il April, 1809. These were the happiest and the most prolific
months of his fragmentary life. The best literary and social circles
of the Saxon capital were open to him, his talent was recognized by
the leading men of the city, a laurel wreath was placed upon his brow
by "the prettiest hands in Dresden;" at last he found all his hopes
being realized. With three friends he embarked on an ambitious
publishing enterprise, which included the issuing of a sumptuous
literary and artistic monthly, the _Phoebus_. This venture was
foredoomed to failure by the inexperience of its projectors and by the
unsettled condition of a time full of political upheaval and most
unfavorable to any literary enterprise. Kleist's own contributions to
this periodical were of the highest value; here appeared first in
print generous portions of _Penthesilea, The Broken Jug_, and the new
drama _Kitty of Heilbronn_, the first act of the ill-fated _Robert
Guiscard_, evidently reproduced from memory, _The Marquise of O._, and
part of _Michael Kohlhaas_. If we add to these works the great
patriotic drama, _Arminius_ (_Die Hermannsschlacht_), two tales, _The
Betrothal in San Domingo_ and _The Foundling_, and lyric and narrative
poems, the production of the brief period in Dresden is seen to bulk
very large.

In the stress of the times and in spite of the most strenuous efforts,
the _Phoebus_ went under with the first volume, and the publishing
business was a total wreck. Kleist's joy at the acceptance of _The
Broken Jug_ by Goethe for the Weimar theatre was turned to bitterness
when, because of unintelligent acting and stage management, this
brilliant comedy failed wretchedly; the disappointed author held
Goethe responsible for this fiasco and foolishly attacked him in a
series of spiteful epigrams. He longed to have his _Arminius_
performed at Vienna, but the Austrian authorities were too timid to
risk the production of a play that openly preached German unity and a
war of revenge against the "Roman tyranny" of Napoleon. Kleist then
turned to lyric poetry and polemic tirades for the expression of his
patriotic ardor. When Austria rose against Napoleon, he started for
the seat of war and was soon the happy eye-witness of the Austrian
victory at Aspern, in May, 1809. In Prague, with the support of the
commandant, he planned a patriotic journal, for which he immediately
wrote a series of glowing articles, mostly in the form of political
satires. This plan