Maria Meyer

Meyer, Maria, a young woman whom E. Mörike met in 1823 and with whom he fell deeply in love. His break with her some months later was an act of violence to his own feelings. She is the Peregrina of the cycle of poems bearing that title. Maria Meyer, when Mörike met her, was 25, and is said to have been exceptionally beautiful. She was of Swiss birth and belonged to a well-to-do family, but had left her parents and joined the Pietistic sect of Frau von Krüdener. Her parents refused to take her back, and she led a nomadic life for some years. In the spring of 1823 she was found half insensible near Ludwigsburg and was befriended by citizens moved by her plight, her good looks, and her refined manners. She won the heart of the 19-year-old Mörike during his vacation at Ludwigsburg, but then disappeared. At the beginning of 1824 she was reported in Heidelberg and in July she appeared in Tübingen, but Mörike refused her pleas for a meeting. Soon afterwards she disappeared again and her further life is not known. An epileptic, she seems to have had a disturbed and hypersensitive personality, given to dreams and visions.