It Is Therefore
Usual, When The Sovereign Wishes To Introduce A Person Of Merit Among The
Bourgeoisie Into The Upper Circles, That He Gives Him The Title Of Rath
Or Counsellor; But This Priviledge Of Being Presentable At Court Does Not
Extend To Their Wives And Daughters.
All the Military officers, from
whatever class of life they spring, have introduction de jure into the
balls and societies of the Noblesse, and are always in uniform.
But when
they attend the balls of the Bourgeoisie, it is the etiquette for them to
wear plain clothes: at the balls of the Bourgeoisie, therefore, not an
uniform is to be seen. I observed by far the prettiest women at the balls
of the Bourgeoisie, and very many are to be found there who in education
and accomplishments fully equal those of the Noblesse, and this is no
small merit, for the women in Saxony of the higher classes are extremely
well educated; most of them are proficient in music and are versed in
French and Italian litterature. They seem amiable and goodnatured and by no
means minaudieres, as Lady Mary Wortley Montague has rather unjustly
termed them; for they appear to me to be the most frank, artless creatures
I ever beheld, and to have no sort of minauderie or coquetterie about
them. Beauty is the appanage of the Saxon women, hence the proverb in
rhyme:
Darauf bin ich gegangen nach Sachsen,
Wo die schoenen Maedchen auf den Bauemen wachsen.
In English:
Behold me landed now on Saxon ground,
Where lovely damsels on the trees are found.
A taste for litterature is indeed general throughout the whole nation; and
this city is considered as the Athens of Germany.
DRESDEN, Nov. 8th.
I have been at the theatre and witnessed the representation of a tragedy
called Die Schuld, written by Adolphus Muellner. It is a most interesting
piece, and the novelty of it has made a striking impression on me. It is
written in the eight-footed trochaic metre, similar to that in which the
Spanish tragedies are written. It hinges on a prophecy made by a Gipsey, in
which the person to whom the prophecy is made, in endeavoring to avert it,
hastens its accomplishment. The piece is full of interest and the
versification harmonious. I have been twice at the Italian opera, where I
saw the Gazza Ladra and Il Matrimonio secreto. I came here with the
idea of giving myself up entirely to the study of the German language; but
such is the beauty of the country environing Dresden that, though winter
has commenced I employ the greatest part of the day in long walks. For
instance I have been to Pillnitz, which is on the right bank of the Elbe
about seven miles from Dresden, ascending the river. The road is on the
bank of the river the whole way. The Palace at Pillnitz is vast and well
built. During a part of the year the Royal family reside there. Pillnitz
will remain "damn'd to everlasting fame" as the place where the famous
treaty was signed, the object of which was to put down the French
Revolution, which Mr Pitt and the British ministry knew of and sanctioned,
tho' they pretended ignorance of it and professed to have no desire to
interfere with the affairs of France.
Every thing pleases me at Dresden except the beds. I wish it were the
fashion to use blankets and edredons for the upper covering instead of
the lits de plumes; for they are too heavy and promote rather too intense
a perspiration, and if you become impatient of the heat, and throw them off
you catch an intense cold. You know how partial I am to the Germans, and
can even put up with their eternal smoking, tho' no smoker myself, but to
their beds I shall never be reconciled. A German bed is as follows: a
paillasse, over that a mattress, then a featherbed with a sheet fastened
to it, and over that again another featherbed with a sheet fastened to it;
and thus you lie between two featherbeds; but these are not always of
sufficient length, and you are often obliged to coil up your legs or be
exposed to have them frozen by their extending beyond the featherbeds; for
the cold is very great during the winter.
The more I see of the people here, the more I like them. The national
character of the Germans is integrity, tho' sometimes cloaked under a rough
exterior as in Bavaria and Austria; but here in Saxony it is combined with
a suavity of manners that is very striking, for the Saxons are the Tuscans
of Germany in point of politeness, and they are far more accomplished
because they take more pains in cultivating their minds.
A savant in Italy is a man who writes a volume about a coin, filled with
hypotheses, when, with all his learning forced into the service, he proves
nothing; and this very man is probably ignorant in the extreme of modern
political history, and that of his own times, and has more pedantry than
taste. Such a man is often however in Italy termed a Portento, but in
Dresden and in most of the capitals of Germany where there are so many of
science and deep research, a man must not only be well read in antiquities,
but also well versed in political economy and in analysis before he can
venture to give a work to the public. Latin quotations, unsupported by
reason and philosophical argument will avail him nothing, for the German is
a terrible Erforscher and wishes to know the what, the how and the
when of every thing; besides an Italian savant is seldom versed in any
other tongue than his own and the Latin, with perhaps a slight knowledge of
French; whereas in Germany it is not only very common to find a knowledge
of French, English, Italian, Latin and Greek united in the same person, but
very many add Hebrew, Arabic and even Sanscrit to their stock of Philology.
As a specimen for instance of German industry, I have seen, at the club of
the Ressource, odes on the Peace in thirty-six different languages, and
all of them written by native Saxons.
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