Chapter 13: The trouble with Charlotte von Kalb

 

Epidemic in the city

 

July was going towards its end and Mannheim, with its splendid flowers on the balconies and in the garden, would prepare itself for a small summer holiday. The works in the fields were all done, and the farmers were now waiting for fall to gauge how fruitful has been the collaboration between man and Nature. Even the streets, after the business of the morning, are now empty from its usual noisy passersby. Only the artisans and some other shopkeepers, often protected from the summer heat in their shops, would still keep a semblance of activity this summer.

 

Summer was in Mannheim, as in many other cities in Wurttemberg a much awaited and favored season. Everywhere would people put a stop to their daily routines and to devote more time to social activities. Everything seem to announce, in Nature as in the disposition of the human beings, that it was time to take a pause. Only the young persons would still wander and run around the city, however, above all, they would prefer to take long walks in the forests and fields near the city and to lose themselves in all sorts of new games in the midst of Nature. In summertime, the days always seem too short for these youngsters, when it comes to enjoying games and having laughs with the friends.

 

Things are a little different with the adults. Still obliged to fulfill a minimum of duty even during the heat of the day, they can only enjoy the activities suitable with the perfect weather, from midday on, and it is only then for these otherwise very busy handworkers and farmers to indulge into a nap. Short but so sweet moments of physical rest, where people can at will follow the spirit of the season.

 

Through the window of his rented room, Schiller looked with the eyes of an amazed child the vista of the city. He has just recently signed his contract as poet in residence with Mannheim Theater, and enjoys for the first time his freedom in the city. Indeed, Mannheim with its modest but elegant houses has become a symbol of freedom for him. His contract with the theatre would only run in a few weeks, and for now, he would really, beside his writing work, spend long hours throughout the city, free in his movements as in his soul, in the most pleasant walks. Often, he too would also dare to wander in the surrounding forests. Only there would he find and remember again the pleasant feelings which he used to have as a boy in Ludwigsburg or as a fugitive in Bauerbach. From the surroundings of the trees and the humming birds, he would derive a certain calm, a rejuvenating warmth which had the most pleasant effect not only on his body.

 

-        „I would very much spend long hours here with the trees and the birds! Ah! How nice would that be!“, would he often confess to himself not without a regret.

 

 

However his previous condition would still make him worry of such lonely moments in the woods, far from any human help. Who knows who could hide behind these trees? Who knows whether the men of Duke Charles Eugene would want something bad to him precisely in these isolated place? He would then rapidly take his way back to Mannheim in order to stay home and maybe indulge with a nap to wait for lesser warm hours. His instinctive fear would still seize him for a couple of weeks during his free moments in Mannheim.