FOOTNOTES
[1] Gespräche mit Eckermann, January 27th, 1824.
[2] In 1792, on the occasion of his being offered the honour of Rathsherr (town-councillor) in Frankfort, he wrote to his mother that "it was an honour, not only in the eyes of Europe, but of the whole world, to have been a citizen of Frankfort." (Goethe to his mother, December 24th, 1792). So, in 1824, he told Bettina von Arnim that, had he had the choice of his birthplace, he would have chosen Frankfort. As we shall see, Goethe did not always speak so favourably of Frankfort.
| Die Abgeschiednen betracht' ich gern, Stünd' ihr Verdienst auch noch so fern; Doch mit den edlen lebendigen Neuen Mag ich wetteifernd mich lieber freuen. |
[4] In his later years Goethe preferred life in a small town. "Zwar ist es meiner Natur gemäss, an einem kleinen Orte zu leben." (Goethe to Zelter, December 16th, 1804.)
[5] To Chancellor von Müller Goethe said: "Mein Vater war ein tüchtiger Mann, aber freilich fehlte ihm Gewandtheit und Beweglichkeit des Geistes."
[6] Writing to her grandchild, Goethe's mother says: "Dein lieber Vater hat mir nie Kummer oder Verdruss verursacht."
[7] When the son of Frau von Stein was about to visit her, Goethe wrote: "Da sie nicht so ernsthaft ist wie ich, so wirst du dich besser bei ihr befinden."
[8] Goethe's letters addressed to Cornelia from Leipzig, when he was in his eighteenth year, are in the tone at once of an affectionate brother and of a schoolmaster. Their subsequent relations to each other will appear in the sequel.
[9] It was doubtless due to the absence of strict drill in his youth that Goethe, as he himself tells us, never acquired the art of punctuating his own writings.
[10] Goethe said of himself that he had no "grammatical vein."
[11] With reference to what he says of his Biblical studies he wrote as follows to a correspondent (January 30th, 1812): "Dass Sie meine asiatischen Weltanfänge so freundlich aufnehmen, ist mir von grossem Wert. Es schlingt sich die daher für mich gewonnene Kultur durch mein ganzes Leben...."
[12] His remark to Eckermann (1828) is well known: "Meine Sachen können nicht populär werden; wer daran denkt und dafür strebt, ist in einem Irrthum."
[13] So Weislingen (in Götz von Berlichingen), whom Goethe meant to be a double of himself, says: "Ich bin ein Chamaeleon."
[14] All Goethe's boyish productions that have been preserved will be found in Der junge Goethe, Neue Ausgabe in sechs Bänden besorgt von Max Morris, Leipzig, 1909.
[15] X. Doudan, Mélanges et Lettres, i. 524.
[16] Werke, Briefe, Band i., 68-9.
[17] On the occasion of a visit he paid to Leipzig in 1783, Goethe says: "Die Leipziger sind als eine kleine, moralische Republik anzusehn. Jeder steht für sich, hat einige Freunde und geht in seinem Wesen fort."
[18] Gespräche mit Riemer, Anfang 1807.
| Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, Sich ein Character in dem Strom der Welt. |
[20] In point of fact Goethe retained to the end the intonation and the idioms of his native speech.
[21] In his Autobiography Goethe states as the reason for his casting off the home-made suit he had brought with him from Frankfort, that a person entering the Leipzig theatre in similar costume excited the ridicule of the audience.
[22] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 159.
[23] Ib. pp. 60-3.
[24] Ib. pp. 61-2.
[25] Ib. pp. 81-2.
[26] Ib. p. 86. The passage is in French.
[27] This was the work of Behrisch, who was a virtuoso in calligraphy.
[28] Werke, Briefe, i. 96-7.
[29] Ib. p. 105.
[30] Ib. p. 116.
[31] Ib. p. 133.
[32] Ib. pp. 158-9.
[33] "Das Bedürfnis meiner Natur zwingt mich zu einer vermannigfaltigten Thätigkeit," he wrote of himself in his thirty-second year.
[34] When, in his thirty-sixth year, Goethe renewed his acquaintance with Oeser, he wrote of him to Frau von Stein: "C'est comme si cet homme ne devroit pas mourir, tant ses talents paroissent toujours aller en s'augmentant."
[35] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 179.
[36] In later years he consoled himself with the reflection that the time he had spent on the technicalities of art was not wholly lost, as he had thus acquired powers of observation which were valuable to him both as a poet and as a man of science.
[37] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 67.
[38] Ib. p. 88.
[39] Notably in his paper, entitled Literarischer Sansculottismus. See above, p. 4. Regarding Lessing he made this remark to Eckermann (February 7th, 1827): "Bedauert doch den ausserordentlichen Menschen, dass er in einer so erbärmlichen Zeit leben musste, die ihm keine bessern Stoffe gab, als in seinen Stücken verarbeitet sind!"
[40] "Lessing war der höchste Verstand, und nur ein ebenso grosser konnte von ihm wahrhaft lernen. Dem Halbvermögen war er gefährlich." (To Eckermann, January 18th, 1825.)
[41] Nine of these Lieder Goethe thought worthy of a permanent place in his collected works.
[42] This play was based on an earlier attempt made in Frankfort.
[43] The exact time and place of its composition is uncertain, but Goethe's own testimony seems to indicate that it was mainly written in Leipzig, in 1769. It was first published in 1787, with some modifications, which affect only the form.
[44] With a fatuity into which he occasionally fell, Goethe in Dichtung und Wahrheit remarks that his two plays are an illustration of that most Christian text, "Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone."
[45] The translation of this passage is by Miss Minna Steele Smith.—Poetry and Truth from My Own Life (London, 1908.)
[46] In a letter to W. von Rumohr (September 28th, 1807), Goethe calls "unaufhaltsame Natur, unüberwindliche Neigung, drängende Leidenschaft" the "Haupterfordernisse der wahren Poesie." In two of his Zahme Xenien Goethe has expressed his opinion on the necessity of inspiration in poetic production:—
| Ja das ist das rechte Gleis, Dass man nicht weiss, Was man denkt, Wenn man denkt: Alles ist als wie geschenkt. All unser redlichstes Bemühn Glückt nur im unbewussten Momente. Wie möchte denn die Rose blühn, Wenn sie der Sonne Herrlichkeit erkennte! |
[47] When approaching his eightieth year, Goethe remarked to Chancellor von Müller (March 6th, 1828): "Wer mit mir umgehen will, muss zuweilen auch meine Grobianslaune zugeben, ertragen, wie eines andern Schwachheit oder Steckenpferd."
[48] Referring to the time he now spent in Frankfort, Goethe says in Dichtung und Wahrheit: "Mit dem Vater selbst konnte sich kein angenehmes Verhältniss knüpfen."
[49] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 215.
[50] Ib. p. 217.
[51] Cf. his beautiful characterisation of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, in whom he found the embodiment at once of the Christian graces and of reine Menschlichkeit.
[52] Probably Goethe had this book in his mind when he wrote the sarcastic epigram:—
| "Es ist die ganze Kirchengeschichte Mischmasch von Irrthum und von Gewalt." |
[53] Yet at a later date he would seem to have regarded his mystical studies as among the errors of his youth. In his Tagebuch, under date August 7th, 1779, he writes as follows, and the passage may be taken as a commentary on the whole period of his life with which we are dealing: "Stiller Rückblick auf's Leben auf die Verworrenheit Betriebsamkeit, Wissbegierde der Jugend, wie sie überall herumschweift, um etwas Befriedigendes zu finden. Wie ich besonders in Geheimnissen, dunklen imaginativen Verhältissen eine Wollust gefunden habe."
[54] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 179, November 7th, 1768.
[55] Ib. p. 173.
[56] Ib. p. 217.
[57] Ib. p. 211.
[58] Ib. p. 224.
[59] Goethe saw Käthchen as a married woman in Leipzig in 1776, when he wrote to the lady who then held his affections (Frau von Stein): "Mais ce n'est plus Julie."
[60] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 205.
[61] Ib. p. 230.
[62] Goethe has this entry in his Tagebuch (April 2nd, 1780): "Wieland sieht ganz unglaublich alles, was man machen will, macht, und was hangt und langt in einer Schrift."
[63] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 200.
[64] So we are led to infer from what he says in Part iii., Book ii. of Dichtung und Wahrheit.
[65] Werke, Briefe, Band i. 232.
[66] Ib. p. 234.
[67] Ib. pp. 240, 241.
[68] Lerse, one of Goethe's friends in Strassburg, said: "Da geriet Goethe oft in hohe Verzückung, sprach Worte der Prophezeiung und machte Lerse Besorgnisse, er werde überschnappen." (Goethe's Gespräche. Gesamtausgabe von Freiherrn v. Biedermann, Leipzig, 1909, i. p. 19.)
[69] Werke, Briefe, Band i. pp. 245-7.
[70] Jung Stilling.
[71] Biedermann, op. cit., i. pp. 15, 19. At an earlier period Goethe was thus described: "Er mag 15 oder 16 Jahr alt sein, im übrigen hat er mehr ein gutes Plappermaul als Gründlichkeit." Ib. p. 6.
[72] Goethe's personal appearance made such a remarkable impression on all who met him that it deserves to be more minutely described. In stature he was slightly over the middle height, though the poise of his head, both in youth and age, gave the impression of greater tallness. Till past his thirtieth year he was notably slender in figure, a defect in symmetry being the observable shortness of the legs, and he walked with swift, elastic step. The foot was elegantly shaped, but the hand was that of the descendant of ancestors who had been engaged in manual labour. The head was of oval form, the chin small and feminine, the height of the forehead remarkable. The face, which (in youth) gave the impression of smallness, was brown in complexion; the nose was delicately formed and slightly curved; the hair brown, abundant, and usually dishevelled. The feature which struck all who met him for the first time was the eyes, which were brown in colour, large, and widely-opened, with the white conspicuous, and piercingly bright.—An exhaustive study of the portraits and busts of Goethe will be found in Goethes Kopf und Gestalt von Karl Bauer, Berlin, 1908.
[73] Stilling elsewhere says: "Schade, dass so wenige diesen vortrefflichen Menschen seinem Herzen nach kennen!" Others used similar expressions regarding Goethe's mind and heart.
[74] R. Haym, Herder's biographer, says of him: "Einen unbedingt erfreulichen, harmonischen Eindruck kann dieser Mann, der selbst von den 'gräulichen Dissonanzen' redet, in die Äussererungen zuweilen ausklingen möchten, auch auf den günstigst gestimmten Betrachter nimmermehr machen." (Herder nach seinem Leben und seinen Werken, Berlin, 1887, i. p. 396.)
[75] Goethe attached so much importance to many of Hamann's utterances that, as late as 1806, he had thoughts of bringing out an edition of Hamann's works.
[76] Herder thought that Goethe was lacking in enthusiasm.
[77] Elsewhere Herder calls Goethe a Specht, a wood-pecker.
[78] Writing to a correspondent in 1780, Goethe says: "Herder fährt fort, sich und andern das Leben sauer zu machen."
[79] Götz von Berlichingen.
[80] Von deutcher Baukunst.
[81] Werke, Briefe, Band i. p. 264. He adds that he would prefer to be Mercury, the least of the seven planets that revolve round the sun, than first among the five that revolve round Saturn.
[82] Herder himself says of his influence on Goethe: "Ich glaube ihm, ohne Lobrednerei, einige gute Eindrücke gegeben zu haben, die einmal wirksam werden können."—Haym, op. cit. i. 392.
[83] Ib. Band ii. p. 18.
[84] Schiller, in a letter to C.G. Körner, the father of the poet, writes (July, 1787): "He [Herder] said that Goethe had greatly influenced his intellectual development."
[85] Ib. Band i. p. 250.
[86] Subsequent investigation has proved that Goethe has committed several errors of fact in his narrative. For example, he relates that on his first visit to the Sesenheim family he was vividly reminded of the family of the Vicar of Wakefield. In point of fact, he was introduced to Goldsmith's work by Herder, who came to Strassburg subsequent to Goethe's first visit to Sesenheim.
[87] Ib. p. 251.
[88] It is recorded that his voice trembled as he dictated the passages referring to Sesenheim and Friederike.
[89] In reality, there were four daughters, but Goethe omits mention of the other two in order to make more striking the resemblance between the family of the Vicar of Wakefield and that of Sesenheim.
[90] Biedermann, op. cit. i. pp. 16-17.
[91] In the recently discovered manuscript of Wilhelm Meisters Theatralische Sendung occurs this passage, evidently self-descriptive: "Als Knabe hatte er zu grossen prächtigen Worten und Sprüchen eine ausserordentliche Liebe, er schmückte seine Seele damit aus wie mit einem köstlichen Kleide, und freute sich darüber, als wenn sie zu ihm selbst gehörten kindlisch über diesen äussern Schmuck."
[92] Werke, Briefe, Band i. p. 258 ff.
[93] Friederike died in 1815. She was still alive when Goethe was writing the story of their love.
| Nichts taugt Ungeduld, Noch weniger Reue; Jene vermehrt die Schuld, Diese schafft neue. |
[95] "I, too," Goethe wrote in Dichtung und Wahrheit, "had trodden the path of knowledge, and had early been led to see the vanity of it."
[96] In point of fact, only two legal cases passed through Goethe's hands during the first seven months after his return. During the later period of his stay in Frankfort he was more busily engaged with law.
[97] The younger brother, Georg, subsequently married Cornelia.
[98] Werke, Briefe, Band 2, pp. 7-8.
[99] Ib. p. 6.
[100] Ib. p. 8.
[101] Ib. p. 14.
[102] So it was then thought, but the exact date is uncertain.
[103] The toast of the evening—"The Will of all Wills"—was given by Goethe, who thereupon delivered the panegyric on Shakespeare which he had composed in Strassburg. This toast was followed by one to the health of Herder.
[104] In the characters of Marie and Elizabeth we have traits of Friederike and of Goethe's mother.
[105] As we have seen, the Leipzig book of verses did not attract general attention.
[106] Lessing strongly disapproved of Götz as flouting the doctrines laid down in his Dramaturgie. When his brother announced to him that Götz had been played with great applause in Berlin, his cold comment was that no doubt the chief credit was due to the decorator.
[107] Two of the scenes in Götz were imitated by Scott in his own work—the Vehmgericht scene in Anne of Geierstein and the description of the siege of Torquilstone by Rebecca to the wounded Ivanhoe. Scott also borrowed from Egmont.
[108] Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe, November 9th, 1824.
[109] It was Schlosser who had made Goethe and Merck acquainted. Herder, to whom Merck was known, had been a previous intermediary.
[110] A six hours' walk.
[111] The poem, entitled Der Wanderer, noted below.
[112] The girl meant was no doubt Käthchen Schönkopf.
[113] Über Goethe's Gedichte (1911), p. 157.
[114] On account of his constant travels between Frankfort and Darmstadt, Goethe was known among his friends as the Wanderer. The poem was written in the autumn, during Goethe's residence in Wetzlar.
[115] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 19-20.
[116] Werther, as Goethe reminds us in one of his Venetian epigrams, was known in China:—
| Doch was fördert es mich, dass auch sogar der Chinese Malet mit ängstlicher Hand Werthern und Lotten auf Glas? |
[117] The Praktikanten were voluntary attendants on the Imperial Court, had little or no dependence on the authorities, and lived on their own resources.
[118] Caroline Flachsland to Herder, May 25th, 1772.
[119] Goethe to Herder, Werke, Briefe, Band ii. 15.
[120] In the Kronprinz, the principal hotel in the town.
[121] Goethe's own lodging (still shown) was in the Gewandsgasse, a narrow, dirty street, whence sun or moon could be seen at no season of the year.
[122] In his contemporary letters, Goethe does not always speak of Gotter so favourably as he does in his Autobiography.
[123] An exhaustive account of Goethe's sojourn in Wetzlar will be found in W. Herbst's Goethe in Wetzlar, 1772. Vier Monate aus des Dichters Jugendleben, Gotha, 1881.
[124] This is the expression of Kestner, Lotte's betrothed.
[125] Such abrupt departures were characteristic of Goethe. We shall find him taking similar unceremonious leave of another of his loves. Goethe, wrote Frau von Stein to her son (May, 1812), "kann das Abschied nehmen nicht leiden, er ging ohne Abschied neulich von mir."
[126] Kestner's characterisation of Goethe will be found in Biedermann, op. cit. i. pp. 21-3.
[127] Goethe had made Jerusalem's acquaintance in Leipzig. Jerusalem called Goethe a Geck, a coxcomb, a description which, as we have seen, was not inapplicable to him in his Leipzig days. Jerusalem was a friend of Lessing, who highly esteemed him, and after his death published his MSS.
[128] In point of fact, Goethe announced himself. Merck arrived after him.
[129] In a letter to Schiller (July 24th, 1799) Goethe gives a much less favourable estimate of Frau von la Roche, whom he had just met: "Sie gehört zu den nivellierenden Naturen, sie hebt das Gemeine herauf und zieht das Vorzügliche herunter...."
[130] Goethe to Kestner, November 10th, 1772. Werke, Briefe, Band ii. 35.
[131] To the same, September 15th, 1773. Ib. p. 104.
[132] Ib. pp. 82-3.
[133] November 27th, 1772.
[134] Goethe wrote the epilogue to the last number of the Review, of which he says to Kestner, "hat ich das Publikum und den Verleger turlipinirt."
[135] In its new form Götz was no better adapted for the stage. "Eine angeborne Unart ist schwierig zu meistern," is Goethe's own remark on his attempt to make it a good acting play.
[136] Ich bin wie immer der nachdenkliche Leichtsinn und die warme Kälte.—Goethe to Sophie von la Roche, September 1st, 1780.
[137] A quarrel had arisen between Merck and Leuchsenring, and Goethe had warmly taken Merck's side.
[138] As we have seen, Herder was jealous of Goethe's own attentions to Caroline.
[139] It was published in the autumn of the following year, 1774.
[140] W. Scherer was the first to identify Herder with Satyros.
[141] Satyros was not published till 1814, after Herder's death, but he was aware of its existence.
[142] Max Morris, op. cit. iv. 81.
[143] The following passage from an article in the Hibbert Journal, by M. Bergson (October, 1911, pp. 42-3), is an interesting commentary on Goethe's conception: "If, then, in every province the triumph of life is expressed by creation, might we not think that the ultimate reason of human life is a creation which, in distinction from that of the artist or man of science, can be pursued at every moment and by all men alike; I mean the creation of self by self, the continual enrichment of personality, by elements which it does not draw from outside, but causes to spring forth from itself?"
[144] Viktor Hehn pointed out that the drama and the ode are inspired by different motives, and that it was in forgetfulness that Goethe associated them.—Über Goethe's Gedichte, p. 160. Bielschowsky (Goethe, Sein Leben und Seine Werke, i. 510) suggests that the ode may have been intended as the opening of Act ii.
[145] Sir Frederick Pollock dates "modern Spinozism" from this incident.—Spinoza: His Life and Opinions (London, 1880), p. 390.
[146] While writing a defence of his friend Lessing against the charge of atheism, Mendelssohn's mental agitation was such that it was believed to have occasioned his death.
[147] Turgenieff relates that on translating passages from Satyros and Prometheus to Flaubert, Edmond de Goncourt, and Daudet, all three were profoundly impressed by the range and power displayed in them.
[148] It is one of the ironies of Goethe's literary career that, in his later years, in the period of his reaction against the formlessness that had invaded German literature, he, with the approval of Schiller, translated Voltaire's Mahomet, and staged it in Weimar.
[149] It is this conception, as he himself tells us, that Renan applied to the life and teaching of Jesus.
[150] In his sixty-second year Goethe also said of himself: "Denn gewöhnlich, was ich ausspreche, das tue ich nicht, und was ich verspreche, das halte ich nicht."
[151] Werke, Briefe, ii. 140.
[152] These lines are by the Earl of Rochester. On reading the first English translation of Werther (1783), Goethe wrote: "It gave me much pleasure to read my thoughts in the language of my instructors."
[153] In making these modifications Goethe was advised by Herder and Wieland.
[154] Though to the satisfaction of neither Kestner nor Lotte.
[155] It was shortly after his meeting with Lotte Buff that Goethe learned that she was engaged to Kestner.
[156] Goethe gave the blue eyes of Maxe to Charlotte. Lotte Buff's eyes were brown.
[157] "Werther," Goethe remarked to Henry Crabb Robinson, "praised Homer while he retained his senses, and Ossian when he was going mad."
[158] Werke, Briefe, ii. 156.
[159] The judgment of Lessing, who had no sympathy with the effeminate sentimentality of the time, was severe. "We cannot," he said, "imagine a Greek or a Roman Werther; it was the Christian ideal that had made such a character possible." Goethe, he thought, should have added a cynical chapter (the more cynical the better) to put Werther's character in its true light. As the friend of Jerusalem, Lessing naturally resented the liberty which Goethe had taken with him.
[160] By Sainte-Beuve.
[161] Werke, Briefe, ii. 207.
[162] The family of Kestner eventually published the correspondence of Goethe with their parents.—A. Kestner, Goethe und Werther, Briefe Goethes, meistens aus seiner Jugendheit, mit erläuternden Documenten (Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1854).
[163] Eckermann, op. cit., January 2nd, 1824.
[164] The accidie of the Middle Ages was a form of Wertherism. Cf. Chaucer's Parson's Tale.
[165] It may be recalled that Werther was throughout his life one of R.L. Stevenson's favourite books. See his Letter to Mrs. Sitwell, September 6th, 1873, and ch. xix. of The Wrecker.
[166] Fragment de mon voyage d'Espagne.—Mémoires de Monsieur Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, tome ii.
[167] Of all the women who came in her son's way, Frau Goethe thought that this lady, Anna Sibylla Münch by name, would have made him the most suitable partner in life.
[168] To Fritz Jacobi, August 21st, 1774.
[169] In language, as well as in form, Clavigo followed traditional models. Wieland was naturally gratified by Goethe's return to those models which he had set at defiance in Götz.
[170] In his Autobiography Goethe expresses the opinion that Merck's advice was not sound, and that he might have done wisely in producing a succession of plays like Clavigo, some of which, like it, might have retained their place on the stage.
[171] Saying of Philine in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, bk. iv. ch. ix.
[172] An entry in his Ephemerides, the diary which he kept in his 21st year (see above, p. 102), shows that Spinoza's philosophy, as he conceived it, was then repugnant to him. The passage is as follows: "Testimonio enim mihi est virorum tantorum sententia, rectae rationi quam convenientissimum fuisse systema emanativum (he is thinking specially of Giordano Bruno); licet nulli subscribere velim sectae, valdeque doleam Spinozismum, teterrimis erroribus ex eodem fonte manantibus, doctrinae huic purissimae, iniquissimum fratrem natum esse."—Max Morris, op. cit. ii. 33.
[173] By Felix Mendelssohn.
[175] It was first published in 1836, four years after his death.
[176] In one of his Xenien Goethe speaks thus of Lavater:—
| "Schade, dass die Natur nur einen Menschen aus dir schuf, Denn zum würdigen Mann war und zum Schelmen der Stoff." |
[177] The letter is addressed to Heinrich Pfenninger, an engraver in Zurich, who engraved some of the plates in Lavater's book on Physiognomy.—Werke, Briefe, Band ii. pp. 155-6.
[178] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 33.
[179] Ib. p. 34.
[180] The school was actually founded in 1774, but subsequently, owing to quarrels with his colleagues, Basedow had to leave it. It was closed in 1793.
[181] Basedow remained for a time at Mülheim. As we shall see, he and Goethe met again later in the month.
[182] As Werther was not published till the autumn of 1774, there must be some confusion in Lavater's narrative.
[183] Werke, Briefe, ii. 180.
[184] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 45.
[185] As Goethe at this time knew little of Spinoza's philosophy, it was probably on Spinoza's personal character that he enlarged. On this theme, we have seen, he had discoursed with Lavater.
[186] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 45.
[187] Johann J.W. Heinse, a minor poet of the time, and one of Goethe's most fervent admirers.
[188] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 45-6.
[189] Werke, Briefe, ii. 182.
[190] Klopstock came from Göttingen, where he was the idol of a band of youthful poets.
[191] Werke, Briefe, ii. 182.
[192] Merck found in Klopstock "viel Weltkunde und Weltkälte."
[193] Writing to Sophie von la Roche on November 20th, Goethe calls Klopstock "a noble, great man, on whom the peace of God rests," Werke, Briefe ii. 206.
[194] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 46.
[195] Max Morris, op. cit. iv. 370-1. About the same date as Knebel's letter, Goethe wrote to Sophie von la Roche: "Das ist was Verfluchtes dass ich anfange mich mit niemand mehr misszuverstehen." In his 49th year Goethe said of himself: "Opposition ist mir immer nötig."
[196] Ib. p. 370.
[197] In a letter written to Johanna Fahlmer from Weimar (April 10th, 1776) Goethe vehemently expresses his dislike of the Schönemann kin. "I have long hated them," he says; "from the bottom of my heart.... I pity the poor creature [Lili] that she was born into such a race."
[198] Eckermann, March 5th, 1830. What has been said of Chateaubriand, who made use of a similar expression, may probably be said with greater truth of Goethe, "Il ment à ses propres souvenirs et à son coeur." In a letter to Frau von Stein (May 24th, 1776) Goethe describes his relation to Friederike Brion as "das reinste, schönste, wahrste, das ich ausser meiner Schwester je zu einem Weibe gehabt."
[199] She is described as a pretty blonde, with blue eyes and fair hair. In a letter (March 30th, 1801) addressed to Lili, then a widow, Goethe writes: "Sie haben in den vergangenen Jahren viel ausgestanden und dabei, wie ich weiss, einen entschlossenen Mut bewiesen, der Ihnen Ehre macht."
[200] It may be regarded as significant that Goethe makes no reference to the Countess in his Autobiography.
[201] Werke, Briefe, ii. 230.
[202] Ib. pp. 233-4.
[203] Ib. p. 113.
[204] He says of the piece that it cost him "little expenditure of mind and feeling." Ib.
[205] Goethe was not known to be the author. In a letter to Johanna Fahlmer, he expresses his curiosity to know if Lili was present at its performance. Erwin und Elmire, it should be said, contains two of Goethe's most beautiful songs, the one beginning "Ein Veilchen auf der Wiese stand," and the other "Ihr verblühet, süsse Rosen."
[206] In deference to the general opinion that this ending was immoral, Goethe, in a later form of the play, makes Fernando shoot himself.
[207] Stella and other German plays are wittily parodied in The Rovers; or, The Double Arrangement.
[208] Goethe gives Fernando his own brown eyes and black hair.
[209] After he had broken with her, and was settled in Weimar.
[210] During his residence in Rome in 1787. He recast Erwin und Elmire at the same time.
[211] To this period probably belongs Lilis Park, the most playfully humorous of Goethe's poems, in which he banters Lili on her capricious treatment of himself (represented as a bear) as one of her menagerie—the motley crowd of her suitors.
[212] Certain pranks played by Goethe during his stay in Offenbach show that he was not wholly given up to "lover's melancholy." On a moonlight night, robed in a white sheet, and mounted on stilts (a form of exercise to which he was addicted), he went through the town and created a panic among the inhabitants by looking into their windows. On another occasion, at a baptism, he secretly deposited the baby in a dish, and covering it with a towel, placed the dish on a table where the company were assembled. It was only after some time that the contents of the dish were revealed.
[213] Werke, Briefe, ii. 246.
[214] Werke, Briefe, ii. 249.
[215] Ib. p. 255.
[216] Frau Schönemann is recorded to have said that the different religion of the two families was the cause of the match being broken off.
[217] Werke, Briefe, ii. 261-2.
[218] The third was Count Haugnitz, of more subdued temper than his companions.
[219] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 55.
[220] According to Goethe, Count Haugnitz was the only one of the four who showed any sense of propriety.
[221] It was at this time that Merck gave his famous definition of Goethe's genius. See above, p. 135.
[222] The Urfaust.
[223] Goethe was known as the "Bear" or the "Huron" among his friends.
[224] Werke, Briefe, ii. 266.
[225] Cornelia died in June, 1777, when Goethe was settled in Weimar.
[226] On Cornelia's death he wrote to his mother: "Mit meiner Schwester ist mir so eine starcke Wurzel die mich an der Erde hielt abgehauen worden, dass die Aeste von oben, die davon Nahrung haben, auch absterben müssen."
[227] Biedermann, op. cit. i. 59. Goethe made Lavater the victim of one of the practical jokes which he was in the habit of playing on his friends. Seeing an unfinished sermon of Lavater on his desk, he completed it during the absence of Lavater, who, in ignorance of the addition, preached the whole sermon as his own.—Ib. p. 58.
[228] According to a tradition in the Passavant family, it was Goethe, not Passavant, who was so eager to descend into Italy.—Biedermann, op. cit. i. 58.
[229] Werke, Briefe, ii. 272.
[230] Ib. p. 273.
[231] Ib. pp. 277-8.
[232] The two poems, Lilis Park and the song beginning "Ihr verblühet, süsse Rosen," which Goethe refers to this period, were really written at an earlier date. The latter, we have seen, appears in Erwin und Elmire.
[233] It was at this time that he translated the Song of Solomon, which he calls "the most glorious collection of love-songs God ever made."
[234] Werke, Briefe, ii. 294. In a letter to the Countess's brothers about the same date, Goethe writes: "Gustchen [the Countess] is an angel. The devil that she is an Imperial Countess."—Ib. p. 298.
[235] Biedermann, op. cit. i. p. 60.
[236] Max Morris, op. cit. v. 470.
[237] The Duke had previously passed through Frankfort on his way to Carlsruhe. On that occasion, also, Goethe had been in intercourse with him.
[238] This, as we have seen, is not consistent with certain of his former statements.—In June of 1776 Lili was betrothed to another, but, owing to his bankruptcy, marriage did not follow. In 1778, however, she was married to a Strassburg banker. Like all Goethe's loves, she retained a kindly memory of him. She is reported to have said that she regarded herself as owing her best self to him.—Max Morris, op. cit. v. 468.
[239] Miss Swanwick's translation. Goethe concludes his Autobiography with these words.
[240] Fräulein Luise von Göchhausen.
[241] The words "[Sie] ist gerettet" are not in the Urfaust.
| Grau, theurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum. |
[243] Tennyson disclaimed having Goethe in his mind when he wrote The Palace of Art.
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