rly in
1802, accompanied by his wife, whose maiden name was "Rorer, or rather
Trzczynska, a Poless by birth, daughter of the former town-councillor
T. of Posen, twenty-two years old, of medium stature and good figure,
with dark-brown hair and dark blue eyes," as he himself describes her.
He had taken the step of marriage in face of the earnest dissuasion of
his uncle Otto, in the last months of his residence in Posen. But
previous to this, late in the autumn of 1801, he had paid another visit
to Koenigsberg, meeting on his return journey his friend Hippel; and
together they saw Elbing and Dantzic. To this latter visit we owe the
story of _Der Artushof_ ("Arthur's Hall"), published in 1817. Hippel, be
it remarked, was disagreeably struck by the change in his friend:
Hoffmann gave himself up to an unhealthy degree, to wild and
extravagant gaiety, and disclosed a liking for what was low and lewd.

In Plock Hoffmann spent two years. This was a quiet, stagnant place,
where, according to his own account, he "was buried alive," and "walked
in a morass covered with low thorny shrubs which lacerated his feet;"
he "thought of Yorick and the imprisoned starling;" and he should have
given way to despair had not the bitter experiences which he was made
to drain to the lees been sweetened by the affection of his dear good
wife, who gave him strength for the present and encouraged him to hope
for the future. Owing to the external circumstances in the midst of
which he was fixed, he again turned his attention seriously to music
and painting, and also to authorship. He wrote short essays, composed
masses, vespers, and sonatas, and translated Italian canzonets, &c.
_Scherz, List, und Rache_, a _Singspiel_ of Goethe's, he had already
set to music in Posen. During these two years he led a more strictly
domestic life, and spent more of his time out of the hours of official
duty in his own house, than he ever did afterwards. Here also, as
almost everywhere throughout his life he was zealous and industrious in
discharging the duties of his position. At length, just as he was
beginning to settle down and feel contented with his lot in Plock, his
friends in Berlin succeeded in securing his removal (1804) to a better
and more congenial sphere of activity in Warsaw. After once more
visiting Koenigsberg in February, 1804, and then spending several days
with Hippel on his estate at Leistenau (province Marienwerder, East
Prussia), he eventually proc