J. von Eichendorff | Two autograph poem drafts, "Der Friede. 1814", and part of "Die ernsthafte Fastnacht 1814"

Joseph von Eichendorff

Autograph draft of the poem "Der Friede. 1814." and autograph draft of part of the poem "Die ernsthafte Fastnacht 1814"

the two quatrains of "Der Friede. 1814" written on one side of a small paper fragment whose reverse contains stanzas 8-9 of "Die ernsthafte Fastnacht 1814", with a deletion and some divergences from the text in the Historisch-kritische Ausgabe

Der Friede. 1814.

Sturm und Wetter sind verflogen,

Blau gespannt des Himmels Zelt,

Und es blüht des Friedens Bogen

Ueber der verweinten Welt...

["Die ernsthafte Fastnacht 1814":]

Wer hat je so'n Sal gesehen

Strom und Wälder spielen auf

Sterne auf und nieder gehen

Stecken hoch...die Lampen auf...

2 pages, c.6.5 x 7cm, cut down from a larger leaf and laid down on paper, with a separate clipped autograph signature ("Joseph Baron v. Eichendorff") laid down under it, no place, [probably 1814]; with a 5-page letter by Anna Petersen to Ernst Rudorff, dated 17 March 1891, and an annotated envelope in Rudorff's hand, together with a letter by Friedrich Schnapp, dated 11 October 1960, concerning this and another Eichendorff autograph  

According to the Historisch-kritische Ausgabe, the title of the poem "Der Friede" probably refers to the peace treaty of 30 May 1814 (the First Paris Peace Treaty between France and the anti-France alliance); the first lines of the fragment of "Die ernsthafte Fastnacht 1814", contained on the reverse of the manuscript, refer to the storming of Wittenberg on 13 January 1814, and were probably written shortly afterwards in Torgau, where Eichendorff was stationed on occupation duty until peace was concluded at the end of May. 

Included with the Eichendorff autograph is a letter from Anna Petersen to the Berlin pianist and teacher Ernst Rudorff, from whose former collection the autograph comes, explaining that the manuscript was given to her to give to Rudorff by the mother of Eichendorff's grandson, Hartwig von Eichendorff.

We are pleased to acknowledge the kind assistance of Prof. Ursula Regener in our cataloguing of this lot.

LITERATURE:

HKA I/3 (1997), pp. 278-279, and I/1 (1993), pp. 162-164, and the corresponding critical apparatus in HKA I/4 (1997), pp. 488-489 and I/2 (1994), pp. 287-289.