" In April, 1773, Kestner and Lotte were married, and Goethe
insisted, against Kestner's wish, on sending the bride her
marriage-ring, which was accompanied by the following note: "May the
remembrance of me as of this ring be ever with you in your happiness.
Dear Lotte, after a long interval we shall see each other again, you
with the ring on your finger, and me always _yours_. I affix no name
nor surname. You know well who writes." A few days later we have the
following words in a letter to Kestner: "To part from Lotte, I do not
yet understand how it was possible.... It cost me little, and yet I
don't understand how it was possible. There is the rub." In the course
of the summer Kestner removed to Hanover, where he had received an
official appointment, and took his wife with him. The correspondence
then became less frequent, though on both sides it was maintained in
the same friendly spirit. Only for a time, on the publication of
_Werther_, as we shall see, was there the shadow of possible
estrangement. "Alienated lovers," is Goethe's remark, already quoted,
"become the best friends, if only they can be properly managed"; and
Goethe showed himself an adept in this art of management.
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