And yet the question of the Jews is one that interests them both. The task the young emperor has set himself depends upon freeing the Jews for their own good from their medieval superstitions, as the natural and indubitable talents of these people are now being exploited for all kinds of Kabbalah, suspicious and unproductive speculations. If they could properly educate themselves at the same level as the rest of the population, they would be of considerably greater service to the empire. The emperor’s mother would like to draw them into the one true faith, and she has heard that this would be possible with a great many of them. When, therefore, on the list of those wishing to visit the emperor on the occasion of his name day there appears the name Joseph Jacob Frank, Joseph II and his mother are greatly pleased and curious, since lately everyone has been talking of this Frank and his daughter.
And as his companions from the lodge recommend Jacob to him, the emperor invites this strange pair, father and daughter, with enthusiasm and out of curiosity, during the time designated for artist visits, and he brings them to the Wunderkammer. He leads them in among the vitrines, where he has collected the bones of ancient animals and the giants who evidently once roamed the earth. He converses with Frank through an interpreter, while with his daughter he speaks French; this creates a certain discomfort. Therefore he prefers to focus on the father. Yet out of the corner of his eye he watches this interesting woman and sees that she is shy and not very sure of herself. The rumors of her beauty strike him as exaggerated. She is pretty, but hers is not a dazzling beauty. He knows many more beautiful women. In principle he is suspicious and mistrustful toward them—there is often something perverse about them; they are always out to get something. But she seems straightforward, skittish, not alluring and not pretending. She is petite, and in the future, like all women from the east, she will be plump; she has now reached full bloom. She has a pale complexion that seems slightly celadon in color, without much pink in her cheeks; she has enormous eyes and terrific hair arrayed up high; onto her forehead and her neck fall pretty, flirtatious curls. Her tiny hands and feet seem almost childish. She does not have the dignity her father does, he being tall, well built, ugly, and self-assured. The emperor is pleased to find that Eva, despite her intimidation, is a wit. He performs a little test—he takes them to the shelves where human embryos float in murky liquid inside great jars; most of them are monstrous specimens. Some have double heads, others torsos, others still have a single great big eye, like a Cyclops. Father and daughter look on without disgust, with curiosity. A point in their favor. Then they go over to the horizontal person-sized case that holds “Sybilla”—that is how he thinks of her—his wax model of a woman with her face in ecstasies, her belly open so that you can see the intestines, the stomach, the uterus and bladder. Usually women faint or at least feel sick when they come to this exhibit. He watches Eva Frank’s reaction with interest. She leans over the showcase and, flushing, examines the contents of the woman’s belly. Then she raises her head and looks inquiringly at the emperor.
“Who was the model?”
The emperor laughs, amused, and then he carefully explains how this uncommonly detailed wax model was made.
As they are returning from the Wunderkammer, Jacob tells verbosely, through the interpreter, of his connections in Warsaw, dropping name after name in the hope one will resonate with the emperor, but unfortunately none of them does. Twice he mentions Kossakowska. He knows the emperor’s secretary will remember this rapid-fire list of names in its entirety and check each entry carefully. It is the first time the emperor is talking with people like them, that is, Jews who have ceased to be Jews. One question does not cease to obsess him: Where has their Jewishness gone? He cannot see it in their appearances or in their manners. Eva could pass for an Italian or Spanish woman, and there isn’t any nation for her father, no specific place that could stake a claim on him. He is completely original. When the emperor puts some direct question to Jacob, he feels as if he’s coming up against the iron sides of the man’s will; he senses the incredibly powerful boundaries of his self. These are people from everywhere and nowhere. The future of humanity.
The audience lasts not quite an hour. That same day, the emperor has the Franks sent an invitation to his summer residence in Sch?nbrunn. His mother, who saw them for the first five minutes of their visit (she does not enjoy being in the Wunderkammer; she claims it gives her bad dreams), shares her son’s good opinion. She says that such people are desirable to the state. As if it weren’t enough that they are Catholics, they also spend—as has already been reported—up to a thousand ducats a day maintaining their court in Brünn.
“If we could invite all such people to our empire, it would flourish better than Frederick’s Prussia,” she points out, slightly annoying her son.
Of the bear from Avacha Frank’s dream
Eva dreams—as Czerniawski diligently records—that a great brown bear approaches her. She is afraid to move, so she just stands there, petrified. But then this bear starts licking her hands and feet. There is no one to save her from this terrible, oppressive embrace. A man arrives and sits down on a chair, the same red chair her father had in Cz?stochowa. Eva thinks at first that it is her father who has come, but in fact it is some other man, younger, very handsome. He looks a little like the emperor, but he also looks like Franciszek Wo?owski and a little like Thomas Dobrushka. And there is also this magician with the white staff they saw at the emperor’s in Sch?nbrunn. He tore a handkerchief into four, put on a black hat, and then waved that staff over it—and when he pulled out the handkerchief, it was whole again. To Eva’s great embarrassment, her father went up to the magician and offered to rip apart his own handkerchief for him, the one he wore around his neck. But the magician said no, that he knew how to do it only when he did his own ripping, which everyone found very funny. So in her dream her savior has the qualities of all those people. The bear leaves, and Eva flies away.
Eva has such strange dreams, all so real to her, that she is scarcely ever parted from the Polish dream dictionary she received from Marianna Wo?owska, who brought it straight from Warsaw.
For their trip to Sch?nbrunn, her father bought her the four most beautiful dresses they could find in Vienna. The sleeves had to be shortened slightly, and other alterations made. Each has a powerful corset, and in keeping with the latest fashion, doesn’t even reach her ankles. They spent an entire day buying hats from the milliner. These were so wonderful Eva could not make her mind up as to which to buy. Finally, her father, reaching the end of his patience, bought them all.