| 20 March 1866.
5, Lansell’s Place, Margate.
My dear Spitzname von Laura Marx.
Schließen Cacadou,
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.
Schließen Very good news, indeed! I prefer Mrs. Grach to the mother of
all the Gracchi.
Siehe Erl. zu Engels an Marx,
5.3.1866.
Schließen I am right glad that I have taken my lodgings in a private
House, and not in an Inn or Hotel,
where one could hardly escape being pestered with local politics, vestry scandals, and
neighbourly gossip. But still
Aus dem
engl. Volkslied „The Miller of Dee“.
Siehe auch Marx
an N. Philips,
18.3.1866
und Marx an Engels,
24.3.1866.
Schließen I cannot sing with the miller of the Dee, that I care for
nobody, and nobody cares for me.
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. 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.
Schließen However, with all that, I shall not turn that out on
Thursday,
that paragon of beauty which worthy Jenny Marx
(Tochter).
Schließen By Bye, 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, Siehe auch J. Marx an L. Kugelmann,
1.4.1866.
Schließen 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.
Jenny Marx.
Schließen Mümmelchen 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.
Gedicht nach Heinrich Heine: Buch der
Lieder. Die Heimkehr. 45. Den König Wiswamitra, in englischer
Übersetzung.
Schließen Oh, oh King Wiswamitra,
What fool
of an oxen art thou,
That thou so much wrangle’st and suffer’st,
And all
that for a cow.
Siehe Marx an N. Philips,
18.3.1866
und Erl.
Schließen 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.
The horn plague upon them! The horn, the horn, as discreet By Bye rings it so(?) lustily.
18. März
1866.
Schließen On
Sunday, 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,
Schließen
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 Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.
Schließen “Canterbury Tales”.
And now, Cacadou, pay my compliments to Eleanor Marx.
Schließen Elly to whom I shall write one of those days, and
Siehe Eleanor Marx
an Marx, 18.
3.1866.
Schließen whose little letter
was very welcome. As to Jenny Marx.
Schließen Möhmchen, 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. 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).
Schließen Has Orsini still
received the letter I sent him?
Zeugenbeschreibung und Überlieferung
Zeugenbeschreibung
Der Brief besteht aus einem Bogen dünnem, weißem Papier im Format 270 × 212 mm. Die ersten zwei Seiten hat Marx vollständig beschrieben, die dritte zu zwei Dritteln, die vierte ist leer. Schreibmaterial: schwarze Tinte.
Von unbekannter Hand: Nummerierung des Briefes: „3–1“ (die 3 eingekreist) auf der ersten Seite oben mittig.
Drucke
Anmerkungen zum Brief
Marx beantwortet einen nicht überlieferten Brief von Jenny Marx, geschrieben wahrscheinlich am 20. März 1866 (J. Marx an Marx, 20.3.1866, siehe dazu L. Marx an Marx, 20.3.1866: „I send ...“) sowie den hier zitierten Brief seiner Tochter Laura, ebenfalls vom 20. März (L. Marx an Marx, 20.3.1866).
Zitiervorschlag
Karl Marx an Laura Marx in London. Margate, Dienstag, 20. März 1866. In: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe digital. Hg. von der Internationalen Marx-Engels-Stiftung. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin. URL: http://megadigital.bbaw.de/briefe/detail.xql?id=M0000073. Abgerufen am 24.04.2024.