LAST MONTHS IN FRANKFORT--THE _URFAUST_
1775
As he represents it in his Autobiography, this was the situation in
which Goethe found himself on his return to Frankfort. All his
personal friends warmly welcomed him back, though his father did not
conceal his disappointment that he had not continued his travels into
Italy. As for Lili, she had taken it for granted that the departure of
her betrothed without a word of leave-taking could only imply his
intention to break with her. Yet it was reported to him that in the
face of all obstacles to their union she had declared herself ready to
leave her past behind her and share his fortunes in America. Their
intercourse was resumed, but they avoided seeing each other alone, as
if conscious of some ground of mutual estrangement. "It was an
accursed state, in some ways resembling Hades, the meeting-place of
the sadly-happy dead." In view of these relations between Lili and
himself, he further adds, all their common friends were decidedly
opposed to their union.
Such is the account which, in his retrospect, Goethe gives of his
situation after his return to Frankfort, but his correspondence at the
time shows that it cannot be accepted as strictly accurate. During the
three remaining months he spent in Frankfort he on four different
occasions visited Offenbach, where he must often have seen her alone.
What his letters indeed prove is that he was characteristically
content to let each day bring its own happiness or misery, and to
leave events to decide the final issue. On August 1st, a few days
after his return, he writes to Knebel: "I am here again ... and find
myself a good deal better, quite content with the past and full of
hope for the future."[229] Two days later he was in Offenbach, and
from Lili's own room he writes as follows to the Countess: "Oh! that I
could tell you all. Here in the room of the girl who is the cause of
my misery--without her fault, with the soul of an angel, over whose
cheerful days I cast a gloom, I.... In vain that for three months I
have wandered under the open sky and drunk in a thousand new objects
at every pore."[230] To Lavater on the following day he writes that he
has been riding with Lili, and adds these words with an N.B.: "For
some time I have been pious again; my desire is for the Lord, and I
sing psalms to him, a vibration of which shall soon reach you. Adieu.
I am in a sore state of strain; I might say over-strain. Yet I wish
you were with me, for then it goes well in my surroundings."[231] A
letter addressed to Merck later in the same month would seem to show
that he had at least no intention of seeking an immediate union with
Lili. By the end of the year at the latest, he says, he must be off to
Italy, and he prays Merck to prevail with his father to grant his
consent.
[Footnote 229: _Werke, Briefe_, ii. 272.]
[Footnote 230: _Ib._ p. 273.]
[Footnote 231: _Ib._ pp. 277-8.]
A crisis in the relations between the lovers came on the occasion of
the Frankfort fair in the second week of September. The fair brought a
crowd of males, young, middle-aged, and old, all on more or less
intimate terms with the Schönemann family, and their familiarities
with Lili were gall and wormwood to Goethe, though he testifies that,
as occasion offered, she did not fail to show who lay nearest her
heart. Even in his old age the experience of these days recalled
unpleasant memories. "But let us turn," he exclaims, "from this
torture, almost intolerable even in the recollection, to the poems
which brought some relief to my mind and heart."[232] A remarkable
contemporary document from his hand proves that his memory did not
exaggerate his state of mind at the time.[233] In the form of a
Diary, expressly meant for his Countess, he notes day by day the
alternating feelings which were distracting him. The Countess had
urged him once for all to break his bonds, and in these words we have
his reply: "I saw Lili after dinner, saw her at the play. I had not a
word to say to her, and said nothing! Would I were free! O Gustchen!
and yet I tremble for the moment when she could become indifferent to
me, and I become hopeless. But I abide true to myself, and let things
go as they will."[234]
[Footnote 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_.]
[Footnote 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."]
[Footnote 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.]
In all this tumultuous effusion we see the side of Goethe's nature
which he has depicted in Werther, in Clavigo, and Fernando. Yet all
the while he was completely master of his own genius. Throughout all
his alternating raptures and despairs he was assiduously practising
the arts to which his genius called him. He diligently contributed
both text and drawings to Lavater's _Physiognomy_; he worked at art on
his own account, making a special study of Rembrandt; and, as we shall
see, even at the time when his relations to Lili were at the
breaking-point he was producing poetical work which he never surpassed
at any period of his life. From two distinguished contemporaries, both
men of mature age, who visited him during this time of his intensest
preoccupation with Lili, we have interesting characterisations of him
which complement the impressions we receive from his own
self-portraiture. The one is from J.G. Sulzer, an author of repute on
matters of art. "This young scholar," Sulzer writes, "is a real
original genius, untrammelled in his manner of thinking, equally in
the sphere of politics and learning.... In intercourse I found him
pleasant and amiable.... I am greatly mistaken if this young man in
his ripe years will not turn out a man of integrity. At present he has
not as yet regarded man and human life from many sides. But his
insight is keen."[235] The other writer is J.G. Zimmermann, one of the
remarkable men of his time, whose book on _Solitude_, published in
1755, had brought him a European reputation. "I have been staying in
Frankfort with Monsieur Göthe," he writes, "one of the most
extraordinary and most powerful geniuses who has ever appeared in this
world.... Ah! my friend, if you had seen him in his paternal home, if
you had seen how this great man in the presence of his father and
mother is the best conducted and most amiable of sons, you would have
found it difficult not to regard him through the medium of love."[236]
[Footnote 235: Biedermann, _op. cit._ i. p. 60.]
[Footnote 236: Max Morris, _op. cit._ v. 470.]
On October 12th, 1775, happened an event which was to be the decisive
turning-point in Goethe's life. On that day the young Duke of Weimar
and his bride arrived in Frankfort on their way home from Carlsruhe,
where they had just celebrated their marriage, and again both warmly
urged him to visit them at Weimar.[237] We have it on Goethe's own
word that he had decided on a second flight from Frankfort as the only
escape from his unendurable situation, but the invitation of the ducal
pair brought his decision to a point. He accepted the invitation,
announced his resolve to all his friends, and made the necessary
preparations for his journey. The arrangement was that a gentleman of
the Duke's suite, then at Carlsruhe, was to call for him on an
appointed day and convey him to Weimar. The appointed day came, but no
representative of the Duke appeared. To avoid the embarrassment of
meeting friends of whom he had formally taken leave, he kept within
doors, working off his impatience in the composition of a play which
the world was afterwards to know as _Egmont_. More than another week
passed, and, weary of his imprisonment, he stole out in the darkness
enveloped in a long cloak to avoid recognition by chance friends. In
his memory there lived one of these night-wanderings when he stood
beneath Lili's window, heard her sing the song, beginning _Warum
ziehst du mich unwiderstehlich_, in which, in the first freshness of
his love, he had described the witchery with which she had bound him,
and, the song ended, saw from her moving shadow that she paced up and
down the room, evidently deep in thoughts which he leaves us to
divine. Only his fixed resolve to renounce her, he adds in his
narrative of the incident, prevented him from making his presence
known to her.
[Footnote 237: The Duke had previously passed through Frankfort on his
way to Carlsruhe. On that occasion, also, Goethe had been in
intercourse with him.]
There was one member of the Goethe household who was not displeased at
the non-appearance of the ducal representative. The father had from
the first been strenuously opposed to his son's going to Weimar, and
in his opinion the apparent breach of the appointment was only an
illustration of what a commoner was to expect in his intercourse with
the great. His own desire was that his son should proceed to Italy
with the double object of breaking his connection with Lili, and of
enlarging his experience by an acquaintance with that country and its
treasures. The embarrassing predicament of his son offered the
opportunity of realising his desire, and he now proposed to him that
he should at once start for Italy and leave his cares behind him. In
the circumstances there appeared to be no other alternative, and on
October 30th Goethe left Frankfort with Italy as his intended goal.
Heidelberg was to be his first stage, and on the way thither he began
the Journal in which he meant to record the narrative of his travels.
The two pages he wrote are the intense expression of the mental strain
in which he set forth on a journey which was to have such a different
issue from what he dreamt. The parting from Lili was uppermost in his
thoughts. "Adieu, Lili," he wrote, "adieu for the second time! The
first time we parted I was full of hope that our lots should one day
be united.[238] Fate has decided that we must play our _rôles_ apart."
[Footnote 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.]
At Heidelberg he spent a few days in the house of a lady of whom we
have already heard--that Mademoiselle Delf who had so effectually
brought matters to a point between Goethe and Lili. She was now
convinced that the betrothal had been a mistake, but, undismayed, she
now suggested to him that there was a lady in Heidelberg who would be
a satisfactory substitute for the lost one. One night he had retired
to rest after listening to a protracted exposition of the Fräulein's
projects for his future, when he was roused by the sound of a
postilion's horn. The postilion brought a letter which cleared up the
mystery of the delayed messenger. Hastily dressing, Goethe ordered a
post-chaise, and, amid the vehement expostulations of his hostess,
began the first stage of the journey which was to lead him not to
Italy but to the Court of Weimar. It was the most momentous hour of
his life, and, as he took his place in the carriage, he called aloud,
in mock heroics, to the excited Fräulein words which he may have
recently written in _Egmont_, and which had even more significance as
bearing on his own future than he could have dreamed at the moment:
"Child! Child! Forbear! As if goaded by invisible spirits, the
sun-steeds of time bear onward the light car of our destiny; and
nothing remains for us but, with calm self-possession, firmly to grasp
the reins, and now right, now left, to steer the wheels here from the
precipice and there from the rock. Whither he is hasting, who knows?
Does anyone consider whence he came?"[239]
[Footnote 239: Miss Swanwick's translation. Goethe concludes his
Autobiography with these words.]
With him to Weimar Goethe bore two manuscripts to which, during his
last years in Frankfort, he had, at one time and another, committed
his deepest feelings as a man, his profoundest thoughts as a thinker,
and his finest imaginations as a poet. The one contained the first
draft of the drama which, as we have seen, was written in those days
of torturing suspense preceding his final departure from his paternal
home, and which, subsequently recast, was to take its place among the
best known of his works--the tragedy of _Egmont_. Of far higher moment
for the world, however, was the matter contained in the other of these
manuscripts. Therein were set down the original portions of a poem
which was eventually to fructify into one of the great imaginative
products of all time--the drama of _Faust_.
Beyond all other of Goethe's productions previous to his settling in
Weimar, these original scenes of _Faust_ bring before us his deepest
and truest self. In all the other longer works of that period, in
_Götz_, in _Werther_, in _Clavigo_, and the rest, one side--the
emotional side--of his nature had been predominantly represented; but
in what he wrote of _Faust_ we have all his mind and heart as he had
them from nature, and as they had been schooled by time. It is one of
the fortunate incidents in literary history that we now possess these
fragments in which the genius of Goethe expressed itself with an
intensity of imaginative force which he never again exemplified in the
same degree. The original text was unknown till 1887, when Erich
Schmidt found it in the possession of a grandnephew of a lady of the
Court of Weimar,[240] who had copied it from the manuscript received
by her from Goethe. It is uncertain whether the manuscript thus
discovered exactly corresponds to the manuscript which Goethe took
with him to Weimar, but the probability is that their contents are
virtually identical.
[Footnote 240: Fräulein Luise von Göchhausen.]
As in the case of _Der Ewige Jude_, _Prometheus_, and other fragments
of the Frankfort period, the successive scenes of the _Urfaust_ were
thrown off at different times on the inspiration of the moment, and
the exact date of their production can only be a matter of conjecture.
What we do know is that the figure of the legendary Faust had early
attracted his attention. As a boy he had read at least one of the
chap-books which recorded the wondrous history of the scholar who had
sold himself to the devil, and, as a common spectacle in Germany, he
must have seen the puppet-show in which the story of Faust was
dramatised for the people. According to his own statement, it was in
1769 that the conception of a poem, based on the Faust legend, first
suggested itself to him, but it was during the years 1774 and 1775
that most of the scenes of the _Urfaust_ were written. Both by himself
and others there are references during these years to his work on
_Faust_, and as late as the middle of September, 1775, he tells the
Countess Stolberg that, while at Offenbach with Lili, he had composed
another scene.
What attracted Goethe to the legend of Faust was that it presented a
framework into which he could dramatically work his own life's
experience, equally in the world of thought and feeling. The story
that depicted a passionate searcher for truth, rebelling against the
limits imposed by the place assigned to man in the nature of things,
who at all costs dared to burst these limits in order to enjoy life in
all its fulness--this story had a suggestiveness that appealed to
Goethe's profoundest consciousness. "I also," he says in his
Autobiography, "had wandered at large through all the fields of
knowledge, and its futility had early enough been shown to me. In life
also I had experimented in all manner of ways, and always returned
more dissatisfied and distracted than ever." Of this correspondence
which Goethe recognised between the legendary Faust and his own being,
the final proof is that on the basis of the legend he eventually
constructed the work in which he embodied all that life had taught him
of the conditions under which it has to be lived.
When Goethe first put his hand to the _Urfaust_, he had no definite
conception of an artistic whole in which the suggestions of the legend
should be focussed in view of a determinate end. As we have it, the
_Urfaust_ consists of twenty-two scenes--those that relate the
Gretchen tragedy alone having any necessary connection with each
other. All the successive parts, including the Gretchen tragedy,
suggest improvisation under a compelling immediate impulse with no
reference to what had gone before or what might come after. Apart from
its poetic value, therefore, the _Urfaust_ is the concentrated
expression of what had most intensely engaged Goethe's mind and heart
previous to the period when it was produced.
In the _Urfaust_ we have neither the Prologue in the Theatre nor the
Prologue in Heaven, but, with the exception of some verbal changes,
the opening scene which introduces us to Faust is identical with that
of the poem in its final form. Seated at his desk in a dusty Gothic
chamber, furnished with all the apparatus for scientific experiment,
Faust reviews his past life, and finds that he has been mocked from
the beginning. In every department of boasted knowledge he has made
himself a master, but it has brought satisfaction neither to his
intellect nor his heart, and he has turned to magic in the hope that
it would reveal to him the secrets that would make life worth living.
As in the completed _Faust_, he opens the book of Nostradamus and
finds the signs of the Macrocosmus and of the Earth-Spirit, by both of
which he is baffled in his attempt to enter the _arcana_ of being.
In the _Urfaust_, also, we have, with a few verbal alterations, the
Scene in which Faust communicates to his famulus Wagner his cynical
view of the value of human knowledge. In the _Urfaust_, however, are
lacking the Scenes that follow in the completed poem--Faust's
soliloquy and meditated suicide, the Easter walk, the appearance of
Mephistopheles in the shape of a poodle, and the compact that follows.
In place of these scenes we have but one, in which Mephistopheles,
without previous introduction, is represented as a professor giving
advice to a raw student who has come to consult him as to his future
course of conduct and study. Of all the Scenes in the _Urfaust_ this
is the feeblest, and its immaturity, as well as its evident references
to Goethe's own experiences at Leipzig, suggest that it was the
earliest written. This Scene is followed by another reminiscent of
Leipzig--the Scene in Auerbach's cellar, which mainly differs from
the later form in being written in prose and not in verse--Faust and
not Mephistopheles playing the conjuror in drawing wine from a table.
In the completed poem we are next introduced to the Witches' Kitchen,
where Faust is rejuvenated, and where he sees Margaret's image in a
mirror--the reader being thus prepared for the tragedy that is to
follow. In the _Urfaust_ we pass with no connecting link from the
Scene in Auerbach's Cellar to Faust's meeting with Margaret and the
successive Scenes which depict her self-abandonment to Faust and her
consequent misery and ruin. The content of these Scenes is virtually
the same in both forms--the most important difference being that,
while the concluding Prison Scene is in prose in the _Urfaust_, it is
in verse in the later form. Of the three songs which Margaret sings,
only the first, "There was a King in Thule," was retouched. In the
_Urfaust_ the duel between Valentin and Mephistopheles does not occur,
and we have only Valentin's soliloquy on the ruin of his sister; and
the scenes, _Wald und Höhle_, the _Walpurgis Nacht_, the
_Walpurgisnachtstraum_, generally condemned by critics as inartistic
irrelevancies, are likewise lacking.[241]
[Footnote 241: The words "[Sie] ist gerettet" are not in the
_Urfaust_.]
The _Urfaust_ is the crowning poetic achievement of the youthful
Goethe, and by general consent, as has already been said, he never
again achieved a similar intense fusion of thought, feeling, and
imagination. Apart from the opening Scenes, which have no dramatic
connection with it, the Gretchen tragedy constitutes an artistic whole
which by its perfection of detail and overwhelming tragic effect must
ever remain one of the marvels of creative genius. Not less
astonishing as a manifestation of Goethe's youthful power is the
creation in all their essential lineaments of the three figures,
Faust, Mephistopheles, and Margaret--figures stamped ineffaceably on
the imagination of educated humanity. Be it said also that from the
_Urfaust_ mainly come those single lines and passages which are among
the memorable words recorded in universal literature. Such, to specify
only a few, are the Song of the Earth-Spirit; the lines commenting on
man's vain endeavour to comprehend the past, and on the dreariness of
all theory,[242] contrasted with the freshness and colour of life;
Faust's confession of his religious faith, and Margaret's songs. To
have added in this measure to the intellectual inheritance of the race
assures the testator his rank among the great spirits of all time.
[Footnote 242:
Grau, theurer Freund, ist alle Theorie,
Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum.]
With the _Urfaust_, marking as it does the highest development which
Goethe attained in the years of his youth, this record of these years
may fitly close. His characteristics as they present themselves during
that period are certainly in strange contrast to the conception of
the matured Goethe which holds general possession of the public mind,
at least in this country. In that conception the world was for the
later Goethe "a palace of art," in which he moved--
"as God holding no form of creed
But contemplating all."[243]
[Footnote 243: Tennyson disclaimed having Goethe in his mind when he
wrote _The Palace of Art_.]
But such transformations of human character are not in the order of
nature, and, due allowance made for the numbing hand of time, the
youthful Goethe remained essentially the same Goethe to the end.
Behind the mask of impassivity which chilled the casually curious who
sought him in his last years there was ever that _etwas weibliches_
which Schiller noted in him in his middle age. In the critical moments
of life he was in his maturity as in his youth subject to emotions
which for the time seemed to be beyond his control. On the death of
his wife his behaviour was that of one distracted. He described
himself at the age of fifteen as "something of a chameleon," and, as
already remarked, Felix Mendelssohn, who saw him a year before his
death, declared that the world would one day come to believe that
there had not been one but many Goethes. We have seen that throughout
the period of his youth some external impulse to production was a
necessity of his nature, and so it was to the close. What Behrisch and
Merck and his sister Cornelia did for him in these early years, had
to be done for him in later life by similar friends and counsellors.
If, like Plato and Dante, he was "a great lover" in his youth, "a
great lover" he remained even into time-stricken age; when past his
seventieth year he was moved by a passion from which, as in youth, he
found deliverance by giving vent to it in passionate verse. It is in
the youthful Goethe, before time and circumstance had dulled the
spontaneous play of feeling, that we see the man as he came from
nature's hand, with all his manifold gifts, and with all his sensuous
impulses, tossing him from one object of desire to another, yet ever
held in check by the passion that was deepest in him--the passion to
know and to create.
* * * * *
GARDEN CITY PRESS LIMITED, LETCHWORTH, HERTS.
INDEX
_Adler und Taube_, poem by Goethe, 183, 184.
Æschylus, 175.
_An Belinden_, lyric addressed by Goethe to Lili Schönemann, 252.
_An Schwager Kronos_, poem by Goethe, 240.
Arnold, Gottfried, his _History of the Church and of Heretics_,
Goethe's study of it, 64, 65.
Arnold, Matthew, 6;
quoted, 140.
Basedow, Johann Bernhard, his character, 227, 228;
his intercourse with Goethe, 228-231.
Beaumarchais, his _Mémoires_ suggest Goethe's _Clavigo_, 200, 201.
Behrisch, friend of Goethe in Leipzig, his character and influence on
Goethe, 39-41, 43, 44.
Bergson, quoted, 175 note.
Berlichingen, Gottfried von, hero of Goethe's play _Götz von
Berlichingen_, 121;
his _Memoirs_, _ib._
Boerhaave, Goethe's study of him, 64.
Böhme, Professor of History in Leipzig, Goethe attends his lectures, 34.
Böhme, Frau, her influence on Goethe, 34, 36.
Boie, H.C., his description of Goethe, 241.
Bonn, 231.
Brentano, Peter, married to Maxe von la Roche, 186;
Goethe's relations to him, _ib._;
his traits assigned to Albert in _Werther_, 191.
Brion, Friederike, Goethe's relations to her, 96-101;
his poems inspired by her, 105-108;
Goethe's remorse for parting from her, 117, 118;
nature of Goethe's love for her, 249 note.
Brion, Pastor, father of Friederike Brion, 96.
Byron, Lord, resemblance of his career to Goethe's, 26, 27, 29;
referred to, 168.
Buff, Charlotte (Lotte), loved by Goethe, 147;
his relations to her, 147-151;
her displeasure with _Werther_, 198.
Carl August, Duke of Weimar, his intercourse with Goethe, 242;
meets Goethe at Carlsruhe, 272;
visits Frankfort and invites Goethe to Weimar, 283-284.
Carlsruhe, 272.
Carlyle, Thomas, 181.
Chateaubriand, 249 note.
_Claudine von Villa Bella_, play by Goethe, 263-265.
_Clavigo_, play by Goethe: its origin, 200, 201;
argument of it, 202-204;
its classical form, 205.
Clavigo, character of, compared with that of Goethe, 206-208.
Clodius, Professor in Leipzig; Goethe attends his lectures, 34.
Coblenz, 230.
Cologne, 235, 236.
Cologne cathedral, 235.
Constantin, brother of Carl August, 242.
Darmstadt, 272.
Darmstadt, Court of, the coterie associated with it, 136, 138;
its influence on Goethe, _ib._
_Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern_, satirical play by Goethe, 169,
170.
Daudet, Alphonse, 180 note.
Delf, Mademoiselle, effects the betrothal of Goethe and Lili
Schönemann, 268;
suggests to Goethe a substitute for Lili, 286.
_Der Ewige Jude_, poetic fragment by Goethe: its origin, 212-215;
account of it, 216-218.
_Der König von Thule_, poem by Goethe, 236.
_Der Untreue Knabe_, poem by Goethe, 236.
_Der Wanderer_, poem by Goethe, 140-142.
_Deserted Village_, translated by Goethe, 146.
_Die Laune des Verliebten_, play by Goethe: its argument, 51, 52.
_Die Mitschuldigen_, play by Goethe: its argument, 52, 53.
_Diné zu Coblenz_, poem by Goethe, 230, 231.
_Disputation_ of Goethe for the Licentiate of Laws, 114.
Dresden, Goethe's secret visit to, 46.
Düsseldorf, 231, 235, 236.
_Edwin and Angelina_, Goldsmith's ballad, suggested Goethe's _Erwin und
Elmire_, 256.
_Egmont_, play by Goethe, 284;
quoted by Goethe on his proceeding to Weimar, 287;
manuscript of, taken to Weimar by Goethe, 287.
Ehrenbreitstein, 155.
Einsiedeln, 278.
Elberfeld, 231.
_Elysium, an Uranien_, ode by Goethe, 138.
Emerson, quoted, 106, 107.
Emmendingen, 272.
Ems, 225.
English literature, its influence on _Werther_, 187, 188.
_Ephemerides_, Diary kept by Goethe, 102;
quoted, 211 note;
referred to, 212.
_Erwin und Elmire_, vaudeville by Goethe, 255-257.
Euripides, 173.
Fahlmer, Johanna, letter of Goethe to, 248 note.
Flachsland, Caroline, member of the _Gemeinschaft der Heiligen_, 136;
her letters describing Goethe, 137, 138;
his ode addressed to her as Psyche, 138;
on Goethe's ambition to be a painter, 164;
character in _Das Jahrmarktsfest_, 170;
in _Pater Brey_, 171;
in _Satyros_, 172.
Flaubert, 180 note.
Frankfort-on-the-Main, Goethe's birthplace, description of: its
influence on Goethe, 2, 3;
Goethe's return to, 109;
Goethe's distaste for, 111.
Frankforters, Goethe's description of, 161.
_Frankfurter Gelehrten Anzeigen_, journal expounding the aims of the
_Sturm und Drang_ movement, 164, 165.
Frederick the Great, Goethe's admiration for, 18, 19.
French literature, its domination in Germany; imitated by Goethe, 49, 75.
French troops in Frankfort, 19-21.
Friedberg, 239.
_Gedicht der Ankunft des Herrn_, another title for _Der Ewige Jude_, 216.
Gellert, Professor, German poet resident in Leipzig, 32;
Goethe attends his lectures, 34.
_Gemeinschaft der Heiligen_ at the Court of Darmstadt, 136.
Göchhausen, Fräulein Luise von, and the manuscript of the _Urfaust_,
288 and note.
Goethe, Cornelia, Goethe's sister: her character, her influence on
Goethe, Goethe's affection for her, 10, 11;
his letters to her from Leipzig, 40, 41;
her father's hardness to, 59;
her home influence, 116;
stimulates Goethe to write _Götz von Berlichingen_, 121;
married to J.G. Schlosser, 162;
Goethe's last meeting with her, 273-274.
Goethe, Elizabeth, Goethe's mother: her character, her relations to her
son, 8-10;
her religion, 15.
Goethe, Johann Kaspar, Goethe's father: his character, not in sympathy
with his son, his method of education, 6-7;
determines, against his son's will, to send him to University of
Leipzig, 23, 24;
his severity towards his daughter, Cornelia, 59;
estrangement from his son, 60;
his pride in his genius, _ib._;
his son's characterisation of him, 161;
his republican opinions, 243;
objects to his son's intercourse with Carl August, Duke of Weimar, 244;
his opposition to his son's going to Weimar, 285;
wishes him to go to Italy, _ib._
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, his birth in Frankfort-on-the-Main, 4;
influence of his birthplace, 2, 3;
influence of the period on his development, 4-6;
his debt to his father, 6-7;
to his mother, 8-10;
relations to his sister, 10-11;
his education, 14;
religious influences, 14-17;
influence of the French theatre in Frankfort on him, 20, 21;
in love with Gretchen, 22, 23;
father resolves to send him to the University of Leipzig, 24;
his characteristics as a boy, 25-27;
his early devotion to poetry, 28;
his stormy career throughout his youth, 29;
goes to the University of Leipzig, 31;
his studies there, 33-35;
influence of Leipzig society on him, 35-38;
influence of Frau Böhme on his character and literary tastes, 36;
falls in love with Käthchen Schönkopf, 38;
friendship with Behrisch, 39, 40;
a jealous lover, 43, 44;
artistic studies, 45;
influence of Friedrich Oeser on his artistic ideals, 46, 47;
_Neue Lieder_, 49, 50;
_Die Laune des Verliebten_ and _Die Mitschuldigen_, 51-53;
his ideas of poetry, 54-57;
returns to Frankfort, 57;
his unsatisfactory condition of mind and body, 57, 58;
estrangement from his father, 60;
his interest in religion, 60-67;
influence of Fräulein von Klettenberg, 62-64;
his dangerous illness, 63, 64;
works out a creed of his own, 65, 66;
mystical and chemical studies, 66;
interests in art and literature, 69-71;
departs for the University of Strassburg, 74;
influence of Strassburg society, 76, 77;
finds a mentor in Dr. Salzmann, 79, 80;
acquaintance with Jung Stilling, 81-83;
influence of Herder, 83-93;
inspired by Strassburg Cathedral, 93-95;
his love experiences with Friederike Brion, 95-102;
his manifold interests in Strassburg, 102-104;
development of his poetic gift, 105;
lyrics to Friederike, 105-108;
returns to Frankfort, 108;
state of mind on his return, 110-113;
continued estrangement from his father, 114, 115;
his sister Cornelia, 116;
makes acquaintance with the brothers Schlosser, _ib._;
his distraction in Frankfort, 118-120;
admiration of Shakespeare, 121;
writes _Götz von Berlichingen_, 122;
makes acquaintance with Merck, 132;
comes under the influence of the Darmstadt circle, 136;
his poems inspired by that circle, 138;
his visit to Wetzlar, 143;
his mode of life there, 144;
marks the acquaintance of Charlotte Buff, 147;
and of Kestner, 148;
his subsequent relations to them, 149;
characterised by Kestner, 152;
returns to Frankfort, 154;
conceives _Werther_, 154;
makes acquaintance with the family von la Roche, 155;
his relations to Frau von la Roche and her daughter, 156;
his unrest after his experiences at Wetzlar, 158;
his dislike of Frankfort, 161;
his solitude, 162;
uncertain whether he should devote himself to literature or art, 163;
co-editor of the _Frankfurter Gelehrten Anzeigen_, 164;
his _Letter of a Pastor_, 166;
paper on _Two Biblical Questions_, 167;
publishes the second draft of _Götz von Berlichingen_, 167;
writes a succession of satirical plays, 169;
his fragmentary drama, _Prometheus_, 175;
his fragment of a drama on Mahomet, 181;
produces _Werther_, 184;
his own character compared with that of Werther, 193;
his _Clavigo_, 200;
Goethe and Spinoza, 209;
his fragment, _Der Ewige Jude_, 212;
his intercourse with Lavater, 220;
with Basedow, 227;
with Fritz Jacobi, 233;
with Klopstock, 238;
characterised by Boie and Werthes, 241-2;
makes acquaintance with the Princes of Weimar, 243;
characterised by von Knebel, 244-5;
falls in love with Lili Schönemann, 247;
his songs addressed to her, 251;
relations with the Countess Stolberg, 253;
his infatuation for Lili, 254;
his succession of plays relative to her, 255-265;
shrinking from marriage, 267;
betrothed to Lili, 268;
persuaded of his mistake, 269;
sets out for Switzerland with the Counts Stolberg, 270;
his travels, 272;
visit to his sister, 273;
meets Lavater at Zurich, 275;
parts company with the Stolbergs, and accompanies Passavant to the
pass of St. Gothard, 276;
returns to Frankfort, 278;
his relations to Lili on his return, 279;
invited by the Duke of Weimar to visit Weimar, 284;
opposition of his father, 284;
decides to go to Italy as the Duke's messenger does not appear, 285;
goes to Heidelberg on the way to Italy, 285;
appearance of the Duke's messenger decides him to visit Weimar, 286;
the _Urfaust_, 287-293;
characteristics, 293.
Goncourt, Edmond de, 180 note.
_Götter, Holden, und Wieland_, satirical play on Wieland by Goethe, 173,
174.
Gotter, F.W., friend of Goethe in Wetzlar, 146.
Gottsched, German poet resident in Leipzig, 32.
_Götz von Berlichingen_, drama by Goethe, 109, 113;
its origin, 121;
its plot, 123-126;
its characteristics, 126-129;
second draft of, 167, 168.
Gray, Thomas, 187.
Gretchen, Goethe's first love, 22, 23.
Hamann, J.G., the "Magus of the North," teacher of Herder, 86;
Goethe's interest in him, _ib._
Hanover, 160.
Hasenkamp, rebukes Goethe for _Werther_, 232.
Haugnitz, Count, travels with Goethe to Switzerland, 270-275.
Heidelberg, 285, 286.
Hehn, Viktor, quoted, 139, 180 note.
Heine, Heinrich, 26.
Heinse, J.J.H., his opinion of Goethe, 237.
Herder, his _Fragments on Modern German Literature_, 48;
Johann Gottfried, 83-93;
his career, character and speculations, 84-86;
his admiration of Shakespeare, 120;
his opinion of _Götz von Berlichingen_, 145;
one of the editors of the _Frankfurter Gelehrten Anzeigen_, 164, 165;
as captain of the gipsies in _Das Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern_,
170;
satirised in _Pater Brey_, 171;
and in _Satyros_, 172;
letters of Goethe to, 268, 270.
Herrnhut Community, Goethe attends a synod of, 63;
dissociates himself from the community, 79.
_Hoch auf dem alten Turme steht_, lines by Goethe, 230.
Holy Alliance, 180.
Homer, Goethe's study of him, 145.
Horn, a friend of Goethe: his description of Goethe in Leipzig, 37;
quoted, 38;
quoted, 67.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von, his opinion of marriage, 101, 102.
Jabach, family of, 235.
Jacobi, Fritz, his horror at Lessing's approval of Spinoza, 180, 233;
his character and attainments, 234;
his intercourse with Goethe, 234-238;
letter of Goethe to, 267.
Jacobi, Georg, 235, 236.
Jean Paul, 26.
Jerusalem: his suicide prompts Goethe to _Werther_, 154, 155;
Lessing's esteem for him, 154 note.
Jung, Johann Heinrich. (_See_ Stilling, Jung.)
Kant, Immanuel, quoted, 28;
quoted, 48;
his opinion of marriage, 101;
his judgment on the _Sturm und Drang_ movement, 130.
Kestner, Johann Christian, betrothed to Lotte Buff, 148;
his character, _ib._;
his relations to Goethe, 149-151;
his characterisation of Goethe, 151-153;
letters of Goethe to, 159, 160, 174;
his displeasure with _Werther_, 198.
Klettenberg, Fräulein von, the _Schöne Seele_ of _Wilhelm Meister_, 15;
Goethe's intimacy with, 62;
her influence on his religious opinions, 63, 64, 66, 67;
letter of Goethe to, 77, 78;
her intercourse with Lavater, 225;
adviser of the Goethe family, 244;
her death, 245-246;
her affection for Goethe, 246.
Klopstock, his _Messias_, 238;
admired by Goethe, 239;
his visit to Goethe's home, 239, 240;
Goethe accompanies him to Mannheim, 240;
Goethe's opinion of him, 241 note;
visits Frankfort, 268;
Goethe meets him at Carlsruhe, 272.
Knebel, Major von, his visit to Goethe, 242;
his characterisation of him, 244;
letter of Goethe to, 280.
_Künstlers Erdewallen_, poem by Goethe, 184.
La Roche, family, its influence on _Werther_, 158.
La Roche, Frau von, Goethe's relations to her 155, 156;
letters of Goethe to, 162, 186, 187, 245 note.
La Roche, Herr von, 155.
La Roche, Maximiliane von, Goethe's relations to her, 157;
married to Peter Brentano, 186;
her relation to _Werther_, 186, 191.
Langer, his influence on Goethe's religious opinions, 58, 59.
Lavater, Johann Kaspar, his character, 220;
his intercourse with Goethe, 222-232;
Goethe's intercourse with him at Zurich, 275 and note, 280;
his _Physiognomy_, Goethe's contributions to it, 282.
Leipzig, description of, 31, 32;
Goethe a student there, 31-56;
called "little Paris," 32.
Lessing, his _Laokoon_ and _Minna von Barnhelm_, 49;
Goethe's opinion of, 70;
his approval of Spinoza's philosophy, 180;
his opinion of _Werther_, 197 note.
_Letter of the Pastor_ written by Goethe, 166.
Leuchsenring, his sentimentalism, 157;
his meeting with Goethe, _ib._;
satirised in _Pater Brey_, 171.
_Lilis Park_, poem by Goethe addressed to Lili Schönemann, 266 note,
281 note.
Limprecht, Goethe's letter to, 76.
Lisbon, earthquake of, its influence on Goethe, 16.
Luise, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, betrothed to Carl August, Duke of
Weimar, 272.
_Mahomet_, fragment of a drama by Goethe, 181-183.
Mainz, 244, 245.
Mannheim, 240, 272.
Maria Theresa, 18.
Mendelssohn, Moses, his relation to Spinoza, 180.
Mephistopheles, 109.
Merck, Johann Heinrich, friend of Goethe, 133;
his character and influence on Goethe, 133-135;
introduces Goethe to the family von la Roche, 155;
his visit to Berlin and return, 162;
one of the editors of the _Frankfurter Gelehrten Anzeigen_, 164, 165;
in _Pater Brey_, 171;
in _Satyros_, 172;
his mordant comment on _Clavigo_, 206;
comes under the spell of Lavater, 224;
meeting with Goethe in Mannheim, 272.
Milan, Archbishop of, orders _Werther_ to be burned, 197.
Mülheim, 231.
Müller, Chancellor von, quoted, 44;
quoted, 58 note.
Münch, Anna Sibylla, suggests _Clavigo_, 201, 202.
Napoleon, and _Werther_, 192, 193, 199.
Neo-Platonism, 65.
_Neue Lieder_, collection of Goethe's poems written in Leipzig, 49.
_Neue Liebe, neues Leben_, poem of Goethe addressed to Lili Schönemann,
251.
New Testament, Goethe's study, 59.
Oeser, Friedrich, director of the academy of drawing in Leipzig: his
influence on Goethe, 46, 47;
letters of Goethe to him, 67, 69.
Offenbach on the Main, 266, and note.
Old Testament, Goethe's study of, 16, 17.
_Ossian_, 187, 192, and note.
_Palace of Art_, Tennyson's, 294.
Paracelsus, Goethe's study of him, 64.
Passavant, Reformed Pastor, travels with Goethe in Switzerland, 276;
tradition in his family regarding Goethe, 278 note.
_Pater Brey_, satirical piece by Goethe, 170, 171.
Pfenninger, Heinrich, letter of Goethe to, 223, 224.
Pindar, Goethe's study of, 139, 145.
Plato, Goethe's study of him, 145.
_Poetische Gedanken über die Höllenfahrt Jesu Christi_, early poem of
Goethe, 28.
Pollock, Sir Frederick, on "modern Spinozism," 180 note.
_Prometheus_, fragment of a play by Goethe, 174-180.
Rembrandt, Goethe's study of, 282.
Renan, Ernest, 181 note.
Richardson, Samuel, 156;
his _Clarissa Harlowe_, 188.
Riemer, Goethe's secretary, quoted, 33.
Robinson, Henry Crabb, quoted, 192 note.
Rousseau, 58, 112, 129;
Goethe's opinion of him, 152;
his _Nouvelle Héloïse_, 188.
Rumohr, W. von, letter of Goethe to him quoted, 56 note.
Sachs, Hans, Goethe's imitation of, 169, 214.
St. Gothard, pass of, 278.
Salzmann, Dr., Goethe's mentor in Strassburg: his character, 79-81;
letters of Goethe to, 99, 100, 119, 121.
_Satyros_, satirical play by Goethe, 171-173.
Schaffhausen, 275.
Scherer, Edmond, 6;
his estimate of _Götz von Berlichingen_, 128.
Schlosser, J.G., friend of Goethe, 116;
his impressions of Goethe, 142;
married to Goethe's sister, 162;
one of the editors of the _Frankfurter Gelehrten Anzeigen_, 164, 165.
Schmidt, Erich, his discovery of the _Urfaust_, 288.
Schönemann, Anna Elisabeth (Lili): Goethe's first meeting with her, 248;
beginning of Goethe's attachment to her, 249;
Goethe's lyrics addressed to her, 251-253;
Goethe's tribute to her in later life, 251 note;
Goethe sends his _Stella_ to her, 263;
Goethe's strained relations with her, 267-270;
poems of Goethe addressed to, 276-278;
Goethe's relations to her after his return from Switzerland, 279-286;
her subsequent marriage, 286 note.
Schönemann family, 247;
their social position superior to that of the Goethes, 248;
intercourse of Goethe with them, 249.
Schönemann, Lili. (_See_ Schönemann, Anna Elisabeth.)
Schönkopf, Käthchen, Goethe's love in Leipzig: her appearance and
character, 38;
Goethe's philandering with her, 38-44;
Goethe's poems addressed to her, 42;
Goethe's letters to, 61, 68, 69, 138 note.
Scott, Sir Walter, his translation of _Götz von Berlichingen_, 131;
his writings influenced by it, 132.
Sesenheim, residence of the Brion family:
Goethe's visits there, 96-100.
_Seven Years' War_, its influence on the Goethe household, 18.
Shakespeare, Goethe's debt to, 45, 122.
_Song of Solomon_, translated by Goethe, 281 note.
Spinoza, Goethe's debt to, 45;
his influence on Goethe, 209-212;
Goethe and Lavater discuss his writings, 226;
discussed by Goethe and Fritz Jacobi, 237.
Stein, Frau von, quoted, 150 note.
_Stella_, play by Goethe, 257-263;
ridiculed in the _Anti-Jacobin_, 261 and note;
admired by Herder, 262;
its popularity, _ib._
Sterne, 112.
Stevenson, R.L., his admiration of _Werther_, 200 note.
Stilling, Jung, friend of Goethe in Strassburg:
his career and character, 81, 82;
Goethe's kindness to, 82-83;
prank played on him by Goethe, 231;
his affection for Goethe, 246.
Stolberg, Count Christian, comes to Frankfort and travels with Goethe
to Switzerland, 270-275.
Stolberg, Count Frederick Leopold, younger brother of Christian, 270-275.
Stolberg, Countess, beginning of Goethe's acquaintance with her, 253;
his letters to, 254, 255, 266, 280, 282 and note.
Strassburg, Goethe's residence in, 74-108;
description of its society, 75, 273.
Strassburg Cathedral, Goethe's interest in, and its influence on his
development, 93-95;
Goethe's essay on, 94.
_Sturm und Drang_ movement in German literature, inspired by _Götz von
Berlichingen_, 130, 139, 140;
its aims expounded in the _Frankfurter Gelehrten Anzeigen_, 164, 165.
Sulzer, J.G., his characterisation of Goethe, 283.
Swift, his relations to Stella and Vanessa suggest Goethe's _Stella_, 261.
Tennyson, 294 and note.
Textor, J.W., Goethe's maternal grandfather, 18.
Theatre set up by the French in Frankfort, Goethe's interest in it, 20, 21.
Theocritus, Goethe's study of him, 145.
Thoranc, Count, commander of French forces in Frankfort, quartered in
Goethe's home: his interest in Goethe, 20-21.
Turgenieff, 180 note.
_Two Biblical Questions_, piece written by Goethe, 167.
_Urfaust_, The, 287;
account of it, 288-293.
Ur-Religion, Goethe's conception of, 16.
Van Helmont, Goethe's study of him, 64.
_Vicar of Wakefield_, 96 note.
Voltaire, his criticism of Shakespeare, 70, 181 and note.
_Wanderers Sturmlied_, poem by Goethe, 139, 140.
_Werther_, 109;
analysis of, 186-200;
its influence, 196, 199;
public opinion regarding it, 196, 197;
prohibited in Leipzig and Denmark, 197;
burned at Milan, _ib._
Werther, how far he resembled Goethe, 193-195.
Wertherism, 199.
Werthes, F.A., his description of Goethe, 241.
Wetzlar, Goethe's residence there, 143-153;
description of, 144;
its society, 145;
Goethe's flying visit to, 160.
Wieland, his translation of Shakespeare, 70;
one of Goethe's masters, 70, 71;
his description of Goethe, 98;
his opinion of _Götz von Berlichingen_, 129;
satirised by Goethe, 173, 174;
his _Alceste_, _ib._;
letter of Goethe to, 185;
his approval of _Clavigo_, 205 note.
_Wilhelm Meister_, 21.
Winckelmann, influenced by Oeser, 46.
_Wilkommen und Abschied_, lyric of Goethe addressed to Friederike Brion,
107, 108.
Wordsworth, his remark on Goethe's poetry, 54.
Xenophon, Goethe's study of him, 145.
Young, Edward, his _Conjectures on Original Composition_: its influence
on German literature, 90, 187.
Zelter, friend of Goethe, letter of Goethe to him, 193-194.
Zimmermann, J.G., his characterisation of Goethe, 283.
Zurich, 275;
lake of, 276.