[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.

[174] See above, p. 65.

[175] It was first published in 1836, four years after his death.

[176] In one of his Xenien Goethe speaks thus of Lavater:—

[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.

[242]

[243] Tennyson disclaimed having Goethe in his mind when he wrote The Palace of Art.