The Sleepwalkers (142 page)

But
by the time this letter arrived in Gratz, Kepler was already on his
way to Tycho.

V TYCHO
AND
KEPLER

1.
The Gravity of Fate

THE
town
and
castle
of
Benatek
were
twenty-two
miles,
a
six-hours'
journey,
to
the
north-east
of
Prague.
They
overlooked
the
river
Iser,
which
often
flooded
the
surrounding
orchards,
hence
the
name
"Bohemian
Venice".
Tycho
had
selected
Benatek
among
the
three
castles
which
the
Emperor
had
offered
for
his
choice
–
perhaps
because
the
watery
surroundings
reminded
him
of
Hveen.
He
had
taken
possession
of
the
castle
in
August
1599
–
six
months
before
Kepler's
arrival
–
and
had
started
at
once
tearing
down
walls
and
erecting
new
ones,
intending
to
build
another
Uraniburg,
and
announcing
his
intention
in
high-flung
poems
which
were
inscribed
over
the
entrance
of
the
future
observatory.
There
was
also
to
be
a
separate
gate
for
the
Emperor,
who
had
reserved
an
adjoining
building
for
his
visits.

But
everything
seemed
to
go
wrong
from
the
beginning.
The
salary
of
three
thousand
florins
which
the
Emperor
had
granted
Tycho
beat
all
previous
records;
"there
was
nobody
at
Court,
not
even
among
counts
and
barons
of
long
service,
who
enjoyed
so
large
an
income".
¹
Both
the
mind
of
Rudolph
II,
and
his
finances,
were
in
a
highly
disordered
state;
and
his
court
officials
effectively
sabotaged
the
carrying
out
of
his
extravagant
royal
promises.
Tycho
had
to
fight
for
his
salary
and
to
be
content
if
he
could
squeeze
half
of
it
out
of
the
Exchequer;
when
Kepler
succeeded
him,
he
would
get
only
a
dribble
of
what
was
due
to
him.

By
the
time
Kepler
arrived
at
Benatek,
Tycho
had
already
quarrelled
with
the
Director
of
the
Crown
Estates
who
held
the
purse-strings,
complained
to
the
Emperor,
threatened
to
leave
Bohemia,
and
to
tell
the
world
the
reasons.
Also,
several
of
Tycho's
assistants,
who
had
promised
to
join
him
at
the
new
Uraniburg,
had
failed
to
turn
up;
and
the
largest
instruments
were
still
delayed
on
the
long
trek
from
Hveen.
Towards
the
end
of
the
year
the
plague
had
broken
out,
obliging
Tycho
to
sit
it
out
with
Rudolph
at
the
imperial
residence
in
Girsitz,
and
supply
him
with
a
secret
elixir
against
epidemics.
To
add
to
Tycho's
worries,
Ursus,
who
had
disappeared
from
Prague
on
Tycho's
arrival,
now
returned
again,
trying
to
create
trouble;
and
Tycho's
second
daughter,
Elisabeth,
was
having
an
illicit
love
affair
with
one
of
his
assistants,
the
Junker
Tengnagel.
Young
Kepler,
in
the
provincial
backwoods
of
Gratz,
had
dreamed
of
Benatek
as
a
serene
temple
of
Urania;
he
arrived
at
a
mad-house.
The
castle
was
teeming
with
workmen,
surveyors,
visitors,
and
the
formidable
de
Brahe
clan
including
the
sinister
dwarf
Jepp
–
huddled
under
the
table
during
the
interminable,
tumultuous
meals,
and
finding
an
easy
butt
for
his
sarcasms
in
that
timid
scarecrow
of
a
provincial
mathematicus.

Kepler
had
arrived
in
Prague
in
the
middle
of
January.
He
had
at
once
written
to
Benatek,
and
a
few
days
later
received
an
answer
from
Tycho,
regretting
that
he
could
not
welcome
Kepler
in
person
because
of
a
forthcoming
opposition
of
Mars
and
Jupiter,
to
be
followed
by
a
lunar
eclipse;
and
inviting
him
to
Benatek
"not
so
much
as
a
guest,
than
as
a
very
welcome
friend
and
colleague
in
the
contemplation
of
the
skies".
The
bearers
of
the
letter
were
Tycho's
eldest
son
and
the
Junker
Tengnagel,
both
of
whom
were
jealous
of
Kepler
from
the
start,
and
remained
hostile
to
the
end.
It
was
in
their
company
that
Kepler
completed
the
last
lap
of
his
journey
to
Tycho
–
but
only
after
a
further
delay
of
nine
days.
Tengnagel
and
Tycho
Junior
were
probably
having
a
good
time
in
Prague,
and
were
in
no
hurry
to
get
back.

At
last,
then,
on
4
February,
1600,
Tycho
de
Brahe
and
Johannes
Keplerus,
co-founders
of
a
new
universe,
met
face
to
face,
silver
nose
to
scabby
cheek.
Tycho
was
fifty-three,
Kepler
twenty-nine.
Tycho
was
an
aristocrat,
Kepler
a
plebeian;
Tycho
a
Croesus,
Kepler
a
church-mouse;
Tycho
a
Great
Dane,
Kepler
a
mangy
mongrel.
They
were
opposites
in
every
respect
but
one:
the
irritable,
choleric
disposition
which
they
shared.
The
result
was
constant
friction,
flaring
into
heated
quarrels,
followed
by
half-hearted
reconciliations.