In his later years he was possessed by a kind of religious mania, though on a rare occasion he showed a trace of his old inclination to waggery. He declared, for instance, that he had drawn the apostles who appeared to Catharina Emmerich in her visions exactly as she had described them to him; but Bettina discovered that he had been unable to resist hanging round the apostle Paul's neck, in lieu of a scrip, a curious old tobacco pouch, which had belonged to himself in former days, and about which many funny stories were in circulation among his acquaintances. On his father's side Clemens Brentano was of Italian descent. His grandfather, a successful Frankfort merchant, was a native of Tremezzo on the Lake of Como. Through his mother he was descended from the authoress Sophie Laroche, Wieland's friend. In personal appearance he was the popular ideal poet, handsome, pale, and slight, with a confusion of curly black hair. He had a Southern complexion and sparkling, restless brown eyes shadowed by long lashes. His voice was deep and beautiful, and he was fond of singing his own songs, accompanying himself on the guitar. He was apprenticed to a merchant, but the experiment proved totally unsuccessful, and in 1797 he went to Jena, where he made the acquaintance of the most famous of the Romanticists, Fr. Schlegel, Steffens, and others. These friends often threatened to thrash him for his mad tricks and "not unfrequently malicious boasts and lies," and the threat was more than once actually carried out. But he could not refrain from offending; it was impossible to him to restrain a caprice. While still quite young, he fell in love with a very gifted woman, Sophie Mereau, wife of one of the Jena professors. In the course of this love affair the couple had many wonderful adventures, some of which we find reproduced in his first book, _Godwi, or the Mother's Statue_. When, in 1802, Fr. Tieck executed a marble bust of Brentano, Frau Mereau described the impression it produced on her in the following beautiful sonnet, inspired by genuine admiration and love:-- "Welch süsses Bild erschuf der Künstler hier? Von welchem milden Himmelsstrich erzeuget? Nennt keine Inschrift seinen Namen mir, Da diese todte Lippe ewig schweiget? Nach Hohem loht im Auge die Begier, Begeistrung auf die Stirne niedersteiget, Um die, nur von der schönen Locken Zier Geschmücket, noch kein Lorbeerkranz sich beuget. Ein Dichter ist es. Seine Lippen prangen Von Lieb' umwebt, mit wunderselgem Leben, Die Augen gab ihm sinnend die Romanze! Und schalkhaft wohnt der Scherz auf seinen Wangen; Den Namen wird der Ruhm ihm einstens geben, Das Haupt ihm schmückend mit dem Lorbeerkranze."[2] Happiness came to Brentano before fame. In 1803 he married Sophie Mereau, who had been divorced from her husband, and they lived most happily together till 1806, when she died in childbirth.