Beloved Sisters Page #7

"'I'm a human being too, ' says the dust.

'I'm a spirit too, ' says the universe."

"I warn you emphatically

of Schiller's dark side."

He is unfaithful.

He visits houses of ill repute.

He takes other people's money

withoutgiving thanks.

He wears the clothes of his lover's

husband outdoors and pawns them off.

I'm not saying he steals them.

Next to his genius that can move the soul,

and next to his vulnerability

"there is a fundamental wantonness

about him that should repel one."

Charlotte?

Your hands are freezing.

Why don't you come up?

There's a terrible draft here.

No, I can't come up to your room.

That would be compromising.

I've received a letter.

"A friend".

I will see to this. Immediately.

"I warn you emphatically

of Schiller's dark side."

He is unfaithful.

He visits houses of ill repute.

He takes other people's money

without giving thanks.

He wears the clothes

of his lover's husband.

I'm not saying he steals them.

Next to his genius that can move the soul,

and next to his vulnerability

"there is a fundamental wantonness

about him that should repel one."

Did you write this?

Your intuition and knowledge of my

style of writing should tell you I didn't.

"Wantonness" is a word I wouldn't use.

I'd have to call myself that.

Anyway, during our affair,

I violated every possible moral norm,

emotional and physical.

So it's idiotic to put moral judgments

like "wantonness" into my mouth.

But I must admit that the writer

contrived this affair against me well.

You want to believe I wrote the letter

so you can break off our friendship.

You have to believe it

to be able to reorganize your life.

Even though you will destroy mine.

I want you to take your letters back.

And I know whom I must thank

for my professorship in Jena.

You overestimate my influence.

Many others were involved.

Dalberg,

the governor of Erfurt and Mainz.

You know him from the past.

But also the Privy Councillor himself,

whom you impressed in Rudolstadt,

and last but not least, the Duke.

Your good deed seals my final step

towards an independent life

as an academic and author.

I owe you eternal gratitude.

"Line, I was shocked at myself."

How well I could perform

such a base drama.

I keep thinking I did it for you too.

"I feel dirty.

I will tell you everything."

Line?

And I'm not pregnant, thank God.

Welcome.

"So after all the conversations

and meetings here in Jena,"

I can say no more and no less

than that I will assume my professorship

in history proudly and humbly next year.

My first lecture has been going through

my mind since 11 o'clock this morning.

And I keep thinking about

our evening at the Lengefeld house

"when you said, seeing the twilight,

'The Swedes are coming.'"

I said that.

No, you're right, you said it.

- What are you grinning at?

- I was grinning?

- You've been grinning all day.

- Forgive me, I will stop at once.

"Give my best regards

to your dearest mother."

I imagine her sitting in the salon

wearing dark glasses

that protect her from the winter light,

listening to you reading the letter.

And when she hears this,

I would ask her to nod her head just once.

She'll know why and what

she's giving her blessing to, am I right?

"Then everything will be all right,

my Wisdom Lollo."

Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller,

do you take

Charlotte Luise Antoinette von Lengefeld

to be your wedded wife,

to have and to hold from this day forward

until death do you part?

Then answer,

"I do, so help me God."

I do. So help me God.

Charlotte Luise Antoinette von Lengefeld,

do you take

Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller

to be your wedded husband,

to have and to hold from this day forward

until death do you part?

I do.

I do. So help me God.

What God has joined together,

let not man separate.

In as much as

Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller

and Charlotte Luise

Antoinette von Lengefeld

have consented to live forever

together in wedlock

and have witnessed the same

before this company,

I pronounce that they

are husband and wife.

In the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Hurray!

SPRING 1789, JENA

Do the middle part again.

- How much sleep last night?

- Five hours.

- That's too little.

- But deep.

That's true. I could barely wake him.

A typical symptom:

A deep sleep before dawn.

Open your mouth.

Stick your tongue out.

You're not yet fit, man.

- I can't remember ever having been fit.

- Breathe in and out again.

So have it changed.

Pull your trousers down.

Cough.

Let's go in here. Are you coming?

- Not back there?

- Come on.

- No ladies under 50 years of age.

- You wish.

The ladies do realize that women

are banned from all university buildings?

What? Do you want

to introduce that here too?

This is a reputable guesthouse.

Only married couples may live here.

- The man's naked.

- I am.

Be warned:
We are thoroughly prepared

for the ban on women during the lecture.

Schiller, did you know you were declared

dead last week in a Berlin paper?

Here.

That's what made him fit again.

"Jena. The darling of all German Muses,

Privy Councillor Schiller, died here."

I was a little piqued.

The doctor went to so much trouble.

Thank you.

Thank you for saving our master.

Dear Sister-in-law,

as a result a Danish poets' society

wants to grant me a yearly annuity.

The letter's on the table.

- An annuity? How much?

- Can't remember.

But it's all that matters.

Now please leave us alone.

You go ahead. There's an hour left.

Yes, go on.

I won't flee, I promise.

- Go sit at the front.

- Get well soon, all right?

Come on.

I escaped from Beulwitz.

He wanted to lock me

in the tower in Rudolstadt,

but I escaped at the last moment.

My compliments.

What are you looking for?

Schiller's inaugural lecture, "What is

universal history and why study it?"

It's been relocated. Second floor.

There's another lecture hall.

What is universal history

and why study it?

It is a joy and an honor

to explore a field with you

that offers the thinking observer

many educational topics,

the active man of the world

wonderful examples,

the philosopher important concepts,

and everyone rich sources

of the noblest pleasures.

The entire field of general history

and the sight

of so many splendid young men

whose noble thirst for knowledge

assembled them here,

while in their midst many a genius

for the coming era is present,

make my duty a pleasure.

Hear, hear!

It is a great gift I bring you.

Is there a greater gift than the truth?

The field of history is

fertile and extensive.

Its sphere contains

all of the moral world.

History speaks to man incessantly...

"The Swedes are coming."

Generations of common people

have greeted the dusk this way

when it spread its beautiful red ribbon

across the horizon.

"The Swedes are coming."

An image of horror.

Like a furrow, the horror of history,

in this case the Thirty Years' War,

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