held fast by chains of adamant." … A poem of several hundred lines follows, being a romantic dialogue imagined between himself and Brandenstein. Well may Shakespeare's clown remark, "We that are true lovers run into strange capers!"
During the long marching across into France, Platen's passion for Federigo, his frequent anxieties for Brandenstein's actual safety, his hopes, longings, reminiscences, all recur. When passing through Nitry, (August 15, 1815) we have this: … "But the bitter certainty not even to hope for B—'s acquaintance and friendship brings me into a sort of despair. I must live days, months, years, without seeing him … the darling of my heart for almost a year—the eternal object of the dreams of my fancy, he whom I so deeply love, he whose noble features recall to me the image of M [ercy d'Argenteau], he whose acquaintance is the crown of my wishes…", etc. etc. The recurrent allusion to the haunting "type" is noteworthy for psychologists in Uranism; as so often at the base of a homosexual admiration. When Platen was back again in Munich, he breaks out (Jan. 15, 1816): … "O Federigo! If I am to be disappointed in you, why do I not find it out? If I am not to be so, why am I not made happy? I do not see you, I do not find you, I know nothing of you: but I love you, and if this pressure, this suspense, continue as now, the very tissue of my nerves will be torn to pieces." Here many pages of the Journal are cut out by Platen's own hand. Again … "O Fritz! O Federigo! Knewest thou my love and my constancy, thou wouldst reward them." Another long and impassioned entry at this time is for Jan. 28 1816 … "Poor glowing heart, …" and so on. And all this hyper-erotic state of mind was a matter of nearly complete idealism! Platen was in love, at sight, with the physique of another young man; on it he was building up a whole sentimental fabric of glowing sexual-psychic desire. But just so can
— 582 —
(20)
