[1] A lady at the court of Weimar—Fräulein von Göchhausen—wrote for her own use a copy of the original “Faust.” This copy was recovered in 1887, and is printed in the edition of Goethe’s works now being published by order of the Grand Duchess Sophia of Saxony. It has also been printed separately—“Goethes Faust, in ursprünglicher Gestalt, nach der Göchhausenschen Abschrift, herausgegeben von Erich Schmidt (Weimar: Hermann Bohlau, 1887).”

[2] This question has given rise to much discussion among students of Goethe’s writings. Herman Grimm is one of those who emphatically maintain that the First and Second Parts were from the beginning in Goethe’s mind. See his “Goethe,” Zweiter Band, 273. A full and clear statement of the opposite view will be found in Karl Biedermann’s “Deutschland im Achtzehnten Jahrhundert,” Zweiter Band, 1034. Herman Grimm and those who agree with him rely mainly upon some expressions used by Goethe a few days before his death, in a letter written to William von Humboldt (one of the dearest and most highly esteemed of his friends). Biedermann, however, shows conclusively that this letter has been misunderstood.