s with
violent muscular contortions of the face.) "Pray what will you take?
Oh! don't go, my good little fellow." All this, or similar disconnected
phrases, he used to utter with his eyes fixed and riveted upon the
place where he affirmed he saw the vision; and if his word was doubted
or he was laughed at as a stupid foolish man, he would knit his brows
and with great earnestness reiterate his assertions and appeal to his
wife to support him, saying, "I often see them, don't I, Mischa"
(Misza, Mischa, short form for the Polish name Michaelina)?

This side of Hoffmann's individuality is not only one of the most
characteristic of him, it is necessary to grasp it in order to
understand his written works. These remarks will also serve to make
more intelligible the sensation aroused in Hoffmann the evening he was
at the Capuchin monastery. It is in the _Elixiere des Teufels_ that
these noteworthy traits find in most respects their fullest expression.

To return to the historical narrative. The story _Meister Martin_ and
the unfinished _Der Feind_ owe their origin to a visit which Hoffmann
paid to Erlangen and Nuremberg in March, 1812. In the same year he also
devoted some attention to sport, and learned to use a sportsman's
rifle; but his imagination was always swifter than his rifle-charge. A
_sitting_ sparrow he did at length contrive to hit, but a flying one,
or a hare, or even a deer, he never could succeed in knocking over,
that is to say the real animals. Clods of earth and tufts of grass
which his imagination conjured into game he could sometimes hit, but no
living animal would ever be likely to approach near him, for his quick
restless movements and mercurial gestures were a standing impediment to
any game ever coming within shot of him unless actually driven close
past his "stand," and then his excitement either made him fire too soon
or else miss. Nevertheless, he enjoyed these sporting excursions, in
his own eccentric fashion, immensely.[20]

During the summer Hoffmann took up his residence for four weeks in the
picturesque ruins of the castle of Altenburg, in the immediate
neighbourhood of Bamberg, where, whilst living a hermit's life in
company with his spouse, he painted one of the towers with frescoes
illustrative of incidents in the life of Count Adalbert von Babenberg,
whose residence the castle had formerly been. But he also occupied
himself with literary schemes; it was in this retreat that he wrote
cer