On the very day appointed for the execution of Herr Friedrich and Littegarde, which the Emperor, unaware of the doubts that had arisen in the mind of the Count himself, considered it impossible to postpone any longer, the official with this letter entered the room of the sick man, who was writhing to and fro on his bed in anguish and despair. ‘Enough!’ cried the Count when he had read the letter and been given the ring, ‘I am weary of seeing the light of day! Get me a stretcher,’ he added, turning to the Prior, ‘and take me out to the place of execution, wretch that I am: my strength is sinking into the dust, but I do not want to die without having performed one just deed!’ The Prior, very much moved by this, at once did as he wished and had him lifted by four servants on to a litter; and just as an immense crowd, at the tolling of the bell, were gathering round the stake to which Herr Friedrich and Littegarde had already been bound, he and the wretched Count, who was clutching a crucifix, arrived at the spot. ‘Stop!’ cried the Prior, as he had the litter set down in front of the Emperor’s balcony. ‘Before you light that fire, listen to the words of this sinner, for he has something to tell you!’ ‘What!’ cried the Emperor, rising pale as death from his seat, ‘has God by his sacred verdict not declared the justice of his cause? And after what has happened how can you dare for one moment to suppose that Littegarde is innocent of the offence with which he charged her?’ So saying, he descended from the balcony in amazement; and more than a thousand knights, whom the whole crowd followed down over the benches and barriers, thronged round the sick man’s couch. ‘Innocent,’ replied the Count, half raising himself from it with the Prior’s support, ‘innocent as the almighty God declared her to be on that fateful day, in the sight of all the assembled citizens of Basle! For he was smitten with three wounds, each one of them mortal, and yet, as you can see, he is flourishing with vitality and strength; whereas one stroke from his hand, which scarcely seemed to touch the outermost surface of my life, has worked its slow, terrible way through to the very core of it, and has cut me down in my strength as a storm fells an oak tree. But in case any doubter should still be unconvinced, here is the proof: it was her chambermaid Rosalie who received me on that night of St Remigius, whereas in the delusion of my senses I, wretch that I am, thought I held in my arms the lady herself, who has always spurned my advances with contempt!’ The Emperor, hearing these words, stood as if petrified. Then turning towards the stake he dispatched a knight, ordering him to ascend the ladder himself and release the Chamberlain as well as the lady, who had already swooned in her mother’s arms, and to bring them both before him. ‘Well, there is an angel keeping watch over every hair of your head!’ he exclaimed when Littegarde, with her bosom half bared and her hair dishevelled, approached him with her friend Herr Friedrich, who was himself so moved by this miraculous deliverance that his knees almost gave way as he led her by the hand through the crowd of people who made way for them in wonder and awe. They knelt down before the Emperor, who kissed them both on the brow; and after asking the Empress for her ermine cloak and putting it round Littegarde’s shoulders, he took the latter’s arm, with all the assembled nobility looking on, intending to conduct her himself to the apartments of his imperial palace. And as the Chamberlain, too, was being clad in a plumed hat and knightly robe instead of the condemned criminal’s smock he had been wearing, the Emperor turned to the Count where he lay wretchedly tossing to and fro on his litter, and moved by a feeling of pity, for after all it could not be said that Count Jakob had entered sinfully or blasphemously into the duel that had destroyed him, he asked the doctor who stood there whether there was any chance of saving the unhappy man’s life. ‘There is none!’ answered Jakob Rotbart, shaken by terrible convulsions and with his head supported on his doctor’s lap, ‘and I have deserved the death I now die. For I confess now, since the arm of earthly justice will no longer reach me, that I am the murderer of my brother, the noble Duke Wilhelm of Breysach: the villain who shot him down with an arrow from my armoury had been hired by me six weeks earlier to do this deed, by which I hoped to gain the crown!’ And upon this declaration the black-hearted reprobate collapsed on to the litter and expired. ‘Oh, then it was as my husband the Duke himself suspected!’ cried the Regent, who was standing beside the Emperor, for she too had followed the Empress down from the palace balcony to the square. ‘He said so to me at the very moment of his death but with broken words which I then scarcely understood!’ The Emperor replied in indignation: ‘Then the arm of justice shall at least reach your dead body! Take him,’ he cried, turning round to the constables, ‘and hand him over to the executioners, judged and condemned as he is; to brand his memory with shame let him burn at that same stake where we were about to sacrifice two innocent lives on his behalf!’ And thereupon, as the corpse of the wretch burst into crackling red flames and the blast of the north wind scattered and blew it away in all directions, he led the lady Littegarde into the castle, with all his knights following. By an imperial decree he restored to her the inheritance of her father, of which her ungenerous and avaricious brothers had already taken possession; and only three weeks later the wedding of the brave and virtuous lovers took place in the palace at Breysach. The Duchess-Regent, delighted by the whole course the affair had taken, gave a large part of the Count’s possessions, which had fallen forfeit to the law, as a bridal present to Littegarde. But the Emperor, after the marriage, awarded a golden chain of honour to Herr Friedrich; and as soon as he returned to Worms after the conclusion of his business in Switzerland, he gave orders that in the statutes governing sacred ordeal by combat, at all points where they assume that such a trial immediately brings guilt to light, the words ‘if it be God’s will’ were to be inserted.
Chronology
1777 18 October: Bernd Wilhelm Heinrich von Kleist is born in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. He is the eldest son of the military officer (Captain) Joachim Friedrich von Kleist and his second wife Juliane Ulrike von Kleist, née von Pannwitz. Heinrich has four siblings: Friederike, Auguste, Leopold and Juliane; he also has two half-sisters, Wilhelmine and Ulrike, from his father’s first marriage. Ulrike (1774–1849) would remain close to him throughout most of his life.
The young Kleist is taught by his private tutor Christian Ernst Martini, who recognizes Kleist’s curiosity and intellectual drive. He later describes Heinrich as a ‘nicht zu dämpfenden Feuergeist’ (an undampable mind of fire).
1788 18 June: Death of his father. Heinrich is sent to Berlin, where he is educated together with his cousins Wilhelm von Pannwitz and Ernst von Schönfeld by the Huguenot preacher Samuel Heinrich Catel.
1792 1 June: Kleist joins the Guard Regiment at Potsdam as a lance-corporal (Gefreiter-Korporal).
1793 3 February: Death of his mother.
1793–5 Kleist takes part in the Prussian Rhine campaign against Napoleon. In a military camp at Mainz he reads Christoph Martin Wieland’s Sympathies, a philosophical work which conveys an optimistic Enlightenment world view. Kleist later describes in a letter how he had read Wieland’s work with great enthusiasm and that it had had a formative influence on his own idealistic thinking as a young man. Poem: The Higher Peace.
1797 7 March: Promotion to the rank of lieutenant.
1798 Kleist’s first piece of philosophical writing, Essay concerning the Sure Way to Find Happiness and Enjoy It without Blemish, Even Amid Life’s Gravest Tribulations (for his friend Otto August Rühle von Lilienstern).
1799 After having repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the career of an army officer (cf. his letter to Martini, 18 and 19 March 1799) Kleist voluntarily resigns his commission.
10 April: Matriculation at the University of Frankfurtan-der-Oder. Until July 1800 Kleist attends lectures on natural law, mathematics, physics, cultural history and Latin.
1800 Engagement to Wilhelmine von Zenge.
August–October: Journey to Würzburg with his friend Ludwig Brockes. In his letters Kleist makes oblique references to the purpose of this journey, which continues to be
a matter of considerable debate among Kleist scholars. For some, Kleist’s remarks suggest that he was suffering from phimosis and intended to undergo specialist treatment at Würzburg; others have seen evidence of Kleist’s involvement in industrial espionage; others still have supposed that Kleist was seeking contact with the freemasons in an attempt to find support for his further education.
November 1800–March 1801: Kleist resides in Berlin and takes part in the session of the Technical Deputation, a state-run Prussian institution responsible for overseeing factories and the development of new technology.
1801 ‘Kant-Krise’ (Kant crisis): In a letter to Wilhelmine von Zenge dated 22 March Kleist expresses a feeling of disillusionment after his encounter with the ‘new so-called Kantian philosophy’ (neuere sogenannte Kantische Philosophie). He describes himself as having lost his belief in the value of education and knowledge and as suffering from a crisis of uncertainty. Kleist abandons his studies and travels with Ulrike via Dresden to Paris.
July–November: Ulrike and Kleist stay in Paris. A vivid description of his experiences in Paris can be found in his letter to Luise von Zenge (16 August 1801).
End of November: Journey to Frankfurt-am-Main, where Kleist and Ulrike part. Kleist continues his journey to Basel and Bern.
1802 Switzerland: From April onwards Kleist lives on the small island of Delosea at Thun in the hope of leading a quiet country life. Wilhelmine cannot be persuaded to join him. Kleist works on his first drama, The Ghonorez Family (an early version of The Schroffenstein Family). Beginnings of Guiscard and The Broken Jug.
May: Kleist breaks off the engagement to Wilhelmine.
July to August: Stay in Bern. Illness.
October: Journey to Jena and Weimar together with Ulrike and Ludwig Wieland, the son of Christoph Martin Wieland.
November: First edition of The Schroffenstein Family (anonymously published by Geßner in Bern).
Christmas with the Wieland family in Ossmannstedt.
1803 January–March: Stay with the Wielands in Ossmannstedt. Work on Robert Guiscard, Amphitryon and The Broken Jug. Wieland’s daughter Luise feels strongly attracted to Kleist.
March–April: Stay in Leipzig.
April–July: Stay in Dresden.
July–October: Journey with Ernst von Pfuel to Bern, Thun, Milan, Geneva and Paris. After a long struggle with his work on Guiscard Kleist makes a final attempt to finish the drama in September. He burns the manuscript at the end of October.
Journey from Paris to St Omer on the northern coast of France, where Kleist tries to join the French army as it is about to invade England. Physical and psychological breakdown. Kleist is sent back to Prussia by the Prussian envoy Lucchesini.
1804 9 January: Debut performance of The Schroffenstein Family at Graz. Kleist stays for about four months with Dr Georg Wedekind at Mainz in order to recover from his breakdown. In the meantime, several sojourns in Paris.
June: Returns to Berlin. Kleist is threatened with a charge of high treason on account of his application for foreign military service. In his defence he refers to temporal mental instability, but nonetheless requests employment in the civil service.
1805 January: Employment at the ministry of finance.
May: Kleist moves to Königsberg in order to pursue his studies further. He works for the administrative services (Domänenkammer) and attends lectures at the university on economics and political science (Finanz- und Staatswissenschaften) given by Christian Jakob Kraus. The essay On the Gradual Formation of Ideas in Speech probably dates from this period. Begins his work on the first version of Michael Kohlhaas.
1806 Work on The Broken Jug and, during the summer, on Penthesilea.
August: Kleist is ill again and suffers bouts of depression.
Mid August: Leave of absence for medical reasons. Final leave from civil service.
October: Defeat of the Prussian army at Jena and Auerstedt; collapse of the Prussian state.
Kleist finishes his drama Amphitryon and the novella Jeronimo and Josephe (which is later published as The Earthquake in Chili).
1807 With two other former officers Kleist travels from Königsberg through the French occupied areas to Berlin, where he is arrested by the French on suspicion of spying. As a prisoner of war he is brought to the camp Fort de Joux and later to Châlons sur Marne, where he works on Penthesilea and The Marquise of O—.
May: Amphitryon is published by C. Arnold in Dresden.
The Marquise of O and Other Stories Page 33