The Sleepwalkers (126 page)

The
correspondence
went
on
for
another
two
years;
then
the
subject
was
at
last
mercifully
forgotten.
But
this
quixotic
escapade
inevitably
reminds
one
of
the
ill-fated
vagabondages
of
his
father,
uncle
and
brother.
He
worked
off
his
innate
restlessness
in
bold
imaginations
and
plain
drudgery;
but
from
time
to
time
some
residual
poison
in
his
blood
would
make
him
break
out
in
a
rash
and
momentarily
turn
the
sage
into
a
clown.
This
fact
is
painfully
evident
in
the
tragicomedy
of
Kepler's
first
marriage.

2.
Marriage

Before
his
journey
to
Wuerttemberg,
Kepler's
friends
in
Gratz
had
found
a
prospective
bride
for
the
young
mathematicus
in
the
daughter
of
a
rich
mill-owner,
twice
widowed
at
the
age
of
twenty-three.
Barbara
Muehleck
had
been
married
at
sixteen,
against
her
wish,
to
a
middle-aged
cabinet-maker
who
had
died
after
two
years;
then
to
an
elderly,
widowed
pay-clerk
who
brought
into
the
marriage
a
bunch
of
mis-shapen
children,
chronic
illness,
and,
after
his
timely
demise,
was
found
to
have
defrauded
money
in
his
trust.
Barbara,
described
by
Kepler
as
"simple
of
mind
and
fat
of
body",
now
lived
with
her
parents,
who
could
not
have
very
high
expectations
of
her
future.
Yet
when
Kepler
presented
his
suit
through
two
respectable
middle-men
(a
school
inspector
and
a
deacon)
the
proud
miller
refused
on
the
grounds
that
he
could
not
entrust
Barbara
and
her
dowry
to
a
man
of
such
lowly
standing
and
miserable
pay.
This
was
the
beginning
of
long
and
sordid
negotiations
conducted
by
Kepler's
friends
with
the
family.

When
he
left
for
Stuttgart
nothing
was
settled,
but
in
the
spring
his
friends
wrote
to
him
that
his
suit
had
been
accepted,
advised
him
to
hurry
home,
and
to
bring
with
him
from
Ulm
"some
truly
good
silk
cloth,
or
at
least
of
the
best
double
taffeta,
sufficient
for
complete
robes
for
thyself
and
the
bride".
But
Kepler
was
too
busy
with
his
cosmic
silver
cup,
delayed
his
return,
and
by
the
time
he
got
back
to
Gratz,
Frau
Barbara's
father
had
changed
his
mind
again.
Kepler
seems
not
to
have
been
unduly
perturbed,
but
the
indefatigable
friends
continued
their
efforts;
the
Dean
of
the
school
and
even
the
Church
authorities
joined
in
–
"and
so
they
vied
with
one
another
to
assault
the
minds
now
of
the
widow,
now
of
her
father,
took
them
by
storm
and
arranged
for
me
a
new
date
for
the
nuptials.
Thus,
with
one
blow,
all
my
plans
for
beginning
another
life
collapsed."
⁴

The
marriage
took
place
on
27
April,
1597,
"under
a
calamitous
sky",
as
the
horoscope
indicated.
He
was
somewhat
comforted
by
the
arrival
of
the
first
printed
copies
of
the
Mysterium
Cosmographicum
,
but
not
even
that
event
was
all
joy;
he
had
to
buy
two
hundred
copies
of
the
book
for
cash
to
compensate
the
printer
for
the
risk;
and
the
author's
name
in
the
catalogue
of
the
Frankfurt
Book
Fair
was
transformed,
by
misprint,
from
Keplerus
into
Repleus.

Kepler's
attitude
to
marriage
in
general,
and
to
his
own
wife
in
particular,
is
expressed
in
several
letters
with
shocking
frankness.
The
first
is
addressed
to
Maestlin
and
dated
a
week
before
the
wedding.
It
occupies
nearly
six
pages
in
folio,
of
which
only
the
last
speaks
of
the
impending
great
event:

"I
ask
you
only
one
favour,
that
you
should
be
close
to
me
in
your
prayers
on
my
wedding
day.
My
financial
situation
is
such
that
should
I
die
within
the
next
year
hardly
anybody
could
leave
a
worse
situation
after
him.
I
am
obliged
to
spend
a
big
sum
of
my
own,
for
it
is
the
custom
here
to
celebrate
marriages
splendidly.
If,
however,
God
prolongs
my
life,
I
shall
be
bound
and
constricted
to
this
place...
For
my
bride
possesses
here
estates,
friends
and
a
prosperous
father;
it
seems
that
after
a
few
years
I
would
not
need
my
salary
any
longer...
Thus
I
shall
be
unable
to
leave
this
province
except
if
a
public
or
a
private
misfortune
intervened.
A
public
misfortune
it
would
be
if
the
country
ceased
to
be
safe
for
Lutherans,
or
if
the
Turks,
who
have
already
massed
six
hundred
thousand
men,
invaded
it.
A
private
misfortune
it
would
be
if
my
wife
died."
⁵