The Note in your valuable Journal (Vol. vii., p. 591.) requires, I think,
so far as it relates to Goethe, several corrections which I am in the
position of making. The amount which that great man is said to have
received for his "works (aggregate)" is "30,000 crowns." The person who
_originally_ printed this statement must have been completely ignorant of
Goethe's affairs, and even biography. Goethe had (unlike Byron) several
publishers in his younger years. Subsequently he became closer connected
with M. _J. G. Cotta_ of Stuttgardt, who, in succession, published almost
all Goethe's works. Amongst them were _several_ editions of his complete
works: for instance, that published conjointly at Vienna and Stuttgardt.
Then came, in 1829, what was called the edition of the last hand (_Ausgabe
letzter Hand_), as Goethe was then more than eighty years of age. During
all the time these two editions were published, other detached new works of
Goethe were also printed; as well as new editions of former books, &c. Who
can now say that it was 20,000 crowns (_thalers?_) which the great poet
received for each various performance?--_No one._ And this for many
reasons. Goethe always remained with M. Cotta on terms of polite
acquaintanceship, no more: there was no "My dear Murray" in their strictly
business-like connexion. Goethe also never wrote on such things, even in
his biography or diary. But some talk was going around in Germany, that for
_one_ of the editions of his _complete_ works (there {30} appeared still
many volumes of posthumous), he received the above sum. I can assert on
good authority, that Goethe, foreseeing his increasing popularity even long
after his death, stipulated with M. Cotta to pay his _heirs_ a certain sum
for every new edition of either his complete or single works. One of the
recipients of these yet _current accounts_ is Baron Wolfgang von Goethe,
Attache of the Prussian Legation at Rome.