Chronicle of Nietzsche 's Life 355and his lack of esprit de corps were regarded as a lack of character, and
I recall how one day a certain M., who was taking a leisurely stroll
through the school garden, discreedy and to the great amusement of a
group of bystanders, produced a jumping jack that was cut out and
assembled from a photograph of Nietzsche. Luckily my friend never
learned of this."
N. drinks four pints of beer on an outing with friends in the bar of the
Kösen train station and returns to Pforta drunk. As a result, he is
demoted from first in his class, and forfeits his position as monitor of
the younger fellow students. He writes to his mother, overwhelmed
with remorse: "Write me as soon as you can and be strict with me,
because I deserve it"
Associates with Ernst Ordepp, a vagrant poet. N. records several of
Ordepp's poems on love and anguish in his diary: "Now that I no longer
have you, / I will soon be in my grave." Shortly thereafter Ordepp is
found dead in a ditch.
An excerpt of N.'s letter to his mother on September 6: "The autumn
and its chilly air drove away the nightingales.... But the air is so crys-
talline and you can get such a clear view of the heavens that the wodd
lies naked before your eyes. If I think for a moment about what I want,
I look for words to a melody I have and a melody to words I have, and
the two simply do not match up, although they both came from my soul.
But that is my destiny!"
1864
While still at Pforta, N. writes his first major essay on classical philology.
The topic is Theognis. Effusive praise from his teachers. N. thinks oth-
erwise: "Am I satisfied with it? No, no." August: Takes his university
entrance examination. October: Begins studying theological and classi-
cal philology in Bonn. N. rents a piano and joins the "Franconia" frater-
nity. Attends lectures by Friedrich RitschL