GOETHE

goethe, johann wolfgang von (1749-1832), german poet, dramatist and philosopher, was born at frankfort-on-main on the 28th of august 1749. he came, on his father's side, of thuringian stock, his great-grandfather, hans christian goethe, having been a farrier at artern-on-the-unstrut, about the middle of the 17th century. hans christian's son, friedrich georg, was brought up to the trade of a tailor, and in this capacity settled in frankfort in 1686. a second marriage, however, brought him into possession of the frankfort inn, "zum weidenhof," and he ended his days as a well-to-do innkeeper. his son, johann kaspar, the poet's father (1710-1782), studied law at leipzig, and, after going through the prescribed courses of practical training at wetzlar, travelled in italy. he hoped, on his return to frankfort, to obtain an official position in the government of the free city, but his personal influence with the authorities was not sufficiently strong. in his disappointment he resolved never again to offer his services to his native town, and retired into private life, a course which his ample means facilitated. in 1742 he acquired, as a consolation for the public career he had missed, the title of _kaiserlicher rat_, and in 1748 married katharina elisabeth (1731-1808), daughter of the _schultheiss_ or _burgermeister_ of frankfort, johann wolfgang textor. the poet was the eldest son of this union. of the later children only one, cornelia, born in 1750, survived the years of childhood; she died as the wife of goethe's friend, j. g. schlosser, in 1777. the best elements in goethe's genius came from his mother's side; of a lively, impulsive disposition, and gifted with remarkable imaginative power, frau rat was the ideal mother of a poet; moreover, being hardly eighteen at the time of her son's birth, she was herself able to be the companion of his childhood. from his father, whose stern, somewhat pedantic nature repelled warmer feelings on the part of the children, goethe inherited that "holy earnestness" and stability of character which brought him unscathed through temptations and passions, and held the balance to his all too powerful imagination. unforgettable is the picture which the poet subsequently drew of his childhood spent in the large house with its many nooks and crannies, in the grosse hirschgraben at frankfort. books, pictures, objects of art, antiquities, reminiscences of rat goethe's visit to italy, above all a marionette theatre, kindled the child's quick intellect and imagination. his training was conducted in its early stages by his father, and was later supplemented by tutors. meanwhile the varied and picturesque life of frankfort was in itself an education. in 1759, during the seven years' war, the french, as maria theresa's allies, occupied the town, and, much to the irritation of goethe's father, who was a stanch partisan of frederick the great, a french lieutenant, count thoranc, was quartered on the goethe household. the foreign occupation also led to the establishment of a french troupe of actors, and to their performances the boy, through his grandfather's influence, had free access. goethe has also recorded his memories of another picturesque event, the coronation of the emperor joseph ii. in the frankfort romer or town hall in 1764; but these memories were darkened by being associated in his mind with the tragic denouement of his first love affair. the object of this passion was a certain gretchen, who seems to have taken advantage of the boy's interest in her to further the dishonest ends of one of her friends. the discovery of the affair and the investigation that followed cooled goethe's ardour and caused him to turn his attention seriously to the studies which were to prepare him for the university. meanwhile the literary instinct had begun to show itself; we hear of a novel in letters--a kind of linguistic exercise, in which the characters carried on the correspondence in different languages--of a prose epic on the subject of joseph, and various religious poems of which one, _die hollenfahrt christi_, found its way in a revised form into the poet's complete works. in october 1765, goethe, then a little over sixteen, left frankfort for leipzig, where a wider and, in many respects, less provincial life awaited him. he entered upon his university studies with zeal, but his own education in frankfort had not been the best preparation for the scholastic methods which still dominated the german universities; of his professors, only gellert seems to have won his interest, and that interest was soon exhausted. the literary beginnings he had made in frankfort now seemed to him amateurish and trivial; he felt that he had to turn over a new leaf, and, under the guidance of e. w. behrisch, a genial, original comrade, he learned the art of writing those light anacreontic lyrics which harmonized with the tone of polite leipzig society. artificial as this poetry is, goethe was, nevertheless, inspired by a real passion in leipzig, namely, for anna katharina schonkopf, the daughter of a wine-merchant at whose house he dined. she is the "annette" after whom the recently discovered collection of lyrics was named, although it must be added that neither these lyrics nor the _neue lieder_, published in 1770, express very directly goethe's feelings for kathchen schonkopf. to his leipzig student-days belong also two small plays in alexandrines, _die laune des verliebten_, a pastoral comedy in one act, which reflects the lighter side of the poet's love affair, and _die mitschuldigen_ (published in a revised form, 1769), a more sombre picture, in which comedy is incongruously mingled with tragedy. in leipzig goethe also had time for what remained one of the abiding interests of his life, for art; he regarded a. f. oeser (1717-1799), the director of the academy of painting in the pleissenburg, who had given him lessons in drawing, as the teacher who in leipzig had influenced him most. his art studies were also furthered by a short visit to dresden. his stay in leipzig came, however, to an abrupt conclusion; the distractions of student life proved too much for his strength; a sudden haemorrhage supervened, and he lay long ill, first in leipzig, and, after it was possible to remove him, at home in frankfort. these months of slow recovery were a time of serious introspection for goethe. he still corresponded with his leipzig friends, but the tone of his letters changed; life had become graver and more earnest for him. he pored over books on occult philosophy; he busied himself with alchemy and astrology. a friend of his mother's, susanne katharina von klettenberg, who belonged to pietist circles in frankfort, turned the boy's thoughts to religious mysticism. on his recovery his father resolved that he should complete his legal studies at strassburg, a city which, although then outside the german empire, was, in respect of language and culture, wholly german. from the first moment goethe set foot in the narrow streets of the alsatian capital, in april 1770, the whole current of his thought seemed to change. the gothic architecture of the strassburg minster became to him the symbol of a national and german ideal, directly antagonistic to the french tastes and the classical and rationalistic atmosphere that prevailed in leipzig. the second moment of importance in goethe's strassburg period was his meeting with herder, who spent some weeks in strassburg undergoing an operation of the eye. in this thinker, who was his senior by five years, goethe found the master he sought; herder taught him the significance of gothic architecture, revealed to him the charm of nature's simplicity, and inspired him with enthusiasm for shakespeare and the _volkslied_. meanwhile goethe's legal studies were not neglected, and he found time to add to knowledge of other subjects, notably that of medicine. another factor of importance in goethe's strassburg life was his love for friederike brion, the daughter of an alsatian village pastor in sesenheim. even more than herder's precept and example, this passion showed goethe how trivial and artificial had been the anacreontic and pastoral poetry with which he had occupied himself in leipzig; and the lyrics inspired by friederike, such as _kleine blumen, kleine blatter_ and _wie herrlich leuchtet mir die natur!_ mark the beginning of a new epoch in german lyric poetry. the idyll of sesenheim, as described in _dichtung und wahrheit_, is one of the most beautiful love-stories in the literature of the world. from the first, however, it was clear that friederike brion could never become the wife of the frankfort patrician's son; an unhappy ending to the romance was unavoidable, and, as is to be seen in passionate outpourings like the _wanderers sturmlied_, and in the bitter self-accusations of _clavigo_, it left deep wounds on the poet's sensitive soul. to strassburg we owe goethe's first important drama, _gotz von berlichingen_, or, as it was called in its earliest form, _geschichte gottfriedens von berlichingen dramatisiert_ (not published until 1831). revised under the now familiar title, it appeared in 1773, after goethe's return to frankfort. in estimating this drama we must bear in mind goethe's own strassburg life, and the turbulent spirit of his own age, rather than the historical facts, which the poet found in the autobiography of his hero published in 1731. the latter supplied only the rough materials; the gotz von berlichingen whom goethe drew, with his lofty ideals of right and wrong, and his enthusiasm for freedom, is a very different personage from the unscrupulous robber-knight of the 16th century, the rough friend of franz von sickingen and of the revolting peasants. still less historical justification is to be found for the vacillating weisslingen in whom goethe executed poetic justice on himself as the lover of friederike, or in the women of the play, the gentle maria, the heartless adelheid. but there is genial, creative power in the very subjectivity of these characters, and a vigorous dramatic life, which is irresistible in its appeal. with _gotz von berlichingen_, shakespeare's art first triumphed on the german stage, and the literary movement known as _sturm und drang_ was inaugurated. having received his degree in strassburg, goethe returned home in august 1771, and began his initiation into the routine of an advocate's profession. in the following year, in order to gain insight into another side of his calling, he spent four months at wetzlar, where the imperial law-courts were established. but goethe's professional duties had only a small share in the eventful years which lay between his return from strassburg and that visit to weimar at the end of 1775, which turned the whole course of his career, and resulted in his permanent attachment to the weimar court. goethe's life in frankfort was a round of stimulating literary intercourse; in j. h. merck (1741-1791), an army official in the neighbouring town of darmstadt, he found a friend and mentor, whose irony and common-sense served as a corrective to his own exuberance of spirits. wetzlar brought new friends and another passion, that for charlotte buff, the daughter of the _amtmann_ there--a love-story which has been immortalized in _werthers leiden_--and again the young poet's nature was obsessed by a love which was this time strong enough to bring him to the brink of that suicide with which the novel ends. a visit to the rhine, where new interests and the attractions of maximiliane von laroche, a daughter of wieland's friend, the novelist sophie von laroche, brought partial healing; his intense preoccupation with literary work on his return to frankfort did the rest. in 1775 goethe was attracted by still another type of woman, lili schonemann, whose mother was the widow of a wealthy frankfort banker. a formal betrothal took place, and the beauty of the lyrics which lili inspired leaves no room for doubt that here was a passion no less genuine than that for friederike or charlotte. but goethe--more worldly wise than on former occasions--felt instinctively that the gay, social world in which lili moved was not really congenial to him. a visit to switzerland in the summer of 1775 may not have weakened his interest in her, but it at least allowed him to regard her objectively; and, without tragic consequences on either side, the passion was ultimately allowed to yield to the dictates of common-sense. goethe's departure for weimar in november made the final break less difficult. the period from 1771 to 1775 was, in literary respects, the most productive of the poet's life. it had been inaugurated with _gotz von berlichingen_, and a few months later this tragedy was followed by another, _clavigo_, hardly less convincing in its character-drawing, and reflecting even more faithfully than the former the experiences goethe had gone through in strassburg. again poetic justice is effected on the unfortunate hero who has chosen his own personal advancement in preference to his duty to the woman he loves; more pointedly than in _gotz_ is the moral enforced by clavigo's worldly friend carlos, that the ground of clavigo's tragic end lies not so much in the defiance of a moral law as in the hero's vacillation and want of character. with _die leiden des jungen werthers_ (1774), the literary precipitate of the author's own experiences in wetzlar, goethe succeeded in attracting, as no german had done before him, the attention of europe. once more it was the gospel that the world belongs to the strong, which lay beneath the surface of this romance. this, however, was not the lesson which was drawn from it by goethe's contemporaries; they shed tears of sympathy over the lovelorn youth whose burden becomes too great for him to bear. while _gotz_ inaugurated the manlier side of the _sturm und drang_ literature, _werther_ was responsible for its sentimental excesses. and to the sentimental rather than to the heroic side belongs also _stella_, "a drama for lovers," in which the poet again reproduced, if with less fidelity than in _werther_, certain aspects of his own love troubles. a lighter vein is to be observed in various dramatic satires written at this time, such as _gotter_, _helden und wieland_ (1774), _hanswursts hochzeit_, _fastnachtsspiel vom pater brey_, _satyros_, and in the _singspiele_, _erwin und elmire_ (1775) and _claudine von villa bella_ (1776); while in the _rankfurter gelehrte anzeiger_ (1772-1773), goethe drove home the principles of the new movement of _sturm und drang_ in terse and pointed criticism. the exuberance of the young poet's genius is also to be seen in the many unfinished fragments of this period; at one time we find him occupied with dramas on _caesar_ and _mahomet_, at another with an epic on _der ewige jude_, and again with a tragedy on _prometheus_, of which a magnificent fragment has passed into his works. greatest of all the torsos of this period, however, was the dramatization of _faust_. thanks to a manuscript copy of the play in its earliest form--discovered as recently as 1887--we are now able to distinguish how much of this tragedy was the immediate product of the _sturm und drang_, and to understand the intentions with which the young poet began his masterpiece. goethe's hero changed with the author's riper experience and with his new conceptions of man's place and duties in the world, but the gretchen tragedy was taken over into the finished poem, practically unaltered, from the earliest _faust_ of the _sturm und drang_. with these wonderful scenes, the most intensely tragic in all german literature, goethe's poetry in this period reaches its climax. still another important work, however, was conceived, and in large measure written at this time, the drama of _egmont_, which was not published until 1788. this work may, to some extent, be regarded as supplementary to _faust_; it presents the lighter, more cheerful and optimistic side of goethe's philosophy in these years; graf egmont, the most winning and fascinating of the poet's heroes, is endowed with that "demonic" power over the sympathies of men and women, which goethe himself possessed in so high a degree. but _egmont_ depends for its interest almost solely on two characters, egmont himself and klarchen, gretchen's counterpart; regarded as a drama, it demonstrates the futility of that defiance of convention and rules with which the _sturm und drang_ set out. it remained for goethe, in the next period of his life, to construct on classic models a new vehicle for german dramatic poetry. in december 1774 the young "hereditary prince" of weimar, charles augustus, passing through frankfort on his way to paris, came into personal touch with goethe, and invited the poet to visit weimar when, in the following year, he took up the reins of government. in october 1775 the invitation was repeated, and on the 7th of november of that year goethe arrived in the little saxon capital which was to remain his home for the rest of his life. during the first few months in weimar the poet gave himself up to the pleasures of the moment as unreservedly as his patron; indeed, the weimar court even looked upon him for a time as a tempter who led the young duke astray. but the latter, although himself a mere stripling, had implicit faith in goethe, and a firm conviction that his genius could be utilized in other fields besides literature. goethe was not long in weimar before he was entrusted with responsible state duties, and events soon justified the duke's confidence. goethe proved the soul of the weimar government, and a minister of state of energy and foresight. he interested himself in agriculture, horticulture and mining, which were of paramount importance to the welfare of the duchy, and out of these interests sprang his own love for the natural sciences, which took up so much of his time in later years. the inevitable love-interest was also not wanting. as friederike had fitted into the background of goethe's strassburg life, lotte into that of wetzlar, and lili into the gaieties of frankfort, so now charlotte von stein, the wife of a weimar official, was the personification of the more aristocratic ideals of weimar society. we possess only the poet's share of his correspondence with frau von stein, but it is possible to infer from it that, of all goethe's loves, this was intellectually the most worthy of him. frau von stein was a woman of refined literary taste and culture, seven years older than he and the mother of seven children. there was something more spiritual, something that partook rather of the passionate friendships of the 18th century than of love in goethe's relations with her. frau von stein dominated the poet's life for twelve years, until his journey to italy in 1786-1788. of other events of this period the most notable were two winter journeys, the first in 1777, to the harz mountains, the second, two years later, to switzerland--journeys which gave goethe scope for that introspection and reflection for which his weimar life left him little time. on the second of these journeys he revisited friederike in sesenheim, saw lili, who had married and settled in strassburg, and made the personal acquaintance of lavater in zurich. the literary results of these years cannot be compared with those of the preceding period; they are virtually limited to a few wonderful lyrics, such as _wanderers nachtlied_, _an den mond_, _gesang der geister uber den wassern_, or ballads, such as _der erlkonig_, a charming little drama, _die geschwister_ (1776), in which the poet's relations to both lili and frau von stein seem to be reflected, a dramatic satire, _der triumph der empfindsamkeit_ (1778), and a number of _singspiele_, _lila_ (1777), _die fischerin_, _scherz, list und rache_, and _jery und bately_ (1780). but greater works were in preparation. a religious epic, _die geheimnisse_, and a tragedy _elpenor_, did not, it is true, advance much further than plans; but in 1777, under the influence of the theatrical experiments at the weimar court, goethe conceived and in great measure wrote a novel of the theatre, which was to have borne the title _wilhelm meisters theatralische sendung_; and in 1779 himself took part in a representation before the court at ettersburg, of his drama _iphigenie auf tauris_. this _iphigenie_ was, however, in prose; in the following year goethe remoulded it in iambics, but it was not until he went to rome that the drama finally received the form in which we know it. in september, 1786 goethe set out from karlsbad--secretly and stealthily, his plan known only to his servant--on that memorable journey to italy, to which he had looked forward with such intense longing; he could not cross the alps quickly enough, so impatient was he to set foot in italy. he travelled by way of munich, the brenner and lago di garda to verona and venice, and from thence to rome, where he arrived on the 29th of october 1786. here he gave himself up unreservedly to the new impressions which crowded on him, and he was soon at home among the german artists in rome, who welcomed him warmly. in the spring of 1787 he extended his journey as far as naples and sicily, returning to rome in june 1787, where he remained until his final departure for germany on the 2nd of april 1788. it is difficult to exaggerate the importance of goethe's italian journey. he himself regarded it as a kind of climax to his life; never before had he attained such complete understanding of his genius and mission in the world; it afforded him a vantage-ground from which he could renew the past and make plans for the future. in weimar he had felt that he was no longer in sympathy with the _sturm und drang_, but it was italy which first taught him clearly what might take the place of that movement in german poetry. to the modern reader, who may well be impressed by goethe's extraordinary receptivity, it may seem strange that his interests in italy were so limited; for, after all, he saw comparatively little of the art treasures of italy. he went to rome in winckelmann's footsteps; it was the antique he sought, and his interest in the artists of the renaissance was virtually restricted to their imitation of classic models. this search for the classic ideal is reflected in the works he completed or wrote under the italian sky. the calm beauty of greek tragedy is seen in the new iambic version of _iphigenie auf tauris_ (1787); the classicism of the renaissance gives the ground-tone to the wonderful drama of _torquato tasso_ (1790), in which the conflict of poetic genius with the prosaic world is transmuted into imperishable poetry. classic, too, in this sense, were the plans of a drama on _iphigenie auf delphos_ and of an epic, _nausikaa_. most interesting of all, however, is the reflection of the classic spirit in works already begun in earlier days, such as _egmont_ and _faust_. the former drama was finished in italy and appeared in 1788, the latter was brought a step further forward, part of it being published as a _fragment_ in 1790. disappointment in more senses than one awaited goethe on his return to weimar. he came back from italy with a new philosophy of life, a philosophy at once classic and pagan, and with very definite ideas of what constituted literary excellence. but germany had not advanced; in 1788 his countrymen were still under the influence of that _sturm und drang_ from which the poet had fled. the times seemed to him more out of joint than ever, and he withdrew into himself. even his relations to the old friends were changed. frau von stein had not known of his flight to italy until she received a letter from rome; but he looked forward to her welcome on his return. the months of absence, however, the change he had undergone, and doubtless those lighter loves of which the _romische elegien_ bear evidence, weakened the weimar memories; if he left weimar as frau von stein's lover he returned only as her friend; and she naturally resented the change. goethe, meanwhile, satisfied to continue the freer customs to which he had adapted himself in rome, found a new mistress in christiane vulpius (1765-1816), the least interesting of all the women who attracted him. but christiane gradually filled up a gap in the poet's life; she gave him, quietly, unobtrusively, without making demands on him, the comforts of a home. she was not accepted by court society; it did not matter to her that even goethe's intimate friends ignored her; and she, who had suited the poet's whim when he desired to shut himself off from all that might dim the recollection of italy, became with the years an indispensable helpmate to him. on the birth in 1789 of his son, goethe had some thought of legalizing his relations with christiane, but this intention was not realized until 1806, when the invasion of weimar by the french made him fear for both life and property. the period of goethe's life which succeeded his return from italy was restless and unsettled; relieved of his state duties, he returned in 1790 to venice, only to be disenchanted with the italy he had loved so intensely a year or two before. a journey with the duke of weimar to breslau followed, and in 1792 he accompanied his master on that campaign against france which ended so ingloriously for the german arms at valmy. in later years goethe published his account both of this _campagne in frankreich_ and of the _belagerung von mainz_, at which he was also present in 1793. his literary work naturally suffered under these distractions. _tasso_, and the edition of the _schriften_ in which it was to appear, had still to be completed on his return from italy; the _romische elegien_, perhaps the most latin of all his works, were published in 1795, and the _venetianische epigramme_, the result of the second visit to italy, in 1796. the french revolution, in which all europe was engrossed, was in goethe's eyes only another proof that the passing of the old regime meant the abrogation of all law and order, and he gave voice to his antagonism to the new democratic principles in the dramas _der grosskophta_ (1792), _der burgergeneral_ (1793), and in the unfinished fragments _die aufgeregten_ and _das madchen von oberkirch_. the spirited translation of the epic of _reinecke fuchs_ (1794) he took up as a relief and an antidote to the social disruption of the time. two new interests, however, strengthened the ties between goethe and weimar,--ties which the italian journey had threatened to sever: his appointment in 1791 as director of the ducal theatre, a post which he occupied for twenty-two years, and his absorption in scientific studies. in 1790 he published his important _versuch, die metamorphose der pflanzen zu erklaren_, which was an even more fundamental achievement for the new science of comparative morphology than his discovery some six years earlier of the existence of a formation in the human jaw-bone analogous to the intermaxillary bone in apes; and in 1791 and 1792 appeared two parts of his _beitrage zur optik_. meanwhile, however, goethe had again taken up the novel of the theatre which he had begun years before, with a view to finishing it and including it in the edition of his _neue schriften_ (1792-1800). _wilhelm meisters theatralische sendung_ became _wilhelm meisters lehrjahre_; the novel of purely theatrical interests was widened out to embrace the history of a young man's apprenticeship to life. the change of plan explains, although it may not exculpate, the formlessness and loose construction of the work, its extremes of realistic detail and poetic allegory. a hero, who was probably originally intended to demonstrate the failure of the vacillating temperament when brought face to face with the problems of art, proved ill-adapted to demonstrate those precepts for the guidance of life with which the _lehrjahre_ closes; unstable of purpose, wilhelm meister is not so much an illustration of the author's life-philosophy as a lay-figure on which he demonstrates his views. _wilhelm meister_ is a work of extraordinary variety, ranging from the commonplace realism of the troupe of strolling players to the poetic romanticism of mignon and the harper; its flashes of intuitive criticism and its weighty apothegms add to its value as a _bildungsroman_ in the best sense of that word. of all goethe's works, this exerted the most immediate and lasting influence on german literature; it served as a model for the best fiction of the next thirty years. in completing _wilhelm meister_, goethe found a sympathetic and encouraging critic in schiller, to whom he owed in great measure his renewed interest in poetry. after years of tentative approaches on schiller's part, years in which that poet concealed even from himself his desire for a friendly understanding with goethe, the favourable moment arrived; it was in june 1794, when schiller was seeking collaborators for his new periodical _die horen_; and his invitation addressed to goethe was the beginning of a friendship which continued unbroken until the younger poet's death. the friendship of goethe and schiller, of which their correspondence is a priceless record, had its limitations; it was purely intellectual in character, a certain barrier of personal reserve being maintained to the last. but for the literary life of both poets the gain was incommensurable. as far as actual work was concerned, goethe went his own way as he had always been accustomed to do; but the mere fact that he devoted himself with increasing interest to literature was due to schiller's stimulus. it was schiller, too, who induced him to undertake those studies on the nature of epic and dramatic poetry which resulted in the epic of _hermann und dorothea_ and the fragment of the _achilleis_; without the friendship there would have been no _xenien_ and no ballads, and it was his younger friend's encouragement which induced goethe to betake himself once more to the "misty path" of _faust_, and bring the first part of that drama to a conclusion. goethe's share in the _xenien_ (1796) may be briefly dismissed. this collection of distichs, written in collaboration with schiller, was prompted by the indifference and animosity of contemporary criticism, and its disregard for what the two poets regarded as the higher interests of german poetry. the _xenien_ succeeded as a retaliation on the critics, but the masterpieces which followed them proved in the long run much more effective weapons against the prevailing mediocrity. prose works like the _unterhaltungen deutscher ausgewanderten_ (1795) were unworthy of the poet's genius, and the translation of benvenuto cellini's _life_ (1796-1797) was only a translation. but in 1798 appeared _hermann und dorothea_, one of goethe's most perfect poems. it is indeed remarkable--when we consider by how much reflection and theoretic discussion the composition of the poem was preceded and accompanied--that it should make upon the reader so simple and "naive" an impression; in this respect it is the triumph of an art that conceals art. goethe has here taken a simple story of village life, mirrored in it the most pregnant ideas of his time, and presented it with a skill which may well be called homeric; but he has discriminated with the insight of genius between the homeric method of reproducing the heroic life of primitive greece and the same method as adapted to the commonplace happenings of 18th-century germany. in this respect he was undoubtedly guided by a forerunner who has more right than he to the attribute "naive," by j. h. voss, the author of _luise_. hardly less imposing in their calm, placid perfection are the poems with which, in friendly rivalry, goethe seconded the more popular ballads of his friend; _der zauberlehrling_, _der gott und die bayadere_, _die braut von korinth_, _alexis und dora_, _der neue pausias_ and _die schone mullerin_--a cycle of poems in the style of the _volkslied_--are among the masterpieces of goethe's poetry. on the other hand, even the friendship with schiller did not help him to add to his reputation as a dramatist. _die naturliche tochter_ (1803), in which he began to embody his ideas of the revolution on a wide canvas, proved impossible on the stage, and the remaining dramas, which were to have formed a trilogy, were never written. goethe's classic principles, when applied to the swift, direct art of the theatre, were doomed to failure, and _die naturliche tochter_, notwithstanding its good theoretic intention, remains the most lifeless and shadowy of all his dramas. even less in touch with the living present were the various prologues and _festspiele_, such as _palaophron und neoterpe_ (1800), _was wir bringen_ (1802), which in these years he composed for the weimar theatre. goethe's classicism brought him into inevitable antagonism with the new romantic movement which had been inaugurated in 1798 by the _athenaeum_, edited by the brothers schlegel. the sharpness of the conflict was, however, blunted by the fact that, without exception, the young romantic writers looked up to goethe as its master; they modelled their fiction on _wilhelm meister_; they regarded his lyrics as the high-water mark of german poetry; goethe, novalis declared, was the "statthalter of poetry on earth." with regard to painting and sculpture, however, goethe felt that a protest was necessary, if the insidious ideas propounded in works like wackenroder's _herzensergiessungen_ were not to do irreparable harm, by bringing back the confusion of the _sturm und drang_; and, as a rejoinder to the romantic theories, goethe, in conjunction with his friend heinrich meyer (1760-1832), published from 1798 to 1800 an art review, _die propylaen_. again, in _winckelmann und seine zeit_ (1805) goethe vigorously defended the classical ideals of which winckelmann had been the founder. but in the end he proved himself the greatest enemy to the strict classic doctrine by the publication in 1808 of the completed first part of _faust_, a work which was accepted by contemporaries as a triumph of romantic art. _faust_ is a patchwork of many colours. with the aid of the vast body of _faust_ literature which has sprung up in recent years, and the many new documents bearing on its history--above all, the so-called _urfaust_, to which reference has already been made--we are able now to ascribe to their various periods the component parts of the work; it is possible to discriminate between the _sturm und drang_ hero of the opening scenes and of the gretchen tragedy--the contemporary of gotz and clavigo--and the superimposed faust of calmer moral and intellectual ideals--a faust who corresponds to hermann and wilhelm meister. in its original form the poem was the dramatization of a specific and individualized story; in the years of goethe's friendship with schiller it was extended to embody the higher strivings of 18th-century humanism; ultimately, as we shall see, it became, in the second part, a vast allegory of human life and activity. thus the elements of which _faust_ is composed were even more difficult to blend than were those of _wilhelm meister_; but the very want of uniformity is one source of the perennial fascination of the tragedy, and has made it in a peculiar degree the national poem of the german people, the mirror which reflects the national life and poetry from the outburst of _sturm und drang_ to the well-weighed and tranquil classicism of goethe's old age. the third and final period of goethe's long life may be said to have begun after schiller's death. he never again lost touch with literature as he had done in the years which preceded his friendship with schiller; but he stood in no active or immediate connexion with the literary movement of his day. his life moved on comparatively uneventfully. even the napoleonic regime of 1806-1813 disturbed but little his equanimity. goethe, the cosmopolitan _weltburger_ of the 18th century, had himself no very intense feelings of patriotism, and, having seen germany flourish as a group of small states under enlightened despotisms, he had little confidence in the dreamers of 1813 who hoped to see the glories of barbarossa's empire revived. napoleon, moreover, he regarded not as the scourge of europe, but as the defender of civilization against the barbarism of the slavs; and in the famous interview between the two men at erfurt the poet's admiration was reciprocated by the french conqueror. thus goethe had no great sympathy for the war of liberation which kindled young hearts from one end of germany to the other; and when the national enthusiasm rose to its highest pitch he buried himself in those optical and morphological studies, which, with increasing years, occupied more and more of his time and interest. the works and events of the last twenty-five years of goethe's life may be briefly summarized. in 1805, as we have seen, he suffered an irreparable loss in the death of schiller; in 1806, christiane became his legal wife, and to the same year belongs the magnificent tribute to his dead friend, the _epilog zu schillers glocke_. two new friendships about this time kindled in the poet something of the juvenile fire and passion of younger days. bettina von arnim came into personal touch with goethe in 1807, and her _briefwechsel goethes mit einem kinde_ (published in 1835) is, in its mingling of truth and fiction, one of the most delightful products of the romantic mind; but the episode was of less importance for goethe's life than bettina would have us believe. on the other hand, his interest in minna herzlieb, foster-daughter of the publisher frommann in jena, was of a warmer nature, and has left its traces on his sonnets. in 1808, as we have seen, appeared the first part of _faust_, and in 1809 it was followed by _die wahlverwandtschaften_. the novel, hardly less than the drama, effected a change in the public attitude towards the poet. since the beginning of the century the conviction had been gaining ground that goethe's mission was accomplished, that the day of his leadership was over; but here were two works which not merely re-established his ascendancy, but proved that the old poet was in sympathy with the movement of letters, and keenly alive to the change of ideas which the new century had brought in its train. the intimate psychological study of four minds, which forms the subject of the _wahlverwandtschaften_, was an essay in a new type of fiction, and pointed out the way for developments of the german novel after the stimulus of _wilhelm meister_ had exhausted itself. less important than _die wahlverwandtschaften_ was _pandora_ (1810), the final product of goethe's classicism, and the most uncompromisingly classical and allegorical of all his works. and in 1810, too, appeared his treatise on _farbenlehre_. in the following year the first volume of his autobiography was published under the title _aus meinem leben, dichtung und wahrheit_. the second and third volumes of this work followed in 1812 and 1814; the fourth, bringing the story of his life up to the close of the frankfort period in 1833, after his death. goethe felt, even late in life, too intimately bound up with weimar to discuss in detail his early life there, and he shrank from carrying his biography beyond the year 1775. but a number of other publications--descriptions of travel, such as the _italienische reise_ (1816-1817), the materials for a continuation of _dichtung und wahrheit_ collected in _tag- und jahreshefte_ (1830)--have also to be numbered among the writings which goethe has left us as documents of his life. meanwhile no less valuable biographical materials were accumulating in his diaries, his voluminous correspondence and his conversations, as recorded by j. p. eckermann, the chancellor muller and f. soret. several periodical publications, _uber kunst und altertum_ (1816-1832), _zur naturwissenschaft uberhaupt_ (1817-1824). _zur morphologie_ (1817-1824), bear witness to the extraordinary breadth of goethe's interests in these years. art, science, literature--little escaped his ken--and that not merely in germany: english writers, byron, scott and carlyle, italians like manzoni, french scientists and poets, could all depend on friendly words of appreciation and encouragement from weimar. in _west-ostlicher diwan_ (1819), a collection of lyrics--matchless in form and even more concentrated in expression than those of earlier days--which were suggested by a german translation of hafiz, goethe had another surprise in store for his contemporaries. and, again, it was an actual passion--that for marianne von willemer, whom he met in 1814 and 1815--which rekindled in him the lyric fire. meanwhile the years were thinning the ranks of weimar society: wieland, the last of goethe's greater literary contemporaries, died in 1813, his wife in 1816, charlotte von stein in 1827 and duke charles augustus in 1828. goethe's retirement from the direction of the theatre in 1817 meant for him a break with the literary life of the day. in 1822 a passion for a young girl, ulrike von levetzow, whom he met at marienbad, inspired the fine _trilogie der leidenschaft_, and between 1821 and 1829 appeared the long-expected and long-promised continuation of _wilhelm meister, wilhelm meisters wanderjahre_. the latter work, however, was a disappointment: perhaps it could not have been otherwise. goethe had lost the thread of his romance and it was difficult for him to resume it. problems of the relation of the individual to society and industrial questions were to have formed the theme of the _wanderjahre_; but since the french revolution these problems had themselves entered on a new phase and demanded a method of treatment which it was not easy for the old poet to learn. thus his intentions were only partially carried out, and the volumes were filled out by irrelevant stories, which had been written at widely different periods. but the crowning achievement of goethe's literary life was the completion of _faust_. the poem had accompanied him from early manhood to the end and was the repository for the fullest "confession" of his life; it is the poetic epitome of his experience. the second part is, in form, far removed from the impressive realism of the _urfaust_. it is a phantasmagory; a drama the actors in which are not creatures of flesh and blood, but the shadows of an unreal world of allegory. the lover of gretchen had, as far as poetic continuity is concerned, disappeared with the close of the first part. in the second part it is virtually a new faust who, at the hands of a new mephistopheles, goes out into a world that is not ours. yet behind these unconvincing shadows of an imperial court with its financial difficulties, of the classical _walpurgisnacht_, of the fantastic creation of the homunculus, the noble helena episode and the impressive mystery-scene of the close, where the centenarian faust finally triumphs over the powers of evil, there lies a philosophy of life, a ripe wisdom born of experience, such as no european poet had given to the world since the renaissance. _faust_ has been well called the "divine comedy" of 18th-century humanism. the second part of _faust_ forms a worthy close to the life of germany's greatest man of letters, who died in weimar on the 22nd of march 1832. he was the last of those universal minds which have been able to compass all domains of human activity and knowledge; for he stood on the brink of an era of rapidly expanding knowledge which has made for ever impossible the universality of interest and sympathy which distinguished him. as a poet, his fame has undergone many vicissitudes since his death, ranging from the indifference of the "young german" school to the enthusiastic admiration of the closing decades of the 19th century--an enthusiasm to which we owe the weimar _goethe-gesellschaft_ (founded in 1885) and a vast literature dealing with the poet's life and work; but the fact of his being germany's greatest poet and the master of her classical literature has never been seriously put in question. the intrinsic value of his poetic work, regarded apart from his personality, is smaller in proportion to its bulk than is the case with many lesser german poets and with the greatest poets of other literatures. but goethe was a type of literary man hitherto unrepresented among the leading writers of the world's literature; he was a poet whose supreme greatness lay in his subjectivity. only a small fraction of goethe's work was written in an impersonal and objective spirit, and sprang from what might be called a conscious artistic impulse; by far the larger--and the better--part is the immediate reflex of his feelings and experiences. it is as a lyric poet that goethe's supremacy is least likely to be challenged; he has given his nation, whose highest literary expression has in all ages been essentially lyric, its greatest songs. no other german poet has succeeded in attuning feeling, sentiment and thought so perfectly to the music of words as he; none has expressed so fully that spirituality in which the quintessence of german lyrism lies. goethe's dramas, on the other hand, have not, in the eyes of his nation, succeeded in holding their own beside schiller's; but the reason is rather because goethe, from what might be called a wilful obstinacy, refused to be bound by the conventions of the theatre, than because he was deficient in the cunning of the dramatist. for, as an interpreter of human character in the drama, goethe is without a rival among modern poets, and there is not one of his plays that does not contain a few scenes or characters which bear indisputable testimony to his mastery. _faust_ is germany's most national drama, and it remains perhaps for the theatre of the future to prove itself capable of popularizing psychological masterpieces like _tasso_ and _iphigenie_. it is as a novelist that goethe has suffered most by the lapse of time. the _sorrows of werther_ no longer moves us to tears, and even _wilhelm meister_ and _die wahlverwandtschaften_ require more understanding for the conditions under which they were written than do _faust_ or _egmont_. goethe could fill his prose with rich wisdom, but he was only the perfect artist in verse. little attention is nowadays paid to goethe's work in other fields, work which he himself in some cases prized more highly than his poetry. it is only as an illustration of his many-sidedness and his manifold activity that we now turn to his work as a statesman, as a theatre-director, as a practical political economist. his art-criticism is symptomatic of a phase of european taste which tried in vain to check the growing individualism of romanticism. his scientific studies and discoveries awaken only an historical interest. we marvel at the obstinacy with which he, with inadequate mathematical knowledge, opposed the newtonian theory of light and colour; and at his championship of "neptunism," the theory of aqueous origin, as opposed to "vulcanism," that of igneous origin of the earth's crust. of far-reaching importance was, on the other hand, his foreshadowing of the darwinian theory in his works on the metamorphosis of plants and on animal morphology. indeed, the deduction to be drawn from goethe's contributions to botany and anatomy is that he, as no other of his contemporaries, possessed that type of scientific mind which, in the 19th century, has made for progress; he was darwin's predecessor by virtue of his enunciation of what has now become one of the commonplaces of natural science--organic evolution. modern, too, was the outlook of the aging poet on the changing social conditions of the age, wonderfully sympathetic his attitude towards modern industry, which steam was just beginning to establish on a new basis, and towards modern democracy. the europe of his later years was very different from the idyllic and enlightened autocracy of the 18th century, in which he had spent his best years and to which he had devoted his energies; yet goethe was at home in it. from the philosophic movement, in which schiller and the romanticists were so deeply involved, goethe stood apart. comparatively early in life he had found in spinoza the philosopher who responded to his needs; spinoza taught him to see in nature the "living garment of god," and more he did not seek or need to know. as a convinced realist he took his standpoint on nature and experience, and could afford to look on objectively at the controversies of the metaphysicians. kant he by no means ignored, and under schiller's guidance he learned much from him; but of the younger thinkers, only schelling, whose mystic nature-philosophy was a development of spinoza's ideas, touched a sympathetic chord in his nature. as a moralist and a guide to the conduct of life--an aspect of goethe's work which carlyle, viewing him through the coloured glasses of fichtean idealism, emphasized and interpreted not always justly--goethe was a powerful force on german life in years of political and intellectual depression. it is difficult even still to get beyond the maxims of practical wisdom he scattered so liberally through his writings, the lessons to be learned from _meister_ and _faust_, or even that calm, optimistic fatalism which never deserted goethe, and was so completely justified by the tenor of his life. if the philosophy of spinoza provided the poet with a religion which made individual creeds and dogmas unnecessary and impossible, so leibnitz's doctrine of predestinism supplied the foundations for his faith in the divine mission of human life. this many-sided activity is a tribute to the greatness of goethe's mind and personality; we may regard him merely as the embodiment of his particular age, or as a poet "for all time"; but with one opinion all who have felt the power of goethe's genius are in agreement--the opinion which was condensed in napoleon's often cited words, uttered after the meeting at erfurt: _voila un homme!_ of all modern men, goethe is the most universal type of genius. it is the full, rich humanity of his life and personality--not the art behind which the artist disappears, or the definite pronouncements of the thinker or the teacher--that constitutes his claim to a place in the front rank of men of letters. his life was his greatest work. bibliography.--(a) _collected works, diaries, correspondence, conversations_. the following authorized editions of goethe's writings appeared in the poet's lifetime: _schriften_ (8 vols., leipzig, 1787-1790); _neue schriften_ (7 vols., berlin, 1792-1800); _werke_ (13 vols., stuttgart, 1806-1810); _werke_ (20 vols., stuttgart, 1815-1819); to which six volumes were added in 1820-1822; werke (vollstandige ausgabe letzter hand) (40 vols., stuttgart, 1827-1830). goethe's _nachgelassene werke_ appeared as a continuation of this edition in 15 volumes (stuttgart, 1832-1834), to which five volumes were added in 1842. these were followed by several editions of goethe's _samtliche werke_, mostly in forty volumes, published by cotta of stuttgart. the first critical edition with notes was published by hempel, berlin, in thirty-six volumes, 1868-1879; that in kurschner's _deutsche nationalliteratur_, vols. 82-117 (1882-1897) is also important. in 1887 the monumental weimar edition, which is now approaching completion, began to appear; it is divided into four sections: i. _werke_ (c. 56 vols.); ii. _naturwissenschaftliche werke_ (12 vols.); iii. _tagebucher_ (13 vols.); iv. _briefe_ (c. 45 vols.). of other recent editions the most noteworthy are: samtliche werke (jubilaums-ausgabe), edited by e. von der hellen (40 vols., stuttgart, 1902 ff.); _werke_, edited by k. heinemann (30 vols., leipzig, 1900 ff.), and the cheap edition of the _samtliche werke_, edited by l. geiger (44 vols., leipzig, 1901). there are also innumerable editions of selected works; reference need only be made here to the useful collection of the early writings and letters published by s. hirzel with an introduction by m. bernays, _der junge goethe_ (3 vols., leipzig, 1875, 2nd ed., 1887). a french translation of goethe's _oeuvres completes_, by j. porchat, appeared in 9 vols., at paris, in 1860-1863. there is, as yet, no uniform english edition, but goethe's chief works have all been frequently translated and a number of them will be found in bohn's standard library. the definitive edition of goethe's diaries and letters is that forming sections iii. and iv. of the weimar edition. collections of selected letters based on the weimar edition have been published by e. von der hellen (6 vols., 1901 ff.), and by p. stein (8 vols., 1902 ff.). of the many separate collections of goethe's correspondence mention may be made of the _briefwechsel zwischen schiller und goethe_, edited by goethe himself (1828-1829; 4th ed., 1881; also several cheap reprints. english translation by l. d. schmitz, 1877-1879); _briefwechsel zwischen goethe und zelter_ (6 vols., 1833-1834; reprint in reclam's _universalbibliothek_, 1904; english translation by a. d. coleridge, 1887); _bettina von arnim, goethes briefwechsel mit einem kinde_ (1835; 4th ed., 1890; english translation, 1838); _briefe von und an goethe_, edited by f. w. riemer (1846); _goethes briefe an frau von stein_, edited by a. scholl (1848-1851; 3rd ed. by j. wahle, 1899-1900); _briefwechsel zwischen goethe und k. f. von reinhard_ (1850); _briefwechsel zwischen goethe und knebel_ (2 vols., 1851); _briefwechsel zwischen goethe und staatsrat schultz_ (1853); _briefwechsel des herzogs karl august mit goethe_ (2 vols., 1863); _briefwechsel zwischen goethe und kaspar graf von sternberg_ (1866); _goethes naturwissenschaftliche korrespondenz_, and _goethes briefwechsel mit den gebrudern von humboldt_, edited by f. t. bratranek (1874-1876); _goethes und carlyles briefwechsel_ (1887), also in english; _goethe und die romantik_, edited by c. schuddekopf and o. walzel (2 vols., 1898-1899); _goethe und lavater_, edited by h. funck (1901); _goethe und osterreich_, edited by a. sauer (2 vols., 1902-1903). besides the correspondence with schiller and zelter, bonn's library contains a translation of _early and miscellaneous_ _letters_, by e. bell (1884). the chief collections of goethe's conversations are: j. p. eckermann, _gesprache mit goethe_ (1836; vol. iii., also containing conversations with soret, 1848; 7th ed. by h. duntzer, 1899; also new edition by l. geiger, 1902; english translation by j. oxenford, 1850). the complete conversations with soret have been published in german translation by c. a. h. burkhardt (1905); _goethes unterhaltungen mit dem kanzler f. von muller_ (1870). goethe's collected _gesprache_ were published by w. von biedermann in 10 vols. (1889-1896). (b) _biography._--goethe's autobiography, _aus meinem leben: dichtung und wahrheit_, appeared in three parts between 1811 and 1814, a fourth part, bringing the history of his life as far as his departure for weimar in 1775, in 1833 (english translation by j. oxenford, 1846); it is supplemented by other biographical writings, as the _italienische reise, aus einer reise in die schweiz im jahre 1797_; _aus einer reise am rhein, main und neckar in den jahren 1814 und 1815, tag- und jahreshefte_, &c., and especially by his diaries and correspondence. the following are the more important biographies: h. doring, _goethes leben_ (1828; subsequent editions, 1833, 1849, 1856); h. viehoff, _goethes leben_ (4 vols., 1847-1854; 5th ed., 1887); j. w. schafer, _goethes leben_ (2 vols., 1851; 3rd ed., 1877); g. h. lewes, _the life and works of goethe_ (2 vols., 1855; 2nd ed., 1864; 3rd ed., 1875; cheap reprint, 1906; the german translation by j. frese is in its 18th edition, 1900; a shorter biography was published by lewes in 1873 under the title _the story of goethe's life)_; w. mezieres, _w. goethe, les oeuvres expliquees par la vie_ (1872-1873); a. bossert, _goethe_ (1872-1873); k. goedeke, _goethes leben und schriften_ (1874; 2nd ed., 1877); h. grimm, _goethe: vorlesungen_ (1876; 8th ed., 1903; english translation, 1880); a. hayward, _goethe_ (1878); h. h. boyesen, _goethe and schiller, their lives and works_ (1879); h. duntzer, _goethes leben_ (1880; 2nd ed., 1883; english translation, 1883); a. baumgartner, _goethe, sein leben und seine werke_ (1885); j. sime, _life of goethe_ (1888); k. heinemann, _goethes leben und werke_ (1889; 3rd ed., 1903); r. m. meyer, _goethe_ (1894; 3rd ed., 1904); a. bielschowsky, _goethe, sein leben und seine werke_ (vol. i., 1895; 5th ed., 1904; vol. ii., 1903; english translation by w. a. cooper, 1905 ff.); g. witkowsky, goethe (1899); h. g. atkins, _j. w. goethe_ (1904); p. hansen and r. meyer, _goethe, hans liv og vaerker_ (1906). of writings on special periods and aspects of goethe's life the more important are as follows (the titles are arranged as far as possible in the chronological sequence of the poet's life): h. duntzer, _goethes stammbaum_ (1894); k. heinemann, _goethes mutter_ (1891; 6th ed., 1900); p. bastier, _la mere de goethe_ (1902); _briefe der frau rat_ (2 vols., 2nd ed., 1905); f. ewart, _goethes vater_ (1899); g. witkowski, _cornelia die schwester goethes_ (1903); p. besson, _goethe, sa soeur et ses amies_ (1898); h. duntzer, _frauenbilder aus goethes jugendzeit_ (1852); w. von biedermann, _goethe und leipzig_ (1865); p. f. lucius, _friederike brion_ (1878; 3rd ed., 1904); a. bielschowsky, _friederike brion_ (1880); f. e. von durckheim, _lili's bild geschichtlich entworfen_ (1879; 2nd ed., 1894); w. herbst, _goethe in wetzlar_ (1881); a. diezmann, _goethe und die lustige zeit in weimar_ (1857; 2nd ed., 1901); h. duntzer, _goethe und karl august_ (1859-1864; 2nd ed., 1888); also, by the same author, _aus goethes freundeskreise_ (1868) and _charlotte von stein_ (2 vols., 1874); j. haarhuus, _auf goethes spuren in italien_ (1896-1898); o. harnack, _zur nachgeschichte der italienischen reise_ (1890); h. grimm, _schiller und goethe_ (_essays_, 1858; 3rd ed., 1884); g. berlit, _goethe und schiller im personlichen verkehre, nach brieflichen mitteilungen von h. voss_ (1895); e. pasque, _goethes theaterleitung in weimar_ (2 vols., 1863); c. a. h. burkhards, _das repertoire des weimarischen theaters unter goethes leitung_ (1891); j. wahle, _das weimarer hoftheater unter goethes leitung_ (1892); o. harnack, _goethe in der epoche seiner vollendung_ (2nd ed., 1901); j. barbey d'aurevilly, _goethe et diderot_ (1880); a fischer, _goethe und napoleon_ (1899; 2nd ed., 1900); r. steig, _goethe und die gebruder grimm_ (1892). (c) _criticism._--h. g. graef, _goethe uber seine dichtungen_ (1901 ff.); j. w. braun, _goethe im urteile seiner zeitgenossen_ (3 vols., 1883-1885); t. carlyle, _essays on goethe_ (1828-1832); x. marmier, _etudes sur goethe_ (1835); w. von biedermann, _goethe-forschungen_ (1879, 1886); j. minor and a. sauer, _studien zur goethe-philologie_ (1880); h. duntzer, _abhandlungen zu goethes leben und werken_ (1881); a. scholl, _goethe in hauptzugen seines lebens und wirkens_ (1882); v. hehn, _gedanken uber goethe_ (1884; 4th ed., 1900); w. scherer, _aufsatze uber goethe_ (1886); j. r. seeley, _goethe reviewed after sixty years_ (1894); e. dowden, _new studies in literature_ (1895); e. rod, _essai sur goethe_ (1898); a. luther, _goethe, sechs vortrage_ (1905); r. saitschik, _goethes charakter_ (1898); w. bode, _goethes lebenskunst_ (1900; 2nd ed., 1902); by the same, _goethes asthetik_ (1901); t. vollbehr, _goethe und die bildende kunst_ (1895); e. lichtenberger, _etudes sur les poesies lyriques de goethe_ (1878); t. achelis, _grundzuge der lyrik goethes_ (1900); b. litzmann, _goethes lyrik_ (1903); r. riemann, _goethes romantechnik_ (1901); r. virchow, _goethe als naturforscher_ (1861); e. caro, _la philosophie de goethe_ (1866; 2nd ed., 1870); r. steiner, _goethes weltanschauung_ (1897); f. siebeck, _goethe als denker_ (1902); f. baldensperger, goethe en france (1904); s. waetzoldt, _goethe und die romantik_ (1888). more special treatises dealing with individual works are the following: w. scherer, _aus goethes fruhzeit_ (1879); r. weissenfels, _goethe in sturm und drang_, vol. i. (1894); w. wilmanns, _quellenstudien zu goethes gotz von berlichingen_ (1874); j. baechtold, _goethes gotz von berlichingen in dreifacher gestalt_ (1882); j. w. appell, _werther und seine zeit_ (1855; 4th ed., 1896); e. schmidt, _richardson, rousseau und goethe_ (1875); m. herrmann, _das jahrmarktsfest zu plundersweilen_ (1900); e. schmidt, goethes faust in ursprunglicher gestalt (1887; 5th ed., 1901); j. collin, _goethes faust in seiner altesten gestalt_ (1896); h. hettner, _goethes iphigenie in ihrem verhaltnis zur bildungsgeschichte des dichters_ (1861; in _kleine schriften_, 1884); k. fischer, _goethes iphigenie_ (1888); f. t. bratranek, _goethes egmont und schillers wallenstein_ (1862); c. schuchardt, _goethes italienische reise_ (1862); h. duntzer, _iphigenie auf tauris; die drei altesten bearbeitungen_ (1854); f. kern, _goethes tasso_ (1890); j. schubart, _die philosophischen grundgedanken in goethes wilhelm meister_ (1896); e. boas, _schiller und goethe in xenienkampf_ (1851); e. schmidt and b. suphan, _xenien 1796, nach den handschriften_ (1893); w. von humboldt, _asthetische versuche: hermann und dorothea_ (1799); v. hehn, _uber goethes hermann und dorothea_ (1893); a. fries, _quellen und komposition der achilleis_ (1901); k. alt, _studien zur entstehungsgeschichte von dichtung und wahrheit_ (1898); a. jung, _goethes wanderjahre und die wichtigsten fragen des 19. jahrhunderts_ (1854); f. kreyssig, _vorlesungen uber goethes faust_ (1866); the editions of _faust_ by g. von loeper (2 vols., 1879), and k. j. schroer (2 vols., 3rd and 4th ed., 1898-1903); k. fischer, _goethes faust_ (3 vols., 1893, 1902, 1903); o. pniower, _goethes faust, zeugnisse und excurse zu seiner entstehungsgeschichte_ (1899); j. minor, _goethes faust, entstehungsgeschichte und erklarung_ (2 vols., 1901). (d) _bibliographical works, goethe-societies, &c._--l. unflad, _die goethe-literatur in deutschland_ (1878); s. hirzel, _verzeichnis einer goethe-bibliothek_ (1884), to which g. von loeper and w. von biedermann have supplied supplements. f. strehlke, _goethes briefe: verzeichnis unter angabe der quelle_ (1882-1884); _british museum catalogue of printed books: goethe_ (1888); goedeke's _grundriss zur geschichte der deutschen dichtung_ (2nd ed., vol. iv. 1891); and the bibliographies in the _goethe-jahrbuch_ (since 1880). also k. hoyer, _zur einfuhrung in die goethe-literatur_ (1904). on goethe in england see e. oswald, _goethe in england and america_ (1899; 2nd ed., 1909); w. heinemann, _a bibliographical list of the english translations and annotated editions of goethe's faust_ (1886). reference may also be made here to f. zarncke's _verzeichnis der originalaufnahmen von goethes bildnissen_ (1888). _a goethe-gesellschaft_ was founded at weimar in 1885, and numbers over 2800 members; its publications include the annual _goethe-jahrbuch_ (since 1880), and a series of _goethe-schriften_. a _goethe-verein_ has existed in vienna since 1887, and an english goethe society, which has also issued several volumes of publications, since 1886. (j. g. r.) _goethe's descendants._--goethe's only son, august, born on the 25th of december 1789 at weimar, married in 1817 ottilie von pogwisch (1796-1872), who had come as a child to weimar with her mother (_nee_ countess henckel von donnersmarck). the marriage was a very unhappy one, the husband having no qualities that could appeal to a woman who, whatever the censorious might say of her moral character, was distinguished to the last by a lively intellect and a singular charm. august von goethe, whose sole distinction was his birth and his position as grand-ducal chamberlain, died in italy, on the 27th of october 1830, leaving three children; walther wolfgang, born on april 9, 1818, died on april 15, 1885; wolfgang maximilian, born on september 18, 1820, died on january 20, 1883; alma, born on october 22, 1827, died on september 29, 1844. of walther von goethe little need be said. in youth he had musical ambitions, studied under mendelssohn and weinlig at leipzig, under loewe at stettin, and afterwards at vienna. he published a few songs of no great merit, and had at his death no more than the reputation among his friends of a kindly and accomplished man. wolfgang or, as he was familiarly called, wolf von goethe, was by far the more gifted of the two brothers, and his gloomy destiny by so much the more tragic. a sensitive and highly imaginative boy, he was the favourite of his grandfather, who made him his constant companion. this fact, instead of being to the boy's advantage, was to prove his bane. the exalted atmosphere of the great man's ideas was too rarefied for the child's intellectual health, and a brain well fitted to do excellent work in the world was ruined by the effort to live up to an impossible ideal. to maintain himself on the same height as his grandfather, and to make the name of goethe illustrious in his descendants also, became wolfgang's ambition; and his incapacity to realize this, very soon borne in upon him, paralyzed his efforts and plunged him at last into bitter revolt against his fate and gloomy isolation from a world that seemed to have no use for him but as a curiosity. from the first, too, he was hampered by wretched health; at the age of sixteen he was subjected to one of those terrible attacks of neuralgia which were to torment him to the last; physically and mentally alike he stood in tragic contrast with his grandfather, in whose gigantic personality the vigour of his race seems to have been exhausted. from 1839 to 1845 wolfgang studied law at bonn, jena, heidelberg and berlin, taking his degree of _doctor juris_ at heidelberg in 1845. during this period he had made his first literary efforts. his _studenten-briefe_ (jena, 1842), a medley of letters and lyrics, are wholly conventional. this was followed by _der mensch und die elementarische natur_ (stuttgart and tubingen, 1845), in three parts (_beitrage_): (1) an historical and philosophical dissertation on the relations of mankind and the "soul of nature," largely influenced by schelling, (2) a dissertation on the juridical side of the question, _de fragmento vegoiae_, being the thesis presented for his degree, (3) a lyrical drama, _erlinde_. in this last, as in his other poetic attempts, wolfgang showed a considerable measure of inherited or acquired ability, in his wealth of language and his easy mastery of the difficulties of rhythm and rhyme. but this was all. the work was characteristic of his self-centred isolation: ultra-romantic at a time when romanticism was already an outworn fashion, remote alike from the spirit of the age and from that of goethe. the cold reception it met with shattered at a blow the dream of wolfgang's life; henceforth he realized that to the world he was interesting mainly as "goethe's grandson," that anything he might achieve would be measured by that terrible standard, and he hated the legacy of his name. the next five years he spent in italy and at vienna, tormented by facial neuralgia. returning to weimar in 1850, he was made a chamberlain by the grand-duke, and in 1852, his health being now somewhat restored, he entered the prussian diplomatic service and went as attache to rome. the fruit of his long years of illness was a slender volume of lyrics, _gedichte_ (stuttgart and tubingen, 1851), good in form, but seldom inspired, and showing occasionally the influence of a morbid sensuality. in 1854 he was appointed secretary of legation; but the aggressive ultramontanism of the curia became increasingly intolerable to his overwrought nature, and in 1856 he was transferred, at his own request, as secretary of legation to dresden. this post he resigned in 1859, in which year he was raised to the rank of _freiherr_ (baron). in 1866 he received the title of councillor of legation; but he never again occupied any diplomatic post. the rest of his life he devoted to historical research, ultimately selecting as his special subject the italian libraries up to the year 1500. the outcome of all his labours was, however, only the first part of _studies and researches in the times and life of cardinal bessarion_, embracing the period of the council of florence (privately printed at jena, 1871), a catalogue of the mss. in the monastery of sancta justina at padua (jena, 1873), and a mass of undigested material, which he ultimately bequeathed to the university of jena. in 1870 ottilie von goethe, who had resided mainly at vienna, returned to weimar and took up her residence with her two sons in the goethehaus. so long as she lived, her small salon in the attic storey of the great house was a centre of attraction for many of the most illustrious personages in europe. but after her death in 1872 the two brothers lived in almost complete isolation. the few old friends, including the grand-duke charles alexander, who continued regularly to visit the house, were entertained with kindly hospitality by baron walther; wolfgang refused to be drawn from his isolation even by the advent of royalty. "tell the empress," he cried on one occasion, "that i am not a wild beast to be stared at!" in 1879, his increasing illness necessitating the constant presence of an attendant, he went to live at leipzig, where he died. goethe's grandsons have been so repeatedly accused of having displayed a dog-in-the-manger temper in closing the goethehaus to the public and the goethe archives to research, that the charge has almost universally come to be regarded as proven. it is true that the house was closed and access to the archives only very sparingly allowed until baron walther's death in 1885. but the reason for this was not, as herr max hecker rather absurdly suggests, wolfgang's jealousy of his grandfather's oppressive fame, but one far more simple and natural. from one cause or another, principally ottilie von goethe's extravagance, the family was in very straitened circumstances; and the brothers, being thoroughly unbusinesslike, believed themselves to be poorer than they really were.[1] they closed the goethehaus and the archives, because to have opened them would have needed an army of attendants.[2] if they deserve any blame it is for the pride, natural to their rank and their generation, which prevented them from charging an entrance fee, an expedient which would not only have made it possible for them to give access to the house and collections, but would have enabled them to save the fabric from falling into the lamentable state of disrepair in which it was found after their death. in any case, the accusation is ungenerous. with an almost exaggerated _pietat_ goethe's descendants preserved his house untouched, at great inconvenience to themselves, and left it, with all its treasures intact, to the nation. had they been the selfish misers they are sometimes painted, they could have realized a fortune by selling its contents. _wolf goethe_ (weimar, 1889) is a sympathetic appreciation by otto mejer, formerly president of the lutheran consistory in hanover. see also jenny v. gerstenbergk, _ottilie von goethe und ihre sohne walther und wolf_ (stuttgart, 1901), and the article on maximilian wolfgang von goethe by max f. hecker in _allgem. deutsche biographie_, bd. 49, _nachtrage_ (leipzig, 1904). (w. a. p.) footnotes: [1] after walther's death upwards of l10,000 in bonds, &c., were discovered put away and forgotten in escritoires and odd corners. [2] this was the reason given by baron walther himself to the writer's mother, an old friend of frau von goethe, who lived with her family in the goethehaus for some years after 1871.