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just as the King had.1 He went out first from dinner to the saloon, and, after talking with us a little more there, bowed to us all and left us. So much for the ceremony of the matter.
The rest was as simple and agreeable as possible.
We dined at a little round table, on which was placed only a very handsome dessert of hot-house fruits, etc. . . . . The conversation was in French, and purely literary and scholar-like, of course a good deal about Dante; but the other invited guest did not say a word, why, I know not. The Prince values himself a good deal upon his literary knowledge, and he has a right to, for he studies very hard.
His manner is simple and frank, sometimes a little modest and distrustful, but as a pleasant talker at dinner or supper it is not easy to find those who will go before him. The dinner lasted about an hour and a half, . . . . and, when I came away, he invited me to come and see him any day in the forenoon, without the ceremony of announcing myself through his grand-maitre.
In the evening we all went to see Goethe's ‘Egmont,’ not a very effective play on the stage, but extremely well performed to-night.
Demoiselle Bauer is an extraordinary actress; indeed, she has the reputation of being the best in Germany. . .. . But all the popular scenes were as well done as possible. . . .
January 16.—I went to the theatre to-night to hear the comedy of ‘The Uncle,’—Der Oheim,—a regular piece in five acts, by the Princess Amelia, the sister of Prince 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 theatre here, where, without much reflection or examination, it was rejected.
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
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1 Note by Mr. Ticknor: ‘This queer little box, I understand, is called the Cadenas, the “Padlock,” because it is locked. It was originally used in the days when poisons were feared, and is now used merely as a distinction of ceremony and etiquette, being always granted, at royal tables in Germany, to the descendants of those who were sovereigns at the time the great consolidation took place under Charles Fifth.’
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
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