I found no place for me in the Court Theatre. Its leaders were opposed to my family, because my mother with her large family received a larger pension, through the favor of the Kurfürst, than she could have expected in ordinary course. In a few strolling theatres, such as Regensburg, Nürnberg, Erlangen, and Augsburg, where I endured privation and misfortune enough, my enthusiasm was well dampened in the course of two years. I decided, as I could see no other prospects for the moment despite my not inconsiderable attainments, to support myself in future as author. I had written several dramatic pieces already that had won sufficient applause. Therefore I decided to have some of these printed in order to meet my immediate expenses. I gave one of them to the printing establishment of Herr Hübschmann, in Munich, and when the first folio was finished, I made the proposition to Herr Lentner to take some or all of the copies. He told me that I would have done better to let him have the manuscript; but since it had been begun, he told me to make sure that it be finished before the beginning of the Leipsic Easter Fair, in which case he promised to obtain for me one hundred gulden net, after deducting all costs. I begged Herr Hübschmann to finish the printing, but, as he assured me that it was impossible, I took the remaining folios to another printer. Despite this the play was not printed till two weeks after the fair, and I received from Herr Lentner barely enough to pay the printing cost. My hope of profit was lost. I had, however, seen the entire procedure of printing, because I had spent many a day in the establishments. I found that it would not be hard for me to learn, and could not withstand the desire to own a small printing establishment myself. "Thus," thought I, "I can print my productions myself, and so alternate healthfully between mental and physical activities." I could earn a decent living, too, and thus become an independent man. This idea controlled me so that I studied all sorts of ways to realize it. If I had possessed the necessary money, I would have bought types, a press and paper, and printing on stone probably would not have been invented so soon. The lack of funds, however, forced me to other expedients. At first I thought of etching letters in steel. These matrices I planned then to impress on pear wood, in which the letters would show in relief, somewhat like the cast type of the book printers, and they could have been printed like a wood-cut. A few experiments showed me the possibility of this, and I could easily have invented a machine with which the moulding could have been done more quickly than a printer could set his type. I reserve the right to use this possibly fruitful idea in future with improvements. At the time, however, I had to give up the whole thing through lack of implements and sufficient skill in engraving.