43. To Marie Engels, April5

means the bull-fighter, with the refrain, every other second, of Ah que j'aime l'Espagne! This was even more pitiful — if that were possible:—sometimes with leaps of fifths, sometimes twisting about in chromatic passages as if to signify an attack of stomach-ache. If it hadn't been followed by the tremendous symphony I would have run away and left the crow to squawk in his miserable, thin baritone. Meanwhile see that the next letters you send are folded better. This way f""^^^"^ is very unpractical and in bad taste, it must be like this r \ % ^ " / o r like this^aÇT, please note.

Semper Tuus

Friedrich

First published in: Marx/Engels, Printed according to the original Gesamtausgabe, Abt. I, Bd. 2, 1930 _ ... . , . „ ,. , . , ,. ° Published in English for the first time

43

TO MARIE ENGELS

IN MANNHEIM

Why didn't you write to me in Bremen? You really don't deserve to hear from me again, but this time I shall make an exception and write you a few lines to cheer your lonely time in Mannheim. I have been installed in the room next to my old one, which is now the music room, where I have buried myself under a mass of Italian books, and emerge now and again for a turn at fencing with Hermann [3] or Adolf.b I have just finished a few rounds with August,0 Hermann and Bernhard and as a result my hand is a bit shaky, so today as well my writing is very bad and learned-looking. When we went to Vohwinkel yesterday, I met nearly everyone who was at the gymnasium with me.

The weather is splendid here but today I have to go on a miserably boring visit to the Wemhöners. I'll remember you to Emil.d Luise Snethlage has linked up with Hermann Siebel and seems to be enjoying it. For the rest, Barmen is still the same old place, and all I ask of you is to fulfil your duty to me as quickly as you possibly can.

Yours,

Friedrich Barmen,[241] April 5, 41

First published in: Marx/Engels, Printed according to the original Gesamtausgabe, Abt. 1, Bd. 2, 1930 , , , , . , • • ^ i- L r i «•• Published in English tor the first time

Endnotes

[3] As can be seen from Engels' letter to his sister Marie of March 12, 1839 (see this volume, pp. 419-20), this poem was sent to Der Bremer Stadtbote in a fuller version. The publication of Th. Hildebrandt's poem Book Wisdom was mentioned in the Bremer Wöchentliche Nachrichten No. 36, 2. Beilage, S. 2, for March 25, 1839. However, the Publishers do not possess a copy of Der Bremer Stadtbote containing this poem.

a Hermann Engels.— Ed. b Adolf von Griesheim.— Ed. 0 August Engels.— Ed. Emil Wemhöner.— Ed.

[241] 241 In late March 1841 Engels returned to his parents in Barmen after finishing his term of service at the Bremen office of Heinrich Leupold's trading firm.