theologian appointed professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg in 1795.

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

247

Schlosser, Friedrich Christoph (1776–1861). Professor at the Frankfurt Lyceum, where he taught history. Schneider, Johann Gottlob (1750–1822). Author of a Kritisches GriechischDeutsches Handwörterbuch (1797–1798). Schöffer, Peter the Elder (ca. 1425–ca. 1502). Early printer and partner of Johann Fust. Schorn, Johann Karl Ludwig von (1793–1842). Art historian and editor of the Kunstblatt. In 1832, he moved from Stuttgart to Weimar, where he became the director of the art museum. Schroeder, Alexander von (1798–1869). Russian civil servant and diplomat. Smidt, Johann (1773–1857). Important politician of Bremen who secured the independent status of the city after 1815. Smith, Sydney (1771–1845). English writer and clergyman. Schulze, Ernst Konrad Friedrich (1789–1817). Philologist who received a PhD from the University of Göttingen and wrote poems. From 1812, he was permitted to give lectures at the university. His most prominent works included Cäcilie: A Romantic Poem in 20 Songs and The Enchanted Rose. Schwarzenberg, Karl Philipp Count zu (1771–1820). Austrian field marshal who was appointed high commander of the allied armies that faced Napoleon at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813. Scott, Sir Walter (1771–1832). Scottish historical novelist and writer. Seebisch, Siegmund Gottlob (1669–1753). Librarian and orientalist who directed the Royal Saxon Library in Dresden from 1708 to 1746. Semler, Johann Salomo (1725–1791). Professor of theology at the University of Halle from 1752. Sparmann, Carl Christian (1805–1864). Landscape painter who was a student of Dahl. He tutored Mrs. and Miss Anna Ticknor in the art. Spitzner, Franz Ernst Heinrich (1787–1841). Philologist and school rector who taught at the Wittenberger Lyceum from 1811 and was appointed its director in 1813. Spohn, Friedrich August Wilhelm (1792–1824). Professor of Greek and Latin literature at the University of Leipzig from 1818 to 1824. Stackelberg, Count Otto Magnus Baron von (1786–1837). Art historian, painter, and writer considered to be one of the first archaeologists. He was also acquainted with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Stein, Heinrich Friedrich Karl Reichsfreiherr vom und zum (1757–1831). Famous Prussian statesman and reformer. Steinla, Moritz (1791–1858). Award-winning Dresden engraver. Stolberg, Christian von (1748–1821), and Friedrich Leopold von (1750–1819). Brothers and members of the Hainbund in Göttingen, a literary association that aspired to achieve German unity and cultivated German poetry.

248

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

Stroganoff (also Stroganov), Count Sergey Grigorievich (1794–1882). Governor general of Moscow from 1859 to 1860 who founded the Stroganov Moscow Arts and Industrial Institute in 1825. He gained the title of count by marrying Nataly Stroganoff (Countess Stroganoff) (1796–1872), the oldest of only female heirs to the Stroganov family title and estates. Sergey was the son of her father’s third cousin. Tacitus, Publius Cornelius (c. 56–117). Senator and historian of the Roman Empire whose works include The Histories and Germania. Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles Maurice de (1754–1838). French diplomat; minister of foreign affairs from 1799 to 1807. Thiersch, Friedrich Wilhelm (1784–1860). Philologist, educator, and philhellene who reformed the school system of Bavaria. Thibaut, Bernhard Friedrich (1775–1832). Professor in mathematics at the University of Göttingen from 1802. Thomson, James (1700–1748). Scottish poet and playwright. Thorvaldsen, Bertel (1770–1844). Danish/Icelandic sculptor of the neoclassical period. Tieck, Christian Friedrich (1776–1851). Sculptor and brother of Ludwig Tieck. Tieck, Ludwig (1773–1853). One of the most important authors of German Romanticism. In 1819, Tieck settled permanently in Dresden and in 1825 became the literary adviser to the Court Theatre. His semipublic readings brought him wide renown. Tiedge, Christoph August (1752–1841). German poet who lived with Countess Elissa von der Recke, also a poet, from 1804 until her death in 1831 (and from 1819 in Dresden). His Urania über Gott, Unsterblichkeit und Freiheit (1801), a philosophical poem written in six cantos, was one of his more successful works. Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, Count of (1559–1632). Commander of the imperial army during the Thirty Years’ War. Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (c. 1485–1576). Leader of the sixteenth-century Venetian School of the Italian Renaissance. Tocqueville, Alexis de (1805–1859). French political thinker and historian. His most influential book was Democracy in America, published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840. Tümpling, Marie von (dates unknown). Chief tutor at the royal court in Dresden. Ungern-Sternberg, Peter Alexander Freiherr von (1806–1868). Member of an old Baltic noble family who, in 1830, moved to Dresden to dedicate his time to painting and writing. In Dresden he was introduced to the circle around Ludwig Tieck.

BIOG RA PH ICAL GL OSSARY

249

Valle, Pietro della (1586–1652). First European to discover and describe mummy portraits. He brought some mummies with portraits to Europe. Vandyck, Anthony (1599–1641). Flemish artist of the Baroque era and a leading court painter in England. Vasari, Giorgio (1511–1574). Italian painter and architect who became famous for his biographies of Italian artists. Verrocchio, Andrea del (1435–1488). Influential Italian sculptor, goldsmith, and painter who taught Leonardo da Vinci. Villers, Charles Francois Dominique (1765–1815). French-German scholar and poet of the Napoleonic Age appointed as a professor at the University of Göttingen in 1811. Vinci, Leonardo da (1452–1519). Famous Italian polymath. He has been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man for his interest and expertise in so many different fields. His two most famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Vogelstein, Karl Christian Vogel von (1788–1868). Painter and professor at the Dresden Academy who became court painter in 1820. Voß, Johann Heinrich (1751–1826). Poet and translator of classical Greek (Homer, Hesiod) and English (Shakespeare) works. In 1805, he became a professor in Heidelberg. Wallenstein, Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von (1583–1634). Major figure of the Thirty Years’ War. Choosing the side of Emperor Ferdinand II, Wallenstein raised his own army to fight for the Catholic cause. Since he was successful in his military campaigns, he was bestowed with many honors and titles. Watzdorf, Karl Friedrich Ludwig von (1759–1840). Saxon general and diplomat. Although a Protestant, he was put in charge of the education of Princes Friedrich August, Clemens, and Johann in 1816. From 1823 to 1834, Watzdorf was the Saxon ambassador to Prussia. During this time, he negotiated the Prussian-Saxon customs union. In early 1835, Watzdorf returned to Dresden and took up a position in Saxony’s government and at the royal court. Weigel, Carl Christian Leberecht (1769–1854). Court physician in Dresden. Weigel, Johann August Gottlob (1773–1846). Founder of a famous booktrading business in Leipzig. Welcker, Friedrich Gottlieb (1784–1868). Archaeologist and philologist who received the first professorship in Greek literature and archaeology in Germany at the University of Giessen in 1809. In 1816, he was appointed professor at the University of Göttingen. From 1819, Welcker taught at the University of Bonn, where he lectured on the history of Greek and Roman literature, mythology, and art, and also served as the director of the university library. He was close to his colleagues Moritz Naumann and Wilhelm von Humboldt,

250

B I O GR A PH IC A L G LOSSA RY

and was subjected to police inquiry in the 1820s for advocating German unification. Werner, Abraham Gottlob (1749–1817). Geologist and mineralogist who founded the now outdated science of geognosy based on the stratification of the earth’s crust. Werner, Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias (1768–1823). Poet and playwright who converted to Catholicism in 1810, studied theology, and became a priest. In 1807, while he was still a Protestant, he wrote the play Martin Luther. Wette, Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de (1780–1849). Protestant theologian and professor of theology in Heidelberg, Berlin, and Basel. Wieck, Clara Josephine (1819–1896). Famous musician and the most distinguished pianist of the Romantic era. She married Robert Schumann in 1840. Wieland, Christoph Martin (1733–1813). Famous poet and writer of the German rococo period, sometimes called “the German Voltaire.” His greatest literary achievement was Oberon, a romantic, heroic epic poem (1780). Wieland, Ludwig (1777–1819). Son of Christoph Martin Wieland; poet and publisher. Winckelmann, Johann Joachim (1717–1768). Art historian and archaeologist whose writings influenced Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and many others. Winkel, Therese Emilie Henriette aus dem (1784–1867). Painter, harpist, author, and foreign language and music tutor to the royal family. She made a name for herself copying the Italian masterpieces in the art gallery in Dresden. Wintzingerode, Ferdinand Freiherr von (1770–1818). Russian general. Wolf, Friedrich August (1759–1824). Classical philologist and Homer specialist who lost his professorship at the University of Halle upon the Napoleonic occupation. He relocated to Berlin and helped to found and organize the University of Berlin (1810). Xenophon (ca. 431–355 BC). Greek author who wrote about the history of his own times. Zach, Franz Xaver Freiherr von (1754–1832). Astronomer who worked at the observatory in Gotha from 1787 to 1806. Zeschau, Heinrich Anton von (1789–1870). Saxon minister of finance from 1831 to 1848. Zezschwitz, Johann Adolph von (1779–1845). Saxony’s defense minister from 1831 to 1839.

Bibliography

Literary works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich von Schiller, Ernst Schulze, Walter Scott, and William Shakespeare are not listed here. Achorn, Erik. “Bernadotte or Bonaparte.” Journal of Modern History 1, no. 3 (September 1929): 378–99. Adam, Thomas. Buying Respectability: Philanthropy and Urban Society in Transnational Perspective, 1840s–1930s. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. ———. “Germany Seen through American Eyes: George and Anna Eliot Ticknor’s German Travel Logs.” 151–63 in Transatlantic Cultural Contexts: Essays in Honor of Eberhard Brüning, edited by Hartmut Keil. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 2005. Allaback, Steven, and Alexander Medlicott Jr. A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the European Journals of George and Anna Ticknor. Hanover, N.H.: Dartmouth College Library, 1978. Altieri, Joanne. “Style and Purpose in Maria Edgeworth’s Fiction.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 23, no. 3 (December 1968): 265–78. Bache, Alexander Dallas. Report on Education in Europe, to the Trustees of the Girard College for Orphans. Philadelphia: Lydia R. Bailey, 1839. Baltzell, E. Digby. Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1998. Bassnett, Susan. “Travel Writing and Gender.” 225–41 in The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing, edited by Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Beachy, Robert. The Soul of Commerce: Credit, Property, and Politics in Leipzig, 1750– 1840. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Becker, Anja. “For the Sake of Old Leipzig Days . . . Academic Networks of American Students at a German University, 1781–1914.” PhD diss., University of Leipzig, 2006. Berger, Stefan. “The German Tradition of Historiography, 1800–1995.” 477–92 in German History since 1800, edited by Mary Fulbrook. London: Arnold, 1997. 251

252

B I B L I O GRA P HY

Bergmann, Harriet F. “‘The Silent University’: The Society to Encourage Studiers at Home, 1873–1897.” New England Quarterly 74, no. 3 (September 2001): 447–77. Beutin, Wolfgang, et al. A History of German Literature: From the Beginnings to the Present Day. London and New York: Routledge, 1993. Biel, Johann Christian. Novus Thesaurus Philologicus, Sive, Lexicon in LXX et alios Interpretes et Scriptores Apocryphos Veteris Testamenti, three vols. The Hague: J. A. Bouvink, 1779–1780. Blackbourn, David. History of Germany 1780–1918: The Long Nineteenth Century. Malden, Mass., and Oxford: Blackwell, 2006. Bohls, Elizabeth A. Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics, 1716–1818. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Boime, Albert. Art in an Age of Counterrevolution, 1815–1848. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Booth, Alison. “The Lessons of the Medusa: Anna Jameson and Collective Biographies of Women.” Victorian Studies 42, no. 2 (January 1, 1999): 257–88. Brace, Charles Loring. Home-Life in Germany. New York: Charles Scribner, 1856. Briefwechsel König Johanns von Sachsen mit George Ticknor, edited by Johann Georg Herzog zu Sachsen and E. Danell. Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1920. Brown, Cynthia Stokes. “The American Discovery of the German University: Four Students at Göttingen, 1815–1822.” PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1964. Brüning, Eberhard. “‘It is a glorious collection’. Amerikanische Bildungsbürger des 19. Jahrhunderts auf ‘Pilgerfahrt zur Dresdner Gemäldegalerie.’” Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden 1996/1997: 99–105. ———. “‘Saxony Is a Prosperous and Happy Country’: American Views of the Kingdom of Saxony in the Nineteenth Century.” 20–50 in Traveling between Worlds: GermanAmerican Encounters, edited by Thomas Adam and Ruth Gross. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006. Bürger, Thomas. “Wandel und Kontinuität in 450 Jahren: Von der kurfürstlichen Liberey zur Sächsischen Landesbibliothek-Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.” Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Technischen Universität Dresden 55, no. 1–2 (2006): 29–36. Crawford, Mary Caroline. Famous Families of Massachusetts, vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1930. Czok, Karl, ed. Geschichte Sachsens. Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1989. Demiashkevich, M. J. “The Organization and Administration of Universities in Germany.” Peabody Journal of Education 10, no. 6 (May 1933): 342–57. Doering-Manteuffel, Johann Robert. Dresden und sein Geistesleben im Vormärz: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des kulturellen Lebens in der sächsischen Hauptstadt. Dresden: Risse-Verlag, 1935. Dohm, Christian Wilhelm von. Denkwürdigkeiten meiner Zeit oder Beiträge zur Geschichte des letzten Viertels des achtzehnten und vom Anfang des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts 1778 bis 1806, five vols. Lemgo: Meyer, 1814–1819. Doyle, Henry Grattan. “George Ticknor.” Modern Language Journal 22, no. 1 (October 1937): 3–17.

BIBL IOGRAPH Y

253

Dwight, Henry E. Travels in the North of Germany, in the Years 1825 and 1826. New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1829. Falkenstein, Constantin Carl von. Beschreibung der königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden. Dresden: Walther’sche Hofbuchhandlung, 1839. Ferris, David. “Public Performance and Private Understanding: Clara Wieck’s Concerts in Berlin.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 56, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 351–408. Fronius, Helen. “Der reiche Mann und die arme Frau: German Women Writers and the Eighteenth-Century Literary Market-Place.” German Life and Letters 56, no. 1 (2003): 1–19. Frühauf, Wolfgang. “Von der kurfürstlichen Privatbibliothek zur Sächsischen Landesbibliothek.” 13–27 in Von der Liberey zur Bibliothek: 440 Jahre Sächsische Landesbibliothek, edited by Lothar Koch. Dresden: Sandstein, 1996. Fulton, Charles Carroll. Europe Viewed through American Spectacles. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874. Gibian, George. “C. G. Carus’ Psyche and Dostoevsky.” American Slavic and East European Review 14, no. 3 (October 1955): 371–82. Goede, Christian Augustus Gottlieb. The Stranger in England; or, Travels in Great Britain, three vols. London: J. G. Barnard for Matthew and Leigh, 1807. Graver, Bruce. “Joanna Baillie and George Ticknor.” 27–47 in Joanna Baillie, Romantic Dramatist: Critical Essays, edited by Thomas C. Crochunis. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. Hammer, Michael. Volksbewegung und Obrigkeiten: Revolution in Sachsen 1830/31. Weimar, Cologne, and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1997. Hart, James Morgan. German Universities: A Narrative of Personal Experience, together with recent Statistical Information, Practical Suggestions, and a Comparison of the German, English and American Systems of Higher Education. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1878. Heyer, Fritz. Aus der Geschichte der Landesschule zur Pforte. Darmstadt and Leipzig: Hans Buske Nachf. Verlag, 1943. Hillard, George S., and Anna Eliot Ticknor, eds. Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor, two vols. Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1876. Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1891. Huch, Ronald K. The Radical Lord Radnor: The Public Life of Viscount Folkestone, Third Earl of Radnor (1779–1869). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977. Jaher, Frederic Cople. “The Boston Brahmins in the Age of Industrial Capitalism.” 188–262 in The Age of Industrialism in America: Essays in Social Structure and Cultural Values, edited by Frederic Cople Jaher. New York: Free Press, 1968. Kalmar, Ivan Davidsohn. “Moorish Style: Orientalism, the Jews, and Synagogue Architecture.” Jewish Social Studies 7, no. 3 (Spring/Summer 2001): 68–100. Keller, Katrin. Landesgeschichte Sachsen. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 2002. Kingsborough, Edward King, Viscount. Antiquities of Mexico: comprising facsimiles of ancient Mexican paintings and hieroglyphic. . . ., nine vols. London: A. Aglio, vols. 1–5, R. Havell, vols. 6–7, H. G. Bohn, vols. 8–9, 1830–1848.

254

B I B L I O GRA P HY

Kötzscke, Rudolf, and Hellmut Kretzschmar. Sächsische Geschichte. Augsburg: Weltbild Verlag, 1995. Kretzschmar, Hellmut, ed. Lebenserinnerungen des Königs Johann von Sachsen: Eigene Aufzeichnungen des Königs über die Jahre 1801 bis 1854. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1958. ———. Die Zeit König Johanns von Sachsen 1854–1873. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1960. Langtry, Albert P., ed. Metropolitan Boston: A Modern History, vol. 1. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1929. Lessing, K. G., ed. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Leben, nebst seinem noch uebrigen litterarischen Nachlasse, Erster Theil. Berlin: In der Vossischen Buchhandlung, 1793. Ludwig, Jörg, and Andreas Neemann. Revolution in Sachsen 1848/49: Darstellung und Dokumente. Dresden: Sächsische Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung, 1999. Lyon, Judson Stanley. “Wordsworth and Ticknor.” PMLA 66, no. 4 (June 1951): 432–40. Maaz, Bernhard. “Nicht unter Goethe und Raffael: Bezugnahmen und Anspruchsformulierungen in Julius Schnorr von Carolsfelds Bildnis der Bianca von Quandt.” Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 40 (1998): 131–44. Marburg, Silke. Europäischer Hochadel: König Johann von Sachsen (1801–1873) und die Binnenkommunikation einer Sozialformation. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2008. Marburg, Silke, and Josef Matzerath, eds. Der Schritt in die Moderne: Sächsischer Adel zwischen 1763 und 1918. Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2001. Matenko, Percy. “Tieck’s Russian Friends.” PMLA 55, no. 4 (December 1940): 1129– 45. Matzerath, Josef. Adelsprobe an der Moderne: Sächsischer Adel 1763–1866: Enkonkretisierung einer traditionalen Sozialformation. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006. ———. “Johann von Sachsen—ein ‘bürgerlicher’ König? Eine konstruktive Kritik gängiger historiografischer Deutungskonzepte.” 33–44 in Zwischen Tradition und Modernität, edited by Winfried Müller and Martina Schattkowsky. ———, ed. Der sächsische König und der Dresdner Maiaufstand: Tagebücher und Aufzeichnungen aus der Revolutionszeit 1848/49. Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1999. Matzerath, Josef, and Barbara Tlusty. “Dresden—Stadt des sächsischen Adels.” 231–42 in Der Schritt in die Moderne, edited by Silke Marburg and Josef Matzerath. May, Arthur James. “Contemporary American Opinion of the Mid-Century Revolutions in Central Europe.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1927. Montagu, Basil. The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England. A New Edition with the Life of the Author, vol. 1. Philadelphia: A. Hart, Late Carey and Hart, 1852. Mras, George P. “A Romantic Birch Tree by Johan Christian Clausen Dahl.” Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 24, no. 1 (1965): 12–19. Müller, Winfried, and Martina Schattkowsky. Zwischen Tradition und Modernität: König Johann von Sachsen 1801–1873. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2004. Nelson, Paul David. Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquess of Hastings: Soldier, Peer of the Realm, Governor-General of India. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005.

BIBL IOGRAPH Y

255

Neumeister, Sebastian. “Philalethes—König Johann als Dante-Übersetzer.” 203–16 in Zwischen Tradition und Modernität, edited by Winfried Müller and Martina Schattkowsky. Noyes, Russell. “Wordsworth: An Unpublished Letter to John Kenyon.” Modern Language Review 53, no. 4 (October 1958): 546–47. Potts, Alex. “Anton Raphael Mengs. London.” Burlington Magazine 135, no. 1085 (August 1993): 575–76. Raumer, Frederick von. America and the American People, translated by William W. Turner. New York: J. & H. G. Langley, S. Astor House, 1846. Redlich, Fritz. “A German Eighteenth-Century Iron Works during Its First Hundred Years: Notes Contributing to the Unwritten History of European Aristocratic Business Leadership.” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society 27, no. 2 (June 1953): 69–96. Richter, Eckhard, and Jochen Strobel. “Der ‘König der Romantik’ und der Adel. Ludwig Tieck in Dresden.” 115–68 in Der Schritt in die Moderne, edited by Silke Marburg and Josef Matzerath. Russell, John. A Tour in Germany: And Some of the Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empire, in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, vol. 1. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London, 1824. Ruud, Brandon K., ed. Karl Bodmer’s North American Prints. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. Ryder, Frank. G. “An American View of Germany—1817.” American-German Review 25, no. 3 (February–March 1959): 16–19. ———. “George Ticknor and Goethe—Boston and Göttingen.” PMLA 67, no. 7 (December 1952): 960–72. ———. “George Ticknor on the German Scene.” American-German Review 25, no. 4 (April–May 1959): 28–30. ———. “George Ticknor’s Sorrows of Young Werter.” Comparative Literature 1, no. 4 (Autumn 1949): 360–72. ———, ed. George Ticknor’s The Sorrows of Young Werter. With Introduction and Critical Analysis. The University of North Carolina Studies in Comparative Literature 4. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952. Schattkowsky, Martina, and Uwe John. Dresdner Maiaufstand und Reichsverfassung 1849: Revolutionäres Nachbeben oder demokratische politische Kultur? Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2000. Schleusner, Johann Friedrich. Novum Lexicon Graeco-Latinum in N.T. Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1792. ———. Novus Thesaurus Philologico-Criticus: Sive, Lexicon in LXX. Et Reliquos Interpretes Graecos ac Scriptores Apocryphos Veteris Testamenti, five vols. Leipzig: Weidmann, 1820–1821. Schmidt, Gerhardt. Die Staatreform in Sachsen in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts: Eine Parallele zu den Steinschen Reformen in Preußen. Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1966. Schneider, Johann Gottlob. Kritisches Griechisch-Deutsches Handwörterbuch. Züllichau and Leipzig: Frommann, 1797–1798.

256

B I B L I O GRA P HY

Schwarz, Ingo. “Transatlantic Communication in the 19th Century: Aspects of the Correspondence between Alexander von Humboldt and George Ticknor.” Asclepio 56, no. 2 (2004): 25–39. Sides, Ashley. “What Americans Said About Saxony, and What This Says About Them: Interpreting Travel Writings of the Ticknors and Other Privileged Americans, 1800– 1850.” MA thesis, University of Texas at Arlington, 2008. Siegel, Kristi, ed. Gender, Genre, & Identity in Women’s Travel Writing. New York: Peter Lang, 2004. Singer, Hans W. “Some English Portraits by Carl Vogel von Vogelstein.” Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 11, no. 54 (September 1907): 382–84. Die SLUB [Sächsische Landesbibliothek–Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden]: Eine Bibliothek—Zwei Geschichten. Sonderausstellung im Buchmuseum der SLUB (Katalog). www.tu-dresden.de/slub/dir1/ausstellung/2003/katalog_slubgeschichte.pdf (December 17, 2008). Smith, Harold F. American Travelers Abroad: A Bibliography of Accounts Published before 1900, second ed. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1999. Stowe, William W. Going Abroad: European Travel in Nineteenth-Century American Culture. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994. Taylor, Bayard. Views A-Foot; Or Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff. Caxton edition, rev. New York: George P. Putnam, 1862. Ticknor, Anna. “Polite Travels in the Thirties: From the Diary of Mrs. George Ticknor.” Atlantic Monthly 140 (July–December 1927): 56–65. Ticknor, Anna Eliot. Samuel Eliot. Boston University Press, 1869. Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London: Saunders and Otley, 1835. Topfstedt, Thomas, and Hartmut Zwahr, eds. Leipzig um 1800: Beiträge zur Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte. Beucha: Sax-Verlag, 1998. Tullius, Wilhelm. Die wechselvolle Geschichte des Hauses Wied. Neuwied: Verlag Peter Kehrein, 2003. Tyack, David B. George Ticknor and the Boston Brahmins. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967. Ulrich, O., ed. Charles de Villers: Sein Leben und seine Schriften. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der geistigen Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und Frankreich (1899, repr.). Osnabrück: Zeller, 1969. Voss, Dirk. “National Stereotypes about Germans in American Travel Writings, 1815– 1914.” PhD diss., University of Oklahoma, 2000. Voß, Johann Heinrich. Louisa: From the German of Voss, translated by James Cochrane. Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter, 1852. Waldmüller, Robert (Edouard Duboc). Aus den Memoiren einer Fürstentochter. Dresden: C. G. Reinhold & Söhne, 1883. Weber, Frank G. “Palmerston and Prussian Liberalism, 1848.” Journal of Modern History 35, no. 2 (June 1963): 125–36. Whellan, T., and Co. History and Topography of the City of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire, vol. 2. Beverley: Printed for the Publishers by John Green, 1859. White, Andrew Dickson. Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, vol. 2. London: Macmillan, 1905.

BIBL IOGRAPH Y

257

Williamson, George S. “What Killed August von Kotzebue? The Temptations of Virtue and the Political Theology of German Nationalism, 1789–1819.” Journal of Modern History 72, no. 4 (December 2000): 890–943. Willis, Nathaniel Parker. Rural Letters and Other Records of Thought at Leisure, Written in the Intervals of More Hurried Literary Labor. Auburn and Rochester: Alden and Beardsley, 1856. Zeydel, Edwin H. “George Ticknor and Ludwig Tieck.” PMLA 44, no. 3 (September 1929): 879–91.

Index

Achenwall, Gottfried, 9 Adams, Charles Francis, 107, 233 Adams, John Quincy, 11, 107, 233 Adelung, Johann Christoph, 142, 208n60, 233 Adolphus, Gustavus, 50, 55, 57, 140, 211, 222 Albani, Allesandro, 41, 233 Alcibiades’ Dog (Myron), 216, 216n72 Algarotti (count), 138n90 Alt Ranstädt, 54 Amalia (princess of Bavaria) (Princess John), 187n29, 196, 201n51, 202, 242 Amalia (princess of Saxony), 119–20, 135, 186, 187–88, 233 America, 106, 117, 117n41; crimes in, 83; farmers in, 72–73; forests comparisons, 64–65; Germany compared to, 63–64, 66–69; lower class in, 74; peasantry in, 72–73; people of, 71; political spirit of, 84; social intercourse in, 86; villages in, 69 Ammon, Christoph Friedrich von, 35, 128, 233 Anhalt-Dessau, Leopold III Friedrich Franz von, 152–53, 152n122, 221, 221n79, 241 Anhalt-Dessau, Louisa, 221

Anna of Denmark, 233 Anton of Saxony (king), 8, 10, 111–13, 135n83, 179, 186, 224, 224n82, 233 Ariadne (Danneker), 89–90 d’Artaud, François Soulange, 30, 233 Aspinall, Mr., 215 atheism, 76 Augusta (princess of Saxony), 112, 118, 131, 135, 186, 190–91, 196, 202, 233 Augusta, Maria Amalia, 35n32 Auguste of Harrach (countess), 117n40 August I (elector of Saxony), 37, 41, 41n53, 138, 233 August II. See Friedrich August I of Saxony, “The Strong” August III (elector of Saxony), 39n51, 41, 233 Bacon, Francis, 189 Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich, 233 Ballhorn-Rosen, Friedrich, 31, 87, 234 balls: at court, 118–19, 190–93; at Eichhorn’s home, 24; at regent’s (prince), 131–32 Bartley, George, 234 Bassenge, Heinrich, 234 Bastei, 159–61, 227–28 Battle at Lützen, 33n21, 168n7, 234, 239 Battle of Dresden, 244

259

260

I ND E X

Battle of Nations at Leipzig, 15, 49–53, 245 Battle of Rossbach, 54n84 Baudissin, Julie Friederike Gräfin (countess), 118, 127–28, 127n62, 129, 191, 195, 195n41 Baudissin, Wolf Heinrich Friedrich Karl (count of), 9, 118n44, 119, 120n46, 122–23, 127–29, 191, 195, 195n41, 218n75, 234 Bause, Johann Friedrich, 151n119, 240 Bayezid II, 38, 38n46, 234 Beauvillers, 92 Beck, Christian Daniel, 60, 234 Beigel, Georg Wilhelm Sigismund, 38, 234 Benecke, Georg Friedrich, 23, 25, 30, 234 Bergakademie Freiberg, 34n26, 124, 124n56 Berg, Günther Heinrich Freiherr von, 89, 234 Berghauptmann, 124, 124n57 Berlin, 43, 155–56 Berlin Enlightenment, 237 Bernadotte, Jean-Baptiste, 234 Berthier, Louis Alexandre, 25, 234 Bethmann, Johann Philipp, 89, 90, 98, 234 Bethmann, Simon Moritz, 234 Bischoff, 42 Black Eagle, 112, 113 Blücher, Gebhard Leberecht von (prince of Wahlstatt), 49, 54, 55, 234 Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich, 9, 22, 28, 30, 234 Bodmer, Karl, 240 Bodt, Jean de (von), 37, 37n36, 234 body size and structure, 70 Bohemia, 162, 230–31 Bonaparte, Jérôme, 23, 26, 93, 234 Bonaparte, Joseph, 90, 235 Bonaparte, Marie Julie (née Clary), 90, 90n142, 235 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 25, 32, 46, 49, 52, 53, 53n83, 55, 89, 93, 104, 112,

134, 144, 157, 208, 210, 228, 234, 243, 244 Bonn, Germany, 163–64 Bose (countess), 118, 182, 213 Bose, August Karl von (count), 9, 107–8, 118n43, 173, 235 Boston Brahmins, 1 Böttiger, Karl August, 41, 43, 170n10, 171–72, 214, 235; funeral, 101–3; lecture of, 34, 41; meeting with, 33–34 Bourbon family, 128n65 Bouterweck, Friedrich Ludewig, 87, 235 Brahmins. See Boston Brahmins Brandenburg Gate, 155 Breitenfeld, 46 Bridge of Boats, 98 Brockhaus, Friedrich, 151, 151n117, 235 Brockhaus, Friedrich Arnold, 151n117, 235 Brockhaus, Heinrich, 151, 151nn117–18, 235 Brühl, Heinrich von (count), 135n84, 217n74, 235 Brühl’s garden, 137, 172, 217, 217n74 Buhl (count), 92n144 Bülow, Friedrich Wilhelm, Freiherr von (count of Dennewitz), 43, 218n75, 235 Bunyan, John, 48, 48n76 Butler, Mad., 198 Buttlar, Auguste Freiin von, 144, 235 Byron (Lord), 61, 62 Byron, George Gordon, 235 Cäcilie: A Romantic Poem in 20 Songs and The Enchanted Rose (Schulze), 247 Caesar, Gaius Julius, 69, 235 Canova, Antonio, 235 Carlism, 128–29, 128n65 Carlo I, 235 Carlo V, 235 Carlo VII, 235 Carlos V, 128n65 Carolsfeld, Julius Schnorr von, 245

IN DEX Carus, Carl Gustav, 123, 235, 237 Castle of Count Thun, 225 Castle of Mortizburg, 224 Catholic Cathedral, 89 Catholic Mass, 35 Chaloner, Mr., 170 Charles I, of England (king), 222, 235 Charles III, of Spain (king), 143, 208, 235 Charles V, 236 Charles XII, of Sweden, 54, 54n85, 140 Charles XIV John, of Sweden (king), 234 Chigi, Flavio (cardinal), 142n96 Chigi (prince), 41 Chigi Collection, 142, 142n96 Christ Baum, 177, 178 Christian I (elector), 140 Christian III (king), 233 Christmas, 109–11, 176–78 Circourt, Adolphe de (count), 122, 127, 129, 197, 198, 213, 218n75, 236 Circourt, Anastasie Christine de (countess), 122, 127, 195, 197, 200, 213, 218n75, 236 class, of society, 70–71; lower, 73–74; middling, 74–75, 80, 83; nobility, 8, 71, 77–79 Claude, 206 Colloredo-Waldsee, Reichsgraf Franz, 145, 213, 213n70, 236 columbarium, 209, 209n63 Comte, Mons. le, 132 Congress of Vienna, 89 Connewitz, 52 Conversation: A Didactic Poem (Cooke), 121n50 Cooke, William, 121n50 Cooper, James Fenimore, 8, 11 Correggio, Antonio Allegri da, 141, 206, 236 Coup-d’Oeil (Viller), 4 Cowper, William, 203, 203n54, 236 Cow’s Stable. See Kuhstall Cox, Colonel, 180 Cranach, Lucas, 44, 150, 236 crimes, in America, 83

261

Cubières, Mad. de, 128, 129 Cubières, Marquis de, 128–29 “The Curse of Kehama” (Southey), 171n11 Czartoryska, Jozefa (princess), 145, 145n101, 245 Dahl, Johan Christian Clausen, 127, 144, 212, 236 Dannecker, Johann Heinrich von, 89, 236 Dante, 10, 116, 117, 119, 120, 187, 192, 192n36 Darmstadt, 87, 87n135 Darmstadt, Miss, 105, 202 Dartmouth College, 2 Davout, Marshal Louis Nicolas (prince d’Eck-muhl and duke of Auerstedt), 236 De l’Allemagne (de Staël), 4 della Valle, 41 Democracy in America (Tocqueville), 106n19 D’Endé (baron), 226 Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) (Wagner), 242 Der Philosoph für die Welt (Engel), 237 Despans-Cubières, Amédée, 128, 128n64, 236 Dessau, 220–21 de Staël, Madame, 4 d’honneur, Dame, 195 Diesbach, Heinrich, 43n60, 236 Diet. See Frankfurt Diet Dippel, Johann Konrad, 43n60, 236 Divine Comedy (Dante), 192n36 Dohm, Christian Wilhelm von, 32, 236 Dolci, Carlo, 41, 236 Dorf Raden, 225 Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, 233 Dresden, 9–11, 147–49; about the city of, 103–4, 133–38; Amalia (princess of Saxony) in, 119–20; Ammon’s talk, 35; Anna’s (Nannie) education, 105; annual fair in, 126–27; appearance of,

262

I ND E X

134–37; art collections in, 138–45; ball and supper at regent’s (prince), 131–32; Battle of, 244; Baudissin (count) in, 122; Bose dinner, 107–8; Böttiger funeral, 101–3; Böttiger meeting, 33–34; Christmas day, 111; Christmas Eve, 109–11; Christmas fair, 108, 176–77; churches of, 136; Circourts, 122–23; court ball and supper, 118–19; Elbe breaks up, 123; fashion of, 174; Forbes dinner, 124–25; Frauenkirche, 42; Italian Opera, 34; John’s (prince) library, 120–21; Kaskel’s home entertainment, 125; king’s birthday in, 113–15; leaving, 149–50; life in society in, 145–47; Lippe’s (count) visit, 116; Müller’s burial, 128; partings at, 42–43; presentation at court, 111–13, 179; procession of peasantry, 115–16; public institutions, 138–45, 205–6; public library in, 36–38; Rancliffe (Lady) in, 129; Russian minister dinner, 117; society of, 210–11; Stroganoff’s, 132–33; Ticknor, Anna, observations of, 173–74, 193–94; Tieck, L., appointment in, 121–22; Tieck, L., reading, 127; winter cold, 125–26. See also Gallery of Antiques; Gallery of Pictures Dresden Codex, 38n47 Dresdener Abendzeitung, 235 Dresden von der Morgensite (Richter), 101 Duchy of Weimar, 167 Duncombe Park, 216, 216n72 Dundas, Mary, 242 Duplat, Miss., 90 Durand, Guillaume, 38, 236 Dürer, Albrecht, 236 Dwight, Catherine, 102 Dwight, Henry, 13 Ebert, Friedrich Adolf, 142, 236 Edgeworth, Maria, 107, 236 Edict of Nantes, 1685, 234

Egmont (Goethe), 29 Eichhorn, Johann Gottfried, 4, 9, 28, 30, 237; ball at home of, 24; Ticknor, G., meeting, 22 Einsiedel (countess), 132 Einsiedel, Detlev von, Jr. (count), 132n68, 237 Elbe, 101, 104, 123 Elizabeth I (queen), 132, 132n69 Elysium, 32 Engel, Johann Jakob, 237 Erfurt, 99 Erskine, John, 237 Estienne, Robert, 48n76 Europe, emancipation of, 53–54 Everett, Edward, 5, 21n1, 30n16; in Berlin, 43; to Dresden, 33–43; in Leipzig, 50; Leipzig journey, 31–33; in Weimar, 61–62 Falcke, Georg Friedrich Freiherr von, 93, 237 Falkenstein, Constantin Karl, 127, 148, 211, 218n75, 237 farmers, in America, 72–73 Faust, 52, 61, 62 Feder, Johann Georg Heinrich, 28, 237 Ferdinand II (emperor), 249 Ferdinand, Karl Wilhelm (duke), 32n18 Ferdinand VII, 129n65 Ferversham, Lord, 216n72 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 58n91 Finlater’s Garten, 138 Fiorillo, Johann Dominicus, 87, 237 FitzWilliam, Charles William (fifth Earl FitzWilliam), 243 FitzWilliam, William Charles, Viscount Milton, 102n9, 128, 170, 170n9, 243 Flemming, Jakob Heinrich von (count), 34n23, 36, 136, 237 Folkstone, Lord, 215 Forbes, Francis-Reginald, 8, 107, 107n20, 108, 111, 113, 117, 124–25, 132, 148, 173, 175, 178, 179, 185n23, 189, 237

IN DEX Förster, Karl August, 123, 127, 237 Fox, Henry Edward (fourth Baron Holland), 237 Fox, Henry Richard Vassall (third Baron Holland), 106, 106n18, 237 Franke, 128 Frankfurt, Germany, 89–93 Frankfurt Diet, 81, 81n125, 90–91, 92 Franz I of Austria, 80, 80n121, 237 Frauenkirche, 42, 205 Frederick Augustus II, 138 Frederick Christian, 243 Frederick, George Augustus, 26 Friedrich II of Prussia, 44, 44nn66–67, 54n84, 134, 238 Friedrich III of Saxony, “The Wise,” 45, 154, 154n125, 223n81, 238 Friedrich August I of Saxony, 36n37, 37, 37nn39–40, 38n48, 42n57, 80, 80n122, 134, 134n79, 139, 186n27, 233, 238 Friedrich August I of Saxony, “The Strong,” 34n23, 35n31, 36, 36n35, 39n51, 41, 54n85, 129n66, 133, 133n78, 156, 210, 210n65, 237 Friedrich August II of Saxony, 112, 112n29, 181, 201n51, 238, 243 Friedrich August III. See Friedrich August I of Saxony Friedrich, Leopold Victor, 56, 56n88 Friedrichstadt, 182 Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, 32n18, 56n87, 80, 80n122, 112, 117, 238 Froriep, Ludwig Friedrich von, 103, 238 Fulda, 98 Fust, Johann, 38, 238, 247 Gagern, Hans Christoph Ernst Freiherr von (baron), 92, 238 Gallery of Antiques, 41–42, 41n55, 43, 104, 142–43 Gallery of Pictures, 38, 39–41, 39n51, 42, 105, 108, 116, 129, 134, 138, 143–44, 148, 149, 175–76, 206–7 Ganymede (Thorvaldsen), 216

263

gardens, at Wörlitz, 152 Gatterer, Johann Christian, 9 Gebrüder Bethmann (banking house), 234 George II (king), 9 George III of Hanover, 29, 238 George IV (king), 238 George Augustus Frederick, 238 German Diet, 234 Germanicus, Julius Caesar, 70, 238 German lessons, 25 Germany: agriculture of, 65–66; Bonn, 163–64; cultivated land of, 65–66; education in, 75–77; forests of, 64–65; Frankfort, 89–93; guilds in, 73–74; intellectual culture in, 75–77; lower classes in, 73–74; mechanics in, 73–74; merchants in, 74–75; middling classes in, 74–75; military spirit in, 83–84; morals in, 82–83; Neuwied, 165; nobility of, 77–79; peasantry in, 71–73; people of, 69–71; political spirit of, 84–86; religion in, 79–82; social intercourse in, 86; South, 156–58; St. Goar, 164–65; teachers in, 75–77; towns and cities of, 66–69; villages of, 65–69. See also Leipzig; Weimar, Germany Giant’s Causeway, 160, 160n136 Giessen, 87–88 Gneisenau, August Neidhardt von (count), 49, 238 Goede, Christian August Gottlieb, 72, 72n112, 238 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 2, 4, 29, 29n15, 32, 52, 61, 61n99, 62n100, 87, 87n136, 88, 92, 99–100, 106, 166n4, 167, 170n10, 217n74, 235, 238, 247, 250 Goethe, Ottilie von (née Freiin von Pogwisch), 238 Goetze, Johann Christian, 38n47, 238 Golden Fleece, 131 Goltz, August Friedrich Ferdinand von der, 92, 239

264

I ND E X

Göschen, Georg Joachim, 239 Gossler, Elizabeth, 15, 218n75 Gotha, 99 Gourieff (count), 132–33, 145, 213 Grahl, August, 146, 239 Great Fair, 46–48, 53 The Great Garden. See Grosse Garten (The Great Garden) The Green Vault. See Das Grüne Gewölbe Gremio, 197 Grey, Thomas, 239 Großgörschen, 55–56 Grosse Garten (The Great Garden), 133, 133n76, 137, 137n88, 138, 190, 195, 203, 204, 217 Das Grüne Gewölbe (The Green Vault), 129, 129n66, 140, 198, 208 guilds, in Germany, 73–74 Gustav II Adolph, of Sweden (king), 33n21, 46n73, 57, 57n90, 58, 168, 168n7, 239 Gustav IV Adolph, of Sweden (king), 90, 90n141, 239 Hammer, Christian Gottlob, 242 Hanau, 97–99 Hanover, 25 Harrach, Ferdinand Joseph (count), 117, 117n40 Harvard University, 5 Heeren, Arnold Hermann, 9, 239 Heiligenstadt, 32 Heinrich, Johann Voß, 66n106 Henry, Dr., 202 Henry IV (Shakespeare), 121, 121n49, 127 Henry IV, of France, 139 Herculaneum, 209, 209n64 Herder, Johann Gottfried, 38, 41, 239, 250 Herder, Siegmund August Wolfgang Freiherr von, 124, 124n55, 239 Hermann and Dorothea (Goethe), 87, 87n137, 170n10, 235 Hermann, Gottfried, 48, 239

Herzberg (countess), 119 Herz, Henriette, 246 Hesperus (Schiller), 62n100 Hesse-Darmstadt. See Ludwig, Karl Wilhelm Hesse-Homburg (prince). See Friedrich, Leopold Victor Heyne, Christian Gottlob, 9, 23, 25, 239 Higginson, Stephen, 30n16 Historical Museum, Dresden, 139 History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic (Prescott, W. H.), 245 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1n2 Hotel de Rome, 8 Hotel de Saxe, 181 Hugo, Gustav, 9 Humboldt, Alexander von, 155, 155n128, 235 Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 249 Ilgen, Karl David, 58–59, 239 Ilgen, Madame, 60 Inferno (Dante), 10, 116, 120, 192, 192n36 infidelity, 76, 82 intellectual work, 2 Irving, Washington, 8, 11, 147, 239 Isabel II, 129n65 Italian Opera, Dresden, 34 Jackson, Andrew, 98, 117, 117n41, 239 Jahr-Market (annual fair), 126–27 Jameson, Anna Brownell, 99, 239 Jan III Sobieski, 239 Japanese Palace, 34, 36–39, 36n34, 136, 141, 143, 169n8, 208n60, 210n65, 237 Jenkinson, Charles Cecil Cope, 243 Jenkinson, Selina Charlotte (Lady), 243 jewelry, 187 Jews, 47, 75, 91, 125, 146, 220, 222 Johann Friedrich Alexander zu Wied, 239–40

IN DEX Johann Georg I of Saxony, 130, 199, 199n47, 240 Johann Georg III of Saxony, 41, 240 Johann (John) of Saxony, 2, 8, 9, 14, 112, 114, 116, 119, 120, 123, 131–32, 135, 147, 148, 181, 186, 187, 191, 192, 193, 201n51, 217, 218n75, 233, 237, 240, 241, 242, 243 Johann the Steady, 45, 154, 240 John of Bologna, 130 John George II, 138 Jordan, Johann Ludwig von (baron), 112, 124, 183n18, 240 Jordan, Mad. de, 183–84, 186, 211 Kahlden, Dorothea von (baroness), 211, 213, 240 Karl August, duke of Sachsen-WeimarEisenach, 240 Karl III Johan, of Norway (king), 234 Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, 240 Karl Wilhelm Ludwig (prince of HesseDarmstadt), 240 Kaskel, Michael, 124–25, 211, 240 Kaskel, Miss., 197 Kästner, Abraham Gotthelf, 26–27, 240 Keil, Johann Georg, 151, 240 Kemble, Charles, 197 Kemble, Cooper, 197 Kenyon, John, 102n8 Kenyon, Mrs., 102, 128 King, Edward, Viscount Kingsborough, 240–41 Kingdom of Hanover, 9, 10 Kingdom of Saxony. See Dresden Kirkland, John T., 5 Kirnitsch, 158–59 Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb, 58, 58n91, 60, 241 Knickerbocker families, of New York, 1 Knöffel, Johann Christoph, 36n36, 241 Königstein, 41n55, 160–61, 228 Koran, 38, 38n46

265

Krause, Jacob von, 127, 127n60, 148, 151, 181, 215, 216 Krause, Mrs., 216–17 Kreuzkirche, 136, 136n85 Kritisches Griechisch-Deutsches Handwörterbuch (Schneider), 247 Kuhstall, 161–62, 229–30 Lane, Mr., 202 Lange, Adolph Gottlob, 60, 241 Langensalza, 32 Lara, 61–62 Lauchhammer Iron Works, 237 Lavater, Johann Caspar, 222, 241 Leclerc, Charles Victor Emmanuel, 93, 241 A Legend of Montrose (Scott), 168n6 Leibertwolkwitz, 51 Leipzig, 31–33, 168, 220; Keil’s pictures, 151–52; Ticknor, A., on, 219–20; Ticknor, G., in, 46–48; travel to, 150–51; victory anniversary celebrations, 29–30. See also Battle of Nations at Leipzig Leo of Thun and Teschen (count), 225 Leopold I, 38n45, 241 Leopold II, grand duke of Tuscany, 147, 147n106, 241 Leopold IV of Anhalt-Dessau, 241 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 38, 52, 142, 190, 241, 250 Leyser, August Friedrich Wilhelm von, 145, 241 Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor, 17, 18 Life of Bentley (Wolf), 61 Lilienstein, 160, 161, 228 Lindenau, Bernhard August von, 8, 106, 108, 128, 138–40, 143, 145, 145n99, 176, 211, 218n76, 225, 241 Linkisch Baths, 138 Lippe (count), 116 Lippe (princess), 24, 116 Livingston, Robert, 241 Locqueyssie, Emilie Lachaud de (née Hebenstreit), 144, 212, 241

266

I ND E X

Löhr, Carl Eberhard, 151n119, 240 Löhr, Eberhard Heinrich, 151n116, 242 Lohrmann, Wilhelm Gotthelf, 242 Löhr’s Garden, 151, 151n116 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 102n10, 179, 242 Longfellow, Mary, 179, 179n16 Longuelune, Zacharias, 36n36, 241, 242 Lorrain, Claude, 242 Louisa (princess), 187, 202 Louis XI, 219 Louis XIV, 210n65 Löwenstern, Carl Otto von (count), 117, 117n39, 132n71, 213n68 Löwenstern, Catherina, 132, 132n71, 213, 213n68, 235 Lucca, Maria Louise Carlotta von, 187, 242 Lucinde (Schlegel, K. W.), 246 Luden, Heinrich, 242 Luden of Jena, 88 Ludwig, Karl Wilhelm, 87n135, 117, 117n37, 196 Ludwig III, Archduke, 240 Ludwig I of Etruria (king), 242 Luise (Heinrich), 66, 66n106 Luther, Martin, 44–45, 62, 130, 131, 139, 153–54, 154n125, 223, 223n81, 238 Lüttichau, Ida von, 127, 145, 146, 194, 197, 242 Lüttichau, Wolf Adolf August von, 242 Lützen, 33, 33n21, 54–55 Lynar, Hermann Rochus von (count), 242 Madonna di San Sisto (Raphael), 38–39, 38n50, 40, 42, 138, 206, 206n58 The Magic Flute (Mozart), 201, 201n50 the Main, 98 Maria Amalia of Saxony, 235, 242 Maria Anna (princess of Bavaria), 118, 118n42, 186, 201–2, 201n51, 242 Maria Antonia Walpurgis (princess of Bavaria), 243

Markkleeberg, 52 Marmont, Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de, first duke of Ragusa, 54, 242 Mary Stuart (Schiller), 132n69 Mason, James Jeremiah, 102, 242 Mason, Jeremiah, 92, 242 Matthaei, Christian Friedrich von, 242–43 Maximilian (prince of Saxony), 112, 135, 186, 187, 189, 195, 202, 242, 243 Maximilian I (king), 35n32 Mayence, 97 Mayer, 28 Meissen, 101, 149, 150, 190 Melanchthon, Philipp, 45, 243 Mendelssohn, Moses, 91, 243, 246 Mengs, Anton Raphael, 130, 136, 147, 197, 208, 243 Mengs, Ismael, 197, 243 Merseburg, 54 Meyer of Weimer, 38 Michaelis, Johann David, 9, 22, 23n5, 26–27, 243 Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarotti Simoni, 41, 141, 207, 243 middling class: military spirit of, 83; political spirit of, 84–85; religion of, 80 military spirit, in Germany, 83–84 Milosch (princess), 124 Miltitz, Karl Borromäus Alexander Stephan von, 149, 243 Milton, John, 58, 121, 146 Milton, Lord. See FitzWilliam, William Charles Mitscherlich, Christoph Wilhelm, 243 Modena, duke of, 138 Molière, 234 Monte Cagnuolo, 216n72 morals, 76, 78, 82–83 Moreau, Jean Victor Marie, 243 More, Sir Thomas, 222, 243 Moritz I of Saxony, 131, 133, 133n77, 139, 140, 156, 244 Mosheim, Johan Lorenz von, 23n5, 244

IN DEX Motley, John Lothrop, 11 Mount Vesuvius, 209n64 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 201n50 Mühlhausen, 32 Mulde, 101 Müller, Christian Gottlieb, 128, 244 Murat, Joachim-Napoléon, 244 Murillo, Barholomé Esteban, 244 Myron, 216, 216n72 Nannie. See Ticknor, Anna Eliot Napoleonic Wars, 9 Naumann, Moritz Ernst Adolf, 163, 244, 249 Naumberg, 55, 167–68 Neustadt, 101, 101n5 Neuwied, Maximilian Alexander Philipp zu Wied (prince), 165, 240 Niebuhr, Carsten, 244 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 58n91 nobility, 8, 71; of Germany, 77–79; military spirit of, 83; political spirit of, 84, 85; religion of, 80–81 North River, 162 Nostitz, August Ludwig von, 127n61, 244 Obrenovich, Milosch, 244 Oken, Lorenz, 244 Olbers, Georg Heinrich, 88, 244 Olbers, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus, 244 Osiander, Friedrich Benjamin, 23n5, 244 Otto I, 149n115, 244 Oudinot, Nicolas Charles, 43, 244 Oxenstiern, Axel (count), 222, 244 Paley, William, 246 Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 107, 244 Paradiso (Dante), 120, 192, 192n36 Paradise Lost (Milton), 146 parental authority, 82 Paris, 93–94 Parma School, 236

267

Paul, Jean, 62, 62n100, 244 Peabody, Elizabeth, 14 peasantry: in America, 72–73; in Germany, 71–73; military spirit of, 83; morals of, 82; political spirit of, 84; procession of, 115–16; religion of, 79–80 Perkins, Mrs., 30–31, 30n16 Perkins, Samuel G., 30–31, 30n16 Perkins, Stephen H., 21n1 Permoser, Balthasar, 203n56, 244 Perugino, Pietro, 244 Peter the Great, 45, 140, 154 Pforta, 60 Pforte Schule, 32 Picture Gallery. See Gallery of Pictures Pillnitz, 148, 148n113, 157, 227 Pius XI (pope), 243 Planck, Gottlieb Jakob, 245 Plauen, 138, 202–3 A Pleasant Comedie of Faire Em, the Miller’s Daughter of Manchester, with the Love of William the Conqueror, 121, 121n48 Pleydell-Bouverie, Jacob (Viscount Folkestone), 147, 147n108 Pleydell-Bouverie, William (third earl of Radnor), 147, 147n108 Plutarch, 34, 245 Pole, Mrs., 119, 191 Poniatowski, Józef Antoni (prince), 52, 53, 53nn82–83, 245 Pöppelmann, Matthäus Daniel, 34n28, 36n36, 203, 203n56, 244 Potocki, Alfred Jozef (count), 145, 145n101, 245 Prescott, William, 245 Prescott, William Hinkling, 36, 203, 245 Probstheida, 50 procession of peasantry, 115–16 Protestant services, 35 Prussian Blue, 43n60 public library, Dresden, 36–39 public opinion, 84, 86 Purgatorio (Dante), 120, 192n36

268

I ND E X

Quandt, Carla Bianca von, 245 Quandt, Johann Gottlob von, 122, 245 Quentin Durward (Scott), 219n77 Rabener, Gottlieb Wilhelm, 51, 245 Rancliffe, Elizabeth-Mary-Theresa Parkyns (baroness), 107, 117, 129, 132n70, 173, 175, 184, 185n23, 189, 195, 197, 200, 245 Rancliffe, George Augustus Parkyns (baron), 245 Raphael (Sanzio), 38n50, 39, 40, 42, 138, 141, 206, 206n58, 207, 245 Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (Durand), 38, 38n44 Rauch, Christian Daniel, 143, 245 Raumer, Friedrich Ludwig Georg von, 202, 245 Rawdon, George Augustus Francis, 107, 107n22, 245 Recke, Elissa von der, 248 Reichenbach, Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig, 211, 218n75, 245 Reichenbach’s Garden, 53 Reitzenstein, Eduard von, 245 Reitzenstein, M. de, 186 religion, in Germany, 79–82 Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 130, 141, 207, 245 Retzsch, Friedrich August Moritz, 144, 211, 246 Richter, Johann Carl August, 101 Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich. See Paul, Jean Rodde-Schlözer, Dorothea von, 76n117 Roman, Mad., 173 Römer, 91–92, 92n144 Roscoe, William, 46n71 Rossbach, 54 royal family, dress, 187–88 Royal Saxon Library, 8, 34n23, 36n34, 208–9, 208n60, 210n65, 233, 234, 236, 237, 239, 241, 247 Rozniecki, Alexander, 53n82 Rubens, Peter Paul, 246

Rupstein, Friedrich, 28, 246 Russian minister dinner, 117 Rüstkammer (Dresden), 139 Ruysdael, Jacob Izaaksoon van, 206, 246 Saalfeld, Friedrich Jakob Christoph, 31, 87, 246 Sachsen-Weimer-Eisenach, Karl August von, 61n98 Sanssouci, 46, 46n67 Savage, James, 203, 246 Saxon Diets, 52 Saxon Switzerland: Bastei, 159–61, 227–28; Bohemia, 162, 230–31; Kirnitsch, 158–59; Kuhstall, 161–62 Saxony, 33n22, 34; ruin of, 53–54; Ticknor, G., on, 13–14 scagliola, 198, 198n46 Schäfer, Gottfried Heinrich, 48, 246 Schandau, 158, 226–28, 230–31 Scharfenberg, 149 Schiller, Friedrich von, 22, 32, 62n100, 132, 167, 246 Schlegel, August Wilhelm von, 91, 121, 163, 246 Schlegel, Dorothea von, 91, 246 Schlegel, Frederick von, 81, 88, 89, 90–91, 92, 93 Schlegel, Karl August Moritz, 29, 29n12, 246 Schlegel, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von, 246 Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst, 81, 246 Schleusner, Johann Friedrich, 48, 246 Schlosser, Friedrich Christoph, 90, 247 Schloss-Kirche, 45 Schlözer, August Ludwig, 9 Schneider, Johann Gottlob, 247 Schöffer, Peter the Elder, 38, 247 Schönefeld, 52 Schorn, Johann Karl Ludwig von, 103, 247 Schroeder, Alexander von, 117, 247 Schubert, F., 122, 122n52

IN DEX Schulpforta, 168; high school at, 16; Ticknor, G. at, 58–60 Schulze, Ernst Konrad Friedrich, 30, 31, 87, 247 Schumann, Robert, 250 Schwarz (monk), 140 Schwarzenberg, Karl Philipp zu (count), 46, 50, 52, 57, 247 Scott, Sir Walter, 168n6, 219n77, 247 The Seasons (Thomson), 219, 219n76 Seebisch, Siegmund Gottlob, 247 Semler, Johann Salomo, 247 Seven Years’ War, 42, 44, 45n70, 54n84, 133–34, 161 Shakespeare, William, 44, 121, 121n49, 122, 127, 146, 176, 194, 197, 197n45, 203 Siebeneichen, 149 The Sistine Madonna (Raphael), 40 Sligo, Mr., 215 Sligo, Mrs., 183 Smidt, Johann, 92, 93, 247 Smith, Sydney, 215, 247 Sobiesky, Jan, III, 140, 140n91 social intercourse, 86 Soltikoff (princess), 195 The Sorrows of Young Werther (Goethe), 4, 87–88, 87n136 Southey, Robert, 171, 171n11 Sparmann, Carl Christian, 105, 144, 150, 202, 212, 219, 224, 227, 229, 247 Spittler, Ludwig, 9 Spitzner, Franz Ernst Heinrich, 44, 46, 247 Spohn, Friedrich August Wilhelm, 53, 247 Stackelberg, Count Otto Magnus von (baron), 109–10, 247 Stein, Heinrich Friedrich Karl Reichsfreiherr vom und zum, 55, 93, 247 Steinla, Moritz, 144, 247 Stephanus, 48, 48n76 Sternberg’s, 127, 217 St. Goar, 164–65

269

Stolberg, Christian von, 81, 247 Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold von, 247 Stötteritz, 49 Stowe Landscape Gardens, 153 The Stranger in England (Goede), 72n112 Stroganoff (also Stroganov), Nataly (countess), 132, 195, 213, 213n69, 248 Stroganoff (also Stroganov), Sergey Grigorievich (count), 145, 195, 213, 213n69, 248 Stroganov Moscow Arts and Industrial Institute, 248 Stuart, Mary, 132 Sullivan, Eliza, 8, 176, 178, 217, 224, 229 Sully, Thomas, 3 swearing, 28–29 Table Rock, at Niagra, 160 Tacitus, Publius Cornelius, 67, 69–70, 248 Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles Maurice de, 25, 93, 248 Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare), 197, 197n45 The Task (Cowper), 203n54 Tell, William, 222 Tetschen, Friedrich (count of), 162, 225 Tharandt, 218 Thibaut, Bernhard Friedrich, 76n117, 248 Thiersch, Friedrich Wilhelm, 60, 248 Thirty Years’ War, 46, 46n73, 50, 57, 161 Thomson, James, 219, 219n76, 248 Thorvaldsen, Bertel, 147, 215, 216, 248 Thun, Friedrich (count of), 225 Ticknor, Anna, 1, 5, 6, 105, 127, 127n63, 150, 155, 157; Bastei visit, 227–28; Bohemia, 230–31; in Bonn, 163–64; on Christmas, 178; Christmas fair, 176–77; court ball, 190–93; Dresden, 171–72; Dresden arrival, 168–71; Dresden departure,

270

I ND E X

218–19; Dresden pleasantries, 193–94; in Dresden’s noble society, 8; Gallery of Pictures visit, 175–76; George’s journal differences from, 15–17; journal character, 14–17; journal value of, 11–14; Kuhstall visit, 229–30; Leipzig, 168; Neuwied visit, 165; to Plauen, 202–3; on royal family, 190–93, 195; in Schandau, 226–28, 230–31; on St. Goar, 164–65; travel route of, 7; Weimar, 165–67 Ticknor, Anna Eliot, 5–6, 8, 104, 105, 109–10, 127, 150, 156, 157, 173, 176, 177, 179, 182, 190, 200, 202, 225 Ticknor, Elisha, 5 Ticknor, Elizabeth Sullivan, 111, 111n28 Ticknor, George, 1, 2, 3, 245, 246; Anna’s journal differences from, 15–17; to Berlin, 43; Berlin departure, 155–56; Bischoff partings, 42; at Böttiger lecture, 34, 41; Böttiger’s funeral, 101–3; in cold weather, 98–99; college education of, 2; court dress of, 179; Dresden, 101–11; to Dresden, 33–43; in Dresden’s noble society, 8; Everett travels with, 5; Forbes evening with, 173; in Frankfort, 89–93; at Frauenkirche, 42; German voyages of, 9; Germany compared to America, 63–64; on Germany forests, 64–65; Germany reflections, 62–64; Göttingen studies finishing, 86–87; Great Fair, 46–48, 53; in Halle, 54; at Harvard, 5; John (prince) dining with, 217; John (prince) meeting with, 8; journal character, 14–17; journal value of, 11–14; in Leipzig, 46–52; Leipzig departure, 54; Leipzig journey, 31–33; lessons, 59–61; loss experience of, 30–31; in Mayence, 97; misery description, 31; negative view of Germany, 13; Paris, 93–94; Perkins’

arrival at Göttingen, 30–31; poor woman meeting, 49–50; presentation at court, 111–13, 179; Rhine, 97, 98; Römer visit, 91–92; on Saxony, 13–14; Schlegel, Frederick von, meeting, 88; at Schloss-Kirche, 45; Schulpforta, 58–60; second semester end, 31; seeing Schleusner, 48–49; in snow storm, 97; to Stötteritz, 49; student apartment of, 4; travel route of, 7; in Weimar, 61–62; Welcker visit, 163; Wetzlar visit of, 87; Wittenberg, 44–46 Ticknor, George Haven, 7 Tieck, Christian Friedrich, 156, 235, 248 Tieck, Ludwig, 2, 8, 106, 120n46, 121–22, 123, 127, 146, 177, 194, 197, 202, 218n75, 235, 242, 248 Tieck, Mme., 197 Tiedge, Christoph August, 148, 248 Tilly, Johann Tserclaes (count of), 46n73, 222, 248 Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), 116, 206, 248 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 106, 248 Travels in Great Britain (Goede), 72n112 Travels in the North of Germany (Dwight, H.), 13 Treaty of Altranstädt, 54n85 Tümpling, Marie von, 185, 185n24, 186, 187n30, 202, 248 The Uncle—Der Oheim, 119–20 Ungern-Sternberg, Peter Alexander Freiherr von, 9, 109–10, 109n24, 177, 248 University of Göttingen, 2, 4, 9–11, 234, 235, 237, 239, 240, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249; arrival at, 21; Eichhorn ball, 24; Eichhorn meeting, 22; fire at, 27–28; first semester end, 30; French respect for, 25–26; German lessons, 25; impressions of, 21–22; Leipzig victory anniversary celebrations at, 29–30; library of, 23–24; Michaelis and Kästner, 26–27;

IN DEX Perkins’ arrival at, 30–31; second semester results, 31; studies finishing, 86–87; swearing at, 28–29 University of Jena, 25, 242, 244, 246 Valle, Pietro della, 249 Valley of Plauen, 138 Vandyck, Anthony, 167, 215, 249 Vanity Fair, 48, 48n76 Vasari, Giorgio, 41, 249 Veit, Simon, 246 Veronese, Paul, 116 Verrocchio, Andrea del, 41n52, 249 Villers, Charles Francois Dominique, 4, 32, 249 Vinci, Leonardo da, 41, 141, 147, 249 Virgil, 32 Vogelstein, Karl Christian Vogel von, 127, 127n59, 144, 146, 212, 215, 249 Voltaire, 44 Voß, Johann Heinrich, 249 Wagner, Richard, 242 Walker, Mr., 202 Wallenstein, Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von, 33, 50, 57, 211, 222, 249 Walpole, Horatio (third Earl of Orford), 147, 147n107 Walpole, Mrs., 147, 215 War of 1813, 161 Watzdorf, Karl Friedrich Ludwig von (general), 8, 107, 145, 173, 191, 243, 249 Weigel, Carl Christian Leberecht, 36n33, 249 Weigel, Johann August Gottlob, 36n33, 249 Weimar, Germany, 32, 61–62, 66, 78, 78n118, 99, 165–67 Weißenfels, 55 Welcker, Friedrich Gottlieb, 163, 249–50 Welker, Prof., 87 Wender Strasse apartment, 24–25

271

Werner, Abraham Gottlob, 34, 81, 250 Werner, Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias, 250 Werther, 28, 61, 62 Wette, Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de, 250 Wettin family, 10 Wetzlar, 87 Wieck, Clara Josephine, 122, 250 Wied, Johann Friedrich Alexander zu (prince), 239–40 Wieland, Christoph Martin, 32, 250 Wieland, Ludwig, 250 Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, 38, 233, 250 wine, 93–94 Winkel, Therese Emilie Henriette aus dem, 9, 105, 212, 250 Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare), 122 Wintzingerode, Ferdinand Freiherr von, 55, 250 Wittenberg, 44–46, 223 Wolfenbüttel, 25, 26 Wolf, Friedrich August, 58, 61, 250 Woodward, Mr., 147–48, 215 The Works of Francis Bacon (Montagu), 189n32 Wörlitz, 152–54, 221–22 Wurzen, 101 Xenophon, 34, 250 Zach, Franz Xaver Freiherr von (baron), 106, 250 Zeschau, Heinrich Anton von, 145, 250 Zeschau, Mad. de, 132, 211 Zezi (opera singer), 125 Zezschwitz, Johann Adolph von, 119, 119n45, 250 Zwenkau, 56 Zwinger Palace, 135–36, 139, 141, 172, 203, 203n56, 207, 208n60, 211, 244, 245

About the Editors

Thomas Adam is an associate professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches modern transatlantic and German history. He received his PhD from the University of Leipzig in 1998. From 1999 to 2001, he taught at the University of Toronto while holding a Feodor Lynen Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Among his publications are Buying Respectability: Philanthropy and Urban Society in Transnational Perspective, 1840s to 1930s (2009), Traveling between Worlds: German-American Encounters (coedited with Ruth Gross, 2006), and the three-volume encyclopedia Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and Society (2005). Gisela Mettele is a lecturer at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, where she teaches European and American Urban History. She received her PhD from the University of Frankfurt/Main in 1994 and her habilitation from the Technical University Chemnitz in 2004. From 1994 to 2005, she taught at the University of Chemnitz, and from 2005 to 2007, she worked at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. Among her publications are Weltbürgertum oder Gottesreich? Die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine als internationale Gemeinschaft 1760–1857 (2009) and Bürgertum in Köln. Gemeinsinn und freie Association 1775–1870 (1998).

273