almost as much as my Dulcinea in Stuttgart [Lotte von Wolzogen].

Ere the revision of the new tragedy was finished Dulcinea herself
arrived in Bauerbach; an event to which Schiller had looked forward with
joyous palpitations and anxious forebodings. For back in March Frau von
Wolzogen had written him that she and her daughter would be accompanied
on their northward journey by a certain Herr Winkelmann, a friend of the
family. Schiller at once divined the approach of a rival and wrote in
great agitation that he would go to Berlin if Winkelmann came. In
justification of his threat he made the diaphanous plea that his
incognito was of the utmost importance to him, and that the inquisitive
Winkelmann (whom he had known at the academy) would be sure to blab. To
this Frau von Wolzogen sent some sort of soothing reply, hinting at the
same time that she, the mother, would not interfere with her daughter's
choice. So Schiller resolved to stand his ground. The ladies arrived in
the latter part of May and soon thereafter he was given to understand
that Lotte's affections were fixed upon the other man. There was nothing
for him now but the role of lofty resignation. To his former schoolmate,
Wilhelm von Wolzogen, he wrote as follows:

You have commended to me your Lotte, whom I know completely, I thank
you for the great proof of your love.... Believe me, my best of
friends, I envy you this amiable sister. Still just as if from the
hands of the Creator, innocent, the fairest, tenderest, most
sensitive soul, and not yet a breath of the general corruption on
the bright mirror of her nature,--thus I know your Lotte, and woe to
him who brings a cloud over this innocent soul!... Your mother has
made me a confidant in a matter that may decide the fate of your
Lotte and has told me how you feel upon the subject. [It appears
that Wilhelm disliked the young man,] I know Herr W--n and ...