Absorbed in his new ambition, Kleist found little in Paris to interest him. He felt the need of solitude for the maturing of his plans, and with the double object of seeking in idyllic pursuits the inspiration of Nature and of earning leisure for writing, he proposed to his betrothed that she join him secretly in establishing a home upon a small farm in Switzerland. When Wilhelmina found it impossible to accept this plan, Kleist coldly severed all relations with her. He journeyed to Switzerland in December, 1801, and in Bern became acquainted with a group of young authors, the novelist Heinrich Zschokke, the publisher Heinrich Gessner, and Ludwig Wieland, son of the famous author of _Oberon_. To these sympathetic friends he read his first tragedy, which, in its earlier draft, had a Spanish setting, as _The Thierrez Family_ or _The Ghonorez Family_, but which, on their advice, was given a German background. This drama Gessner published for Kleist, under the title _The Schroffenstein Family_, in the winter of 1802-03. It had no sooner appeared than the author felt himself to have outgrown its youthful weaknesses of imitation and exaggeration. Another dramatic production grew directly out of the discussions of this little circle. The friends agreed, on a wager, to put into literary form the story suggested by an engraving that hung in Zschokke's room. By common consent the prize was awarded to Kleist's production, his one comedy, _The Broken Jug_. In April, 1802, Kleist realized his romantic dream by taking up his abode, in rural seclusion, on a little island at the outlet of the Lake of Thun, amid the majestic scenery of the Bernese Oberland. In this retreat, encouraged by the applause of his first confidants, he labored with joyous energy, recasting his _Schroffenstein Family_, working out the _Broken Jug_, meditating historical dramas on Leopold of Austria and Peter the Hermit, and expending the best of his untrained genius on the plan of a tragedy, _Robert Guiscard_, in which he strove to create a drama of a new type, combining the beauties of Greek classical art and of Shakespeare; with his _Guiscard_ the young poet even dared hope to "snatch the laurel wreath from Goethe's brow."