While our friend was in this way living very happily, Melina and the
rest were in quite a different case. Wilhelm they haunted like evil
spirits; and not only by their presence, but frequently by rueful faces
and bitter words, they caused him many a sorry moment. Serlo had not
admitted them to the most trifling part, far less held out to them any
hope of a permanent engagement; and yet he had contrived, by degrees, to
get acquainted with the capabilities of every one of them. Whenever any
actors were assembled in leisure hours about him, he was wont to make
them read, and frequently to read along with them. On such occasions he
took plays which were by and by to be acted, which for a long time had
remained unacted; and generally by portions. In like manner, after any
first representation, he caused such passages to be repeated as he had
any thing to say upon: by which means he sharpened the discernment of
his actors, and strengthened their certainty of hitting the proper
point. And as a person of slender but correct understanding may produce
more agreeable effect on others than a perplexed and unpurified genius,
he would frequently exalt men of mediocre talents, by the clear views
which he imperceptibly afforded them, to a wonderful extent of power.
Nor was it an unimportant item in his scheme, that he likewise had poems
read before him in their meetings; for by these he nourished in his
people the feeling of that charm which a well-pronounced rhythm is
calculated to awaken in the soul: whereas, in other companies, those
prose compositions were already getting introduced for which any tyro
was adequate.
On occasions such as these, he had contrived to make himself acquainted
with the new-come players: he had decided what they were, and what they
might be, and silently made up his mind to take advantage of their
talents, in a revolution which was now threatening his own company. For
a while he let the matter rest; declined every one of Wilhelm's
intercessions for his comrades, with a shrug of the shoulders; till at
last he saw his time, and altogether unexpectedly made the proposal to
our friend, "that he himself should come upon the stage; that, on this
condition, the others, too, might be admitted."
"These people must not be so useless as you formerly described them,"
answered Wilhelm, "if they can now be all received at once; and I
suppose their talents would remain the same without me as with me."
Under seal of secrecy, Serlo hereupon explained his situation,--how his
first actor was giving hints about a rise of salary at the renewal of
their contract; how he himself did not incline conceding this, the
rather as the individual in question was no longer in such favor with
the public; how, if he dismissed him, a whole train would follow;
whereby, it was true, his company would lose some good, but likewise
some indifferent, actors. He then showed Wilhelm what he hoped to gain
in him, in Laertes, Old Boisterous, and even Frau Melina. Nay, he
promised to procure for the silly Pedant himself, in the character of
Jew, minister, but chiefly of villain, a decided approbation.
Wilhelm faltered; the proposal fluttered him; he knew not what to say.
That he might say something, he rejoined, with a deep-drawn breath, "You
speak very graciously about the good you find and hope to find in us;
but how is it with our weak points, which certainly have not escaped
your penetration?"
"These," said Serlo, "by diligence, practice, and reflection, we shall
soon make strong points. Though you are yet but freshmen and bunglers,
there is not one among you that does not warrant expectation more or
less: for, so far as I can judge, no stick, properly so called, is to
be met with in the company; and your stick is the only person that can
never be improved, never bent or guided, whether it be self-conceit,
stupidity, or hypochondria, that renders him unpliant."
The manager next stated, in a few words, the terms he meant to offer;
requested Wilhelm to determine soon, and left him in no small
perplexity.
In the marvellous composition of those travels, which he had at first
engaged with, as it were, in jest, and was now carrying on in
conjunction with Laertes, his mind had by degrees grown more attentive
to the circumstances and the every-day life of the actual world than it
was wont. He now first understood the object of his father in so
earnestly recommending him to keep a journal. He now, for the first
time, felt how pleasant and how useful it might be to become
participator in so many trades and requisitions, and to take a hand in
diffusing activity and life into the deepest nooks of the mountains and
forests of Europe. The busy trading-town in which he was; the unrest of
Laertes, who dragged him about to examine every thing,--afforded him the
most impressive image of a mighty centre, from which every thing was
flowing out, to which every thing was coming back; and it was the first
time that his spirit, in contemplating this species of activity, had
really felt delight. At such a juncture Serlo's offer had been made him;
had again awakened his desires, his tendencies, his faith in a natural
talent, and again brought into mind his solemn obligation to his
helpless comrades.
"Here standest thou once more," said he within himself, "at the Parting
of the Ways, between the two women who appeared before thee in thy
youth. The one no longer looks so pitiful as then, nor does the other
look so glorious. To obey the one, or to obey the other, thou art not
without a kind of inward calling: outward reasons are on both sides
strong enough, and to decide appears to thee impossible. Thou wishest
some preponderancy from without would fix thy choice; and yet, if thou
consider well, it is external circumstances only that inspire thee with
a wish to trade, to gather, to possess; whilst it is thy inmost want
that has created, that has nourished, the desire still further to unfold
and perfect what endowments soever for the beautiful and good, be they
mental or bodily, may lie within thee. And ought I not to honor Fate,
which, without furtherance of mine, has led me hither to the goal of
all my wishes? Has not all that I, in old times, meditated and forecast,
now happened accidentally, and without my co-operation? Singular enough!
We seem to be so intimate with nothing as we are with our own wishes and
hopes, which have long been kept and cherished in our hearts; yet when
they meet us, when they, as it were, press forward to us, then we know
them not, then we recoil from them. All that, since the hapless night
which severed me from Mariana, I have but allowed myself to dream, now
stands before me, entreating my acceptance. Hither I intended to escape
by flight; hither I am softly guided: with Serlo I meant to seek a
place; he now seeks me, and offers me conditions, which, as a beginner,
I could not have looked for. Was it, then, mere love to Mariana that
bound me to the stage? Or love to art that bound me to her? Was that
prospect, that outlet, which the theatre presented me, nothing but the
project of a restless, disorderly, and disobedient boy, wishing to lead
a life which the customs of the civic world would not admit of? Or was
all this different, worthier, purer? If so, what moved thee to alter the
persuasions of that period? Hast thou not hitherto, even without knowing
it, pursued thy plan? Is not the concluding step still further to be
justified, now that no side-purposes combine with it; now that in making
it thou mayest fulfil a solemn promise, and nobly free thyself from a
heavy debt?"
All that could affect his heart and his imagination was now moving, and
conflicting in the liveliest strife within him. The thought that he
might retain Mignon, that he should not need to put away the harper, was
not an inconsiderable item in the balance, which, however, had not
ceased to waver to the one and to the other side, when he went, as he
was wont, to see his friend Aurelia.