Letter to Friedrich Engels, November 3, 1859

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MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 3 November 1859

Dear Frederick,

Lessner hasn't got the names of the people to whom Das Volk was sent. All he knows is the number of copies (12) which he regularly despatched to Thimm.

Biskamp maintains that the books he ordered from Thimm were not for his own account but for that of the parson who employed him as a schoolmaster. Nor, come to that, had Thimm ever said a word about the matter. He will be writing to him about it, likewise about Panzer's acquisitive propensities. A few days ago he was taken on by the Weser-Zeituns at 50 talers a month.

My work is making poor progress. I'm plagued by too many domestic disruptions and too many worries. You'll have heard about the 'grand' Schiller festival here. Freiligrath and Kinkel, or rather Kinkel and Freiligrath, are to be its heroes. Seeing that the whole thing emanated from the Kinkel clique here and that even the invitations to form a committee were sent out by that wretch Beta, Gottfried's factotum, I wrote to Freiligrath weeks ago saying I hoped HE WOULD KEEP ALOOF FROM THE KINKEL DEMONSTRATION. In reply I received a not exactly unequivocal letter from the fat philistine in which, inter alia, he said:

'Even should Kinkel secure Briseis in the shape of the festive address, this would be no reason for Achilles to withdraw sulking into his tent.'

So Kinkel is Agamemnon and Freiligrath Achilles! Moreover, he says that the festival 'is relevant in more ways than one' (in what ways we shall presently see), and finally that he has written a poem on Schiller commissioned by the city of Boston (United States).

Later I discovered from the Hermann that Freiligrath was acting as a member of the committee and that there was some talk of his having written a cantata on Schiller (set to music by Pauer); in other words, that the philistine had kept something back from me. Later still I got another letter from him in which he said I would seem to have been right after all, though his participation had partially frustrated Gottfried's plans.

Well, when I saw the man he told me with bated breath about all that had happened. Beta and Juch, Kinkel's agents, had heard from America that Freiligrath had written the poem on Schiller for Boston. Gottfried had, besides the address, reserved the festive cantata for himself. Believing, however, that non bis in idem, and that it wouldn't be feasible to co-opt Freiligrath without conceding, or rather offering, him the poetic part (though they counted on his turning down the offer), Juch and Beta invited Freiligrath, on behalf of Kinkel's committee, to join that committee and write the cantata. Freiligrath said he had already composed a poem for Boston, gave an inconclusive reply but promised to serve on the committee. This last treated the matter as a mere formality and did not renew its request. Freiligrath, however, hastily sets to work (no such difficulties here as in the case of the Volk for which he never could manage as much as 3 lines), writes a cantata (in the same metre as Schiller's dithyrambs; he read me the stuff—pomp and circumstance), hurries to Pauer, has it set to music and, through his friends in the Schiller festival choir, compels Kinkel and Co. to renew their invitation to him. Then he sends them the rubbish which, 'by an anachronism', happened to be already finished and complete, not only written but actually set to music, and likens himself at the end of his epistle to a 'menial' who has served his 'master' without waiting for orders (Messrs Kinkel, Beta, Juch and Co.)! (And it's the philistine himself who tells me this.)

However the 'tension' between him and Gottfried was not yet at an end. Freiligrath attended the committee, where Gottfried behaved very coolly towards him. Now Freiligrath—'quite fortuit- ously' or so he says—had introduced into his cantata a passage during which it was 'essential' for Schiller's bust to be unveiled. Gottfried, no less fortuitously, had arranged for the climax of his sermon to coincide with the 'moment of unveiling'. After a prolonged tussle, throughout which philistine Freiligrath sat in silence and let his friends (riff-raff of all kinds) do the talking, it was at length decided that the 'unveiling' should fall to Freiligrath, whereupon Gottfried, sighing heavily, declared that in that case he would now be obliged to address his entire oration to 'the veiled portrait'. Whereupon one of Freiligrath's pals rose to his feet and said that this difficulty could be overcome if Kinkel were to make his speech after the cantata. Gottfried, however, voiced his unqualified opposition to this, declaring with the utmost indigna- tion that 'he had already made so many concessions over the affair that this could not possibly be demanded of him'. And that was the end of that. So the sermon will come first.

And Freiligrath told me all this rubbish with great seriousness and gravity; on the other hand he finds it perfectly natural that he should never have breathed a word to the committee about the Kinkel gang's having taken it for granted that his (Freiligrath's) supposed 'party friends' should not be invited to join the committee, thus making a Kinkel demonstration of it. Though he knew perfectly well that I wouldn't attend, he should never have permitted such 'ostracism' on the part of a committee on which he himself sits. Blind is on it, of course.

Ever since his poem about the Mockel woman, Freiligrath has treated us 'strictly in private' as his friends while openly walking arm-in-arm with our enemies. Qui vivra verra} Ad vocem Blind: The scoundrel has now been to see Hollinger. For the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung had written to him saying that, if he persisted in his reticence, he would be brought out into the open in the most unpleasant manner, and that they possessed a document incriminating him. He accused Hollinger of having let the cat out of the bag. Hollinger, with justice, said quod non

and asked why Blind refused to admit responsibility for it. The latter told him that, while he had indeed written the manuscript, a friend of his had composed it. The fact of the matter is that while Blind wrote and composed it, Goegg supplied the most inculpating

bits. Now the respectable Goegg is 'apparendy' Vogt's friend, as he needs must be since Fazy, through the Swiss bank, owns shares worth 25,000 frs in his looking-glass factory and generally serves him as BANKER. Hence Goegg's indignation at the act of 'high treason' can only be ventilated sotto voce. Such are the 'serious republicans'.

Couldn't you do me an ARTICLE on the recent changes in the Prussian army?

Regards to Lupus. Salut.

Your

K. M.