Goethe Complete Works – World’s Best Collection E-Book

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Herausgeber: Imagination Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 7368

Beschreibung

Goethe Complete Works World's Best Collection

This is the world’s best Goethe collection, including the most complete set of Goethe’s works available plus many free bonus materials.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe was a German writer and politician. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of meters and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs His work Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship has been called one of the four greatest novels ever written

The ‘Must-Have’ Complete Collection

In this irresistible collection you get a full set of Goethe’s work, All his legendary plays, All his poetry, All his famous works and All his rarities, plus an auto biography written by Goethe himself. Plus Extra Bonus Material.

Works Included:

Poems Including:

The Misanthrope

With A Golden Necklace

Alexis And Dora

Epigrams

Sonnets

Plays Including:

Faust - A Tragedy

The Sorrows Of Young Werther

Reynard The Fox

The Fairy Tale Of The Green Snake And The Beautiful Lily

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship

Your Free Special Bonuses

The Life Of Goethe - a fascinating and intriguing look into the life of Goethe.

Autobiography Truth And Fiction Relating To My Life - an autobiography by Goethe himself

Conversations Of Goethe

Letters From Switzerland

Letters From Italy

Historical Context and Literary Context Notes - Detailed explanations of the Regency Era and Romanticism, written specially for this collection.

Get This Collection Right Now

This is the best Goethe you can get, so get it now and start enjoying and being inspired by his world like never before!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE REGENCY PERIOD

LITERARY CONTEXT: ROMANTICISM AND THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

THE LIFE OF GOETHE BY HJALMAR H. BOYESEN, PH.D.

POEMS

SONGS

FAMILIAR SONGS

FROM WILHELM MEISTER.

BALLADS

ANTIQUES

ELEGIES

EPIGRAMS

THE FOUR SEASONS.

SONNETS.

THE GOBLET.

TRILOGY OF PASSION – MARIENBAD ELEGY

ART

PARABLES

EPIGRAMS.

GOD AND WORLD.

RHYMED DISTICHS.

WEST-EASTERN DIVAN.

HERMANN AND DOROTHEA

FAUST - A TRAGEDY

EGMONT

THE NATURAL DAUGHTER A TRAGEDY

THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER

GÖTZ VON BERLICHINGEN WITH THE IRON HAND - A DRAMA.

IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS - A DRAMA

TORQUATO TASSO

CLAVIGO

STELLA - A TRAGEDY.

THE BROTHER AND SISTER

A TALE.

THE GOOD WOMEN.

REYNARD THE FOX.

THE RECREATIONS OF THE GERMAN EMIGRANTS

THE FAIRY TALE OF THE GREEN SNAKE AND THE BEAUTIFUL LILY

A FAIRY TALE.

WILHELM MEISTER’S APPRENTICESHIP.

WILHELM WEISTER’S TRAVELS - A ROMANCE.

ELECTIVE AFFINITIES

AUTOBIOGRAPHY TRUTH AND FICTION RELATING TO MY LIFE

CONVERSATIONS OF GOETHE

LETTERS FROM SWITZERLAND

LETTERS FROM ITALY

GOETHE COMPLETE WORKS – WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION

Edited By Darryl Marks

GOETHE COMPLETE WORKS – WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION Original Publication Dates Novels and Works of Goethe – circa 1832 The Life Of Goethe - Hjalmar H. Boyesen, Ph.D. – 1885 First Imagination Books edition published 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Darryl Marks and Infinite Eternity Entertainment LLC All Rights Reserved."HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE REGENCY ERA” LITERARY CONTEXT: ROMANTICISIM” By Darryl Marks Copyright © 2018 by Darryl Marks and Infinite Eternity Entertainment LLC All Rights Reserved.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE REGENCY PERIOD

The Regency Period

Goethe wrote within what is known as the Regency Era. This Regency Era or Regency Period can refer to various stretches of time, although the formal Regency lasted from 1811–1820. This period began in 1810 when George III was taken seriously ill. Due to fits of madness he was declared incapable of ruling because of his mental incapacity. In 1788 there had been a Regency Act that had been created because of George’s fits of madness. This act made it possible for his son, the Prince Regent, to rule as head of the country. In 1810, when George III’s madness became untenable, the act was formally passed, making George III’s son Regent and head of state. The Regency Period itself lasted until George III’s death in 1820 when the Regent officially became King George IV and was able to rule in his own right.

In 1837, Victoria became Queen, heralding the beginning of the Victorian Era.

It is easy to see why various different time periods can be classed as the Regency period. For certain historians, the period from 1795 to 1837 (which includes the latter part of the reign of George III and the reigns of his sons George IV and William IV) is sometimes regarded as the Regency era.

The Prince Regent Himself

George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, was 48 when he was appointed Prince Regent to his father, King George III. Notable for his extravagant lifestyle, the Regent was heavy drinker and compulsive gambler, who was gifted with charming manners, and musical ability in the form of singing and the cello.

The Regent though, was considered untrustworthy, hated his father George III, and this led him down several wayward paths: he colluded and allied himself with the Whig opposition in Parliament; he illegally and secretly married Maria Fitzherbert in 1785; he also married Princess Caroline of Brunswick, in 1795, despite hating her as well.

The Characteristics of the Regency

Regardless of time period used the Regency period is characterized by distinctive trends in British architecture, literature, fashions, politics, and culture.

Some of the basic characteristics of the period include:

Like the Regent himself, is characterized by freedom and extravagance compared with the ascetic lifestyle of his father George III.

Society was also considerably stratified, and there was a large class divide between the rich, opulence of the higher classes (sometimes bordering on debauchery) and the dingy, darker side of the lower classes.

There may have been rich, sumptuous, glamorous elements to life in higher class Regency society, but there was also the less affluent areas of London, where thievery, womanizing, gambling, and constant drinking was rampant.

Poverty was addressed only marginally and the betterment of society was far from the minds of the ruling class.

In fact, the formation of the Regency after George III saw the end of a pious, reserved society, and gave birth of a frivolous, ostentatious one. This was influenced by the Regent himself, who was kept removed from politics and military exploits and only channeled his energies into the pursuit of pleasure (also partly as his sole form of rebellion against what he saw as disapproval and censure in the form of his father).

Saul David in his biography of George IV describes the Regency “in its widest sense (1800-1830)” as a “devil-may-care period of low morals and high fashion”.

This societal gap was even exploited in the popular media and literature: One of the driving forces in the changes in the world at that time was the industrial revolution and its effects. Steam printing allowed a massively improved method to produce printed materials, and this gave rise to wildly popular fashionable novels about the rich and aristocratic. Publishers secretly hinted at the specific identity of these individuals in the books in order to drive sales. The gap in the hierarchy of society was so great that those of the upper classes were viewed by those below as wondrous and fantastical (like a fiction or living legend).

Such novels and literature from this period is still popular today, as is the period novel itself.

Society

One of the main draw-cards for the Regency’s popularity is its elegance and achievements in the fine arts and architecture. Although this was an era where war was waged (such as with Napoleon), the Regency was also a period of great refinement and cultural achievement. This shaped and molded the whole societal structure of Britain as a whole.

The Regency is popular mostly because of the so-called ‘Feel of the Regency’ period, associated with such period romances, glamorous elegance and etiquette, extravagant follies, and melodramatic emotions; filled with balls and duels, unrequited love, and romantic liaisons.

In terms of the prevailing literature movement of the time, it was the Romantic Movement that was well-established by the time the Regency started. Rich in literature, poetry and prose, it was the time of the Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Byron, Coleridge and Shelley and the Romantic novelist, Sir Walter Scott.

Romanticism was a revolt against the aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period (and its rationalistic attitude) which preceded it. Romanticism stressed emotion as a source of literary experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as anxiety, horror, and the feeling when observing nature. All of these themes are evident in the best-known classic Regency works.

Of course the works of Jane Austen are inextricably linked to the Regency, and her works have become known as archetypal Regency romances. It was a decade of particular etiquette and fashions with traits that include a highly developed sense of social standing for the characters, emphasis on "manners" and class issues, and the emergence of modern social thought amongst the upper classes of England.

In the British Regency, a marriage based on love was rarely an option for most women and instead, securing a steady and sufficient income was the first consideration for both the woman and her family.

This led to the Regency period yielding o many examples of both novel and poetry that echoed literary romance: it gave many the opportunity to live through the work's heroine, who generally married someone she loved deeply.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818, also falling within the Regency era. It also was part of the Romantics era and many consider it to be the single piece of British literature that best reflects the interests and concerns of the time - fascination with and fear of the science and technological advances of the times, while dredging up the emotions of horror and terror.

Major writers of classic Regency fiction

Jane Austen (1775–1817)

Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849)

Susan Ferrier (1782–1854)

ETA Hoffman (1776–1822)

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

Mary Shelley (1797–1851)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

Johann David Wyss (1743–1818)

Major writers of modern Regency fiction

Mary Balogh (born 1944)

Jo Beverley (born 1947)

Susan Carroll (born 1952)

Loretta Chase (born 1949)

Lecia Cornwall

Georgette Heyer (1902–1974)

Mary Jo Putney

Events of the Regency Era

1811

George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, begins his nine-year tenure as regent and became known as The Prince Regent.

1812

Prime Minister Spencer Perceval assassinated in the House of Commons.

The British were victorious over French armies at the Battle of Salamanca).

Gas company (Gas Light and Coke Company) founded. Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic of the Victorian era, was born on 7 February 1812.

1813

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was published.

William Hedley's Puffing Billy – which was an early steam locomotive - runs on smooth rails.

1814

Invasion of France by allies led to the Treaty of Paris, ended one of the Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.

Gas lighting introduced in London streets.

1815

Napoleon I of France defeated by the Seventh Coalition at the Battle of Waterloo.

Napoleon now exiled to St. Helena.

1816

Income tax abolished.

A "year without a summer" followed a volcanic eruption in Indonesia.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.

1817

Antonin Carême created a spectacular feast for the Prince Regent at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

The death of Princess Charlotte (the Prince Regent's daughter) from complications of childbirth changed obstetrical practices.

1818

Queen Charlotte died at Kew. Manchester cotton spinners went on strike. Frankenstein published.

Emily Brontë born.

1819

Ivanhoe by Walter Scott was published.

Sir Stamford Raffles, a British administrator, founded Singapore. First steam-propelled vessel (the SS Savannah) crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia.

1820

Death of George III and accession of The Prince Regent as George IV.

Historical Context of the Regency - Periods in English History

Prehistoric Britainuntil c. 43

Roman Britainc. 43–410

Anglo-Saxonc. 500–1066

Norman1066–1154

Plantagenet1154–1485

Tudor1485–1603

Elizabethan1558–1603

Stuart1603–1714

Jacobean1603–1625

Caroline1625–1649

(Interregnum)1649–1660

Restoration1660–1714

Georgian1714–1837

Regency1811–1820

Victorian1837–1901

Edwardian1901–1914

First World War1914–1918

Interwar Britain1918–1939

Second World War1939–1945

LITERARY CONTEXT: ROMANTICISM AND THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

Romanticism and the Romantic Movement

Goethe belongs to a period of time in arts and literature known as the Romantic Era. His work echoes many of the ideals of this Romantic movement. To fully appreciate his work, it can be useful to understand this time in literary history.

The Romantic era was caused by a variety of factors.

Firstly, it was largely a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, a period of time defined by strict rules, intellectualism, as well as aristocratic social and political norms.

Romanticism was also partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and modernity, as well as the scientific rationalization of nature.

Historical Context

Romanticism, as an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement, began in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Because of Romanticism beginning in slightly different time periods in various different countries (ranging from Scotland, Great Britain, to France, Germany and beyond), it is a matter of debate exactly when the movement began.

There are even scholars who identify the French Revolution, which began in 1789, as being another ‘source’ of the inspiration that led to the Era, with its rejection of the rules and class structures of the preceding era.

Despite this debate, it is generally accepted that the Romantic Era began in the late 18th Century and reached its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.

The period of time that preceded Romanticism is known as the Age of Enlightenment, which was characterized by the concepts of Rationalism and Classicism.

Enlightenment was ruled by concepts of rationality, of sciences, mathematics and numbers. By strict rules in regard to literature and the arts. Enlightenment also rejected many elements of the past, such as the Middle Ages and Medieval periods.

Its main focus was on intellectualism, on essentially endeavoring to define the concept of life according to intellect and reason.

Romanticism, Romantic Literature and Romantic Poetry was a direct reaction against this intellectualism and reason.

Instead of the rationality and the rules that Enlightenment held, Romanticism focused on human experience as defined by emotion.

From a poetry point of view, Romantic Poetry was a reaction against the set standards and conventions of eighteenth century poetry and neoclassic poetry. As explained by William J. Long, “The Romantic Movement was marked, and is always marked, by a strong reaction and protest against the bondage of rule and custom which in science and theology as well as literature, generally tend to fetter the free human spirit.”

Besides from the French Revolution as being cited as an influence in the beginning of the movement, some of the other main factors that gave rise to the era can be traced back to the German “Sturm und Drang” movement. Meaning "Storm and Drive" or "Storm and Urge" or "Storm and Stress", this was as a proto-Romantic movement between the 1760s and 1780s in German literature and music.

It emphasized individual subjectivity, extreme emotional states, free expression, all of which were in direct opposition to the objectivity and rule-based rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment. The period takes it’s named from Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's play Sturm und Drang, which was first performed in 1777.

Another German influence came in the form of Goethe himself. In 1774, Goethe wrote the novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” and its protagonist struck a strong chord with young men throughout Europe - he was a young, passionate sensitive artist wand many young men in Germany sought to emulate him.

In English literature, the key figures of the Romantic movement are considered to be the group of poets including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the much older William Blake, followed later by the isolated figure of John Clare. In Scotland, Robert Burns became a leading figure in the Romantic Movement and influenced many other writers all across Europe (even becoming the people’s poet of Russia).

In England, it was the 1798 publication of Lyrical Ballads (from Wordsworth and Coleridge) that is said to have started the movement officially.

The poems of Lyrical Ballads intentionally re-imagined the way poetry should sound. As Wordsworth put it: "By fitting to metrical arrangement a selection of the real language of men…"

In other words, Wordsworth wanted to show the true emotions men and women felt and find a way to construct poetry and art that evoked that emotion, and moved people emotionally.

As he said: “I have said before that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin in emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind…”

The Romantic movement spread across Europe and even found it influenced artists in America, such as Longfellow.

Etymology

Although common usage of the word Romantic has attached concepts such as love, romance and passion, the word in context of the Romantic Era and Romanticism is derived from different sources and has different connotations.

Essentially, the word is derived from the root word "Roman", which is found in various European languages, such as "romance" and "Romanesque".

In earlier periods, Romantic or romantique, as an adjective could be used to describe praise for natural phenomena such as views and sunsets. In other words, it wasn’t only used for the idea of Romance between people within a relationship.

Elements of Romanticism

Emotion

As explained, Romanticism was a direct Counter-Enlightenment movement and its focus was on the filtering of natural emotion through the human mind in order to create meaning. Whereas Enlightenment focused on Rationality, Romanticism focused on Emotion.

Although the concept may seem natural to us now, this was not so in the period of Enlightenment - strict rules and a focus of Objectivity, made poetry and literature of that period very different.

It was the Romantic movement itself that gave rise to the concept of using emotion in art, of trying to evoke and emulate true human emotional experience in words.

At the time, this was seen as difficult and the movement was revolutionary for its ability to convey that true emotion.

Because of this, the poets and writers themselves often wrote down much of their own emotion in their work, and so much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves.

The emotions it emphasized were vast, ranging from love to intense emotions such as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe.

Imagination

Belief in the importance of the imagination is a distinctive feature of romantic poets such as John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and P. B. Shelley.

This was unlike the neoclassical poets who put greater importance on a set of rules that dictated what a work should look like.

Indeed, for Wordsworth and Blake, as well as Victor Hugo and Alessandro Manzoni, they saw imagination is a spiritual force. They also believed that literature, especially poetry, could improve the world.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were natural laws the imagination would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. So it was an essential part of Romanticism that the content of art had to come from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as possible from "artificial" rules dictating what a work should consist of. The influence of these models from other works was considered to impede the creator's own imagination.

The concept of the genius/artist who was able to produce his own original work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism, and to be derivative was the worst sin. This idea is often called "romantic originality.”

Rejection of Satire

Predominately, Romanticism tended to regard satire as something unworthy of serious attention.

The work of the Romantics was intended to be about true emotion and satire detracted from this.

Spontaneity

Being spontaneous and not following strict rules was highly admired by the Romantic artists. An example of this was an impromptu musical recital, what might be called a ‘jam session’ today.

Instead of a tightly set out set of rule based structure of music, with its required crescendos and codas, it was more important to the Romantics to be spontaneous and to see what happened in the music.

Nature poetry

For most of the Romantics, love for nature was another important feature of romantic poetry, as well a source of inspiration. Their connection to external nature and places, and a belief in pantheism, was paramount.

Wordsworth considered nature as a living thing, teacher, god and everything, as expressed in his epic poem The Prelude.

Keats and Shelley were also nature poets, who also believed that nature is a living thing and there is a union between nature and man.

Coleridge differs from other romantic poets of his age, in that he has a realistic perspective on nature. Coleridge believed that joy does not come from external nature, but from the reaction an individual has to that nature based on their own feelings at the time.

Still, nature was very important to many Romantics of the time. The cliché of the poet sitting under a tree, alone in a meadow, comes from this Romantic period.

Isolation of the Poet

Love of nature and that idea of the Poet alone also ties into the idea of a poet’s isolation.

In order to create this wholly original piece of art, it was generally emphasized that the artists should be alone, working on his own.

This was in contrast to the usually very social art of the Enlightenment.

Melancholy

Melancholy and sadness occupied a prominent place in romantic poetry, and served as an important source of inspiration for the Romantic poets. Again, this emotion was in contrast to the Objectivity of Enlightenment.

Medievalism, Hellenism and Exoticism

Romantic poetry was attracted to nostalgia, in particular the Middle Ages, the heroes and tales of the Medieval period, and the classical Greek writings. They were also attracted to exotic, remote and obscure places, which is shown in much of their writing.

Supernaturalism

Although not essential to all Romantics, many of the romantic poets used supernatural elements in their poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the leading romantic poet in this regard, and "Kubla Khan" is full of supernatural elements. Romantic writers in literature often used Supernatural elements, such as Edgar Allen Poe. This supernatural element often gave the work an even more intense emotional content.

Subjectivity

Romantic poetry is the poetry of sentiments, emotions and imagination, as opposed to the objectivity of neoclassical poetry. Neoclassical poets avoided describing their personal emotions in their poetry, but the Romantics often placed themselves into the poem emotionally.

Nationalism

Although much of English Romanticism was not nationalistic, in other parts of Europe, for example Germany, there was a great deal of nationalism in the Romantic works. Even writers such as Robert Burns (who is known as the Poet Laureate of Scotland) evoked a certain sense of national pride in their writing.

End of Romanticism

The end of the Romantic era is marked in some areas by a new style…Realism. Some scholars see this new movement as another reaction against the previous era – in other words, Realism was the reaction against Romanticism.

This Realism movement was led by France, with Balzac and Flaubert in literature and Courbet in painting. It affected literature, especially the novel and drama, painting, and even music, through Verismo opera.

The reasons for this are also complicated but it was partly because the Early Romantic visionary optimism and belief that the world was in the process of great change and improvement had largely vanished, especially in northern Europe.

As a result, art became more conventionally political as its creators engaged polemically with the world.

Legacy

Many of the Romantics ideas about nature, individuality, purpose of art, above all the pre-eminent importance of originality, remained important for later generations, and often underlie modern views.

We accept those concepts as in inherent part of the art and literature we see every day, but we should remember that it was these writers that actually created those concepts in art.

THE LIFE OF GOETHE BY HJALMAR H. BOYESEN, PH.D.

IT is told of the philosopher Hegel that he once complained because so few understood his writings. “Of all living men,” he said, “there is but one who has understood me; and,” he added, after a moment’s reflection, “he misunderstood me.” The common judgment of a man who spoke thus would be that he was himself at fault, that his utterance was needlessly obscure if it failed to appeal to ordinary human intelligence. In Hegel’s case such a judgment would not have been far wrong. German philosophers, as a rule, cultivate involved obscurity of diction, and perhaps even pride themselves on their unintelligibility. But for all that it is not to be denied that there is a region of thought which lies beyond the range of the ordinary intellect, and which is none the less exalted and beautiful, because of its inaccessibility to the multitude. The fact that you or I do not see anything in works of this or that poet does not, of necessity, prove that there is nothing in them. That which you or I do not understand is not on that account unintelligible. If the second part of “Faust” fails to convey any meaning to the ordinary omniscient critic of the daily papers, it is generally supposed that the second part of “Faust” stands thereby condemned. That Goethe has opened a new realm of thought to which even a college degree is not necessarily a passport, that he has in “Faust” expounded a deep philosophy of life, for the comprehension of which a more than ordinary largeness of vision and grasp of intellect are required, is scarcely dreamed of by the herd of shallow, nimble-witted critics who pat him kindly on the shoulder and compare him blandly with Byron, Coleridge and Wordsworth.

Of English writers, only Carlyle seems to have had an adequate conception of Goethe’s greatness, although he, too, was certainly at variance with the fundamental principles which underlay his hero’s life and poetic activity. That he unconsciously distorted the meaning of “Faust” is very obvious to any student of Goethe who reads his essay on “Helena.” And yet he said to Bayard Taylor, when the latter asked him what he thought of Goethe: “That man, sir, was my salvation!”—an answer which struck Taylor as being in no wise paradoxical. If Carlyle had been an exact thinker, to whom a rational solution of the riddle of existence had been an urgent need, it would have been easier to comprehend in what sense he owed his “salvation” to Goethe. It was the direct purpose of Goethe to be the intellectual deliverer of his age, as he distinctly avowed to Eckermann when he said that the name which he would prefer to all others was “Befreier.” The tendency of his life and his writings, after his return from Italy, is all in the same direction. They all teach, even where no didactic purpose is apparent, that liberty is attainable, not by defiance of moral and physical law, but by obedience to it; that happiness is to be found only in a cheerful acquiescence in the rationality of existence. In this lesson there is deliverance to him who properly estimates and apprehends it. Thus barrenly stated it sounds commonplace enough to us of the nineteenth century; but it is largely due to Goethe’s influence that it has become so generally accepted. Before “Faust” was written there were few who would have been able to defend such a proposition, even though they might profess to accept it.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born in Frankfort-on-the-Main, August 28th, 1749. His family, a few generations back, had been plain artisans, and had by dint of talent and energy risen to prosperity and social importance. Goethe’s father had inherited a respectable fortune, enjoyed a good education, and had travelled considerably in his own country and in Italy. He was a stern and methodical man, rigidly upright, impatient of all irregularities and somewhat pedantic in his habits and opinions. His bearing was dignified, his disposition despotic. At the age of thirty-eight he married Katharine Elizabeth, daughter of the Magistrate Textor, and bought the title of imperial counsellor. There were no duties connected with this office, but it conferred a social rank which in those days was highly prized. The young wife whom the counsellor installed in his spacious house in the Hirschgraben was a contrast to him in almost everything. She was genial and full of wholesome mirth. Her culture was probably moderate enough, but she possessed a nature which readily compensated for all deficiencies of education. An exuberant fancy, inexhaustible good-humor, and an everready mother-wit made her the most delightful of companions; and no one valued more highly her many charming gifts than her son Johann Wolfgang. As he grew out of infancy she became his playmate and friend, and the confidant of all his boyish sorrows. She listened with delight to his improvisations, and secretly took his part in his occasional rebellion against the paternal authority.

artist: eugen klimsch.

CORNELIA PROCLAIMING FROM KLOPSTOCK’S MESSIAH.

Goethe was a precocious child, richly endowed physically and mentally. He absorbed knowledge spontaneously and without effort. His fancy, too, was active, and he took delight in relating the most marvelous tales, which he himself invented, to a company of admiring friends. The two fairy tales, “The New Paris” and “The New Melusine,” which he reprinted in a somewhat improved shape in his autobiography, belong to this period.

A charming anecdote is related of his fondness for Klopstock’s biblical epic, “The Messiah,” before he had yet emerged from the nursery. Frau Aja, his mother, had surreptitiously borrowed this book, and went about with it in her pocket, because her husband highly disapproved of Klopstock’s wild and rebellious rhapsodies. Goethe and his younger sister Cornelia, sharing their mother’s predilections, therefore committed the precious verses to memory, and amused themselves with personating the enraged Satan and his subordinate fiends. Standing on chairs in the nursery they would hurl the most delightfully polysyllabic maledictions at each other. One Saturday evening, while their father was receiving a professional visit from his barber, the two children (who were always hushed and subdued in his presence) were seated behind the stove whispering sonorous curses in each other’s ears. Cornelia, however, carried away by the impetus of her inspiration, forgot her father’s presence, and spoke with increasing violence:

“Help me! help! I implore thee, and if thou demand’st it

Worship thee, outcast! Thou monster and black malefactor!

Help me! I suffer the torments of death, the eternal avenger!” etc.

The barber, frightened out of his wits by such extraordinary language, poured the soap-lather over the counsellor’s bosom. The culprits were summoned for trial, and Klopstock was placed upon the index expurgatorius.

In 1765 Goethe was sent to the University of Leipsic, where he was matriculated as a student of law. It was his father’s wish that he should fit himself for the legal profession, and in time inherit the paternal dignity as a counsellor and honored citizen of the free city of Frankfort. Agreeably to this plan Goethe attended lectures on logic and Roman law, but soon grew so heartily tired of these barren disciplines that he absented himself from lectures altogether. A brief and innocent love affair with Käthchen Schönkopf, the daughter of the lady with whom he took his dinners, may have tended to distract his attention. Loving your landladies’ daughters is as a rule antagonistic both to law and logic. A serious illness further interfered with his studies, and in 1768, after three years’ sojourn at the university, Goethe was called home to Frankfort, where he spent two years, regaining his health.

Goethe’s earliest sojourn in Leipsic brought him into contact with the French rococo culture, which then predominated in all the higher circles of Germany. The periwig period, with its elaborately artificial manners and “elegant” sentiments, had set its monuments in German literature as in that of France. Gottschedd, who was a servile imitator of the authors of the age of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., was a professor in Leipsic while Goethe was there, though his influence as the dictator of taste was greatly on the wane. Nevertheless the tone of Leipsic society remained French, and it was natural that an impressible young poet like Goethe should assume the tone of his surroundings. We therefore see that his first literary efforts, a volume of poems published as texts for musical compositions, bear the rococo stamp and are as frivolous and full of artificial conceits as if they had been addressed to one of the beauties of Versailles. A youthful drama, “The Accomplices” (“Die Mitschuldigen”), is in the same strain, only more ingenious and more radically alien to German morality.

In April, 1770, Goethe was sufficiently restored to health to resume his studies. He did not, however, return to Leipsic, but went to the University of Strassburg, where the faculty of law was then in a flourishing condition. The city of Strassburg was then, as it has ever since remained, essentially German, though there was an infusion of Gallic life from the French officials who governed the conquered province. It was here, where Gallic and Teutonic life ran in friendly parallelism, that Goethe first discovered the distinctive features of each. It was here he met Herder, whose oracular utterances on the subjects of poetry, religion and society powerfully affected him. Herder was a disciple of Rousseau, and had declared war, not against civilization in general, but against that phase of it which was represented by France. He detested the entire periwig spirit, and denounced in vigorous rhetoric the hollow frivolity which it had imparted to the literature of the day. He clamored for a return to nature, and selected from the literature of all nations certain books in which he detected the strong and uncorrupted voice of nature. Among these were the Bible, Homer, Shakespere, Ossian and the ballad literature of all nations. It is curious, indeed, to find Ossian in such a company, but it must be remembered that MacPherson’s fraud had not then been exposed.

Goethe drank in eagerly these new and refreshing doctrines. He began to read the writers Herder recommended, and in his enthusiasm for Shakespere soon went beyond his teacher. He condemned his own frivolous imitations of French models, and wrestled with gigantic plans for future productions which should infuse new vigor into the enervated literature of the Fatherland. It was during this period of Titanic enthusiasm that he conceived the idea of “Faust,” for the complete embodiment of which he labored, though with many interruptions, for sixty years, until a few months before his death. A lively interest in natural science also began to develop itself in him, while his disinclination for the law showed no signs of abating. At lectures he was not a frequent guest; but for all that his intellectual life was thoroughly aroused and he was by no means idle. With his great absorptive capacity he assimilated a large amount of the most varied knowledge, but insisted upon exercising his choice as to the kind of learning which his nature and faculties craved. The result was that when the time came for taking the doctor’s degree, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, unquestionably the most brilliant intellect Germany has produced, failed to pass his examinations. He was, however, not ignominiously “flunked,” but was permitted to depart with the more modest title of “Licentiate of the Law.” This was not what the old gentleman in Frankfort had looked forward to, and it is presumable that the reception he gave his son, when he returned in 1771 to the city of his fathers, was not over cordial. He was probably not wise enough to see that he himself was to blame for having compelled the boy to devote himself to a study for which he had neither taste nor inclination.

An incident of Goethe’s life in Strassburg, which greatly influenced his literary activity, was his meeting with Frederika Brion, the daughter of the parson at Sesenheim. The parsonage was about six hours’ journey from the city, and Goethe was in the habit of visiting there with his friend Weigand, who was a relative of the family. The parson was a plain, God-fearing man, who went about in dressing-gown and slippers and with a long pipe in his mouth. His daughters Salome and Frederika were what the daughters of country clergymen are apt to be,—nice, domestic girls, who would make charming wives for almost anybody who would have the good sense to propose to them. Frederika was pretty, and moreover she had an unfortified heart. She possessed a few artless accomplishments—such as playing and singing—but when she was to show these off before company, everything went wrong. Her portrait, as drawn by Goethe in his autobiography, is one of the loveliest things in literature. Her simple talk and strictly practical interests, far removed from all sentimentality, seemed to be in perfect accord with her little “tip-tilted nose” and her half-rustic Alsatian costume. It is obvious that she appealed to Goethe’s artistic nature; that he gloried in the romantic phases of his simple life at the parsonage. He had already then the keenest appreciation of what one might call the literary aspect of his experiences. He knew at once, and probably anticipated in spirit, how they would look in a book. But he was at the same time an inflammable youth, whose heart was readily touched through the medium of his fancy. By degrees, as he established himself in the favor of every member of the Brion family, his relation to Frederika became that of a lover. The father and the mother accepted him in this capacity, and Frederika herself was overflowing with deep and quiet happiness. By an unlucky chance, however, the two Brion sisters were invited to spend some time with friends in Strassburg. Goethe was charmed at the prospect. But, strange to say, torn out of the idyllic frame in which he had been wont to see her, Frederika seemed no longer so miraculous. She needed the rural parsonage and the yellow wheat-fields for a setting; amid the upholstered furniture and gilded conventionalities of the city she seemed only a simple-hearted country girl, perhaps, a little deficient in manners. From that time the charm was broken. Frederika returned to her home; Goethe, too, soon left Strassburg. Frederika waited for him month after month, but he did not come. He lacked courage to tell her of the changed state of his feelings, and left her to pine away between hope and cruel disappointment. A serious illness was the result, which came near costing her her life. Eight years later Goethe, then a world-renowned man, revisited Sesenheim and found her yet unmarried. She was as frank and friendly as ever, but her youthful gayety was gone; she was pale, hushed and subdued. She made no allusion to the relation which had once existed between them, but she conducted him silently to the arbor in the garden where they had spent so many rapturous hours together. There they sat down and talked of indifferent things; but many strange thoughts arose in the minds of both.

artist: eugen klimsch.

YOUNG GOETHE IN PRIVATE THEATRICALS.

Frederika died of consumption in 1813.

After his return to Frankfort, in 1771, Goethe made an earnest effort to please his father by laying the foundation of a legal practice. The counsellor himself aided him in every possible way, looked up his authorities, and acted as a private referee in all doubtful questions. For all that, it was literature and not law which filled Goethe’s mind and fashioned his visions of the future. In the intervals of business he paid visits to the city of Darmstadt, where he made the acquaintance of Herder’s fiancée, Caroline Flachsland, and of Merck, who became his model for Mephistopheles. It was an interesting society which he here encountered, a society animated by an exalted veneration of poetic and intellectual achievements and devoted to a kind of emotional extravagance—an artificial heightening of every fine feeling and sentiment. Caroline Flachsland and her circle, recognizing Goethe’s extraordinary endowment, and feeling, perhaps, doubly inclined in his favor by his beautiful exterior, accepted him, as it were, on trust, and honored him for what he was going to do rather than for anything which he had actually accomplished. His love affair with Frederika, which was here sentimentally discussed, also added to the interest with which he was regarded. A man who is known to have broken many hearts is naturally invested with a tantalizing charm to women who have yet hearts to be broken. At all events the great expectations which were entertained of him in the Darmstadt circle, stimulated him to justify the reputation which had been thrust upon him. In 1772 he published the drama, “Götz von Berlichingen,” which at one stroke established his position as the foremost among German poets. It must be remembered, however, that Germany had at that time no really great creative poet. Lessing was, indeed, alive, and had written dramas which, in point of theatrical effectiveness and brilliancy, were superior to “Götz.” But Lessing disclaimed the title of poet, and his prominence as a critic and polemic defender of rationalism overshadowed, in the minds of his contemporaries, his earlier activity in the service of the muses. Moreover, it is not to be denied that “Götz,” with all its crudity of construction, is a warmer and more full-blooded production than any of the plays which Lessing had written for the purpose of demonstrating the soundness of his canons of dramatic criticism.

As a stage play “Götz” is unquestionably very bad. It violates, whether purposely or not, every law of dramatic construction. It is a touching and poetical story, told in successive acts and scenes, full of deep psychological insight and vigorous characterization. But it takes a nimble fancy to keep up with the perpetual changes of scene; and even the tendency and morale of the piece are open to criticism. Goethe enlists the reader’s sympathies in behalf of the law-breaker, whose sturdy manhood and stubborn independence bring him into conflict with the state. Götz, in spite of his personal merits, represents the wild and disorderly individualism of the Middle Ages, at war with the forces of order and social progress, represented by the Emperor and the free cities. Therefore it is scarcely proper to apostrophize him as the martyr of a noble cause.

After having practiced law in a leisurely fashion in Frankfort, Goethe removed, at his father’s recommendation, to Wetzlar, where he was admitted as a practitioner at the Imperial Chamber of Justice. This removal took place in May, 1774. Among the first acquaintances which he made in this city were a young jurist named Kestner and his fiancée, Charlotte Buff. Kestner and Goethe became good friends, in spite of differences of temperament and character, and their friendship soon came to include Lotte. Kestner, who was a plain, practical man and the soul of honor, could see no danger in the daily association of his betrothed with a handsome and brilliant young poet, who confided to her his hopes and ambitions, romped with her small brothers and sisters, and captivated the entire family by the reckless grace and charm of his manners. Kestner did not suspect that there were depths in Lotte’s nature which he had never sounded, regions of sentiment and fancy which he could never hope to explore. For Lotte, though she had a strong sense of duty, had by no means as well-regulated and business-like a heart as her practical lover. Thus the strange thing came to pass: Lotte fell in love with Goethe, and Goethe with Lotte. They made no confession of their secret even to each other, but they revelled in each other’s company, undisturbed by Kestner’s presence. At last, however, a crisis occurred. Goethe began to see that he was treading on dangerous ground. One evening as he was lounging at Lotte’s feet, playing with the flounces on her dress, and the talk had taken a serious turn, he remarked, referring to a brief journey which he was about to undertake, that he hoped they would meet “jenseits” (beyond), meaning beyond the mountains which he was going to cross. Lotte misunderstood the allusion, and, quite forgetting Kestner’s presence, answered, fervently, that she could well be reconciled to losing him in this world, if she could only be sure of being united to him in the hereafter. It was a sudden flash which revealed to Goethe the fact that Lotte loved him. He was Kestner’s friend, was trusted by him, and could not act dishonorably. So he took his leave, packed his trunks that very night, and wrote three despairing letters to Kestner and Lotte—in which he avowed his love for the latter, and gave this as the reason of his departure. He made it appear, probably in order to shield Lotte, that his love was hopeless and that her happiness was dearer to him than his own. That this is the true version of the Wetzlar affair is made plain, beyond dispute, by the documents published by Herman Grimm, in his “Lectures on Goethe.”

Fr. Pecht del.

published by george barrie

[Editor: illegible word] [Editor: illegible word]

Johann Heinrich-Merck

This episode with Charlotte Buff and Kestner furnished Goethe with the material for his celebrated romance, “The Sorrows of Werther,” which he published in September, 1774. As was usual with him, and indeed with every great poet, he did not copy the actual relation, but he borrowed from it what was typical and immortal and left out what was accidental and insignificant. Thus Lotte in “Werther” is not Charlotte Buff, though she sat for her model and furnished the main features of the beautiful type. In a still less degree is the pitiful Albert the author’s friend Kestner, though he is sufficiently like the latter to justify him in being offended. The character of Werther himself is more of a free creation, though his external fate was borrowed from that of a young secretary named Jerusalem, who shot himself for love of a married woman. In all other respects Werther is Goethe himself in his “Storm and Stress” period, while all the vital juices of his being were in ferment, while his youthful heart beat loudly in sympathy with the world’s woe; while the tumultuous currents of emotion swayed him hither and thither and would not be made to run in the safe conventional channels. And yet, even in those days there was a still small voice of reason in Goethe’s soul which restrained him from excesses—an undercurrent of sanity and sobriety which kept him always sound in his innermost core. If Werther had been like his prototype in this respect he would not have killed himself—in other words, he would not have been Werther.

The amazing popularity which “The Sorrows of Werther” attained, not only in Germany but throughout the civilized world, cannot be due to the story as such, which is as simple as any episode of daily life. It is only explainable on the supposition, that the book for the first time voiced a sentiment which was well-nigh universal in Europe, during the eighteenth century. The Germans call it Weltschmerz—i.e., world-woe. It takes in “Werther” the form of a tender melancholy, a sense of poetic sadness, which, after the unhappy love affair, deepens into a gentle despair and leads to self-destruction. Psychologically this is a very interesting phenomenon. The pent-up energy of the nation, which was denied its natural sphere of action in public and political life, takes a morbid turn and wastes itself in unwholesome introspection, coddling of artificial sentiment, and a vague discontent with the world in general.

During the year 1774 Goethe also published the tragedy “Clavigo,” which was a great disappointment to his friends. Its plot is borrowed from the Memoirs of Beaumarchais, and deals with the problem of faithlessness. In poetic intensity and fervor it is inferior to “Götz” and “Werther,” while, in point of dramatic construction, it marks a distinct advance. It is his own faithlessness to Frederika which Goethe obviously has in mind and which he is endeavoring psychologically to justify. But even from this point of view the tragedy can scarcely be called a success; for the reader closes the book with the conviction that Clavigo was, if not a villain, at all events a weak poltroon, though as such a perfectly comprehensible one.

After his departure from Wetzlar Goethe once more took up his residence in his native city, and, before long, was again involved in a tender relation. This time, it was a rich and beautiful lady of society who attracted him,—quite a contrast to the rural Frederika and the amiable and domestic Lotte. Anna Elizabeth Schönemann, generally known as Lilli, was about sixteen years old, when Goethe fell a victim to her charms. She was a spoiled child, wilful and coquettish, but high-bred and with a charm of manner, when she chose to be agreeable, which fully explains the poet’s devotion to her. Moreover, there was nothing meek and abjectly admiring about her. She teased her adorer, tormented him by her whims, and took delight in exercising her power over him. This was quite a new experience to a young man who had been accustomed to easy conquests and uncritical adoration. He was now drawn into general society, and, after his engagement with Lilli had been made public, was compelled to dance attendance upon her, early and late, at balls and dinner-parties. As an experience this might be valuable enough, but Goethe soon tired of it, and protested in prose and verse against his servitude. Lilli, however, though she was sincerely attached to him, could not be made to give up the youthful gayety which seemed so attractive to her. Quarrels ensued, alienations and reconciliations, and finally a complete rupture. In many poems from this period Goethe chronicles the various stages of his love for Lilli and laments her loss. There is no doubt she had the making of a noble woman in her; her later life, and particularly her utterances concerning her relation to Goethe, show that she was neither frivolous nor shallow-hearted. But she was young and beautiful, and had a sense of power which it was but natural she should exercise. The meek and submissive maiden is in undue favor with men, and Goethe’s biographers, being all men, have done their best to revile the memory of Lilli.

artist: eugen klimsch.

GRETCHEN AND GOETHE.

Among the friends who were warmly attached to Goethe at this time, Fritz Jacobi and Lavater demand a passing notice. Both presented a queer mixture of character, which accounts for their subsequent alienation from the poet. It is worthy of remark that scarcely any of the associates of Goethe’s youth maintained their intimate relations with him through life. He valued a friend only as long as he was in sympathy with him, and as he outgrew his youthful self, the friends who had been identified with this self lapsed into the distance. He did not value fidelity in the ordinary sense of the term, when it involved a perpetual strain upon the heart—when it had become a matter of duty rather than of affection. As regards Lavater, he was, with all his ostentatious spirituality, a good deal of a charlatan, even so much so as to justify Goethe’s epigram in the “Xenien:”

“Oh, what a pity that Nature but one man made out of you, friend!

Besides for an honest man, there was also the stuff for a knave.”

He reminds one of Carlyle’s friend Irving, who also started as an honest zealot and lapsed into emotional excesses, which leave one no choice but to question either his sanity or his honesty. The so-called science of physiognomy, which Lavater claimed to have discovered, at one time interested Goethe greatly; but later, when he became familiar with scientific methods of research, he could no longer accept Lavater as a guide.

Fritz Jacobi was an honest sentimentalist, who ardently revered Goethe for his great powers of mind and intellect. They travelled together, and revelled in the emotions of love and sympathy which welled forth from the souls of both. Everything that they saw filled them with ecstatic wonder, and furnished themes for extravagant discourses and poetic dreams. Jacobi, even though the years sobered him, never completely outgrew this state, and when he published his sentimental romance “Woldemar,” which Goethe could not admire, their friendship began to cool. They drifted slowly apart, though there was no rupture to signalize their estrangement.

In spite of all his efforts, Goethe could not obtain any lasting satisfaction from his occupation with the law, and he grew lax in his attention to professional duties. The counsellor was grievously disappointed, and the relation between father and son grew so strained that all the diplomacy of the mother was required to keep them from open disagreement. It was therefore a godsend to Goethe when, in 1775, the two princes of Saxe-Weimar arrived in Frankfort, and extended to him an invitation to visit their court. The eldest of the brothers, Karl August, took a great fancy to the author of “Werther,” and made every effort to keep him as a friend and companion. To this end he conferred upon Goethe the title of Privy Counsellor, with an annual salary of twelve hundred thalers and a vote in the ducal cabinet. Goethe had thus at last got firm ground under his feet, and could now, without fear of the future, give himself up to his favorite pursuits. His arrival in Weimar made a great sensation. His fame, his extraordinary beauty and his winning manners gave him at once a prestige, which he maintained undiminished to the end of his days. The duke, who was a blunt and honest fellow, fond of pleasure and yet zealous for the welfare of his subjects, found in Goethe a firm support for his noblest endeavors. As a boon-companion in pleasure he found the poet no less attractive; though it is now conceded that the tales which were circulated concerning the excesses of the two friends, at court festivals and rural excursions, were greatly exaggerated. It is true, a pause occurs in Goethe’s literary activity after his arrival in Weimar; but this was due not to preoccupation with pleasure but to the zeal with which he devoted himself to his official duties. It was important to Goethe as a poet to gain a deeper insight into practical reality, and he seized the present opportunity to familiarize himself with many phases of life which hitherto had lain beyond his horizon. Strange as it may seem to those who identify with the name of poet everything that is fantastic and irregular, he made a model official—punctual and exact in all his dealings, painstaking, upright and inflexible.

During his early youth, Goethe had been identified with the school in German literature known as the “Storm and Stress” (“Sturm und Drang”). The members of this school had clamored for a return to Nature—meaning by Nature absence of civilization. Civilization was held responsible for all the ills to which flesh is heir, and the remedy was held to be the abolishment of all the artificial refinements of life which interfered with the free expression of Nature. Goethe never went to the same length in these doctrines as some of his associates (Klinger, Lenz, Leisewitz), but he was for all that, like them, a disciple of Rousseau, and had, both in “Götz” and “Werther,” made war upon civilized society. It is therefore notable that, after his arrival in Weimar and his closer contact with the actualities of life, a profound change came over him, which amounted to a revolution in his convictions. The wild ferment of his youth had found its natural expression in the fervid, tumultuous diction of the “Storm and Stress,” but his maturer manhood demanded a clearer, soberer and more precise utterance. The change that took place in his style during the first ten years of his sojourn in Weimar was therefore a natural one, and ought to have caused no surprise to those who knew him.

A very exhaustive record of Goethe’s inner and outer life during this period is contained in his correspondence with Frau von Stein, the wife of Baron von Stein, a nobleman in the duke’s service. She was seven years older than the poet and the mother of seven children. Beautiful she was not, but she was a woman of exceptional culture and finely attuned mind, capable of comprehending subtle shades of thought and feeling. Her face, as the portraits show, was full of delicacy and refinement. Her marriage was unhappy, and, without any protest on the part of her husband, she sought in daily intercourse with Goethe a consolation for the miseries of her life. Whether the relation was anything more than a bond of sympathy and intellectual friendship it is difficult to determine. His letters, appointing interviews and overflowing with affectionate assurances, are those of a lover. Unfortunately Frau von Stein’s own letters have not been preserved; she took the precaution to demand them back and burn them, when their friendship came to an end.

In September, 1786, Goethe started from Karlsbad for Italy, and arrived in October in Rome. For many years it had been his dearest desire to see the Eternal City, and to study with his own eyes the masterpieces of ancient art. In his trunk he carried several unfinished manuscripts, and in his head a number of literary plans which he here hoped to mature, in the presence of the marble gods and heroes of the ancient world. He associated chiefly with the artists Tischbein, Meyer, Philip Hackert and Angelica Kaufmann, and revelled in art talk and criticism. He took up again the study of Homer, and began to meditate upon an Homeric drama, to be called “Nausicaa.” Italy, with its bright sky, its gently sloping mountains, clad with silvery olive trees, and its shores washed by the blue Mediterranean waves, became a revelation to him, and he apprehended keenly her deepest poetic meaning. A cheerful paganism henceforth animates his writings, a delight in sensuous beauty and a certain impatience with the Christian ideal of self-abnegation. The Hellenic ideal of harmonious culture—an even development of all the powers of body and soul—appealed powerfully to him. He flung away his Gothic inheritance, undervaluing, in his devotion to the Greeks, what was noble and beautiful in the sturdy self-denying manhood of the North. His drama “Iphigenia,” which he had first written in prose, he now rewrote in classical pentameters and sent it home to his friends in Weimar, who were completely mystified, and did not quite dare to say that they could make neither head nor tail of it. For all that, this drama is a very remarkable production, uniting, as it were, the Greek and the Germanic ideal, and being in spirit as close to the latter as it is in form to the former. Goethe dealt with this old classic tale as no Greek could ever have done it. He makes the gentle womanhood of Iphigenia soften the manners of the fierce Taurians, and by her noble character act as a civilizing influence in the midst of the barbarous race. The Greeks had not arrived at such an estimate of woman; nor would Euripides, who dealt with the same legend, have understood Goethe’s version of it any better than did Herder and his friends in Weimar.

In June, 1788, Goethe again turned his face northward, after an absence of nearly two years. One of the first effects of his Italian experience was that he took a mistress, named Christiane Vulpius, whom many years later he married. Christiane was a bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked girl, with an abundance of curly hair, in no wise intellectual, and belonging to a family in which drunkenness was hereditary. She was of redundant physical development, had always a bright smile, and was sufficiently intelligent to take a mild interest in her lover’s literary and scientific pursuits. But that his liaison with her was, for all that, a deplorable mistake can scarcely be questioned. In the first place she developed, as she grew older, her hereditary vice, and was frequently unpresentable on account of intoxication. The son whom she bore to Goethe inherited the same failing, and died suddenly in Rome, as has been surmised, from the effects of a carouse. The young man, who was handsome in person and well endowed, had been married some years before and was the father of two sons, both of whom died unmarried. Walter von Goethe, who lived until April, 1885, was a chamberlain at the Court of Weimar, and at one time cherished poetical aspirations. With his death the race of Goethe became extinct in the direct line. It is, indeed, true that the sins of the fathers avenge themselves upon the children.

artist: k. kögler.

GOETHE DISCUSSING WITH THE SHOEMAKER.

Christiane’s removal to Goethe’s house, where he henceforth claimed for her the place and respect due to a wife, caused a grievous commotion in Weimar. Frau von Stein was the first to take offence, and a rupture of their former relation was the result. Herder also remonstrated, and soon ceased to count himself among Goethe’s friends.