Karl von Holtei, a fairly popular dramatic writer, who enjoyed a
certain reputation in the theatrical world. This man's ideas
about the stage represented a special tendency, which was at that
time on the decline. He possessed, in addition to his remarkable
social gifts, an extraordinary acquaintance with all the
principal people connected with the theatre during the past
twenty years, and belonged to a society called Die
Liebenswurdigen Libertins ('The Amiable Libertines'). This was a
set of young would-be wits, who looked upon the stage as a
playground licensed by the public for the display of their mad
pranks, from which the middle class held aloof, while people of
culture were steadily losing all interest in the theatre under
these hopeless conditions.

Holtei's wife had in former days been a popular actress at the
Konigstadt theatre in Berlin, and it was here, at the time when
Henriette Sontag raised it to the height of its fame, that
Holtei's style had been formed. The production there of his
melodrama Leonore (founded on Burger's ballad) had in particular
earned him a wide reputation as a writer for the stage, besides
which he produced some Liederspiele, and among them one, entitled
Der Alte Feldherr, became fairly popular. His invitation to Riga
had been particularly welcome, as it bid fair to gratify his
craving to absorb himself completely in the life of the stage; he
hoped, in this out-of-the-way place, to indulge his passion
without restraint. His peculiar familiarity of manner, his
inexhaustible store of amusing small talk, and his airy way of
doing business, gave him a remarkable hold on the tradespeople of
Riga, who wished for nothing better than such entertainment as he
was able to give them. They provided him liberally with all the