An early version of Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing, which has survived in manuscript form, shows Eichendorff’s conceptual labour. Searching for a title, for example, he tried out different terms establishing a link to the courtly love poetry of the Middle Ages (“The Modern Troubadour,” “The New Troubadour”). The printed version of the fragment lacks this reference, which did not really match the protagonist’s naive character. In a note added at the bottom, Eichendorff considers a different start to the young man’s relationship with the “lovely lady” he later marries: not in a carriage, where they slowly become acquainted, but at a merry harvest festival, where they fall in love immediately. However, he abandoned this idea as well.