The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by Hoffmann E. T. A

Author:Hoffmann, E. T. A. [Hoffmann, E. T. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classics, Fantasy
ISBN: 9780141937311
Amazon: 0141937319
Goodreads: 60635058
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1821-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

VOLUME TWO

PART III

MY APPRENTICE MONTHS

The Whimsical Play of Chance

M. cont. Your breast is filled with yearning, ardent longing, yet when you have finally got what you strove for with a thousand pains and cares, that longing instantly freezes to icy indifference, and you cast away what you have won like a worn-out toy. And no sooner have you done so than bitter remorse follows your swift act, you strive again, and so life hastens away in longing and loathing. Even such is Cat! This term is the correct description for all of my kind, including the proud lion, whom the famous Hornvilla in Tieck’s Oktavian1 consequently calls a big cat. Yes, I repeat, such and no other is Cat, and the feline heart is a very inconstant thing.

It is the first duty of an honest biographer to be scrupulous and not on any account to spare himself. In all honesty, therefore, paw on heart, I will confess that despite the inexpressible zeal with which I devoted myself to the arts and sciences, yet the thought of lovely Kitty would often rise suddenly before my mind’s eye, wholly interrupting my studies.

I felt as if I should not have left her, as if I had scorned a faithful, loving heart merely dazzled momentarily by a false delusion. Ah! how often, when I intended to refresh myself with the great Pythagoras (for I was deep in the study of mathematics at this time), would a dainty black-stockinged little paw suddenly push aside all the catheti2 and hypotenuses, and I saw the fair Kitty herself before me, her dear little velvet cap on her head, the sparkling glance of those charmingly lovely grass-green eyes gazing at me with the tenderest reproaches! What pretty little sideways leaps, what lovely waving and coiling of her tail! I longed to fling my paws around her in transports of newly inflamed love, but then the teasing phantasm would be gone.

Such reveries from the Arcadian realms of love could not but induce in me a certain melancholy bound to be injurious to my chosen career as poet and scholar, particularly as it soon deteriorated into a lethargy I could not withstand. I tried to wrench myself forcibly from this irksome condition by making a swift decision to seek Kitty out again. Yet once I had my paw on the first step of the stairs, ready to climb to the upper regions where I might hope to find the lovely fair, shame and bashfulness seized upon me, and I removed my paw from the step again and retreated sadly to my place under the stove.

Despite these afflictions of the mind, however, I enjoyed remarkable physical well-being at this time, and I was conspicuously increasing if not in knowledge, then at least in corporeal strength. When I looked at myself in the mirror I noted with satisfaction that united with the freshness of youth, there began to be something awe-inspiring about my round-cheeked countenance.

Even my master noticed my changed mood. It

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