rustic suburb or near-by village.  Ludwig’s parents belonged to the “leading families” of their town and were in very comfortable circumstances at the time of his birth and early childhood.  Sudden reverses, however, soon interfered with the boy’s prospects in life.  At the age of twelve, he lost his father, six years later his mother.  After the father’s death a well-to-do uncle took it upon himself to care for the boy, whom he intended to be his heir and his successor in business.  But neither the imaginative, nervously sensitive mother, nor the well-meaning but happy-go-lucky uncle were able to furnish that guidance which the delicate and prematurely contemplative youth needed.  After only a short period of irregular schooling, Ludwig, sixteen years old, had to enter his uncle’s business; but a few years of apprenticeship convinced even the uncle that the young man was hardly on his right track as a salesman of groceries.  A renewed effort to take up systematic school work with the view of preparing for one of the learned professions did not prove any more successful, and, in 1833, Ludwig, who had always shown an unusual talent for music and enjoyed excellent instruction in it, decided to become a musician.  Continuing his secluded life at Eisfeld he devoted himself for years to the leisurely study and composition of music, until a few successful amateur performances of some operatic compositions of his attracted attention to him in musical circles in Meiningen, the near-by ducal residence.  He was granted a scholarship amply sufficient to permit him to perfect his musical education at Leipzig under Mendelssohn, then the renowned director of the famous Gewandhaus concerts.  But the large city only deterred the shy recluse, Mendelssohn showed little appreciation for Ludwig’s efforts to cultivate a realistically characteristic style of musical expression, and finally a severe spell of illness came to make the Leipzig venture a complete failure.

After a year’s absence we thus find Ludwig again at home.  But his experiences in the great world were not to be without consequences.  While he was at Leipzig his homesickness had made him paint in rosy colors the dreamy hermit-life at Eisfeld.  Now, however, after his return, he became keenly conscious of the pettiness and inadequacy of his surroundings and of the lack of well-defined purpose in his life thus far.  It was during this period of introspection and doubt that he finally decided to devote himself to a literary career.  He took up the study of English, plunged into Shakespeare and Goethe, and worked assiduously on a number of dramatic and novelistic ventures.  In 1843 he again left Eisfeld, this time for good, and first turned to Leipzig and then to Dresden.  Efforts to get some of his dramas accepted by the Leipzig and Dresden theatres continued to prove fruitless.  But in 1844, after his uncle’s death, he had come into possession of a small fortune, and as his habits were always exceedingly frugal, he