arranged to Loschwitz, where we made a kind of gypsy camp, in
which Carl Maria von Weber played his part in the character of
cook. At home we also had some music. My sister Rosalie played
the piano, and Clara was beginning to sing. Of the various
theatrical performances we organised in those early days, often
after elaborate preparation, with the view of amusing ourselves
on the birthdays of our elders, I can hardly remember one, save a
parody on the romantic play of Sappho, by Grillparzer, in which I
took part as one of the singers in the crowd that preceded
Phaon's triumphal car. I endeavoured to revive these memories by
means of a fine puppet show, which I found among the effects of
my late stepfather, and for which he himself had painted some
beautiful scenery. It was my intention to surprise my people by
means of a brilliant performance on this little stage. After I
had very clumsily made several puppets, and had provided them
with a scanty wardrobe made from cuttings of material purloined
from my sisters, I started to compose a chivalric drama, in which
I proposed to rehearse my puppets. When I had drafted the first
scene, my sisters happened to discover the MS. and literally
laughed it to scorn, and, to my great annoyance, for a long time
afterwards they chaffed me by repeating one particular sentence
which I had put into the mouth of the heroine, and which was--Ich
hore schon den Ritter trapsen ('I hear his knightly footsteps
falling'). I now returned with renewed ardour to the theatre,
with which, even at this time, my family was in close touch. Den
Freischutz in particular appealed very strongly to my
imagination, mainly on account of its ghostly theme. The emotions
of terror and the dread of ghosts formed quite an important
factor in the development of my mind. From my earliest childhood
certain mysterious and uncanny things exercised an enormous