Page:Edward Prime-Stevenson - The Intersexes.djvu/621

 have been a strong influence exerted on Schmidtlein by a certain fellow-student and "friend," named Bannwarth, who had aimed at preventing the intimacy with Platen, as now at breaking it off. One cannot but suspect Bannwarth's hand in this whole affair; especially as we find that Eduard "told Bannwarth everything", empowered Bannwarth to act as a sort of attorney for him; and even gave Bannwarth all Platen's letters to read!—a queerly callous sort of proceeding!

In great distress, Platen writes: "Eduard is the first man, so like myself that there is nothing I could hide from him—and now he says that we must part. I asked him if love or virtue be the cause. He would not answer. I said that if he wished to conquer himself, I had the same intention, and so we could become guardians of each other." (!) On the 22 of August, going to find Schmidtlein early one morning (and Eduard being still in bed) after a passionate interview of farewell, full "of all our first tenderness," they agreed on a sort of compromise—not to part wholly, but never to speak of love or friendship again, and to remain on relatively distant terms. A few days later, the college-term was out. Eduard left Würzburg for Munich, and Platen, also free, went to Iphofen, a small town not distant, for the vacation. This separation brought on a painful climax to their amourette. On September 1, we find that Platen, much moved by absence, passion, love-longing, and so on, has written to the beloved Eduard a certain long and erotic poem, evidently full of just the forbidden topics—love, friendship and their relationships to each other. This poem originally all was transcribed in the Diary; but Platen cut most of its lines out, later. The letter which went with the poem is not cited: perhaps it too has been cut out. The poem ends: