MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

The salon of Mrs. Schopenhauer hosted, in the session of the third week of February 1809, the following participants: Adele, the hostess' daughter, Goethe, Friedrich Schlegel and his wife Dorothea, Bettina Brentano, Wieland, Achim bon Arnim and the brilliant composer Ludwig van Beethoven, incarnation of musical Romanticism, who at that time had found a temporary relief to his deafness thanks to an acoustic trumpet. In the hearth of the fireplace a large fire heats the room. Everyone is sitting around this source of heat, which also constitutes the only lighting of the living room. The first part of the soiree is musical in nature. Beethoven accompanies Bettina Brentano on the piano. Bettina intones lieder centered on themes of romantic love. After an hour of uninterrupted concert, Beethoven stop playing the piano and join the other guests after receiving a warm ovation. However, Bettina is so absorbed in the lieder's emotion that she continues as if nothing had happened....

“Where does this air current come from?” Byron asked Schlegel who was sitting next to him. "Oh, it's Novalis’ ears. They’ve not stopped flapping since the lightning struck him.” Apart from the hostess or the "salonnière", a select group of intellectuals and writers were gathered in Johanna Schopenhauer's salon. There were Lord Byron and Ludwig Tieck, but also Johanna’s daughter Adela, Bettina Brentano, Achim von Arnim, Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel and Goethe. Goethe (whose fondness for eating onions is well known) was eating a raw onion. He had showed up at the party accompanied by his mistress, Christiane Vulpius, to the scandal of Bettina who, to demonstrate her vexation, began to pirouette. Byron watched her stunned. He ignored that, among the major figures of German Romanticism, pirouette was the usual way to show anger. His amazement increased when he saw Christiane suddenly stand up and spin around like a spinning top. This attitude was the conventional r...