20 March 1866.5, Lansell’s Place, Margate. My dear Cacadou,Spitzname von Laura Marx.

Very good news, indeed! I prefer Mrs. Grach to the mother of all the Gracchi. Wortspiel, das auf dem Gleichklang des Namens der Trierer Bankiersfamilie Grach und der römischen Gracchen (die Brüder Tiberius und Gaius Sempronius Gracchus) beruht. Vermutlich hatte Jenny Marx nun eine positive Nachricht bezüglich ihrer Ansprüche aus dem Jahre 1855 gegen den damals bankrott gegangenen Bankier erhalten. Siehe Marx an Engels, 8. März 1855. In: MEGA2 III/7. S. 183.21–31. I am right glad that I have taken my lodgings in a private House, and not in an Inn or Hotel,Siehe Erl. zu Engels an Marx, 5.3.1866. where one could hardly escape being pestered with local politics, vestry scandals, and neighbourly gossip. But still I cannot sing with the miller of the Dee, that I care for nobody, and nobody cares for me.Aus dem engl. Volkslied „The Miller of Dee“. Siehe auch Marx an N. Philips, 18.3.1866 und Marx an Engels, 24.3.1866. For there is my landlady, who is deaf like a post, and her daughter, who is afflicted with chronic hoarseness, but they are very nice people, attentive, and not intruding. As to myself, I have turned into a perambulating stick, running about the greatest part of the day, airing myself, going to bed at 10 o’clock, reading nothing, writing less, and altogether working up my mind to that state of nothingness which Buddhaism considers the climax of human bliss. However, with all that, I shall not turn that out on Thursday,Donnerstag, den 22. März 1866 veranstalteten seine Töchter eine Feier, zu der Marx vom Kurort angereist war. Siehe Erl. zu L. Marx an Marx, 20.3.1866. that paragon of beauty which worthy By Bye, Jenny Marx (Tochter). in his phantastic mood, seems to expect. The toothache on my the right side of the face has not yet altogether disappeared, and the same side is afflicted with an inflammation of the eye. Not that there is much to be seen of it, but that eye has taken to be the vicious habit of shedding tears on its own account, without the least regard to the feelings of his master. But for this state of things, I should have my photogramme already taken, since you get here 12 cartes de visite for 3 s. 6 d. and 48 cartes for 10 sh.Siehe auch J. Marx an L. Kugelmann, 1.4.1866 . Mümmelchen Jenny Marx. will oblige me by pacing her steps to Mr. Hall and ordering him to prepare a solution of zink (he will know the composition of the drug) for my eye, the which I expect to find ready on my arrival at London. This bad eye interferes with my nightrest. Otherwise, I am turning a new leaf.

Withdrawing somewhat from the seaside, and roaming over the adjacent rustic district, you are painfully reminded of “civilization” by large boards, staring at you everywhere, headed “Cattle Diseases Disease ”, and placarded over with a government proclamation, the result of the wild rush which the horned cattle gentry, lords and commoners, made at the government, on the opening of Parliament.

Oh, oh King Wiswamitra Gedicht nach Heinrich Heine: Buch der Lieder. Die Heimkehr. 45. Den König Wiswamitra, in englischer Übersetzung., What fool of an oxen art thou, That thou so much wrangle’st and suffer’st, And all that for a cow.

But if honest Wiswamitra, like a true Indian, tormented himself for the salvation of the cow Sabala, those English gentry, in the true style of modern martyrs, bleed the people to compensate themselves for their cows’ ailings.Siehe Marx an N. Philips, 18.3.1866 und Erl. The horn plague upon them! The horn, the horn, as discreet By Bye rings it so lustily.

On Sunday,18. März 1866. I made up my mind to walk per pedes to Canterbury. Unhappily, I only formed this grand resolution, after having already measured for two hours the length and breadth of the piers and so forth. So I had already expended too much physical power, when I set out for the archbishop’s seat or see, as you like. And from here to Canterbury are fully 16 miles. From Canterbury I returned to Margate by rail, but I had overworked myself, and could not sleep during the whole night. Limbs and loins were not tired, but the plants of my feet turned out tenderhearted rogues. As to Canterbury, kn you know, of course, all about it, and more than I can boast, the trusted source of knowledge for all English Eves. (One cannot help, in your company, bad punning. But mark. Thackeray did worse, by playing upon Eves and Ewes.) Happily, I was too tired, and it was too late, to look out for the celebrated cathedral. Canterbury is an old, ugly, medieval sort of town, not mended by large modern English barracks at the one, and a dismal dry Railway Station at the other end of the town oldish thing. There is no trace of that poetry about it, which you find in continental towns of the same age.

The swaggering of the private soldiers and the officers in the streets, reminded me somewhat of “Vaterland”. In the inn, where I was scantily purveyed with some slices of cold beef, I caught the newest scandal. Captain Le Merchant, it seems, had been taken up by the police on Saturday night, for systematically knocking at the doors of all the most respectable citizens. And a summons will be taken out against the Captain because of this innocent pastime. And the redoubtable Captain will have to bend down his diminished head before aldermanic majesty. This is my whole packet of “Canterbury Tales”. Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.

And now, Cacadou, pay my compliments to Elly Eleanor Marx. to whom I shall write one of those days, and whose little letterSiehe Eleanor Marx an Marx, 18. 3.1866. was very welcome. As to Möhmchen, Jenny Marx. she will hear of me by the by.

That damned boy Lafargue pesters me with his Proudhonism, and will not rest, it seems, untill I have administered to him a sound cudgelling of his Creole pate.

My xxxx xxx good wishes to all. Your master.

Has Orsini still received the letter I sent him?Siehe Marx an Engels, 15.3.1866. Ein Brief von Marx an Cesare Orsini, geschrieben zwischen 15. und 20. März 1866, ist nicht überliefert (Marx an C. Orsini, zw. 15. u. 20.3.1866).