BO EN'S STANDARD LIBRARY.

GOETHE'S LETTERS TO ZELTER.

GOETHE'S LETTEKS TO ZELTER,

WITH EXTRACTS FROM THOSE OP ZELTER TO GOETHE,

SELECTED, TRANSLATED, AND
ANNOTATED

BY
A. D. COLERIDGE, M.A.,

LATE FELLOW OF KI^'G'S COLLEGE, CA.MBKILXiK.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS,
YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1887.

CHISWICK PRESS :— C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,
CHANCEKV LANE.

THE FOLLOWING VERSION OF LETTERS

SELECTED FR051

GOETHE'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH ZELTER,

IS INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF

HENRY BRADSHAW, M.A.,

LATE LIBRARIAN OF THE ÜNITERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, WHOSE

WISDOM AND LEARNING

CAN BE BEST APPRECIATED BT THE WISE AND LEARNED,

BUT WHOSE LOVABLE QUALITIES WERE KNOWN BY HEART

TO HIS CONTEMPORARY AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE,

AND FRIEND FOR MORE THAN

FORTY TEARS.

PREFACE.

ANY new light thrown upon Goethe's genius and cha-
racter should be welcome to the student of German
literature. The recent production of the Jahrbuch, and
the affiliation of the English Goethe Society to the Weimar
Goethe-Gesellschaft, have so stimulated the in teilest of readers
in the publication of new matter affecting Goethe, that it is
hoped the present volume may be opportune rather than
otherwise. Many years ago, I studied the Goethe-Zelter
Corx-espondence, with the wish to learn all I could about
the tutor of Mendelssohn, the friend of Goethe, and " the
restorer of Bach to the Germans." Such was the compli-
ment paid to Zelter's memory by Abraham, the father of
Felix Mendelssohn. How strenuously the son endorsed
his father's opinion is a matter of common knowledge to
the readers of many works which illustrate the history of
the composer's life. But with us Englishmen the pupil's
fame has so completely eclipsed that of the teacher, that
Zelter is little more than a name. He was no ordinary man.
A stonemason by trade, he became a musician by choice,
and was so successful in his art-career as ultimately to
conduct the Singakademie at Berlin. He also achieved the
still higher distinction of becoming Goethe's most intimate
correspondent. Beginning with mere reports of Berlin
gossip, and casual interchange of criticisms on men and
things, he ended by drawing out, as few did, the inmost
sympathies and chosen confidences of the Weimar sage.
Goethe's respect for Zelter's force of character was appa-
rently never neutralized by his dogmatisni, or the rash and
mistaken opinions traceable here and there throughout the
correspondence. " Excellent, but crusty," ai-e the epithets
attached to Zelter's name by his pnpil, Edward Devrient,

Vlll PREFACE.

and the publiciition of the Goetbe-Zelter CoiTespondence
was harshly judged by Fehs Mendelssohn, whose language
on the subject of his kith and kin, as they are discussed
throughout the work, seems to me exaggerated and unfair.
After close study, I find no "unhandsome treatment" of
any single member of the Mendelssohn family, least of all
of the brilliant Felix himself, who thus airs his suscepti-
bilities in a letter to his father : — " To return to the
much-talked-of correspondence between Goethe and Zelter.
One thing struck me on this subject : when in this work
Beethoven or anyone else is abused, or my family un-
handsomely treated, and many subjects most tediously dis-
cussed, I remain quite cool and calm, but when Reichardt
is in question, and they both presume to criticise him with
great arrogance, I feel in such a rage that I don't know
what to do, though I cannot myself explain why this
should be so."

Zelter's scientific pretensions must have been limited in
his early days, as apprentice and journeyman, to a know-
ledge of bricks and mortar, though later on in life, he
became a learned theorist in the nobler art of music.
With the characteristic self-confidence of an imperfectly
educated but gifted man, he is ready to lay down the law
on whatever subject the all-embracing Goethe has started
for discussion. Had I included a list of the topics men-
tioned in these letters, instead of limiting the index to the
names of persons, and of such works of art and literature
as are generally known, the result would have been a strange
medley. Handel and Bach alternate with Berlin play-
bills ; Werner, Görres, and Byron with Teltower turnips ;
pike, mixed pickles, and game are set off against anti-
Newtonian optics. Even if we attach small value to
Zelter's estimate of men and things outside his own vo-
cation, and find Goethe adopting towards him a more
careless and familiar style flian he did with Kckermann —
the Boswell of his later days — it does not follow that the
rough, and at times uncouth and unintelligible language
of Zelter should be suppressed. His music has become as
obsolete as his criticism, but it must be remembered to his
credit, that it had a charm for Goethe, Schiller, Voss, and
Tieck. He had a strav taste, too, for literature ; his Auto-

PREFACE. IX

hiograpJii/, edited by Dr. Rintel, his Life of Fasch, accom-
paujist to Frederick the Great, are readable works. But
England's real indebtedness to Zelter consists in the fact
that it was he who trained Felix Mendelssohn to an en-
during love of Sebastian Bach, the knowledge of whose
music it was the younger man's mission to diffuse. " No-
thing less," says Devrient, " than the absolute success of
the first resuscitation of Bach's masterpiece, (the Passion
Music,) on the 11th of March, 1829, could have initiated
the subsequent study of this master by the leading musicians
of modern times." Beyond a question, we owe to Zelter
and his pupil the slow but sure appreciation of the work
of that immortal master, who, if Mendelssohn is to be be-
lieved in, "is in no one point inferior to any master, and
in many points superior to all." We may smile or sneer
at many of the oracular utterances of the ex-stonemason,
but condone his pardonable self-complacency in the boast,
that he knew every note from the pen of his hero, Sebastian
Bach, who, says he, " is one of those that cannot altogether
he fathomed."

Even if the extracts I have made from Zelter's own letters
are neither "elegant" nor profound, I would fain hope
that they will make Goethe's remarks intelligible. I have
given as literal a version of these as it was in my power to
give, but I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing Zelter's
language where it was barely intelligible. My original
intention was to have published in their entirety the whole
of Goethe's letters contained in the six volumes of corre-
spondence, supplementing them with quotations from
Zelter's letters, interspersed here and there, as a key to
the answers sent by the philosopher to the musician. From
necessity rather than from choice, I abandoned the plan,
and must own that in the abundant materials I had for
two volumes, there was a plentiful " chronicle of small
beer." Passing events and trifles which — nearly a century
since — had an interest at Berlin and Weimar, for two
intimate friends, are dull and insipid reading now, many
of the allusions can only be guessed at, and are riddles to
the Germans themselves. Many of the letters, too, are so
loosely strung together, that it is a matter of great difii-
cultv to pick up the threads of discourse and reflection,

X PUKFACK.

dropped at intervals of several montlis, and tlicn taken up
agil in bj either of the two correspondents, as if they had
foi-med part and parcel of yesterday's discussion. For
these and other reasons, I have allowed Zelter to speak for
himself, and limited my selection of letters to such parts
of the correspondence as I thought might be of interest to
the general reader.

Of all the w^orks I have consulted as books of reference,
I have found Diintzer's Life of Qoethe, (admirably translated
and annotated by T. W. Lyster, Esq.,) the most indis-
pensable. Since the publication of Lewes's Life of Goethe,
the researches of modern scholars have brought to light
much authentic information that was not available twenty
years ago, and Diintzer's work is in many respects a running
commentary on the more notable parts of this correspon-
dence. The Conversations of Goethe ivith Eckermann, and
The Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe, have also
been of great service to me. The references throughout
are to the English translations of those works by Lyster,
Oxenford, and Miss D. Schmitz.

The translations of the poems, other than those made
by E. A. Bowring, Esq., and the lines taken from Long-
fellow's translation of Dante, are by my daughter Mary E.
Coleridge.

A. D. 0.

OctohiT, 1886.

ERRATA.

Page 7, line 2,&,for Revel, read Reval.

„ 54, „ 33,ybr Traugott Maximilian, read Karl.
„72, „ 1 9, /or Augerblicks, rra(^ Augenblicks.
„ 83, „ 3, /or to, read for.

X PUEFACl?.

dropped at intervals of several months, and then taken up
again by either of the two correspondents, as if they had
formed part and parcel of yesterday's discussion. For
these and other reasons, I have allowed Zelter to speak for
himself, and limited my selection of letters to such parts
of the correspondence as I thought might be of interest to
the general reader.

Of all the works I have consulted as books of reference,
I have found Düntzer's Life of Ooetlie, (admirably translated
and annotated by T. W. Lyster, Esq.,) the most indis-
pensable. Since the publication of Lewes's Life of Goethe,
the researches of modern scholars have brought to light
much authentic infoi'mation that was not available twenty

GOETHE'S LETTERS TO ZELTER.

1796.

i. — Goethe to Madame Unger.*

Weimar, 13th June, 1796.
Your letter, dear Madam, and the enclosed songs, gave me
very great pleasure. Herr Zelter's admirable compositions
reached me while I was with people who first made me
acquainted with his work. His melody to the poem Ich
denke Deiiif had an inconceivable charm for me, and I
could not help composing that song for it, which stands in
Schiller's Musenalvianach. J

I am no judge of music, being without knowledge of the
means it makes use of for its purposes ; I can only speak
of the effect it produces upon me, when I let it exercise its
powers over me completely and repeatedly ; and hence I
can say of Herr Zelter's music to my poems, that I could
scarcely have believed music capable of such heart-felt
tones.

Thank him very much for me, and tell him that I should
very much like to know him personally, with a view to
mutual discussion. In the eighth volume of my Novel §
there will, it is true, be no space left for songs ; still, the
list of things left by Mignon and the old Harper is not

* Wife of Goethe's publisher in Berlin. Goetlie's personal acquain-
tance with Zelter began three years later. (See RinteFs Life of Zdter,
p. 194.)

f The song here alluded to is by Frau Friderike Brun (1763-1835),
who was the authoress of a number of poems, and of several books of
travel. (See Professor Buchheim's Deutsche Lyrik, note on p. iS'J..)

J This periodical, containing short poems and pieces, was published
annually. It is chiefly famous for the Xenien, a collection of epigrams
by Goethe and Schiller suggested by Martial's Xenia,

§ Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre,

2 Goethe's letters [1796.

jet exhausted, and all of it that can be allowed to see the
light, I should much prefer entrusting to Herr Zelter.

Meantime, I may perhaps soon send some other poems,
with the request that they may be set to music for Schiller's
Musenalmanach ; I had hoped to enclose them in this letter,
which consequently has been longer in coming than it
ought to have been.

Accept my thanks, dear Madam, for the trouble you
have taken, and believe that I know how to appreciate the
interest, which kind and enlightened minds take in me, and
those of my works, by which I can even bring a part of
my existence near to persons far from and unknown to me.

Goethe.

1799.] TO ZELTEE.

1799.

2. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th August, 1799.

It is with sincere gratitude that I reply to your
friendly letter, by which you would fain express in words
that of which your compositions themselves have long
convinced me : that you take a lively interest in my works,
and have a true inclination for making much of their
spirit your own. The beauty of an active synapathy con-
sists in its reproductive force, for if my poems called forth
your melodies, I can well say that your melodies have
stirred me to many a song, and doubtless if we lived nearer
to one another, I should more frequently than at present
feel myself inspired by a lyric mood. It would give me
sincere pleasure to hear from you on any subject.

I enclose a production * which has rather a strange ap-
pearance. It was suggested by the question, whether
dramatic ballads might not be worked out in such a
manner, as to furnish a composer with material for a
Cantata.

Unfortunately this particular ballad is too slight to
deserve being treated on so large a scale.

Farewell. Remember me to Herr linger.

Goethe.

* Die erste Walpurgls Nacht, Zelters eflorts to set this ballad-
poem were unsuccessful j it was reserved for Mendelssohn to redeem his
master's failure.

Goethe's letters [1801.

1801.

3. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29th May, 1801.

You have accomplished a very mei'itorious piece of
work by the monument you have raised to Fasch,* besides
giving me great pleasure by what you have done.

The remembrance of a human life that has passed away
is so contracted, that afi'ection is obliged, as it were, to re-
animate the ashes, and present the glorified Phoenix to our
eyes. Every honest fellow may hope some day or other to
be represented thus by his fi'iend, his pupil, his brother
artist.

When compared with an individuality thus lovingly
resuscitated, what a poor figure is made by those necro-
logists, who, immediately after a man's death, sedulously
balance the good and bad that has been believed in and
applauded by the multitude, during the life of an eminent
person, bolster up his so-called virtues and faults with
hypocritical righteousness, and thereby are worse than
death in destroying a personality, which can be imagined
only in the living union of those opposite qualities.

I was specially delighted with your account of the origin
of the Mass in sixteen parts, and the Vocal Society f to
which it gave rise ; how pleased I was that worthy Fasch
should be so fortunate as to have lived to see sucli an idea
realized.

In one of your last letters — for which, alas ! I still owe
you an answer — you ask whether there is anything among
my papers in the shape of an opera ?

You will find in the next number of Wilman's Taschen-

* Founder of the Singakademie at Berlin. He and Emmanuel Bach
shared the duty of accompanying Frederick the Great's Hute Concertos.
His influence on musical taste in Berlin was so great, that Beethoven
honoured liira with two visits in the summer of 1796. " As a master
of composition in many parts, Fasch is the last representative of the
great school of sacred composers, which lasted so long in Italy." (See
article Fasch in Sir G. Grove's Dictionary of Music.) The " monument'*
alluded to, is Zelter's biography of his former master.

f The Singakademie.

1801.] TO ZELTER. 5

buch the first scenes of the Second Pai't of the Zauherßöte.*
Some years ago I sketched a plan for a serious cantata,
Die Danaiden, in which, after the fashion of the ancient
Greek tragedy, the Chorus was to appear as the principal
subject ; but neither of the two pieces will, I expect, ever
be finished. One ought to live with the composer, and
work for some particular theatre, otherwise but little will
come of such an undertaking.

Be sure to send me from time to time some of your com-
positions, for they give me great j^leasure. Speaking
generally, I do not live in a musical sphere ; we reproduce
throughout the year first one, then another piece of music,
but where there is no production, an art cannot make itself
vividly felt.

Farewell, and hold me in remembrance.

GOETHB.

* The libretto of Mozart's tamous opera was adapted by Schikanefler
from L'.du, oder die Zauberßötc, a fairy tale in AVieland's Dschin-
nistan. Eckermann tells us that Goethe, while acknowledging that it
was full of indefensible improbabilities, added, " In spite of all, however,
it must be acknowledged that the author had the most perfect know-
ledge of the art of contrast, and a wonderful knack of introducing stage
effects." As early as 1796, Goethe entered into an agreement with
Wranitzk)' to continue the libretto. This must have failed, for in 1823
Eckemiann saj's, that Goethe has not yet found a composer to treat the
subject properly.

goethk's letters [1802.

1802.

4. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimai-, 6th December, 1 802.
When, during these gloomy days, I thought of
cheerful subjects, I then often looked back to the time of
your delightful presence amongst us last year. I have but
slender hope of seeing you again soon ; yet it is my wish that
a thread should continue to be spun between us. Thei'efore
give a kindly welcome to Der Graf unci Die Ztverge * (The
Count and the Dwarfs), who appear herewith; they now,
for the first time, as I think, show style and ingenuity.
Cherish these merry imps in your true musical sense, and
prepare for yourself and us some diversion for the winter
evenings. But do not let the poem out of your hands ;
nay, if possible, keep it secret.

My whole household thinks of you affectionately and
lovingly. Goethe.

* A ballad of Goethe's, now called Hochzeitlied,

1803.] TO ZELTER. 7

1803.

5. — GrOETHE TO ZeLTER.

Weimar, 3Ist January, 1803.
Only a line to tell you briefly, that good Dr. Chlaclni *
IS here, and will remain in the neighbourhood till about
the 9th or 10th of February. Perhaps this may partially
influence your decision as to the journey. If yon conld
meet him, while he is still here, we should have some lively
discussions about music and acoustics.

Only thus much, to testify again to my eager wish to see
you Tinder my roof. Goethe.

6. — Zelter to G-oethe.

Berlin, 3rd February, 1803.

«... Madame Mara f has arrived here, and I
yearn fov the divine singing of this artist, after so many
years. In all that time I have heard no such singer, for
with her glorious voice she can do everything, and any-
thing she does is exactly right. Yonr dear kind letter of
the 24th of January has almost damped my spirits. I was
nnwilling to come empty-handed to Weimar, and have
therefore not been idle. I hoped that several quite new
songs of yours would win your favour. Die Sehnsucht,
Was zieht mir das Herz so ? and Der Sänger are quite new,
and, as I think, better than even Reichardt's. Since the
First Part of Wilhelm Meister was published, I have had
Der Sänger constantly in my mind, and here it is at last
on paper. Reichardt's music to it is like a march, and
starting rather imperiously, should at all events end as it
began ; I have restored the Ballad-form. Then, again, I
have finished several of your songs, and have added four
new strophes to Das Blümlein Wunderschön. Der Junggesell
and Der Mühlbach, at the suggestion of a critic in the

* Author of a work on Acoustics. (See Schiller and Goethe Corre-
spondence, vol. ii., p. 438.)

t This famous singer was born at Cassel in 1794, and died at Revel
in 1833, soon after she had received a birthday poem from Goethe,
Saiufreich war dem Ehrcniueg. An interesting memoir of her is to be
found in Rochlitz's Für Freunde der Tonkunst.

8 Goethe's letters [1803.

Apollo, have been made rather more full-bodied. Schiller's
Hero und Leander, Worte des Glaubens, Kampf mit dem
Drachen, Die Sänger der Vorwelt have received the final
touches ; I have re-set some new Sonnets, one of He "der's
amongst them, and several old German songs of the seven-
teenth century by Abschatz, Zinkgräf, P. Gerhard. I
reckon up to yon my small glories, like a child vs^ho has
had Christmas presents from the Muses, and when all is
told, do not know what to do with all my treasures. Could
I but achieve something great ! My years are waning, and
— nothing comes of it. Could you not suggest something by
Herder, whom I esteem most highly ? I read so little,
and re-read so often my old favourites, that fine things
often escape me. And now, " Enough, ye Muses ! " — But
pray be on your guard, that your house is not haunted !
It is my spirit which has taken up his quarters with you,

and is settling down and nestling by degrees

Zelter.

7. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 10th March, 1803.
I CAN quite understand that it requii'es some resolution,
to leave one's own circle, and to look up distant friends at
this season of the year ; yet I take to heart in more ways
than one your letter of refusal. Apart from what we
should have gained for the general and higher aims of
Art by personal communication, it so happens that I am
this winter busy with the organization of the Opera and
Orchestra, more with a view to the future than the pre-
sent ; and I had thought your help in this matter was
absolutely indispensable.

The importance of the old proverbial advice, " Go
straight to the right smithy," * was clear enough to me long
ago ; but what is the good of knowing this, if the smithy
is so far off, that one cannot get to it with bag and baggage ?

So as I cannot give up the hope of seeing you, I make
a proposal which I trust you will take in good part.

If you could possibly find time, more or less, for a trip
to us, I am at present so circumstanced as to expect that

• Gehe vor die reckte Schmiede.

1803.] TO ZELTER. 9

through you great advantage would accrue to institutions
I have at heart, so I feel bound, at all events, to defray
your travelling expenses to and fro, and to provide for you
during your stay here. Now, if you feel inclined to weigh
the inconveniencies of the journey, and the loss of your
valuable time, against the possibility of an agreeable visit
here, after all you would not have such a heavy bill against
us, and perhaps we could arrange to meet more often in
future, not, I dare say, to any great advantage on your
part, but anyhow without your suffering any pecuniary
disadvantage.

Consider this, and tell me what you think of the proposal,
to which I hope you will give a favourable answer ; and
this the sooner, that you are in no way restricted as to the
time of your visit, and we should be ready to welcome you
any day between this and Whitsuntide. Tour room is
still unoccupied, and ready to receive you.

All your friends think of you with enthusiasm, which
was yesterday rekindled by the repetition of your new
compositions — the Beiterlied and the Ziverge. Schiller
thanks you most sincerely.

A new Tenor * has come here ; he has a very beautiful
voice, but is in every sense a novice. What a thing it
would be for him and for us could you give him a hint in
the way of improvement ! I mention but this one link in
the chain of obligations we should gladly owe you. I need
not tell you what a serious business is the improvement of
our Theatre, and particularly of the music, for the wedding
of our Crown Prince,t and the fetes which have to be given
in the last quarter of the present year, &c. — as little need
I repeat the proposals and requests I have already made.
I enclose the very delightful composition you asked for. J

If you look through Herder's Volkslieder, published
some time since, as well as his miscellaneous poems, you
are certain to find much that will interest you. When my
small concerts are given, I am veiy anxious that every one

* Brand of Frankfurt, (See Schiller and Goethe Correspondence^
Tol. ii., p. 445.)

t The Crown Prince was betrothed to the Grand Duchess Maria
Paulowna.

t Zeher's music to Die Erinnerung.

10 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1803.

of my friends should be astonished at himself, when he hears
his works reproduced in your music.

Please tell me plainly what you think of Madame
Mara? , .

Goethe.
8.— Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 1st July, 1803.
Accept, dear friend, a little present, which Herr
Geh. Rath von Wolzogen* will bring you from me.

You relished Herr von Knebel'sf Spanish snuff, and a
further supply was discovered. Where ? You shall hear,
when it comes safely to hand. Fill your box with it, and
sometimes think of my affection and esteem for you when
you take a pinch, whether you are alone or in good com-
pany. That is always a pleasant moment.

The sower, when he has sown his seed, goes away and
lets it sprout ; what a pity you cannot see how much good
is springing up from what you have sown among us ... .

Goethe.

9. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 1st July, 1803.
.... At Dresden I met Madame Mara, who was
delighted to see me ; she was just going to give a concert
which I attended ; there as everywhere she has admirers
and enemies. The thing she liked best was the unexpectedly
good receipts — that's the first point with her just now.

The first thing that drew my attention in Berlin was a
short biography of the late Mozart, half dedicated to you; J
to this is appended an anything but short, and anything
but aesthetic description of his works, together with any-

* Schiller's brother-in-law, Councillor of Legation, and recommended
by Schiller to Goetlie as a student of architecture. (See Schiller and
Goethe Corresijondcnce, vol. i., p. 402.)

-f- Major Karl Ludwig von Knebel, formerly tutor to Prince Constan-
tino of Weimar. Ilis translations from Propertius attracted the atten-
tion of Schiller and Herder. Goetlii^ mentions him as " helping me in
a very friendly way with my optical studies."' (See Schiller and Goethe
Corrcspmidence, vol. i., p. 278, and vol. ii., p. 466.)

\ It was dedicated jointly to Goethe and to Herr Müller, Cantor of
the Thomas-Schule in Leipzig.

1803.] TO ZELTER, 11

thing but a good portrait of him. Now could you find
out for me, who is the Neudietendorf author of this educa-
tional work for youns^ musicians ? The Neudietendorfers
may make a good thing of him. I read in the papers that
my beautiful Queen* was graciously bountiful to your
mother ; this gave me exquisite pleasure. Here they
stoutly maintain that very soon you will be with Schiller
in Berlin, and in several quarters I have been questioned
on the point. The possibility I had no wish to contradict,
especially as your friends think, that it will soon be time to
pronounce judgment on the sinful race, and that can only
be done in person.

4<th July. I saw for the first time a performance of

Schiller's Braut von Messina Iffland gave a good

rendering of Bohemund, and Bethmann as Cassar was first

rate I had rather say nothing about the choruses,

for all my ideas on that subject are confused and misty.
I would wager that Schiller is right, and that there is
something behind which none of us as yet suspect. Perhaps
I may one day write to you at greater length about this,
when the piece is printed, and the play in black and white
before me.

The position of the Chorus was not to my taste. I
should have thought the Chorus ought to stand close to
the side scenes, right and left, and as far as possible in the
background, so that the largest possible interval might
separate it from the chief groups. By this means the
Chorus would, as it were, become a main factor of the
whole, enlightening and invigorating it

I wish you would instruct me about the tendency of the
Greek Chorus

The glorious snuff, redolent with the fragrance of all
the Muses, is a real refreshment to me ; no wonder now if
I write something good.

Zelter.

10. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 28th July, 1803.
So often have I followed you in thought, that I
have unfortunately neglected to do so in writing ; to-day

* Louisa of Prussia.

12 Goethe's letters [1803.

only a few words, to accompany the enclosed sheet. I
shall continue my reflections, and therefore only touch the
main points as briefly as possible ; you will yourself of
course supply the details.

Of Mozart's biography I have heard nothing further as
yet, but shall inquire about it, and about the author too.

Your beautiful Queen made several people happy on her
journey, none more so than my mother ; nothing could
have given her more pleasui'C in her declining years.

Be sure to write to me from time to time, and please
send me the play-bills month by month. Pray also give
me some account of the performance of my Natilrliclte
Tochter, only speak frankly and without reserve. As it is,
I am inclined to shorten some scenes, which must seem,
long, even if thc}^ are admirably acted.

Will you give me a sketch of the duties of a Goncert-
Meister ? in so far, at least, as it is necessary for one
like me to know, so that I may to some extent be able to
judge of a man in this position, and possibly to guide him.

Madame Mara sang last Tuesday in Lauchstädt ; I have
not yet heard how it went oif.

Thank you heartily for myself and my friends for the
songs, which I received through Herr von Wolzogcn.
There was no time to think of producing anything new.

I hope soon to send you the proof-sheets of my poems,
with tlie request that you will keep them secret until they
are published

GOETHB.

ENCLOSURE.

You will by this time have before you in print the
Braut von Messina, and be able to appreciate moi-e accu-
rately what the poet has achieved ; you will also gather
from his preface, what he thinks about the matter, and
learn how far you agree with him. With reference to
your letter, I will jot down my thoughts on this subject,
for a few words will suffice to make us intelligible to one
anothei'.

In Greek tragedy the Chorus is seen in four Epochs.

In the first Epoch, a few characters calhng up the past
into the present are introduced between the singing, in

1803.] TO ZELTER. 13

which divinities and heroes are exalted, and genealogies,
mighty deeds, portentous destinies, are brought before the
fancy. Of this we have a proximate example in the Seven
he/ore Thebes, by iEschylus. This, then, was the begin-
ning of dramatic art — the old style.

The second Epoch shows us the whole Chorus as the
mystic leading character of the piece, as in the Eumenides
and Supplices ; these, I am inclined to think, represent the
lofty style. The Chorus is independent, the interest rests
upon it ; it is — one might say, the republican period of
dramatic art, the rulers and the gods are mere supplemen-
tary personages.

In the third Epoch the Chorus becomes supplementary ;
the interest is projected upon the families, their respective
members and chiefs, with whose destinies the destiny of
the surrounding people is but slightly connected. The
Chorus is subordinate, and the figures of the Princes and
Heroes stejD forth in their isolated majesty. This I am
inclined to think the grand style. The tragedies of
Sophocles stand on this level. Inasmuch as the multitude
has only to watch the hero and Fate, and cannot influence
Nature either in special instances or generally, it falls back
upon reflection, and undertakes the oflB.ce of an appointed
and welcome spectator.

In the fourth Epoch, the action continues more and
more to confine itself to private interests, the Chorus
appears often as a wearisome tradition, as an inherited
piece of the dramatic inventory. It becomes unnecessary,
and therefore in a living, poetical whole is equally useless,
tiresome, and disturbing — as, for example, when it is called
upon to keep secrets, in which it has no interest, &c.
Several examples of this are to be found in the plays of
Euripides, of which I may name Helena and Iphigenia in
Tauris.

You will see from the above — in order to return again to
the musical thread — that any attempts must be made in
connection with the first two Epochs, and this might be
done by very short Oratorios,

14 Goethe's letters [1803.

THE ENCLOSURE — Continued.

Now, as Greek tragedy disengaged itself from the
lyric element, so we, even in our own day, have a remark-
able example of the efforts made by the Drama to dis-
engage itself from the historical, or rather the epic ele-
ment ; we find this in the manner in which the story of
the Passion is sung in Catholic churches, during the week
before Easter. There are three individuals, one of whom
represents the Evangelist, the second Christ, the third the
rest of the interlocutors ; these and the Chorus (turba)
represent the whole, as you yourself know well enough.
I will add a short quotation, that you may the sooner see
what I mean.

" Evangelist : Then said Pilate to him :

Interlocutor : Art thou then a King ?

Evangelist : Jesus answered :

Christ : Thou sayest it. I am a King. For this end was

I born, and came into the world, that I might bear

witness of the truth. Whoever is of the truth, heareth

my voice.
Evangelist : Pilate saith unto him :
Interlocutor : What is truth ?
Evangelist : And when he had so said, he went forth again

unto the Jews, and saith unto them :
Interlocutor: I find no fault in him. But ye have a

custom, that I should release one unto yorf at the

feast. Will ye then that I release unto you the King

of the Jews ?
Evangelist : Then they cried out all together again, and said :
Turha : Not this man, but Barabbas !
Evangelist : Now Barabbas was a murder-er."

Now, if you confine the function of the Evangelist
merely to the beginning, so that he may pronounce a
general historical introduction as a prologue, and if you
make the intermediate incidents pi-esently emanating from
him useless by the coming and going, the movements
and actions, of the various personages, you will have
made a very good beginning for a drama.

1803.] TO ZELTER. 15

I now remembei' that this course has been followed in
Oratorios on the Passion ; but probably something new and
important might be produced, if one set to work in thoi^ough
earnest.

11. — Zelter to Goethe.

7th August, 1803.

.... When I received your dear letter of the 28th of
July, Ihad just been leisurely reading Schiller's Preface to the
Braut von Messina, and had already begun to try a musical
airangement of the Choruses. Thus much have I as yet
divined, that thoroughly to identify myself with the new
genre, I should need a quiet year. So soon as I have com-
pleted enough to be recognizable, I will write to you about
my discovery. Tour dissertation on the Chorus has been
exti'emely useful to me, for I am more concerned about a
definite view of the ancient Greek Chorus, than about my
new invention. The Musician is so horribly subordinate
to the Poet, and besides that he needs the whole strength
of his art. Your idea of making an attempt with a small
Oratorio is excellent, and for more than one reason I
should like to see it carried out. It is a new way to the

heart, and I constantly think of it

Zelter.

12. — Zelter to Goethe.

15erlin, 10th August, 1803.
.... You ask me about the music to the second part
of the Zauberflöte. I take you to mean by that our new re-
presentation of Winter's music. It is put on the stage with
great magnificence and at huge expense. . . . The score is
very full, and ci-ammed with effects, that stun and over-
whelm one's ears and senses. Thei'e is a full house every
time, though I see no signs of real satisfaction on the part
of the public, for whom apparently the piece was written ;

I suppose it will come in time

Professor Fichte, to whom I gave the enclosed letter of

16 Goethe's letters [1803.

the Jena advocate,* is doubly grateful, as it is rather
pleasant in itself, and goes just far enough to avert any
unpleasantness. Fichte is just about to write on the sub-
ject to Herr Geheimrath Voigt. f Fichte dissents from
your proposal to shorten Die Natürliche Tochter,'^ thinking
the piece so rounded and complete, that it would only suffer
by abbreviation. He intends writing to Schiller about it,
but specially with reference to the two Berlin representa-
tions, which he attended as an earnest listener. He is
actually more pleased with them than I, who read the
jilay twice beforehand, and then found quite unfamiliar
characters, which afterwards I have to find " natural.". . . .
Madame Mara is to arrive here to-day or to-morrow —
the 14th August. They say that she was terribly put out
at Lauchstädt, though her concert — owing to the help of
Reichardt § — was a success. She had explained in Dresden
that she wanted to regale the Electoral Prince with her
talent, but as she was told that His Royal Highness was
pleased to hear music during dinner, she was forced to

* Salzmann, a lawyer employed by Fii-hte about a mortgage which
he had raised upon a house of his in Jena, and about which he had
consulted Schiller. (See Schiller and Goethe Correspondence, vol. ii.,
p. 460.)

\ Christian Gottlob von Voigt was a fi'iend of the Duke of Saxe-
Weimar, Karl August, and one of his ministers. Goethe praises his
various and compreliensi\e knowledge of natural history. (See
Schiller and Goethe Correspondence, vol. ii., p. 475.)

\ Schiller expressed his admiration of this work in a letter to
Humboldt: — "The high symbolism with which it is handled, so that
all the crude material is neutralized and everything becomes a portion of
an ideal Whole, is truly wonderful. It is entirely Art, and thereby
reaches the innermost Nature, through the power of truth.'' Fichte
declared it to be Goethe's masterpiece. G. H. Lewes observes in his
Life of Goethe, " that a drama which is so praised, i.e. for its high sym-
bolism, is a drama philosophers and critics may glorify, but which Art
abjures.'

§ Johann Friedrich Heichardt, Capellmeister and Court-composer to
Frederick the Gi'eat, founder of the Concerts Sjnritnels, author of
several operas, but more famous for his Sinf/spuitn, whicli are of great
importance in the history of German dramatic music. Mendelssohn
spoke of him with enthusiasm, and arranged for the performance of his
Mor7iing Hymn, after Milton at the Cologne Festival of 1835. His love
of art induced him to visit the chief capitals of Europe, and his letters,
like those of our own Dr. Burney, give copious details of music, politics,
literature, and society.

1803.] TO ZELTER. 17

confess that she could not sing at a banquet. By this
explanation she lost a hundred ducats, and the Electoral
Prince, an aria Zelter.

13. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, Ü9th August, 1803.
.... Fichte has written a very beautiful and kind
letter to Schiller about Eugenie* Thank him for it, and
tell him at the same time that we champion his cause very
heartily ; alas ! a curse rests so easily on all that lawyers
dabble with !

What say you to the scheme of transplanting the Literatur
Zeittmg to Halle ? We others, who are behind the scenes,
are never tired of wondering, that a Royal Prussian
Cabinet should allow itself to be foiled by names, shams,
charlatanism, and importunity, just like any other public
body. As if such an institution could be conquered and
transported, like the Laocoon, or any other movable work
of art !

We are now continuing it as usual in Jena, and as we
still have Hofrath Eichstädt, the very active editor, every-
thing will go on in its old course. New contributors, and
new methods we are just starting, will, I hope, ensure an
honourable result for the business.

If you care to be one of our party, we earnestly bid you
vpelcome. How I should like you to utilize the reviewer's
path, so as to say about music what is so urgently needed
just now, and bring your criticism before the public de-
finitely and regularly. I shall share in the undertaking,
giving advice, and acting also. Schiller, Voss, and Meyer f

* The heroine of Die Natürliche Tochter.

\ Heinrich Meyer's History of Art was a favourite book with Goethe.
Speaking of him to Eckermann, Goethe says : " I am ever convinced
anew, how much is needed to be thoroughly great in any one thing.
In Meyer lies an insight into art belonging to thousands of years."
His Art-criticism, and his own paintings are constantly alluded to in the
Schiller and Goethe Correspondence . The copy of Aldobrandini's Wed-
ding, made by him in Rome, subse(iuently found a place on Gnethe's
walls. When at Florence, he edited the works of Cellini. Schiller
wished him to draw a vignette on the title-page of his Walle7istein, for
which he himself suggested a Nemesis, " as an interesting and significant
illustration."

18 goethe's letters [1803.

are inclinod to do the same, and I hope that next year will
be honourably distinguished from the present. Tell this
also to Fichte, whose aid we likewise invoke ; Schiller will
write to him more in detail about the matter. If you
know of any other able man in Berlin, it matters not what
his calling may be, as long as he is opposed to the old
leaven of Schütz, Bertuch, and Böttiger,* try and induce
him to join our interest. In fact, you are at libei'ty to
speak quite openly about the matter. The authorization
for a society, which will undertake the contemplated con-
tinuation of the scheme, is just being drawn up ; there will
soon appear a preliminary public announcement, and I will
shortly let you know of further details.

Tell me who is the author of The Confessions of a Female
Poisoner f — a first-rate man in every way.

Some time ago Herr linger wrote to me about an eighth
part. I can neither accept nor refuse ; on the one hand,
because I should be truly glad to complete the number ; on
the other, because my next works are promised to Cotta,
with whom I have reason to be very well satisfied. Please

* Hotrath Schütz was the founder and editor of the Allgemeine Lite-
rarische Zeitung in Jena. Goethe speaks disparagingly of him as a
reviewer, in his letters to Schiller. — Bertuch, the translator of Cervantes,
was the original owner of the famous Gartaihans at Weimar, in which
Goethe lived for seven years. The Duke, aware of Goethe's taste for
gardening, forced Bertuch to part with his property. "Bertuch, for
example, is very comfortable," Goethe had said, when pressed to reside
at Weimar, and eager to find some excuse for leaving it ; " if I had but
such a piece of ground as that!" Whereupon the Duke immediately
attacked Bertuch with, '■ I must have your garden." •' But, your High-
ness — " " But me no buts," answered the Duke, " I can't help you.
Goethe wants it, and unless we give it to him, we shall never keep him
here ; it is the only way to secure him." When bent on strict privacy,
Goethe " would lock all the gates of the bridges which led from the
town to his house, so that, as Wieland complained, no one could get at
him, except by aid of picklock and crowbar." Here he made his studies
for Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen. Lewes tells us that "a half-pay
captain with us would consider the house a miserable cottage ; yet it
sufficed for the Court favourite and Minister." — Karl August Bottiger,
a literary busybody, nicknamed by Schiller and Goethe Ulnque. In
Bertuch's Journal of Fashion he wrote an essay on the Xenia of Martial,
and some translations, which were severely criticised by Goethe. (See
Schiller and Goethe Correspo7idence, vol. i., p. 144.)

t Bu(!riholz.

1803.] TO ZELTER. 19

say a kind word to Herr Unger on the subject, to prevent
him from misconstruing my silence.

I hoped beforehand that Gellini* would have an effect
upon you ; what a world is opened up in such a work !
The time I devoted to working it out, is one of the happiest
periods of my life, and I shall continue to do a good deal
more yet. If your reading of the book has in a certain
sense depressed you, as I can well understand, I hope that
the cheerful efiect may come afterwards.

In the main I sympathize thoroughly with your com-
plaints regarding the general matter and details. A hearty
farewell. Gr.

14. — Zelter to Goethe.

7th September, 1803.
.... As a thoroughly useful correspondent in
Paris, I am inclined to recommend young Mendelssohn, f
who was fortunate enough, a few years since, to have an
interview with you at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. He is an
excellent youth, well read, and possessed of good broad taste.
He is now in Berlin, and hopes to pass through Weimar on
his return to Paris. If you appi'ove, I might give him a
letter to you. Whatever else I can do for the interests of
the Jena Literarische Zeitung, I will do gladly, as opportu-
nity offers.

Zelter.

15. — GrOETHE TO ZelTER.

Weimar, 10th October, 1803.

.... My training-school for actors, begun in the
first instance with Unzelmann,J has already increased to

* Goethe's translation of Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography was
published in separate numbers. Writing to Schiller in 1798, he says:
" A second edition of Cellini will be added to Meyer's work on the
History of Art in Florence." (See Schiller and Goethe Correspondence,
vol. ii., p. 63.)

t Abraham Mendelssohn, banker, second son of Moses the philoso-
pher, and father of Felix Mendelssohn.

% Son of Madame Un/.elmann, a famous actress.

20 Goethe's letters [1803.

♦
twelve. Next Thursday they are going to act their first
piece, scenery and all, but with closed doors. I hope much
good will result from this effort.

Could you get some reliable account of young Lauchery,
son of the royal ballet-master ? He has some appoint-
ment at the JVlilitary School in Berlin. We are so situated
as to be more in want of a man who understands dancing,
than of a dancer ; someone who has an easy method of
teaching, and a taste for stage-groupings and ballets. He
has been recommended to us, and I should like to have a

more accurate account of him fi'om you

• Farewell, and do not leave me long without news of you.

Goethe.

1804.] TO ZBLTER. 21

1804.

16. — GrOETHB TO ZeLTER.

Weimar, 27th February, 1804.

How long have I been silent, my honoured friend,
and yet how often have I longed to be with you on Mon-
days and Tuesdays ! This winter I have heard scarcely a
note, and feel what a beautiful part of life's enjoyment has
thereby been lost to me.

November and December were passed chiefly in prepara-
tions for our literary campaign. January did not treat me
over well, though my head kept clear, and I was not
altogether inactive. In February I took up my Odtz von
Berlichingen, in order to knead it into a morsel which our
German public may perhaps swallow at once. That is an
unsatisfactory piece of work ; as in altering an old house,
you begin with little bits and end by entirely changing the
whole at heavy expense, without after all having made a
new building.

Now Schiller's Tell, which you too will soon see, is by
contrast all the more fresh and unbroken. Lately we
have enjoyed several pleasant visits. Prof essor Wolf * was
here for nearly a fortnight, and Hofrath von Müller f
about as long ; Voss was here only for a few days. We
have however been enjoying Madame de Stael's society for
a month past. This strange woman is soon going to
Berlin, and I shall give her a letter to you. Be sure to
pay her a visit immediately ; it is a very easy matter to
get on with her, and she is sure to be greatly delighted

* Friedrich August Wolf, a great philologist, author of the Prolego-
mena ad Homerum. Eckermann describes a dinner-party given by
Goethe in his honour. " The conversation was very lively. Wolf
was full of witty sallies, Goethe being constantly his opponent in the
pleasantest way. ' I cannot,' said Goethe to me afterwards, * get on
with Wolf at all, without assuming the character of Mephistopheles.
Nothing else brings out his hidden treasures.'"

t .Johannes Müller, the historian.

22 Goethe's letters [1804.

with your musical performances, although literature, poetry,
philosophy and the like, are more in her way than the fine
arts.

Herr von Müller will have brought you the large seal ;
a smaller one shall soon follow. I am still in difficulty
about the ring. I sent a beautiful, yellow, Java cornelian
to Dresden, in the hope of getting it back as a ring-stone
of exquisite colour ; unfortunately, on being cut, it turns out
half spurious, half real, and therefore useless. But — come
what may — you shall have some such keepsake from me ;
only please have a little more patience with the dawdler !

Our newspaper does well enough ; when once the heavy
square foundation stones are safely laid, the rest of the

building will mount up more lightly

Goethe.

17. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 28th March, 1804.

Many a traveller testifies to your works and deeds,
in so far as they are visible and work outwards ; your
refreshing letter gives me a glimpse into your inner life,
worked by no steel spring, but animated by a living spirit.
I think you happy in working on continuously and pro-
gressively in that element which you have yourself created,
and in being able to hope that you have also achieved
something that will last. At the same time, it seems to
me, one must speak honourably of the great multitude
which people often gird at, though after all, it supplies the
plastic organs, and also the means for propagating what
has been achieved. We others, in our narrow circles, work
momentary wonders — magician-like — and immediately see

our air-formed phantom again dissolve into air

Goethe.

18. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 1st May, 1804.

.... Nothing as yet has been seen or heard of

Schiller's Tell. They say that Iffland, finding passages

in it that were doubtful from a political point of view,

forwarded the play to the Cabinet, in the first instance, for

1804.] TO ZELTER. 23

revision. Your Götz and the second part of Die Natürliche
Tochter are expected all the more eagerly ; do not keep us

waiting too long

Herr von Kotzebue has given a lecture in the Academy
on the History of Prussia. It was highly praised, and

people compare it to Tacitus

Zelter.

19. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 13th July, 1804.

Your essay, my dear friend, has given me and a few
of the initiated, to whom I showed it, much pleasure; nay
more, it has edified and strengthened us in our convictions
of what is good and right. It has sprung from the depth of
your character and talent, and must very keenly affect
such minds as are at all susceptible. But what will the
world think of it and make out of it ? A world which
does not care to listen, when leading articles of complaint
are formally drawn up against it, and which of course
cannot dream of finding a worthy enjoyment which it does
not know, but rather snatches at some fugitive joy, self-
created out of itself, and therefore conformable to itself.

It is a very bad sign of our days, that every art, which
after all is surely meant in the first instance only to pro-
duce an effect upon the living, should, in so far as it is
excellent and worthy of eternity, find itself in conflict with
the time, and that the true artist frequently lives alone and
in despair, inasmuch as he is convinced that he possesses
and could impart to men what they are seeking.

We agree with you in this, that music in the first in-
stance can only be improved through hymns, and that
even for a Government, nothing could be more desirable in
every sense, than to foster an art, whilst encouraging higher
feelings, and purifying the sources of a religion, which is
adapted alike to the cultivated and uncultivated. You
have expressed yourself so admirably and concisely upon
this point, that nothing can be added to it. But what we
now wish you to take to heart, for effect's sake, is that you
should, if possible, conceal the opposition in which you
stand to the time, and generally that you should dwell

24 Goethe's letters _ [1804.

more npon the advantages which religion and morals
would derive from such an Institution, and less upon those
which Art has to expect from it. We must not avail our-
selves of our arguments in favour of the Good, whereby
we are convinced men may be moved, but must consider

what would probably be their arguments

Enclosure.
Schiller to Zelter.

Weimar, 16th July, 1804.

It is not from negligence, dear friend, that I am so
late in giving you news of myself, after the happy hours
we spent together in Bei'lin. I expected, every post-day,
that I should be able to write definitely to you about the
business you know of, and in which, as I dare hope, you
are kindly interested. As yet however, nothing has been
determined, so I cannot say whether my conditions will be
accepted. Therefore no more of my affairs for the present ;
let us talk of yours.

The essay you sent to Groethe, I have read with real
pleasure ; you have written it out from your heart of
hearts, and this stamp it bears on every line. But just
because it so successfully attacks the diseased part, and so
frankly and honestly declares war against charlatanism in
Art, probably in its present form it is not altogether
adapted to win the favour of those, who ai*e to lend a hand
in furthering the work. What Goethe has written to you
on this point, is also my conviction. You will be obliged
to keep your most striking arguments in petto, and to lay
stress upon those that relate to the political requirements
of the time.

It seems to me an extremely happy circumstance, that
the interest of Art just now meets such an external want,
and if no mistake is otherwise made as regards form, you
could not possibly, I think, fail to interest the rulers of the
state in your scheme. All will depend on the way the sub-
ject is represented. Few feel that it is high time to do
Honiethiiig foi- Art, but that matters cannot remain as they
aio with regard to religion, can be made intelligible to all.

1804.] TO ZELTER. 25

And as people are ashamed of having a religion themselves,
and want to pass for "enlightened," thej must be very
glad of the possibility of coming to the aid of religion with
Art.

Consequently the whole thing would immediately assume
a more favourable aspect, if the first impulse were to come
from the ecclesiastical and political side, if from thence
one could point first of all to your Shigakademie, as to an
instrument lying ready to hand, and then first asked what
you propose. You would surely not find any difficulty in
inducing one or other of your theologians and Academicians
to supply the incentive. It was Berlin, which in the dark
days of superstition first kindled the torch of rational
religious freedom ; this was at the time a glory and a
necessity. Now, in the days of unbelief, another glory is
to be won, without forfeiting the first ; now let Berlin add
warmth to the light, and ennoble Protestantism, of which it
is destined to be the metropolis.

I only wish I could be a Berlin Academician for six
weeks, so that I might have a calling to make myself
heard on this subject ; but there are plenty of people for
that. Do you not think that Schleiermacher, for instance,
would do ?

Now is the very moment for an enterprise of this kind
in the Brandenburg provinces. People wish to promote
the Academy and the Universities. Something must be
done for spirituality and morals ; nay, as Catholicism has
been newly established in France, the spirit of the age de-
mands that religion should also be thought of in Protestant
countries, and even philosophy has taken this direction. All
this, and similar arguments might furnish material for a
deduction, by which the subject might be made more of a
state affair. Only, as I must again repeat, the advantage
which would thus fall to the musical side must not appear
to be the main object, but only a secondary consideration.

Let us soon hear, dear friend, whether yon think you
can attack the subject from this point, and whose services
you think of enlisting for it. If you think I can in any
way be of ^se to you in the matter, you may count on my
willingness to help you.

My wife wrote to your wife about a week ago. We

26 GOETHE'S LBTTEBS [1804.

intend going to Jena in three days time, and remaining
there, till my wife's confinement is over. Write and tell
mo something about the performance of Tell in Berlin ; I
see from the papers that it went off fairly well. We are
eagerly expecting your melodies to the latest songs. I
send you a few other things out of the Swiss world.
I embrace you with all my heart.

Yours most sincerely,

Schiller.

20. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 30th July, 1804.
Thank you very much for the play-bills which you
sent me through Mademoiselle Amelang. I look forward
with pleasure to your Schiller song, which we will do as
well as we can, so soon as our music begins to chime round
us again. I hope in a month's time to have a reading-
rehearsal of my Götz von Berlichingen ; that it is so far ad-
vanced, is entirely owing to you. I did not understand
why, during a year past, I had dealt with my work like
Penelope, for ever unravelling again what I had woven.
Then in your essay I found the words, " What we do not
love, we cannot do ; " then my eyes were opened, and I saw
clearly that I had hitherto treated the work as a piece of
business, which, with others, had to be got rid of ; this
explained how it was done, and why it had no power of
lasting. Henceforth I devoted to this subject 'more at-
tention, sympathy, and concentration ; so the work — I will
not say gets good — but anyhow gets finished.

Now might I ask you for a couple of small pieces of
music ? First, for Georg's song, Es fing ein Knab'ein
Vögelein, which I believe you have already set ; secondly, I
want a quiet, devotional, and elevating four-part hymn,
with Latin words, that would take some eight minutes to
perform. It may be a bit out of some Mass, or anything
else of the kind.

How much I wish we lived nearer one another, or that
we were both more mobile ; the results of enduring mutual
intercourse are incalculable. Anyhow, let us write to one
another from time to time.

1804.] TO ZELTER. 27

Schiller has given us an admirable work in Tell, one
upon which we may all congratulate ourselves.
A thousand farewells.

Goethe.

21. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 8th August, 1804.

I THANK you most heartily for sending me the little
song so promptly, and will now go more into detail about
the Chorus in Götz. It is really meant to be sung at the
nuptials of Maria and Sickingen. The simple Church
procession passes over the stage to the sound of a hymn,
an organ may perhaps be heard at a distance, and as the
chapel is close by, the chanting may continue audibly,
whilst a scene is being played outside. Have the goodness,
then, to take some words out of a Psalm.

The character of it, as you observe, is gentle and solemn,
inclining to sadness, on account of the circumstances ; a
prelude to the following scene, where those but just
married are, so to speak, chased away by Götz. All things
considered, I think you are perfectly right in saying that
eight minutes are too long ; we will be content with four,
to fill up which is quite within my power

Thank you very much for the melody to my Serenade ;
it is very pleasing, and certainly better suited to my poem,
than my poem is to Reichardt's very praiseworthy melody.

The little song for Georg is quite appropriate, without
instrumental music ; we will see how the little fellow
turns out. I am very anxious to get this new version of
Güiz out of hand. I should long ago have had it finished,
but for its tiresome length ; for in trying to make the play
more theatrical, it became longer rather than shorter.
What was diffuse has certainly been condensed, but what
was transitory has become fixed ; it will still take nearly
four hours to play. Should it be given in Berlin, pray
write to me at once about your first impressions ; for with
the exception of the introductory part of the first Act of
the drama, and half of the second, which have been left
almost entirely as they were, the piece has been altogether
decomposed and recomposed.

28 goethr's letters [1804.

My kind greetings to your dear wife, and thank her for
the interest she takes in my sons and daughters. I am, alas !
still a long way from completing the continuation of my
Natürliche Tochfei- ; nay, I have several times been tempted
to destroy the First Part for really theatrical purposes, and
to make a single piece out of the whole of the Three Parts
I first intended. No doubt the situations, which according
to the original plan are too long, would then appear much
too sketchy. Farewell, and pray forgive my rambling
letter.

22. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 24th September, 1804.

By Herr Levin I again send you a packet of snuff,
which our dear Duchess Araalia * gave to me for you, with
many kind messages. I hope it may prove as good as the
last, and that more will follow.

Götz has been played ; I send you the gay play-bill.
Herr Levin undertakes to tell you about the play and the
performance. I should myself call it good, but for its ex-
cessive length. On future occasions, I mean to have merely
parts of it played, and thus ascertain what particular por-
tions the public would most readily dispense with, and
these can afterwards be entirely omitted.

HeiT Levin will tell you that your Choral hymn was
very charming and beautiful, and very well adapted for
bringing into relief the important moment. I enclose
an advertisement of our Art Exhibition of this year. I
shall write again in a few days. Let me hear from you
sooa.

Goethe.

* Amalia, the Dowager-Diichess of Weimar, was a niece of Frede-
rick the Great. Schiller speaks of her intellect as " extremely limited,"
though she learned Greek enough from Wieland to read Aristophanes,
translated Propertius, talked politics with the Abbe' Rajnal, and set
Goethe's Erwin und Ehnire to music. Her correspondence with Goethe's
mother shows how little she cared for the dignities of hor state, and
even Schiller owned that this pleasure-loving Duchess had " at any rate
the merit of throwing aside all the stiffness of ceremony."

1804.]

TO ZELTBE.

23. — Goethe to Zelter.

24th November,* 1804.
.... In return for your description of the picture
of Judas Iscariot, you shall in my next page have a de-
scription of an old picture, which unfortunately is lost to
us, and contrasts e Diametro with yours. In order to
shorten the reflections which force themselves upon my
mind, I will give you a design on the other side of this
page, showing how we, the latest philosophers, are wont,
by signs and abbreviations, to express ourselves to one
another. I am convinced that it will be as clear to you as
daylight.

With all good wishes,

MELES AND KRITHEIS.

The Falle.

Kritheis, the nymph of the fountain, is in love with the
river-god Meles ; from these two, who are of Ionic origin.
Homer is born.

* Un the 15th November, Zelter had described in a letter from Berlin,
a picture by Carl Ludwig, called " The Damnation of Judas Iscariot."
In Letter 24 Goethe sends the description back to him for reference.

30 Goethe's letters [1804.

The Picture.

Meles is represented in the flower of early youth. The
nymph, though she thirsts not. drinks from his spring,
which is visibly running into the sea ; she scoops the water
up, and seems to be chatting with the babbling fountain,
while her fond tears are falling into it. But the river
loves her in return, and is enjoying the sweet tribute.

The chief beauty of the picture lies in the figure of
Meles. He is reposing upon crocuses, lotus flowers, and
hyacinths, — a lover of flowers, as befits youth. His figure
is youthful and tender, though perfectly developed ; one
might say his eyes were dreaming of some poetic thing.

But one of the most graceful features is, that no torrent
of water flows forth, but that, by passing his hand over
the surface of the earth, he causes the gently rising water
to gurgle through his fingers, so that it seems a river suited
to call forth the dreams of love. But it is no dream,
Kritheis ! thy silent wishes are not in vain. Soon the
waves will begin to surge up, and favouring your loves,
they will hide thee and the god beneath their emerald and
purple canopy. How lovely the girl is ! How delicate
and Ionic her form ! Modesty adds grace to her figure ;
and the flush on her cheeks is just sufl&cient. Her hair is
gathered under her ears and adorned with a purple fillet.
But she looks so sweet and simple, that her tears even do
not affect the tenderness of her expression. Her neck is
even more beautiful, as it is unadorned, and on looking at
her hands, we see soft long fingers, as white as the forepart
of the arm, which, as seen through the white robe, appears
whiter still ; the rounded bosom shows itself.

But what have the Muses to do here P At Meles' spring
they are no strangers ; for before this, in the form of bees,
they guided the fleet of the Athenian colonies hither.

But as in this picture they lead their light dances, they
appear as joyous Fates, celebrating the approaching birth
of Homer.

1804.] to zelter. 31

24. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 16th December, 1804.

Herewith the letter you ask for, but please let me
liave it hack again at your convenience. I can well believe
that Judas Iscariot was not very successful in Berlin.
Only a Sunday's-hairn could appreciate the merits of such
a subject. On the other hand, in the catalogue of the
Berlin Exhibition, many a page — nay, pages may be found,
containing a written account of what is not to be seen in
the picture — nay, what cannot be seen in it.

I am very sorry that I am unable to attend your lectures.
To be sure, it is in accordance with my nature to live in a
small place ; but the worst is, that one has next to nothing
to relish there, except what one dishes up for oneself, whereas
in big places one can often and comfortably dine out.

Talking of dining out, reminds me of an earthly need,
which you can very well satisfy. Please send me by the
mail half a bushel of genuine Moravian turnips, only take
care that they are well packed, so that they may not be in-
stantly frost-bitten. In return I will send you one day soon
some Greek fruit, which has the great advantage of re-
freshing at the same time both body and soul.

A thousand farewells.

J. W. Goethe.

32 Goethe's lettees [1805.

1805.

25. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29th January, 1805.
Turnips and fish have arrived safely, the former

beautifully dry, the latter well frozen

The new version of Götz von Berlichimjen was sent to
Iffland * as early as the beginning of last December, but it
is his way to remain dumb in such cases, to cook and brew
things in his own mind, till he thinks them at last done
enough to come out with. So take no notice of it. In a
man of his merits one must excuse an oddity, and all the
more, as such behaviour is perhaps a necessity in his
position. So much for to-day. Thank your dear wife for
the parcel ; her recipe was carefully followed, and the dish
was capital. You shall soon hear again of phenomena
of opposed polarity, Greek pictures and Tarentine snufF.
Cheer up, and think of me.

Goethb,

26. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 1st June, 1805.
Since the time I left off writing to you, I« have had
few good days. I thought to lose myself,t and now I lose
a friend, and in him the half of my existence. In truth, I
ought to begin a new mode of life, but at my age there is
no longer a way. Now therefore I only look straight be-

* " Very significant to me was the observation I made, tliat he almost
invariably had it in his power to command the purest and most appro-
priate state of mind in his audience, which, of course, is possible only
by a union of genius, art, and study." — Goethe to Schiller, vol. ii., p. 85.
Schiller preferred Iffland's comic to his tragic acting.

t On the 2nd Ajiril, Zelter had written from Berlin : "Your illness
has made (juite a remarkable sensation here, and everyone is rejoiced at
your recovery ; I myself shall not be free from anxiety, till I get a line
from you again." Schiller died on the 9th May, while Goethe was still
weak and enfeebled from another relapse.

1805.] TO ZELTER. 33

fore me at each day as it comes, and do what is nearest to
me, without looking further afield.

But as, notwithstanding, people try to turn every loss
and misfortune into some diversion for themselves, I am
being urged by our actors, and many others, to honour our
departed friend's memory by a stage-performance. I shall
say nothing further about this, except that I am not disin-
clined, and all I should like to ask you just now is, whether
you would be willing to assist me in this, and first of all —
if you would be so kind as to let us have your Motett, Der
Mensch lebt und bestellet, of which I see a notice in the 27th
number of the Musihalische Zeitung; will you either compose
something else in the solemn style, or look out and hand
over to us compositions, the character of which I would
specify to you, in order that suitable words may be added ?
As soon as I know your private opinion, you shall hear
further particulars.

Tour admirable series of short essays on the arrange-
ments of the Orchestra, I have hitherto kept by me, really
because they contained a sort of satire upon the state of
affairs here. Reichardt now wishes to have them for the
Musikalische Zeitung. I have looked them up and read
them over again, and I find that I cannot possibly with-
hold them from the intelligence-sheet of our Literatur
Zeitung, where they will very soon make a capital figure
under the line. Some of our affairs have undergone altera-
tion, and in the end we may perhaps blame even that which
we allow to happen.

Geheimrath Wolf of Halle is at present here. Could I
but hope to see you too this year ! Is there no likelihood
of your coming to Lauchstädt at the end of July, to assist
in preparing and carrying out the above-mentioned work ?
Think this over, and tell me only of the possibility ; the
means would be an after-consideration. How about your
store of snuff ? Meanwhile I have been fortunate enough
to get another packet of the genuine article. How shall I
send it you ? Farewell, and let me hear from you soon.

34 Goethe's letters [1805.

27. — Zelter to Goethe.

llth June, 1805,
.... The unexpected death of our beloved Schiller
has called forth a geiiei-al and profound sensation here in
Berlin ; Iffland's conduct, (though the underlying motives
are not yet clear), is honourable. He seems to be planning
something, or else to be working with peculiar energy for
some plan, that has been formed already. This evening a
very brilliant and earnest performance of Die Räuber took
place ; the whole strength of our company and resources were
employed ; the house was densely packed. Iffland played
Franz, and was unmistakably determined to do his utmost ;
Karl and Amalie were equally well played by Mattausch
and Madame Fleck. Our public, with whom this play is a
great favourite, received it in the old way, but with re-
doubled enthusiasm. Kabale und Liehe is announced for
next Friday. It seems as if the Directors wished by a series
of performances of all Schiller's plays, given at short in-
tervals, partly to fete the public, which worships Schiller,
and to sustain its zeal, partly to make patent the great
merits of the departed, and thus finally to do something
for Schiller's memory. Nor does the Treasury suffer by
this, for just now, whenever Schiller is played, the house is
always full — an unusual thing at this season of the year.

Then let us too do something in this matter, some-
thing which shall be in lasting connection with a lasting
subject. (This between ourselves, of course.) If you are
not too much over- wrought, it might be a soothing, healing
employment for you, and I will pull myself together, and do
what I can — all the more, as really there exists nothing of
the kind that would be appropriate for a stage. Perhaps
our work might to this extent be universal, that it might be

used on any solemn occasion, as a regular stock piece

Yours,
Zelter.

28. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 19th June, 1805.
My best thanks for your prompt despatch of the
music I asked foi". I will try, as soon as possible, to hear

1805.] TO ZELTER. 35

the best they can make of it. On the whole I am of jour
opinion, that we should have no patchwork on this occasion,
but cut something out of the whole piece. Unfortunately,
I have never been so lucky as to have a first-rate musician
by me, with whom I might have worked in common, so in
cases like this, I have always been obliged to keep to cobbling
and patching, and so once again I thought it would be my
fate in the present instance.

You shall now however hear of my scheme as soon as
possible, and let me know what you think of it. But our
plan, as well as our work, must be kept a secret, till we are
ready, and can step forward with an easy mind.

While working at RameaiCs Neffe, and things connected
with it, I often thought of you, and wished for only a few
houi's' talk with you. I know music more by reflection
than by enjoyment, and hence only in the general sense.
I am glad this little volume amused you ; the dialogue too
is a genuine masterpiece.

I am in your debt for Wilhelm Meister, as for much else
besides. Meantime a fresh bos of Spanish snuff, which I
trust will arrive in good condition.

Iffland is perfectly right in taking advantage of the
pathological interest of the public for his purposes. If the
Germans ai'e not touched realistically, it is difficult to touch
them ideally. If he carries out his series of representa-
tions, and leads them up to a first-i'ate performance for the
benefit of the children that are left, he will deserve pi'aise.
I enclose the Frankfort absurdity. It is said in that paper,
that Schiller did not die rich, that he left four children ;
yet it offers the blessed public free admission to the funeral
ceremony ! Priests and monks contrive to make the
funeral ceremonies of their saints of greater benefit to the
survivors. The deep feeling of loss is the prerogative of
friends. The Frankfort gentlemen, who as a rule cannot
appreciate anything but money, would have done better to
express their sympathy more realistically, considering that,
(between ourselves be it said), they never paid our excellent
friend for a single manuscript, during his lifetime, though
he woi'ked hard enough, but always waited, till they could
get the printed piece for twelve groschen. Pardon my
being so discursive. I could add much more, if 1 wished

36 goethe's letters [1805.

to say all that there is to say on this subject. Geheimrath
"Wolf of Halle was with me for a fortnight. The presence
of this very able man has strengthened me in every sense.
I am daily expecting Jacobi.* Why may I not also hope
to see you this year ?

Farewell, and write to me again soon, in order that such
long pauses may not arise. Otherwise some day or other
we may unawares pause ourselves into life everlasting.

29. — Goethe to Zelter.

Lauchstädt, 4th August, 1805.
Up to to-day, I have been flattering myself, though
with only a faint hope, that we should see you here. It is
one of the saddest conditions under which we suffer, that
not only death, but even life separates us from those we
most esteem and love, and whose co-opei"ation could best
help us on our way.

That this letter may be despatched at once, I pass forth-
with from such sorrowful reflections to a request. I am
going to give a dramatic representation of Schiller's Glocke,
and beg you to help me with it. Read the poem through,
and send me an appropriate Symphony for it, by any master.
Then, in the middle of the fifth verse, declaimed by the
Master, after the line :

Saij a holy ivord,
I should like a short Chorale, for which the words :

In all we strive to do,

Till/ grace, Lord, be near us !
might form the text. Thereupon, the following four lines,
as far as With waves of fiery brown, would be spoken again,

• Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, a philosophical writer, then well known,
and author of a work on The Teaching of Spinoza. It was almost thirteen
years since he and Goetlie had met. They had been intimate in youth,
tliough their fricuidship was often interrupted by differences of opinion.
(See Goethe's Early Letters, p. 128, and jMssi/n.) Jacobi's harsh criticism
of Wilhelm Meister brouglit Schiller into the field, as Goethe's apologist.
It is difficult to reconcile the conflicting opinions of Lewes an'd Dlintzer,
as to the pleasure which Goethe, still smarting from the recent loss of
Schiller, derived from the present visit.

1805.] TO ZELTER. 37

but the Chorus would then have to be repeated, or, if you
like, further developed musically.

Ill the tinal C horns, I should like to hear the words :

Vivos voco. Mortuos lüavgo. Fulgurafrango.

in a Fugue, which, as far as possible, should imitate the

pealing of bells, and, as befits the occasion, lose itself in

Mortuos plango*

If a happy thought should strike you, do me the favour
to work it out, and send me the scores direct to Weimar,
whither I shall soon go.

If it were possible for your gift to reach me by the 19th
or 20th, it would come very opportunely ; for I should like
to start in Weimar with this representation.

I then hope to send you the other poem, or at all events
a sketch of it, and it might be given on the 10th of Novem-
ber, in honour of our friend's birthday. More in a few
days' time.

30. — Goethe to Zelter.

Lauchstädt, 1st September, 1805.
I AM once more in Lauchstädt, and am dictating
this, in the rooms where your presence made me so happy.
I have been to Magdeburg with Geheimrath Wolf, and
from thence to Helmstadt, where I found many very in-
teresting persons and things ; afterwards, we went by way
of Halberstadt, past the Harz, and returned by way of
Aschersleben to Halle.

Here I am, again quite alone, after sending my son
Augustifs, who has accompanied me so far, back to Weimar,
and I am recapitulating all the good that has befallen me
during the last eight weeks, and trying by degrees to evoke
what we agreed upon.

An ancient work which fell into my hands, almost acci-
dentally, will be useful for this purpose. You will receive
herewith my translation of a translation. As soon as I can

* The performance took place at Lauchstädt, on the 10th August.
Goethe added an Epilogue to the poem. Zelter's music has been set
aside for Romberg's, which may perhaps be superseded by that of Max
Bruch.

38 Goethe's letters [1805.

revise it in accordance with tlie original, the words will,
of course, sound quite differently, but I dare say you will
find no more food for thought in it then, than you will
now, though here and there the expressions still halt.
Do write, and send your letter soon to Weimar. Before
I leave these parts, you shall hear more from me. In
particular, I am now dictating something about the under-
lined passage in that old mystic* A thousand farewells,
and thanks for your visit, which made me glad to live
again, and increased my gladness.

Enclosure.

" As we are convinced, that he who contemplates the
intellectual world, and is conscious of the beauty of real
intellect, can also take note of the Father of them, who is
exalted above all sense, let us endeavour to acquire insight,
to the best of our powers, and for ourselves express, in so
far as such things can be made clear, the way in which we
can intuitively perceive the beauty of the mind and of the
world.

" Suppose then two blocks of stone placed beside one
another, one of which was left in the rough, without any
artistic work on it, while the other was shaped by Art into
a statue of some man or deity. If the latter, it might
represent a Grace or a Muse ; if the former, it need be no
man in particular, but rather one put together by Art out of
everything beautiful. To you, however, the stone brought
by Art into a lovely form, will forthwith appear beautiful,
though not because it is a stone — for else the other mass
would likewise pass for beautiful — but because it has a
form which Art gave it.

" Yet the material had not such a form ; that was in the
inventor, before it reached the stone ; it was, however, in
the artist, not because he had eyes and hands, but because
he was gifted with Art.

" Therefore, there was a still greater beauty in the Art.
For it is not the form, resting in Art, which reaches the
stone, but it remains there, and another inferior form goes

* Pli»tinus, Ennead. V., lib. viii., c. I., p. 541, ed. Marsil. Ficinus.
Basil. MDcxv.

1805.] TO ZELTER. 39

forth, which neither continues in its own purity, nor even
as the artist wished it, except in so far as the material
obeyed the Art.

" But when Art produces also that which it is and pos-
sesses, and the beautiful, according to reason, her constant
guide ; then of course that Art which possesses more, and
more tinithfully, a greater and more excellent beauty of Art,
is more perfect than anything else which comes to outward
expression.

" For inasmuch as the form, advancing into material,
gains extension by that very act, it becomes weaker than
that which continues undivided. For that which endures
sepai-ation, steps aside from itself, strength from strength,
warmth from warmth, force from force, beauty too from
beauty. The motive power must be more excellent than
the result. For it is not the unmusical which makes the
musician, but music, and the super-sensuous music pro-
duces music in sensuous tones.

"But should any one despise the Arts, because they imitate
Nature, let him take this for an answer, that natures also
imitate much besides — nay, more — that the Arts do not
precisely imitate what we see with our eyes, but go back to
that rational element, of which Nature consists, and in
accordance with which she acts.

• " Further — the Arts produce much out of themselves,
and on the other hand, add much that falls short of per-
fection, whilst they have beauty in themselves. Thus
Phidias could create the god, though he actually imitated
nothing perceptible to his senses, but he grasped such a
divinity in his mind, as Jove himself would appear, should
he ever meet our eyes."

31. — Goethe to Zelter,

Weimar, l8th November, 1805.
Mt thanks for your kind thought of my bodily
welfare must no longer be delayed, especially as the pro-
ducts of Brandenburg and England have come safe to hand.
The turnips are all the more welcome, as there are no
chestnuts on the Rhine or Maine this year. So we do not
eat them as a separate dish, but served up with cabbage.

40 Goethe's letters [1805.

they are very effective. On the 9th of November, as the
day on which we too wished to commemorate Schiller in
our Theatre, his Imperial Majesty of Russia was content
with a performance of Wallenstein'' s Lager ; so soon as you
kindly send us your work, we will make up for lost time.

How fares it with your music lessons ? I too have set
aside one morning in every week, on which I lecture to
a small ch'cle, on my experiences and convictions, relative
to natural history. This opportunity enables me for the
first time to realize what I possess — what I do not possess.*

Demoiselle Jagemann f too has at last arrived. The
play-bills have come to hand, and were very welcome, as
they were a proof of your kind remembrances. Let me
soon hear from you again. The results of my quiet work
will, ere long, give you some pleasure.

So much for to-day ; with best wishes,

* " He (Goethe) delivered lectures on Natural Science, on Colour,
Magnetism, Elasticity, every Wednesday morning before a select circle,
consisting of the Princess (Caroline) and her governess, Charlotte von
Stein and her sister-in-law ; and in these lectures he sought to inter-
weave ethical considerations. His delivery, the result of careful thought
and practice, pleasant to hear, and instinct with feeling, charmed the
}adies, notwithstanding the habit of often passing his hand over his
forehead, in which he resembled Gall.'" (See Lyster's Translation of
Diintzer's Life of Goethe, vol. ii., p. 235.)

f Caroline Jagemann, a famous actress, mistress of the Grand Duke
Karl August, who created her Baroness von Heygendorf. She was very
jealous of Goethe's influence over him, and headed an intrigue, with a
view of forcing Goethe to resign his post, as Intendant of the Weimar
Theatre ; this he finally did, inconsequence of his annoyance, when the
Grand Duke invited a comedian, named Karsten, to exhibit his poodle on
the stage, in tlie well-known drama of The I)og of Aubry. Goethe,
who loathed dogs, declared he would have nothing moi'e to do with the
Theatre, and Karl August, who refused to give way, offensively dis-
missed him. Caroline Jagemann is also said to have been the only
woman, to whom Schopenhauer, the pessimist philosopher, was deeply
attached.

1806.] TO ZELTER. 41

1806.

32. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 5th March, 1806.
.... I HAVE felt tempted several times lately, to
pay you and Berlin a visit, but once more so many things
chain me to the spot, that I really do not see my way to a
happy determination. But as I feel the pressing need, not
only of hearing from you, but also of vividly realizing your
circumstances, and of bringing mine more clearly before you,
it has occurred to rue to send you my son,* so that he may
take my kindest greetings to you, and that also, in his
early days, when worldly things still make a jovial impres-
sion, he ma}' absorb, and also vividly recall for my enjoyment,
the image of the great city.

Now though he is already a steady boy, and able to take
care of himself, I had rather not think he was quite alone,
and left to himself in that whirlpool of a town. Let me
ask then, if you could get him lodgings near you, and at
first provide him with what he wants. I send you a letter
of credit, so that he may not have all the money he may need,
in his pocket at once. I shall say no more about this ; all
else must depend on circumstances. The main point is :
whether such a visit would not bore you ? I shall give him
letters and cards to my otljer friends in Berlin, and he is
sure to make friends, but before all things I should like to
know that he was safely established. His visit ought not
to extend beyond a fortnight or three weeks ; he might
arrive the week before Easter. A thousand greetings, and
please let me have an answer soon.

33. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th March, 1806.
Scarcely had I sent my letter, telling of the post-
ponement of Augustus' journey, when yours arrived, with

* Julius August Walther Goethe, Goethe's only son ; he married
Ottilie von Pogwisch, and died at Rome on the 28th October, 1830.

42 Goethe's letters [1806.

tliis unexpected and distressing news,* which. has utterly-
upset me. At the very time when Berlin is more than ever
before my eyes, when with a map before us, we are looking
for the new Miinzstrasse, and I am hoping to get a clearer
idea of yourself and your suiToundings from my boy, just
as last year he brought me back the picture of my mother,
— you are experiencing a violent wrench — one which I feel
with you in every sense. I must now think of you as
lonely, with the cares of a large household upon you, and with
much difficult business to attend to — or else my thoughts
revert to my own self, and I imagine a like terrible event
in my own case. Unfortunately, the obstacle which detains
my deputy, cannot be set aside, otherwise I should send
him at once, for the presence of a new, friendly, and affec-
tionate being, would perhaps be a comfort to you, and the
good to which it would give rise, would probably counter-
balance the inconvenience it might occasion. It would
also be consoling to me, to know that a representative of
my affection, and of my heartfelt sympathy, was with you ;
but even this is not to be, and all this happens at a time,
when I too have many burdens to lift and drag after me.
No more ! Pray, let me have further news of you soon.

34. — Zelter to Goethe.

11th June, 1806.

.... I HAVE just come home from the new.Komantic
play, which you have probably heard of, as it is being so
much discussed: Die Weihe der Kraft. The author is Herr
Weruer,t the same who wrote I)ie Söhne des Thals. Very
conflicting criticisms I expect will be made on the play, for
one part of the public expects something great, whereas the
other is prej udiced against it, because it turns the Reforma-

* Zelter had written to tell Goethe of his wife's death in childbirth, on
the 16th March.

-j- Zacharias Werner, author of The Sons of the Valien/, and Wa7ida, a
play greatly admired by Goethe, who had it performed at Weimar the
followinj^ year. Goethe (who humorously calls him "Dr. Luther"),
was infected fur tiie time being with Werner's passion for writing
sonnets, but owin^ to his extravagant mysticism, his influence over the
poet soon wore off.

1806.] TO ZELTER. 43

tion into a subject for mirtli and amnsement. So at least
I apprehend, for the police took precautions for the first
performance, which necessarily presupposes some public
excitement.

The play is quite good enough for us, and would have to
be much better, to please the multitude less. I judge it, as
I do a Sonata by a young composer : it has everything in it,
like Noah's Ark. The author, it seems, tried to bind up
high aspirations with his subject, and then, his bundle
getting too heavy, in the fifth Act, after the destruction of
image- worship and feeling for Art, he lets it fall on the
middle of the high road. People pray and sing — by note
— and the general impression on my mind was — repulsive
religiosity. It ceases to be a play, it is the parody of a
serious and sacred crisis of the Church ; whilst endeavour-
ing to make itself intelligible, it profanes itself. Nothing
worth speaking of is left for meditation. Luther alone has
every advantage, and the Papacy, in contrast to him, cuts
an awkward, nay, stupid figure ; a vulgar piece of devilry,
with no charms, nothing to stimulate, pique, nor impose
upon the multitude. Unbelief, (the Emperor and the
Kingdom), stands between, with no will, no influence.
Allegory does not face history, as a looking-glass does an
object; it stands by its side, reproducing, ruminating on
itself. Needless to say, our soi-disant clergy ai^e fain to fly
into a passion, when their flocks had rather go to the
Theatre than the Church, for their sermons, anthems and

prayers

35. — Zelter to Goethe.

2nd August, 1806.
.... On the 2.3rd July we had a very meny
sledging-party. Several ofiicers of the Royal Gendarmerie
had had a sledge built with covered wheels, and after 10
o'clock at night, drove through the streets of Berlin, with
lots of torch-bearers, and makinsr a great noise. In the
sledge sat Doctor Luther with an immense flute, and
opposite him, his friend Melancthon ; on the back-seat of
the sledge was Catherine von Bora, holding a whip, which

44 Goethe's letters [1806.

she cracked as they went past, and wearing a huge train,
ten yards long. On cavahy horses sat the nuns of the
Augustine convent, carrying torches, led by their prioress ;
they also had long ti-ains and wore ugly masks. The
procession paraded the streets for several hours, to the
delight of the pleasure-loving public. There are many
different explanations of this undergraduate joke; the most
likely, as I think, is this, that the dmmatic tendency of
Luther is nearly synonymous with what we call a summer
sledging-party * — a mere craze for a daily novelty. Iffland
is so much annoyed, that they say he personally complained
of this indecency to the King. The result is, that one of
these officers has been removed from Berlin, and the
others are under arrest, having been warned that they
would be cashiered, if they tried anything of the kind
again. Thus the matter stands at present, and since then,
the play has not been acted again. However, the culprits
show few signs of repentance, and — it is said — are only
waiting for the expiration of their term of arrest, to make

it hot again for Iffland

86. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 15th August, 1806.

.... On my return from Carlsbad, I found several
things that pleased me extremely, in addition to your
letter; e.g. the opinions of a young painter on colour, which
are definite and circumstantial. One part of his short essay
is almost word for word the same in my Farbenlehre. The
commentary on another part of his work will be found in
mine, and there are ce.'tain passages, which I shall ask the
author to make over to me, inasmuch as my own con-
victions could not be expressed better. To find this agree-
ment of opinions in a cotemporary, who has hitherto
known absolutely nothing about me and my endeavours,
gives me fresh inclination to go on and finish my task. So

much for to-day

* A proverbial expression for any artificial amusement, to which
peo])le have recourse, merely for the sake of change.

1806.] to zelter. 45

37. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th December, 1806.
Thanks a thousand times, dear friend, for liaving at
last broken the painful silence. Since the 14tli October *
I have been with you daily in thought, and even while
writing this, a sealed letter, addressed to you, is lying on my
desk, but I had not the couimge to send it oif. For what
have we to tell one another ? On the 12th December I
kept your birthday in silence ; and in the future too, I sup-
pose, we shall only be able to celebrate in silence, what is good
in silence. Any howjlTEave^t through these had days with-

löut much harm. There was no need for me to take part in
public affairs, as they were sufficiently well attended to by able

men ; and thus I could keep in my cell, and brood over my
inmost thoughts. During the worst hours, when one could
not but be anxious about everything, my greatest fear was
that of losing my papers, and from that time onwards, I
have been sending everything I can to the printers. My
FarhenleJire makes brave progress. ' My ideas and fancies
ftbout organic Nature too are gradually being revised, and
thus I shall endeavour to rescue all I can of my intellectual
being, as no one can tell what may be the fate of the rest.

Some proof-sheets of my works, published by Cotta, have
come to hand. Some of the poems of the first volume will,
I hope, call forth melodies from you, so that we may feel
and see, that we are still the same as of old. I congratulate
you upon having found your musical treasures unharmed.
I am sorry that you are involved in the Administration, as
for much besides that Herr Schmidt tells me of. How-
ever, nowadays, it is not in our power to say, in which
direction we should prefer being active. Your good spirit
will never forsake you ; may your good courage likewise
never fail you. Let me occasionally hear something of
you ; I will write also. A hearty farewell !

GrOETHE.

* The date of the battle of Jena. On the 15th October Napoleon
came to Weimar, on the 16th he ordered that the plundering should
cease, and on the 17th he left the town. On November 3rd Goethe
writes to F. A. Wolf: " I have had first General Victor, then Marshals
Lannes and Augereau in the house, with adjutants and suite." On the
very day that he wrote to Zelter, (December 26th), Goethe re-opened the
Theatre.

46 Goethe's letters [1807.

1807.

38. — Goethe to Zelter.

Wiemar, 4th May, 1807.
Best tlianks for your music to my verses. Just
now it is most refreshing to take refuge, if only for a sliort
time, in a light and ea^ mood.

The company game you ask me about, is played thus :
Take a thin shaving of wood, or a taper, light it, and let it
burn a little, then blow out the flame, and while it is left
smouldering, repeat, as fast as you can, the following
adage : —

" Dies the fox, the skin's a treasure,
Length of days means loss of youth ;
If he lives, whj-, let him live.
If he dies, why, let him die.
Never bury him with his skin,
Tliat survives to honour him."

Then pass the glimmering taper quickly on to your neigh-
bour, who has to repeat the same stanza, and this goes on,
till the last spark is extinguished ; the person, in whose
hand it goes out, must pay a forfeit.

Our Duchess Dowager is a great loss,* at a time when
so much is topsy-turvy, and out of joint. We must reflect
no further on this subject, nor on anything else at the
present time. We must live on from one day to' another,

and do and accomplish what is still possible

39. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 7th May, 1807.
.... I AM very glad to hear that you liked my
Elpenor,'\ and the object of those pages has now been at-

* The Duchess Amalia died April 10th, 1807, and Goethe's brief
account of her life and influence was read aloud from all the pulpits
in the country, at the .solemn service held in her memory, nine days
afterwards.

t This fragment of a tragedy had been begun as far back as 1781.
In 1798 Goethe sent it to Schiller, who wrote thus ; " If it is not by the

1807.] TO ZELTER. 47

tained. Perhaps, however, your affection for me personally
must be looked upon, as influencing you in the praise you
bestow on my fragment : for I willingly own, that I am no
longer able to judge this work myself. When anything
comes to a standstill, one never knows whether it is one's
own fault, or that of the subject. Generally, however, one
entertains an aversion for what one cannot finish, as for a
thing that resists one, and which one cannot master. In
fact, while publishing my works, I have felt very keenly,
how strange these things have become to me, nay, that I
scarcely feel any more interest in them. This goes so far,
that unless I had had continued, loyal, friendly assistance,
those twelve little volumes would never have been put
together. However, we have now got through most of
them, and, with the exception of one volume, they will all
be in Cotta's hands, within the next few days. Then come
what may to us, this much at any rate will be safe. I
am anticipating with joy your diversion over the con-
tinuation of my Faust; it contains, too, things which will
interest you from a musical point of view.

You would do me a great favour, if you could procure me
a catalogue of the works of Art, which have been taken
away from Berlin ; if only we know where they are kept,
they will not be lost to us.

Farewell, and write again before Whitsuntide, and then
send me news of yourself to Carlsbad.

40. GrOETHE TO ZeLTER.

Carlsbad, 27th July, 1807.

It is a long time, my very dear friend, since you

heard from me. I will now shortly tell you what I have

been doing in the meantime. I came to Carlsbad in a very

poor state of health, which was at first so aggravated by a

hand of a woman, still it suggests a certain womanliness of sentiment,
even in so far as a man might possess this feature of character." Goethe,
who had accidentally omitted to tell Schiller the real authorship of the
work, was delighted with the clearness and justice of his remarks upon
it, and said that they explained, why he himself had never cared to finish
it. (See Schiller and Goethe Correspondence, vol, ii., pp. 106, 107.)

48 Goethe's letters [1807.

careless use of tlie waters, common indeed, but not suitable
for me, as I then was, that I sank into a miserable condition.
By the change of cure, and by the use of other means, pre-
scribed by Dr. Kappe of Leipzig, things suddenly took a
tui-n for the better ; as this has lasted for six weeks, I
gladly let my friends know of it. It is eight weeks now
since I came here, and I have been occupying myself in
different ways at different epochs : first of all in dictating
shoii; fairy-tales and stories, which I have long can-ied
about in my head ; then for a time, I took to drawing land-
scapes, and illuminating, and am now engaged in classifying
my geological opinions relating to the district round about,
and in bi-iefly commenting on a collection of rock specimens,
which is on view here.

I have become acquainted with interesting people of all
kinds ; amongst whom, Reinhard, the French resident,
who but lately held an appointment in Jassy, and whose
fortunes you are sure to have heard of, probably ranks
first. As a rule however, I am very much alone, for in the
world one meets with nothJlig but Jeremiads, which although
they are called forth by great evils, appear nevertheless to
be mere hollow phrases, as you hear them in society. When
anyone laments over what he and those around him are
suffering, what he has lost and fears to lose, — I listen with
sympathy, and am glad to discuss the matter and to com-
fort him. But when people lament over the whole thing
that is supposed to be lost, but which no one in Germany
has ever in his life seen, and much less cared about, — I have
to conceal my impatience, in order not to appear impolite,
or an egotist. As already said, it would be inhuman not
to sympathize with a man, who feels the loss of his living,
the destruction of his career ; but if such a man thinks
that the world has in the smallest degi'ee suffered in conse-
quence, I cannot possibly agree with him.

Write and tell me, dear friend, how you are getting on.
I have thought of you a thousand times, and of what you
have accomplished as a private person, without the support
of the wealthy and powerful, and without any special
encouragement. Perhaps what we have most to regret
from political change, is mainly this, that under its old
constitution, Germany, and especially the Northern part,

1807.] TO ZBLTBR. 49

allowed the individual to cultivate himself, as far as possible,
and that it permitted everyone to do what was right in his
own eyes, without, however, there ever being any special
interest shown in him by the community.

To these general, and certainly inadequate reflections,
which I should like some day to discuss further with you
personally, I wish to add a special request, which I beg you
will kindly comply with soon.

Although we have both voices and orchestra in Weimar,
and in addition to that, I am the master of such ceremonies,
still I never could secure musical enjoyment with any certain
regularity, because the odious relations of life and the
Theatre invariably destroy the higher element, for which
alone they exist, or ought to exist. Schleswig has again
sent us two new people, a very good Tenor, and a kind of
assistant rehearser; I have not yet made their personal
acquaintance, but they seem to be good and intelligent
people. Our Opera, as at present constituted, I do not
care to interfere with, particularly as I do not thoroughly
understand these musical matters. I should therefore pre-
fer leaving the Secular to itself, and withdrawing into the
Sanctuary. Now I should like once a week to have sacred
pai"t-songs performed at my house, in the same way as at
your Singakademie, though it were but the most far-off
reflection of it. Help me to this, and send me some part-
songs for four voices, not too difficult, and with the parts
already written out. I will gratefully reimburse you for any
expense you may incur. Let me know whether I could get
such things, with notes printed or engraved. Canons too,
and whatever you may think useful for the purpose. You
shall always be in our midst, in spirit, and heartily welcome
whenever you care to appear in person. Let me have a
few lines, for I shall remain another month here, and send
me a parcel to Weimar, that I may begin at once, when 1
get home. Farewell, and rest assured of my lasting friend-
ship.

60 Goethe's letters [1807.

41. — Goethe to Zelter.

Carlsbad, 30th August, 1807.

.... There is really something Promethean in
yonr nature, which I can only wonder at and esteem.
While you were calmly and patiently bearing what is
hardly to be borne, and forming plans ahead for happy and
creative activity, I have been acting like one who has
already crossed Cocytus, and has at least tasted the waters of
Lethe. Otherwise, in so far as I still feel myself a denizen
of this earth, I have done what I could after my fashion,
taking in many an experience, reading a good deal, learn-
ing, making notes, working things out, &c

42. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 15th September, 1807.
You really are a good friend ! When I returned
home, I found the songs, and we have already started our
little Singschule. We shall by degrees attract our stage-
singers and Chorus, besides people from the Town ; then
we shall see how we get on. We have plenty of room in
our Theatre.

Tour renewed invitation makes my heart heavy. It is
unpardonable, that I should still be unacquainted with your
Institution, but for several years past, I have felt a certain
clinging to the place I live in ; this has mainly arisen
from the many interests awakened, but as yet undeveloped
within me. Thus I am busy throughout the year, merely
in trying to get things cleared up here and there, inde-
pendently of the circumstances of my health and time.
The latter, however, would be less likely to pi'event my
coming, were it not for the former. But on a closer survey,
I feel a dread of new influences and excitements, and there-
fore, of my own free will, deny myself many a pleasure.

The praise given to our Theatre l)y Leipzig, inspires me
with energy and heart, once more to devote myself eagerly
to the business of this winter. We have, in this instance,
been rewai'ded for our perseverance, and shall go on in the
old way, with confidence and hope ; and thus, even the

1807.] TO ZELTER. 51

basest detraction and opposition, such as we once had to
experience from Berlin, will be of no avail. Your per-
sevei-ance too, my worthy friend, is ever before mj^ eyes.
I am only afi-aid, that if you do go to Italy, the glorious
bond of so many years will be dissolved. It is pleasant
and natural, that some of the grains of seed, scattered broad-
cast by you, should have fallen upon the tea-tables.* Please
get me some songs of that kind ; they might be the very
thing for birds of our feather !

I shall not tell you anything about my other doings, but
hope soon to be able to send you some of the fruits of my
quiet industry. Farewell, and let me too have a song now
and then. I could the more readily enjoy such little things
just now, as I have several guitars at hand, if you would
set them to an easy accompaniment for that instrument.

43. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 16th December, 1807.
First of all, dear Friend, I could not ask enough of
you ; now it was one thing, now another ; I plagued you
with my commissions, though you have enough to do with-
out them, and now that everything has come, songs, price-
list, and turnips, I am like those, whose prayers have been
answered, and with no more thanks, turn from the giver to
the gifts. I will not excuse this, for there is always time
to send a few lines to a friend ; but since my return home
from the baths, I have felt strangely oppressed by the
Present, as though I had to pay another penalty for those
four months, which I spent upon the unclouded mountain-
heights, like a retired Gymnosophist. To be sure, nothing
disagreeable has happened to me ; but yet so much that I
liked and disliked forced itself upon me, that neither my
physical, nor my moral powers, were quite sufficient for
the task.

I thought I should at last be able to send you the second

* In allusion to the small vocal societies in Berlin, called Singe-Thees.
There were about fifty of them, and Zelter viewed them with some
suspicion, as being " the most dangerous enemies of the Singakademie"
though it owed its origin to one of them.

52 Goethe's letters [1807.

batch of my -works, but it has not even reached me yet, —
not so much as a complete set of proof-sheets ; otherwise
I should have sent these in the meantime, in so far as they
contain anything new.

My small Choir, which, it is true, consists as yet of hardly
more than four voices, is educating itself quite nicely, and
even already shows its influence upon the Theatre. Shortly
before I left home, it was greatly improved by the acqui-
sition of a young female voice, which might almost pass
for a Counter-Tenor. Might I ask you, at your convenience,
to let me have Schiller's Punschlied ? Unfortunately I
have but one voice-part left ; the others have been mislaid.

Werner, " the Son of the Valley," * has been with us in
Jena, for the last twelve days ; we find him interesting
and agreeable. He reads us portions of his printed and
unprinted works, and thus we are enabled to look beyond
the strange, outward shells of these phenomena, into the
kernel, which is toothsome and strong.

So much, my dearest friend, for the present. I am
packing up to return to Weimar. I have been very happy
here, and — yon would never guess it, I have been drawn
into Sonnetteering. I shall send you a dozen some day
soon, on the one condition that no one sees them, and that
they are not copied. But should you care to set one of
them to music, I should be very much pleased ; I am only
too glad to see my productions floating in your element.
Write to me again, if only a line or two. A word from a
friend is doubly enjoyable, in these short, dark days.

Geheimrath Wolf has given us an excellent number on
the study of antiquity, which is rich in thought, and re-
minds us of everything we know, pointing out in a friendly
way, what else we ought to know, and how we should
deal \^{ith the whole matter. Once more, farewell !

* See Note on Werner, Letter 34.

1808.] TO ZELTER. 53

1808.

44. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 22nd January, 1808.
" Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of tho
strong came forth sweetness " — so said I, when your well-
filled hamper was unpacked. Everything came safely, and
the jar was so well squeezed in, that nothing ran out of
it, though it had had a good shaking. The housekeeper
thanks you, but Augustus is particularly grateful — it is he,
who is in a condition to make the largest ini'oads on your
present ; we others help ourselves more moderately.

The music has already been handed over to our little
School ; your first consignment is still the best thing we
have had for some time past. The greater part of it was
performed yesterday before our Princesses, who were much
pleased.

You once told me something about a Stahat Mater ;
pardon me for reminding you of it. My little Institution
gets on well ; but the young people, as you well know, are
very fond of stepping out of the rut, and each one fancies
himself better off, when he is singing some pitiful or
mournful lament of unrequited love, as a Solo. I allow
such things, towards the end of each Session, and at the
same time execrate men like Matthisson, Salis, Tiedge, and
the Clergy in a body, w^ho show us heavy Germans — even
in songs — a path beyond the world, which we leave quickly
enough, as it is. Add to this, that musicians themselves
are often hypochondriacal, and that even joyous music
may dispose to melancholy. I praise what springs from you,
dear friend. Again yesterday, during the Niemals erscheinen
die Götter allein, and in the Liebe Freunde, es gab bessre Zeiten,*
it seemed just as if everyone was shaking from his head
the dust and ashes of the century. So much good I owe

* Poems by Schiller.

54 goethe's letters [1808.

to you ; perhaps some day I shall be able to repay you.
May you be happy !

Goethe.

45. — Goethe to Zelter,

Weimar, 20th April, 1808.
Here are the songs, dearest Friend. Just glance at
them ! Perhaps you will make some remarks in red ink,
and say generally what you think of the young man's *
gift, and in particular, let me know how far he seems to
have gone in this difficult art. I shall perhaps send him
to you about Michaelmas, as next winter, he may possibly
become the Conductor of my small musical parties. As I
was not fated to revel, at ease, at the rich table of a great
city, I must cultivate and plant on a small scale, and pro-
duce and accomplish what is possible, at the time, and under
the circumstances.

Pray tell me, when you have time, something about
Church music in Constantinople, which, with the Greek
Church, seems to have spread in the East, and to have
influenced the Sarmatian peoples. Whence comes, do you
think, the universal tendency towards minor-tones, which
can be traced, even in the Polofiaise ?

This Easter, eight Choristers have passed through here,
on their way from St. Petersburg to Paris, to join the
Choir of the Russian Ambassador's Chapel. They sang
in the Greek Church here, on both feast days, when — as
his Royal Highness told me — they perform nothing but
genuine, ancient Church compositions. The nearest thing
that I have heard to it, is the Ciintu fermo of the Italians,
and the way in which the Passion is given in the Papal

Chapel, in the actual words of the Evangelists

* Traugott Maximilian Eberwein, who afterwards conducted the
little concerts, given at Goethe's house, on Sunda}' mornings, before a
select audience, who were always invited to breakfast.

1808.] TO ZELTER. 55

46. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 1st May, 1808.
.... Amongst Herr Eberwein's songs, which I
herewith return, with the first sheets of Faust, — Am
Neujahrstdge pleases me most ; one recognizes a definite
sentiment in it, and what is still more, this sentiment is
homogeneous throughout

The faults of a master are always the outcome of mas-
tery, and therefore do no harm ; filigree-work, on the other
hand, only veils the disgrace of bungling

You ask, whence comes the universal tendency towards
minor-tones, traceable even in the Polonaise. I have had
the same experience, but musical historians give no satis-
factory information on the subject I think I first

met with the almost universal bias in favour of the minor
keys, in the songs of Northern nations, especially of dwellers
in the Islands, and on the Coasts. The history of the art
of music says next to nothing about the songs of the far
North ; travellers, who may have dabbled with musical
knowledge, have given such unsatisfactory descriptions of
them, that we are more impressed with the meagreness of
their knowledge, than with the true spirit of the songs,
for none but good musicians can describe such things
correctly. The hunting and fishing songs of Russia, Cur-
land, and Livonia, Norway, and Scotland, are the first that
lead us to draw some conclusion, as to a free indication of
character ; still more the dances, which are capable of more
outward expression than the songs, which demand inward
cultivation. This is why the Scotch, Russian, and Polish
dances are so beautiful, and so truly national, that they are
imitated, though clumsily enough, amongst all cultivated
nations. But these very dances, so far as I thought them
genuine, were always set to minor keys, the best of them
anyhow. It is well known that the Russians and Poles
love dancing, and that they dance beautifully, with grace,
agility, and expression, showing much more dignity and
life, than one would ever suppose from their ordinary habits.
The Russian songs and dances which I have heard, were,
without exception, in minor keys, though at the same time

66 Goethe's letters [1808.

very lively, consisting of nnmbers of quick notes and short
metres. Had these dances been in major keys, I should
have thought them extravagant and wild in their mirth ;
whereas in the minor key, they become serious, tender,
nay, yearning, whilst they seem to strain after cheerfulness,
which* is hindered by a damp, cold atmosphere, and the use
of anstere diet.

The genuine Polonaise inclines already to the South, a
more luxurious passion seems to awake in it

Now, if we pass at a bound, from the North to Italy, the
minor keys are found, especially in the best days of music,
only in temples and churches, where they were indispen-
sable, on account of the so-called Greek or Ecclesiastical
modes. In songs and dances, there prevails a light, flexible
melody, even in the expression of the fiercest passion, (with
few exceptions,) and in more recent times, the Italians
have gone so far, that to an air such as this :

Tu mi da me dividi,
Barbaro I tu m'uccidi !
Tutto il dolor ch'io sento,
Tutto mi vien da te.

Non son nelle selve Iroane

Tigre di te piu feroce.

the brightest melodies are set, to prevent the appearance of
anything doleful, and these airs are the most famous of all.
On the whole, the Opera Buff a is found in far greater per-
fection than the serious Opera, for which no better poems
yet exist, than those of Metastasio, Apostolo Zeno, and the
like. Yet in the Opera Buffa, minor keys are used to
heighten the comic situation, and, as it were, to bid defi-
ance to seriousness.

According to this, one might look for a minor key ten-
dency in Climate. Now, there stand the North-Germans
in the centre, straining laboriously towards every point of
the compass, in order to enrich their flat territory. They
learn to make everything, but, in the end, all that they long
for is a spice of something to tire the blood, and that they
call passion. It is another matter with shepherd-folk and
mountaineers. These seem to take their scales from their
bugle-horns, for they know no other instrument, so their

3808.] TO ZELTEE. 57

songs and dances are either major or minor, as the horn
gives it out. Such a dance is the Scotch hornpipe, to the
following melody : —

Lively.

--$^=.f.-

-x=^=^=-^

This dance is in a major key, but I have met with Swiss
songs, also in minor keys, which for the moment have
escaped my memory.

As for music in Constantinople, I know as much as my
historians, i.e. nothing at all. An Oriental Emperor, Con-
stantine IX, surnamed Poi'phyrogenitus, made emperor at
seven years old, and poisoned in the year 959, is said to
have been a great musician. Then Nicolai * tells me, a
Greek Emperor, Constantinus, wrote a work in the tenth
century on the Court ceremonies at Constantinople, which
was printed at Leipzig in 1751, in two folio volumes of
Greek and Latin, and, according to him, must certainly be
in the Weimar Library. Perhaps this book may contain
something about music in Constantinople. You may pos-
sibly get further information in the Abbot Gerbert's Latin
work, De cantu et rmisica sacra, which however I do not
possess. The same author also published a work, called,
Scriptores ecclesiastici de Musicd sacra potissimum. Ex
varus Italice, Gallice, et Germanice codicibus mamiscriptis col-

lecti

Yours,
Zelter.

* Presumably "the Berlin Aristarchus," author of a parody on Werther,
in which Werther shoots himself with chicken's blood, and marries
Charlotte afterwards. Goethe answered with a burlesque poem, called

Nicolai at Werther's Grave. (See Lewes's Life of Goethe, p. 156.)

58 Goethe's lettees [1808.

47. — Goethe to Zelter.

Carlsbad, 22nd June, 1808.

Your dear letter of the 6th of April did not reach me
till I got here. I at once sent back Eberwein's songs, and
afterwards, a copy of your obliging criticism. What a
good thing it would be for that young man, to study under
you for a good spell ! Just now, however, he is expe-
riencing the fate of all beginners ; they go astray like
sheep, and each takes his own line.

My best thanks for what you have said, to my comfort
and instruction, in reply to my questions ; only as to your
theoretical statements, which, as I well know, square with
the convictions of the physical and musical world, I have
something in my own way to remind you of. How I
should Hke to talk with you on this subject, which is so
closely connected with others I am ruminating upon ;
then some of the chief knots would surely be unravelled
for me. I enclose a sheet of paper, on which your state-
ment is repeated, followed by my doubts, objections, and
questions, in so far as I was able to concentrate my
thoughts upon so complicated a subject. As I have num-
bered the points of argument, and kept a copy of them,
you might, as a friend, answer each number separately,
and I should be able to keep your explanations, together
with my draft.

I have now been here since the 15th of May, -and, for
the first fortnight, when we had most beautiful weather,
spent my time busily enough ; after that, some pleasant
company arrived, bad weather set in, and my mode of
life chiinged. A third epoch is in prospect, fine weather
and a number of people, when once again, perhaps, I may
turn my solitary hours to profit.

I suppose you have not yet received your copy of my
last eight volumes ; but I hope, even though it comes
rather later, you vdll give it a kind welcome. The frag-
ments of an entire life-time, when placed in juxtaposition,
certainly present a strange and disjointed appearance, so
that reviewers find themselves in quite a peculiar dilemma,
when, either with good or evil intentions, they endeavour

1808.] TO ZELTER. 59

to treat what is printed together, as if it belonged together.
A friendly intelligence knows best, how to throw life into
these fragments.

If Voss's Sonnet is objectionable to you, we are com-
pletely agreed upon that point likewise. We have had in
Germany several instances of very gifted men, losing them-
selves at last in pedantry, and it is the same in his case.
From sheer prosody, his poetry has entirely vanished. And
what is the meaning of persecuting with hate and rage an
individual rhythmical form, — the Sonnet, for example?
when after all it is only a vessel, into which every one who
has brains, can put what he likes. How ridiculous it is, to
be for ever chewing the cud of that Sonnet of mine,* in
which I spoke rather unfavourably of Sonnets, to make a
party question of an aesthetic subject, and to drag me also
forth, as a member of a party, without considering, that
one may quite well jest and joke about a thing, without
despising or denouncing it on that account.

I hope therefore, that the accompanying poems of this
class will meet with all the better reception from you ;
only I urgently beseech you, not to let them out of your
hands.

I have nothing further to write to you from here, except
that I am in good health, and as industrious as I can be.
If the two first numbers of the Vienna Prometheus have
reached you, you have, I daresay, bestowed a kindly glance on
my Pandora. In the fifth or sixth number, you will become
more intimately acquainted with that pretty child. Be
sure and read Friedrich Schlegel's article On the Language
and Wisdom of the Indians, and admire the way in which
he has contrived to weave in a perfectly crude Roman
Catholic confession of faith, with the grandest views of the
world, mankind, and the history of culture. This little
volume may thus be regarded, as a declaration of his having
joined the only saving Church. f All this hocus-pocus,

* This alludes to an epigram called Las Sonnet, published in 1806.
It is found at the head of the cycle called Epigrammatisch, and the last
six lines of it are directed against the Sonnet form, though Goethe
afterwards continued to write Sonnets himself.

f In a previous letter, Zelter had spoken as follows, of Schlegel's
conversion to Koman Catholicism : " The only saving Church has

60 Goethe's letters [1808.

however, whatever its effect may be, will not help him in
the main. The true mode of thought is too widely spread,
and is no longer in danger of being destroyed, however
much it may be modified by individual things.

A Simile as Postscript.

All the Arts, seeing that they could only work them-
selves upwards, by exercise and thought, practice and
theory, seem to me like towns, the ground and soil of
which, the foundations in fact, can no longer be made out.
Rocks bave been blasted, and these same stones hewn into
shape, and made into houses. Caves were found very
convenient, and converted into cellars. Wbere the earth
gave way, it was intrenched and walled up ; perhaps by
the very side of the primary rock, a bottomless piece of
swamp was met with, where stakes and pile-work had to
be driven in ; when all is at last completed and made habi-
table, what part of it can be called Nature, and what. Art ?
Where is the foundation, and where are the accessories ?
Where the substance, where the form ? How difficult it
is then, to give reasons, if we would assert, that in the
earliest times, had they overlooked the whole at once,
all the arrangements might have been made more in ac-
cordance with the objects of Nature and of Art. If you
consider the piano, or organ, you might imagine you had
the town of my simile before you. Would to God I too
might for once pitch my tent by your side, and at,tain the
true enjoyment of life ! I should then be heartily glad to
forget all questions about Nature and Art, theory and
practice.

1. You say — " The minor key is distinguished from the
major, by the minor third."

Is it not also distinguished, by diminishing or narrowing
the other intervals ?

2. "Which takes the place of the major third."

This expression can only hold good, if we start from the
major key. A theorist of Northern nationality, when

caught a good Hsh in him, but I am annoyed about it, because I once
had a considerable opinion of him."

1808.] TO ZELTER. 61

speaking of the minor tones, might as "well say, that the
major third takes the place of the minor third.

3. " Our present diatonic (natural) scale."

That the diatonic scale should be the only natural one —
it is against this, that my opposition is properly directed.

4. " Originates in the way the string is divided. If it
were divided in half," &c., &c.

That the division of the string into different parts should
produce sounds harmonious to the ear, is a very pretty
experiment, which might even be made the foundation of a
certain scale ; but, if it cannot be accomplished in this way,
might it not be possible in some other manner ?

5. " The string may, however, be divided into as many
parts as you please, and yet this will never produce a
minor third, although by so doing, you can always get
nearer to it."

You ask too much of an experiment, when you require
it to do everything. Was not electricity at first produced
only by friction, whereas its grandest manifestations are
now produced by mere touch. Our aim should be an
experiment, by which one could represent the minor tones
also as original.

6. " Accordingly, this minor third is no immediate donum
of nature, but a work of more recent art."

I deny the conclusion, as I do not admit the premises.

7. "And it must be regarded as a diminished major
third."

This is a subterfuge, of which theorists usually avail
themselves, when they have established something which
restricts Nature : for they are then obliged to recall and
annihilate what they formerly maintained, in a very para-
doxical fashion. If a major third is an interval which Nature
gives us, how can we diminish it, without destroying it ?
How much and how little can it be diminished, and not be
a major third, and still be a third ? And, generally, at
what point would it cease to be still a third ? My
imaginary Northern theorist might quite as justly affirm,
that the major third is an augmented minor.

8. " And so — even by the strictest composers — it has
been treated as a consonant interval."

We have an evident instance here, of what so often

62 Goethe's letters [1808.

happens both in Art and in technique, that the practical
sense knows very well, how to save itself from theoretical
limitation, without making much fuss about it.

9. " That is — it may, like the major third, be introduced
everywhere, freely and without preparation, which, in a pure
style, is not allowed to any dissonance."

" If it is treated as a consonant interval, it is consonant,
for such things cannot be estabHshed at first hand by
convention. If it may be introduced freely and without
preparation, then it is no dissonance ; it is by nature har-
monious, and so also is everything which springs from it."

Here intervenes a very remai'kable consideration, in
respect of all physical inquiry, — one which has been already
touched upon before. Man in himself, in so far as he
makes use of his sound senses, is the greatest and most
perfect physical apparatus that there can be. And it is, in
fact, the greatest evil of the more modern physics, that
experiments are, as it were, separated from man himself,
and that Nature is recognized only in that vv^hich artificial
instruments demonstrate — nay, they want to prove and
limit her capability by these. It is precisely the same
with calculation. There is much that is true, that will not
admit of being computed, just as there is a great deal that
cannot be brought to the test of definite experiment. On
the other hand, however, man stands so high, that what
otherwise defies representation, finds its representation in
him. What then is a string and all its mechanical divi-
sions, compared with the ear of the musician ? , Nay, it
may be said, what are the elementary phenomena of Nature
herself, compared with man, who has first to control and
modify them all, before he can in any way assimilate them
to himself. However, I do not intend to lose myself in
these considerations just now ; 1 shall take an early oppor-
tunity of speaking of this again, as well as of asking yon
for further information on a few other points.

48. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 30th October, 1808.
Accept my best thanks, dear Friend, for all that
you are doing, and all you mean to do for young Eberwein.

1808.] TO ZELTER. 63

The world of Art has certainly gone too much to the bad,
for a young man to perceive so easily, upon what things
depend. They always look for something in some quarter,
other than that whence it pi'oceeds ; and even if they once
catch a glimpse of the source, they are unable to find their
way to it.

For this reason, some half-dozen of our younger poets
put me into a state of despair ; in spite of their extra-
ordinary natural gifts, they will scarcely manage to write
much that I can like. Werner, Oehlen Schläger, Arnim,
Brentano, and others work and toil away ; but all they
produce is absolutely wanting in form and character. No
one will understand, that the highest and sole operation
of Nature and of Art is Formation, (Gestaltung,) and in
Form, S-pecification, so that each thing may be and remain
something special, something significant. It is not Art, to
allow one's talent to act capricioasly, according to one's
individual convenience ; something should always arise out
of it, as from the scattered seed of Vulcan, there arose a
marvellous serpent-boy.

It is very bad, at the same time, that the Humoristic,
owing to its not possessing any solidity or law in itself,
degenerates sooner or later into melancholy and morose-
ness ; we have the most frightful examples of this in Jean
Paul, (see his last production in the Damenkalender,) and
in Görres, (see his Schrift2)roben.) *

However, there are always plenty of people who marvel
at and glorify such things, for the public is ready to thank
anyone, who tries to turn its head.

Have the kindness, dear friend, whenever you have a
quarter of an hour to spare, to give me a brief sketch of
the errors of young musicians : I should like to compare
them with the blunders made by painters, for one must,
once for all, calm oneself about these matters, denounce
the whole system, not think about the culture of others,
and devote the short time that remains, to one's own works.

But while expressing myself in so ungracious a manner
upon these points, I must nevertheless, as good-natured

* A publication issued by Görres in 1808, at Heidelberg, under the
pseudonym of Peter Hammer.

64 Goethe's letters [1808.

grumblers are wont to do, at once recall mj words, and
beg of yon to continue devoting your attention to
Eberwein, at all events till Easter, as I shall send him
back to you again. He feels great confidence in you, and
gi'eat respect for your Institute ; but even this, un-
fortunately, does not mean very much with young men,
for secretly, they still think that what is extraordinary
may just as well be produced in their own silly manner.
A good many men have an idea of the goal, only they would
like to reach it, by sauntering along on labyrinthine ways.

You will have been more than enough reminded of us
this month, by the newspapers. It was worth a good
deal, to be a personal witness of these events. I too have
experienced a favourable influence from such a strange
constellation. The Emperor of France was very gracious
to me.* Both Emperors presented me with stars and
ribbons, which therefore, we, in all modesty, gratefully
acknowledge.

How much I wish, that you and your fellow-citizens
might likewise find comfort and tranquillity in this epoch,
for your sufferings have hitherto gone beyond the limit of
what is bearable. You are then, it seems, still personally
engaged in public affairs ? Write and tell me in what
way. My kind regards to Herr Geheimrath "Wolf ; we
expect to have his little daughter with us soon.

Pardon me for not writing at greater length, about the
latest events. You will be astonished, I know, on reading
the newspapers, that this flood of the mighty and the
great ones of the earth has rolled as far as Weimar, and
on to the battle-field of Jena. I cannot refrain from
enclosing a remarkable engraving. The point where the
Temple stands, is the farthest point, reached this time by
Napoleon, towards the North-East. If you pay us a visit,
(which Heaven grant you may !) I will place you on the
very spot, where the little man here, is pointing to the
world with his stick.

No more to-day. I have so many debts in the way of
letters, that I do not know where to begin cancelling them.

* For Napoleon's conversation,s with Goethe in October, 1808, see
Diintzer's Life of Goethe, vol. ii., pp. 266, 267, (in Lyster's translation.)

1808.] to zeltee. 65

49. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 12th November, 1808.
.... What you say in your letter about Specifi-
cation of Formation, Form and Character, is perhaps truer
of music, (anyhow, they are more difficult of attainment in
music), than of the imitative arts. For each of the poetic
spirits named by you, I could name a musical counterpart,
and so confirm your judgment : one sees with admiration
and terror, false lights and streaks of blood on the horizon
of Parnassus. Men so brilliantly gifted as Cherubini,
Beethoven, and several others, steal the club of Hercules —
to smash flies with ; at first one marvels, and then directly
afterwards, one shrugs one's shoulders at the amount of
talent wasted, in making trifles important and lofty methods
common. I really could despair, when it occurs to me
that the new music must perish, if an art is to come out
of music.

No art can exercise a beneficent influence, which wanders
about in endless space, shameless and shapeless, like the
more modern music, laying bare isolated fragments of its
highest and most secret charms, to the public gaze of the
common and vulgar, like an anatomical cabinet, or a col-
lection of anecdotes about love-secrets, and over-satiating
common curiosity. Let people object as they will, to the
composers of earlier centuries, (for. who has not got to
learn more than he knows ?) they never threw art away,
nor exposed the inner Sanctum ; had we contrived to build
on their foundation, we might have an art, and we should
be very different people in our own estimation.

50. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 26th December, 1808.
.... In honour of the King's return, I have insti-
tuted a Liedertafel — a society, formed of twenty-five men,
the twenty-fifth of whom is chosen Master; it assembles
once a month, at a supper of two courses, enlivened by
jovial German songs. The members must be either poets,

66 Goethe's letters [1808.

singers, or composers. The writer or composer of a new
song, reads or sings, or has it sung before the whole table.
If it is applauded, a box is passed round the table, into
which everyone, (if he likes the song,) puts a groschen or
two, as he pleases. The money is counted out on the table;
if it comes to so much, that a silrer medal, of the value of
a good Thaler can be purchased with it, the Master hands
over the medal to the winner, in the name of the Liedertafel,
they drink the health of the poet or composer, and discuss
the beauty of the song. If a member can show twelve silver
medals, he has a supper at the expense of the community,
he is crowned with a wreath, he can ask for any kind of
wine he chooses, and is presented with a gold medal, worth
five-and-twenty Thalers. All other arrangements are men-
tioned in the plan, which is just now being put into circu-
lation. Anyone blurting out words, that are compromising
or offensive, to a single member, or to the whole body, pays
a forfeit. Satirical verses on individuals are not sung;
everyone has full liberty to be himself, provided only that
he is liberal. We only permit twelve rules ; there may be
fewer, not more. Now, do give me a sketch for a pretty
scroll, rather a big one, with the word " Welcome " on
it, — and one for a small, and one for a gold medal ; I must
press you in the matter, for we must strike when the iron
is hot. The members are all enthusiastic, and can hardly

wait for the King's arrival

We are just now expecting here the Roman Humboldt,*
who has become Staatsrath des Gulfus der Akademien und
Theater. If he is still the same man that he was, before
he went to Italy, I shall be very glad of him. Here, which-
ever way things tend, he may do good service, for in these

matters, we have long led a sinful life

• Karl Wilhelm. Freiherr von IliimboWt.

1809,] TO ZELTER. 67

1809.

51. — GoETHK TO Zelter.

Jena, 1st June, 1809.
.... I ENCLOSE a small poem ; * perhaps you may
yourself be inclined to accompany it with the necessary
musical declamation ; or perhaps you will give it to Eber-
wein, to try his hand on. I was induced to write it by
the good people of the Lauchstädt district, who, in an all-
devouring age, wished to preserve the memory of a pure
act of humanity.

As it was not yet advisable for me to go to Carlsbad, I
have come to Jena, where I am trying to finish a novel, f
which I sketched and began a year ago, among the Bohe-
mian mountains. It will probably come out this year, and
I am all the more anxious to hurry on with the work, as it
will be a means of thoroughly re-establishing an intercourse
with my friends at a distance. I hope you will think it is
in my old way and manner. • I have stored away much in
it, hidden many things in it; may this open secret give
you also pleasure !

Since Eberwein left, and all the actors took to quarrelling,
I have kept rather aloof from music. I hope in future to
have all the more enjoyment of it through him — echoes
from your heaven, which, alas ! I am destined never to
enter, a thougkt which often grieves me. In these warlike
days, we see for the first time, how clumsily and awkwardly
we behaved in times of peace. Let the little Ballad — when
yon have set it to music — be as widely known as you like,
and do not leave me too long, without a word of en-
couragement. Unfortunately I have spent this winter
with very little joy or profit. Since the spring, I have
again begun revising my Farbenlehre, and am having it

• The dramatic Ballad, Johanna Sebtis.
+ Die Wahlverwandtschaften.

68 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1809.

printed ; in my own story, I have got to the end of the
seventeenth century, and, taking it altogether, am close upon
the sixtieth sheet. It is a strange thing, to see on paper so
large a mass of one's own, and other people's life, and yet
it seems not worth the reading. What has been written,
as well as what has been actually done, shrivels up and
does not become worth anything, till it has again been
taken up into life, again been felt, thought, and acted upon.

Herr Hirt has sent me his great work upon Architecture.
I am highly delighted to see so important a task, one that
has taken over twenty years to accomplish, successfully
finished at last.

Farewell, and remember me !

52. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 30th October, 1809.
In place of reiterated thanks, I send you to-day
nothing but a friendly greeting, by one who is about to
leave us, Herr Lorzing, a brother of our actor. I have
followed you to Königsberg with my thoughts and wishes,
though they only referred to your own welfare. The fools
of Germans are still for ever bawHng against egotism,
would to Heaven, they had long ago honestly looked after
themselves and their belongings, and then again, after those
nearest, and again nearest to them ! then perhaps everything
might have looked different. Now, we will not allow our-
selves to be led astray, but will keep to the old road.

Anyhow, I am still continuing my own way in Weimar
and Jena ; two tiny places, which God has still preserved
to us, though the noble Prussians would, hot long since,
have liked, in more than one way, to destroy them. A
thousand thanks for having again done all you could for
our edification, in training a good fellow, and returning
him to us, as a helpful brother- citizen. Though I know
but few details, I can nevertheless, in my own way, see
into your whole life, i.e. the life of your State, and its
prospects and hopes ; and so I certainly wish, that so noble
and dear a friend may, after so many trials, be blessed at
least with better prospects. If I had a clear idea of your

1809.] TO ZELTER. 69

sphere of activity, your deeds and actions, I might be more
easy in my mind about your circumstances : for, at a
distance, one usually sees only what is wanting, and what is
missing. Hope and fear are two hollow entities.

With these few words you will receive my novel. Do
as if the greater part had been dedicated to you, and for
the rest, pardon my silence and stagnation. It is getting
almost impossible to speak to an individual about indi-
vidual things. But if one could grasp broader relation-
ships, one might still, I suppose, represent and express
much.

No more to-day ! the turnips arrived safely. Our thanks
shall be renewed for every fresh dishful.

63. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 21st December, 1809.
I REALLY forget when and what I last wrote to you ;
for with me, the days perform the valuable service of a
sponge, as they wash the immediate past clean out from
my memory. My feeling remains intact, and this tells me
that I am indebted to you for all sorts of things. When
I remember this, I think first of those delicious turnips,
which it would be hard indeed for me to forget, because,
before I am aware of it, there they are on the table again, -
as good as ever ! On Thursdays and Sundays, Eberwein
lets us hear much of the music he has brought back with
him, and whatever he can impart to us, on the strength of
what you have sent us with your benediction. Schiller's
things have been most admirably conceived. The music
supplements them, for really no song is perfect, until it
has been set to music. Here, however, there is something
quite peculiar. The meditative or meditated enthusiasm
is now for the first time raised, or I should rather say,
melted into the free and lovely element of sensuousness.
One thinks and feels, and is carried away by it.

You can also imagine that the mirthful pieces do not
fail to produce their effect, as I have more affection for
such things, and in fact everybody is glad to be, or to be
made, merry

70 Goethe's letters [1809.

During these winter months, I am working as busily
as I can, in order to be rid of my work on Colours ; after
that, however, I intend to turn my back, even upon the
rainbow, which will, in any case, through this malicious
attitude, be annihilated for my individual self. With the
first breath of Spring, I shall go to Carlsbad, intending,
if possible, to live there in my old way.

Write and tell me something, when you have the oppor-
tunity, about yourself ; and send me something pleasant.
It is true, we have plenty of the old, the unfathomed, but
after all, the immediate moment is the most charming.

1810.] TO ZELTER. 71

1810.

54. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 17th February, 1810.

.... It is our custom to print the words of songs,
which we sing on high days and holidays at the Liedertafel.
As I look upon your song* as our property, I shall allow
it to be printed with the rest, unless you expressly forbid
it ; please therefore, if you do not wish it, let me know in

the course of the month

55. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6tli March, 1810.
YoüE music to Johanna Sebus I have, to be sure,
only heard as yet imperfectly, but sufficiently for me to
assure you, that I think it quite excellent. I should have
to be very discursive, were I to try and tell you of every-
thing that flitted through my mind on this occasion. Only
one thing I will say, — that you have made very important
use of something for which I have no name, but which
is called imitation, painting, and I know not what besides,
— something which becomes very defective in others, and
degenerates into incongruity.

It is a kind of symbolism for the ear, whereby the subject,
in so far as it is in motion, or not in motion, is neither
imitated nor painted, but produced in the imagination, in a
way, that is quite peculiar, and impossible to grasp, inas-
much as the thing described and the describer appear to
stand in scarcely any sort of relation to one another.

It is a matter of course that in music, thunder can roll,
and waves roar quite naturally. But it is surprising, how

* The song is now called Rechenschaft, but see the following letter.

72 Goethe's letters [1810.

well you have expressed the negation, Kei^i Damm, Kein
Feld, by a disjointed, interrupted execution, as also the
anticipation of delight before the passage, doch Suschen s
Bild. Do not let nie ramble on, as I should have to speak
of the whole, as well as the details. I hope soon to hear it
again and again, and to enjoy it thoroughly, which is better
than reflection and criticism. Your corrections arrived
safely, and have been inserted.

As for the song, it might be called Duty and Pleasure,
(Pflicht und Frohsinn.) Go on as you are, and as often as
it is sung, let some genial fellow insert a new verse, or sing
it, instead of some other one. I have not yet heard the
melody ; latterly, I have really had too much stress put
upon me, from all quarters.

Now good-bye, and let me have Voss's Trommellied, for
Eberwein did not bring it with him. Our little Society
gave a musical entertainment the other day, in the Theatre,
when your In Flammen nahet Gott, and the Gunst des
AugerblicJcs, and other things, were most effective.

56. — Zelter to G-oethe.

Berlin, 4th April, 1810.
For some weeks past, I have not been up to my
usual mark ; perhaps it was the withering March wind, or
some other outside influence, that made me, not exactly ill,
but low, and out of spirits. I eat without relish, and, instead
of feeling glad to be alive, am rather the reverse.

So yesterday afternoon I took no wine, as I did not
want it, and went to sleep after dinner on the sofa. Mean-
time my sensible letter-carrier laid your blue envelope on
my breast, and I joyfully recognized it on awaking. Before
I broke the seal, I called for a glass of wine, that I might
be as jolly as possible. As my daughter was pouring it out,
I broke open the letter, and shouted, " Ergo bibamus ! " The
child started, so that she let the bottle fall ; I caught it up,
— once more I was bright and cheery, and the wine, from
gratitude for its salvation probably, did its part.

That the first impression might not ebb away, I sent for
pen and ink, so as to set your poem to music there and

1810.] TO ZELTER. 73

then. Looking at the clock, I found it was time to go to
the Singakademie, after which, to-day, there was a meeting
of the Liedertafel. Forty members were present. I read
the poem aloud ; at the end of each strophe, they one and
all shouted of their own accord in unison, as though in a
double chorus, '^ Bibamus ! " laying such portentous stress
on the long vowel, that the floors rang again, and the vault
of the great hall seemed to shake. This gave me the
melody at once, and here you have it, just as it composed
itself ; if it is the right thing, I claim no part in it, it is
all yours, and yours alone

57. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th November, 1810.

.... At the end of this week, we are to hear

Paer's * Achilles in Italian ; Brizzi has arrived, and will

act the hero for us. Our other singers are either practising

their Italian, or beginning to learn the language ; come

what may, we shall have a pretty performance

In conclusion, let me tell you of a curious enterprise
we have in prospect, that is, a performance of Faust, in
his present condition, as far as it is practicable. Perhaps
you could help us with some music, more especially for
the Easter Song and the Slumber Song, Schwindet ihr

dunklen Wölbungen d/roben

Goethe.

* Ferdinando Paer, an Italian composer, and one of the leading
representatives of the Italian operatic school, at the close of the last
century. He was at one time Maitre-de-chapelle to Napoleon, whom
he had accompanied to Warsaw and Posen in 1806. The subject of one
of his operas, Eleanora, ossia I'Amore Conjugate, was the same as that
of Beethoven's Fidelio.

74 Goethe's letters [1811.

1811.

58. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 28th February, 1811.
I HAVE read of the illustrious Oldenburg, first
Secretary of the London Society, that he never opens a
letter, till he has placed pen, ink, and paper before him, but
thereupon he writes his answer, immediately after the first
reading. And thus, it seems, he gets through an immense
amount of correspondence in comfort. Could I have imi-
tated this virtue, fewer people would have had to complain
of my silence. But now the arrival of your dear letter,
recalling all the wealth of our summer life, excites in me
such a desire to answer it, that I address these lines to yon,
if not indeed at the first reading, at all events, on my
awakening, the morning after.

First then, I pity you for being obliged to write, when
you ought to be doing and working. But business-matters,
all the world over, and especially with you, have long been
transacted on paper, and business-people do not reflect that
acts, (derived from the Latin acta,) mean as much as
something done, and that therefore nothing should be
stitched up in them, which we ai-e only about -to do, or
wish to do. If I still amuse myself sometimes by stitching
together a fasciculus, it is only when I am occupied with a
thing that is hastening to its end.

I thought I could prophesy, that the good Pti«Jora. would
linger a little, when she got home again. The life in
Töplitz was much too favourable for this task, and your
thoughts were so continuously and thoroughly occupied
with it, that an interruption must necessarily cause a
standstill also. But do not be disheartened; so much has
already been done to it, that the rest will doubtless come
of itself in good time.

I cannot quarrel with you, for declining to compose the
music to Faust. My proposal was rather frivolous, like

1811.] TO ZELTER. 75

the undertaking itself. So this too may be set aside for
yet another year, for the trouble I have had in managing
The Constant Prince, has pretty well exhausted the zest,
which one must bring to such things. This piece has
certainly turned out well, beyond all expectation, and has
given myself and others much pleasure. It means a good
deal, to have conjured up a work, nearly two centuries old,
one written for quite another latitude, for a race of perfectly
different manners, religion, and culture, so that it should
appear fresh and new to a spectator. For nowhere is the
antiquated, or that which does not speak to one directly,
more quickly felt, than on the stage.

As for my works, you shall certainly have the thirteenth
volume, both in vellum and in the ordinary binding. You
have done well, in throwing a sprat to catch a salmon.
Another copy will soon be found for you.

It is very good of you, not to have neglected my Far-
benlehre; taken in small doses, it will have a very good
effect. I know very well, that my way of treating the
subject, natural as it is, is very diiferent from the usual
method, and I cannot expect, that eveiyone should imme-
diately recognize and adopt its advantages. Mathematicians
are foolish people, and so far from possessing even a notion
of the main point, that one has to be indulgent to their
conceit. I am very curious to see, who will be the first to
understand the thing, and behave honestly about it : for
they are not all w^ooden-headed, nor all maliciously inclined.
Moreover, I have, in this instance, become more and more
conscious of the fact, which I had quietly recognized long
ago, that the training given to the mind by mathematics
is extremely one-sided and limited. Voltaire even ventures
to say somewhere, "/'ai toujours remarque que la Geometrie
laisse V esprit ou eile le trouve." Franklin also has a peculiar
aversion to mathematicians, and expresses this plainly and
clearly, in reference to social intercourse, when he speaks
of their spirit of littleness and contradiction, as being
intolerable.

As regards the actual Newtonians, they are like the old
Prussians, in October, 1806. They thought they might
yet win by tactics, although they had long been vanquished
by strategy. When once their eyes are opened, they will

76 Goethe's letters [1811.

be surprised to see, that I have already been to Naumburg
and Leipzig, while they are still rummaging about, in the
vicinity of Weimar and Blankenhayn. That battle was
lost beforehand, and it is the same here too. That doctrine
is already extinguished, though these gentlemen still think
they may despise their adversary. Pardon my big way of
talking ; I am as little ashamed of it, as those gentlemen
are of their littleness.

I have been most strangely misconstrued by Kügelgen,*
as by many others. I thought I spoke most kindly to
him ; for the picture and the frame really turned out all
that could be desired, and now the good man takes offence
at an outward form of politeness, which, after all, we cer-
tainly ought not to neglect, as many people feel hurt, if
it is not used. People have often been annoyed with me,
for a certain heedlessness in these things, and now I am
^^^^ vexing good men by my formality. Never lay aside any

7 old fault, dear friend, for either you will fall into some
new one, or your new virtue will be regarded as a fault ;
and take up what position you please, you will never satisfy
yourself, or other people. However, I am glad to know

^^ this, for I should like to be on friendly terms with this
excellent man.

As for the antique bull, f I propose that you should pack
it carefully, in a strong box, and send it to me for in-
spection. There were many replicas of such things in old
times, and the copies differ very much in value. Herr
Friedländer, (to whom my kindest regards,) might tell me
at the same time about his collections, and how one could
serve him in return, for it would be difficult to give a good
bronze in exchange, as there are hardly any duplicates of
such things, and such as do exist, become doubly in-
teresting, on account of their resemblance or non-resem-
blance. In the meantime, I could offer him this. I have
a very fine collection of medals, the greater part in bronze,
dating from the middle of the fifteenth century, up to the
present day. It was made, chiefly in order to bring before
friends and connoisseurs, the course pursued in Plastic

* The painter, Kügelgen, had complained to Zelter, of Goethe'« cold-
ness, in addressing him as HochwoJdijeborner Herr.

+ The property of David Friedländer, a Jewish friend of Zeltet's.

1811.] TO ZELTER. 77

Art, the reflex of which can always be traced in medals.
Now, I have some beautiful and important duplicates of
these, so that I probably could arrange and hand over an
instructive series. Any amateur, not yet in possession of
anything of the kind, would thus obtain a good foundation,
and have sufficient inducement to proceed further. A
collection of this kind would likewise offer a good oppor-
tunity for very interesting observations, as in the case of
a series of Greek and Roman coins ; nay, more — it would
complete the idea, which these give us, and would enable
us to trace it up to more modern times. Let me add,
that the bull must be very perfect, if I am not to be the
loser by the exchange proposed. Let me hear some further
particulars.

As I have plenty more room in my letter, I will add,
that I have been highly gratified lately by a present from
the Empress of Austria, of a handsome gold snuff-box, with
a wreath of brilliants in the centre, on which stands the
name Louise in full. I know you will be interested in this,
as so unexpected and inspiriting a piece of luck is no
every- day occurrence. Now farewell, dear Sun, and con-
tinue to give forth warmth and light.*

Sicilian Song.

Ye black and roguish ej^es,

If ye command,
Each house in ruins lies,

No town can stand.
And shall my bosom's chain, — -

This plaster wail, —
To think one moment, deign, —

Shall it not fall ?

Finnish Song,

If the loved one, the well-known one.

Should return as he departed.

On his lips would ring my kisses,

Though the wolf's blood might have dyed them ;

And a hearty grasp I'd give him,

Though his finger-ends were serpents.

* In this letter are enclosed three songs, Sicilian, Finnish, and
Swiss, copied by F. W. Riemer.

78 goethe's letters [1811.

Wind ! Oh, if thou hadst but reason,
Word for word in turns thou'dst carry.
E'en though some perchance might perish
'Tween two lovers so far distant.

All choice morsels I'd dispense with,
Table-flesh of priests neglect too,
Sooner than renounce my lover,
Whom, in Summer having vanquish'd,
I in Winter tam'd still longer.

Swiss Song.

Up jn th' mountain
I was a-sitting,
AVith the bird there
As my guest,
Blithely singing,
Blithely springing,
And building
His nest.

In the garden
I was a-standing.
And the bee there
Saw as well,
Buzzing, humming.
Going, coming.
And building
His cell.

O'er the meadow
I was a-going.
And there saw the
Butterflies,
Sipping, dancing.
Flying, glancing.
And charming
The eyes.

And then came my
Dear Hansel,
And I show'd them
With glee,
Sipping, quaffing,
And he, laughing,
Sweet kisses
Gave me.

(E. A. BownrNO.)

1811.] to zelter. 79

59. — Zelter to Goethe.

Undated.

.... At last I too have seen and heard the newly-
crowned Parisian Opera, Die Vestalin* It is a downright
good joke, for the gentlemen of the Paris Conservatoire,
who could not make up their minds, to which of two
excellent people ther should award the prize, because they
really have no critical standard, and trilling and chirping
is all they are up to, are forced to see the Emperor putting
his finger into the pie, and giving a prize to a young
artist, who, when he is once past twenty-five, will never do
anything much. The libretto is loosely enough constructed,
for an Opera, and there is room for music. Herr Spontini
has used it like a boy, whose hands have just been set free
from swaddling-bands for the first time, and he lays about
him with both fists, so violently, that the pieces fly about
one's ears.

Bettina f wanted to be married last Sunday week. But
both parties had forgotten a few trifles, e.g. the calling of
the banns, the hiring of lodgings, and similar preparations.
I fancy, therefore, the affair must remain in stahi qiio, until
after Lent. .

60. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th March, 1811.

A THOUSAND thanks, my dear Friend, for your sug-
gestion, that that Bull should be sent off to me. It has
latterly stimulated me and my circle to new thoughts on
Art, and I only wish I could sum them all up again with
you. If Herr Friedländer tells you what I wrote to him,
you will see that my first suspicion, in calling this creature

* This famous Opera, finished by Spontini in 1805, long remained a
favourite with the Parisians, having, by the year 1824, reached its two
hundredth performance. Napoleon had founded a prize, to be gi\'on
every ten years, for the most successful (Jpera, written within tliat
period. This was the prize won by Spontini. .

t Bettina married the Baron von Arnim. ^

80 Goethe's letters [1811.

of Art a Tragelaph (Goat- Stag) of ancient and modern
times, has been confirmed. 1 should have had to be much
more prolix, had I wished to go to the root of the matter,
and to say everything that forces itself into consideration
in this instance. A small box of interesting bronze medals
has been sent to Herr Friedländer, and, as his son is a
collector and a connoisseur, I hope it will be favourably
received.

I am very sorry for Herr Weiss' own sake, that he has
taken to storming against my Farbenlehre ; impotent hate
is the most horrible of feelings, for, properly speaking, we
should hate no one whom we cannot annihilate. But as I
am — above all things — fond of genetic observations, I will
explain to you, whence this worthy man's indignation has
really arisen. See my Farbenlehre, I. Polem. § 422. I
will here quote the passage, for the sake of convenience : —

" We anticipate here an observation, which properly be-
longs to the history of the Farbenlehre. Hauy, in his manual
on Physics, repeats the above assertion, with Newton's de-
cisive words ; but the German translator is compelled to add
in a note, ' I shall take occasion to say fui'ther on, to which
kinds of light of the Colour-spectrum, as tested by my own
experiments, this actually applies, and to which it does not.'
This then, on the absolute assertion of which the correctness
of the Newtonian theory alone depends, holds good, and
does not hold good. Hauy expresses unconditionally the
Newtonian theory, and accordingly, in the lectures of the
Lycees, it is unconditionally impressed upon the. mind of
every young Frenchman. The German ruust come for-
ward with conditions, and yet the theory, which is at once
destroyed through conditions, continues to be the one that
holds good ; it is printed, translated, and the public, for
the thousandth time, has to pay for these myths."

Now the translator is, in fact, Herr Weiss himself, whom
I did not mention by name in the quoted passage, because
I knew how to value him as a man, who spared himself no
trouble, and inspired good hopes, and whose books I had
been able to make good use of. I am, as I said before,
sorry for him ; for when anyone who devotes himself to
the study of Nature, and is still vigorous mentally, refuses
to acknowledge, what I have more or less achieved in my

1811.] TO ZELTER. 81

Farbenlehre, he will find, nevertheless, that it will often
come home to him, and he does not gain by it morally ; he
will be standing in his own light, and spite of this, he will,
in the end, be obliged — for his own purposes — to make use
of what he learns from me, and to disavow the source,
from whence he got it. However, such tergiversations and
malversations are met with so frequently in the history of
the sciences, that it would create astonishment, if they did
not repeat themselves in our own times.

May you succeed in every way, in all you do, and in all
you write ! I see, as in a picture, how- you fare in your
Singakademie. Let anyone but educate a certain number
of pupils, he will thereby be educating almost as many ad-
versaries. Every genuine artist must be looked upon, as
one who is guarding something that is acknowledged to be
sacred, which it is his wish to propagate with earnestness
and care. But every century, in its own way, tends towards
what is secular, striving to make what is sacred, common,
what is difficult, easy, what is serious, amusing : and nothing
could be said against this, were it not for the fact, that
earnestness and humour are thereby utterly destroyed. So
much for to-day ! Let me often hear from you. Johanna
Sehus is often enough asked for, at our musical gatherings
on a Sunday, and goes charmingly ; I might almost hope
that you yourself would be satisfied. We have not yet
had it performed with instruments. Eberwein is doing
admirably ; I wish he could have the good fortune, to enjoy
another six months of your society and teaching. Our
Capellmeister, Müller, keeps his orchestra and chorus, as
well as the solo singers, capitally together, and we certainly
have been well off, in the way of musical enjoyment this
winter. And herewith, from my heart, farewell ! I am busy
in various ways, and am quietly getting rid of things, so that
I may soon be able to set out again on my summer tour.

Enclosure.

Goethe to Herr David Friedländ»r.

Weimar, 8th March, 1811.
The Bull you so kindly sent me, has arrived safely,
and I am much obliged to you for it. Whilst offering you

82 goethe's letters [1811.

my best thanks, I will, at the same time, tell you what I
think about this work of art.

Towards the end of the sixteenth century, a skilful worker
in bi'onze may have come into the possession of the frag-
ment of an antique bull, and, moreover, of the uninjured
fore-part of the same ; this is the more likely, as figures of
this kind were cast in two parts, and soldered together in
the middle. The artist may have perceived the value and
dignity of this fragment, — modelled it accordingly, and
restored the hinder part, after the fashion of his own art.
Over this renovated model, he then made the necessary
form, cast the entire figure, and worked it out afresh.
Hence the discordance of the pai'ts, which strikes one, on
looking at this creature. The fore-part has the imposing,
tasteful, and intellectual quality of ancient art ; the hinder
part, on the other hand, has certain excellencies belonging
to more modern times, e.g. something natural and elaborate
in the parts ; but the actual meaning of the antique has
not been grasped, either as regards the position, or move-
ment of the limbs, and so the result is a work with a double
meaning, which only interests us rightly for the first time,
when it has been divided into two parts, as I have divided it.
But I should not have been able to maintain this distinctly,
were it not, that I myself already possess a bull of the same
size, which is a genuine antique ; this has enabled me to
make the comparison. This, moreover, is the very reason,
why this new specimen is so valuable to me, for of course,
in such cases, it is mainly a question of one's insight and
judgment, one's knowledge of the epochs in Art, and
ability to distinguish periods of time.

So I packed up my best duplicates at once, and am
sending them with this, carefully secured, in the hope
that the little box will arrive safely. I do not add any
catalogue, as your son, who is a connoisseur, and the
possessor of so considerable a collection, and who more-
over has every other means at his command, will easily be
able to criticise and anfange the things I have forwarded.
There is little necessity for me to add anything about their
value. I only hope, that the collection may be welcome,
if not as a whole, at all events in part. I sometimes
receive a contribution to my art treasures, from Rome,

1811.] TO ZELTER. 83

and should I find any duplicates among these, I will not
fail to let you know.

Last year's programme to the Ä. L. Z. was written by
our great connoisseur, Herr Hofrath Meyer ; it was to
have been continued this year, but has not been printed
yet. Meanwhile, I enclose a proof impression of the plate,
which was to have accompanied the continuation. I have
in my possession all the medals given in the engraving,
and I reckon them among my treasures. May I ask you to
let me have a few lines, announcing the safe arrival of the
little box ? — while wishing to hear that it has been kindly
received, I would fain hope, that the connection formed
between us may be continued in future. With every good
wish for your welfai^e, and commending myself to your
kind remembrance,

Goethe.

61. — Goethe to Zeltee.

Carlsbad, 26th June, 1811.
.... I TRUST you may in some way be rewarded,
for what you are doing for Pandora. Could I have fore-
seen your interest in this work, I should have treated the
subject differently, and tried to free it from what is at
present difficult of fusion with music and representation.
But now it cannot be otherwise. Go on with it, as is most
easy to you, and I will see if I can manage to complete the
Second Part.* I have planned and sketched out every-
thing, but the figures themselves have got rather far away
from me, and I am even somewhat astonished at their
Titanic shapes, when, (as it chanced, yesterday,) I happen
to read aloud something out of it.

May all harmonious spirits attend you on your journey
to Silesia, and may your active perseverance be rewarded by
adequate results ! — for truly, when one reflects how little the
World has responded to your fair and noble achievements,
one may well say, that the response has been inadequate.

* The Second Part was never written; Goethe found that he had
planned the First on too large a scale for continuation. Frau von
Levezow was the prototype of Pandora.

84 Goethe's letters [1811.

You certainly will not find me here on your proposed home-
ward journey through Bohemia. The last four, nay, the
last five months of the year, promise to be very lively for
Weimar, and happy too, please God ! In August, we
expect Her Highness's confinement, in September, Iffland's
return, and in October, Brizzi. Alas ! in all such cases I
seem to myself like a double Hermes, one mask of which
resembles Prometheus, neither of which — because of the
eternal fore and after — can at the moment summon up
a smile.

Carlsbad is just now lively enough ; it has looked quite
different to me this time. As my wife was here and had
her own carriage, I have got further out into the open
country than in the last few years, and have taken fresh
pleasure in the neighbourhood, and what is to be found
there, because I have been able to wander through it with
new companions, who were justly astonished and delighted
with a great deal that they saw.

Himmel has been here for some days, and, though
suffering, is still the same as of old, cheerful and sym-
pathetic, and improving even the roughest instruments by
his playing. I have all along heard and seen too little of
him, and we do not meet very often, owing to his gay way
of life ; yet it has occurred to me latterly, whether I
might not be able to edit the maxims, convictions, im-
pulses, or whatever you like to call them, by which he
steers in his musical settings of lyric poems, or by which
he is guided. This does not seem to me impossible, and I
think I am fairly on the way ; still I have too many de-
ficiencies to be able to get quit of my task so easily. If,
at your leisure, you will enlighten me on this point, you
would be doing me a kindness. Now farewell, and should
you care to let me have a word, before you leave Berlin,
send it direct to Weimar.

1812.] TO ZELTER. 85

1812.

62. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 8th April, 1812.

.... As the work of my little musical Institute
has been broken in upon this winter,* I have not had
so much pleasant interchange of thought with you as usual.
I have been very busy at the Theatre, and have brought
out upon the stage a concentrated Romeo, f You will pro-
bably soon see the play in Berlin ; take the opportunity of
letting me hear what you think of it, what others think of
it, and how it was acted. I like so much to have your
frank reports and criticisms.

I have been working at the second volume of my bio-
graphical effort, X in thought and memory, much more than
on paper ; if I come to Carlsbad, I dare say it will get
on quicker. The contents of this volume are not over
favourable ; we must first cross a valley, before we regain a
favourable and cheerful height ; meanwhile, let us see how
we can stroll through it with our friends, pleasantly and
profitably.

Two friends, Herr von Einsiedel and Riemer, § have con-
ferred a benefit on the Theatre, by translating and remodel-
ling Calderon's play. Life's a Dream. Our actors devoted
much industry and care to the performance, as I — with the
technical spirits of the Theatre — did to the arrangement ;
so we have got hold of a good play, which will last.

* Owing to tlie intrigues of Caroline Jagemann, the actress.

t Goethe's version of this play, first acted at Weimar, January 31st,
1812, kept the stage in Berlin, up to our own time, though it was severely
criticised at first.

X Dichtung und Wahrheit.

§ Cuurl-puge and ultimately chamberlain to the Duchess Amalia.
He was something of a poet and musician, was known everywhere as
L'A/ni Kiemer, and entered Goethe's house, as tutor to his son, having
previously served the Humboldt family in that capacity ; he remained
with Goethe as secretary and companion.

86 goethf/s letters [1812.

Our friend Riemer was this Easter appointed Professor ajt
the Grymnasium here ; and, sorry as I am to lose him, I am
glad to know that he is active, and, moreover, in a way
suited to his powers and talents. Nay, he is up to much
more than is here demanded of him, so he cannot but feel
at home in his business. ...

63. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 14th April, 1812.
As regards your concentrated Romeo, I suppose you
will have seen from the newspapers, the hostile criticisms
of certain blatant critics. I understand too little about the
matter, to determine accurately the rights and wrongs of it.
Many of our learned patrons would be only too glad to
pose, as the gossips, or University-chums of genius, and
then, before we know where we are, back comes Schroder's
Hamlet, and no one so much as grumbles. On the other
hand, there are people who insist on getting over every-
thing, so long as you have had a hand in it, and, so I have
been revelling once more in the vision of true passion, which
has none of the taint of virtue, so-called. And that is my
barometer, or measuring-rod, for taking in the whole crew
at a glance.

I am heart and soul one of those, who are averse to
losing a single word of Shakespeare ; the parts omitted
often belong to my favourite passages, — but I am also
satisfied with a claw of him. More than that, I care little
for the reconciliation of the Capulets and the Montagues,
after what has gone before, and only in so far as Shake-
speare says it with his own words. Prom a moral point
of view, everyone is bright enough to know, what must
natui'ally arise out of such a family feud ; so in my judg-
ment, you were perfectly right in finishing the play, where
it really ends.* The new friendship is either a matter of
course, or follows, because the old people would like to die
in. peace The way the poet is blamed, and Mile.

* 111 Goethe's version, f.!ie play ends with a short solilo(iiiy of the Friar
after Jiiliet's donth.

1812.] TO ZELTER. 87

Maas extolled in our newspaper, can be no enigma to you,
as you know both. For this artist, (as we call such an one
hei-e,) is still just what she always was — a good reservoir.
She speaks her part glibly, one may say, inoffensively,

and the spectator can make his Juliet for himself

Zelter.

64. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 17th April, 1812.

.... I HAVE made up my mind to send you a little
thing I wrote last year,* so that we may have a new subject
for regular discussion.

I wrote this Cantata, or Scena, if you prefer to call it
so, for Prince Friedrich von Gotha, who wanted something
of the kind, to show off his good and well-trained tenor
voice.

Capellmeister Winter of Munich has set it to music very
successfully, with ability, taste, and fluency, so that the
Prince's talent is displayed in its best light. He is now
however keeping the score in his own hands, for which I
do not blame him. But why should I not show the poem
to you, and thus throw some new life into our communica-
tions ? Farewell, and continue to love me !

65. — Zelter to Goethb.

Berlin, 25th April, 1812.

« • . . Your Binaldo will be no easy matter, if the
full meaning hidden in it is to be brought out, — its en-
chanting lightness, grace, and charming smoothness ! He
who is not too old should take a lesson from the Italian
School, but in some happy houi, we will try our hand at

A little time ago, I found in Voltaire's works, (the Gotha
edition of 1785,) a musical Opera, Samson, which Rameau
actually set to music, though it has never yet been brought
out. I rather liked Voltaire's treatment, and the subject,

* Binaldo.

88 Goethe's letters [1812.

assuming some necessary alterations, would be thoroughly
suitable for an Opei-a.

An Opei-a, in my judgment, should not have more than
three Acts ; two long and one short, or better still, one
long, between two shoi*t Acts. Here is my plan

Act I. Choruses of Israelites lament their defeat, but
encouraged by Samson, conquer the Philistines.

Act 11. Triumphal entry of the Israelites. Reconcilia-
tion of Samson with Delilah. Recognition of the son,
(supposed to have been born to Samson and Delilah.)
Treachery practised on Samson.

Act III. Imprisonment and death of Samson, the well-
known story ; very brilhant.

Now what do you say to this ? Would there not be
field enough there, for treatment and dramatic action ? I
thought you might set to, and anyhow rectify this plan ; at

all events I will have the verses made for me here

Zelter.

66. — Goethe to Zelter.

Carlsbad, 19th May, 1812.

Your dear letter of the 8th of May finds me in
Carlsbad on the 18th, so I intend to send you a reply at
once, as I think you will read it within ten days.

Your kind words about Binaldo are not only very plea-
sant to me, but will, I hope, prove fruitful, for they have
raised me to the consciousness of that, which Uy Natui-e
and inclination, I have done, and should like to do, par-
ticularly for music on the stage. When you say — " Every-
thing is freely and lightly hinted ; the words are not en-
croaching, and the musician has actually to do with the
subject itself" — this is giving me the greatest praise I could
wish for ; for in my opinion, a poet ought to di-aw his
sketch, upon a very widely-woven canvas, in order that the
musician may have ample space for working out his em-
broidery with greater freedom, and with coarse or fine
threads, as he thinks fit. The libretto for an Opera should
be a cai-toon, not a finished picture. This is certainly our
opinion, but most of our good Germans are completely
wanting in any idea of these things ; yet hundreds would

1812.] TO ZELTER. 89

fain try their hand at it. How great, on the contrary, is
our admiration of many of the Itahan works, where poets,
composers, singers, and stage decorators, can all agree about
a certain adequate technique. One new German Opei'a after
another fails for want of appropriate words, and the good
Viennese, who do not in the least know where the shoe
pinches, offer a hundred ducats for the best Opera, which
anyone in Germany may produce, whereas they might
double the amount at the right smithy, and thereby them-
selves be the gainers.

The matter is, in fact, more difficult than people sup-
pose ; one would have to spend a cheerful existence on the
spot itself, among all those who are contributing to the
performance, and then, year after year, one ought to produce
something new. One thing would lead to another, and
perfection might spring, even from a failure.

Just now I should have no faith in Samson ; it is one of
the most monstrous of the old myths. A perfectly bestial
passion of a supernaturally strong, divinely-gifted hero for
the most accursed wretch, that the earth has ever seen, —
the mad desire, that ever leads him back to her, though,
owing to repeated acts of treachery, he is each time con-
scious of his danger — this lustfulness, which itself springs
from the danger — the mighty conception one must form of
the overweening savoir fairs of this gigantic woman, who is
capable of fettei'ing such a bull ! On looking at all this,
dear friend, it will at once become manifest to you, that
we should have to annihilate it, if only to get at names
in accordance with the proprieties of our time and stage.
It would be much more advisable at once to choose a
subject with fewer specific difficulties, if not indeed,
one that would of itself float upon the element of the
day. Look at the Schiveizerfamilie,* and things of that
stamp.

I must mention one other consideration. Subjects from
the Old Testament produce a very strange effect here ; this
was brought before my notice, when Robert's Jeplitha, and
Alfieri's SSatd were given. They do not excite any disfavour,
but still it is not favour ; not disinclination, but uninclinatioii.

• An Opera by Winter.

90 Goethe's letters [1812.

Those myths, truly grand as they are, present a respectable
appearance in the solemn distance, and our youthful devo-
tion remains attached to them. But when these heroes
step forward into the present, it occurs to us, that they are
Jews, and we feel a contrast between the ancestors and the
descendants, which confuses and jars upon us. This is
the way I explain it to myself hurriedly, whilst closely
watching the effect of both pieces. This last consideration
would be set aside, were the myths transferred to other
nations. But other difficulties would then arise ; I shall
think further about this.

In conclusion, I must beg of you not to withhold those
compositions, and at the same time, for our old love's sake,
to give our correspondence new life.

And pray, no such long pause again !

dT. — Goethe to Zelter.

Carlsbad, 2nd September, 1812.

.... I MADE Beethoven's acquaintance in Töplitz.
His talent astounded me ; but unfortunately, his natural
temperament is wholly uncontrolled, and although, indeed,
not at all wrong in thinking the world detestable, still, in
so doing, he does not make it pleasanter, either for himself
or for others. However, he is greatly to be excused, and
much to be pitied, for he is losing his hearing, which per-
haps affects the musical, less than the social pai;t of his
being. As it is, he is laconic by nature, and is now be-
coming doubly so through this defect. And now a hearty
farewell !

68. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 13th September, 1812.
.... Just now Milder-Hauptmann * is with us.
I have heard her in Gluck's Iphigenia, the Schweizerfamilie,

* Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann, a famous singer, for whom the
part of Fidelio was written. Thayer relates the hard fights she had
with the master, about some passages in the Adagio of the great Scena
in E major, described by lier, as " ugly, unvocal, and inimical to her

1812.] TO ZELTER. 91

and the Zanherßöte, in which she sings the part of Tamino.
The voice, figure, and style of this young artist are so free,
powerful, and graceful, especially in the part of Emelina,
that we have seen nothing like it for a long time here.
They blame her vocalization, as inartistic, and that kind of
thing, but I find much to praise, e.g. warmth, truth, solid
and equal singing, and a kind of Swiss sturdiness, most
naively expressed ; anyhow, I have never seen passions

represented so chastely and effectively

69. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 14th September, 1812.

.... We have lost our very clever Italian Capell-

meister, Righini,* who died at his native place, Bologna,

on the 19th of August. He was to us much what Salieri was

to Vienna ; fresher than Salieri perhaps, but pretty equal

in breadth and height

"What you say of Beethoven is quite natural ; I too ad-
mire him with awe. His own works seem to cause him a
secret shudder — a feeling which, in the new culture, is set
aside much too lightly. His works seem to me like children,
whose father might be a woman, or whose mother, a man.
The last work of his that I became acquainted with,
(Christies am Oelbcrge,) seems to me an unchaste thing, the
ground and aim of which is an eternal death. The musical
critics, who seem to be more at home in anything, than in
what is natural and individual, have poured themselves out
in the oddest fashion, in praise and blame of this composer.
I know musical people, who formerly, on hearing his works,
were alarmed, nay, indignant, and are now seized with a

organ." (See Thayer's ii/e of Beethoven, vol. ii. p. 290, and the article
" Milder-Iluuptmann," in Sir G, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Mit-
sicians.) Her splendid, but unwieldy voice was heard to great advan-
tage in the leading parts «if Ghick's classical Operas. Haydn once said
to hei*, " Dear child, you have a voice like a house." Goethe wrote
some lines in her honour, after hearing her in Iphigcnia in Tauris,
presenting her at the same time with a copy of his own drama on the
same subject.

* Vincenzo Kighini, a second-class composer. One of his twenty
Operas, II Cunvitato di Pietra, ot-sia 11 Dissolicio, was the forerunner of
Mozart's Don Giova^mi, which came out ten yeai's afterwards.

92 Goethe's letters [1812.

passion for them, like tlie devotees of Grecian love. How
thoroughly one can enjoy them, is conceivable, and what
may come of it, you have shown clearly enough in the

Wahlverwandtschaften

70. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 3rd November, 1812.
Your letter, my beloved Friend, announcing the great
misfortune * which has befallen your house, has greatly
afflicted — nay, bowed me down, for it came to me, when I
was in the midst of very serious meditations on life, and it
was only through you yourself, that I was enabled to rise
again. On the black touchstone of death, you have proved
yourself genuine, refined gold. How glorious a character
appears, when it is penetrated with mind and soul, and how
beautiful must that talent be, which rests on such a basis !
As to the deed or misdeed itself, I can say nothing.
When the tcediuin vitce seizes a man, he is only to be
pitied, not blamed. That all the symptoms of this strange
disease, as natural as it is unnatural, at one time raged
furiously through my own innermost being, no one who
reads Werther will probably doubt. I know full well what
resolutions and efforts it cost me in those days, to escape
from the waves of death ; just as with difiiculty I saved
myself, to recover painfully, from many a later shipwreck.
And so it fares with all sailors' and fishermens' ^stoi'ies.
After the storm at night, the shore is reached again, the
drenched man dries himself, and the following moi'ning,
when the glorious sun once more breaks forth over the
glittering waves, " the sea has once more an appetite for
figs."t

* The suicide of Zelter's son, minutely described in a previous
letter. Here, for the first time, Goethe uses the familiar Bu, instead of
the formal Sic ; not even Schiller was ever thus addressed by him.

t A play upon the Greek proverb, the origin of which is explained
by Zenobius, Provirb., cent. v. 51 : —

'<) Si/cfXof T/)i' OdXaamti'.
yiiKtXor, (paali', tf.nropor aT<Ka äyiov
itayLayi)(Jti>' slra tTri ntrpar icaOii/iivo<;,
Kal üfjto}' T))v BoKaaüav iv yaXijry
t<prj, OlCa Ö öiXtc avKa 0(Xf.i.

1812.] TO ZELTER. 93

When one sees how the world in general, and the young
world in particular, is not only given over to its lusts and
passions, but how, at the same time, what is nobler and
better in it is abused and perverted by the serious follies
of the time, so that everything which should have led to
its blessedness, becomes its curse, not taking into account
the inexpressible pressure from without, one is not as-
tonished at the misdeeds, by which man rages against him-
self and others. I could trust myself to write a new
Werther, which would make the nation's hair stand more
on end than the first one. Let me add one other remark.
Most young persons, conscious of some merit in themselves,
make more demand upon themselves than is fair. To this,
however, they are urged and driven, by their gigantic sur-
roundings. I know half-a-dozen such persons, who are
certainly being ruined, and whom it would be impossible
to help, even if one could enlighten them as to their real
advantages. No one easily arrives at the conclusion, that
reason, and a brave will are given us, that we may not only
hold back from evil, but also from the extreme of good.

Now let us pass on to other things in your letters, which
have done me good, and first of all, accept my thanks for
your remarks on the pages of my biography. I had already,
in a general way, heard many kind and friendly things said
about them ; you are the first and only one, who has entered
into the matter itself. I am glad that the description of
my father produced a favourable effect upon you. I will
not deny, that I am heartily tired of these German patres
familiarmni, these Lorenz Starhs,* or whatever they are
called, who yield with gloomy humour to their Philistine
natui'es, and who, by their uncertainty, obstruct and destroy
the desires prompted by their good nature, and the happi-
ness of those around them. In the next two volumes my
father's portrait will be still further developed ; if — on his
part, as well as on the son's — one grain of conscious un-
derstanding had entered into that estimable family relation-
ship, much might have been spared to both. This however

* Lorenz Stark is the title of a novel by J. J. Engel (1741-1802).
It was first published in Die Horen. The hero is a strict, somewhat
pedantic father.

94 Goethe's letters [1812.

was not to be, and in fact, it does not seem to belong to this
world. The best of plans for the journey is destroyed by
a silly mischance, and one never goes further, than when
one does not know whither one is going.

Pray, be kind enough to continue j'^our remarks : for as —
in accordance with the requirements of the representation —
I go slowly, and keep a great deal in petto, — (at which many
readers are already getting impatient, who would, I sup-
pose, be very glad to have the whole meal — from beginning
to end — served np to them, boiled and roast at one sitting,
that the following day they might be entertained at some
other refreshment-stall, or eating-house, better or worse as
their luck might be,) as I therefore, as aforesaid, keep
behind the hill, so as to advance, at the right moment,
with my lancers and cavalry ; it is exceedingly interesting
to me, to hear what you — as an experienced campaigner —
notice in the advanced guard.

I have not yet read any reviews of this little work ; this
I intend doing, once for all, when the next two volumes are
out. For many years past, I have observed, that those,
whose duty and wish it is, to speak about me in public,
whether well or ill disposed towards me, seem to feel them-
selves in a painful situation ; at all events, I have scarcely
met with a reviewer, who has not, in some passage, assumed
the famous look of Vespasian,* and presented a,.faciem duram.

If some day or other, you could send rue Rinaldo un-
awares, it would be a grand thing. I have no connec-
tion with music, except through you, for which» reason,
let me thank you heartily for the Invocavit and the Three
Kings, though I have as yet only feasted upon them with
my eyes.

We live here, spending quite disproportionate sums on
music, and yet we are really quite songless and soundless.
The Opera, with its old stock pieces, and the novelties that
are dished up, and slowly enough produced for a small
Theatre, cannot be a compensation to anyone. Meanwhile, I
rejoice that both Court and Town are made to believe, that
there is some kind of enjoyment to be had. The inhabitant
of a great city must be deemed fortunate in this respect ;

♦ See Suetonius' Life of Vespasian, chapter xxii.

1812.] TO ZELTER. 95

for after all, it attracts many remarkable foreign artists.
I should indeed have liked to hear Madame Milder.

You aimed a good shot at Alfieri ; he is more remarkable
than enjoyable. His plays are explained by his life. He
torments readers and listeners, as he tormented himself as
an author. His disposition was out and out that of a
Count, i.e. aristocratic to the core. He hated tyrants, be-
cause he was conscious of a tyrannical vein in himself;
and Fate had conferred a very appropriate affliction upon
him, in punishing him tolerably well, at the hands of the
i^ans-culottes. This same aristocratic and courtly nature in
him becomes very amusing at the end, when he cannot
find any better way of rewarding himself for his merits,
than by getting an Order made for himself. Could he*
show more clearly, how incarnate these forms were in him ?
In the same wayJi cannot bulfagfee wrth~wEäl ydii say
;fibuut Rousseau's Fygmalion. This work is certainly of
/the monstrous order, and extremely remarkable, as a
symptom of the main disease of those days, when State and
morals. Art and talent, together with a nameless article,
which however was called Nature, had to be stirred, nay,
were actually stirred and whipped up into a kind of pap.
IThis opei-ation, my next volume will, I hope, bring into
'view ; for Avas I not myself seized by the epidemic, and
was it not beneficently guilty of the development of my .
_ being, which is now inconceivable to me in any other wa y? J
And now I have still to reply to your inquiry about Tlie
Erste Waljmrgis Nacht The matter stands thus. Amongst
historical inquirers, there are some men, and moreover
men whom we cannot but respect, who look for a real
foundation for every fable, every tradition, however fan-
tastic and absurd it may be, and always expect to find a
kernel of fact, beneath the legendary husk. We owe a
great deal of good to this mode of treating the matter ;
for the study demands great knowledge, nay, it is even
necessary to have mind, wit, and imagination, to convert
poetry into prose in this way. Thus, one of our German
antiquarians has endeavoured to rescue, and to give an
historical foundation for the story of the witches' and devils'
ride on the Brocken, a legend which has been current in
Germany, from time immemorial. His explanation is, that

96 Goethe's letters [1812.

the heathen priests and patriarchs of Germany, when they
were driven from their sacred groves, and when Christianity
was forced upon the people, nsed to retire — at the be-
ginning of spring — with their faithful followers, to the
wild, inaccessible heights of the Harz mountains, in order,
according to the ancient custom, there to offer prayer and
flame to the unembodied god of heaven and earth. And
further, in order to be safe from the armed spies and con-
verters, he thinks, they may have found it well, to disguise
a number of their own people, so as to keep their super-
stitious foes at a distance, and that thus, protected by the
antics of devils, they carried out the purest of services.

I found this explanation somewhere, a few years ago, but
cannot remember the name of the author. The idea pleased
me, and I have turned this fabulous story back again into
a poetical fable.

And now, my very kindest farewell ! How much I wish
that I could go to you, in place of this letter !

71. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 12th December, 18 12.
The mail-coach will bring you a strange work, which
is certain to afford you some amusement. It is written by
a remarkable, though certainly rather a strange man, and
contains a new series of symbols for musical notation.
Instead of the lines, intervals, heads and tails .of notes,
hitherto in vogue, he employs numerical signs, maintaining
that this method is a much simpler one. I am no judge
of this, for in the first place, I have been accustomed to
the old style of musical notation, from my youth upwards,
and in the second, no one could have a greater horror of
figures than I have ; — again, I have ever avoided and fled
from all numerical symbols, from those of Pythagoras, up to
our latest mathematico-mystics, as from something shape-
less and comfortless.

The author, who calls himself Doctor Wemeburg, is
certainly a bom mathematician, but with this peculiarity,
that while simplifying matters for himself, he makes them
difficult for others ; consequently, he has never been able

1812.] TO ZELTER. 97

to carry anything out, and I hardly think he will ever be
happy and contented, either as a citizen, or as a man of
science.

Let me have a few lines about this little book ; for you
will see at a glance what speaks in its favour, or the re-
verse.

A few days ago, while meditating — as one is apt to do
on winter evenings — on many a thing gone by, it struck
me, that Herr Friedländer, last year, offered me in ex-
change a small bust of Jupiter, in red marble. If it is
still to be had, and he has not changed his mind, I
should be glad, if it could be packed up and sent to me.
I would then, as before, let him know frankly what I think
of it, and offer him the best thing I have to give in return.
I have, for instance, two medallions of Moses, by Cellini,
with the inscription ut hibat populus, which I certainly
ought to value highly, as I hunted for one in vain, for
thirty years, and then, by a strange coincidence, got them
both in one year.

Perhaps the possessor of the bust has some other pet
fancy, which I can meet half-way

We actually expect Iffland before the New Year. I am
greatly delighted at the prospect of seeing him again, after
so long, and of admiring the great consistency of his
acting, by which he contrives to ennoble every part he
plays. It is probably one of the rarest of phenomena, and
one, I think, that has never occurred with any other nation,
that the greatest actor should generally select for himself
parts, which are intrinsically unworthy of him, though,
by his acting, he knows how to invest them with the
highest momentary value. Carefully examined, such con-
duct has a most unfavourable influence on the taste of the
people ; for to be forced, under a given condition, to prize
that which one does not esteem otherwise, creates a discord
in our feelings, which, with the multitude, generally adjusts
itself in favour of what is paltry and despicable, inasmuch
as it has crept in under the cloak of excellence, and now
asserts that it is excellent itself.

However, let us keep these observations to ourselves ;
they are of no use to the world, which prefers its own
chaotic course.

98 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1812.

Ill working at the Third Pai't of my Biogi"aphj, I am
coming to the first efiects of Shakespeare in Germany. Is
there anything new to be said on this subject ? I hope so.
Shall I express myself in accordance with what everyone
thinks ? This I very much doubt. And moreover, as the
Germans have ever been in the habit of insisting that they
understand the thing, better than the man whose profession
it happens to be, that they understand it, better than he
who has spent his whole life upon the subject, this time,
too, they will make wry faces, for which however, they shall
be forgiven, in consideration of their other defects.

But, dearest friend, pardon me also, if I too sometimes
appear a little sour in my letters. " Old churches, dark
windows," says the German proverb, and the short days
do not make them clearer. I mostly reserve my cheer-
fulness for my biographical hours, so that nothing gloomy
and impure may mingle with the reflections, which must
be put in train anyhow.

Now, good-bye. Let me soon hear from you.

72. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 24th December, 1812.
My sweet fi'iend and master ! My beloved, my
brother ! What shall I call him, whose name is ever on
my tongue, whose image is reHected on all that I love and
honour ? When the Weimar envelope waudei's up my
steps, all the suns rise on my house. The children, who
know it well, tear each other to bits, for the privilege of
bringing me the letter, and seeing their father's radiant
face, and then I hold it long unopened, to see if it is really

what it is, to squeeze it and kiss it

I too have lately acquired a treasure, for I have bought
an original picture by Denner, a porti-ait of the highly
esteemed composer, Hasse,* who died in Italy, in the year

* Johann Adolph Hasse, II caro Sassone, the rival of Porpora and
Gluck, was the most popular dramatic composer of his age. His last
Opera, Ruggiero, was performed at Milan in 1774, on the same occasion
as a dramatic Serenade, A.scanio in Alba, hy Mozart, who was then only
seventeen years of age. Hasse is said to have exclaimed, " This boy will

1812.] TO ZELTER. 99

1783, aged seventy-eight, after an artistic life that was
rich in results. The picture was painted in 1740 ; it is
two and a half feet high, and two feet broad, painted in
oil, and in good preservation ; it represents the artist, as
a handsome man, in the fulness of his strength, and the
zenith of his fame in Germany, but especially in Italy,
where he was famous under the name of II Sassone.
Eyes, mouth, chin, and nose are beautifully chiselled and
rounded, and the bearing of the man, with his expression
and colour, confirm his character as an artist, who could
only feel quite happy in Italy, — for in Italy he learnt, loved,
pleased, married, and died, and he also adopted the religion
of that country. His wife was the famous singer, Faus-
tina

throw us all into the shade." Two airs from his Arfaserse were sung
by Farinelli, every evening for ten years, to Philip Vof Spain. (For a
charming, idealized account of his influence at Dresden, and of his wife,
Faustina, see the modern novel of Alcestis.) Faustina, Cuzzoni's famous
rival, was for many years Xhe pruna donna of Dresden, and Sebastian
Bach himself came to hear her, on a holiday trip from Leipzig.

100 Goethe's letters [1813.

1813.

73. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 15th January, 1813.

I MUST enclose a few lines to you in my parcel to
Herr Friedländer, which, even though they may reach you
a little later, you will, 1 hope, affectionately welcome. I
wish above all things to thank you, for having so promptly
informed our artistic friends of my wish, and to beg you at
the same time, to thank these worthy men, for having so
promptly forwarded to me their parcel, just at the New
Year. Once again it is a problematical work, and serves
the rest of us in the North, who, alas ! live rather in criti-
cism than in contemplation, as a topic for manifold discus-
sion. You will, probably, when you have an opportunity,
get them to show you the letter, in which I have expressed
my opinion about it. But belonging — as I surely do — to
the school of Identity, nay, having been bom to it, here too
the heavy task is laid upon me, of uniting merciless criti-
cism with irrational enthusiasm.

Iffland's presence was a great delight to me. I gave
myself up to the pure enjoyment of his talent, endeavoured
to understand everything as he gave it, and did not trouble
myself about what he gave. Listen patiently to the fol-
lowing remark. If we care sincerely for the welfare of Art,
we must wish that it should deal with great and worthy
objects ; for when the last artistic touches have been given,
we look, from a moral point of view, for the greatest perfec-
tion in the subject dealt with. It was for this reason, be-
cause we were still under the delusion, that it was possible
to exercise a genetic influence on men, that we, the Weimar
Friends of Art, continued to discuss those objects with
sincerity, in the Propyläen,* and it was this that we aimed

• A periodical, " through which Goethe hoped to work for ideal
plastic art, as Schiller woi'ked for the drama." So few copies were
sold, that the publication was discontinued. There are frequent allu-
sions to it in The Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe.

1813.] TO ZELTER. 101

at in our prize-essays. Our efforts were however of no
avail, for since that time, the saint and legend fever has
spread on all sides, and has banished all that is truly
joyous from Plastic Art. I only complain of this in passing,
for I wished to follow up my first remark by saying, that
Art, as it is represented by the greatest masters, creates a
form so vital in its strength, that it ennobles and trans-
figures everything it touches.

For this very reason, a worthy substratum stands to some
extent in the way of the eminent artist, because it ties his
hands, and checks the freedom, in which, as a plastic artist
and an individual, he would like to expatiate. Musicians
have frequently been npbraided for liking bad librettos,
and it has been said in jest, that one of them offered
to set a poster * to music ; if the song were not inde-
pendent of the words, how could the Good-Friday music
in the Sistine Chapel, possibly have ended with the word
Vitulus ? and there may be other instances. Many a play-
bill would make a better Opera than the libretto itself, if
it were properly arranged. Thus I have greatly admired
island's way of throwing life into dead plays, — nay, his
creation out of nothing. The multitude, however, always
realistically minded, is distressed about the great, and — in
their opinion — wasted outlay.

The effect produced by Don Ranudo was remarkable.
The utter worthlessness of the piece, the immoral demand,
that nobility of birth should ignobly renounce its treasure,
stood out like a ghost, and ueai-ly a thousand people, in
one small house, were put out of humour ; for even ordinary
human intelligence must feel, that the man, whose natural
disposition cannot and will not allow him to submit to
degradation, does not deserve to be degraded. No one
could get up a laugh, from pure compassion.

This was to me a remarkable phenomenon, because I
regarded it as a symptom, that Sans-culottism is already
antiquated, and that the different ranks of Society are just
now absorbed in quite other cares and passions, than those
of tormenting and fighting and irritating one another.
In addition, I thought it remarkable, that Ifiland, who,

* Telemann of Hamburg.

102 Goethe's letters [1813.

in his written plays, aims at the most ample breadth, in his
acting, conjures up again the conciseness and terseness of
plays that are extemporized. How different our stage
would seem, if he had not been forced to take this round-
about way, and how different it would seem to all of us, if
the direct ways to salvation did not remain a secret to every
human being

I was glad to have a little friendly talk with Herr
Pfund, though only for a short time ; what recommended
him specially to me, was his attachment to you. I
first loved his fiancee, when she was a child of eight years
old, and when she was sixteen, I loved her more than was
fair. You may be all the more friendly to her for that,
if she comes to you.

And now a heaii}y farewell !

74. — Zelter to Goethe,

Berlin, 21st February, 1813.
.... Yesterday, matters were rather serious at our
Court in Berlin. Out of a number of Cossacks, estimated
at about three hundred, some hundred and fifty assembled
on the heights before the town, and dashed through the
gates, cutting and shooting down a number of Frenchmen,
whom they found in the streets. This was towards noon.
I was at the Academy. When I wanted to stroll home,
about two o'clock, the bridges were already bai^'cd by the
French, and planted with cannon, so that I was forced to
make a very long detnur, and finally reached home, past
three o'clock. There had been lively work in my street.
The houses opposite mine were riddled with balls. Several
citizens are killed, and my neighbour, a merchant, is mor-
tally wounded. At five o'clock the Cossacks had found
their way out to the gate again. If these bold fellows had
quietly penetrated, in full force, into the house of the French
Governor, the Duke of Castiglione, instead of busying
themselves with cutting down Frenchmen, one by one, in
the streets, and alarming the whole city, the coiip might
have succeeded ; and, on the other band, if the French,
who appeared to be taken by surprise, had barred the

1813.] TO ZELTER. 103

gates at once, not a single Russian would have escaped
with his skin. I and my house are still undamaged ; my
eldest son has gone to join the king at Breslau, as a cavalry
Jäger. At this moment, (ten o'clock at night,) they say
the French intend to leave the town after midnight ; I
doubt ft, for they have been reinforced by 2,000 infantry.

22nd February.
Morning. Seven o'clock. The French have not with-
drawn ; the whole garrison bivouacked throughout the
night, in the streets. An ominous calm prevails ; nobody
knows what to be about, — meantime I am revising my
earlier compositions.

24th February.
All is quiet. The Cossacks are swarming before the
gates. The Viceroy and General St. Cyr have aiTived with
cavalry, and the town is now occupied by some 12,000
men. It is an anxious state of things, but it is long since
I have slept so well, as I have since last Saturday. It is
so quiet, that of an evening you can hear the footsteps of a
dog

27 th February.
The day before yesterday, I heard a capital performance
of Beethoven's Overture to Egmo»!. Every important
theatrical work on the German stage ought, by rights, to
have its own music. The profit, which would thence accrue
to poet, composer, and public, is incalculable. The poet has
the composer on his own field, and can guide him, and
teach him to understand, nay, learn to understand him ;
the composer works, imbued with an idea of the whole, and
knows for a certainty, what he must avoid, without being
limited, and it must be a happiness, for each to recognize

himself beside, and explain himself through the other

You will see from the papers, that the French have left

Berlin

104 Goethe's letters [1813.

75. — Goethe to Zelter.

Töplitz, 3rd May, 1813.

The enclosed, my dearest Friend, was intended for
you long ago ; I delayed forwarding it, for at last one
scarcely knew, what connections one still had in the world,
what not ; a good opportunity now occurs of sending it to
Berlin. Though at first anxious on your account, I was
soon able to feel calm ; now, I am anxious about myself and
my property, and perhaps I shall not feel calm again so soon.
On the 17th of April, I left Weimar, more owing to the per-
suasion of my immediate relatives and friends, than from
any determination of my own. By means of a Prussian
passport, I had just succeeded in crossing the lines, when,
on the 18th, the French again took possession of Weimar,
not without using force. Of this, however, I myself know-
nothing more than what is generally reported ; for since
that time, I have had no tidings thence, and no letter of
mine has been able to get there.

In Dresden, Dr. Sibbern told me he had seen you, that
you had wished him to take charge of something for me,
but that you had refrained from so doing, as he would pro-
bably not come to Weimar. He certainly will not get
there, but I should have been delighted to hear something
about you in Dresden. I enclose a small poem, a parody
of one of the most wretched of all German poems — Ich
habe gelieht, nun lieh' ich nicht Tnehr. If poetizing were not
an inward and necessary opei'ation, independent of any
outward circumstances, these strophes certainly could not
have arisen at the present time ; but as I imngine that one
day or other, you will all be playing and singing again, I
dedicate this unseasonable joke to you.

I'avewell, and let me hear something about you soon.

Goethe.

7^. — Goethe to Zeltük.

Töplitz, 23r(l June, 1813,

As an opportunity offers for sending you a few
words, my dearest Friend, I shall not let it pass, for in the

1813.] TO ZELTER. 105

present distracted state of the world, one knows no lono-er,
whom one belongs to. I have been here for the last eight
weeks, leading a solitary life, peacefully working at my
third volume, which I hope to have ready at Michaelmas.
May Heaven grant us peace, for a thousand and again a
thousand reasons, that we may find readers too ! On the 3rd
of May, I sent you a report of myself by Herr von Liitzow,
•with an enclosure. How much I have thought of you ;
wherever we turn our thoughts, we see friends in danger.

My people are well, and resolutely bear up through all ;
I am well, and can work. What more could I wish for ?
I trust that things are going on pretty well with you, and
that I may soon hear.

77, — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29th October, 1813.

Professor Kiesewetter promises me, that this note
shall reach you soon. He w411 tell you how matters stand
with us, and how the monster passed us by, with, quite a
lenient step. I and mine have nothing to complain of, —
nay, we may even consider our fate as f oi'tunate, compared
with that of so many others. Tell me something pleasant
about yourself. In the midst of so much trouble, it is a
great consolation, not to be completely cut off from those
we love. All blessings be yours ! inwardly, if not out-
wai'dly.

78. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26tli December, 1813.

At last, my good old Friend, I see your dear hand-
writing again ! You kindly warn me about the vegetables,
and a great comfort it is, for I perceive from this, that the
most monstrous Fate cannot destroy even the cycle of
turnips. So let it be with all our other possessions.

First of all, then, you will very much oblige me, by set-
ting the words, In te, Dominie, speravi, et non confundar in
(Bternum, as a vocal quartet, as charmingly as you alone

106 Goethe's letters [1813.

can ; yonr name shall be highly extolled thereby. When
you have refreshed me thus, I will send you some qtiodJi-
hets for your LieJcrfafel, where all of you, I suppose, will
be again enjoying the products of Teltower.

Towards Christmas, I shall probably send you the third
volume of the thousand and one nights of my foolish life,
which looks almost more indiscreet in the account given,
than it actually was.

You will be amused, when you see that I have been
plagiarizing from you. Were your victier not so utterly
different from mine, it would happen oftener.

This note was written some time ago, but the turnips
have not yet arrived, and as I expected them from day to
day, I did not seal my letter. Lieutenant Mendelssohn
wants to take a few words to you from me. Here, there-
fore, is the little I have written, with my best wishes and
hopes. A parcel and a petition will soon follow. The
nervous fever, if it has not actually depopulated our printing
works, has at all events very much crippled them, otherwise
you would have had the Third Part before this.

Let me hear from you soon. I have some merry songs
in stock. We have also been singing your Drei Könige
lately. In this way, we must drive away the bitterness of
death.

Goethe.

79. — Goethe to Zri;Ter.

Weimar, '29tli December, 1813.

Hardly had I given Lieutenant ]\Iendelssohn the
note, written long ago, with a complaint, that the turnips
had not yet come, when they actually arrived, in excellent
condition, and though — being very small — they certainly
give the cook some trouble in dishing, still my guests
relish them all the more. A thousand thanks, and look
kindly upon the enclosed. The date will show you, how
merrily I mianaged to get along, through the most anxious
time. More anon !

1813.] TO ZELTER. 107

The Waddling Bell.

A child refus'd to go betimes

To church like other people ;
lie roam'd abroad, when rang the chimes

On Sundays from the steeple.

His mother said : " Loud rings the bell,

Its voice ne'er think of scorning ;
Unless thou wilt behave thee well,

'Twill fetcli thee without warning."

The child then thought : " High overhead

The bell is safe suspended — "
So to the fields he straightway sped

As if 'twa-s school-time ended.

The bell now ceased as bell to ring,

Housed by the mother's twaddle ;
But soon ensued a dreadful thing ! —

The bell begins to waddle.

It waddles fast, though strange it seem ;

The child, with trembling wonder.
Runs off, and flies, as in a dream ;

The bell would draw him under.

He finds the proper time at last,

And straightway nimbly rushes
To church, to chapel, hastening fast

Through pastures, plains, and bushes.

Each Sunday and each feast as well,

His late disaster heeds he ;
The moment that he hears the bell.

No other summons needs he.

Töplitz, 22nd May, 1813. (E. A. Bowring.)

108 Goethe's letters [1814.

1814.

80. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 23rd February, 1814.
.... First of all, I must tell you that our little
Sing-song Society has been feeding upon you, and living
upon you alone, and after a melancholy pause, has risen
again upon you. We offered the transfiguration of Johanna
Sebtis, as a sacrament of our rescue from the broad, never-
ending floods.

I could also tell you a long story about the In te, Domine,
speravi, hov? I composed these words in my Bohemian
solitude, amidst peculiar embarrassments from within and
without ; they had neither rhythm nor resonance, though
meant for four persons — I might say, four voices — and I
had no dearer wish, than to hear these beautiful words,
musically commented on by you. I was tempted into
drawing four lines, one below the other, in order to make
the way I understood it, clear. Now that I hear your
composition, I find in it a pleasant experience, and want
no more instruction. The Dilettante is only touched by
that which is easily comprehensible, and by that which has
an immediate effect ; this is also chai-acteristic of his own
productions, wherever he ventures tentatively upon any one
of the arts. My composition, which is fairly rounded and
definite, resembles one of Jomelli's, and it is curious and
funny enough, to catch oneself accidentally upon such
paths, and for once to become aware of one's own somnam-
bulism. In order to get clear about this, in another branch
of Art, to which I have devoted myself more seriously, I
am examining some old landscape sketches, and perceive
that it is much the same here.

Surely there must be some magic sounds in Die wack-
ehide Glocke, for, as a matter of fact, I wrote it in Töplitz,
whither it seemed to call you. The fact of my Verliebte

1814.] TO ZELTER. 109

Launen* still interesting the Berliners, after a lapse of
forty years, leads me to suppose that it must contain some

freshness, which does not yield to time

As a men-y bit of padding, I enclose a few rhymes out of
the wallet of the World's Course f (^aus der Tasche des
Weltlaufes).

The years are jolly folk, I say !

They brought us plenty yesterday,

And still they bring us gifts to-day,

And so we younger ones get through

A jolly life of Nothing-To-Do ;

Till suddenly the years are struck,

They've brought us quite enough good luck ;

No more they give, no more we borrow,

They take to-day, they take to-morrow.

Age is quite tlie gentleman.

He knocks as often as he can,

But no one says : " Come in ! Good-day I "

And at the door he will not stay,

Lifts the latch, — and wellaway !

" Rude old fellow ! " now we say.

Goethe.

81. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 9th March, 1814.

.... Die wachelnde GlocJce should, I think, be
sung by a good Contralto, such as I have often heard among
elderly Bohemian women. There are too, in Bohemia,
mountains shaped like bells, and driving past them at a
certain distance, they seem, to a fantastic eye, to wander

after you. Thus, once a child, always a child

Whilst re-reading your letter, I am again reminded of
what I really wanted to say before, viz. that I should like to
see your Composition for four persons, or your Scheme, be
it what it may. We are such slaves to the current forms,
the subject or image of which our fathers had before them,
that we cannot go beyond . them, without losing our
identity. Were the opportunity, or the image to confront us

* Die Laune des Verliebten, a pastoral, the first piece that Goethe
wrote for the stage.

t These poems are contained in the cycle headed Epigrammatisch.

110 Goethe's letters [1814.

again, through which form becomes definite and necessary,
no one would have to strain every nerve to seem original.
If we only lived nearer each other, no doubt many diffi-
culties on this point would be cleared up, as certain things
cannot be illustrated by words, and are only plain through
the medium of Art. I well remember, that the music of the
Leipzig Bach, and his son, the Hamburg Bach, who are
both quite new and original, seemed to me in their day
almost unintelligible, though I was attracted also by a
dim pei'ception of their genuineness. Then came Haydn,
whose style was blamed, because it, so to speak, travestied
the bitter earnestness of his predecessors, so that good
opinion reverted back again to them. At last Mozart
appeared, who enabled us to understand eacli of the three
men, whom he had for his masters.

82. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 22nd April, 1814.

To-day but a word or two, dear Friend, to tell you,

that to my great delight, your last consignment reached me

safely ; the parts are copied out, and so far prepared, that

my compendious household- Choir can soon give me a treat.

To be sure, a special art is requisite to keep alive this
heterogeneous body, from which now this, now that mem-
ber drops off. The Buhelied is admirable, our Tenor sings
it very well, and in these restless times, it is all the happi-
ness we get.

Eight days ago, I had a special bit of good luck.
Professor Sartorius of Göttingen,* an old friend, avails
himself of the communication re-opened between the
Germans, and is paying me a visit. What at present is
more desirable, than the conversation of a man, whose
business it is, to be acquainted with, and to balance the
strength, and the relations of states, one against the other,
up to our own time ? We get the greatest tranquillity
from surveying this huge Whole, and from founding our

* Ilofrath Sartorius of Göttingen, the only man with whom Goethe
would discuss politics at this time.

1814.] TO ZELTER. Ill

hopes of future circumstances upon it, instead of finding
ourselves, as formerly, in the sad plight of being carried
away by the moment, puzzled by newspapers, and perhaps
utterly confounded by gossip, — all the more, as the question
may now be said to involve, not only the future destiny of
Europe, but that of the whole world. ....

Bloomed a little flower,

Like a bell.
In a springtide hour.

As it fell.
Came a little bee.

Sipped tlie dew ;
" Why, you must be for me.

And I for you."

You never long the greatest man to be ;
No ! All you say is : " I'm as good as he." —
He's the most envious man beneath the sun.
Who thinks that he's as good as everyone.

I am forced to hide from men,
Keep my treasure in my den.
For it puts the others out,
That I know what I'm about.

83. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 4th May, 1814,
.... I HAD a friend, who used to say, that only
under two circumstances, would he wish to be a king,
namely, at dinner, when fresh herrings, or English beer
were handed round, in order that he might help himself
to the middle slice of the fish, and have the first glass of
the beer. I had a similar feeling, when you told me of
those aristocratic visitors, who enjoyed your grand and
unique representation. Here, to be sure, it is easier not to
grudge the distinguished guests the rest of their kingly
fate. I should have gladly joined in the revel at that

great table, which admits so many sympathetic guests

The most laughable scenes in }Vilh elm Meister are serions
in comparison with the tricks I have to resort to, in con-
triving that your music shall be no longer visible only, but
audible as well

112 Goethe's letters [1814

When an opportunity offers, I shall send you a full score
by Christoph Kaiser, some of whose things you know,
especially a Christmas Cantata. He was with me in Italy,
and is still leading an abstruse life in Zürich ; I should
like to hear in detail, what you think of his style. What I
shall send you is the Overture, and the first Act of Scherz,
List und Bache, the whole of which he has set to music.
He is in my thoughts just now, as I am working at my
Italiänische Beise, and should like to be as clear about his
art, as I am about his studies and his character.

Briefly and hurriedly, let me thank you for the great
pleasure, which your parcel gave me. I succeeded, this
time, in getting the variable Choir that meets at my house,
very well organized.

84. — Zelter ro Goethe.

Berlin, 15th May, 1814.
.... Your last letter of the 4th May, from Weimar,
arrived safely. Please let me have Christoph Kaiser's
score as soon as possible, as I am already busy preparing
for my journey to the Baths, though for the rest of this
month, at least, I remain where I am. As yet I do not
know a note of Kaiser's music, and if you should chance
to have his Christmas Cantata at hand, please send that
also. Reichardt wrote to me the day before yesterday,
that he expects a lasting imjirovement in his painful con-
dition. The Abbe Vogler * died suddenly at Darmstadt,
on the 6th of this month. Art would lose an excellent man
by his death, had he not wasted the best time of his life
in ploughing foi-eign acres, dissecting organs, and fur-
bishing up old trash

85. — Zelter to Goethe.

lierlin, 8th November, 1814.
.... On the 11th of October last, Prince Blücher
paid our Sivgahtdemie a visit, and I thought I could not

* The master of Weber and Meyefbeer. See J. P. Sinopson's
Translation of The Life of Weber, written by his son.

1814.] TO ZELTER. 113

do better than greet him with the little song, Vorwärts
Hinan ! They sang it with such truthfulness and delicacy,
that he was delighted. The 181 voices sounded so fresh

and spirited ; the old fellow could not help crying

86. — Goethe to Zelter.

\V'eimar. 27th December, 1814,

.... My kindest regards to Herr Staatsrath
Schulz ; my delight in his essay will be plain from the
appended copy of a passage in a letter, which I sent to a
friend, immediately after I'eading through his pamphlet ;
perhaps it will better express all that I feel towards him,

than I could have done directly

Copy.

.... After all this, I cannot conceal from you, dear
Friend, that a great gratification has of late befallen me.
I have known for some time past, that Herr Staatsrath
Schulz * of Berlin — a superior man in every way — was
keenly interested in my Farbenlehre, and that he had
specially worked out the physiological part, though he
only jotted down his remarks, without thinking of im-
mediate publication, because he wished first to go deeper
into the matter. Now, at my earnest request, he has been
kind enough to put forward with great clearness, as a clever
man of business, his view of the question, as it now is, and
to collect, and make an inventory of the results, as well
as of the individual experiences. This is the first time
I have happened to see such a superior man agreeing
with my fundamental principles, extending them, building
up upon them, adjusting a good deal, supplementing them,
and opening up new views. His admirable aperQus and
deductions, which many a one might envy, justify our
entertaining great hopes. The transparency of his course

* " This was the beginning of an interesting friendship, though
letters between Goethe and Schulz did not become frequent until the
year 1816." See Lyster's Translation of Diintzer's Life of Goethe,
vol. ii. p. 312.

114 Goethe's letters [1814.

is just as clear as the ramification of his method. His
close observation of the most subtle phenomena incidental
to the subject, his acuteness, without hair-splitting, and,
in addition to this, his extensive reading, make it de-
pendent upon himself only, to enrich and enhance in
value the historical part of my work. If I get his con-
sent to the printing of his essay, it will be certain, even
in its present shape, as a mere sketch, to produce great
effect.

1815.] TO ZELTER. 115

1815.

87. — Zelter to Gokthe.

Berlin, llth Ajiril, IS 15.

. • . . I AVAIL myself of the opportunity, to send
you some autographs of remarkable people. And even if
you should already have something of theirs in your collec-
tion, the compositions are, from a historical point of view,
important in themselves ; particularly those of Sebastian
Bach, and Kirnberger.* In the life of Fasch, you will find
an explanation of the piece, headed La Coorl.f ....

88. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 17th April, 1815.

As you, my dear, silent Friend, have opened your
mouth at exactly the right moment, I will gladly pardon
your remissness hitherto, and send you my best thanks into
the bargain. I had already received some intelligent and
detailed reports of the performance of Epimenides,'^, but
now, in you come with your bold pen, and by dotting the i
and crossing the t, for the first time make the writing
perfectly legible.

Everything depends on a play of this kind being given
a dozen times in succession. Do but realize the elements,
which go to make up such a representation, and you will
almost desjmir of a happy result.

* Johann Philipp Kirnberger, one of Sebastian Bach's pupils, author
of Die Kunst des reinen Satzes. He taught both Fasch and Zelter.

t Une of Emanuel Bach's character-pieces, so called after Karl Fasch,
whose name was mispronounced, " Coorl," by an Austrian friend.

X An allusion to Zelter's graphic account of the performance of Des
Epimenldes Erwachen at Berlin. Goethe wrote this short play, by
Iftland's desire, in honour of the return of the King of Prussia to Berlin.
It symbolizes Goethe's apathy, at a time which called forth an outbreak
of patriotic feeling in Germany.

116 Goethe's letters [1815

1. The work of the Poet. . . .

2. The Composer. . . .

3. The Orchestra. . . .

4. Actors and Singers. . . .

5. Costumes. . . .

6. Sundries. . . .

7. Scenery. . . .

8. A Public, . . .

How many dozens of tin plates would be wanted, to fuse
together the refractory ingredients of such bell-metal !
(See Cellmi, Part II. p. 176.)

When the play is frequently repeated, it is quite a
different matter. Without bellows and flames, without
art and intention, there arise the most delicate elective
affinities, which, in the pleasantest way, unite those seem-
ingly isolated members into a whole ; on the actors' side,
more certainty and pliability, acquired by practice, streng-
thened by applause, supported by an animated insight into,
and a general survey of the whole ; on the spectators' side,
acquaintance, custom, favour, prejudice, enthusiasm, and
whatever may be the names of all the good spirits, without
which, even the Iliad and Odyssey would remain to us but
a lifeless frame- work.

Hence it is, that with more light-hearted nations, when
any piece has once taken hold of them, it can be repeated
ad infinitum, because the actors, the play, and the public
come to understand each other, better and better ; and then
too, one neighbour stirs up another to go to the Theatre,
and the general, everyday talk at last makes it a necessity
for everyone to see the novelty. I saw an instance of this
in Rome, when an Opera, Bon Juan, (not Mozart's,) was
given every evening for a month, an event which so stirred
the city, that the humblest shopkeepers, with kith and
kin, kept house in pit and boxes, and no one could exist,
without having seen Don Juan roasting in Hades, and
the Commendatore floating heavenwards, as a blessed

spirit It pleased me greatly, that you should have

held so firmly to the pivot upon which my play turns,
(but, as I hope, without creaking and jarring,) and that
you felt it so deeply, — although it is quite in accordance
with your nature. Without these fearful chains, the whole

1815.] TO ZELTER. 117

thing would be a folly. The fact that this instance is
proved in women, makes the thing more pardonable, and
draws it into the domain of emotion ; however, we will say
nothing further about the matter, and leave the result to
the gods.

I will look through Catel's book, one day soon. Give
my kindest regards to the author. At present, however, I
guard myself as much against architecture, as against fire.
The older we get, the more must we limit ourselves, if we
wish to be active. If we do not take care, owing to the
multitude of external claims, our mind, and our physical
powers will evaporate in empty smoke, out of pure sym-
pathy, and the necessity of criticism.

I doubt not you have succeeded in clothing Hans Adam's*
body in a tight-fitting jacket ; and I look forward to seeing
him parade about in it. I will look out one of my later
things for you. I find Orientalizing very dangerous work,
for before one is aware of it, the most solid poem slips
out of one's hands, like a balloon, and vanishes into air,
merely from the rational and sjiiritual gas with which it
fills itself

Just as I was considering, what to fill up my remaining
space with, Herr Mendelssohn came in, bringing with him
your kind greeting and gift, — both of them most welcome ;
I received him cheerfully, but absently, for just when he
came in, I was more than a hundred miles away from the
house. The manuscript music is delicious ! I had no
specimen of either of the three masters in my collection.
My very best thanks ! As we have brought the Berliners
to reflect and to make puns, let us stick to it for a time.
Remember me very kindly to Herr Staatsrath Schulz. I
have studied his treatises again lately ; both they and he
have become so much the dearer to me. Now adieu ! May
this letter happily inaugurate the communications we have
just re- opened !

* Tlie first lyric in tlie Divan,

118 Goethe's letters [1815.

89. — Goethe to Zelter.

(End of May.)
I SHALL send you a few words at once, in return for
your dear letter, so that you may be kept in the humour
to write now and again. First and foremost then, pray
let me have some theatrical news, from time to time;
for as I am on good terms with Count Brühl, whom I
knew as a boy, and as the success of Epimenides was owing
to his exertions, I should like to do him a favour, and in a
general way, to remain on good terms with the Berlin
Theatre. If there were only some incitement, very likely
I should work again at play-writing for a time, and then,
Berlin is, after all, the only place in Germany, for which
one has the courage to undertake anything. Owing to the
numerous journals and daily papers, the whole of the
German stage lies bare before our eyes, and whither can
one turn confidingly, when one looks close ? Only speak
out, in your own blunt way, as you were always wont, that
I may not go on in the dark, and squander my good inten-
tions oir false undertakings.

I have made my Pros&rpina* the vehicle for everything
which modern criticism finds and favours in works of
Art: (1) Heroic and landscape decoration ; (2) heightened
recitation and declamation ; (3) Hamiltonian-Handelian f
gestures; (4) change of costume; (5) play of drapery;
and — (6) even a tableau for a Finale, representing the realm
of Pluto ; all this, accompanied by the music you know of,
which serves as welcome spice for this immoderate feast of
the eyes. It was received with great applause, and when
foreigners come to us, it will be a useful little sample, to
show what we can do.

For some time past, I have had just enough inclination,
to contribute articles to the Morgcnhhiff ; and that I may
save you from wasting time, looking for them, I will mark
the numbers, and should like you to hunt them up.

* A lyric monodrama, introduced into Der Trumiph der Empfindsam-
keit.

t Goethe had seen Lady Hamilton at Naples in 1787. See Bi»
Italiänische Reise.

1815.] TO ZELTER. 119

No. 69. Account of some old treasures of German Art,
discovered in Leipzig.

& > Account of Upinienides Erwachen.
76.)
85 )

& > Articles upon the German Theatre.
86.)

They are about to publish Don Oiccio, famous in the secret
literature of Italy for the 365 libellous sonnets, written upon
him by a clever adversary, and published daily throughout
a whole year.

Then Shakespeare is to be discussed : («) considered
generally as a Poet ; {b) compared with the ancient and
with the most modern Poets ; (c) regarded as a Poet for
the stage.

I shall then discuss the Festival, in commemoration of
Iffland and Schiller, as arranged by us for the 10th May.

Also I shall give an account of the Proserpina, and explain
more in detail, what I briefly touched upon above, so that
a similar, nay, better representation of this little play, may
be given in several different Theatres.

I have been looking over my Orientalischer Divan, in
order to send you a new poem, but I now see clearly for the
first time, how this kind of poetry drives one to reflection ;
for I did not find anything vocal in it, especially for the
Liedertafel, for which, after all, it is our main business to
provide. For what cannot be sung in company, is in
reality no song, just as a monologue is no drama.

I have hidden the Gastmahl der Weisen; if it were to
become known, it could not but deeply wound certain
individuals, and after all, it is not worth while quarrelling
with the world, simply to afford it some amusement.

I am just now busy with my Italiänische Heise, and par-
ticularly with Rome. Fortunately I still have diaries,
letters, remarks, and notes of all kinds, so that I can give
a perfectly true description, and a graceful romance as
well. In this I am greatly assisted by Meyer's sympathy,
for he saw me arrive, and start off, and he stayed in Rome,
the whole time that I was in Naples and Sicily. Had I not
these notes and this friend, I should not dare undertake

120 Goethe's letters [1815.

this work ; for, when once we have become clear about
anything, how are we to call to remembrance the sweet
delusion in which, as in a mist, we hoped and searched,
without knowing what, we should attain to, or what we
might find. Meanwhile I am reading Winckelmann in
the new edition by Meyer and Schulze, who have im-
mensely enhanced the value of his works, inasmuch as
here we see what the author has actually accomplished,
and also exactly what it is, which after so many years is
found to require correction and supplement. Meyer's
merits, as editor, are incalculable, and if he makes this
work a foundation, and all through his life continues to
add to it what he learns, he will have done a great thing
for Art and its preservation, for in its present state, it is
daily becoming more insecure, owing to the perpetual
talking to and fro, and the way in which people bungle.

His own History of Art, from the earliest, down to the
most recent times, has already been sketched from begin-
ning to end, and some portions have been worked out in a
masterly style. The merits of such men as Rubens, Rem-
brandt, &c., have never yet been expressed by anyone with
so much ti"uth and energy. One fancies oneself in a gallery
of their works : the effects of light and shade and colouring
in these admirable artists, speak to us from the black letters.

Now do make up your mind to write a Histoiy of Music
in the same sense ! You would hardly be able to resist
doing so, were I to read out Meyer's work to you, for only
a quarter of an hour. From your letters and conversation,
I have already become acquainted Avith many of your fii^st-
rate masters. With the same intelligence, and with the
same powers, you would have to begin with an important
period, and work forwards and backwards, for the True
can be raised and preserved only by its History, and the
False can be lowered and destroyed only by its History.

As for what is false, I met with a remarkable instance
lately. A quotation from Winckelmann referred me to
the homilies of Chrysostom, for I wanted to see what that
Father of the Church had to say about beauty, and what
did I find ? A Pater Abraham ä Sancta Clara,* who

* Tlie name in religion of Ulrich Megerle, born in Swabia, 1642, and
Clia])hiin to the Imperial Court at Vienna, 1009-1709. The Capuchin's

1815.] TO ZELTER. 121

has the whole of the grand culture of Greece behind him,
lives amidst the most abject surroundings, and with a
" golden month," tells his l)ad public the stupidest stuff, in
order to edify them, by means of degradation. Yet how great
is one's admiration of the Greek language and form, even in
this repulsive reflection ! I now, however, for the first time
understand, why our good Christians of modern days prize
him so highly : they themselves have to repeat the same
twaddle perpetually, and everyone feels that he cannot
attain that eloquence G.

Before I closed this, I again looked through my Divan,
and find a second reason, why I cannot send you any poem
out of it ; this, however, speaks in favour of the collection.
For every individual member is so imbued with the spirit
of the whole, is so thoroughly Oriental, referring to Eastern
customs, usages, and religion, that it requires to be ex-
plained by one of the preceding poems, before it can pro-
duce any effect upon the imagination, or the feelings. I
did not myself know, in what a strange way I had made
the whole thing hang together. The first hundred poems
are nearly complete ; when I have finished the second, the

Collection will look graver

90. — Goethe to Zelt'er.

Weimar, 29th October, 1815.
.... I HAVE not returned empty-handed from my
crusade, and ere long, yon will receive my printed obser-
vations upon Art and Antiquity, in the districts about the
Rhine and Maine,* w^ ith incidental remarks on Science. To
be sure, it is not my way to work for the day, but in this
instance, I have been so loyally and earnestly challenged to
such a duty, that I cannot shirk it. In reality, too, I only

Sermon in Wallenstein' s Lager was modelled upon a sermon of his.
Goethe had sent a volume of his works to Schiller, which accounts for the
rejwrt that Goethe wrote the Sermon in Wallenstein. See Buchheim's
Introduction to Wallc7idein.

* Thise observations were contained in a Memoir, written for his old
Leipzig fellow-student, Hardenberg, and called Von Kuntit und Alterthum
am Rhein xincl Maiti.

122 Goethe's letters [1815.

play the editor, inasmuch as I express the sentiments,
wishes, and hopes of intelligent and worthy men. In these
departments, as in every other, there is as much goodwill,
as confusion and mistrust ; everyone would like to do
something, and of course the right thing, and no one
understands, that this can only happen when we work
unitedly, and all together.

Now I must tell you, that my Divan is larger by several
members, some of them of the freshest and most youthful
kind. It can now be divided into books, according to the
different contents ; and there are several vocal things among
them, though — in accordance with their Oriental style — re-
flection prevails in most of them, — as moreover befits the
years of the poet.

Further, the account of my stay in Naples and my journey
through Sicily has been pretty thoroughly revised, by means
of diaries, letters, and my own memor}-, and is just going
to be copied. The journey as far as Rome was already in
train before I left. No one will learn very much from this
little volume, but the reader will have a vivid picture of
districts, objects, people, and travellers.

I heard no public musical performances on my journey,
that gave me any pleasure. I met with some sympathetic
voices, which sounded very agreeable, when accompanied
by piano and guitar. I heard Gott und die Bajadere, given
with all imaginable beauty and feeling.* — But is the first
number of your engraved Songs no longer to be had? I
could not get it in Frankfort, though the others were
there. They know nothing about you on the Maine, and
the Rhine is not acquainted with you, so we have been
pi^eaching your Gospel in these districts. In Heidelberg,
on the other hand, you are held in the freshest remem-
brance. You will, no doubt, allow me to send some of
your Canons and Part-Songs there ; I should also like to

* One of these "sympathetic voices" was that of Marianne von
Willcmer, the poet's favourite and correspondent. Her singing of the
Air from J)u?i Giovanni, Gib mir die Hand, mein Lehen, so bewitched
Goethe, that he said, she was herself "a little Don Juan." He used to
read aloud to her the Persian love-poems, in which he delighted, as well
as his own Wcst'ostlicher Divan, part of which slie inspired. She could
have been no mean poetess herself, since she wrote the famous Song,
Was bedeutet die Bewegung! afterwards set by Mendelssohn.

1815.] TO ZELTER. 123

forward the score of Johanna Sehus. They have a society
of amateurs, under a clever and able conductor.* A well-
intentioned young man has started a singing Academy in
Frankfort, which I hope to be able to assist, and I wish
you would test it. These musicians suffer from the same
misfortune as poets, for each one brings forward only his
own work ; that which is like him, and within his reach.
Fräulein Hügel plays Handel's and Bach's Sonatas most
admirably, and unfortunately, neither in that province of
Art, nor in any other, is there any central point, after which
everybody is sighing, since people are only accustomed to

revolve around themselves

Brühl has taken the Wolffs away from us, which does
not lead one to prejudge his directorship favourably. Of
course you cannot prevent a man from trying to appro-
priate to his own use the services of cultivated artists, but
it would be better and more profitable, if he would train
them himself. Were I as young as Brühl, no chicken
should be allowed on my stage, that I had not hatched
myself. And now a kind farewell, and do send me a little
Song or Canon !

* The famous Thibaut, author of Ueber Reinheit der Tonkunst, an
Encrlish version of which, (by Mr. W. H. Gladstone,) entitled Purity in
Musical Art, appeared a few years ago.

124 goetiie's letters [1816.

1816.

91. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 11th March, 1816.
You are proliably right, my dearest Friend, in saying
that there is no such thing as uninterrupted correspondence,
unless one gossips ; and as this is not our case, it is perhaps
natural, that we should not hear from one another for quite
a long time. Then too, the after-results are so hazardous,
that one scarcely dares to give them expression, for only
very seldom, may we venture to promise applause to con-
clusions without premises.

The presence of Messrs. Schadow and Weber has brought
me into closer rapport with Berlin ; for through personal
intercourse and friendly talk, even distant conditions can
be brought nearer to us. A thousand times have I thought
of you, and how you sail, swim, bathe, and wade about in
such a sea !

My little volume about the Rhine and the Maine, Art
and Antiquity, will now soon reach you ; I have broken off
at the thirteenth sheet, like Scheherazade. Had I earlier
recognized the importance of these pages, I should have
refused the little job altogether ; as it is, I was 'seduced
into it only by degrees, — so let it go its ways ! On the other
hand, I must gratefully acknowledge, that had it not been
for this pressing necessity, I should never have been able
to direct my attention, either to the important question of
the preservation of Art throughout the barbaric time, or to
the peculiarities of national and provincial restoration.
We find in it much that is opj)osed to our refined sen-
suality, and we can make nothing of it, unless we grasp
the idea ; even absurdities please us, when we are clear
about them.

My Divan has grown in bulk and in strength. The style
of jioetry, which, without further rellectiou, I have adopted
and made use of, has this peculiarity, that, like the Sonnet,

1816.] TO ZELTER. 125

it almost resists being sung ; it is also notable enough, that
the gloiy of Orientals is wi-iting, not singing. However,
it is a kind of poetry that suits my time of life, mode of
thought, experience, and view of things, while it allows
one to be as foolish in love-matters, as one can only be in
youth.

Herewith a Song, that can anyhow be sung. And
now, my kindest farewell !

Thy heart to fathntn,
My heart impels nie !
Tliis is my longing,
To tell, to tell thee !
Sadly, how sadly.
The world looks at me !

In my thoughts ever
My friend lives lonely —
No foe. no rival, —
His image only ;
Like lights of morning
A thought rose on me.

My life I'll give him,
To-day, for ever.
Its only service
Henceforth to love him.
I think upon him —
My heart lies bleeding!

Power, — I have no jiower
Only to love liim,
As now in silence. —
What of the future ?
I would embrace him.
And, lo! I cannot!

92. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th March, 1816.
Indeed you have had another hard task put upon
you ; unfortunately, it is ever the same old story, that to
live long means as much as to outlive many, and in the
end, what is the meaning of it all ? A few days ago,
the first edition of my Werther came accidentally into

126 Goethe's letters [1816.

my hands, and this long since forgotten song began to
resound again in me. But then one cannot understand,
how a man could bear to live another forty years in a
world, which already, in his early youth, appeared so
absurd to him.

One part of the riddle explains itself by the fact, that
every one has some peculiarity in himself, which he pro-
poses to develop, whilst allowing it to work on continuously.
Now this strange Nature makes fools of us day by day, and
so we grow old, without knowing why or wherefore. When
I look closely into the matter, it is only the talent im-
planted in me, that helps me through all the unsuitable
conditions, in which I find myself entangled, by false
tendencies, accident, and the adoption of foreign ele-
ments

The course of Art during the Middle Ages, and cer-
tain luminous points at the reappearance of pure natural
talents, have, I hope, gained through my work. But un-
fortunately, the legions of scribblers in Germany will very
speedily thrash out my harvest, whatever it may be, and
swagger along to the patriotic harvest-home, with bundles

of straw, as though they were rich corn-sheaves

Goethe.

93. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, Sunday, 31st Marcti, 1816.
After several rehearsals with Orchestra and Chorus,
there was a reading rehearsal with music, yesterday evening.
Prince Karl of Mecklenburg read the part of Mephis-
topheles, and the actor Lemm, provisionally, that of Faust ;
the rehearsal was at Prince Radzivil's,* in the midst of
his family-circle. The Princess and her children were pre-
sent, the Crown Prince, with his brothers and sisters.
Prince George of Mecklenburg, Frau von der Recke, with

* Prince Radzivil was one of the seven people, who answered Beet-
hoven's invitation to subscribe for the publication of the Mass in D.
His music to J'aust was brought out by the Singakademie in 1833,
shortly after his death ; it was afterwards frequently given at Berlin,
anil elsewhere in Gciinany.

1816.] TO ZELTER. 127

her friend Tiedge, Frau von Humboldt, and several artists,
who are to take part in the representation.

As a beginning, only those scenes were read, in which
none but Faust and Mephistopheles appear. Prince Karl
reads this character in a way that leaves little to be de-
sired — voice, tone, rhythm, figure, and appearance — all is
congruous, even to the cloven foot ; what is wanting in
modulation and tempo will, I hope, arrange itself ; his de-
livery too, won quite universal applause, and the actor
jogged by his side, like a donkey next to a horse.

The elfect of the poem upon an almost entirely youthful
audience, to whom everything was new and strange, is very
remarkable, and they are never tired of wondering that all
that is in print ; they go and consult the book, to see if it
really stands so. That it is true, they all feel, and it is as
if they were inquiring, whether the truth is true. The
composer has hit off much to admiration ; the defect con-
sists in this, that he, like all artists at the outset of their
career, makes main points of what should be secondary.
.... The play is to be given in three Parts. The Second
Part, which we shall soon rehearse, begins with Auerbach's
cellar ; I shall continue to let you know all about it.

94. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 4th April, 1816.
.... The bearer of this letter is the banker,
Abraham Mendelssohn.* He is the second son of the
philosopher, and from the first years of his youth, after his
father's death, he has been attached to my house and all
its inmates. He is one of the right sort, and as such you
will receive him. He has amiable children, and his eldest
little daughter could let you hear a thing or two of Sebas-
tian Bach. The wife is also a most excellent mother and
manager, though unfortunately she is not very strong.
The husband is very fond of me, and I keep open bank
with him, for in times of universal want, he has grown
rich, without damage to his soul. Farewell, my ever be-

* Father of Felix Meiulcls^rihn.

128 Goethe's letters [1816.

loved ! I shall soon see you again, even if it should be
only for a day.

95. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, Sunday, 7th April, 1816.
.... Yesterday we had a reading rehearsal of
Faust, and just as we were about to begin, all the young

Royalties announced themselves Count Brühl played

the poet quite decently. Lemm, the actor, has improved,
and came gradually into his part. Prince Karl, however,
has deteriorated, and fell into the preaching tone. We had
finished the first Act, when the King unexpectedly arrived ;
most likely he could not endure home any longer, as his
children had all gone off.

The whole of the first Act was repeated, and the King,
who at first, as of old, kept quiet and in the background,
after two hours of silence, became sociable, chatty, and

really amiable

96. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 14th April, 1816.

Tour letters, dearest Friend, surprised me most
agreeably in my garden, — gave me much to think about, —
nay, incited me to a rambling conversation in the Far-
away. Then came Mendelssohn, and as I was just in the
humour, and he was recommended by you, I told him
what I should probably have told you ; this I think he
deserved, as he talked very intelligently, and in the course
of his conversation, discussed many important points in
Science, Art, and life. Unfortunately I did not see his
people, they stayed only one afternoon ; I should have
liked to invite them to breakfast to-day, and to have shown
them my goods and cliattels.

I have had a most delightful letter from Staatsrath
Schulz. When the Germans study to be more and more
universally unsympathetic, and gracelessly reject what they
should grasp with both hands, that individual is in truth

1810.] TO ZELTER. 129

celestial, who shows a faithful and honest sympathy, and
joyfully co-operates with others. Remember me to him.
most kindly, when you see him. Seebeck of Nürnberg
holds his own admirably, and I must own, that I am
greatly deliphted, that an old and faithful fellow-labourer
should win the prize in Paris, whilst the Germans behave
towards us, as if they were staring ghosts. But they shall
not get off scot-free; I am only waiting for a fitting oppor-
tunity to give it them pretty soundly.

Amongst our new arrangements in Jena, I intend setting
up a complete prismatic apparatus; no Academy of Sciences
has ever thought of doing this hitherto, and I shall take
the opportunity of letting them hear plenty about it. Still,
in matters of this kind, nothing is to be done with vio-
lence ; one must wait till an opinion, like an epidemic,
fastens on mankind.

Be sure to go on with your theatrical criticisms. Things
must indeed be in a strange state with you in Berlin, if
the people cannot master so plain and conventional a play
as Clavigo ; besides, it is a thoroughly German way of doing
things, to seek the entrance to a poem or any other work,
everywhere, except through the door. I have, through-
out my life, had plenty of opportunities for wondering,
how it happens, that thoroughly educated persons are ab-
solutely incapable of recognizing aesthetic, or higher moral
aims. I had rather not have written a single verse, if
hundreds of thousands did not read the production, reflect
upon it, enlarge upon it, elucidate it, understand it.

Faust may, in future months, give you many a confused
hour. If you go on being as rude as you were to the
gloomy Count, that will be something of itself ; people are
far too often apt to be callous and stupid in such cases.
The incredible conceit, in which young people nowadays
grow up, will, in a few years, manifest itself in the wildest
follies.

Look into the Morgenhlatt occasionally; you will there
find different contributions of mine, that go into the whole
matter, and a good deal you can certainly claim as your
own. The fact is, I have a great number of essays lying
by me, and I have found some amusement this spring,
in touching them up and publishing them : it is the first

130 Goethe's letters [1816.

spring — after a long interval — that we have seen ap-
proaching, without horror and alarm.

Last Sunday we celebrated the grand Huldigung'' s Fete.
The honours, distinctions, and compliments bestowed on
us, told every sensible man among us very plainly, that he
must give himself up for the time being. However, the
task allotted to me is the most pleasant one; I have nothing
to do, except what I thoroughly understand, and I have
only to continue doing what I have done for the last forty
years, with ample means, great freedom, and without worry
or hurry

My last empty page I shall fill with a few verses ; you
can use them, if you feel inclined.

The Public.

Gossip and gossip, and no redress,

None at all.
We've got you into a pretty mess,
In you fall !
To us it's all play,
Get out as you may,
Ade!

Mr. Ego.

Talking and talking to set it right,

Makes it worse.
Twaddle and twaddle! Life so bright
Is a curse I
I'm out and away,
To me it's all play,
Ade ! '

^7. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 3rd May, 1816.

I akswer your dear letter at once. I am glad that
Wolff * ha.s given satisfaction, and glad to know through
you, why and wherefore. The Weimar actors are at their

* Pius Alexander Wolff was one of Goethe's favourite actors. It
was he who brought out Tasso in 1807, when, by Goethe's desire, a bust
of Wieland, instead of Ariosto, was crowned on the stage. Goethe
wrote the lines, beginning Mögt zur Gruft ihn senken, for his funeral.

1816.1 TO ZELTER. 181

best when they work together, but I am glad to hear, that
even the individual carries away with him something of
the whole.

In August, 1803, two young people, Grüner and Wolff,
came here, our company being then absent in Lauchstädt ;
I had time and inclination, and felt disposed to make an
effort, to bring these two up to a certain point, before the
others returned. I dictated to them the first elements,
which, as yet, no one else has thoroughly mastered. Both
studied them attentively, and Wolff has never wavered nor
swerved from them, so that his hold on Art is secured to
him for life. Grüner, at Vienna, has hoisted himself up to
the position of a powerful actor, nay, director, and this
shows that he too has clung to a certain foundation. Both
had come to me with faith and affection, the one abandoning
a military career, the other, mercantile pursuits, and neither
of them fared badly. A few days ago, when I was sorting
some old papers, I found the draft of a letter to Wolff's
mother, which has a nice look about it even now. At
the same time, I came upon the draft of that catechism,
or a b, ab, which, with more pretension, one might also
call Euclidic elements. Perhaps these papers may seduce
me into thinking the matter over again. They do not go
far into the subject, for the company returned, and then
everything had to become practical.

In those days, however, we enjoyed our life and our
theatrical doings so much, that a part of the company paid
me a visit in Jena during the winter, in order to continue
our rehearsals. Owing to the snow, the Schnecke was im-
practicable, and Grüner lost the pamphlet, which he carried
about in his pocket as a talisman, but he recovered it some
days later, for he sounded an alarm about it in all the pot-
houses, and luckily a driver had picked it up.

When you see Mademoiselle Maas, remind her in a
friendly way, of these adventures, for she was one of the
party, and got some little amusement out of them. She
was a favourite of mine, on account of her great self-pos-
session, and charmingly clear recitation ; for that very
reason, I was, on one occasion, terribly angry with her,
during a rehearsal of Tell, because. Heaven knows why
she fell into a lazy way of talking. You see, your friendlj^

132 Goethe's letters [1816.

gossip has made me turn back to earlier times, *vhen the
system which in after times worked on of itself, was worked
out purely and correctly. So just now 1 am living my life
in Sicily over again, in my own way, and now I see for
the first time, how a ten weeks' sojourn in that country
affected me.

And now, to another text. If, in future, people tell you that
I am ill, do not believe them ; if they tell you I am dead,
do not think so. As for the last news you heard, no doubt
there is something rather odd about it ; therefore give heed.

The Huldigung' s Fete was to have taken place on Palm
Sunday, the 7th of April, and thus the key-stone of a new
arch was to be laid, after many destructive troubles. On
the 2nd of April, I was seized with a strange rheumatic
attack, not dangerous, but still very severe, and I was
obliged to take to my bed. As far as I could see, it ap-
peared almost impossible for me to be in my place on the
7fch. But happily I recalled to mind one of Napoleon's
maxims — L' Empereur ne connoit autre maladie que la 'niort, —
and so I said that unless I were dead, I would appear at
Court at noon on Sunday. It seems that the doctor and
Nature took to heart this despotic saying, for on Sunday,
at the given hour, I was standing at my place, on the right,
next to the throne, and even at dinner, I was able to do all
that was expected of me. Afterwards, however, I retired
again, and went to bed, .to wait until the categorical Im-
perative should send me a mortal challenge again. As yet,
all has gone well. I had before this made up my mind to
stay at home till Midsummer, as you also are obliged to ;
for the empirical forces, which have for long been directed
to things without, will now, if God wills, be turned to
things within, only empirically too, but we must thank
God that it is so.

But what will you say now, when I tell you, that I too
have lately had a severe blow ? Pretty Berka on the Ilm,
where we spent such a delightful time, in many different
ways, with Wolf and Weber and Duncker ! Picture to
yourself, first of all, that pretty Viennese piano, belonging
to the Organist Schutz, with the music of Sebastian, Philip
Emmanuel Bach, &c. Well, Berka was burnt to the ground,
between the 25th and 26th of April. By dint of extraor-

1816.] TO ZELTER. 133

dinary presence of mind, and the help of kind people, the
piano -was saved, as well as many other things in the house,
in at most seven minutes' time, which is astonishing ; for
a tremendous fire, which began at a baker's house, had, by
half-past eleven, spread the flames far and wide. All the
organist's old pieces by Bach and Handel, which he had
got from Kittel of Erfurt, are burnt, and that, merely
owing to a stupid accident or arrangement, by which he
had transported them from the untidy chamber, in which
they had hitherto lain, to a rather distant room, where he
could put them in order.

Of course, all these things are already engraved ; let me
know how I could get them from Härtel's in Leipzig, or
elsewhere, for I should be glad to give him a little pleasure
in this way. Heaven bless copper plate, type, and every
other means of multiplying things, so that a good work
which has once existed, can never again be destroyed. If
you should see Geheimrath Wolf, give him the kindest mes-
sages from me, but tell him also that the accursed little
Trompeter Stückchen escaped being burnt by the strangest
chance, as I happened to have it in the Town ; like a good
many other things, it was saved by dispersion.

Tell me calmly and quietly, what you think of Madame
Wolff, when you see her in some new part, or when you
have seen her more frequently ; do the same with regard
to him. I cannot be content with any other report but
yours ; I myself do not see it so well, for I am either in
a productive state, i.e. I insist that he who does not do
things quite rightly shall do better, and I feel convinced
that he will do better, — or my case is exactly the reverse ;
disbelief steps in, and I curse what is done, because I feel
ashamed of being able to expect that it might be any better.

May the moral order of the world preserve you !

98. — Zeltee to Goethe,

Berlin, 8th May, 1816.
.... Beethoven has composed a Battle Symphony,*
as deafening as he himself is deaf. Now women know to

* " This Orchestral programme-music," says Sir G. Grove, " entitled

134 Goethe's letters [1816.

a nicety what happens in a battle, though the time has
already long gone by for anyone to understand what music

On Sunday evening, the Battle Symphony was given in
the Theatre, and I heard it from the very farthest end
of the pit, where all the deafening effect is lost, and yet I
was overwhelmed, nay, shattered. The piece is a real
whole, the parts of which can be intelligibly divided and
connected. The English advance from afar, drums beat-
ing ; as they get nearer. Ride Britannia tells us who they
are. Similarly, the opposing army moves forward, and is
immediately recognized by Marlborough s'en vat'en guerre.
The fire of cannon and small arms is clearly distinguished
on both sides, the orchestral music, which consists of
harmoniously connected thoughts, and interests the ear of
the listener, works like the storm and tumult of battle. The
armies seem to be engaged hand to hand ; furious on-
slaughts on the squares and such-like incidents, — the ex-
citement growing. One army yields, the other pursues,
now vehemently and close at hand, now at a distance. At
last there is a lull. Then, as though issuing from the
ground, muffled and mysterious, the Air de Marlborough
echoes sorrowfully in the minor key, interrupted by the
failing accents of lament and woe. Then the victory of
the conquerors is made known by the air of Ood save the
King, and at last, by a complete, vivid, triumphal move-
ment. All this hangs really well together, though it can-
not be taken in at once, even by a good ear, for yesterday
I thought it a rare joke. The performance too was
splendid, although twenty additional violins would not
have been too many. Vivat Genius ! and the devil take
all criticism ! . . . .

Welli7igton^s Vidory, or The Battle of Viitoria, is a work conceived on
almost as vulgar a plan as the Battle of Prague, and contains few traces
of his (Beethoven's) genius. This however is accounted for by the fact
that the piece was suggested by Maelzel the mechanician, a man of un-
doubted ability, who knew the public taste far better than Beethoven
did."

1816.] TO ZELTER. 135

99. — Goethe to Zelter,

Jena, 2 1st May, 1816.
.... I AM very glad that you approve of my
Epilogue to Essex* Madame Wolff begged me for a con-
clusion ; I did not wish to get rid of it with mere phrases,
and so I made a study of the history and the novel, upon
which the play is founded. I might certainly just as well
have written a new tragedy, as this Epilogue ; so no wonder,
if it was full of matter. And if you bear in mind, that
it was written during the three days of the battle of
Leipzig, many a prophetic line will seem to you of deeper

significance

A strange confusion presents itself, when one looks into
the political and moral imbroglio of the world of Art,
manufactures, and science : all sorts of advantages and
disadvantages in the various branches, at one and the same
time. Everything that is undergoing extension and en-
largement, excellent I Everything that requires depth and .
unity, near its destruction.

~1 was veiy glad to get your report of Beethoven's Battle.
Those are the advantages of a large city, which we go

without

100. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 8th June, 1816.
.... When I tell thee, thou sterling, and much-
tried son of earth, that my dear little wife has in these days
left us, you will know what this means. f

* A play by Banks and Dyk. The lines in Goethe's Epilogue : —

" Man must expei'ience, be he who he may.
One last success and one last fatal day."

seem to point to Napoleon.

t On the day of his wife's death, Goethe wrote these lines : —

"O Sun, that striv'st in vain
Dark clouds to cross !
This is my life's whole gain.
To weep her loss."

136 ■ Goethe's letters [1816.

101. — GoKTHE TO Zelter.

Weimar, 22nd July, 1816.

.... Before leaving, I shall send a copy of your
songs to Offenbach, for Andre. I am greatly pleased, that
my sombre Byzantine derivation * could attract you ;
Tpithout some such foundation and derivation, all criticism
is tomfoolery, and even with it, nothing is done, for it still
requires a whole lifetime of observation and action ; there-
fore, to no one would I more willingly hand over the surface
of the earth, than to the bungler, who with comj^lacent
cheerfulness demands indulgence, with apparent earnestness,
desires a candid criticism, and with modest pretension,
wants to he thought a good deal of. May my Commentary
show its gratitude to your text !

I have lately met with much kindness and affection.
Friends of my youth, not seen for twenty-five years, and
now elderly men, came unexpectedly to see me, and were
glad to find many things in their old places, and much that
had progressed, progi-essing further. On the evening of the
20th, when I was repelled with a protest, I found Chladni,
who is gaining great credit, by his thorough and arduous
study of meteoric stones and figures of sound. He is woi'king
for a time, when men will once more rejoice to learn from
others, and gratefully make use of what they, by the sacri-
fice of their lives, have gained, more for others than for
themselves. Nowadays, when one speaks, even to eminent
men, of something which they ought to learn through tra-
dition, they assui-e us, that they have not yet had time to
examine it.

May Grod grant you less learned scholars, so that some-
thing of your virtues may remain upon the earth ; but the
others, who place themselves on a level with the highest,
while in ideality they are grovelling on the lowest steps,
worshipping the semblance — leave them, I beseech you, in
their self-complacency, for it would be a sin to break up
their world.

Properly speaking, one ought not to return, after having

* See Letter 102.

1816.] TO ZELTER. 137

departed this life ; however, this time I succeeded in doing
it again, the difference being only that of a few hours.
Still it is sti'ange, how once more life clutches hold of
one instantly, and — just because time was so urgent, and
they thought to lose me again directly, I expei'ienced and
effected as much as I usually do in weeks.

Things are looking quite cheerful in my household.
August, as you know, enters very intelligently into every-
thing, and we have, in a few hours, laid the foundation
for our next winter's entertainments. I have been so
helped with my chemistry and physics, that I do not
know whether I ought to I'egret not being able to get to

Wiirzbui^g this evening

102. — Goethe to Zelter.

Tennstedt, 9th August, 1816.

.... Our Itodms Fest * of 1814 is as good as
finished ; it is to enliven the second immber. I should
like to submit it to you, that it may be quite complete.
Some few things may have escaped me.

I am very glad you adopt so cordially my derivation of
modern from ancient Art. I am myself convinced that I
have laid a good foundation ; your parallel with music is

very welcome

103. — Goethe to Zelter.

Tennstedt, 28th August, 1816.
Tour dear letter came yesterday at the right time,
that 1 might enjoy it to-day, and have a chat with you.
I am keeping this birthday in special solitude. Hofrath
Meyer, who stayed with me for a month, and Geheimrath
Wolf, who looked in for a day and a half, went away early
this morning, and so I am left to myself. ,

* A sketch of the Festival of St. Rochus at Bingen, which Goethe had
witnessed, iuconijiany with Zelter, and Cramer, the famous mineralogist.

138 Goethe's letters [1816.

These two men, each with great gifts, are widely diiferent
to live with. The former, though quite as certain of his
subject as the latter, will never spoil a party, because he
knows how to keep silence, and how to lead ; the latter, on
the other hand, is, in the sti-angest way, given to con-
tradiction, for he obstinately gainsays every remark that
is made, nay, every established fact, which puts one into a
state of desperation, even though one is prepared for it.
This ungracious manner grows upon him, year by year,
and makes his society, which might otherwise be so in-
structive and profitable, useless and intolerable ; nay, one
ends by becoming infected with the same madness, and
thinking it pleasant to say the reverse of what one believes.

One can readily imagine, how admirably this man must
have acted as a teacher in former years, when he rejoiced
in being thoroughly positive about things

I have read with pleasure your article on Mesdames
Catalan!, Milder, and Mara ; people never understand,
that beautiful hours, like beautiful talents, must be enjoyed
on the wing.

You will already have seen from the newspapers, how
absurdly the Leipzigers have behaved at this juncture.*
I think we shall be driven to preserve God's gifts in
spii'its, for such an accursed set of people, in order that
when an opportunity occurs, they may compare and classify
them.

The ancient Art of the Netherlands, as you have seen it
at Heidelberg, will be a great gain to you, just becanase you
do not wish to master it. Read my pamphlet again, and
yet once again, now that you have seen the thing itself.
I did not wish to settle the matter ; for who can and dare
do this ? I know too, that no one is altogether satisfied
with me ; but this I know also, that the understanding
can here find a way into the wood.

I have had reason lately to look into Teutonic poetry,
and, as is my wont, I cannot resist taking some steps at
once. If in doing this, I can seize upon any ballads for
you, that will be my greatest reward. I would also gladly

* Referring to a scandalous criticism on Catalani, whicli appeared in
the Leipzig newspaper.

1816.] TO ZELTER. 139

render some service to the subject itself, but to me, the
most sorrowful part of it is, that the Germans do not
always clearly know, whether they are carrying home full

wheat-sheaves, or bundles of straw

104. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, September, 1816.
Last time you found me in a melancholy state, and
now I must sadden you. The enclosed letter contains the
news of a great misfortune,* and my only comfort is to
know you near me, and to feel that I am prepared to share
your troubles with you.

105. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 14th October, 1816.
.... Herewith the new copy of my Pflanzen-
Metamorphose; the missing part I have had written out,
for it might probably be difficult to find it in Berlin. If,
in your leisure hours, you should read the little work again,
look upon it merely as symbolical, and always imagine to
yourself some other kind of vitality, developing progres-
sively out of itself. I have again looked into Linnfeus'
writings lately, in which he founds the science of botany,
and I now see very clearly, that I too have used them
only symbolically, that is, I attempted to transfer the same
method and style of treatment to other subjects, thereby
acquiring an organ, with which a great deal may be

done

* This refers to the death of Zelter's little daughter, Clärchen, which
took place at Berlin, during Zelter's absence at Weimar.

140 gobthe's letters // , [1816.

106. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 7th November, 1816.

.... Truly not till we are old, do we know what
we met with in youth. Once for all, we learn and compre-
hend nothing ! All that affects us is but incitement, and,
God be praised, if anything does but stir in response ! I
have again been reading Linnseus lately, and am amazed
at this extraordinary man. I have learned any amount
from him, only not botany. Barring Shakespeare and
Spinoza, I do not know that any dead writer has had such
an effect upon me.

It is strange, but quite natural, that people should
speculate on our last days as on Sibylline leaves, having
coldly and impiously allowed a bonfire of the time that
went before. — I have pressing and tempting invitations to
the Rhine, of which you have probably heard, as people
thei'e seem to consider it quite a settled matter. But what
is all that to me ? I own to perceiving the good effect of
my few summers on the Rhine and ]\Iaine, for, after all, I
merely preached St. John's Epistle, " Little children, love
one another," and that failing, ^' Live and let live." And
you will approve of my saying, that if this heavenly
message should to some extent take hold of your Nineveh,
you would become quite different people, without being
more or less than you are.

But to what end is the outlay of days and hours in direct
personal exertion ? I will rather, from my quiet, un-
molested abode, dictate and copy so much, and print, and
let things lie, for publication abroad or for keeping at
home, so that everyone, as you very rightly feel, may be
silent as to the source from whence he gets them, and that
anyhow the whole of humanity may be bolstered up a little.

All the tomfooleries about pre- and post-occupations,
plngiarisms and half purloinings, are perfectly clear to
me, and I think them silly. For what is in the air, and
what the age demands, may suddenly enter into a hundred
people's heads at once, without anyone having borrowed
from the other. But here let us stop, for in the dispute
about priority, as in that about legitimacy, no one possesses

1816.] TO ZELTER. 141

a prior claim, nor one that is more rightful, than he who
can preserve himself.

If Isegrimm * goes on telling of his absurd behaviour
towards me, it points to a bad conscience ; he will not
report, how bestially I replied to it. Luckily or unluckily,
I had taken more glasses of Burgundy than I ought to
have done, so that I too went beyond bounds. Meyer, who
is always composed, was sitting near, and felt rather uneasy
at the affair.

It was on the night of the 27th of August, and I had
already formed a friendly plan of celebrating my birthday
on the 28th with this friend, who had arrived unexpectedly.
It chanced that Meyer had to leave in the morning, and,
although unwillingly, I allowed that excellent unbearable
to drive off, and spent the 28th of August pleasantly, alone.
That man, steeped in contradiction, would, in honour of
my fete-day, have ended by maintaining that I had never
been born.

All this, however, will come home to him, and in the
end, he will not know what to do with himself. Herder,
too, was presumptuous enough to carry youthful follies of
this kind over into old age, and at last became almost
desperate about it. Examine yourself, and see if such
stuff is to be found in you ; I do so every day. One must
not swerve in oneself, not even a hair's breadth, from the
highest maxims of Art and life ; but in empiricism, in the
movement of the day, I would rather allow what is mediocre
to pass, than mistake the good, or even find fault with
it

I have again revised my Bochus-Festival, and had it copied
out ; it has gained in definiteness and brilliancy. Unless
one imitates the painters, who put on more washes again,
the more they stipple, detaching and once more re-uniting
the objects, nothing can come of such things.

The first essay of the second issue will create a mighty
noise; it is called Neu-Deutsche, fromm-patriotische Kutist.

Yours,

• F. A. Wolf. See Note to Letter 121.

142 Goethe's letters [1816.

Weimar, November 7th, 1816.

.... Please send me the books nnfranked. In fact
no one need scruple to send me anything in this way, as
I have the freedom of the post, which I prefer to the
freedom of the press, though I occasionally avail myself of
that also.

More ere long ! Generally speaking, goodness and excel-
lence may accrue to many things, if cultivated men club
together, to act constitutionally. We Germans stand
pretty high, and have no reason whatever for allowing our-
selves to be driven about, hither and thither, by the wind.

All good spirits praise the Lord God !

Goethe.

107. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 14th November, 1816.
In order that our friendly and animating discussion
may not come to a standstill, I send you a few words, with
reference to your proposal to write a Cantata for the
Reformation Jubilee. It would, I suppose, best shape
itself on the lines of Handel's Messiah, a work into which
you have penetrated so deeply.

As the leading idea of Lutheranism rests on a very
dignified foundation, it gives a fine opportunity for poetical,
as well as musical treatment. Now this basis rests on the
decided contrast between the Ziav: and the Gosßel, and
secondly, upon the accommodation of such extremes. And
now, if in order to attain a higher standpoint, we substitute
for those two words, the expressions Necessity and Freedom,
with their synonyms, their remoteness and proximity, you
see clearly, that in this circle is contained everything that
can interest mankind.

And thus Luther perceives in the Old and New Testa-
ments, the symbol of the great and ever-recurring order of
the world. On the one hand the Law, striving after love,
and on the other, love, striving back towards the Law, and
fulfilling it, though not of its own power and strength, but
through faith ; and that too, by exclusive faith in the
Messiah, proclaimed to all,— all powerful.

1816.] TO ZELTER. 143

Thus briefly, we are convinced, that laitheranism can
never be united with the Papacy, but that it does not
contradict pure reason, so soon as reason decides upon
regarding the Bible, as the mirror of the world ; which
indeed it should not find difficult.

To express these ideas in a poem, adapted to music,
I should begin with the thunder on Mount Sinai, with the
Thou sJiaU, and should conclude with the Resurrection of
Christ, and the Thou vjilt !

For the further illustration of my plan, I will add the
successive order, in which the whole should be arranged.

First Part.

1. The giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.

2. The warlike, pastoral life, as described in the Books of

Judges, Ruth, &c.

3. The consecration of Solomon's Temple.

4. The break up of the worshippers, who are driven to

the mountains and hill-tops.
6. The destruction of Jerusalem, followed by the Babylonish

captivity.
6. Prophets and Sibyls, announcing the Messiah.

Second Part.

1. St. John in the wilderness, taking up the Proclamation.

2. The recognition by the Three Kings.

3. Chi'ist appears as a Teacher, and draws the multitude

to Him. Entry into Jerusalem.

4. At the approach of danger, the multitude disperses ; His

friends fall asleep ; His sufferings on the Mount of
Olives.
6. The Resurrection.

On comparing these two parts, the first seems to be in-
tentionally longer, and has a decided central point, which
however is not wanting in the second either.

In the First Part, numbers 1 and 5 are parallel with
each other ; Sinai and the Destruction, the time of the
Judges, and the service of Baal ; numbers 2 and 4, idyllic,

144 Goethe's letters [1816.

enthusiastic, the consecration of the Temple as the highest
climax, &c.

In the Second Part, in numbers 1 and 5, the dawn pre-
ceding the sunrise would be expressed in gradually ascend-
ing strains. Numbers 2 and 4 stand in contrast. Number
3, the entry into Jerusalem, might express the unconstrained
and pious joy of the people, in the same way as the conse-
jration of the Temple expresses the princely, priestly
limitation of the Divine worship.

Thousands of other situations will occur to you at the
first glance. These things must not be connected histori-
cally, but lyrically ; everyone knows the whole, and will
gladly allow himself to be transported from one region
into the other, on the wings of poetry.

The text should consist of passages from the Bible,
well-known evangelical hymns, interspersed with what
has been written in later times, and whatever else can be
found. Luther's own words could hardly be made use of,
as the good man is thoroughly dogmatic and practical ;
so also is his enthusiasm. But, after all, it is your business
to look into the writings themselves. Above all things,
read his preface to the Psalms, which is quite inestimable.
Further, his prefaces and introductions to the other Biblical
books. Probably you will there come across applicable
passages, and at the same time, succeed in thoroughly
grasping the meaning of the whole doctrine, the gift of
which we propose to commemoi'ate.

Perhaps after what has been said above, this is the place
to add a few words concerning Catholicism. Soon after
its first origin and promulgation, the Christian religion
lost its original purity through heresies, rational and irra-
tional. But as it was called upon to check and control
barbarous nations, and morally corrupted people, harsh
means were necessary ; they did not want doctrines, but
service. The one Mediator between the Highest God of
Heaven and earthly men was not enough, &c. as we all
know ; and thus there arose a kind of heathenish Judaism,
which exists, and makes its influence felt, up to the present
day. All this had to be revolutionized in men's minds, for
which reason liutheranism refers itself solely to the Bible.
Luther's conduct is no secret, and now that we are about

1816.] TO ZELTER. 145

to commemorate him, we cannot do so in the right way,
unless we acknowledge his merits, and describe what he
achieved, both in his own day, and for those that came after
him. This Festival should be given in such a manner, that
every right-minded Catholic should be able to join in its
celebration. Of this, however, more anon. If my plan
pleases you, erect something for yourself, and tell me about
it, and I will join. So much, if it be not too much, for
to-day ! The Weimar Friends of Art are similarly actuated,
in their preparations for the monument they have already
designed. We are making no secret of the matter, and
hope at all events to contribute our share.

Gr.

108. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 10th December, 1816.
Your little Song has arrived ; we thank you heartily
for what you have done so well. If the melody is varied
to suit the text, as you have indicated, it cannot fail to be
very effective. In return, I send you the scheme for the
grand Cantata, further developed ; may it come into full
flower with you ! I have kept a copy of it

The composer must accurately weigh the relations of all
the different parts to one another, and reserve for himself
continuous Crescendos, which he can get by variation, start-
ing from the thunderings on Mount Sinai.

Taking Handel's Alexander' s Feast as my guide, instead
of giving but the one character of Timotheus, as he appears
in that work, I have introduced several speakers, who may
be imagined, now merely reciting, now singing, now com-
peting with the Chorus, just as may be considered fit in
the course of the action.

The speakers are mostly men, but should it be necessary,
women may be substituted. What I particularly wish to
know is, how the leading parts are to be distributed, and in
what passages one should introduce regular Airs, for which
Biblical and other pious sayings might then be adapted, in
such a way, as to be recognizable, and yet at the same time
more convenient rhythmically.

146 goethb's letters [1816.

First Part.

Symphony.

At the end, thunder on Mount Sinai.

An eager semi-chorus, (the people,) is bent on seeing

closely what goes on.
The Levites, (a semi-chorus,) restrain them.
The people are thrust back from Sinai, and worship their

God.
Aaron, in his speech on the apostacy to the golden calf,

inaugurates the scene.
The people humble themselves, and receive the Law.
Speaker. (Joshua.)
March through the Wilderness.
Conquest of the land.

Warlike Shepherd- Choruses, similar to those in my Pandora.
Speaker, (Samuel,) explains the fluctuation of the people,

between Priesthood and Monarchy.
Steadfastness of the king and nation in their conception

of the only national God.
Solomon's accession to the throne.
Choruses of women.

The Shulamite, the best beloved, in the distance.
Choruses of Priests.
Consecration of the Temple.
Choruses of all kinds.
Speaker. (Elijah.)

Preparing the way for the apostacy to Baal.
Service on Mountain-heights, and in the open air.
Choruses of the people, who are returning to the pleasant-
ness of their earlier and freer open air life.
Mirthful festivity, less religiosity.
Choruses of priests of the Baal type, imposing from their

harshness and roughness.
Speaker. (Jonas.) Threats, prophesying the coming of

great hordes of enemies.
Approach of the enemy.
Anxiety.

Downfall of the kingdom, violent.
Captivity. Lovely and melancholy.
Speaker, (Isaiah,) predicting salvation and future happiness.

1816.] TO ZELTER. 147

Choruses, accepting the prediction gratefully, but in an

earthly sense.
Choruses of Prophets and Sibyls, pointing to the spiritual

and eternal.
Triumphant Finale.

Second Part.
Symphony.
Sunrise.

Loveliness of the early morning.
Rural, not pastoral.
Expanse of solitude.
Speaker. (St. John.)
He receives the promise.
He beholds the star of the Nativity.
As the morning star.

Ushering in the approach of the Three Kings.
Procession of the Three Kings.

There is nothing contradictory in Janissary music being
used here, for of course it came to us from the other side
of the Oxus. It would be specially appropriate on the
arrival of the Third King, vrho is always represented as
something of a barbarian.

(This scene must needs be decidedly dramatic, for the
sake of variety.)

The Kings vanish in the distance.

Speaker. (Christ.)

He appears as a Teacher.

Chorus attentive, but hesitating.

His teaching becomes more elevated.

The people throng around Him and applaud, but always in

an earthly sense.
Christ elevates His teaching to the spiritual level.
The people misunderstand Him more and more.
Entry into Jerusalem.
Speakers. (Three Apostles.)
Fear of danger.

Christ consoling, strengthening, and admonishing.
Alone, in anguish of soul.
The extreme agony.

148 Goethe's letters . [1816,

Speaker. (Evangelist.)

Brief mention of the physical suffering.

Death. Resurrection.

Chorus of Angels.

Chorus of the terrified watchmen.

Chorus of women.

Chorus of the disciples.

Everything earthly dies away, and the spiritual rises higher
and higher, until it reaches to the Ascension, and Immor-
tality.

1817.] TO ZELTER. 149

1817.

109. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 1st January, 1817.

.... With the New Year comes the announcement

of my son's marriage with the elder Fräulein von Pogwisch ;*

it is the wish of both the young people, and I have nothing

to say against it. Court and Town sanction their union,

which will found some very pleasant social relations

Farewell, and do not omit, from time to time, to set your
swan and bustard quills in motion for my sake.

110. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, Bth January, 1817.
.... Your letter of New Year's Day contains
delightful New Year's news. The marriage of your good
August with a girl, who is popular and beloved, both at Court,
and in the country, may and must make you happy too.

Here comes the young wifeling, and strokes the old gen-
tleman's beard, and tickles him behind the ear, slinks off
at the right moment, and tastes the soup, peeps into
corners, and flicks away the dust with her finger, looks out
for the weather, goes to the stable, orders the carriage to
be brought round, turns the old fellow out into the sun-
shine, gives him a good airing, packs him back again into
the chaise, and settles his cloak straight, while at home —
there stands the soup in friendly expectation, and it's
"Papa" here and " Papa" there, and wherever things go

* Ottilie von Pogwisch had, as a child, delighted Goethe with her
singing, at his private concerts, and he hoped by this marriage to
reclaim liis son, who already showed signs of the dissolute tendency,
which eventually ruined him. Goethe was very fond of Ottilie ; " when
he was in Jena, she had to write to him every week ; so too he wrote
to her." CSee Diintzer's Charlotte von Stein.)

150 Goethe's letters [1817.

a little bit wrong or awry, there she steps quietly in,
once more restoring the magnetic force of happy union.

My love to your dear boy, and his darling; he may reckon
on my warmest sympathy. His happiness is in his own
hands, and for his prosperity — may the gods be favourable,

and no demon disturb it

111. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 23rd February, 1817.

.... Praise and gratitude to you for the good
words, with which you so loyally honour IpJiigenie ! *
My Italiänische Beise shows how strangely the second
edition came about. It is there noticed, that the ancient
Tragedians have treated this subject, and it could not fail
to charm me, when I had become so much at home in the
house of Atreus.

A cyclical treatment has many advantages, only we
moderns do not know exactly how to manage it

I have again brought Mahomet f upon the stage, as a
means for practising our first grammatical exei'cises. Things
look strange enough, — as regards myself, they are as favour-
able as possible. In the actual artistic, technical, and
economical details, the arrangement could not be better;
but at the end, a stupid piece of mismanagement excited
general indignation, and an explosion was inevitable. J I
expected it, and thought I should get quit of the whole
business ; instead of which, I felt myself bound to help in
supporting the rotten edifice. This is quite possible, and
easy for me, as my son has been associated with me in the
Management, and I exercise unlimited power in the art-
department, without being worried by collateral matters.
In a short time, everything will look different, and if I
continue up to Midsummer, doing what I have done during
the last three weeks, I shall be able to go forth into the wide

* In a previous letter, Zelter had praised the altered version of
Iphigcnie.

t Goethe's Translation of Voltaire's Maho7net.
X See the end of this Letter.

1817.] TO ZELTER. 151

world, and the Theatre will gain more from this, than the
Athenians did, from Solon's laws and departure

To fill up the empty space, I will tell you in confidence,
that for quite a fortnight, day and night, (when the latter
means a great deal with me,) I have been busy with a piece
of work, which you would not credit me with. It is this.
I am revising Kotzebue's Schützgeist. They had very
stupidly given the piece in extenso, on the Grand Duchess's
birthday. It lasted till half-past ten o'clock ; the Court and
the Town protested against its reproduction. But as the
motives of this piece of patchwork are still interesting to
some extent, and exactly what the people like, I set to work
at it, and became the protecting spirit of The Protectin-g
Spirit. It now holds its place in our repertoire, and by
this alone I feel myself richly rewarded for my trouble.

Farewell, and write soon.

Yours,
G.

112. — GoRTHB TO Zelter.

Jena, 29th May, 1817.
.... Since Jena revived again, I have had many
interesting experiences in the natural history department,
and, like Ezekiel, I am utterly amazed to see the old bone-
field suddenly stirred up to life. Before Midsummer, I
expect to be able to publish a Number, consisting of twelve
sheets, and shall let my old guards of the sovereignty of
Nature march up in a series of columns. All this I could
do the more calmly, that the Second Part of my Rhein und
Main, which is worth some fugitive productions, was on its
way to you.

The manifestos of war and peace therein contained will ,
be ceaselessly attacked. I have not much more time to be ,
sincere, — therefore let us make use of it ; the aspect of things
is really too foolish, when we, from our own standpoint, dis- '
tinctly see what incredible advantages and privileges the cen-
tury has, what admirable individuals are at work in it, and
how, nevertheless, everything is in a state of confusion,
one sphere of activity destroying the other, so that every
person I speak to individually, seems reasonable, but when
regarded relatively, mad. This goes so far, that I some- i

152 Goethe's letters [1817.

times seem to myself to have two natures, and do not
rally from this feeling of doubt, till I converse with per-
sons, who are at home in their own proArinee, both theo-
retically and practically. And in an Academy such as ours
was and is, these ai'e always to be found.

As I have now moved into a pretty, cheerful Grarden-
house, the second Part of my Italiänische Reise will be
taken in hand next, of course with the old motto, " I too
was born in Arcadia." This Italy is so hackneyed a coun-
try, that were it not that I see myself reflected in it, as in
a youth-restoring mirror, I would rather have nothing at
all to do with it.

These are my present pursuits, though at the end of May,
and in this loveliest of garden-dwellings, I am freezing in a
comfortless fog, and for the first time thoroughly under-
stand a huge stove of the year 1661, in a fairly sized room.
After all, what clever fellows our ancestors were ! . . . .

113. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 16th December, 1817.
.... I AM living between Weimar and Jena ; at both
places, I have work which gives me pleasure. In Jena, I can
actually work and learn at the same time ; natural science,
especially chemistry, is so vigorous, that one gets young
again most pleasantly, seeing that one finds one's earliest
forebodings, hopes, and wishes realized, and at tte same
time, vouchers for the best and highest to which one can
raise oneself in thought. My next number of Naturlehre
will, I hope, supply you with much that is symbolic of your
own kind and benevolent intentions.

In this innocent way, I live my quiet life, and allow the
horrible smell of the Wartburg fire,* at which all Germany
is taking ofi^ence, to pass off; it would, by this time,
have evaporated here, had it not been driven back by the
North East wind, and smothered us a second time.

* An allusion to the patriotic Festival, celebrated in 1817, by the
Burschen.sc//afiler, at the Wartburg. (See Buchheim's edition of
Heine's Bosa, pp. 180, 294.)

1817.] TO ZELTER. 153

In such cases, the individual person who suffers from the
universal folly, must be allowed to say with some self-com-
placency, that even if he did not foresee, he felt all this
beforehand, and that, with regard to those points, which had
become clear to him, he not only advised against, but also
advised in favour of, advised indeed the very things which
everyone wishes he had done, when the business goes wrong,
'This justifies my impassibility, for which reason, I have — ■
like the Epicurean gods — enveloped rayself in a qjiiet cloud ;
would that I could draw it more closely about me, and
make it more and more dense and impenetrable

A work which the Grand Duke brought with him from
Milan, with reference to the Last Supper of Leonardo da
Vinci, has taken great hold of me. The engraving by
lilorghen is of course often to be met with in Berlin; and
even though you should happen to know it already, take
another look at it, and examine it with respectful attention.
You will then find it deeply affecting, when you hear from
me all the particulars, — what was the origin of the picture,
how it was thought out, composed, elaborated, and finished,
as a wonder of the world ; again, how it faded away at once,
was neglected, injured, restored, and by this very restora-
tion, utterly destroyed. Further, you will be glad to find,
that the Milanese are still deserving of honour, for their
veneration of this corpse, and the way in which they pre-
serve and keep alive the traces of its remembrance. And
having got thus far, and hoping for a speedy reply, I will
only add kind greetings to friends.

114. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 31st December, 1817.

At your suggestion, I have been looking through
the few scraps of poetry I have by me, and find only the
enclosed, which may perhaps come in useful for your
Society. It was an extemporary offering to my very old
friend, Knebel, on his seventy-third birthday. Good
luck to the Society, which may also sing it at certain
epochs ! . . . .

154 Goethe's letters [1817.

Lustrum hath a foreign sound !

Lustra then express it !

Eight or nine, on this same ground,

We have borne, confess it ! .

Laughed and lived, and as it came,

Loved perhaps another ;

He that strives to do the same,

He shall be our brother, —

Say, 'Tis much. Life strews our way,

Not with thornless flowers I —

But the goal's the goal to-day,

And rejoicing ours !

30th November, 1817.

1818.] TO ZELTER. 155

1818.

115. — Zelter to Goethe.

11th January, 1818.
.... Should you be willing to send me your ex-
planatory poems, please do so as soon as possible, as I am
rather in the humour just now ; I always want more time
for freeing myself from my usual surroundings, than I do
for the actual work. I could not help smiling, any more
than you could, when I heard you had read Mattheson's *
VoUhnnmene Gapelhneister. That man was Secretary of
Legation for Great Britain up to the time of his death, and
an eminently useful statesman at the same time. By the
the time he had reached his seventy-second year, he had
written the same number of works, mostly musical, which
cut a strange figure nowadays. I am very fond of dipping
into them, for they always help me to thoughts for which
I should have to seek far enough, Heaven knows, but for
him ! Some time ago, I sent you a good manuscript copy of
Das Wohlfemperirte Clavier, so you ought not to have been

forced to buy it

Z.
116. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 20th January, 1818.
.... Rossini was once asked, which of his Operas
pleased him best? His answer was — "II Matrimonio Se-
greto."-f

* Johann Mattheson, better known as an author than as a musician,
was one of Handel's earliest friends at Hamburg. Their dispute and
consequent duel, so nearly fatal to the great composer, are well known
to the students of Handel's biography. His versatility was wonderful.
At different times of his life, he was an operatic singer, an organist, a
tutor, a Cantor, and the canon of a cathedral, besides which, he wrote
and composed. Perhaps Der Vollkommene Capellmeister is the most
valuable of his numerous works.

■f- This seems to be a mistake; the Opera cited by Rossini was, ac-
cording to his latest biographer, Don Giovanni.

156 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1818.

In the second Act of Elena, an Opera by old Mayer of
Bergamo,* there is said to be a very effective Sestett ; a
popular Bohemian melody, a sort of Notturno, is said to
be the principal theme. Would it be possible to get hold
of the score of this Sestett ?

For several years past, your Fasch has been lying among
a number of papers in Jena ; I found it lately, and read it
at one sitting, with great edification. How it transports
one into another world ! And how passing strange is that
old item, out of the catalogTie of universal history, — the
King! I say "old," and he has not yet been dead forty
years, but his deeds of commission and omission are already
antiquated, — though this may perhaps be ascribed to the
hurry of these last days. Now farewell ! and let me soon

have some cheerful tidings

117. — Goethe to Zelter,

Jena, 16th February, 1818.
.... Tou know Jena too little for it to mean any-
thing to you, when I tell you, that on the right bank of the
Saal, close to the Camsdorf bridge, above the ice-laden
waters, which are dashing violently through the arches, I
have taken possession of a tower, (vulgo Erker,) which has
for many years past tempted me, my fi'iends, and my own
people to live there, though not one of us would ever have
given himself the trouble to mount the staircase. . Here I
while away the happiest hours of the day, looking out on
the river, the bridge, the gravel- walks, meadows and gar-
dens, and then upon the dear funny nest itself, with
the hills and mountains, and heights, famous in battle,
rising beyond. When the sky is clear, I can, day by day,
see the sun setting somewhat later, and more to the north ;
by this I regulate my return to town.f

In tliis state of almost absolute solitude, the Third Part
of my Kunst unci Altertlium has been prepared for the

* Johann Simon Mayer, tlio conij)oser of no less tlian seventy Oj)eras.
His fame in Italy was only eclipsed by that of liossini, who, it is said,
borrowed from him his well-known orchestral Crescendo.

t Goethe occupied I'ooms on the top-story of the Inn Zur Tanne,
where lie remained till the end of June.

1818.] TO ZELTER. 157

press. The Second Part of my Morjjholotjie is likewise pro-
gressing. I hope to get the upper hand of my Eatoptische
Farben, in connection with my Farbenlehre, before Easter.
Let friend Schulz know of this, if you chance to meet him
anywhere.

Further, I should not forget to tell you, that we have
the most complete arrangements for observing atmospheric
changes, while I, on my part, try to interweave the forms of
the clouds, and the colours oi the skj, with words and images.

But as all this, except for the whistling of the wind and
the rushing of the water, runs off absolutely without a
sound, I really want some inner harmony, to keep my ear
correct ; and this is possible, only by my faith in you, and
in what you do and what you value. Therefore I send you
only a few fervent prayers, as branches from my Paradise.
If you can but distil them in your hot element, I suppose
the drink can be swallowed comfortably, and the heathen
will be made whole !

Apocalypse — last chapter ! Verse 2. ♦

That joke I told you of, you did not understand. Some-
one, talking to that composer, named several of his works,
and asked him which he thought the best ; he replied — -
II Matrimonio Segreto, meaning the composition of Paesiello.
I need not further explain the neatness and ingenuity of
his answer

lis. — Goethe to Zelter.

(Not dated.)
As our correspondence is only by fits and starts,
now that the flood-gates have once been opened, I may as
well tell you this, that, and the other.

First then, with regard to your question about Leonardo's
Last Supper. Of this priceless work, the first complete
fugue of a painter, surpassing all that had preceded it, and
yielding to none that came after it, a mere shadow is all
that remains in the place where it was painted, the approxi-
mate position in which the figures stood to one another.

But we can form a certain idea of it, fz'om several copies
that were made of it, of which I can only mention three
specifically.

158 goethe's letters [1818.

1500—1612.

One by Marco d'Oggionno, at Castellazzo, in the refec-
tory of a deserted convent ; it is a little smaller than life,
highly characteristic, and smacks of Leonardo's teaching
and example.

1565.

One at Ponte Capriasca, weaker than the above, though
on the same lines ; very useful for comparison.

1612—1616.

One in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, the upper part
of the figures painted by Andrea Bianchi, called Vespino ;
the figures life-size like the original, very good and effective,
but without a trace of Leonardo. The faces are already
passing into empty generalities, such as one sees in drawing-
books. •

It is from these three copies, that the drawing for
Morghen's engraving was made, as well as Bossi's cartoon
and his life-size paintings, an enormous mosaic of which
was constructed at Milan, by command of the Viceroy.

But I can tell you thus much by way of consolation, that
for Morghen's engraving, the old genuine copy in Castellazzo
was invariably consulted with scrupulous care, so that,
after all, a great deal more has remained to us, thp-n we
suppose.

But meanwhile, until you learn circumstantially what I
have to say about it, as you very likely will at Easter,
thi'ough my pamphlet upon Kunst und AJtertlium, look up
the Heidelberg Jahrbücher for December, 1816, in which
Müller of Rome, otherwise called " Maler (Painter) Müller,"
has given a clever illustration from Bossi's work, with some
thoughtful notes, from which alone you may gain a great
deal. The gaps which he leaves, I fill up.

As soon as you again come across the engi'aving, apply
your laws of counterpoint to it ; it will be a great delight
to you.

1818.] to zelter. 169

119. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 1st March, 1818.
.... Mayer's Opera of Elena was destroyed by
fire ; worse still, the music is unknown, but in spite of that,
I have commissioned them to get the Sestett jou want. I
suppose it is the well-known Simon Mayer ? You did not
write his Christian name, and here, no one knows of any
other Mayer among composers. Stop ! One of my earlier
disciples, Meyer-Beer by name, created a furore in Padua
last year with one of his Operas,* and he might be the

younger, as you speak of the old Mayer

120. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 8th March, 1818.
Mt best thanks for your midnight souvenir.f Here
is something about the old Mayer, which will amuse you.
How I wish I could be borne upward, on Faust's cloak,
and let myself down in your Opera-house, at your grand
function. Earthly means and ways will hardly bring me
to Berlin. More in my next.

Enclosure.'l

" At Bergamo, Church-music is still all the rage. I
thought I saw before me the Italians of 1780.

" The beauties of the Church-music are nearly all con-
ventional, and although a Frenchman, I cannot reconcile
myself to furious chanting. The Bergamese spare no pains
to satisfy their passion, which is favoured by two circum-
stances : the famous Mayer lives at Bergamo ; so does old
David. Marchesi and David seem to me the Berninis of
vocal music, great talents, destined to usher in the reign of
bad taste. They were the precursors of Madame Catalani,
and of Pachiarotti, the last of the Romans.

* Eomilda e Costatiza, in which Pisaroni had the leading part,
t The Song, Urn Mitternacht.
1 Translated from the French.

IGO qoethe's letters [1818.

" Mayer might have wooed a more brilliant fate, but
gratitude attaches him to this country ; born in Bavaria,
he came accidentally to Bergamo, and the cha'noine, Count
Scotti, sent him to the Naples Conservatoire, and supported
him there for several years ; after that, he was offered the
choir of Bergamo, and although the post was not worth
more than twelve or fifteen hundred francs, the most
brilliant offers could not attract him elsewhere. I have
heard it said at Naples, where he wrote the Cantata of
St. Charles, that he would not travel any more ; if that is
so, he will write no more music. In Italy, a composer
must always be on the spot, to study the voices of his
singers, and write his Opera. A few years ago, the
m.anagers of La Scala offered Paesiello ten thousand
francs ; he answered, that at eighty years of age, people
no longer ran about the country, and he would send his
music ; they declined with thanks.

"It is plain, that we owe Mayer to the generosity of a rich
amateur; so also Canova and Monti. When Monti's father
refused to send him any more money, he was about to quit
Rome in tears, and had already engaged his vetturino. Two
nights before starting, he happened to read aloud some
verses at the Academie des Arcades. Prince Braschi sends
for him — ' Remain at Rome ; go on composing fine verses ;
I will ask my uncle for a post for you.' Monti became
private secretary to the Prince. Somewhere or other, he un-
earthed a monk, the General of his order, a clever, philoso-
phical man. He proposed to introduce him to the Prince-
nephew, but the monk refused. Such singular modesty
piqued the Prince ; stratagems were used to bring the
monk to him, and soon afterwards, he became the Cardinal
Chiaramonti.

" Patriotism is common in Italy ; see the life, (related to
me at Bergamo,) of that poor Count Pantuzzi of Ravenna.
This patriotism is discouraged in every way, and forced to
lose itself in niaiseries.

" At Bergamo, when Mayer and David conduct the
Church-music, they get an oro, i.e. a piece of gold.

" They are now reviving an Opera of Mayer's — Elena
— which was played before La Testa di Bronzo ; what
languishing music ! The transports at the Sestett in

1818.] TO ZELTER. 161

the second Act ! that is the musique de nocturne, gentle,
melting, the trne music of melancholy, which I have so
often heard in Bohemia. This is a bit of genius, which
the veteran Mayer has kept from early days, or else, some-
body gave it him ; it supported the entire Opera. There's
a people for you ! Why, they are born for the beautiful !
An Opera, two hours in duration, is sustained by one
delicious movement, which lasts hardly six minutes ; people
come fifty miles to hear this Sestett, sung by Mademoiselle
Fabre, Remorini, Bassi, Bonoldi, &c., and through the
forty performances, six minutes make them forget two
hours of ennui. There is nothing shocking in the rest of
the Opera, but there is simply nothing at all."

The above are extracts from a curious book, entitled,
Movie, Naples et Florence, en 1817. Par M. de Stendhal,
officier de Cavalerie. Paris 1817. which you must certainly
get. The name is an assumed one ; the traveller is a gay
Frenchman, an enthusiast for music, dancing, and the
Theatre. These few specimens will show you his free-and-
easy style. He both attracts and repels, interests and
annoys the reader, so one cannot get rid of him. One
reads the book over and over again with renewed pleasure,
and would like to learn certain passages by heart. He
seems to be one of those clever fellows, whom the besom of
war has driven hither and thither, an officer, employe, or
spy, by turns, — or perhaps all at the same time. He has
been in a number of different places, and knows how to
use the traditions of others, and generally, how to appro-
priate a good deal to himself. He translates passages from
my Italiänische Rei.se, and maintains that he heard the little
story from a Marchesina. Enough, one must not only read
the book, but possess it.

121. — Goethe to Zelter.

(Written in the little room above the Saal, amid wind and rain.)

19th March, 1818,
.... You have been a great benefactor to m^
lately, for the Midnight Song has been sung to me, properly

162 Goethe's letters [1818.

and sympathetically, by a gentle, sweet creature, whose
energy only pai'tially failed her in the last strophe. Once
again, you have right loyally and well set a seal on your
love and regard for me. My son, who is not easily moved,
was beside himself, and I fear that out of gratitude, he will
ask you to stand godfather.

I am back again in my turret, over the bridge, and the
roaring waters ; the stout wooden rafts, trunk to trunk,
doubly bound, are being steered carefully through, and pass
safely down the stream ; one man is sufficient for this duty,
the second seems to be there, merely for the sake of com-
pany.

The logs of firewood follow after, in dilettante fashion ;
some, as Heaven wills, come to land somehow, others are
carried away in the whirl, -whilst others, at intervals, are
pushed up on to the gravel and sand banks. To-morrow,
perhaps the water will rise, lift them all up, and carry them
miles off to their destination, the fireside. You see I have
no need to trouble myself with the daily papers, as the most
perfect symbols come to pass before my own eyes.

However, if I am to be candid, this peacefulness is only
apparent ; for I had long wished to do honour to, and enjoy
the musical doings of your Passion-week, with you, whereas
now, my eye and spirit are hovering over the anarchy of
the wood-rafts.

But if I am to be perfectly sincere, let me comfort my-
self by telling you, that if you are quite honest in your
feelings towards rue, you will not invite me to come to
Berlin; and in this, Schulz, Hirt, Schadow, and all who
really wish me well, agree. To our excellent friend,
Isegrimm,* (pray remember me to him,) it is all one and the
same ; in me, he would merely have one person the more to
contradict. I care as little to hear about the hundred
hexameters, as about the hundred days of Bonaparte's last
administration. God keep me from German Rhythmicism,
as from French change of dynasty ! The 6/8 time of your
Midnight exhausts everything. Such quantities and quali-

* F. A. Wolf, the author oi Prolegomena ad Homerum. In a former
letter, Zelter asks, " Has not our Grimmbart sent you his hundred
hexameters ? " See Letter 106.

1818.] TO ZELTER. 163

ties of tone, such variety of movement, of pauses, and
drawings of breath ! — ever equal, ever changing ! The
gentlemen with their longs and shorts ( — o u — ) may talk
each other into agreement for a long time, before they
produce such work as yours.

They always forget that they used to assure us, till
we were weary of it, that a poet is no grammarian !
Homer, Homerides, rhapsodists, and all the motley throng,
prattled on, as God willed, until at last they were fortunate
enough to have their stupid stuff copied, when the gram-
marians took pity on them, and after a lapse of two thou-
sand years of turning and twisting, at last brought matters
so far, that with the exception of the priests of these mys-
teries, no one knows, nor can know, anything further about
the subject. Someone assured me lately, that Xenophon
wrote just as bad prose as I do ; this surely should be
some consolation to me.

To fill up my remaining space, let me tell you a good
joke. Our Milanese friends,* whom the Grand Duke learnt
to know on his travels, men of rare value, knowledge,
activity, and practical wisdom, whom I have every reason
to cultivate, do not understand a word of German.

I am having my essay on the Last Supper translated
into French, by a clever Frenchman, who came to us, as an
emigrant, and endured with us, during the time of the
invasion, the visits of his blessed compatriots, and the conse-
quences thereof. It is a most curious experience, to see one-
self reflected in the mirror of a foreign language. I have
never troubled myself about the translations of my works ;
this however goes into the life of the matter, and is there-
fore very interesting to me. If I am to find again in the
French that description, which I merely wrote down in
German, just as I felt it, I must here and there come to the
rescue, but this will not be a difl&cult matter, as the trans-
lator has succeeded in giving evidence of the logical flexi-
bility of his own language, without injuring the impression
on the senses.

* People who were anxious to patronize Goethe, but had never read
any of his works in the original.

164 Goethe's letters [1818.

In spite of having perhaps bored you, at the beginning of
this letter, with my account of the rafts, made of large
trunks of trees, I must end by telling you, that to-day —
Holy Thursday — the day of your festival — the great timber
Fair is being held at Kosen on the Saal, above Naumburg,
where future town and country edifices are floating about
by the hundred, in the rough ; the Architect of all the
worlds grant that they and we may prosper !

Tui a'niantissi/mus,

122. — Zbltbe to Goethe.

Berlin, 7th April, 1818.
.... A NEW Tragedy has sprung upon us — Die
Ähnfrau, by a gentleman calling himself Grillparzer, —
trouble and woe from first to last There is unmis-
takable talent, though it is all lost ; the light is wanting,
and where that is not, I am much obliged to you for the

shadow What beautiful soul then was German

enough to sing you that song, ( Urn Mitternacht,) without
Italianisms, and with such animation, that you could not
help being pleased ? . . . .

I have set for you Kennst Du das Land, for the sixth time,
so as to satisfy myself once at all events ; the best spe-
cimen shall migrate to Weimar

123. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 28th June, 1818.

. , , . If not disagreeable to you, I should like to
send a copy of your Motett to Thibaut of Heidelberg ;
although a jurist, he has a sensitive musical temperament,
and has, as I hear, gathered about him a circle of resolute
friends, who perform the compositions of the older masters
lovingly, zealously, and carefully. It is a reflex of light
called forth by you ; I cannot say indeed, how clearly it
shines, but people who know were very much pleased.
Ten sheets of my Divan have been printed, nine of my

1818.] TO ZELTER. 165

Kunst und Älterthum, and fonr of Morphologie. Some, if
not all, must reach you by Michaelmas. There is no more
company, at least not for me, so I am entertaining myself
at present, by dictating, with a hope that, at some future
time, the influence of my work will be felt at a distance.

It seems so strange to one, when one contemplates gravely
and benevolently the doings of men — (speaking merely Aivith
regard to Plastic Art, in which I am most interested.) The
most gifted people come to me, urging me to tell them
what they are to do, and when I tell them my honest
opinion, and they, having been convinced, take the first
steps, they immediately slip back again from the silliest
conventionalism into the most commonplace bungling, and
are as well satisfied, as if it could not have been otherwise.
Meantime I keep to my old maxims, while they behave, as
though I had said nothing whatever. If I am not mistaken,
you masters of the art of music have a great advantage over
us here, in so far as you can, at the very outset, compel
your pupils to accept what is recognized as law. I will
not stay to examine, how arbitrary may be the proceedings
of one individual after another, in after days. And so I
will inclose in this packet some preliminary fragments, in
regard to which, you anyhow have this advantage, that
jou need not summon Herr Sickler to roll them up. I
have written all this in the midst of a heavy thunderstorm,
which is driving straight against my windows from the
West. It began by stirring up the dust, and was more
remarkable for a general downpour of rain, from every
quarter of the sky, than for thunder and lightning. My
turret is admirably situated for watching all this, and I do
not know how I shall be able to give up this commanding
view. There is still a great deal to say, but I have no
more room on this sheet.

And thus, henceforth and for ever,

Gt.

Morgenblatt, 1818, No. 240.

A man severe, with wrinkled bi'ows,
('' Herr Doctor Müllner, I, Sir ! ")
And out of window all he throws,
Yes, even Wilhelm Meister.

166 Goethe's letters [1818.

Your only connoisseur, in brief,
To doubt it were uncivil :
For if his heroes come to grief,
He sends tliem to the devil.

124. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 27th August, 1818.
.... As soon as I am well again, I am off to
Darmstadt, to wait upon my Grand Duke of the Orcliestra,
who has twisted a new Opera out of Spontini. In Cassel,
I heard a capital performance of Rossini's world-famous
Opera, Tancredi. The music is charming, which means, it
is of the genuine Italian kind, chiaro, puro e sicuro. Flow-
ing melody, grace, and freedom, in every number ; even
the Symphony is pretty, although it has nothing to do

with the piece

They have left an empty space round Lessing's grave in
Brunswick, near old Campe's garden ; no stone, no nothing.
I think it quite grand, after seeing the silly monument,
scribbled over with wretched verbiage, which they have put
up to Klopstock, in Wandsbeck, and which the wind has
made away with once already. You are quite right : those
who come after us are no longer like our contemporaries.
What we have is not much, and what we had, we know
not. ....

1819.] TO ZELTER. 167

i8iy.

125. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 4th January, 1819.
.... Since you left, I have done next to nothing
of what I had resolved to do. When the Dowager Em-
press of Russia came here, I could not refuse to assist in
some festivities, so I undertook to furnish a masque ; here-
with the programme, — the explanatory poems shall be sent
you later.

The procession consisted of nearly 150 persons ; — to
dress them characteristically, to group them, to range
them in rank and file, and lastly, when they appeared, to
explain what they were meant to represent, was no small
task ; it took me five weeks and more. In return however,
we obtained universal applause, which certainly was dearly
enough purchased, by the great outlay of imagination, time,
and money. Those who took part, spared no expense in
decking themselves out ; yet all this vanished at last in a
few moments, like a firework that explodes in the air.*

I, personally, have least to complain of, for the poems,
with which I took a great deal of trouble, remain ; and a
costly present from the Empress, enhanced by her friendly,
gracious, and confidential reception, repaid me beyond all
expectation

I must tell you, by the way, that I spent three consecu-
tive weeks in Berka, writing the poems for the procession ;
the Inspector played to me every day for from three to four
hours, and at my request, in historical order, selections from
Sebastian Bach to Beethoven, including Philipp Emanuel,
Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Dussek too, and others like him.
At the same time, I studied Marperger's f Vollkommene

* This was the last and most important of all Goethe's masques.

t Goethe means Marpurg, but there would seem to be a confusion,
for the author of Der Vollkommene Capellmeistcr was IMatiheson. See
Letter 127.

168 Goethe's letters [1819.

Capellmeister, and could not help smiling, while learning
my lesson. Yet how earnest and thorough those days
were, and how such a man must have felt the trammels of
the Philistinism that held him captive !

I have bought the Wohltemperirte Clavier, as well as
Bach's Chorales, and have presented them to the Inspector
as a Christmas gift, with which he may refresh me when
he comes here on a visit, and edify me, when I go back to
him again.

I should indeed like, holding your hand, to sink myself
into the essence of the Chorale, into that abyss, where one
does not know how to help oneself alone. The old intona-
tions, and the fundamental musical movements, are con-
stantly applied to modern songs, and imitated by younger
organists of more recent times ; the ancient texts are set
aside, and inferior ones substituted, &c. How different is
the sound of the proscribed song, Wie schön leuchtet der
Morgenstern ! to that of the chastened version now sung to
the same melody ; and yet the genuine, and oldest version
of all, probably a Latin one, would be still more suitable
and appropriate. You see I am again hovering about on
the borders of your territory, but owing to my fishy sur-
roundings, nothing can come of it. This, however, is not
the only point, about which one must learn to despair.

And thus, henceforth and for ever,

126. — GrOETHE TO ZeLTER.

Weimar, 29th May, 1819.
It is a matter of course that you should like my
Festgedichte, for while in Berka, where I wrote them —
reading Marperger and listening to Schütz playing — I
thought of you incessantly, and wished we were nearer one
another. You have already got more than I can say, out
of this little series. Variety and freedom of metre came
undesignedly, whilst I was at work, and contemplating the
many different subjects. I scarcely touched the more
modern artificiality ; the eight-line strophe was my final
object, and it is most curious, that not one sonnet would fit

1819.] TO ZELTER. 169

into the cjcle ; even your instinct will hardly be able to
suggest, where it could have been introduced.

Thank you heartily for the kind reception you have
given the children ; * I shall be able, through them, to enjoy
what you had long since so kindly prepared for me. I can
no longer feel happy anywhere, except in my own house,
which, in summer especially, has every advantage, and
"where the possessions I have been accumulating for so
many years past, are at my disposal, and are both a pleasure
and a profit to me, although in comparison with Nagel's

treasures of art, they would fade into nothing

Yours,

127. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 2nd June, 1819.
.... Tou speak in your letter f of having read
Marperger. Do you not mean Marpurg ? Marpurg is one
of the best, for his style of writing is the best, but here
too, as in Plastic Art, words fail to explain the spirit,
and what one wants to know, one can only learn by setting
to, oneself. He has written much, and was constantly at
issue with Kirnberger about matters in which, in my
judgment, Kirnberger was right ; although the latter, when
it came to writing, could not compare with the former, and
consequently was always at a disadvantage before the
world. I knew both those men, personally and intimately,
and learnt most of what I wished to know from their con-
flicting opinions Farewell, best beloved ! The

children will have plenty to tell you about the performance
of the two scenes from Faust ; it was a beginning, anyhow,
and there was no want of goodwill.

128. — Zelter to Goethe.

Vienna, 20th July, IS 19.
I ARRIVED here last Saturday, after a six days'
voyage down the Danube from Ratisbon. The Danube

* August Goethe, and his wife, Ottilie.
t See Letter 12.i.

170 Goethe's letters [1819.

flows so rapidly, especially from Linz, that the vessel
would, at the utmost, require three days for the whole of
the sixty German miles, even if it stopped to rest at night.
The usual passage-boat is detained for several days, on
account of the various dues and customs. From Linz on-
ward, we did thirty miles in the two half days, but I was
all the more pleased, at having more opportunity to look
about, and enjoy myself quietly. The number of whirl-
pools, the most splendid of which is the Saurüssel, make
the voyage a perfect festival, with sailors who know what
they are about, and I enjoyed myself like an emperor.

The construction of the ordinary passage-boat is so
absurdly slight, that one goes on board, just for the fun of
the thmg, before one is aware of the danger. The boat
consists of nothing but planks of pinewood, sawn and hewn
into shape ; a kind of model, in fact, without iron, cables,
hemp, tar, pitch, anchor, or any other requisite for a
navigable ship. There is only one single rope on board
for anchoring the vessel ; of course such things as masts
and sails are out of the question, for the progress of the
machine is like that of the Israelites into the Promised
Land. The joints are stopped out with moss, and actually
sewn together by means of wire ; the tonnage is 2,000
Centner, the boat is 120 feet long, from sixteen to seventeen
broad, and there is no leakage.

My fellow voyagers consisted of an Irish doctor, a
German engraver, who made the strangest remarks about
Art and wore a kind of mediaeval beard, an apothecary, a
butcher, a sword maker, a Capuchin friar, women, children,
journeymen, and your humble servant. The journeymen,
who pay little or nothing for their passage, bind themselves
to labour at the oar, turn and turn about, for two hours, a
duty they performed on this occasion rather lazily. In the
cool morning and evening hours, I took my share of the
labour ; this expedited matters, and during the latter part
of our voyage, even the women and girls shared in the
arduous task. A tailor received dispensation, and in con-
sideration for this, was obliged to sew on buttons to our
coats and trousers, and mend the linings of our pockets,
whilst some of the girls on board washed our stockings
and pocket handkerchiefs.

1819.] TO ZELTER. 171

This motley company was soon in such boisterous spirits,
that the six days flew past like six hours. The crew had
on board the best Bavarian beer ; every morning we could
buy fresh meat, bread and wine, and in fact could have
gone the whole way in this fashion, as far as Peterwardein,
without experiencing any want. As regards myself, I had
to put up with very little from the Custom-house officers.

On the Saturday, after my arrival, I went straight to
the Kärntner-Thor Theatre. The Opera, that of Othello,
by Rossini, is a new and bright composition, which, for the
first time, I heard admirably well done here. The composer
has let the poet go, and set to music some sort of poem,
which one can very easily make out from the music itself.
Rossini is without doubt a man of genius, and knows how
to use the means at his disposal, without first thinking,
like Gluck, how he can invent the instruments which are
to play his music. There are in the music Crescendos which
border on the grand, — he can let himself go, and in the
end, the thought comes out effectively. He plays with the
tones, and so the tones play with him.

On Sunday I went to the Marinelli Theatre. Three
pieces were given: (1) Die Werber; (2) Die Damenlnite
ini Theater; (3) A Pantomime — Schulmeister Beijstrich, or
Das Donnerwetter. My ribs still ache from laughing. The
pieces are more than vulgar. Actors and public together
make up the comedy ; the faintest hit that succeeds is
loudly applauded, and any failure passes unnoticed. The
actors are in constant movement, and enjoy the whole
thing just as much as, if not more, than the audience. Such
a Bohemian kind of pleasure defies all description ; the
children begin to scream and clap their hands, and all the
rest scream and clap their hands too. After the piece,
everyone with legs to stand on is called forward, and then
a new farce begins. The actors express their thanks, still
keeping up their characters in the play, and then, and not
before, their individuality is prominently brought forward.
The Theatre is always full, if not at the beginning of the
evening, at all events toward the end, when everybody
returns from the Prater.

The first comedian, Ignaz Schuster, is a regular genius
from top to toe ; there is nothing unreal in this fellow, his

172 Goethe's letters [1819.

voice is as broad as a board, as sharp as vinegar, and as
glib as an eel. One understands here, why the people
of Vienna do not care about politics ; they want to live
and enjoy every minute, that is the reason ; politics come
from boredom and go to boredom. After the play, they
go to supper ; of a morning, to mass — each man to his
own business, each man his own way, from one spectacle
to another. Let them live on ! they never will become
wiser, they never were wise at all ; they only understand
themselves, and they may be right, because, after all, they
assert their rights.

Wednesday, 21st July.
I passed last night in the village of Hitzing, close to
Schönbrunn, where from a height, {Die Gloriette,) one can
see the whole of the Wiener Thai. Schönbrunn is laid
out in excellent French taste, and reminded me of Sans
Souci. The Botanical Garden is much spoken of. In the
menagerie, I saw an enormous elephant — a splendid beast !
— an ostrich, and a titmouse, all the very finest specimens.
Several cages, however, are empty, for the Institution is
not kept up. I was stongly advised to see a second play
at the Marinelli Theatre, (Der Lustige Fritz,) but it was
a failure. It is a pet piece with the public, but in spite
of mutual goodwill between actors and audience, the play
would not go down.

Thursday.

Yesterday evening, I heard Rossini's fourth Opera, La
Gazza Ladra; the subject is very pleasing, and something
very good might have been made of it ; properly speaking,
there should be a Merry- Andrew — this however, the poet
has forgotten ; on the other hand, the emotional element
preponderates, and of this again, the composer has forgotten
to make the most. Altogether, however, the music is in-
tellectual and wanton, even to licentiousness, and in this
respect, it borders on Mozart, though he has greater dash
and depth. The singing was not much to speak of, but the
audience was determined to be pleased with everything, as
everyone palpably did his best.

The Prater is a large Lustgarten, (pleasure-ground,) for
which one must have one's own private carriage, but then

1819.] TO ZELTER. 173

the whole of the country here is a pleasure-garden. People
tell me things are no longer what they were, but where
are they so ? The stranger does not care about this change
of ideas ; I am only too glad if I can shake off the Berliner ;
nay, one often regrets things which were formerly oppres-
sive.

The fiacres are among the greatest conveniences of this
Imperial City. I lose myself daily in the perpetual
labyrinths of streets, but thanks to them, I can easily get
home, especially of an evening, when coming from the
Theatres, which are miles apart from one another. In the
place of a higher, worshipful, spiritual police, which seems
formerly to have been represented by images of saints, and
chapels, there is now to be seen, at every corner in Vienna,
a policeman, and one must allow that these people under-
stand their duty ; they appear to move, whilst they are
always on the same spot, and step out of the way of the
passers-by, in whose way they really are.

I was told that I should meet the young Napoleon, taking
an airing in the garden at Schönbmnn, but I never saw
him there. We soon observed, whilst pacing up and down
the beautiful walks, that we were being constantly watched
from a distance ; this continued, until the evening put an
end to our stroll.

The church of St. Stephen, which I visit daily, more
than once, is a first-rate building, and the interior is re-
markably fine, apart from the patches and restoration,
which are easily distinguishable from the old part, and far
less desirable. One cannot properly criticise the tower,
for in strictness, there ought to be two ; the present one
has a spigot-look about it, and fails to make a good im-
pression. The completeness of the details surpasses all
belief, and the pulpit is an admirable piece of workman-
ship. I did not go to the top of the tower ; the heat is so
great, that the least exertion throws me into a perspira-
tion.

Salieri,* who has written more than forty Operas, is the

* Antonio Salieri, a pupil of Gluck'e, and an intimate friend of
Haydn's ; Beethoven dedicated to him three Sonatas for Pianoforte and
Violin, and would sometimes call himself, " Salieri's pupil."

174 Goethe's letters [1819.

most honest fellow in the world ; he is busy as ever, in the
most childlike way. He is now sixty-nine years old, and
considers himself out of fashion ; this he need not do, for
his talent still flows, and none of his pupils surpass him.

Evening.
I have just seen and heard a performance of Mozart's
Titus, which, I dare affirm, was given more successfully at
Weimar. All the ladies, (there were four of them,) were
old enough to have been grandmothers, but all are well
trained. Cam pi must have been excellent in her young
days ; now however, she looks as if she had never been
young at all. Such a Titus as that has still to be born, if
he is to be in love with all young women, who all want to
kill him.

Saturday, 24th July.

Yesterday evening — I mean, yesterday morning — I paid
twenty-six florins for an umbrella ; believing I had it with
me, I walked in the Prater after dinner, and got as wet
as a poodle, for I had left the machine at home. Then
I went to the Marinelli Theatre, to laugh myself dry
again. Now just imagine my despair ! Der Verlorne Sohn,
(that was the name of yesterday's play,) thought I, would
be able, both to laugh himself, and to make others laugh : a
great mistake ! This " lost " (verlorne) or rather " frosty "
(verfrorne) Son, is a moral melodrama, with Chorus and
dances ; the Son, who is a great scamp, has a wife ;
having learnt absolutely nothing, he accordingly loses
everything ; the piece concludes with the fourth Act, in
which the Son becomes ha2)py once again, instead of
reaping what he really deserves.

The poet Carpani * is one of my old acquaintances, whom
I first learnt to know at Töphtz, in the year 1810 ; as this
good old gentleman does not speak a word of German, I
am obliged to talk Italian to him, and I find it comes more
glibly to my tongue, than I had expected, after so many

• A poet and writer on music, known chiefly by his work, Le Haydine,
an enthusiastic eulogy on Haydn. Later on, he also published Le
Bossiniane, a similar eulogy on Rossini.

1819.] TO ZELTER. 175

years of disuse. You will remember Carpani, when I
remind you of a little book of liis, Le Haydine, which con-
tains some very pretty stories about old Haydn.

Weigl * has told me a great many interesting things
about Mozart's youth, and later years. Weigl is a fine stately
man of the world ; his works are chaste, natural, and full
of character ; he succeeds best with what is secondary, and
the results he achieves produce an immediate effect.

The double-bass is placed in a standing position, so that
the player must sit beside it. I have not noticed any
diminution of elfect, and should like to see this method
universally adopted. Those confounded goose-necks offend
my eyes with their spikes ; on the other hand, the
prompter's boxes here are as large as in other parts of
Germany, and prevent the eye from finding a centre for
itself, and in addition to this, there is the ridiculously
high seat of the conductor, conspicuous with all his dodges,
— one can hardly understand, why such anomalies are
allowed to exist.

The Burg Theatre is in high repute here, but the actors
are away on their holidays, until next month. I intend
now and then to take a trip from Baden to Vienna, and
hope it will agree with me. The Theater an der Wien is a
pretty house, roomy enough, with five rows of boxes, ex-
clusive of the pit-boxes. One can see and hear there very
comfortably. The Marinelli or Casperl Theatre, (Leopold-
stadt,) is also a good one, but the seats are so extremely
narrow, that I can hardly find room for my knees. The
Kärntner-Thor Theatre is the best ; the music is pretty,
appropriate, and good throughout, but the singers and
players are dreadfully fatigued and weary, for every
day, they have an Opera and a rehearsal, and frequently
two rehearsals on the same day. The instruments can
stand it still less than the men. The players in the
Orchestra are too shamefully treated ; several of them eat
their dinner and supper in the Theatre, because they have
no other time for it. Weigl, too, complained of the hard-
ship of his duties, and he has to compose at the same
time.

* Author of the Opera, Die Schweizerfamilie.

17G Goethe's letters [1819.

Monday, 26th July.
Yesterday was Sunday, and I saw the Prater in its
Sunday dress. Four rows of sturdy old chestnut-trees
form three avenues, which begin at the Leopoldstadt, and
continue for half a mile, in a direct line, to the Danube.
The middle one, forty-five feet wide, is for carriages and
horses ; the two side avenues, twenty-four feet wide, are
for pedestrians. Several hundred carriages are to be
seen on the move, very splendid, some of them ; the fiacres
turn out too ; close at hand are the foot-passengers, alone,
in couples, or in groups. The variety is charming ; it is
delightful to see a promenade of so many men and women,
beautifully dressed, in every kind of costume, flitting about
like shadows. On either side, cafes and resting places are
set up, under the shade of noble groups of trees ; every-
thing is a pattern of neatness and cleanliness. We sit
down ; music, issuing from the wood, echoes in our ears
on all sides ; now we are at the Opera, now at the ball, or
parade. Coffee and cakes are served. A child presents
me with a nosegay, a pretty girl offers me water as clear
as crystal, an old woman hands me a toothpick ; all this is
paid for by copper kreutzers only, a good riddance of bad
rubbish, for they are as heavy as the conscience, and drag
one's pockets down to the ground. This avenue however,
is not the only thing that forms the Prater. A second and •
third, just like it, extend in a fan-like shape, from the Leo-
poldstadt towards the Danube, (i.e. an arm of the Danube.)
Here we see, as it were, the opposite pole of the planet, I
mean the real people. The wider spaces of ground, towards
the Danube, are occupied by refreshment stalls, where you
can get beer, wine, meat, ices, and drinks of all kinds, coffee
excepted. The three single cafes in the great avenues,
monopolize the privilege of selling coffee. These second-
class places of refreshment are so numerous, and close to
one another, that the guests of one host are indistinguishable
from those of another, and one is in danger of consuming
a feast, which somebody else has paid for. This is Vienna
proper ; between these tables and chairs, and drinking
booths, smokers, bands, and merry-go-rounds, a happy
crowd moves to and fro. People jog along, stop, meet a
friend ; it is a constant rest, and bustle at the same time.

1819.]

TO ZELTER.

177

Nothing is fenced off, and there is no obstacle ; for although
the owners of houses are landlords, yet the ground and
soil belong to the Emperor, and must not be enclosed in any-
way. The impression produced on the mind by the be-
haviour of the people — I will not call it, the mob, — is one of
careless oblivion. I could not remember that I thought
or observed anything, and what I now write, strictly speak-
ing, I invent, without being able to say, thus it is, and thus
it was. What gives a really sunny aspect to the whole, is
the large crowd of happy faces, belonging to all sorts of
people, who, reconciled to-day with their God, see the
world as they would like it to be. Neither men, nor
women, nor old age, nor youth, is here as it ought to be.
There is an idea in existence, as there is an existence in the
idea. The first day I went into the Theatre, a violinist was
tuning his instrument. A waiter came into the pit, and
sang in the same key as the violin :

=)=!

Chocolade,

Limonade,

Bavaroise, Punsch.

Then another followed with

:^=t"

Ckocolade,

-*^*— *-

Limonade.

-ä— ä 4 it

-=Jr

Bavaroise, Punsch.

And then the whole Orchestra tuned upon this melody ; I
laughed so loud at this, that everyone looked at me as if
I were a lunatic. Let them think of me as they please, the
things I don't like here I can get just as well at home, and
I hope to find them again there.

Tuesday, 27tli July.

Yesterday evening, there was a splendid display of fire-
works in the Prater, in honour of St. Anne. The worthy
pyrotechnist, as a rule, has the misfortune to have bad
weather ; the public, one and all, take the deepest interest

178 Goethe's letters [1819.

in the matter, for the people like to see such a spectacle,
just as much as the artist likes to produce it. Yesterday
we had the finest weather imaginable. It had rained
itself out ; there was no dust, no dewy mist, no breeze,
but a dark evening sky. The rockets shot up straight as
arrows, and everything went off successfully. There were
two principal tableaux — the first in honour of beautiful
women, and the last adorned with the name of St. Anne.
The thing had something grand about it, unlike ordinary
fireworks, on account of the spacious darkness of the night.
The scaffolding which is always erected for such occasions,
is from eighty to ninety feet high, and from a hundred and
sixty to a hundred and eighty feet in length ; there are
three rows of boxes around it. The Imperial box, holding
easily more than a thousand spectators, is in the centre.
The pit, which was densely crowded, held probably some
thirty thousand spectators ; the ladies are always beautifully
dressed, for the fair sex here is distinguished for its good
taste. The charm of the scene is enhanced by the general
satisfaction with everything, the way everyone quietly
takes it to heart, if there is a failure, and the way they
all rejoice, when it rights itself again.

This seems to me the only pleasure, in the enjoyment of
which the Austrians are willing to do without their music,
which persecutes us here in every direction. I was assured
by a musician in Carlsbad, that music was a hard profession.
I replied, that the musicians are better off than the visitors.
" How so ? " said he. " Why, surely," (I answered,) " they
can eat without music." The good man went away
ashamed, and I felt sorry for him, although my speech
was quite in point, for it is really cruel to worry patients
and convalescents in this manner. I certainly can stand
a good deal, but when I come away from the Opera and
sit down to supper, and am choked directly by the strains of
some harpist or ballad-monger, which jar cruelly with
what I have heard and enjoyed at the Theatre, it is really
too much, and — wretch that I am — I quite forget that this
scribbling is also a great deal too much ; so farewell — with
kind regards and greetings to all your circle. From yours
eternally,

1819.] TO 7ELTEK. 179

The Danube is now looking qnite splendid. It has
risen so high from the constant rains, and the melting of
the snow upon the hills, that it rushes by, like an arrow. I
am just off for a drive with Salieri. God bless you I

Tliursday, 29tli July.

The day before yesterday, I had the most charming
walk to Schönbrunn and back, with Salieri. The old
fellow is still so full of music and melody, that he speaks,
as it were, in melodies, and he is, as it were, only under-
stood in that way. It is the greatest enjoyment to me,
to play the spy upon this genuine character, and to find
him always truthful, always cheerful. I come back to
this thought, now that I have examined the score of the new
Hequievi by Cherubini. This is a composition which, in these
out of joint days, mvist needs please everywhere, and does
please, just because there is no true word in it, and though
everything is thought out and brought out in a most
delightful manner, there is not the faintest feeling of a
requies ceterna. The composer has only cared to look up
those passages in the poem, where he can be boisterous —
dies irce — mors stupehit — rex tremendce majesfatis — flammis
acribus — and to fill out the intervals with measui-ed rest-
lessness ; in short, the secondary matter is here made the
principal thing, and the whole work ajipears as if one were
constantly and passionately saying, " No," nodding one's
head all the time. A review of this work, which now lies
liefere me, is just as confusing and mendacious as the work
itself ; the composer is exalted into the seventh heaven,
and then dragged down again, as one who has dared to
enter the lists with Mozart, and wishes to rival him, when
Mozart has done it much better; as if nobody else were
allowed to compose, or die, or find rest, after Mozart ! All
the newest books of instruction are based upon this view,
the old ones are thrown aside, and that is the present form
of Art.

Amidst all this, it is quite touching to observe the good-
natured Salieri, who venerates this state of things, without
any sorrow, and looks at it as an advance in Art, which is
quite necessary, but unattainable by him. At the same
time, he goes on writing, after his usual fashion, in a style full

180 Goethe's letters [1819.

of unconscious irony and humour, and spins his own cocoon
like a silkworm. He speaks with delight of a Mequiem-
which he wrote, under the notion that he would soon
follow his wife, who died in 1807 ; but as this has not yet
taken place, he has now written a much shorter one,
thinking it was good enough for him. He has allowed me
to copy a ]\Iass and an Offertorium, written by him in the
year 176G. The latter is in no way inferior to the very
best Italian woi'ks of the seventeenth century, produced in
this style. It is devotional, pure, and elevating, written
in conformity with the practical requirements of Art and
the Church. You should have seen his childlike delight,
when I, at the very first glance at this music, made some
intelligible remarks about it ; he knows the whole thing
from tradition, whilst I have only acquired it by observa-
tion and study, and have had to make it clear to myself,
for the theory of an ecclesiastical style of music has dis-
appeared with the Church herself.

Beethoven, whom I should like to have seen once more
in this life, is living in the country, and no one can
tell me where. I was anxious to write to him, but people
told me he was hardly approachable, on account of his
almost complete deafness. Perhaps it is better that we
should remain as we are, since it might make me cross to
find him cross

The articles in the Berlin papers are now a common
topic of conversation ; I also read the Viennese journals,
which are written in a very chaste style. By to-morrow I
shall have been here a whole fortnight, without once enter-
ing a Museum or Gallery, or examining any one of those
Institutions, through which Art and Science are bounded
in space. After my everyday wanderings along the Danube,
and through this endless city, I have had enough, and feel
so weary, that I could sleep on the hardest bed. Vienna
is in truth a magnificent city, and her suburbs are splendid.
The knowledge of this fact makes one warm, in warm
weather. Of course you can and do take a carriage, but it
is not instructive, and as a rule, very expensive for one,
who like me, does not understand the art of making bar-
gains. The Austrian people have the most pleasing naivete,
which places them at such a distance from the so-called

1819.] TO ZEl/IKR. 181

higher classes of society, that the latter really appear at a
disadvantage. Thus, for example, if the Austro- German
dialect is not good Grerman, it is still a language, in
which one moves with the same ease, as a fish swims in the
water, whilst the higher classes always seem to be uncertain,
what and how they should speak ; doubtless, however, a great
deal of good Italian and French is spoken here ; this is
very natural, considering the great conflux of nationalities,
Vienuawards.

Much importance is attached here to music, and this in
contrast to Italy, who is, according to her own estimate,
" the only saving Church ;" the people here, however, are
really thorough musicians. It is true they are pleased with
everything, but they only retain what is first-rate. They
are glad to listen to a mediocre Opera, which is well cast,
but a first-rate work, even if not given in the best style,
remains with them for ever. Beethoven is extolled to the
heavens, because he works very hard, and is still alive ; but
it is Haydn, who presents to them their national humour,
like a pure fountain, which does not mingle with any other
streams, and it is he who lives in them, because he pro-
ceeds from them ; they seem to forget him every day, and
daily he rises to life again amongst them.

Baden, 2nd August.

Yesterday evening, the Emperor came to Vienna, and I
arrived at Baden, looking like a miller's apprentice, for
this dusty country perfectly answers to the description
people gave me of it.

How am I suflBciently to thank you for your Morphologie,
which I am devouring with the greatest interest, applying
it to the Theory of Sound, and hence arriving gradually
at the Theory of Thought and Invention ? How naturally
all this comes, and what will your honoured friend, F. A.
Wolf, say, when he comes to read the first lines in Hafis
{Divan, p. 379) ? I jumble up one thing with another,
reading now here, now there, and just enjoying myself, to
the top of my bent ; in the harum-scarum life here, every-
thing comes into my head all at once.

On Sunday I visited the Picture Gallery of the Prince
Esterhazy, which contains many fine things by Leonardo

182 Goethe's letters [1819.

da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Dürer, Eyck, Rubens, Bellini,
Poussin ; the works of many first-rate artists adorn the
walls of whole suites of rooms. Some statues by more
modern artists, such as Canova and Schadow, are intei'-
spersed with other marbles, and majestic vases. It is my
own fault, that I have not seen more of such things. I
have not looked at a single engraving ; it makes me quite
dumb and stupid to see such wonders, all at once, merely
in passing through so hurriedly, — nay, I feel ashamed of
my own ignorance, and yet quite angry, when my bear-
leader says, " Just look at those beautiful heads ! What
hands ! What a lovely landscape, &c."

To-day — the 3rd of August — is the anniversary of the
death of my noble friend, Fasch. Having lived with him
for many years, without one word of difference, I rejoice
to be able to say, after a period of nineteen years, " Look,
old friend and master ! your woi'k still abides ; it is en-
couraged, it encourages others, they value it, and — Heaven
be thanked ! — it fell to my lot to preserve it for you, my-
self, and Art ! " It is only after the lapse of years, that we
see the soundness of a good thought.

9th August.

To give myself something new, I went, the day before
yesterday, to Ulrich's, the local bookseller, where I found
a pirated edition of your works, and amongst them, the
Biography of P. Hackert,* which forms the eighteenth
volume of the edition of 1811. The way in which you
have put together this little work out of mere fragments,
is so characteristic, and so easy, that it did my very heart
good to read it. It was as good as new to me, for in
the year 1811, at Schweidnitz, I had only time to skim
through it ; if you should still have a copy by you, be so
good as to send it to me, at your convenience, and address
it to Berlin. Hackert's youngest brother, George, the
engraver, was my most intimate school-fellow at the Draw-
ing Academy in Berlin, the Director of which in those
days was the excellent Lesueur. Had I, at that time, been

* Phili]ip Jlackert, an artist, witli whom Goethe spent many pleasant
hours in Italy, and from whom he had lessons in landscape-painting.
See Letter 130.

1819.] TO ZELTER. 183

my mother's less obedient son, I should have gone with
Geoi'ge to Naples. God knows how I envied him, for
having a brother who could invite him. The times wei-e
quite different to the present, and the consciousness of my
inferior talent lay so heavily on my youth, that I did not
understand, how to w^ork myself forward out of it. The
book has vividly recalled that time to me, and makes me
feel at this moment forty years younger.

If I measure this harmless story of a fruitful, artistic
life, with other pretentiously got-up biographies, in which
the great appears small, and truth incredible, I see clearly,
how much it takes, not to soar too high.

Baden, 12th August, 1819.

Yesterday morning, I read your Translation of Mahomet
and Tancred. If I am to judge by the first impression, I
must say, it quite surprises, nay, astounds me, to see what
can be accomplished by a certain talent, practice, and mas-
tery ; yet I felt no comfort, when I closed the book. The
reading of Mahomet almost broke my heart, and in the
Tancred, I can't quite make out why the lovers must perish.
They do not seem to me to be in the least tragic, at all
events they do not act tragically, and the misfortune falls,
like a bomb out of the clouds, upon wandering men, who
in consequence suddenly acquire importance. I remember
what you once said about this poet, that no talent was
wanting to him, except depth. Mahomet is an undignified
tyrant, and out of proportion to his antagonist, Sopir.

The minor characters in Tancred seem to be there, merely
to make beautiful speeches ; everything is thought out, de-
vised, spun out, distorted : the father is supposed to have no
presentiment, that the mother has approved of an alliance
of her daughter with Tancred ; the daughter, a brave,
truthful ci'eature, ought she, under these circumstances, to
make a secret of her lover ? How tormenting is all this !
In short, had I been Voltaire, or his opponent, I should have
undertaken to make a merry wedding comedy out of Tan-
cred, and have introduced a fool, who would laugh at them
all round.

What you say on page 377 of the Divan, under the head-
ing, Verirahrnng, as to the difference between poetry and the

184 Goethe's letters [1819.

elocutionary arts, seems to me to apply here : these are
tales, and a man who does not choose to believe them, can
let them alone.

Voltaire's beautiful French seems purposely constructed,
in order to give colour and shape to certain unreal beings,
in order to enliven streets and promenades with painted
corpses. It has often vexed me, to think how German
critics have attacked French compositions, which, to my
thinking, seem, in the language, and form of the whole,
and of the details, undeniably smooth and mannerly, and
when this impression has descended, by inheritance, to their
nation, for several centuries, how should not the foreigner
— I mean the German — who has no old traditions, be
carried away by it ?

This enables me to see clearly the merit of your Trans-
lation, which so aptly natui'alizes the characters, without
deviating from the original.

You must excuse this scribbling of mine, for, like a half
mathematician, I write down equations, pen in hand, in
order to make them intelligible to my understanding, by
putting them in black and white before me. Here however,
I have nothing else to do but to kill time. The music here,
mingled as it is with the eternal jingling of bells, entirely
distracts my thoughts.

The country about here produces abundance of com,
wine, fruit, and provisions of all sorts. I hear land-
owners in Baden grumbling about the fall in the price of
corn ; after that, loud abuse of Prussia ; after that, gentler
abuse of Russia. An intellectual conversation is out of
the question

16th August.

Yesterday, I heard some more vocal music, Italian, of
course, for German is not spoken here by choice, much
less sung. There is nothing but Rossini ; that man rules,
whether he chooses or not ; there's Freedom for you !
And the Italians are right. The voice will sing for her
own sake, and whoever complies with her demands, he is
her man. Now however, criticism is Iteginning to settle
here, and it will lay hold of the nearest thing first ;
it might fare hard with Rossini, if he tried to do more

1819.] TO 7.ELTER. 185

than he can. Two young girls sang the music very
prettily and neatly ; the silliest stuff sounds well, as long
as it goes off smoothly.

Beethoven is gone into the country, but no one knows
whither ; he has just written a letter from Baden to one of
his lady friends here, and he is not at Baden. He is said
to be intolerably ma ussa de : §qme say he is a fool, — that's
easily said. Heaven forgive us all our sins ! The poor
man, they say, is hopelessly deaf. I know how I feel,
when I look at the fingering here, and I — poor devil !
— one finger of mine after the other gets useless. Quite
lately, Beethoven went to an eating-house, where he sat
down at the table, and after an hour's meditation, called
out to the waiter, " How much do I owe you ? " — " Why,
your honour has not eaten anything ; what shall I bring
you ? " — " Biing what you like, and leave me alone ! "
His patron is said to be the Archduke Rudolf, who allows
him 1,600 Chdden (paper money) a year. With this he
must try to manage, like all other musicians in Vienna.
They are kept there like cats, and any one who does not
understand the art of mousing, will hardly save anything,
and yet, in spite of 4his, they are all as round and jolly as
weasels.

The adjoining park close to my lodgings, which are at the
foot of the Calvarienberg, looks on Sunday, like a Turkish
Paradise. All the prettiest women in Vienna turn out
on a Sunday, after two o'clock, dressed so charmingly and
looking so nice, that one would like to be nothing but eyes.
There are many handsome women here, especially middle-
aged women, and their complexions and figures are equally
charming. jNIodest behaviour, even amongst those of
doubtful virtue, is surprisingly universal, and those who
do not understand the language of the eyes, would think
they saw before them, forests of Madonnas. The park
itself is not lai-ge, and may contain over a thousand square
roods ; it is intersected by broad walks, which are kept so
clean, that one can walk there in shoes, after heavy and
continuous showers of rain. The park faces the middle
of the mountain-chain, crowned by San Calvario, which is
easily ascended in half an hour, and from which one looks,
to the left, upon the whole Baden Valley, while eastward.

186 gobthe's letters [1819.

towards Vienna, straight in front of one, lies fruitful
Hungary. On the right, half an hour off, is the village
of St. Elena, in a cleft, through which runs a pretty river,
like the Tepel at Carlsbad, or the Neckar at Heidelberg,
but more graceful than either. The Archduke Anton
has had fine walks made for the accommodation of the
public, altering fields, and making bridges and resting-
places, all at his own expense. The stone, as far as it
can be seen, is limestone, sandstone, and a durable grey
gi'anite, which takes a fine polish, and of which the baths
here are partially constructed. The bath water is from
a sulphur spring, which steams all the country through
which it percolates ; the horses seem to dislike it, and it is
with difficulty that they can be made to go into it ; some
of them seem maddened by it.

I have in vain tried to find the Opera of Elena e Cos-
taniino, in Vienna; Salieri and Weigl knew nothing about
it. The Opera is by Simon Mayer, and was given at Milan,
in the month of August, 1816. The Baroness von Pereira
has promised me that she will write to Milan and get the
Sestett ; the Opera itself is not popular, the Sestett is said
to give life to the whole work.

I do not think I have yet told you anything about the
statue of Joseph II in Vienna. Whenever I look at it, the
figure seems to me too thin ; I may however be mistaken,
having in my eye the statues of Marcus Aurelius, and of
our Electoral Prince, at Berlin. People like myself can
only make comparisons. The pedestal is of the finest grey
granite.

19tli August, I8I9.

I may well say that I regarded Vienna -with a kind
of awe ; why ? I cannot tell you the reason, otherwise
I should have been here long ago. I planned therefore to
go straight to Baden, and from thence, to make an occa-
sional excursion to the Imperial City. I do not think this
was a mistake, although I began, first of all, by spending a
fortnight in Vienna. I say this merely for your sake. If
you ever felt inclined, you might, in the month of May,
go straight to Baden, before the crowds of yjeople have
arrived. A lodging, with from four to five rooms, cannot,

1819.] TO ZELTER. 187

at the most, cost more than twelve Gulden (pa])er money) ;
that is, a little more than a ducat, and everything el.se is
comfoi'table, cheap, and good. Only foreign articles, such
as coffee, tobacco, tea, and the like, are dear, although
not much dearer than elsewhere ; anyhow they are to be
had. A fiacre takes two hours to drive from here to
Vienna ; there are two halting places. I did it in two
hours yesterday, and paid the fare, twelve Gulden, there
and back. You can be absolutely solitary here, if you do
not live in the Landstrasse, where there are no end of
carriages. The best lodgings are to be found in the street
facing the park, the Renugasse, where I am living, and
the Alleegasse. The baths are close at hand. At the
Frauenbad, people bathe in company ; at the Theresienbad,.
which I have now changed to, because I get a douche
there, you bathe alone. The attendants at the baths are
well looked after, and therefore obliging. Warm towels
and all kinds of bathing apparatus, I have never found so
ready to hand as here. The little town was burnt down
in the year 1812, and has been solidly and handsomely
rebuilt. The environs for three or four miles round are
highly interesting. Vösslau is pleasant and unpretending,
Schünau, the same, and still more to my taste, Merkensteiu,
large and cheerful, the Brühl and Mödlingen, spacious and
solemn, Sparbach, Johannisstein,as well as Laxenburg, truly
imperial. Nature has here combined everything that can
make a neighbourhood perfect, though Art has striven hard
to hinder her.

28th August.
Well, what am I to write about to-day, my own heart's
brother, blessed a thousand times over ! Thanks be to all
the gods, that wherever I go, wherever I live, I have thee,
and carry thee with me in my heart. Health and every
blessing to thy dear life, thy powers, thy will, thy work !
May thy life bring forth fruit in patience, from one gene-
ration to another ! — But you know all this better than
I do.

" As with an angel's wing, iu the hut glow
Of summer, thou hast gently cooled my brow ;
Through thee earth's noblest gifts were made my own,
And evei'y joy 1 feel in thee alone."

188 ÜOETHE'ö LETTERS [1819

31st August, 1819. .

I have now finished the music to a little poem, Gleich
und Gleich, and should like you to listen to it, and see, if I
have been able to conjure up a little flower, that would
make a tiny bee hungry.* I serve you, as people sacrifice
to the gods, by bringing to them their own gifts. Take,
old fellow, mine, wluch is all thine, and give me all the
credit as usual !

1st September, 1819.

To-morrow, I go from here to Presburg, that I may
see something of Hungary, and then return home. For a
long time, I have not read so much as I have in four weeks
here, for I have been subscribing to the library. This too
•was of service to me ; hitherto I had only seen Kotzebue's
pieces acted ; here I have read eleven plays of his in suc-
cession, which were before unknown to me, and many other
dramatic works at the same time. I stuck fast at length
in Klopstock's tragedies. I began the David — no go — so
I passed on to Solomon — which also I failed to finish.
Next winter, I will make another bite at it, even if my
teeth stick fast ; one should be at home for such under-
takings as these.

The day before yesterday, I went to Mödlingen, to pay
Beethoven a visit. He was just driving to Vienna, and
meeting each other on the road, we got out of our car-
riages, and embraced each other most cordially. The poor
man is so deaf, that I could hardly restrain my tears, when
I saw him ; then I drove on to Mödlingen, and he to
Vienna. The country is inexpressibly charming; the Brühl,
and the Castle-fortress of Prince Lichtenstein, which is
still in a fair state of preservation, were worthy a closer
study. We found there beautiful Gobelin tapestry, some
fine old household furniture, and some remarkable family
portraits, which still keep their colours.

I must tell you a joke, that tickled me uncommonly.
My travelling companion on this occasion was Steiner,
the music publisher, and as one does not get much talk
with a deaf man, on a public highway, it was arranged that

* See the little poem, dated 22nd April, 1814, in Letter 82: it was
afterwards called Gleich U7id Gleich.

1819.] TO ZBLTIB. 189

Beethoven and I should meet properly, at four o'clock in the
afternoon, in Steiner's music-shop. Directly after dinner,
we drove back to Vienna. Full as a badger, and dog-tired,
I lay down, and slept so soundly, that I forgot everything.
Then I strolled away to the Theatre, and when I saw
Beethoven in the distance, I felt quite dumbfoundered. He
"was evidently undergoing the same process, in discovering
me, and this was not the place to come to an explanation
with a deaf man. But the point of the story is yet to come.

In spite of all kinds of blame, to which Beethoven, rightly
or wrongly, is here exposed, he enjoys that respectful
consideration, which is only given to distinguished men.
Steiner had immediately given out, that Beethoven would
appear in person, at four o'clock, for the first time, in his
narrow shop, which holds some six or eight people, and he
had also asked guests, so that fifty clever men, crowded
out into the street for want of room, were waiting there in
vain. I myself only learnt the real state of things next
day, when I got a letter from Beethoven, in vphich he ex-
cused himself, (in a way that suited me admirably,) because
like myself — he had happily slept away the time of the
rendezvous .'....

Here I have found my old idea realized — that of making
the Orchestra so deep, that one does not see the untidy
heads of the musicians ; the music, too, which is not
nearly so well organized here, as in Weimar, comes out
clear and distinct. I cannot imagine anything less be-
coming on a stage, than to see the fine forms of w^ell-
dressed actors, and all that goes to make up a brilliant scene,
fluttering between the confounded mops of the fiddlers in
front.

15th September, 1819.

Yesterday, I made the acquaintance of Grillparzer, a
well-grown young man, twenty-six years of age, quiet,
invalidish, very taking. We had a counti-y drive together,
and got on very well. The old Abbe Stadler was with us, a
bright, merry companion ; he told us a great deal about
the little Napoleon, on whom the Emperor lavishes all kinds
of paternal worship.

He is now about eight years old, and, so long as four
years back, he took his chief delight in soldiers, who like him

190 Goethe's letters [1819.

in return. He invents long stories, and tells them to those
around him ; — one of these caused a serious investigation.
Afterwards, he laughs at everybody. He is very curt with
women and children, and likes learning languages. A
little while ago, he asked the Emperor, " Where then is my
father ? " — " Your father is locked up." — " Why is he locked
up ? " — " Because he did not behave well, and if you do
not behave well, you will be locked up also." ....

Yours,
Z,

1820.] TO ZELTER. 191

1820.

129. — Goethe to Zeltrr.

Weimar, 12th April, 1820.
I WANT a genuine Zelterian composition for the en-
closed hymn, which might be sung in Chorus every Sun-
day, before my house. If some such thing could reach my
daughter-in-law during the month of May, she would have it
rehearsed, so as to give me a solemn and kindly welcome, on
my return, at the beginning of June. May the Paraclete
watch harmoniously over my friend, now and everlastingly !

130. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 14th April, 1820.
It is good for us to be forced, from time to time, to
get quit of all our surroundings ; this is the origin of our
making interim- wills, in the course of our lives. In a fort-
night's time, I intend to go to Carlsbad, so I have looked
up another Hackert for you, and will send it, properly bound.
You instinctively felt the care which I bestowed upon, and
the meaning I gave to the little volume ; it is obsolete in
our dear Germany, and is now, together with many other
good and useful things, covered by the sand-webs of the
day, though like amber, it will inevitably be washed clean,

or dug up again. Thank you for reminding me of it

131. — Goethe to Zelter.

Carlsbad, 2nd May, 1820.
.... Let me congratulate you on your Raphael
Festival ; * it was well planned, and I feel certain, was

* Zelter had described in a previous Letter, a Festival held at Berlin,
in commemoration of Raphael's birthday. The programme of the music
.selected by Zelter was remarkable; it included the Crucifixus by Lntti,
a Gloria in Excelsis by Haydn, and a Requiem of Zelter's own

192 Goethe's letters [1820.

carried out equally well ; you Berliners are inimitable in
such things. May it ever be the custom, to commemorate
all heroes, who are raised above the atmosphere of envy and
opposition !

I should like to have heard the music, though I can
form some idea of it, from what you say. The purest and
highest style of painting in music is that which you your-
self also practise ; the object is, to transport the listener
into that frame of mind, which the poem itself suggests ;
the imagination will then picture to itself figures, in accor-
dance with the text, without knowing how it comes to do
so. You have given instances of this in your Johanna
Sebtcs, Mttternaclit, TJeher alien Gipfeln ist Euh, and what
not ? Tell me of anyone who has accomplished this, except
yourself ! The painting of tones by tones — thunder, crash,
splash and dash are detestable. The minimum of this is
wisely used, as you also use it, as a dot over an i, in the
above examples. So I, bereft of sound and hearing, though
a good listener, transform that great enjoyment into ideas
and words. I know very well, that on account of this, I
lose one third of life, but one must adapt oneself to circum-
stances

The Profits of Yesterday's Fair.

A Parable.

To the apple-woman's stall

Came the children flying.

Everyone for buying !

Seized the treasure, one and all,

" Apples I apples I " crying. —

The price they learnt.

And let them' fall,

As though they burnt! —

How many buyers would there be,

If everything were sold cost-free!

132. — Goethe to Zicltek.

Carlsbad, 11th May, 1820.
.... Eberwein has been composing several songs ;
tell me your opinion of them. I feel at once that your com-
positions arc identical with my Songs ; the music, — like the

1820.] TO ZKLTEB. 193

gas which is pumped into the balloon, — merely carries them
up aloft. In the case of other composers, I must first make
sure of the way in which they have understood the Song,

and ascertain what they have made out of it

Meantime, new poems are being collected for the Divan.
This Mahommedan religion, its mythology and customs, give
scope for a style of poetry that is suitable to my years. Uncon-
ditional submission to the unfathomable will of Grod, a cheer-
ful survey of the earth's varying activities, which are ever
recurring like circles and spirals, love, an inclination that
wavers between two worlds, all realism purified, and dissolv-
ing itself symbolically. What more can Grandpapa want ?

It is strange enough that my Prometheus, which I had
myself given up and forgotten, should crop up again just
now. The well-known Monologue, which is included among
my poems, was to have opened the third Act. I dare say
you have all but forgotten, that the worthy Mendelssohn
died from the consequences of an over-hasty publication of
the same.* Be sure you do not allow the manuscript to
become too public, lest it should appear in print. It would
be very welcome, as a Gospel, to our revolutionary youth,
and the High Commissions of Berlin and Mayence might
make a serious face at my youthful caprices. It is re-
markable however, that this refractory fire has been
smouldering for fifty years, under the ashes of poetry, till
at last it threatens to break out into destructive flames,
the minute it can seize on really inflammable materials.

Now that we are speaking of old, though not old-
fashioned things, let me ask, have you attentively read the
Satyros, as it occurs in my works ? The thought struck
me, because it rises up in my remembrance simultaneously
with this very Prometheus, as you will feel, so soon as you
examine it from that point of view. I abstain from making
any comparison, and merely remark that an important part
of Faust also belongs to this period.

* This was in 1774. The Monologue called forth declarations from
Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn, against Jacobi's book, Ueber die Lehre
des Sjnnosas, and Mendelssohn's mortification at the public disclosure of
the fact, that his own knowledge of Spinoza's ethics was deficient, is said
to have hastened his death.

194 Goethe's letters [1820.

And now about the weather, a sine qua non of the season
for bathiuc: and travelling. The dry upper air has prevailed ;
every cloud has disappeared, and this year's Ascension Day
is a true heavenly Festival.

Generally speaking, a very late spring, with a high
solstice, affects us palpably and agreeably. It is as if the
trees, on awakening, were surprised at finding themselves
already so far on in the year, and yet, on their own part
still so far behindhand. Each day, fresh buds are opening,
and those already open are developing further.

It is delightful to walk down the Prager Strasse to-
wards sunset. All the leafless trees, hitherto unnoticeable,
at all events unnoticed, are gradually becoming visible, as
they unfold their leaves, and when the sun shines upon
them from behind, they stand out clearly, so marked in
their peculiar forms as to be recognizable. The green is
so young, so yellow, so perfectly transparent. This enjoy-
ment growing before our eyes, will be a feast to us, for
yet another fortnight. For this first green will not be
fully developed, even by Whitsuntide.

The day grows, and so everything is beautiful and good.
May what is brightest and best fall to your lot !

133. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 13th May, 1820.

.... As your letter speaks of musical .painting,

shall I tell you of some who have done such things ? . . . .

Haydn, in TJie Creation and The Seasons, — Beethoven, in

his CJutrader-Symphonies and the Battle of Vittoria, have

drawn the most curious pictures The Overture to

Haydn's Greationis the most marvellous thing in the world,
for by the ordinary, methodical, conventional resources of
Art, a Chaos is produced, which converts the feeling of
fathomless disorder into one of delight. In the Symphony
which represents "Winter, in The Seasons, I freeze in com-
fort at my warm stove, and for the moment, know not
whether there is anything more delightful in the world.
What old Bach and Handel achieved is quite measure-
less, esj^ecially in quantity, for every occasional transitory

1820.] TO ZELTER. 195

cii'cumstance becomes in their hands an abyss of sensation,
which they denote by the familiar black points. Nay,
were there no limit to human things, and were the external
resources rich enough, one would recognize, in the belly
of the earth and the bosom of the stars, the life of

Omnipotence

134. — Zeltbb to Goethe.

Berlin, 25th May, 1820.

• • . . Yesterday was Princess Radzivil's birth-
day, and at last, our Faust was smoothly and fairly
launched. The King was so pleased with us, that his
praises seemed sweet as honey to me, and I too can say I

was satisfied The Duchess of Cumberland again

was full of your praises, and regretted she had not been
able to attend all the rehearsals, as the piece is really a
unique thing, so that you cannot see it too often to probe
its depth. "Long live Goethe!" was shouted at supper
by one and all. It was a threefold cry from a hundred
voices. Even if Radzivil's music had no merit at all, he
is entitled to great praise, for having brought to light a
poem hitherto concealed in darkest shadow, which every-
one, after reading and feeling, thought himself obliged to
withhold from his neighbour. I, at all events, know no one
else enthusiastic and innocent enough, to put such a
banquet before such people, as enables them for the first
time to learn German, Just think of the circle in which
all this goes on; a Prince, Mephisto, our first actor,
Faust, our first actress, Gretchen, a Prince for the com-
poser, a downright good King as foremost listener, with
his youngest children and all his Court about him, as good
an Orchestra, as can be found, and lastly, a Chorus of
our best voices, the singers consisting of well-born ladies,
(beautiful girls, most of them,) and men of position,
— amongst them a Consistorialrath, a clergyman, a Coun-
cillor's daughter, Court-Councillors and high officials, —
all these directed by the Royal General-Intendant, combining
the offices of scene-shifter, stage-manager, prompter, in his
own person, — in the Palace, in a Royal Castle ; — you cannot

blame me for wishing we had had you amongst us

196 Goethe's letters [1820.

135. — Goethe to Zelter.

Carlsbad, 24th May, 1820.

As a parting gift, I send you a little Song, which
you may lovingly decipher and becipher. I have had a
healthy, happy time. Now I am about to hasten home-
wards, where I hope to hear from you.

St. Nefomuc's Eve.*

Carlsbad, loth May, 1820.

Little liglits upon the broad stream quiver,
Children's voices on the bridge are singing.
Great and little bells above tlie river
Join, in rapturous devotion ringing.

Little lights must vanish, stars are dying;
So our sainted spirit gently glided
From the mortal body, still denying
He could tell the sin to him confided.

Quiver, little lights! Ye voices ringing
With the childlike laugh to childhood given,
Still remember, to the wide world singing.
What impels the star to stars in heaven.

136. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 6th June, 1820.

... .But now what am I to say to your repre-
sentation of my Faust ? The faithful account of it which

* St. John Nepomue, the confessor of Queen Joanna, is said to have
been thrown into the Moldau by order of King Wenceslaus (1378-1418),
after he had tortured liim in vain, in the hope of extracting from hira
the secrets of the Confessional, and finding matter of accusation against
his virtuous wife, whose reproaches had goaded him to fury. The body
of the Saint rose to the surface of the water, and was discovered by
means of the unearthly lights which flickered round it. The last two
lines of the Song : —

Und verkündiget nicht minder

Was den Stem zu Sternen bringe.
are somewhat obscure. Diintzer, who denies that "the star" means
the soul of the Saint, thinks that they allude to the magical power of
love, " which even in Heaven guides the course of the stars." The
maidens of Prague honoured St. John Nepomue, as the guardian of
lovers.

1820,] TO ZELTER. 197

I owe to you, transports me into the strangest region, and
I see it quite clearly. After all, Poetry is really a rattle-
snake, into the jaws of which one falls against one's own
will. Certainly, if you keep together as you have hitherto,
it will be, become, and remain the most out of the way

work that the world has seen

To fill up ray remaining space, let me add as follows :
About a year ago,, when I happened to be sitting alone
with my daughter-in-law, I told her a little story, like
many you know, and many that I still have in my mind.
She wanted to read it, but I had to tell her, that it only
existed in the power of my imagination. Since then, I
have scarcely ever thought of it again. On coming to
Schleitz rather early, and feeling the time hang heavy, I
took out of my travelling-bag a quire of writing-paper,
and a Viennese black chalk pencil that writes easily, and
began the story. I am now dictating it, and as there is
very little to alter, I find I have got about half way through
it. The rest will no doubt follow in due course,

137. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 7th June, 1820.

.... Spontini, whose acquaintance I made yester-
day, is just having his last Opera, Olimpia, translated into
German. For this work, he wants forty violins in his
Orchestra, (we have about half that number,) and an
enlargement of the space for the Orchestra in the Opeia
House. If the rest of the band is to be arranged in this
proportion, the pit may go and look for places outside. I
for my part, will take a hint from this experience, although
I see clearly enough, how and where it must end, if we are

to extract the pith, and get at the root of the matter

With the exception of the King and Crown Prince, who
are not in Berlin, the Court was again present at the
second performance of Faust, and they tried beforehand
to make Spontini acquainted with the poem, by means
of Madame de Stael's explanations. What the Italian
Frenchman will learn from the devil, remains to be proved.
He is treated by the whole Court with the distinction he

198 Goethe's letters [1820.

deserves, when one considers the toilsome labour expended
on his woi-ks, and the readiness with which he submits to
alterations, which can hardly benefit the form of the
whole r^

138. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 9tli .July, 1820.
I FINISHED my last with a story, and begin this with
another. You will perhaps rememlier, that my Prometheus *
was first published in Vienna, in a pocket edition form ; at
the time, when we were in Töplitz together, I was still
brooding over it, in the true sense of the word, and you
took an equal share in it. The Duchess of Cumberland,
who was recovering from a severe illness, wished to have
something read aloud to her, so I took this very Frome-
tlieus, as my nearest and dearest ; she was greatly pleased
with it, and I let her keep the pocket edition copy.

Well, at our last interview, she talked about those days,
and about the poem, and said she would like to have another
small copy for a lady-friend of hers, but of course I had
no more. Now I have been fortunate enough to find a
small stray lamb in Carlsbad, and at once determined to
send it to her ; but I must first get it bound, that it may
to some extent be worthy of passing through the fairest of
fair hands. As she has so often spoken of me to you, I think
it will be nice to send it to her through you. Say nothing
about it, but let me know what you think and wish

With regard to the pictiire of St. Cecilia, f I can only
say, that the saint stands in the centre, and the small organ
she holds in her hands, she has allowed to droop in such a
way, that the pipes are slipping out, indicating that she is
losing hold of earthly music, whilst she looks upwards,
listening to the heavenly ; the other saints do not stand in
any relation to her ; besides these, there are patron saints, of
the city, the Church, and of him for whom the picture was

* Under the title of Pandorens Wiederkunft.

t Zelter had asked the question, " In what relation to Saint Cecilia
do Paul and the Magdalen stand, as they are represented in Raphael's
picture ? "

1820.] TO ZELTER. 199

painted, and these have no connection with one another,
except that which the painter's art contrived to give them.
The Madonna del Pesce is composed exactly in the same
manner. The man who ordered the picture was probably-
called Tobias

139. — Zelter to Goethe.

Eerlin, 21st July, 1820.
.... I HAVE now heard Spontini's Cortez twice.
The text is by De Jouy, and much better than the very
bad German translation given here. I am inclined to
prefer the music to that of the Vestalin, but I ought to
hear it much more often, as I have got a kind of general
view, but as yet, no firm point of observation. There are
certainly admirable passages, and the dances throughout
are quite excellent. My great puzzle is, that a highborn
Italian, proved in high things, should clothe high heroic
subjects with small melodious forms, whilst these again are
strongly prejudiced by the musical accompaniment. But
we shall see if we can find a firm point. For the rest, as
an artist, I am on very good terms with this composer ; he
approached me voluntarily, and very confidingly, as no
Italian or Frenchman has ever done before ; he has four
times visited the Singakademie, and 1 gladly acknowledge
the interest he appears to take in it. . . .

140. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 20th September, 1820.
.... It is to my absolute state of solitude and
my habit of dictating, that you are indebted for this letter,
which I am finishing on the evening of the arrival of
yours. But that you, who have been rocking on the waves,
sniffing up sea smells, and longing for the shore, may enjoy
some happy hours this winter in peace and quiet, while
remembering the perilous grandeur of the sea,* let me

* In a previous letter, Zelter had described his voyage to Stralsund.
Putbus, and Rüden.

^ i ffrv^-^'v-

200 Goethe's letters [1820.

advise you to get a poem called Olfried und Lisena; it
consists of ten Cantos, and over six hundred stanzas, and
is written by one August Hagen,* a youngster in Königs-
berg.

Even though the food may occasionally seem too light
for your strong palate and good ])owers of digestion, you
ai'e sure to be charmed, when you feel the very breath of
your own Baltic through the whole of the little volume.
It is a rare phenomenon, and has given me a great deal of
pleasure.
] But now, to a subject with which I ought to have"Begun, \
\ were it not that the joyful melodies of this world must so_J
; frequently be jplayed con sordini.. My daughter-in^w has
I given T)Irth to another Bne boy ; but owing to her delicate
constitution, she suffered feai'fully, and to say the truth, I
am still anxious about her. I can say no more, except
that here too, I try to keep myself in Islam

G.
141. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 23rd October, 1820.
Yesterday for the second, and to-day for the third
time, I have been looking at j'our bust by Rauch. Cling-
ing as I do to the first impression, I still choose to com-
pare it with later ones, and find myself pretty well satisfied.
Anyhow, our artist, at very first sight, saw deeper into you

than any of his predecessors, who are known to me

The most pleasing picture of you is an original black chalk
drawing by G. M. Kraus, of the year 1776 ; Ii-ecognize you
completely in it, although it no longer resembles you now.
Forehead, eye, nose, mouth, chin, and haii', all come from
one centre, as the abode of what i.s in you and of what goes

* " There is August Hagen, in Königsberg, a splendid talent ; have
you ever read his Olfried und Lisena ? There you may find passages
whicli enuld not be better; the situations on the Baltic, and the otiier
particulars of that locality, are all inast«^rly. Hut these are only fine
passages; as a whole, it pleases nobody. And what labour and power
he has lavislied upon it ; indeed, he has almost exhausted hiras<df. Now,
he has been writing a tragedy.'" In Knnsl und Altcrthum Goethe had
advised Hagen to treat only small subjects. See Conversations of Goethe
with Ecker inann, translated by ü-tenford, p. 17.

1820.] TO ZELTER. 201

forth from you. I coaxed tliis drawing out of old Mcolai s
heir ; he himself would never have given it to me. As I
write this, it hangs before my picture of Sebastian Bach ;
I copy their features, and it seems to me just as if we had
been young together

142. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 9th November, 1820.
.... I AM very well satisfied with Ranch's bust.
If he had kept it concealed, and not exhibited it, till he had
worked it out in marble, what is at present still problema-
tical in it would never have come to be discussed.

Meyer also gives excellent testimony in favour of the
picture after Albertinelli ; an artist who quitted this earthly
ball in 1520 may even then have left a good thing behind
him. For the rest, this aifair shows us, that our worthy
Berlin friends boast of no firmly established Biblical stand-
point ; we have often enough seen the Visitation of the
Blessed Virgin dated the 2nd of July, and marked as a red-
letter day in the Calendar, but we thought it meant, that she
had received a visit from Elizabeth, whereas the reverse is
really the case, for this Blessed Mary, being with child,
had gone over the hills to visit her friend. All this is
stated in detail, in the first chapter of St. Luke. Unques-
tionably the value of the picture is enhanced, when one
carefully examines, and has thoroughly mastered the pas-
sage mentioned

202 Goethe's letxebs [1821.

1821.

143. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th February, 1821.
.... At Easter, I propose to offer my friends a
fresh budget of Kunst und AUerthum, as well as a volume
of Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre.

After all, the greatest charm of an author's otherwise
hazardous life is, that while one is personally dumb to one's
friends, one is meanwhile preparing a great conversation
with them in all parts of the world.

It is the same with the musician, but he must act diffe-
rently from certain friends, who do not allow their silent
and absent acquaintances to benefit by the penitential tones
of gentle Magdalenes, or by an appeal to the universal genius

of the world

Most sincerely yours,

Goethe.

144. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 30th April, 1821.

Tour Alexander Boucher,* or Alexander the Great,
played here yesterday, with great applause. He reminds
me of Baron Baggc, with this difference, that when the fool

is subtracted from Boucher, a rare violin-player is left

His likeness to Napoleon, which was advertised beforehand,
attracted several people, although the room was not full

* Spohr, who mot this well-known French violinist at Brussels in
1819, says of liim. "His face bore a remarkalile likeness to Napoleon
Bonaparte's, and he had evidently carefully studied the banished Em-
peror's way of bearing himself, lifting his hat, taking snuff, &c." He
traded upon this resemblance, and on one occasion, advertised a Concert
in these terms, " Une malheureuse ressemblance me force de m'ex-
patrier ; je donnerai donc^ avant de quitter ma belie patrie, un concert
d'adieux."' He called himself " L'Alexandre des Violons."

1821.] TO ZELTER. 203

Madame Boucher was even more applauded. Her playing
on the piano and harp at the same time, shows her power
over both instruments, a power which demands long prac-
tice, on account of the contrary motion of arms and fingers,
queer as the whole thing is in itself. The composition of
the Concerto which she played, pleased me more than that
of her husband. Capellmeister Hummel has had a rare
ovation ; to-day he gives his second concert, and if he does
not return to Weimar in a pulpy condition, the heat is not
guilty of it, for it is exceptional.

The King has been to hear my Passion-music this year,
and sent me twenty FriedricJiscVor, which I gladly wel-
comed, as the little yellow discs are rare with me. Besides
this, he has been so gracious as to give me a site near the
University Garden, upon which I mean to build a hall for

my Singakademie

Yours everlastingly,

145. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 20th August, 1821.
I MUST communicate to you an old discovery, which
I am now making for the second time. Turning over the
leaves of my Lessing, I stumble, in the twenty-third volume
of the TJieatrical Remains, on the Hercules Furens of Seneca ;
herein I find the happiest of subjects for an Opera, and
what is still more, towards the end, Lessing himself is of

the same opinion I have a young pupil,* now at

work upon his third comic Opera, to whom I should like
to give a serious subject. The boy's talent is sound, his
work flows spontaneously, and he is industrious from love
of the thing. In due time, I think of sending him to Italy,

so that he may make his own way A new Opera,

Der Freischütz, by Maria von Weber, is making a furore.
A silly huntsman, the hero of the piece, lets himself be
enticed by necromancers, equally silly, into casting so-
called magic bullets, by means of sorcery, at midnight ; if

* Felix Mendelssohn. — The tliree Operas were, Soldatenliebschaft,
Die Beiden Päda,gogen, and Die Wandtr7iden Comodianten .

204 Goethe's letters [1821.

he makes the best shot, he is to win the bride, who has
ah'eady phghted her troth to him, whom he at last — shoots
with this bullet ? Not a bit of it ! He does not even hit her.
She only falls down at the report, springs immediately to
her feet again, and marries him like a shot. Whether the
hitter hits off marriage any better, history sayeth not.
The music is greatly applauded, and is really so good, that
the public puts up with all the coal and gunpowder ex-
plosion. With all the forge-bellows, I trace but little
genuine passion. The women and children are crazy about
it ; the devil is black, virtue white, stage animated, Or-
chestra lively, and that the composer is no Spinozist, you
may gather from this, that he has ci'eated so colossal a

work out of the aforesaid Nothing

146. — Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 28th September, 1821.

.... I WISH you would occasionally, with a few
strokes of your pen, which are so easy to you, lay hold
of the passing moment, and send it on some thirty miles
further. I should have thought that my efforts for you,

ye Athenians ! though they were not directed to each
individual, but to the dear community as a whole, deserved
some return.

I have spent my summer happily, undergoing my "cure : "
the Carlsiiad catastrophe was a bad after-cure, for •! have
so grown to the place, that I cannot bear to think of its
being destroyed. From the heights above Franzenbrunnen,
on that very 9th of September, I saw that mischievous
flood roll down upon the Töpel region I know so well,
and but for strange chances, 1 should have been involved
in the calamity. In the days following, I had neither
courage nor call to go there, so the horses, which had been
ordei'ed to drive me there, brought me home instead.

On arriving here, I find your dear letters and parcels, for
which my best thanks ; I have now got one of Streicher's
many-octaved pianos, and I am told it is a success, so

1 hope my winter will thereby become a little more
musical

1821.] TO ZELTER. 205

147.- -Goethe to Zelter.

Jena, 14th October, 1821.

.... Ebbewein is making arrangements for me
to hear, instead of only looking at, some of the music you
kindly intended for me, but if in the Chorus, Dichten ist
ein UebermutJi, I restore the author, contrary to your
emendations, without injuring the musical rhythm, you
will perhaps pardon me. The poet feels strange, when he
discovers that he has been tricked, like the old gentleman,
fifteen hundred years ago.

I am much delighted with your kind words about the
Prologue ; * it chimes in with everything I have heard
and am still hearing. It adds very much to my peace of
mind, that in the quietest hermitage, far apart from the
centre of busy life, I could produce something, which at
a most important moment, was there found to be suitable
and pleasing. I hope that, by degrees, people will learn
to value the occasional poem, for those who know nothing
about the matter, and who imagine that such a thing as
an independent poem exists, are still for ever nagging at
it. Among the tame Xenien you will, in future, find the
following : —

Wouldst thou thyself a poet prove.
From heroes and shepherds hold aloof 5
Here is Rhodes, man ! Dance away ! f
And to the occasion tune thy lay !

I write these lines, dearest Friend, on the 14th of October,
in Jena, on the very spot, where so many years ago every-
thing was a mere ruin ; to-day, however, there is a Sun-
day quiet here, so that were it not for the sponsors and
other witnesses, who have come to assist at the state-
christening, one would suppose all the inhabitants had died
oS. However, the old limes, the very trees which calmly
looked on at the tumult of the battle and the fires, still
clothe themselves in a glorious foliage of green ; and I

* A Prologue written by Goethe for the opening of the Berlin
Theatre.

t An allusion to the well-known saying. Hie Ehodus, hie salta. See
JEsop's Fables.

206 Goethe's letters [1821.

still occasionally creep out of my most insignificant cottage,
into the botanical garden, where, it is true, I miss your
fair pupil; you can give her another kind message from
me.

I am glad that Boucher and his wife are doing so well ;
for that is industry and pi-actice, backed by natural talent.
I entirely approve of what you say about the human voice.
When I heard Catalani in Carlsbad, I said, very appro-
priately, on the spur of the moment : —

In drawing-room as in lofty hall,

Kever enough one liears ;
Now first we learn, and once for all,

The reason we have ears.

.... A copy of my Wanderjahre will follow shortly. If you
should hap^jen to meet Carl Ernst Schubarth of Breslau,
be kind to him for my sake ; he has written something on
my Faiist, and is now publishing his Ideen über Homer und
sein Zeitalter, a little book that I can greatly praise, for it
puts one into a good humour. Those who are fond of
pulling things to pieces, will not like it, because it reconciles
and unites.

Very truly yours,
G.

148. — Zeltee to Goethe.

Berlin, 26th October, 'l 821.

.... To-morrow early, I, with my Doris, and a
pupil of mine, Herr Mendelssohn's son, a lively boy of
twelve years old, start for Wittenberg, to attend the fete
there. You shall hear from Wittenberg, if I am coming —
three strong — to Weimar. As your house is full enough,
I shall put up at my good " Elephant," where I have
always been treated thoroughly well ; only let me see you
again ; I thirst to be near you. I should like to show your
face to my Doris, and my best pu})il, before I leave this
world, — in which however, it is my desire to remain as long
as possible. The pupil is a good and pretty boy, lively and
obedient. To be sure, he is the son of a Jew, but no Jew

1821.] TO ZELTER. 207

himself. The father, with remarkable self-denial, has let
his sons learn something, and educates them properly ; it
would really be eppes Bores, (something rare,) if the son

of a Jew turned out an artist

208 Goethe's letters [1822.

1822.

149. — GoETUE TO Zelter.

Weimar, 5th February, 1822.
.... My kind greetings to Dorchen, and thanks
for her kindness to Ulrike * ; saj a good word for me to
Felix and his parents too. Since you left, my piano has
been dumb ; one single endeavour to re-awaken it was
next door to a failure. However, I hear a great deal of
talk about music, — which is always a poor sort of amuse-
ment.

Farewell ! In your Berlin glory think of me who, in
my sunny little back-room, think of you only too often.

Most truly yours,
G.

150. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weiiimr, 13th March, 1822.

.... My best thanks for your affection and hospi-
tality to the good child, Ulrike ; she has returned home
safely, and has a great deal to tell us. In her nice natural
way, she sees things very clearly and plainly, and they
stand before her, even as though they were present ; one
cannot say that she criticises, but she compares, with
great insight. I am surprised that she did not write at

once, for she is still perpetually with you in thought

Of our Grand Duchess, I can only say that one's admira-
tion and respect for her are ever on the increase ; she has
had two falls, both times hurting herself considerably, but
she is always equal to herself, never wavering, nor swerving
from her line of conduct ; besides this, she makes it her
business to keep the young people who like dancing and
fates, on the move, and although a sull'erer herself, to make

* Uh'ike von Pogwisch, the younger sister of Goetlie's daughter-in-
law, Ottilie. Dorchen is Zelter's daughter, Doris.

1822.] TO ZELTER. 209

others happy. She generally comes to see me once a week ;
so I always have ready something of interest to lay befoi-e
her, and the calm and thorough interest she takes in all
kinds of subjects, is a most delightful recompense

All my belongings are well and happy, the grandchildren
in particular are faultless; the life that is newly springing
up is still in its first bloom, when the very defects of our
nature seem graceful

My opponents do not mislead me ; has not everyone in
the world, and more especially in Germany, to get accus-
tomed to this sort of thing ? My noble opponents, in
physics especially, seem to me like Catholic priests, who
would fain refute a Protestant by the Council of Trent.

Schu.barth is a remarkable man ; it is difficult to foretell
in what direction he can succeed. Indeed, as literature
now stands, especially German literature, which grasps
and overgrasps at everything, clever young men work
their way up to a clear survey more quickly, and perceive
only too soon, that there is no special satisfaction in criti-
cising. They feel they must produce, so as in some measure
to satisfy themselves and others. This, however, is not
given to everyone, so I have seen the best heads at vari-
ance with themselves

151. — Zelter to Goethr.

Berlin, 17th March, 1822.
.... Felix is well and industrious. His third
Opera * is finished and written out, and will soon be per-
formed among his friends. After his return from Weimar
he also finished a Gloria, besides writing more than half a
pianoforte Concerto for his sister ; he has begun a Magnificat
too. Even if I myself fail to do anything much, anyhow I
keep my boys to it, and half-a-dozen of these positively

delight me

Zelter.

* See note to Letter 145.

210 Goethe's letters [1822.

152. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 31st Inarch, 1822.
If you wish to understand and explain i^roblema tical
pictures, such as the one in question by Titian, the follow-
ing considerations must be borne in mind. Since the
thirteenth century, when people began to abandon the
Byzantine style, which was still indeed respectable, but
ended by being quite dry and mummified, — and to turn to
nature, the ai'tist considered nothing too high, nothing too
deep for him to try and represent directly from reality ;
nay, the demand by degrees went so far, that pictures had,
like a kind of paper of patterns, to include everything
within the range of the eye. A picture of this kind had
to be filled to the very edge with important and detailed
matter ; hence the inevitable result was, that figures foreign
to and in no way connected with the main subject, together
with other objects, were introduced, as proofs of the general
skill of the artist. In Titian's day, the painter still wil-
lingly yielded to such requirements.

Now let us turn to the picture itself. In an open varied
landscape, and almost at the edge of the picture, on the
left hand, with rocks and tree adjoining, we see the loveliest
nude maiden, resting herself as comfortably, composedly,
and quietly, as on a lonely bed. If she were cut out, we should
have a pei'fect picture as it is, and want nothing more ; in
the present masterpiece, however, the first intention was to
represent the glory of the human form in its outer mani-
festation. Further, beliind her stands a liigh narrow-
necked vessel, probal)ly for the sake of the metallic sheen ;
a soft wreath of smoke issuing from it. Can this be meant
to indicate the piety of the beautiful woman, a silent
prayer, or what ?

For we are soon aware, that this is the picture of n notable
person. To the right, on the opposite side, lies a skull, and
out of the cleft close by, appears the arm of a man, not yet
bared of flesh and muscle.

We soon see the connection ; for between those bones,
and that divine form, wriggles a small active dragon,
greedily eying the tempting prey. But lest we should be

1822.] TO ZELTER. 211

Bomewhat anxious on her account, lying so quietly, as she
does, whilst she seems to hold back the dragon by a spell,
there rushes forth from the darkest of thunder-clouds an
armed knig+it, mounted on a strange fire-breathing lion ;
these two will probably soon make an end of the dragon.
And thus we see, although in rather an odd way, that it
represents St. George threatening the dragon, and the lady
whom he is to I'escue.

Now on examining the landscape, we find that it is not
in any way in keeping with the incident ; on the principle
stated above, it is merely as remarkable as possible in
itself, and yet the figures described are happily placed
there.

Between two rocky banks, a steeper one thickly wooded,
and a flatter one with less undergrowth of vegetation, a
river runs towards us, at first rushing, then gently flowing
along ; the steep bank on the right is crowned by a mighty
ruin, huge shapeless masses of masonry, still remaining,
indicate the power and sti^ength displayed in their con-
struction. Single pillars, nay, a statue left in its niche,
indicate the grace of a royal residence such as this was ;
the force of time, however, has made all the efforts of
human skill useless and futile.

On the opposite shore, we are reminded of more recent
times : there stand mighty towers, fortifications that have
been newly erected, or perfectly restored, newly made em-
brasures and battlements ; far in the background, however,
the two banks are connected by a bridge, which reminds
one of the Ponte degli Angelt, in the same way as the tower
behind it suggests the Castle of St. Angela. From the
prevailing love of truth and reality, such confusion of place
and time was not laid to the account of the artist. But
leaving the strictest congruity out of the question, we
could not alter a single line, without injuring the com-
position.

We greatly admire the exquisitely poetical thunder-cloud
which brings in the knight ; but without having the picture
before one, it is impossible to discuss such points in detail.
On the one side, it seems to disengage itself from the ruin
like a dragon's tail, but in spite of all Zoomorphism, one
cannot interpret the whole into any special form ; on the

212 Goethe's letters [1822.

other side, between the bridge and the fortifications, a fire
breaks out, the smoke of which is rising in gentle wreaths
np to the fire-breathing jaws of the lion, and comes into
contact with him. Enough, although at first ^e spoke of
this composition as collective, we cannot but reflect that it
has been woven into unity, and prize it accordingly.
In haste, yours truly,

158. — Zelter to Goethe,

Berlin, 7th April, 1822.

Yesterday, Saturday, Madame Mara came to me of
her own accord, on foot too, to help me, she said, to count
my well-deserved fees. Just think of this seventy-two-
year-old matron, this demon of a singer, being touched
by our Messiah. The pain and the bliss, she declares,
carried her quite away ; the audience must have thought
her silly. The Fugues went so smoothly, an organ of living
voices. She has often enough sung in this Oratorio in
London ; she summed up by confessing that our performance
might vie with those in London, of which the English are
sufficiently proud.

9th April,

Yesterday evening came Professor Hegel, to tell us that
our friend Isegrimm was seriously ill, and inquiring for
me. I was with him this afternoon. I found him in bed,
and really very weak. He asked me to see that *he was
buried before sunrise, to a good blast of trumpets. I said
Yes, and he should have a good dead march besides, pro-
vided he would so manage his decease, that I should be at
hand. He has forbidden a post-mortem examination,
shaving, shrouds and all such things ; whoever is ignorant
shall learn nothing through him. The worms will be
hnngiy enough without all that; he is not so proud as to
let himself be served up daintily for unfamiliar guests. It
seems he wishes to outlive the executors of his last will,
and I am glad not to make one of the worms, which are to
hunger for his corpse. He was just then asking the doctor,
whether he might eat sausage or maccaroni, and such
things. He has begun to dictate a farewell letter to you>

1822.] TO. ZELTER. 213

which perhaps he means to finish, when he is completely
recovered. I doubt his being so bad ; I should be soitj to
lose him, for I learn from him ; so he may just as well live

till he is dejid

154. — GoKTHE TO Zelter.

Eger, 8th August, 1822.

It was quite right of you to open up a conversation
with me again, whilst you were in those outlandish, pious
countries ; * in return for it, you shall soon have back again
a clean copy of your letter. If I continually thought of
you all last winter, while I was drawing up in manuscript,
and correcting in proof what you are now devouring, f I
am well rewarded by your welcome pages, which have for
ever set at rest my wish to see Moravia in its own indi-
viduality. So be it then ! The beautiful white hall (washed
clean in the blood of Christ, according to Zacharias Werner's
priceless FooVs Sonnet), shall now never be entered by me,

were I ever so well able to get about

Nor am I anxious on your account : your nature knows
how to assimilate, and after all, everything depends upon
this. If people understood their own advantage, they would
not blame anything traditionally handed down ; what does
not please us we should let alone, in order to take it up at
some future time perhaps. Mankind does not understand
this, and treats an author like the master of a cookshop ;
in return for that, they are served with, sausages bought at
the fairs, to their heart's content : —

" Boys read their Terence with a different joy
To that of Grotius, when he reads him too."
The saying made me angry as a boy,
Though now I cannot choose but own it true.

If I read Homer now, he seems different to what he was
to me ten years ago ; if one lived to be three hundred
years old, he would always seem different. To convince
oneself of this, one need only look backwards ; from the

* Zeher had written at length to Goethe, aboiit his rehgious expe-
riences in Moravia.

\ Vol. ix. of Aus meinem Leben.

214 Goethe's letters [1822.

Pisistratidae to onr own Wolf, what different sorts of faces
does the old father make !

I am ovei'joyed that Wolf, (the friend in question,) haa
not been burnt, or eaten up by the fever, for I should not
willingly miss him above-ground. We shall not see his
like again. Would that God had willed him friendly, in
addition to so many other qualities ! And yet, how can all
these contradictory things be reconciled P

I am very pleased that you approve of my treatment of
that dirty Campaign ; * to play Grazioso in such a tragedy
is always something of a part

My greatest gain of late is the personal acquaintance
of Count Caspar Sternberg, with whom formerly I cor-
responded. Having from early days been consecrated to
the priesthood, he finally became Canon of Ratisbon ; when
there, he acquired, in addition to his knowledge of secular
and state affairs, a love for the study of Nature, more espe-
cially the vegetable kingdom, for which department he
has done a great deal. When driven from his post by the
subversion of Germany, he returned to Bohemia, his native
country, and now lives partly in Prague, partly on estates
inherited from his elder brother. Here Natui'e once more
kindly comes to his aid. He possesses important coal
mines, in the roof of which the rarest kinds of plants have
been preserved, and inasmuch as they show forms analogous
only to the vegetation of the most Southern regions, they
point to the remotest epochs of the earth. He has already
published two books of them; when you have an. oppor-
tunity, get some naturalist to show them to you

Very truly yours,
G.

Enclosurh.

He.

I thought that in myself I felt no pain.

Yet hollow were the ehanihers of ni}' hrain.

And at my heart a silent terror Inniji;,

And round my brows th' enchaining darkness chinj^,

• The Campagne in Frankreich, which Goethe had just published as
the Fifth Part of the Second Division of Atia meinem Leben.

1822.] TO ZELTER. 215

Until the tears are flowing thick and fast,
And the restrained Farewell pours forth at last.—
Tranciuil and full of cheer was her Farewell,
Yet now, perchance, I think she weeps as well.

She.

It must be. Ay, and he is gone !
]\Iy dear ones, leave me but alone,
The secret of my strangeness keeping.
It will not last for ever and a day ;
But now that he is gone away,
I have no choice but weeping.

He.

I am not in the mood for sorrow. —

What are the mellow gifts to me,

That we may pluck from every tree.

Since joy from none of them I borrow !

The day is wearisome and vain,

Tedious it is, when night lights up her fires,

Thy gentle image to renew again

Is now the only end of my desires.

And didst thou feel this longing as I feel it,

Thou'dst come half-way to meet me, nor conceal it.

She.

Since I appear not, thou far off art grieving,
Fears lest I prove untrue thy heart deceiving,
For else the image of my soul were here.
Doth Iris then acWn the blue of heaven? —
Let the rain fall, flash out the colours seven ;
See, thou art weeping ! I again appear.

He.

Most like indeed to Iris' heavenly bow.
My tender miracle of beauty, thou !
Bending in splendour, bright with harmony,
Ever the same and ever new, as she.

The Present of itself knows nought.
The Parting feels itself with terror duly.
Distance behind thyself will drag thee caught,
Absence alone knows how to value truly.

Weimar, 14th December, 1822.

216 Goethe's letters [1823.

1823.

155. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th January, 1823.
.... One can never acquire any cheerful relation-
r ship with philologists and mathematicians. The handicraft
I of the former is to ebnend, of the latter to define; now
there are in life so many defects {inendce) to be found, and
every single day has enough in itself to define, so that into our
I intercourse with such men, there enters a certain lifelessness,
! which brings death to all communication. Were I obliged
, to think that a friend to whom I dictate a letter, would
I formulate over the use and position of words, nay, even
j over the punctuation, which I leave to my amanuensis, I
/ should instantly feel paralyzed, and there coald be no sense
/ of freedom. ...
J Yours eternally,

156. — August von Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th February, 1823.

Honoured Friend,

We have lately passed a very sad and anxious
time; on the l7th of this month, my poor father was
suddenly attacked by inflammation of the pericardium,
probably too, of a part of the heart itself ; this was ac-
companied by inflammation of the pleura, which brought
him, during this week, to the point of death. Fortu-
nately on the 24th, the ninth day, came the crisis so
earnestly desired by the doctors, and at the present moment,
all danger seems to have passed away. We hope that my
father's naturally strong and good constitution, which has
enabled him, at his great age, to overcome this serious
illness, may also help him to get the better of any of the

1823.] TO ZELTER. 217

consequences that may ensue. I send these lines to relieve
your mind, with the request that you will communicate the
news to Staatsrath Langermann, Count Brühl, and other
sympathetic friends. Farewell, and remember me kindly
to Doris. The enclosed letter is from Ulrike to Doris, and
was written long ago.

Faithfully yours,

August v. Goethe.

157. — August von Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 16th March, 1823.

Honoured Friend,

I gladly take up my pen again to tell you, that the
improved state of my father's health has continued, and
that his recovery is steadily progressing. He is again at
work with his Kunst und Älterthum and Morphologie, and
thus by degrees, we are getting back into our old ways;
one of these is that we are dining together again.

With what strange joy do we again look into the future !
And how does the immediate past lie, like a hideous dream,
behind us !

Please let Staatsrath Langermann see these lines, and
give him our kindest greetings ; my kind remembrances
also to our friend Doris. I received a very sympathetic
letter from Herr Mendelssohn, and must beg to be kindly
remembered to him. Your dear Songs came safely, and
greatly delight my father, like everything else that comes
from you.

Yours very faithfully,

August von Goethe.

(Enclosure written in pencil, in Goethe's own hand, on a separate leaf.)

The first evidence of my renewed life and love, from
Yours gratefully and aöectionately,
J. W. V. Goethk.

218 Goethe's letters [1823.

158. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 7th March, 1823.
My Felix has entered his fifteenth year ; he grows
•under my eyes. His marvellous pianoforte playing I may
look upon as quite a secondary matter ; he may just as
easily become a master on the violin. The Second Act of
his fourth Opera * is finished. All he does becomes more
solid, strength and power are scarcely wanting now ; every-
thing comes from within, he is only touched externally by
things external. Imagine my joy, if we should live to see
the boy live, and fulfil the promise of his innocence. He
is healthy. I should like his very beautiful Pianoforte
Quartett to be dedicated to your Grand Princess. Tell me
how we ought to set about it ? And tell me soon. It is
quite new, and still better than the one he let you hear in
Weimar.

Yours everlastingly,
Z.

159. — Goethe to Zelter.

Marienbiul, '24th July, 1823.
.... This place as a whole, and especially the
part where I reside, is favourable enough for company ; it
is a terrace of handsome houses, flanked by two large
buildings of equal size, which would make a figure in any
town. The Grand Duke lives in the centre, and for-
tunately the whole neighbourhood is occupied by' pretty
women and intelligent men. Older associations become
blended with new ones, and a past life makes one believe
in a present.

As I have perhaps been more occupied with the science
of the earth than was fair, I am now beginning on the
atmospheric kingdoms ; and were it only to learn the
process of one's own thinking and ability to think, that is
already a foretaste of reward. We know very well that
man must attract and assimilate everything to himself,
God Himself and the God-like ; but this very attraction
has its degrees, — it may be either lofty or commonplace.

* See Note to Letter 162.

1823.] TO ZELTER. 219

However, my most prosperous work is the revision of
the chronicles of my life. After various attempts, I have
finally started from the latest period, for, my memory
being fresh about this, I do not need to trouble myself
long as to material ; finally I perceive — thus working
backwards — that what is familiar and present recalls the
past, the forgotten.

In this sense, it must be of great moment to me, if dis-
tant friends regard what goes forth from me in print as
addressed to them ; for I see the time close at hand, when
my voice will no longer be directly heard in writing. It
is therefore very comforting to me, that you have all given
my last number a kindly welcome : in each of those num-
bers, there is more life stowed away, than one would imagine
from the view of it. Unfortunately, people nowadays read
only for the sake of getting through the pages, therefore a
still greater capability is required in the writer, that he
may leave behind him a witness that he has not laboured
in vain.

If you should find the pages of this letter in harmony
with the most solemn, pine-clad peaks, seen from on
high, consider my surroundings, where a thunderstorm,
broadening out far away from the mountains, is sending
down lightnings, thunder, and rain over the whole country.
All our neighbourly world is away, and I am as good as

alone on this wonderful spot

Most truly yours,

J. W. VON Goethe.

159a. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 17th August, 1823.

.... To-day, being the 17th of August, Rosenmeier,
(an old military surgeon,) was talking to me about his old
King, Frederick the Great, whose last hour he vividly
described to me. When Hertzberg, the Minister, came
into the sick-room on the day of the King's death, the
King called out to him, " If you want a watchman, apply
to me ; I can serve you, so that you shall praise my vigi-
lance." The Minister brought papers with him, and the
King stretched out his arm to receive them. " Give me

220 Goethe's letters [1823;

them ! So long as the little lamp glimmers, it must be
used; hurry everything up, life is short." After the
death, women came, who were already prepared to wash
the corpse ; Rosenmeier forbade them. The King had
always shown, even in illness, an insuperable modesty.*
Consequently Rosenmeier was there at once to undress the
corpse, to wash and examine it, and he declares on his
honour, that he found the whole body perfectly natural and
sound. I observed, that my father had already contradicted
a certain i-umour, saying, " It is incredible ; so healthy a
spirit and so sickly a body could not get on together for
so long." , , • .

100. — Goethe to Zeltee.

Eger, 24th August, 1823.
In reply to your welcome letter, dearest Friend,
which reached me at a very fortunate moment, I shall — in
accordance with my promise— before quitting the charmed
circle of Bohemia, again address a letter to you, which you
will welcome the more kindly and affectionately, as I have
nothing but good news to communicate.

To begin with then, let me say that during the time I
lately spent in Marienbad, I met with no disagreeables of
any kind, nay, was cheerful as though returning to life
again, and am now feeling better than I have done for
long.

Further I must tell you, that after receiving tha't kiss,
the bestower of which you probably guessed, I was favoured
by another splendid gift from Berlin ; for I have heard
Madame Milder sing four little Songs, which she con-
trived to make so great, that the remembrance of them
still draws tears from my eyes. So the praise I have
heard bestowed upon her for so many years past, is no
longer a cold historical word, but awakens true and
deeply-felt emotion. Give her my kindest remembrances.
She asked me for something from my own hand, and will
receive through you the first leaflet, that is not absolutely
unworthy of her.

• See Preusz's Friedrich der Grosse, vol. i. p. 364.

1823.] TO ZELTER, 221

Madame Szymanowska,* an incredibly fine pianiste,
affected me just as powerfully, though in quite a different
way, I fancy she might be compared to our Hummel,
only that she is a lovely and amiable Polish lady. When
Hummel ceases playing, there rises up a Gnome before
ns, who, by the help of powerful demons, has performed
such wonders, that one scarcely dares thank him for them ;
but when she stops playing, and comes and looks at us,
we do not feel sure, whether we may not consider ourselves
fortunate, that she has stopped. Give her a friendly wel-
come, when she comes to Berlin, which will probably be
before very long ; remember me to her, and help her when
you can

Forgive this,t and let me be silent, for too much, has
been said already ; however, to an honest and peneti-ating
thinker, it is revolting to see a whole generation — and one
that is not quite to be despised — irretrievably involved in
ruin. The older ones are already aware of it, but they can
neither save themselves, nor do they care to warn others :
for they are already a sect, which must keep together, if it
is to be of any importance, — a sect, in which the incomer
deceives himself, and the outgoer deceives the rest. Again
I ask your pardon, for I ask it of myself ; one always spoils
an hour, by raking up such fruitless sorrows.

It is comfortless too, to listen to political discussions,
from whatever quarter. To get quit of all such things,
as well as of eesthetic conversations and lectures, I devoted
myself for six weeks to a very pretty child, J and was thus
perfectly secured against all outward disagreeables.

But now for the strangest thing of all ! The immense
power that music had over me in those days ! Milder's
voice, the rich sounds of Szymanowska, nay, even the public
performances of the local Jägerscorps untwisted me, just as

* Pianiste to the Empress of Russia. Goethe acknowledged his debt
to her in the poem Aussöhnung.

t A tirade against the shallow dilettantism of the day, as illustrated
in the case of Hensel, and other 3 oung painters.

X Uh'ike Yon Levezow, Goethe's " Stella," daughter of the lady who
was the oi'iginal of " Pandora." The affair became so serious, that
marriage was talked of, and the mother broke off every thing, by suddenly
leaving Marienbad. Goethe commemorated his resolution to give up
Ulrike in the Elegie.

222 Goethe's letters [1823.

one lets a clenched fist gently flatten itself out. By way of
partially explaining this, I say to myself — " For two years
and more, you have not heard any music at all, except
Hummel, twice, and therefore this faculty — so far as it
exists in you — has been lying shut up and apart ; now, all
of a sudden, the Heavenly One falls upon you, and through
the intervention of great talents, exercises her full power
over you, claims all her rights, and awakens all your dor-
mant recollections." I feel perfectly convinced, that I should
have to leave the hall, at the first bar I might hear from
your Singakademie. And when I now consider, what it is,
to hear an Opera, as we give them, but once a week, (a Don
Juan, or a Matrimonio Segreto,) renewing it within oneself,
and assimilating this feeling with the others that form
part of an active life, then, for the first time, do I under-
stand what it is, to have to dispense with such an enjoy-
ment, which, like all the higher enjoyments of life, takes a
man out of and above himself, and lifts him, at the same
time, out of the world and above it.

How good, how imperative then, it should be for me, to
have an opportunity of spending some time by your side !
By gently guiding and directing me, you would cure my
morbid irritability, which, after all, must be regarded as the
cause of the above phenomenon, and you would, little by
little, enable me to take into myself the whole wealth of
God's fairest revelation. Now I must see, how I can get
through a dumb and shapeless winter, which in some
measure, I look forward to with horror. However, we
must endeavour, with good humour and courage, to turn
the black days to account, for ourselves and our friends.
A thousand times, my sincerest farewell !

^ G.

1824.] TO ZELTER. 223

1824.

161. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 9th January, 1824.

.... I ENCLOSE one of my mother's letters, as you
wished to have it ; throughout, as in every line she wrote,
there speaks the character of a woman who — God-fearing
as she was, in the Old Testament way^ — led a good life,
full of confidence in the unchangeable God of nations and
families, and who — when herself announcing her approach-
ing death — made all the arrangements for her funeral so
precisely, that the kind of wine and the size of the crack-
nels on which the mourners were to feast, were accurately
fixed

Ottilie is now in Berlin, and will flit about there from
hour to hour, till she is obliged to pause now and then ;
perhaps after attaining her object of being again driven
through the Brandenburg Gate, there may be at least some
diminution of the hurry, without which, indeed, one can
scarcely imagine her. You will, I know, be all kindness
to her. Nothing very good can happen, without exciting
her lively temperament.* ....

Do you know the following lines ? They have grown
to my heart ; you really must draw them off again, by
winning tones : —

Most like indeed to Iris' heavenly bow,
My tender miracle of beauty, thou !
Bending in splendour, bi'ight with harmony,
Ever the same and ever new, as she.

Commending you to all good spirits,

* Ottilie and her husband had begun to be on bad terms with each
other, and she had joined her mother in Berlin, where she made the
acquaintance of a young P^nglishman, whose attentions to her met with
only too much encouragement.

224 Goethe's letters [1824.

Enclosure.
From Goethe's 'Mother to her Son.

1st October, 1802.

Dear Son,

My best thanks for your willingness to give a
helping hand to Herr Schöff Mellecher, with his hobby-
horse. I am always pleased, when you can show a
Frankfurter any kindness, for you are with us still, and
live in our midst — are a citizen — share in everything —
your name stands in Barrentrap's Calendar, amongst the
advocates ; summa summarum — you still belong to us, and
your compatriots esteem it an honour to themselves, that
they can reckoii so great and famous a man, among their
fellow-citizens. Eduard Schlosser brought me your wel-
come greeting. I hope he is doing well, and Fritz Schlosser
also, but I am often anxious about Chiüstian. That young
man is so very conceited — fancies he knows more than
almost all his contemporaries, has extraordinary ideas, &c.
He has a great opinion of you ; if you can cool him down,
pray do so. In that you are willing to send me some of
the fruits of your mind, you do a good work ; there is a
great unfruitfulness amongst us — and your little brook,
which has water in abundance, will do my thirsty soul
good. I have plans in my head for your coming next
year, and one plan is always brighter than the other —
that will right itself. Please God, we all keep in good
health, and we shall be able to manage the rest. Farewell !
Greet my dear daughter, and our dear August, from
Your faithful old Mother and Grandmother,

Goethe.

162. — Zelter to Gokths.

Berlin, Sunday, 8th February, 1824.
.... Yesterday evening, we had a private perform-
ance of Felix's fourth Opera,* complete with Dialogue. There
are three Acts, which, with two ballets, occupy some two
hours and a half ; the work had its due meed of applause.

* Bie Beiden Nejfin, oder Der Onkel aus Boston, — still in manuscript.

1824.] TO ZELTER. 225

The text, too, by Dr. Casper, is clever enoug'li, as the poet
is musical. From my weak side I can hardly master my
surprise, at a lad, just fifteen years old, progressing with
such great strides. I find everywhere novelty, beauty,
perfect originality ; there is mind, flow, calm, sonority,
completeness, dramatic force. The " Ensemble " shows an
old hand. Orchestration interesting, not oppressive, nor
wearisome, not mere accompaniment. The musicians
enjoy playing it, and yet it is not so easy after all. Familiar
things come and go past, not as though they were borrowed,
but rather welcome and appropriate, each in its own place.
Liveliness, exultation, no over-hurry, tenderness, elegance,
love, passion, innocence. The Overture is a strange thing.
Imagine for yourself a painter, who smudges a cake of
paint on the canvas, picking out the mass with finger and
brush, until at last, to our increasing astonishment, he ends
by producing such a group that we cast about for the
actual occasion of it, since what is true must really have
happened. To be sure, I speak like a grandfather, who
spoils his grandchildren. Never mind. I know what I
say, and insist that I have said nothing but what I can
prove. First of all, by unstinted applause, paid most sin-
cerely by Orchestra and singers ; it is easy to see from
them, whether coldness or repugnance, whether love and
favour, move their fingers and throats. You must know

all about that

163. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 8th March, 1824.

.... First of all, please give my kind remem-
brances to Herr Streckfuss ; I have always followed his
literary progress, poetical and otherwise, with great respect,
though I have not earlier acknowledged his letter and
parcel. This — situated as I was and feeling as I did — was
often impossible : for as I could not reply to any confidence
reposed in me with empty or specious phrases, and yet
was incapable of always appreciating at the moment every-
thing put before me, I got into arrears with many eminent
men, and have done so more and more of late. So give

226 Goethe's letters [1824

him my kindest remembi^nces, and thank him for the
souvenir. The little Book of Buth * works in rattlesnake
fashion upon all poetically productive minds ; one cannot
refrain from rearrangement, paraphrase, and enlargement
of the subject-matter, which is certainly very pleasing, but
nevertheless lies very far out of our way. I am anxious to
see how the poet has acted in this instance.

Now I must tell you that the library here has purchased
at a Nuremberg auction, a manuscript beai-ing the title,
Tahulatur-Btich geistlicher Gesänge Dr. Martini Lutheri und
anderer gottseliger Maimer, sammt heygefügten Choralfugen
durchs ganze Jahr. Allen Liebhabern des Claviers componiret
von Johann Pachelbeln, Organisten ztc St. Sehald in Nürnberg,
1704. If it would interest you, I could send it to you, at
all events, to look at. It is bound in leather, has been
gilt-edged, and looks exactly like an old piece of church
furniture, although in a good state of preservation ; it
contains two hundred and forty-seven melodies.

Your report of Felix is all that could be desired, and is
touching when considered as text and commentary ; would
that I could give you a similar account of one of my
scholars ! but unfortunately Poetry and Plastic Art have no
recognized basis like yours. The most absurd empiri-
cism is met with everywhere — artists and amateurs are
equally insufficient ; the one creates, the other criticises
without any reason ; consequently we have to wait till a
man of decided talent steps forth, and perceives what is
rational outside himself, because it lies concealed» within
him.

The Carnival gaieties ended badly for my household ; in
the last Cotillon — that mischievous dance of which boys
and girls can never have enough — Ulrike had a bad fall
on the back of her head, and her brain has not yet reco-
vered from the shock. The Doctors make the best of the
matter, but I do not know what will come of it.

Ottilie was met by this trouble, on her return, and after
all the pomp and gaiety in Berlin, she will have to help us
to pay for it

* " Streckfuss has been incited by you yourself to turn the Book of
lluth into four metrical Songs," writes Zelter to Goethe, in a previous
letter.

1824,] TO ZELTER. 227

I have asrain been strangely attracted by Handel ; Roch-
litz's Eiitwickehmg des Messias, (in his first volume, Für
Freunde der Tonkunst, page 227,) has induced me to take
up the Handel- Mozart score, from which, it is true, I can
only pick out the rhythmical motives ; I hope soon to be-
come better acquainted with the harmonic ones as well,
through Eberwein's performance. This would have been
an interesting topic for our meeting, which, compared with
former ones, would have turned out badly, had it not been
for the good influence of the principal subject of our con-
versation. Here's to our early meeting !

One word more ! Have you seen the pictures by Schadow
and Begas, that are being exhibited in the Pfeilersaal in
the Royal Schloss ? If not, go and look at them, and give
me your candid opinion about them. Then get Nos. 56
and 57 of the Maude und Spenersche Zeitung, and read
the critique upon them. It is written by a discerning
person, but how he turns and twists himself about, in
order to veil his conviction, which we could summarize
in a few words ! They are both talented and highly culti-
vated artists, who however are losing their best years in
the modern German tomfoolery, sanctimoniousness, and
affected fondness for antiquarianism ; they satisfy no-
body, and will probably go to the bad, because they will
either come to their senses too late, or will never come to
them at all.

Now and for ever,

Your faithful friend.

164. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 11th March, 1824.
After a short interval, my good Friend, I again
come forward, and this time with desire and design ; listen
then to my story.

I enclose a poem, in explanation of which it may be
necessary to state the following. Staatsrath Thaer, of
whom you are sure to know something in general, as well
as in particular, attains his seventy- third year on the 14th

228 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1824.

of May. On that day his pupils, from far and wide, are
going to meet at his house in Mögelin, where they intend
to give him a splendid fete. Now they want to have some
brand-new Drinking-Songs for the occasion, and so have
addressed themselves in neat and suitable petitions to
Weimar, as the actual emporium of poetic art in Germany.
Their friends too are not disinclined to help them. Thus
the enclosed poem came into my head ; for the preliminary
understanding of it, I annex the following commentary : — *

Strophe 1.

Thaer, a physician, esteemed both as a practitioner and
theorist, is looking around him in search of cheerful occu-
pation in the field of Nature — ho gets fond of gardening.

Strophe 2.

But he soon finds his powers cramped, and longs for a
wider sphere of activity; he turns his attention to agri-
culture.

Strophe 3.

He pays attention to the English system of husbandry,
and the very simple maxim, that with more activity and
more intelligent farming, a far greater advantage may be
gained than by following the old beaten track.

Strophe 4.

And thus he manages to stir up landowners tcr change
their crops, gains pupils and followers, who approve of his
teaching and leading, and propose now to give him, in his
advanced years, a loud and public acknowledgment of
their gratitude.

I hope that this poem, which is meant to be sung by a
great number of landowners, seated at a banquet, may
incite you to set it to some bright music ; it is a fete that
will not occur again, and I should like our two names to
be mentioned together on the occasion. The man belongs
first of all to Prussia, but after that to the world at large

* See Goethe's Werke, vol. xv. ptige 30, in Cotta's edition, 1866.

1824.] TO ZELTER. 229

as well ; his fame and reputation are thoroughly genuine,
and so one may surely undertake something in which one
can rejoice with him and his friends.

I trust you will be able soon to send me a successful
score, which I will then attend to further. In the first
instance, I should like to keep it to ourselves. If you have
heard but little of the man, you need only ask those imme-
diately about you ; they will tell you enough to further
your co-operation. Perhaps some one of his pupils, travel-
ling to and fro, will join your Liedertafel, at any rate at a
later peinod, in which case you could not better entertain
such a guest. I go on daily In the old routine, and am
glad I keep myself upright in it. Farewell, and love me.

I am on my legs again.*

1G5. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 20th March, 1824.

.... Your mention of Handel reminds me that
I must thank Rochlitz ; he sent me his book too, and said
plenty of friendly things about Handel and myself. Herder
somewhere calls Handel's Messiah a Christian Epic ; in
that one word he has hit the right nail on the head, for in
fact this work contains in its fragmentary arrangement the
whole convolution of his {i.e. Handel's) Christianity, as
truly and honourably, as it is rationally poetical. The
intention of the whole, viewed as a work, I have always
considered accidental in origin, and I cannot rid myself of

that opinion

In Rochlitz's book, p. 76, Mara is said to have three
times petitioned the King (Frederick the Great) for per-
mission to marry Mara, and to have obtained it the third
time. That, begging his pardon, is not true. The King
roundly refused. When Mara ran away on the first occa-
sion, and what is more, ran away from her engagement
as first Singer to the King, she was still Mademoiselle
Schmeling. Herr Mara was engaged at a good salary, as
a virtuoso in the band of Prince Henry ; so he was to be

* Written in Goethe's own hand.

230 GOETHE 's LETTERS [1824.

punished as an eloper. The King would have liked to keep
Mara, but she had not wished to engage herself for life.
Now, however, she offered herself to the King, if the King
would allow Mara, now advanced to the post of drummer,
to go free, and give her permission to marry him. Consent
was given, and now for the first time as a married couple,
they ran away again. That was in the year 1778, after
Mara had sung in January the part of Handel's " Rode-
linda." When they had caught her again all right, the
King ordered them to let her go. The King hated Mara,
who was much more than a member of Prince Henry's
band ; the high and mighty Prince did more than that for
his favourite, in spite of its being impossible to get at his
heart by a secret staircase, and thousands of good deeds,
for Mara was the commonest scamp, and maltreated his
master outrageously. He sulked at him for weeks on end,
and behaved impiously, disturbing the Sunday services and
the sermon in Rheinsberg. He would go to the kitchen
and eat up the dishes ordered for the Prince, and he got
dead drunk when he ought to have been playing. All this
was forgiven, year after year. The King knew of it, but
was unwilling to spoil his brother's game. At last there was
a catastrophe. At the Carnival-time, Prince Henry with all
his Court was in Berlin, and gave masquerades, which far
outshone the King's masked balls and all the other Court
entertainments. On one occasion the whole of the King's
Court had been invited to a Concert given by Prince Henry,
to hear the wonderful Mara upon the violoncello. ' Every-
one appeared, Mara likewise — drunk — and the one who did
not play, was — Mara. Prince Henry in despair at such
an affront, commanded, begged, entreated. Mara did not
play, and this laid the foundation of the King's hatred. I
tell you this story, based on authentic chi^onicles, because,
according to Rochlitz's book, the King appears as a tyrant,
who practised his revenge upon Mara, and cruelly separated
a married couple. At that time they were not yet engaged.
Mara's relation to Reichardt, too, who had just then be-
come the King's Capellmeister, is not made clear, to
Reichardt's prejudice.

1824.] TO ZELTER. 231

166. — Goethe to Zeltek.

Weimar, 27tli March, 1824.
.... Thus you have oppoi-tunely enlightened me
by your analysis of Handel's Messiah. Moreover, your
view of the rhapsodical origin of this work is quite in
accordance with my own opinion : for it is quite possible
for the mind to raise up out of fragmentary elements a
funeral pile, and finally, to point its flame, pyramid-wise,
to Heaven.

One evening lately I heard the Messiah; 1 shall some
day or other say a few words on the subject myself, but
meanwhile advance, following your lead. The impulse
given by Rochlitz I am grateful for, though I find him
here as elsewhei^e : his honest intention and even work
are patent, and one can only wish that he possessed the
power of taking a firmer grasp of the subject, and of more
definitely carrying through what he has recognized

The chronicle-like notices of the adventures of Schmeling-
Mara certainly have the true character of an empirical
woi'ld ; so it is that everything historical is surrounded
with a strange uncertain being, and it really gets comical,
when we reflect how we are determined to be convinced
with certainty about what is long past. We possess here
a pretty, old, silver bowl, which — as is proved by the
engraving and inscription — dates from the time of the
Emperor Frederick the First. It is unquestionably a
christening gift, and yet the savants cannot agree as to
who was really the baptized, and who was the witness of
baptism. We already have five different opinions on the sub-
ject, and these may be reckoned as models of acuteness
and nonsense ; only one of them is straightforward and

plausible

Yours truly,

167. — Zelter to Goethe.

Sunday, 4th April, 1824.

.... I return you with many thanks the Pachelbel
Chorale-Book This Pachelbel is a representative

232

Goethe's letters

[1824.

mau of his kind, and has been eulogized by the best of his
colleagues, for he lived in the midst of the best Chorale
writers, fi^om Luther up to Sebastian Bach, in genuine

Konrad Rumpf

Born

1580.

Ludwig Senfel

1530.

Died 1555

Walter

1538.

Heinrich Schütz

1585.

Died 1672

Schein

1586.

Scheidt

1587.

ßosenmüller

Died 1686

Caspar Kerl

1625.

„ 1690

Froberger

1635.

„ 1700

Caspar Prinz

1641.

„ 1717

Theile

1G46.

„ 1724

Dan. Vetter

„ 1730

Aless. Scarlatti

1650.

„ 1730

Pachelbel

1653.

„ 1706

Telemann

1681.

„ 1767

Seb. Bach

1685.

„ 1750

This may be a proximate, imperfect list of the names which
cannot be eliminated from the history of Art, and no doubt
there are several more. The above-named Heinrich Schütz,
Schein, and Scheidt are also styled the Trinity of the

Three Great S's In former times, when an Organist

or Capellmeister was examined for official duty in Church,
a theme was given to him, (Dux,) for which he himself was
obliged to find, and extempore too, the Gomes (i.e. the answer
to the subject of the Fugue) ; a similar task he had to work
out on paper in a room by himself ; that done, the exercise
was judged by the Committee of Examiners, and such a
fugal work then received the name of ricercnta.

So farewell, and pray for me, and help me to sing :

Easter eggs, with joy they cry,
The Quasiinodogeniti.*
Amen!

Yours,

Quasimodogeaiti is Low Suiuluy, the first Sunday after Easter.

1824.] to zelter. 233

168. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 28th April, 1824.
.... I HOPE the Tod Jesu, (Graun's,) has this year
too prepared a joyful Easter for you ; that most lamentable
of all events has been turned to such profit hj the priests, i
and the painters too have fattened on it ; why should the }
musician alone go empty away ?

My Messiah brings me profit too, not at full length, but
still "in nuce ; " * the idea at all events is quickening, and
this is a good deal for one like me. I am not disinclined
to the thought that it is a collection, a compilation from a
large stock of items, for it is in reality quite one and the
same, whether the unity forms itself at the beginning or at
the end ; it is always the mind that produces it, and more-
over the unity was implied in the Christian-Old-New
Testament sense. In the end this very thing may hold
good for Homer, only one must not say so to Wolf, who,
when people admit that he is in the right, assures them

they do not understand it

169. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th June, 1824.
I AM very glad you have succeeded with Troilus and
Cressida, or rather, that it has succeeded with you. I
never made a secret of my deadly hostility to all parodies
and travesties ; but my only reason for it is that that
horrid brood pulls down the beautiful, noble, and grand, in
order to destroy it ; nay, I do not like even the sem.blance
of such things to be driven away by this.

The ancients and Shakespeare, when they seem to be
robbing us, give us instead something to be esteemed, some-
thing worthy and enjoyable. The play in question capti-
vated you in this way, it charmed and satisfied you, and
certainly in quite the right sense.

Among my papers is a short essay on the Cyclops of
Euripides, which certainly requires to be worked out

* This alludes to a performance of parts of Handel's Messiah in
Goethe's house, on the 14tli of April.

234 Goethe's letters [1824

further and to be more accurately defined ; perhaps you
may encourage me to make the effort. Not long ago I
heard a very charming performance of the Thaer Cantata,
and was again delighted with the appositeness of the music,
which rises with the feeling expressed in each strophe.

Rauch * is now going to leave ; I would gladly have
kept him a few days longer, especially as society — in true
Berlin fashion — spoilt a great deal of my time. However,
we have become of one mind about the picture and the
likeness ; do you look kindly upon what has been begun,
and give him a helping hand.

The last number of Kernst und Ältertimm, which is now
in the hands of a bookbinder, will soon be sent to you.

Yours ever.
G.

170. — Goethe to Zeltrh.

Weimar, 25th August, 1824.
A MIGHTY eagle, of the times of Myron or Lysippus,
holding two serpents in his claws, is just lighting upon a
rock ; his wings are still moving, his spirit restless, for
the struggling prey threaten him with danger. They are
coiling themselves round his feet ; their forked tongues are
suggestive of deadly fangs.

In contrast with this, a screech-owl is perching upon a
stone wall, its wings are closely folded, it is holding fast
with feet and claws ; it has seized some mice, which, half
dead, wind their little tails round its feet, hardly able, by
a faint squeak, to give a sign that they are still just alive.

Think of these two works of Art in juxtaposition ! Here
is neither Parody nor Travesty, but something that by
nature is high and something that by nature is low, both
worked out in an equally sublime style by an equally great
master ; it is a parallelism in contrast, which in each in-
stance ought to give pleasure, and when combined, must
create astonishment ; the young sculptor might find here a
task full of meaning.

(This would be the proper place for what I ought to say
about the Cyclops of Euripides.)

* Rauch, the sculptoi* of the well-known statuette of Goethe.

1824.] TO ZELTER, 235

Equally remarkable is the comparison of the Uiad with
Troilus and Cressida. Here too is neither parody nor
travesty, but as above we had two natural subjects con-
trasted with one another, so here we have a twofold spirit
of the different ages. The Greek poem in the lofty style,
representing itself, introducing only what is necessary, and
even in its descriptions and its similes discarding all orna-
mentation, being based upon the grand mythical traditions
of the remote past ; on the other hand, the English master-
piece may be regarded as a happy transformation, a trans-
position of that great work into the romantico-dramatic
style.

At the same time, we must not forget that this play,
with many others, is indisputably derived from traditionary
narratives, which had been already reduced to prose, and
were only half poetical.

Yet even so it is perfectly original, as though the antique
had never existed ; and, again, it required as much thorough
earnestness, and as decided talent, as that of the grand old
master, to make a feint of amusing us with similar per-
sonalities and characters, of slight significance, whilst all
the time more modern phases of humanity were being made
transparent to a later race of men.

171. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 30th October, 1824.

.... I AM now finishing my pamphlet on Natural
Science, which this year was unfortunately delayed, and
I am revising my correspondence with Schiller from 1794
to 1805. It will be a great gift to the Germans, nay,
I dare say, to mankind. Two such friends, who, while
laying bare their minds to one another, were constantly
inciting each other to further progress ! While revising
this, a strange feeling comes over me, for I learn what I
once was.

But what is really the most instructive part of all is that
which shows the condition in which two men, who urge on
their aims, as it were, joar force, fritter away their time by
excess of mental activity, by incitement and dissipation

236 Goethe's letters [1824.

from without, so that in truth there comes forth nothing
fully worthy of their powers, natural gifts, and intentions.
It will be highly edifying, for every man worth his salt
will be able to find comfort in this work.

Besides, it will help a great deal that is coming to life

again, animated by the stirring impulses of that epoch

172. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 27tli November, 182t.

.... Once more we have with us a pair of
Virtuosi-killers : Madame Grünbaum, (formerly Wenzel-
Müller,) and Herr Moscheles, the pianist. The former
sings our Milder and Seidler clean off the earth, and
Moscheles really plays in such a fashion, that he makes one
take a draught of Lethe, and forget in it all who went
before him. Why, the fellow has hands which he turns
inside out like a shirt, and even his nails can play. His
compositions too I like next best to Humrael's, amongst
the more modern writers. I had heard of him some time
ago, and in the year 1819, went, on his account, by way of
Prague, to Vienna ; there I missed him, though he was
expected at both places.* , . .

173. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 3rd December, 1824.

.... Die Mitschuldigen f produces quite the right
effect. A so-called educated public wants to see itself on

* Referring to The JAfe of Moscheles, we read in his diary : " On the
23rd November, I heard a Psalm by Naumann at the Singakademie,

afterwards went to tiie Mendelssohns" ])ee. 3rd. Music at

Zelter's. Fanny Mendelssohn played the D minor Concerto by S. Bach,
which I saw in the original manuscript My musical conver-
sations with Zeiter were extremely interesting to me. He is the man
who corresponds so much with Goethe on Teltower turnips and other
better things."

t (Jne of Goethe's earliest plays, written when he was under the com-
bined influence of Moliere and Lessing. He afterwards acted in it
himself, when the play was produced at Weimar. Bertuch, Musäus,
and Corona Schröter also took part in the performance. The passage
referred to by Goethe is to be found in Aiis meinem Lehen, Part II.

1824.] TO ZELTER. 237

the stage, and demands about as much from the drama as
from society ; convenances arise between actor and spec-
tator ; the people, however, are content that the clowns up
there should amuse them with jokes which they have no
desire to share in. Moreover, if you could read what I
have said about the piece — I don't know where — you would
find it accord perfectly with the sentiments of the first
row of boxes, I will look up the passage and let you know
of it.

Your musical gossip has been simply of incredible ser-
vice to me ; as far as it is possible to comprehend music
ideally, you have enabled me to do so, and I now, at all
events, understand why, of all Rossini's works, II Barbiere
di S^vigUa is the one most generally praised. One evening
recently I heard Tancredi ; it was a very meritorious per-
formance, and I should have been well satisfied, if only no
helmets, armour, weapons, and trophies had appeared upon
the stage. However, I got out of the difficulty immediately,
and transfoiTued the performance into a favola boscareggia,
something like the Pastor Fido. Also I adorned the Theatre
so as to have graceful Poussin landscapes ; I peopled the
scene with actors of my own, so that there was no want
of ideal shepherds and shepherdesses, and even fauns, as
in Daphnis und Chine ; and then there was nothing to find
fault with, because the hollow pretension of a heroic opera
fell away, ... .

174. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 10th December, 1824.

.... Felix is still the head-lad. His admirable
industry is the fruit of a healthy root, and his sister, Fanny,
has completed her thirty-second Fugue. The young people
are wide awake, and when they have picked up anything
for their own beak, you see it in their woi'k ; they are as
pleased as if they had taken Mexico, and they are fond of
me, just as tbey find me, and come and go like bees about

a flower

238 goethe's letters [1824.

175. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 22nd December, 1824.
.... To-DAT my Felix is to let us hear his latest
Double Concerto.* The lad stands upon a root, which gives
promise of a healthy tree. His individuality becomes more
and more evident, and amalgamates so well with the spirit
of the age, that it seems to look out of it like a bird from

tlie egg

176. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 24th December, 1824. (Christmas Eve.)

Yesterday, Maria von Weber's latest Opera, Eu-
ryanthe, was given in our gi'and Theatre with most decided
applause. In Vienna, Dresden, and elsewhere, the work
failed to impress ; this may be accounted for by a hundred
reasons. The poem will not explain itself. Count Brühl
has put the work imposingly on the stage, as befits the
friend and Intendant, and in a style suitable to the historical
romantic Opera.

Everybody was called for after the Opera. The com-
poser first, who was obliged to show himself after the first
Act, and deserves every encouragement for his intense
industry, which is made doubly burdensome by his feeble
health.

Afterwards there was plenty of feasting and revelry ;
such things bring about perfect satisfaction, nay, in the end,
reconciliation. Several of his friends carried the composer
away with them, Choruses of Singers and Horns followed,
and the jubilee lasted into the small hours. You need not
wonder that an old piece of goods like myself must always
be at hand on these occasions, for I am not such a fool as
to go into a corner with detractors, or worry myself at the

prosperity of anyone in this world

* For two I'lanos and Orchestra; the work is still in manuscript.

1825.] TO ZELTER. 239

1825.

177. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 27th March, 1825.
.... Let me tell you, in good earnest, dearest
Friend, that I am well in body, but so so in spirit ; only I
keep to myself, as everyone, without knowing it, is over-
excited, for ever harping on the misfortune,* and whereas
people, by their own exertions, might assist in the restora-
tion, which would be praiseworthy on their part, they now
besiege one, in an intolerable fashion, with their advice,
their proposals, and their plans.

I think, however, that the one most to be pitied is the
Grand Duke, who, in his fine, princely way, listens to every-
one, and has to stand so much useless talk, which he can
neither reject nor rectify

Hitherto I have looked to Berlin with bright and
friendly feelings, now I shall have to do so with the utmost
gratitude ; you will have heard of and rejoiced in the ines-
timable favour conferred on me by the Diet.f

I could tell you much ; from time to time you will hear
many a pleasant piece of news. This year, as regards my-
self, is as good as past, meanwhile I cling to each moment.

May the new building, and all else besides, succeed with

you!

• The burning of tlie Weimar Theatre on the 22nd of March. " The
fire is the grave of my memories," said Goethe. This letter is a com-
mentary on his feelings at the time.

f Goethe had formally petitioned the German Diet to make any
piracy of his works a punishable offence.

240 Goethe's letters [1825.

Enclosure.
[^Explanatory.']

Weimar, End of March, 1825.
When clearing away the dchris of the Theatre, they dis-
covered, among the ruins of the library the following pas-
sages from a manuscript of Tasso, which I had myself re-
vised ; the pages were bui'nt at the edges.

First Fragment.

When the unthought- of comes across our path,
When something monstrous interrupts our gaze,
Silent a while and still our spirit stands,
Nor is there aught we may compare with this.

Second Fragment.

And now if all, if everything were lost ?

If, on a sudden, thou shouldst find the friend

A beggar, whom thou thoughtest rich erewhile ?

Third Fragment.

The helm is broken in pieces, and the ship

Cracks upon every side ; beneath my feet

The ground bursts open, gaping ! In both arms

I clasp thee ! So at length the sailor clings

Fast to the rock, on which he should have foundered.

178. — Zelter to Goethe.

1st April, 1J325.

.... Professor Cousin,* of whom you will have
heard, has been liberated discretionally; he is received
everywhere as a man of mark. He was not satisfied with
your praise of Bon Älonzo.f I told him frankly that he
did not understand you. He speaks of you with the
greatest veneration, but he is a Frenchman, and must be-
come a very old man, before he finds, behind your peculiar

* Victor Cousin, the head of the Eclectic School, in France, author
of Histoire de la Philosophie au XVIII'. Siicle, &c. &c. He was ai*restcd
in Dresden, on a charge of Carbonarism, and sent to Berlin, where he
was detained for six months.

f Don Alonzo, ou L'Espagne, an historical novel by N. A, de Sal-
vandy.

1825.] TO ZELTER. 241

forms, the spirit which dwells in them, as in a comfort-
able citizen's house. One always get to = O with the
liberality of the Liberals ; they have no root, so height is

wanting too

179. — Gom-HE TO Zelter.

Wennar, 11th April, 1825,
We too, my good Friend, have been suffering from
the worry of deliberation, but happily only for a short time.
Two architects stood opposed to one another ; the one
wanted to erect a 2^^as^- People's Theatre, (Vollcstheater,)
the other a regular Court Theatre, (Hofiheater,) so here
also the two parties of the day appeared in opposition, and
actually balanced one another. It was only the Grand
Duke's determination that put an end to the indecision ;
lie went over to the majority, so that about sixteen days
after the fire, we made up our minds what was to be done,
and as we have a Co^^rt ready made, we are to have a Court
Theatre too.

To be sure, we were helped in the matter, as the two
plans aforesaid have been lying ready for years, and I will
not deny that the one which carried the day originated
with me, and with the chief architect, Coudray ; * strangely
enough, what induced us to draw it up, was the burning
of your Theatre, since which time we have constantly
thought of it, and worked at it for practice ; thus one
thing exercises its influence through and upon the other.

My new part of Kunst und ÄUerthum will soon be pub-
lished ; my letters to Schiller do not look amiss. The
remark you made, that he is not of the same mind as my-
self on certain subjects, as for instance, on the question of
Furies within and without,t you will find repeated in a

* Goethe was a great friend and admirer of this architect, who, with
Von ^liiiler and Schwabe, undertook to carry ovit his design for a
" Twin-Monument'" to himself and Schiller, over their common grave
in the neighbourhood of the Fürstengruft.

•j- See Schiller and Goethe Correspondence, vol. ii. pp. 396, 397, Letter
836. Zelter had been reading Schiller's remarks on Iphigenie, — " Orestes
himself is tlie most doubtful part in the whole ; without Furies there
can be no Urestes," &c.

242 gobthb's letters [1825.

remarkable manner, when the entire correspondence makes
its appearance. Even during the course of this year, many
such differences are to be found, and I see with pleasure
that very many vote for me, as I never contradicted him,
but let him have his way in all things ; hence also in
matters that were peculiarly my own.

I particularly recommend to your notice the Essay on
Servian poetry,* as well as the poems themselves ; should
the subject not attract you at once, try to work your way
into it. I have treated it carefully ; my general remarks
on National Songs are brief, but well considered. When,
by degrees, I come to speak of the Songs of other nations,
specifically, in the same way, I hope people will get a
proper insight into something, round which hitherto they
have only hovered vaguely with gloomy prejudice.

I enclose for you the last number of my Morphologie.
Those who think analogously understand each other, even
though the subject discussed or criticised is foreign to one
or the other party. Have I not introduced into my pam-
phlets many things which can never be grasped, even by
professional men, just because they think differently ?
I shall continue to do so as long as I am spared, quarrel-
ling with no one, but not concealing my opinions and
convictions, to please anyone.

The newspapers will by this time have informed you
and my Berlin friends of the favour of the Diet ; we will
wait and see the upshot of the matter.

The French occu}n- a strange position with regard to
German liteiature ; tlunr case is precisely that of the cun-
ning fox, who could not manage to get anything out of the
long-necked vessel; with the best intentions, they do not
know what to make of our things, they ti'eat all our art-
products as raw material, which they must first manipulate
for themselves. How pitiably they have disfigured and
jumbled up my notes to JRameau! Not a single thing has
been left in its proper place,

• This Essay was published in Kunst und Alter/hum. Tiie Servian
poems, whicli were written by a young hidy at Halle, interested Goethe
greatly. " These are excellent," he said. " There are some among
them, worthy of a comparison with Solomon^s Song, and that is saying
something."

1825.] TO ZELTER. 243

Do write to me oftener ! When you walk through
Berlin, imagine that you are travelling, and tell me your
thoughts about this, that, and the other ; I too will let you
hear how things are with me. In our later years let us
do by letter, what in earlier years we did by personal inter-
course ; a little talking to and fro, even gossip if you will,
can do no harm.

Gr.

180. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 19th April, 1825.

.... I COULD have foreseen long ago, that you are
not the man to build a Theatre for the People in Weimar.
Him that makes himself green, the goats will eat.* Other
high folk, who want to cork their wine, while it's ferment-
ing, would do well to consider this. " Friends, we have
lived to see it," — nay, we ai*e living to see it.f ....

181. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 21st May, 1825.
I SEND you herewith a small volume which you are
called upon to criticise before anyone else. The author,
as it seems to me, aspires to what you have been doing all
your life long, and are still doing ; he is endeavouring to
make that universal which, if it could become common,
would instantly be annulled, and in fact, he appears to me
like a physician, who is attempting to describe accurately an

* The German proverb, of which this is a literal translation, corre-
sponds to the French saying. Qui sc fait brebis, le loup le mange,

f Goethe, commenting on this letter, once observed, " Zelter is a
capital fellow, but sometimes he does not quite understand me, and puts
a false construction on my words. I have devoted my whole life to the
People and their improvement, and whj should I not also found a
Theatre ? But here in Weimar, in this small capital, which, as people
jokingly say, has ten thousand poets and a few inhabitants, how can we
talk about the People, much les» a Theatre for the People ? Weimar
will doubtless become, at some future time, a great city ; but we must
wait some centuries before the people of Weimar will form a mass suffi-
cient to be able to found and support a Theatre."

244 Goethe's letters [1825.

incnrable disease, and to distinguish its different effects.
•All this, however, I leave you to deal with.

Herr Mendelssohn stayed with us too short a time on
his return journey ; Felix produced his last quartett,* which
astonished everyone. This pei^sonal dedication, audible
and intelligible as it is, has greatly pleased me. I could
only get a few hurried words with his father, for I was
prevented and distracted by the music, and by a large con-
course of people. I should so have liked to hear some
Paris news from him. FeHx told the ladies something
about the state of musical affairs there, which is very
characteristic of the day. My kind greetings to all the
family, and keep me in the remembrance of that circle also.

I must further tell you that time and circumstance seem
to favour the new edition of my works ; I am just now
working industriously at the annals of my life, a great mass
of the materials for which, partly in preparation, partly
finished, is lying before me. Now I find that our intimacy,
from the year 1800, is interwoven with everything, and
therefore I should like it to appear, as a perpetual testimony,
and in pure gradation upwards, the truth of which can
only be signified by giving the fullest details. I aru at this
moment studying your letters, which are lying before me
neatly arranged, and now I am going to ask you to let me
have mine for a short time, in batches of five years. I am
just now working at the period, beginning with the opening
of the century, and ending with Schiller's death ; if yon
have the letters in order, pray send me them as soon* as yon
can ; I will return them soon, and as I proceed, I shall beg
for the others. I should like to spin the whole length of
this noble thread in and out, tenderly and carefully ; it is
worth the trouble, and really it is no trouble at all, but the
greatest satisfaction, and I am already looking forward to
seeing the great gap, from the beginning of the century up
to the present day, continuously filled up.

Another thing just happens to strike me ! There is in

* This was the B minur (juartelt, the dedication of wliich Goethe soon
after acknuwlednjed, in what Zelter calls, " a beautiful love-letter." — "I
regard it,"' said Goethe to the young jMendelssohn, " as the graceful em-
bodiment ofthat beautiful, rich, energetic soul which so astonished me
when you first made me acquainted with it."

1825.] TO ZELTER. 245

such matters a certain feeling which I cannot blame, that
one likes to keep documents of this kind entirely to one-
self. So the letters shall not be copied, without your ex-
press permission ; what I extract, 1 shall mark with pencil
in the margin.

Farewell ! I am looking forward to living the past over
again ; this can only make the present time all the more
precious.

Most truly yours,
G.

182. — Zelter to Goethe.

28th May, 1825.

.... Once, several years ago, yon wrote to me,
that it is only possible to understand the works of Nature
and of Art by tracing them to their origin ; once they are ripe
and complete, let him look to it, who would comprehend

them

Felix has returned from Paris, and has made rare good
progress in these few months. There he composed for
Cherubini a Kyrie* that will stand examination, all the
more as that capital fellow, following his clever instincts, has
taken up the piece almost ironically, in a spirit which, if
not the right one, is at any rate very much what Cherubini
has always been on the look out for, and if I am not much

mistaken, has never found Abraham Mendelssohn

has brought his younger sister back with him from Paris ; for
some twenty years she lived thei'e as governess to General
Sebastiani's daughter, who has just been married, and
having realized a considerable pension, she now intends to
reside in Berlin, her native place. One cannot but praise

* After hearing the B minor quartett, Cherubini remarked, " Ce
garfon est riclie ; 11 fera bien ; il fait meme d^jk bien, mais 11 depense
trop'de son argent, 11 met trop d'etoife dans son habit. Je hü purlerai,
alors 11 fera bien." Felix compared Cherubini to an extinct volcano,
still throwing out occasional flashes and sparks, but quite covered with
ashes and stones. A propos of the Kyrie, Felix wrote to his parents,
"I have been busy these last days niak'ng a Ki/rie ä 5 voci andgrandis-
simo orchestra ; In bulk it surpasses anytiiing 1 have yet written. There
is also a tolerable amoimt of pizzicato in it, and as for the trombones,
they will need good windpipes."

246 Goethe's letters [1825.

the free and amiable disposition which this girl has kept
from childhood — all through the Inferno of Paris — and it
is enough to reconcile one again to the Prophets, that the
old and failing father should see the promise of Abraham
fulfilled in all liis children. Farewell, my dearest ! The
prospect of your new edition rejoices heart and soul.

Your
Z.

183. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6th June, 1825.

.... If you. come across a translation of The Last
Days of Lord Byron, by William Parry, be sure you pounce
upon it ; so high and clear a standpoint is not easily
attained. All that has been said about him hitherto falls
away and vanishes like a mist of the valley.

The Servian Volkslieder too have just been published at
Halle, in a pretty octavo volume. The Introduction, a
short sketch of the history of the fallen Servian kingdom,
is an extremely able and satisfactory, though unsatisfying
account, showing a considerable wealth of knowledge. To
have all the National Songs before one in a mass — just as
I wished to — is extremely delightful and instructive ; one
knows at once what they are and what they are meant to be.

I cannot conclude without again referring to that over-
charged music ; * but everything, dear Friend, nowadays
is idtra, everything perpetually transcendent in thought
as in action. No one knows himself any longer, no one
understands the element in which he moves and works, no
one the subject which he is treating. Pure simplicity is
out of the question ; of simpletons we have enough.

Young people are excited much too early, and then
carried away in the whirl of the time. Wealth and rapidity
are what the world admires, and what everyone strives to
attain. Railways, quick mails, steamships, and every pos-
sible kind of facility in the way of communication are what
the educated world has in view, that it may over-educate

* Alluding to Zelter's criticism of Spontini's Alcidor, which had
recently been performed in Berlin. See Note to Letter 184.

1825,] TO ZELTER. 247

itself, and thereby continue in a state of mediocrity. And
it is, moreover, the result of universality, that a mediocre
culture should become common ; this is the aim of Bible
Societies, of the Lancasterian method of instruction, and I
know not what besides.

Properly speaking, this is the century for men with
heads on their shoulders, for practical men of quick per-
ceptions, who, because they possess a certain adroitness,
feel their superiority to the multitude, even though they
themselves may not be gifted in the highest degree. Let
us, as far as possible, keep that mind with which we came
hither ; we, and perhaps a few others, shall be the last of
an epoch which will not so soon return again.
-^ G.

184. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 19th June, 1825.

.... Count Brühl is in despair about the new
Opera.* The uninterrupted rehearsals of the numerous
scenic effects, for two or three months past, have so mono-
polized the Theatre, that nothing else of any consequence
could be undertaken. This wonder-work is launched at
last, and the house so crammed, that the audience chokes
and faints from the heat ; directly after the first perform-
ance, Spontini makes the treasurer pay out to him the
regulation 1,050 Beichstlialer, which he gets for every new
work, and there they are, bankrupt again. People now
say, Spontini pockets the money, while the others have to
sweat for it.

Yours,
Z.

* This was Alcidor, eine Zauberoper, (magic Opera,) jestingly called
Alhudoll, eine Zauderaper, (Quite too mad, a slow Opera,) on account of
its length. Zelter thus alludes to it in a former letter, — " The libretto
was written by Theaulon in French, and set to music accordingly ; so

at last we possess a Berlin original — that is, a new coat turned

Spontini seems to me like his own Gold-King, who smashes the heads
of his people, by flinging gold at them." The Opera never made its
way beyond Berlin. See also Letter 183.

248 Goethe's letters [1825.

185. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, i&th June, 1825.
Our Herr Generalmtisikdirector, Hitter Spontini,
asks me for a recommendation to the great Goethe ; this,
between brothers in Art, such as you and he, should hardly
be necessary.

Yet, as I cannot help wishing all my friends to be
acquainted with each othei', and I have an opportunity of
sending you one more hearty greeting, don't let it bore
you, to see face to face the composer of the latest and
greatest Opera. He is going to Paris, returning thence
about the time of our next Carnival.

Yours eternally,

Here comes my coffee. Good morning !

186. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 1st July, 1825.
.... I END by thanking you for your beautiful
love-letter to my Felix. Any good that comes to him, I
enjoy tenfold. He is close upon finishing his fifth Opera,*
and I rejoice to see that it sparkles with real life, and does
not rest upon mannerisms. He seizes the age by the ears,
and carries it along with him, so let it pass ! . . . .

'Z.

187. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 3rd July, 1825.
.... Herr Spontini passed through in haste. It
so happened that I was not at home, and yet I managed to
get a quarter of an hour's conversation with him. How
well we get on together, you may guess from the fact that
we embraced before ])artiiig, which was the best acknow-
ledgment of your inti'oduction

Yours,
G.

* Die Hochzeit dei; Camacho.

1825.] to zelter. 249

188. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6th July, 1825.
The enclosed extract sliould have been sent in my
last packet. , . .

Enclosure.

Major Parry on Lord Byron.

" It will doubtless be obvious to every plain man like
myself, that Lord Byron's greatest misfortune was his dis-
tinguished birth, and the neglect of moral education that
followed upon it. He never overcame the mischievous
prejudices and still more mischievous habits to which they
led him. He was a nobleman, an only son,, and a spoilt,
neglected child. He was the victim of all these circum-
stances, and could set down to each of them a considerable
part of his misfortunes He was exposed in early days, and
unfortunately for a long time, to almost everything which is
calculated to foster vice in the human heart. His rank lifted
him above all restraint ; he had money, and no father to con-
trol him. Then came fame, not gained laboriously by little
and little, but at once, and in overwhelming measure ; an
inordinate recompense for that which he had thrown off at
ease, in a few bright, cheerful, and radiantly happy moments.
He was so happy in his language, and so quick in thought,
that writing was no labour to him, but a pleasure. He
was not merely a poet, but for several years, like other
young noblemen, what people call a man of fashion ; the
sentiments he then imbibed, and the habits he then adojjted
were never afterwards laid aside. He paid homage to them
even in his conversation and behaviour, long after he had
learnt to despise them in his heart. Like most men of
extraordinary talents, he was naturally disposed to reflec-
tion, and preferred solitude to society ; at all events, in all
the conversations I had with him, he was earnest and
thoughtful, although wonderfully quick, sharp, and de-
cisive. With others, as I have already said, he was light,
volatile, and sportive. He was always the man of the
world. In such moments, the sentiments and habits of his

260 Goethe's letters [1825.

earlier days acquired all tlieir former power over his mind.
His imposing talents, his noble natural gifts, and fine rare
culture, were then all sacrificed upon the altar of fashion-
able trifling. He had felt how awfully boring all serious
worldlings are, and as his associates were incapable of
understanding his higher thoughts, he condescended to
exchange thoughtless gossip with them. To use an old
proverb, ' he howled with the wolves,' — and people have
pictured him vain, presumptuous, boastful, unrestrained,
thoughtless, whimsical and heartless, because these are too
much the attributes of the class to which he belonged, and
of the men with whom he consorted, and who discussed his
character. His noble enthusiasm, devoted to the cause of
freedom, his courage, which won for him the esteem even of
the rough Suliotes, his generosity, which never allowed him,
when he had the power, to leave a want or a sorrow un-
relieved, his philanthropy, Avhich led him to sacrifice
time, money, and ease, to lighten the miseries of unhappy
prisoners, have been invariably forgotten, and he has been
exposed to the world's blame by heartless and insincere
friends, who were utterly incapable of appreciating the
high nobility of his character."

189. — Zelter to Goethe.

6th November, 1825.

.... My Felix gets on and works hard. He has .just
finished an Octett for eight obh'gato instruments ; it has
hands and feet. Besides that, a few weeks since, he gave
his worthy tutor, Heyse, a nice birthday present, — namely,
a metrical translation of Andria, a comedy by Terence ; it
is entirely his own doing, and they say it contains really
good verses. I have not seen it yet. He plays the piano
like the deuce, and he is not behindhand with stringed
instruments ; besides this, he is healthy and strong, and is
a rare good hand at swimming up stream. In the musical
paper they have given rather a cold shower-bath to his
Quartetts and Symphonies ; that cannot hurt him, for
these reviewers are but young fellows, looking for the hat
which they hold in their hands. One might despair, if

1825.] TO zEf/rER. 251

one did not remember how Gluck's and Mozart's composi-
tions were criticised, forty years ago. These gentlemen
drive slapdash over things that would never have occurred
to them, and affect to judge of the whole house by a single
brick. And I must give him credit for this, that he in-
variably works from the whole to the whole, finishing
everything that he has begun, let it turn out as it will ;
this accounts for his showing no special affection for what
is completed. To be sure, there is no lack of hetero-
geneous rubble, but that gets carried away by the stream,

and conventional faults and weaknesses are rarities

190. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th November, 1825.
YoTJR friend Griepen- * may be a very good herl
(fellow), but I cannot agree with him ; he has studied the
subjects which he discusses, but on the one hand, I think
differently about them, and on the other, I think of them
in a different connection.

I opened the volume, and found on page 336, paragraph
10, these words, " The usual classification into lyric,
didactic, dramatic, and epic poetry," &c. Whereupon I
closed the volume, and dictated the enclosed, which please
keep to yourself. As this is the way I should have to
treat the whole volume, I had better leave it alone.

Your aphorisms, on the contrary, I took up and took in
with pleasure — you have what you speak of, and so we have
it too, when we hear you ; what you give here we under-
stand, or think we understand, and at least we find an
analogy in what we certainly do understand.

Let us stick to our old colours ! let us feel and perceive,
think and act ; all the rest is of evil. The more modem
world is given up to words, so let it go its own way.

Your bust has arrived uninjured, to our general satis-
faction, and is worthy of all gratitude, because it brings
you whom I long to see, so near me ; but as with my own

* Professor Griepenkerl of Brunswick, author of a philosophical
work on the ideas of Beauty and Perfection, which Zelter had sent to
Groethe for his opinion.

252 Goethe's letters [1825.

bust, I find the features are somewhat exaggerated ; this

produces an unpleasant effect on nearer acquaintance

Enclosure.

It is not permissible to add to the three styles of poetry
— the lyric, epic, and dramatic — the dvlactic as well. This
will be understood by everyone who observes, that the
three first differ in form, and that consequently the last,
which takes its name from the subject-matter, cannot be
classed in the same series.

All poetry should be instructive, but imperceptibly so ;
it should direct a man's attention to a sense of what it is
worth while to instruct himself in ; he must draw the
lesson from it himself, as from life.

Didactic or schoolmaster poetry is and will ever be a
half-breed between poetry and rhetoric ; therefore at one
time it tends towards the former, at another towards the
latter, and may thus possess more or less poetical value,
but like descriptive and satirical poetry, it is invariably a
degenerate and secondary species, which, in a true system
of sesthetics, should be classed between poetry and oratory.

The real value of didactic poetry — i.e. of a rhythmical
work of Art, with embellishments borrowed from the ima-
gination, and powerfully or gracefully introduced — is in
no way impaired on that account. All may pass muster —
from the rhyming chronicles, the short versus memoriales
of the ancient pedagogues, up to the best works of "this
kind — but only in their own sphere, and respective order of
dignity.

He who looks more closely into the matter, will at once
be struck with the fact, that didactic poetry is valuable for
the sake of its popularity ; nay, the most gifted poet should
consider, that if he has treated any chapter of what was
worth knowing in this style, it redounds to his honour.
The English have very estimable works of this kind ; they
first of all ingratiate themselves with the multitude, both
seriously and in jest, and then, in explanatory notes, dis-
cuss what one must know, so as to be able to understand
the poem. Yours ever,

1825.] to zelter. 253

191. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 16th December, 1825.

.... Yesterday we had Spiker's brand-new ver-
sion of Macbeth for the first time at our Theatre

The special novelty was a new, incidental Overture, with
choruses and dances for the Witches. Kapellmeister
Spohr of Cassel, the composer, is a clever man, and were it
not too much of a good thing, the whole might be better.
I have nothing to say against the idea, for the Orchesti-a
once there, it may just as well play what is appropriate.
But the question is, what is appropriate ? No one need
blacken the night, — and that's the cause of the mischief.
The play is full of coarse company, and requires a downright
style. That was wanting, and so the audience rejoiced,
when the murderers up above took up their work again.

192.— Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 30th December, ] 825.
.... Your Sibylline leaf about Macbeth, I thin'c
I can explain tolerably well in my own fashion ; anyhow
it suggested to me these reflections.

These efforts are of the kind which King Saul demanded
of the Witch of Endor, summoning forth the great dead,
when we are unable to help ourselves. Shakespeare bristles
up, even more repulsively than that dead prophet, and if
they try to conjure him back again in all his integrity, that
is worst of all. Such a mish-mash of very ancient and
very modern will always be startling, as you have quite
correctly felt.

How does all this costume help ? Looked at attentively,
it is evident that actors and dresses, decorations and ghosts,
musicians and spectators are, after all, not in harmony with
one another. This was what distracted you in so important
a performance. To many others too it is revolting,
though they do not confess it ; many tolerate it, because it
happens to be so ; they have paid their money and sat out
their time.

254 Goethe's letters [1826.

The Sieben Mädchen in Uniform delighted the Weimar
public as well, for it is in keeping with the spirit of the age.

Everyone welcomes that mock-soldiering, turned into a
half-licentious farce, when the public is groaning under
the weight of a Shakespearian nightmare, and longing to
escape from an oppressive dream of seriousness into the
free atmosphere of folly.

Now that I no longer go to the Theatre, and have
nothing further to do with it, but only watch ray children,
and the other genei'ation that is growing up around me,
curious lights dawn upon me. They are always taking
sides ; at one time I find them correct in their judgment,
clear and intelligent, at another unfairly hampered by
partiality and prejudice, with all the attendant conse-
quences which we have known for long ; only now do I
understand the unsatisfactory nature of the Danaides-work
of so many years, during which I endeavoured to realize
the true and great advantages belonging to the stage, and
to put them clearly before the public. It was your witches
who bewitched me into making these observations ; hence,
you have yourself to blame for what von yourself called
forth.

Yours unalterably,

Goethe.

1826.] TO ZELTER. 255

1826.

193. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 15th January, 1826.
.... In my state of almost absolute solitude, I
can scai'cely imagine, that all the gaiety and hustle which
you let me see I'eflected in your mirror, should be going
on close around you. However well Macbeth and Eury-
anthe may succeed, owing to what is expended upon them,
to the influences of party spirit, and even to the recog-
nition of what is excellent, neither of them can be really
pleasurable on the stage, the former, on account of its
excess of subject-matter, the latter, on account of its poor-
ness and thinness of substructure. But as a fact, I no
longer know what a theatrical public is, or whether, both
in great and small things, it allows itself to feel satisfied,
or perhaps merely silenced. I have, however, a reflex of
it from yonder, as my children cannot do without the
Theatre, and I have nothing to say against it.

I like reading the reviews in the Haude und Spener-
Zeitung; for though we look into the daily papers but
seldom, we come across much with good sound sense in it,
which leads me to hope that the general tendency is good,
and there is some chance of honest appreciation and recog-
nition.

Personally I have grown accustomed to being howled ,
at for many years past, and speak from experience, when I [
say, that for a long time to come, we need not be afraid of
being outvoted, even though we may be contradicted.
Only no impatience ! go on undeterred, and talk between-
whiles ! In the end, plenty of people will be ready to
declare themselves in favour of our way of thinking ;
nevertheless, we should not prevent anyone from forming
his own circle, for in our Father's house, there is room for /
many families to dwell.

Art has been gracious to me, for I have received a

256 _ Goethe's lettb'rs [1826.

beautiful drawing of Giulio Romano's, and another by
Guercino. To be able to make a direct comparison be-
tween two sucli men, and to be delighted and instructed
by each in turn, is of the greatest value for one, who, to
be sure, makes conversation, now and then, out of Art and
works of Art, but nevertheless regards it merely as a neces-
sary evil. If only I could from time to time be present at
your choral meetings, I would promise never to utter a
single syllable of criticism.

Try and get hold of a pamphlet, some fifty pages in
length, by Director Struve, entitled. Two of Goethe's Ballcvls-
compared loith the GreeJc sources from which they are taJceii,
Königsberg, 1826. The author, in leading his readers to
the fountain, whence I fetched the draught, is kind enough
to prove that I have presented the refreshing liquid in an
artistic vessel. What the poet wished for many years ago is
at last recognized. He discusses the Zauherlehrling and
the Braut von Korinth. My next shall be directly con-
nected with this

Goethe.

194. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 21st January, 1826.
" He who has the will, must ! " * and I go on to
say, he who understands, has the will. And thus, after
going round in a circle, we should land at the point from
which we started, namely, that one must be obliged
(viilssen müsse) by conviction ; hence we may hope, that
much good is in store for the time next ensuing.

So many things, relating to Art and Science, come
almost daily before my eyes, and there would be no in-
herent falsitj-, if man were not weak, and did not insist at
the same time on regarding that as final which he con-
siders final. As a rule, however, I meet with many, whose
views are beautiful, clear, and lofty. People allow worth
in that which they cannot reach, they rejoice in that which
they would not themselves be in a condition to do ; as in

* Goethe here quotes a comment of Zelter's on Lessing's axiom, Kein
Mensch muss müssen.

1826.] TO ZELTER. 257

the end every able man must, if lie would assert his own
individuality, and work after his own fashion, whatever
dilettantism and the levelling necessarily connected with
it may, in the course of the day, corrupt or hinder. Every-
thing will right itself in time, if only those who know what
they want to do and can do, persevere unremittingly in
work and action. You know this better than anyone, and
experience it every day.

I feel I must tell you about some pieces of sculpture,
which have lately arrived at my house, and on the value
of which I now reckon. When in Rome, I lived in the
Corso, opposite to Count Rondanini, who possessed, among
other splendid works of Art, the face, the mask of a
Medusa; it was larger than life-size, of white marble, and
conspicuous for its excellence. We artists and connaisseurs
often went to see it, nay, I actually had a good east of this
same work in my room. I have now had to dispense with
the sight of it for forty years, as with much besides that is
great and beautiful ; it never petrified one, but informed
one's feeling for Art with grand and glorious life. At
length I hear it has come much nearer to me, having been
moved to Munich, and I hazard the bold wish to possess
a cast of it. This is not to be had, but an admirably pre-
served cast, ordered from Rome by command of his Royal
Highness, your Crown Prince, has been promised to me,
by the favour of His Majesty, the King.

Being forbidden to say anything about it, I will say only
this much, that I am beyond all measure happy in the
treasure I so earnestly longed for, and only wish we were
allowed to look at it together.

Yet from one point of view it renews in me a painful
feeling, for I cannot but reflect, that in those days,
when I did not sufficiently understand the value of such
treasures, they stood before my eyes, while now that I am
to a certain extent able to appreciate them, I am separated
from them by wide chasms.

However, it may be as well thus ! For after all, when
in the presence of such things, which were produced in a
grander age, by men of greater capabilities, one loses all
sense of proportion. And even the judicious eifort not to
let oneself be cai'ried away thereby, into the path of false

258 goethe's letters [1826.

endeavour, awakens a painful feeling, if it does not end
in actually hindering our life's activity. All good attend
you !

195. — Zelter to Goethe.

19fh January, 1826.

.... 1 remember in my younger days a Jew of
the name of Michel, who appeai'ed to be mad on all sub-
jects, except two. When he spoke French, every word
came trippingly from his tongue, and he was a first-rate
chess-player. Now this "mad Michel" (as they called
him), pays a visit to old Moses Mendelssohn, while he is
sitting at chess with Abram, the old arithmetician, and
begins to watch the game. Abram at last makes a gesture
with his right hand, showing that he gives the game up
for lost, and gets such a thumping whack on the head,
that his loose wig tumbles off. Abram quietly picks it up,
saying, " But, my dear Michel, how ought I to have moved
then ? " Lessing has copied the incident in Nathan, and
now I am about it, I may as well tell you the rest. Abram,
the aforesaid arithmetician, is the very man whom Lessing
took as his model for Alhafi. He passed for a veiy great
oddity, and a very great arithmetician, giving lessons for
a few Groschen, or gratis, and he had a room in ]\Ien-
delssohn's house, gratis too. Lessing highly esteemed him
on account of his piety, and his innate cynicism. 'When
Lessing went to WolFenbüttel, Abram begged of him a
rare book on mathematics from the local Libi'ary. Les-
sing found two copies, and sent one of them to Abram, to
keep as a souvenir. Some time afterwards, Abram comes
to !^Iendelssohn, bringing the book, and wants to present
him with it. " Why, you surely do not want to part with
that book ; it's a keepsake from a friend." " I know that,
but I do not want it any more ; the examples are good,
and I do not understand Greek." "Well, I see you
want money ; tell me, how much ? " " No, no, I have
money, and don't want any." " Well then, go, in God's
name, and if you w ant anything, you know where I live ! "
A short time afterwards, Abram comes to Mendelssohn,

1826.] TO ZELTER. 269

■who happens just tlien to have Professor Engel with him ;
he stands quite still, without uttering a word. " Well,
Abram, how are you ? Why are you so silent, and what
do you mean by staring at me in that way ? do you want
anything ? " " My wife has arrived from Hanover; I have
but one chair," — whereupon he seizes a chair and bolts
with it out of the room. His wife lived in Hanover with
her relations, for her husband never had a farthing.

It was good fun, hearing Professor Engel tell these
stories, and others like them, he being a thorough cynic
about good eating, drinking, and sleeping

Now good-bye ; may our little fish tickle your palate
as pleasantly as your toothsome pheasants did ours !

Yours,
Z

19G. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th March, 1826.

I SHALL wait quietly to see how the enclosed poem,
(Charon,*) upon which I set great store, will appear to
our connaisseurs, and other congenial spirits. The lord
of musical harmonies will be sure to find in it something
Fugue-like, where manifold complications can. be made to
move, separate, meet, and answer one another. This illus-
tration was distributed with the Stuttgarter Kunstblatt ; but
as it is folded together, it cannot be fully appreciated there.
Take care of it, and think it over. ....

Goethe.

197. — Zelter to Goethe.

3rd April, 1826.

.... The first comfort I got from your Charon
was this, that our art of the Fugue is still living, and that
what we build will not fall to ruins. To be sure, without
your explanation, I should have had to reflect a long time,
in order to get clear before me the beautiful contrasts,
(counterpoint,) because here what is most serious stands

* The name of a modem Greek poem, translated by Goethe. It is
one of the Neugriechischen Heldenlieder.

^^-rrM

^-^Mur^

260 Goethe's letters [1826.

in deliglatful conflict with tlie most innocent love of life.
And the poetry which you have pat into him will be his
delight as well as mine.

I had a similar experience with old Haydn. In review-
ing his Creation, and particularly the Overture which is
inscribed Chaos, I had remarked that such a theme was
not permissible as a problem of Art ; but that genius every-
where had triumphed over impossibilities, and therefore
did so here,- — giving my reasons for this statement. Old
Haydn let me know, that with regard to this matter, he
had never befoi-e expended a thought upon it, but that my
construction squared with his imagination, now realized
for the first time, and that he saw himself compelled to
recognize the pictures I had suggested. Other critics had
hopelessly condemned the musical paintings in the work,
but now I was justified.

Yours, to-day and for ever,

198. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 10th May, 1826.

.... Please, dear Zelter, be kind to the bearers
of this, (Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge,) if it will not incon-
venience you. I have nothing special to say about myself.
I very narrowly escaped having to undertake the part of
the Duke in my Natürliche Tochter. I have also enough
to endure in the preliminary rehearsal. Think of ihe, and
let me have some friendly sign from you.

Most truly yours,

1Ü9. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 20th IVIay, 1826.
First of all, ray best thanks for the score of that
truly enthusiastic song, Weltseele. It is now full thirty
years old, and dates from the time, when a rich, youthful
spirit still identified itself with the universe, in the belief
that it could fill it out, nay, rejiroduce it in its various
parts. That bold impulse has, at all events, left a pure and

1826.] TO ZELTER. 261

lasting influence upon life, and however much we may
have advanced in philosophical knowledge and poetic
treatment, still it was of importance at that time, and, as
I can see, from day to day, it acted as a stimulus and guide
to many

We too had a passing visit from Matthisson ; our dis-
ciples of the Muses gave him a friendly ovation, sang his
poems, presented him with laurel wreaths, and did all this
at a merry banquet, which went off fairly well

When one thinks, how many men of mark just float
about like drops of oil on water, and at most come in
contact only at one point, one can understand how it is
that so often in life one was thrust back into soHtude.
However, the fact of our having lived so long near one
another as we and Wolf did, may have influenced and
helped our endeavours, more than we know or are aware of.

You mention my Phaethon,* which I always think of
with pleasure, although I regret that at the time I did not
write down the two chief scenes. Even if it had fallen
short of the mark, still it was always something, and no
one now can form any idea of it.

I am again lured to those regions by a programme of
Hermann's, which directs our attention to three antique
Philoctetes', the first by ^schylus, the earliest ; the second
by Euripides, the latest ; the third by Sophocles, between
these two. I had soon to get quit of these reflections ;
they would have cost me four months of my time, which I
can no longer afford to squander. Of the first two pieces
there are only fragments and indications ; the last we still
have complete. Even here I dare not go further, as I
am at once led astray ; for I really could not restrain
myself from thinking out this matter, which to me is so
important, in preference to all besides, — the strangest
things occurring in connection with it. Even a very
ancient Latin author has written a Philoctetes, and more-
over, in imitation of ^schylus, of which there are still
some fragments left, and by which it is conceivable that
the ancient Greek might in some measure be restored.

* A translation of the fragments of the Phaeton of Euripides, begun
by Goethe in 1821.

262 Goethe's letters [1826.

You see, however, that this would be like trying to drink
up an ocean, and our old throats would hardly be able to
gulp it down.

To Zelter.

Weimar, 3rd June, 1826.
(Continuation of my letter of the 20th May.)

.... The manuscript of the new number of my
Kunst U7id Alterthnm is ready, and for the most part re-
vised, so that the printing might be begun at once ; how-
ever, I would rather let it rest, until the advertisement
of my works is before the world. At my time of life, one
has to lay down a law for oneself about such matters, and
one must not imagine that one can, like Frederick the
Great in the Seven Years' War, extemporize battle and
victory on all sides

I am chiefly concerned to hear that the good Brace-
bridges have attended and enjoyed your splendid choral
rehearsals, as we hear from our last letters. Letters of
introduction pull both ways, and remind me of a good
story about an excellent lady, who, owing to her having
received recommendations to the Montagues, as well as to
the Capulets of a Swiss town, could scarcely venture to
stir out of her house. It was exquisite to hear her account
of the charming artifices she had to resort to, in order to
make her way at all.

Thus anecdotes from private life as well as uniyersal
history prove, that in reality we wrestle and are wrestled
with, for life and death, about utter absurdities

And now I may tell you in confidence, that in order to
give full weight to the first issue of my new edition, I have
again undertaken the preliminaries of a work,* important
not in extension, but in its poetical contents ; it is one
which I have not looked at since Schiller's death, and
which would probably have remained in limbo patrum, but
for the impetus it has now received. It is moreover calcu-

* This alhides to the Helena, afterwards introduced into the Second
Pa.rt of FausL As early as the year 1800, (Joethe had read it aloud
to Schiller, who " felt that in it breathed the lofty spirit of ancient
tragedy."

1826.] TO ZELTER. 263

lated to influence the latest style of literature, to an extent
that nobody, whoever he may be, can have any idea of.
I hope, as it is intended to settle a dispute, to see it create

great confusion

Truly yours,

200. — Zelter to Goethe.

23rd May, 1826.

.... Hummel has given two successful concerts,
although his arrival seemed hardly opportune. In my
judgment, he is an epitome of contemporary pianoforte
playing, for he combines what is genuine and new with
feeling and skill. One hears music, one forgets fingers
and keys ; everything sounds as sure and easy, as it is
really difficult. A vessel of the worst material, filled with

Pandora's treasures

Yours,
Z.

201. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 26tli May, 1826.
.... Mt Felix, when he was ten years old, dis-
covered with his lynx eyes, in the score of a splendid Con-
certo by Sebastian Bach, six pure consecutive fifths, which
I doubt I should ever have found out, as in the larger
works I pay no heed to such things, and this particular
passage is written in six parts. But the handwriting, as
an autograph, is beautiful and clear, and the passage occurs
twice. Now, is it an error or a licence ? Either the com-
poser has altered one part and forgotten to erase the other,
or an accident, as I myself have experienced, may be the
reason. I once asserted, when we were having an harmonic
dispute, that I could let them hear half-a-dozen pure fifths,
one after the other, and they would never find it out, and
I won my point. It may have been so with old Bach, the
purest, the most delicate, the most venturesome of all

artists, g^uo nihil sol majus o^tet

Yours,

264 Goethe's letters [1826.

202. — Zelter to Goethe.

6th June, 18-26.

.... Felix has finished another quintett, which
we are soon to hear. I do all I can to encourage him, as
he urges himself on to experiment in the various forms,
new and old. I am pleased too, that his music is really
well paid by the publishers. In addition to this, he is very
active, and cuts no bad figure at gymnastics, riding, and
swimming ; I had rather not advise him to fence, as he
really pJays well. Sufiicient unto the day ; you' could not

wish for anything better

Yours,
Z.

203. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 11th June, 1826.

.... I GAVE yonng Bohn, lately married to a
daughter of Seebeck, a short letter to that good creature,
Ernestine (Voss), and a little Song, which Felix's sister
has set very daintily to music. It is a poem by Voss on
the death of our friend Schulz, and I set it to music for
him, when I was in Heidelberg. By chance Fanny happens
to have set it also, and as she has really hit off the spirit
of it better than I have, I have sent it to Voss's widow,

as it is equally applicable to his death

Even the day before yesterday people would have it,
that Carl Maria von Weber had died in London, (like
Achilles at the height of his glory,) but as the news is
not confirmed, it only gains credit, on account of his frail
condition. Owing to his judicious behaviour, he is a
universal favourite, and, according to the measure of his
talent, he has certainly worked hard enough ; all his
works, taken together, betray labour and toil, and he has

had sevei'e illnesses to fight against

Yours,
Z.

1826.] to zelter. 2g5

204. — Zelter to Goethe.

28th July, 1826.

.... Wilhelm von Humboldt, the Minister, sends

you his affectionate greetings He too is of opinion

that the collection of Schiller's letters will be a welcome
present to the world, as it will explain the origin of his
best works, and show how he built himself up upon you.
This is as certain, as that since Schiller's elevation to a
higher sphere, the eagerness to understand your works
has constantly gained ground. With Schiller everything
works from without to within, with you it is the reverse ;
people want to understand what they feel, — deductions
arise, in which Schiller is wealthy, and he turns our
minds in the same direction.

I observe that it is the same in music. It is only since
Mozart's time, that there has arisen a greater inclination
to understand Sebastian Bach, for the latter appears
thoroughly mystic, just where the former impresses us
clearly from without, and we go along with him more
easily, seeing that he collects terrestrial life around him.
I myself was so circumstanced as to feel no pure pleasure in
Mozart's works, because I had known Bach much earlier ;
compared with him, Mozart stood as the Flemish painters
did to Italian and Greek artists, and it is only since I
began to grow clearer and clearer on these points, that I
esteem both at the highest value, without requiring of the
one what the other achieves. The mystic must and will
remain what it is, otherwise it would not be what it is ; I
can go quietly to sleep upon that, and leave the whole gang
behind me to scream for an explanation in words, while
it is stumbling over the sense. Mozart stands much nearer
to Sebastian Bach than Emanuel Bach and Haydn, who
are originals, and stand between the two first. The Boh
Juan and the Zauberßöte show plainly enough that Mozai-t
had a mystic element in him, and that he is all the more
secure of an easier effect, when he works from without
inwards, where first there is light, and darkness follows

very gradually

. Yours,

266 goethe's letters [1826.

205. — Goethe to Zelter,

Weimar, 12th August, 1826,

. , , , I MUST tell you another strange thing. A
young porcelain painter from Brunswick inspired me with
such confidence, and took my fancy so much, when he
showed me his works, that I yielded to his pressing en-
treaty, and sat to him for several hours.* The picture
proved a good one, to the satisfaction of everyone. If it
gets safely through the firing process, it will, both on
its own account, and for the sake of the beautiful orna-
mentation, be a good recommendation for him at home.
His name is Ludwig Sebbers ; he passed through here on
his travels.

Sibylline-like, of all its youth bereft,
My face with vanity is yet acquainted!
For still the less of it to paint is left,
The oftener do the painters want to paint it !

I have had an honest laugh over these endeavours ; but
one must submit to it. , , .

Yours as ever,

Goethe.

Enclosure.

On again taking up Herr Streckfuss' translation of
Dante, a few days ago, I admired the ease witli whjch it
moved within the given metre, and when I compared it
with the original, and tried, after my fashion, to make
some of the passages clearer and more flowing, I very soon
found, that enough had already been done, and that nothing
would come of finding fault with this work. Meantime it
gave birth to the little poem, which I wrote in the accom-
panying liook.

Let Herr Streckfuss keep Manzoni's tragedy, Adelchi, as
a remembrance from me ; if he does not know it, he will
be pleased with it ; if he is impelled to translate it, he

* This portrait was painted on a cup, and Goethe sat for it some
twenty times ; even after the second baking, he sat again for the finish-
ing touches.

1826.] TO ZELTER. 267

■would render a service to German Iambics, as well as to
the Trimeter, if he would, in like manner, follow the
Italian style of writing, which would be all the easier, as
the rhyme does not hinder him. What I think about this,
is clearly seen from the monologue of Swarto, and without
that, it would at once be apparent to so clear-sighted a
man. The whole Tragedy may be resolved into a Recita-
tive. I am most anxious to have your composition.

Second Enclosure.

From God the Father Nature came.

Upon her track, the Human Mind

Fast following, caught the lovely dame,

A faithful wooer found her kind.

Nor yet unfruitful was their love:

A child of lofty thought and free

Was born, to all the world to prove,

" God's grandchild is — Natural Philosophy."

See Dante's Inferno, canto xi. line 98 (and Longfellow's translation).

Filosofia, mi disse, a chi I'attende,

Nota, non pure in una sola parte,

Come natura lo suo corso prende
Dal divino 'ntelletto, e da sua arte ;

E se tu ben la tua Fisica note.

Tu troverai non dopo molte carte,
Che I'arte vostra quclla, (jiianto puote,

Segue, come '1 maestro fa il discente :

Si eke vostr'arte a Bio quasi e nipofe.

"Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it,

Noteth, not only in one place alone,

After what manner Nature takes her course
From Intellect Divine, and from its art ;

And if thy Physics carefully thou notest,

After not many pages shalt thou find,
That this your art as far as possible

Follows, as the disciple doth the master ;

So that your art is, as it were, God's grandchild."

206. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6th September, 1826.
.... First of all, please read attentively to your-
self the enclosed remarks on Dante. Had our excellent
friend Streckfuss had my suggestions before him, when

268 goethk's letters [1826.

beginning his translation, he would, without additional
trouble, have succeeded better in many points. So much
has to be considered in connection with this original, not
only what that extraordinary man had the power of doing,
but also what it was that stood in his way, and what he
strove to remove ; only then does his nature, his aim, his
art, shine out fully before us. Ijook at them carefully ;
if you are afraid they might hurt Streckfnss, you had
better edify yourself with them, and conceal them. Still,
as he is sure to be working at a new edition, it might be
useful to him, in the whole and in details.

The enclosed table of the Theory of Sound, which is the
result of many years' study, was written, as you may re-
member, somewhere about the year 1810, after I had dis-
cussed the subject with you. I did not at all want to
satisfy the demand for a discourse upon physics, but to
make the compass and substance of the subject clear to
myself, and to point them out to others. I was prepared
to systematize all the various departments of physics in
this way. I found this table when clearing out the music-
cupboard ; I had not quite forgotten it, but did not know
where to look for it, nor do I know whether I have ever
shown it you. I have also lost in the same way sevei-al
Essays, which some lucky chance may perhaps bring back
again into my possession

Come what may, Mademoiselle Sontag has passed
through here, and made an epoch, with her wealth of
sounds and tones.

Of course evei'yone says that such an artiste should be
heard often, and the majoiüty would like to be o£E to the
Königstadt Theatre again, this very evening. And I agree
with them. For in reality, one ought first of all to conceive
of her and comprehend her as an individual, to recognize
her in the element of the age, to assimilate oneself to her,
to accustom oneself to her ; then of course she would abide
with us as an exquisite enjoyment. When heard in this
off-hand way, her talent confused rather than charmed me.
The good that passes by without returning, leaves behind
it an impression that may be compared to a void, and is

felt like a want Most truly yours,

Goethe.

1826.] TO ZELTKR. 269

Enclosure 1.

In recognizing the qualities of Dante's great mind and
spirit, our appreciation of his works will be greatly furthered,
if we keep in view the fact, that just at his time, when
Giotto was also living, Plastic Art reappeared in its natural
strength. This genius of the time, working powerfully
through sense and form, dominated him also. He compre-
hended subjects so clearly with the eye of his imagination,
that he could reprodiice them in sharp outline ; conse-
quently, we see before us what is most abstruse and most
unusual, as if it were drawn from Nature. In the same
way also, the terza rima seldom or never inconveniences
him, but in one way or another assists him in carrying out
his intention, and in limiting his forms. In this the trans-
lator has in most cases followed him, realizing for himself
what is imaged before him, and striving to achieve what
was requisite for its representation, in Ms oivn language
and Jiis own rhymes. If I had anything left to wish for,
it would be in this respect.

September, 1826,

Enclosure 2.

The whole plan of the locality of Dante's Inferno has
something minutely great (Mücromegisches) about it, and
therefore bewildering to the senses. From above, down to
the lowest abyss, one must imagine circle within circle ;
but this at once gives the idea of an amphitheatre, which,
however enormous it may be, always appears to our ima-
gination as something artistically limited, inasmuch as
from above one overlooks everything down to the arena, as
well as the arena itself. Let anyone look at Orgagna's
picture,* and he will think he sees an inverted table of

* This painting, which has been ascriberl to Bernardo, a brother of
Anckea Orgagna, is on a wall of the Strozzi chapel in 8. Maria Novella.
According to Kugler, it is " a mere map, which scrupnionsly follows
Dante's arrangement of the compartments or bo/t/e of the infernal
regions," — The table of Cebes of Thebes, the friend and disciple of
Socrates, was a representation of " the whole of human life with its
dangers and temptations." His only extant work, the Jliva^, is an
explanation of this table.

270 Goethe's letters [1826.

Cebes ; the invention is more rhetorical than poetic, the
imaginative faculty is aroused but not satisfied.

But though unwilling to praise the whole, still the rare
wealth of individual localities takes us by surprise, asto-
nishes, confuses us, and compels our veneration. Here
also, with the clearest and most rigorous elaboration of
the scenery, which stops our view at every step, the same
style of description prevails, which, when applied to every
condition and relation that appeal to the senses, as well as
to the characters themselves, their punishments and tortures,
is entitled to a like measure of our pi-aise. We select an
example out of the twelfth Canto : —

Inferno, canto xii. line 1.

The place where to descend tlie bank we came
Was alpine, and from what was thei-o, moreover,
Of such a kind that every eye would shun it.

Such as that ruin is wliich in the Hank
Smote, on this side of Trent, the Adige,
Either by earthquake or by failing stays.

For, from the mountain's top, from which it moved,
Unto the plain the cliff is shattered so,
Some path 'twould give to him who was above ; . . , .

Tluis took we down our way o'er that discharge
Of stones, which oftentimes did move themselves
Beneath my feet, from the unwonted burden.

Thoughtful I went ; and he said, " Thou art thinking
Perhaps upon this ruin, which is guarded
By that brute anger * which just now I quenched.

Now will I have thee know, the other time

I here descended to the nether Hell, ,

This precipice had not yet fallen down."

But truly, if I well discern, a little

Before His coming who the mighty spoil
Bore off fi'om Dis in the supernal circle,

Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley
Trembled so, that I thouglit the Universe
Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think

The world ofttimes converted into chaos ;
And at that moment this primeval crag
Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow

Now in the first place, I must explain the following,
although in my copy of the original edition of Dante,
(Venice, 1739,) the passage e gweZ down to schivo is also

This alludes to the Minotaur.

1826.] TO ZELTER. 271

made to refer to the Minotaur, in my opinion it applies
simply to the locality. The place was mountainous, rocky
(alpestro), but that does not say enough for the poet; the
special thing about it (per quel ch'iv'eranco) was so terrible
that it bewildered eyes and sense. Hence, in order only to
some extent to satisfy himself and others, he mentions (not
so much by way of simile, as to give a concrete example,)
a landslip, which probably in his time had blocked up the
road from Tarentum to Verona ; huge pieces of rock, and
fragmentary wedges of the original mountain may have
been lying there, one on the top of the other, still sharp
and fresh in outline, showing no traces of the weather,
united and levelled by vegetation, but in such a position,
that the huge single fragments, poised lever-like, might
easily have been made to totter by a mere kick. This
happens here too when Dante descends.

But now the poet wants to go immeasurably beyond that
natural phenomenon, he uses Christ's descent into Hell,
so as to find a sufficient cause, not only for this wreck, but
for many another which occurs in the kingdom of Hell.

The wanderers are now getting nearer and nearer to the
trench of blood, which, bow-like, is surrounded by a level
strand, which is also circular, where thousands of Centaurs
are leaping about, and keeping their wild guard. Virgil,
down on the plain, has already come near enough to
Charon, but Dante is still tottering with uncertain steps
among the rocks ; we must refer to the passage again, for
the Centaur speaks to his companions : —

He said to his companions : " Are you ware

That he behind moveth whate'er he touches?

Thus are not wont to do the feet of dead men."

Now let anyone ask his imaginative faculty, whether
this stupendous fall of rock and mountain has not become
entirely present to his mind ? In the other Cantos, with
a change of scene, just the same tenacity and finish may be
found and pointed out, through the recurrence of the same
conditions. Such parallel passages make us familiar and
thoroughly at home with the most intensely individual
spirit of Dante's poetry.

The difference between the living Dante and the departed

272 Goethe's letters [1826.

spirits is also striking elsewhere, as for example, when the
spiritual inhabitants of the Pnrgatorio are terrified at Dante,
because he casts a shadow, by which they recognize his
bodily presence.

Weimar, 9th September, 1826.

Enclosure 3.
The Science of Music

Developes the laws of the Audible. This last arises from
the vibrations of (various) bodies, and for us more par-
ticularly from the vibration of the air.

In the widest sense the Audible is infinite. But from
this we set aside uproar, noise, and speech (^Geräusch, Schall^
und Sprache).

There remains that with which we have immediately to
do, the musically audible, (Sound.) (Der Klang.)

This depends upon the purity of material, and the extent
of the body that vibrates or causes vibrations.

In order to arrive at the measui'e of this extent, let us
first regard the sounding body as a whole.

The distinct sound given by the whole, of itself, is called
the Ground-tone.

The whole diminished gives a higher note, — enlarged, a
lower.

We may diminish the whole gradually and without a
break, but this gives no proportional parts.

We may divide the whole ; this gives proportions.

The chief pro})ortional parts are at some distance from
each other (Chords).

The space between these is filled by intermediate pro-
portional parts, resulting in a kind of gradual progression
(Scale).

By these steps the ground-tone proceeds upwards and
downwards, till it finds itself again (Octave) .

More than this is not necessary at the beginning. What
remains must be developed, modified, and explained by
practical demonstration. The science is founded entirely
on principles derived from experience, and is expounded

1826.] TO ZELTER. 273

in three divisions. The irmsically audible appears to us,
(1) Organically (Subjectively) ; (2) Mechanically (partly
subjectively, partly objectively) ; and (3) Mathematically
(Objectively), All three are ultimately united, agreeably
by the power of the musician, and in a more diificult
manner, by scientific demonstration.

I. Organic (Subjective) Music.

How the tone- world is revealed by and to mankind,
appearing in the voice, received again by the ear, exciting
the whole body indirectly, and necessitating a mental and
moral inspiration, and a culture of the inward and outward
sense.

Science of Singing.

Song is perfectly productive of itself. The natural gift
of the outward sense, and the genius of the inward spirit,
are absolutely required.

The Chest Voice.

The voices, varying in height and depth, are as follows,
counting upwards : — Bass, Tenor, Alto, and Treble. Each
is to be considered as a whole. Each comprises an octave
and something over. They overlap one another, and con-
tain together about three octaves. They are divided be-
tween the two sexes. Hence the significance of puberty,
and the consequent change of voice, which can be prevented
by castration.

I.e. the limit of the chest-voice.

The Head Voice.

Transition into the mechanical. Artificial union of both
voices. Detailed explanation of the organization of the
chest and throat.

Corollary, from the voices of animals, especially of birds.

Acoustics.

Receptivity of the ear. Its apparent passivity and in-
difference. Compared with the eye, hearing is a dumb

274 Goethe's letters [1826.

sense ; only part of a sense. We must ascribe to the ear,
as to a highly organized entity, counter-effect and claim,
whereby alone tliat sense is capable of taking up and
grasping that which is presented to it from without. But
in the case of the ear, special attention has always to be
given to the medium of the sound, which operates actively
on the eifect. The productivity of the voice is thereby
engendered, aroused, elevated, and multiplied. The whole
body is set in motion.

Bhythm.

The whole body is incited to move in step (March), or
in skips (Dance and Gesticulation).

All organic movements are manifested by means of
pauses and resumptions of motion (systole and diastole).

At the one, the foot is lifted, at the other, put down.

Hence arise rhythmic weight and counterpoise.

Arsis, the up-beat.

Thesis, the down-beat.

Kinds of time : Even, and Uneven. These movements
may be considered alone ; but soon they are necessarily
combined with Modulation.

II. Mechanical Music. (Partly subjective, partly
objective.)

Tones produced by various means, in accordance with
musical laws.

Instruments.

Materials. Their tone, quality, purity, and elasticity.

Form. Natural, organic, and artificial. Metal, wood,
glass. Reeds, length and evenness of surface.

Method of exciting vibi-ations. — Inflation ; impact, hori-
zontally or vertically applied.

Striking. Relation to Mathematics. The instruments
result from knowledge of the proportions of measure and
number, and increase this knowledge by means of variety.

Discovery of natural proportions of tones other than

1826.] TO ZELTER. 275

those shown by the monochord. Relation to the human
voice. These are a substitute for that, and inferior to it,
but are raised to an equality with it, by treatment that
is expressive and spiritual.

III. Mathematical Music (Objective).

How the elements of Music are shown in the simplest
bodies outside us, and reduced in number, and in the pro-
portions of their measure.

The Monochord.

Co-ordinate sounds of the harmonic tones. Different
styles of sound-production, how they arise. Sympathetic
vibrations. Organic demand for and subjective excite-
ment of co-ordinate sounds.

Objective and material proof, by means of sympathetic
vibrations of strings, tuned to these proportional parts.

Foundation of the simplest proportions of tone. Dia-
tonic scales. The demands of nature not to be satisfied in
this way. Practical exemplifications not to be accounted
for, or shown in this way. — Reference to the minor mode.
It is not generated in the first series of harmonic tones.
It is manifested by means of less obvious conditions of
numerical and commensurate proportions, and yet is per-
fectly suited to the nature of mankind, even more perfectly
than the first, more obvious mode.

Objective proof (contrary to the usual order of things)
in the sounding of tuned strings, for this tone, which is dis-
covered by practical experiment. (Thus the ground-tone
C gives, in the upward dii-ection, the harmony of C major,
and in the downward direction, that of F minor.)

The major and minor mode are the antipodes (polarities)
of musical science. First principle of both — the major is
generated from rising, the tendency to ascend, and to
extend all intervals upwards; the minor, from falling, — its
tendency is to descend, and to extend its intervals down-
wards. (The minor scale extended upwards becomes
major.) Working-out of this paradox, as the ground of
all music.

276 goethe's letters [1826.

Origin and necessity of tlie leading note (suhsemitoniti/m
modi) in rising, and of the minor tliird in falling.

Connection of the two modes by the dominant and tonic.
(The former must always be major. Query, whether the
latter must always be minor ?)

Origin of Arsis and Thesis in all motion in this way, as
also of the co-operation of material bodies, and of rhythm.

Artistic Treatment.

Limits of the octave. Concatenation of their identities.
Definition of proportion of tone. With and against nature.

The art of rendering tones nebulous, and their outlines
indistinct, in order to cause the approach of different keys
to one another, and to make it possible to use one as well
as another.

{I.e. Temperament.)

Instruction in singing. Exercises, to acquire the per-
ception of what is easy and difficult, in the fundamental and
derivative elements of vocalization. Grrasp of genius and
talent, and employment of all that has been said before, as
material and instrument.

Union of speech with song, particularly in the Canto
fermo, Recitative, and Quasi parlando.

Distinction (of song) from speech by a kind of register,
and transition to this, and so to rationtil utterance.

Noise (uproar). Transition into the formless and the
fortuitous.

207. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 15th Septcmbei-, 1826.

Herewith, dearest Friend, the latest thing of the
day, nay, of the hour ! The poem has just been recited,

but now we should like to sing it too

With kindest greetings and good wishes,

1826.] TO ZELTER. 277

Enclosure.

The Allied Brethren of the Amalia Lodge at Weimar to their Brother,
His Most Serene Highness, Karl Bernhard,* Duke of Sachs-Weimar-
Eisenach, on his return from a happy and profitable stay in America,
on the 15th of September, 1826.

A freshening gale! Hoist, hoist the sail!
So dreamed the youth of late ;
As man he sees his wish prevail,
Nor long had he to wait.
On, on he journeys, far away,
Through wind, and storm, and foam,
On alien soil scarce rests a day,
And sees again his home.

A humming, like a swarm of bees,
They build with all their might ;
Empty and poor the morning sees
A state that's rich by niglit.
Submissive now the rivers trace
Their way through desert land.
The rock becomes a dwelling-place,
Flowers blossom in the sand.

Forthwith the princely pilgrim greets,
With manner firm and niiUl,
As brother, each good man he meets,
As father, every child.
He feels it beautiful to be.
Where God hath newly blessed ;
With every honest fellow free.
And equal with the best.

Country and towns doth he survey,
Keen-sighted to compare ;
Fond of his kind, at dances gay,
Beloved of ladies fair ;
Both fight and victory to boot
He knows, among the brave ;
The cannon fire a loud salute,
In recognition grave.

He feels that noble land's advance,
Her fortune is his own,
To her, ere now, full many a glance
Across the sea hath flown.

* The son of the Grand Duke, Karl August.

278 gokthe's letters [1826.

But let that be as it may be,
He dwells among us all ! —
Earth's greatness is activity,
Love sets her free from thrall.

208. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 11th October, 1826.
.... Grillparzer is an agreeable, pleasant man,
and I dare say one may credit him with, innate poetical
talent ; how far it reaches, and what it accomplishes, I
will not say. It is natural that he should have appeared
somewhat oppressed in our free life

Do not delay to take up your parable in writing, about
the Table I sent you. You will see from it, how earnest was
my endeavour, at least to define for Science the boundaries
of that vast kingdom. Every chapter, every paragraph
points to something pregnant ; the method of arrangement
may be allowed to pass ; I chose it, because I thought of
making it somewhat similar in form to my Farbenlehre.
I intended to have done a good deal more, but it had to be
set aside, owing to the hurry-scurry of my life. One
ought to say to oneself betimes, that it is advisable, never
to meddle with anything, that one cannot appropriate to
oneself by enjoyment, nor energize productively, for one's
own and other people's delight

Now, in haste, let me ask you kindly to give my best
thanks to our excellent and energetic Felix, for that splendid
copy of his careful aesthetic studies ; his work, as well as
that of his master, will be instructive entertainment to our
Weimar connaisseurs during the long winter evenings,
which are now close upon us

1827.] TO ZELTER. 279

1827.

209. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 2()th February, 1827.
.... My Felix has accepted an invitation to
Stettin, to conduct his latest works there ; he left Berlin
on the 16th. The lad reached his nineteenth year on the
third of this month, and his work grows in ripeness
and individuality. His last Opera, which it takes a whole
evening to perform, has been now, for more than a year,
travailing for birth at the Theatre Royal, and never reaches
the light ; whereas all manner of French rubbish and trash
is on the stage, and hardly lives to the second represen-
tation. As we are young, and all other advantages are
in our favour, for which many others have to wear away
the best part of their life, it cannot do us very much
damage, — if I did not wish, that with his industry, he
might as soon as possible grow out and ahead of our time,
to which we have to be civil, whether we like it or not.
I dare say I might still be of some use to him, by making

him fall back more and more upon himself

Yours,

210. — Goethe to Zelter,

Weimar, 2nd March, 1827.
Yesterday evening, (the 1st of March,) while
Riemer and I were revising your letters of the year 1820,
I really felt quite anxious about you, thinking over again
your rash and dangerous voyage to Swinemiinde. It is
strange, that a danger long since past, appears in its pe-
culiar form, far greater, and more real, than when we first
hear of it, directly after its occurrence, for the mind
struggles against it, as in the distress itself, striving to
lessen its impression, and the joy of the escape passionately

280 goethf's letters [1827.

contributes to this feeling. In after years, all is different ;
we then have courage to look upon our terror, but for
this very reason, it rises in the description to its real
magnitude.

The account of your trip to St. Petersburg was welcomed
with many thanks ; the ladies of our court, who had seen
the model on the spot, told us about it, but only inciden-
tally. Since the great catastrophe * first gave clear proof
of the bad situation of this huge city, whenever there is a
fall in the barometer, especially at night, when the storm
is raging among my fir-trees, I am forced to think of that
locality.

If people are compelled — like the Venetians — to settle
down in a swamp, or by chance, establish themselves in
a most unsuitable locality, as did the first Romans, — well,
it can't be helped ; but deliberately to do the clumsy thing,
like the great Emperor,t to the irreparable ruin of his own
people, is surely too lamentable an expression of the prin-
ciple of absolute monarchy. An old fisherman is said to
have told him beforehand, that it was not a fit place for a
city.

If I want to make an excuse for him, I am driven to
say, that his great original genius was led astray by a fit of
imitation. He had Amsterdam and the dyke-system of
Holland in his mind, and did not perceive that it was
wholly inappropriate here. The Dutch themselves made
the same mistake, in the laying out of Batavia, inasmuch
as they imagined, that people could live among marshes
in the Torrid Zone, with as much impunity, as they could
in the Tempei'ate and the Frigid.

* The imindation of the Neva.

t "The situation of Petersburg," said Goethe to Eckermann, "is
(|uito unjiardonabie, especially when we reflect that the ground rises in
the neighbourhood, and that the Emperor could have had a city quite
free from all this trouble, arising from overflow of the stream, if he had
but gone a little higher up, and had only had the haven in this low place.
An old shi]imaster represented this to him, and prophesied that the
people would be drowned every seventy years. There stood also an
old tree, with various marks from times when the waters had risen to
a great height. But all this was in vain ; the Emperor stood to his
whim, and had the tree cut down, that it might not bear witness against
him."

, -
o'
1827.] TO ZELTER. 281

Now for something more cheerful ! as you are taking
up French, I would advise you — if you have not already
done so, — to read Le Theatre de Clara Ga~ul and the Poesies
de Beranger. In both you will very clearly recognize, what
can be achieved by talent, not to say genius, when it
appears at a pregnant point of time, and is perfectly
reckless. Why, we began much in the same way

A very favourable review of Ternite's * Pompejana is
ready for the printer ; we shall also make honourable
mention of his Fra Angelico. Meyer knows the picture
very well, having seen it in Florence. To be sure, if this
heavenly life is to make any impression, we must purge
our eyes to some extent of that earthly life, for, thank
God, we have withdrawn ourselves quite as far from Priest-
craft, as we have again drawn nigh to Nature ; we cannot
and must not renounce this inestimable advantage

211. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 19th March, 1827.
How should the friend answer his friend in such a
case ? t A like calamity drew us so close to each other,
that the bond between us could not be more intimate.
The present sorrow leaves us as we are, and that of itself
is a great deal.

The Fates are never weary of relating to one another the
old myth of the Night, breaking in a thousand thousand
times, and yet once more. To live long, means, to outlive
many ; such is the pitiful refrain of our vaudeville-like,
listless life ; it comes round again and again, fretting us,
and yet goading us to fresh and earnest endeavour.

The circle of persons with whom I come most in contact,
seems to me like a roll of Sibylline leaves, which, being
consumed by the flames of life, vanish, one after the other,
into the air, thus making those that are left more precious,
from moment to moment. Let us work, until we, in our
turn, either before or after one another, are summoned by

* The Inspector of the Royal Gallery at Potsdam.

+ Alluding to the death of Zelter's only remaining son.

282 Goethe's letters [1827.

the Spirit of the Universe to return into ether. And may
the Eternally-Living not deny us new activities, like those
in which we have already been put to the test ! Should
He, father-like, add to these the remembrance, and after-
feeling of the rectitude and virtue we desired and achieved
even in this world, we should assuredly but plunge all
the more eagerly in amongst the wheels of this world's
machinery.

The Entelechean * Monad must preserve itself only in
restless activity ; if this becomes its other nature, it can
never, throughout Eternity, be in need of occupation.
Forgive me these abstruse expressions ! but people have
from of old lost themselves in such regions, and tried to
im^Dart their meaning by this kind of speech, where Reason
did not prove sufficient, and yet where one would not, by
choice, allow Unreason to prevail.

That in the midst of your sorrow, you should remember
that number of Ktmst und Altertimm, pleased me very
much, for even when we are suffering from the heaviest losses,
we ought at once to begin looking about us, to see what
is left for us to receive and to do. How often have we, in
such cases, tested our activity with renewed eagerness,
and thereby diverted our minds, and let in all sorts of
consolation ! The meaning I discovered in that passage
from Aristotle was a great gain to me, as well on its
own account, and for the sake of the aesthetic connec-
tion, as because a truth casts light around itself on all

sides

Ever and eternally yours,

GrOETHB.

212. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29tli M;u-ch, 1827.

.... On a recent occasion, which I may perhaps
ere long specify more particularly, I said, " II faut croire ä
la simplicite," which means, one must believe in simplicity,

\ * From ivreXtx^ia, the actual being of a thing ; Aristotle calls the
soul the iiTfXfx«'« of l''e body, that by which it actually is, though it
had a capacity of existing before. The expressiou is also found in
Leibnitz.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 283

in what is simple, in what is originally productive, if one
wants to go the right way. This however is not gi-anted
to everyone ; we are born in an artificial state, and it is far
easier to make it more artificial still, than to return to
what is simple

On Wednesday Krüger plays Orestes in mj Ipliigenie ;
but it is impossible for me to be present, as he would
doubtless wish. What to me is the recollection of the
days, when I felt, thought, and wrote all that !

And yet, quite recently, I have been tormented in the
same kind of way. An Englishman,* who — like others —
came to Germany, not to learn German, and was carried
away by the stimulus of brilliant intellectual society, made
an attempt to translate my Tasso into English. The first
passages he tried his hand at were not so bad, and as the
work progressed, it got better and better, not without
the interference and co-operation of my domestic literary
circle, which is always revolving, like a screw.

Then, as he wanted me to read through the whole piece
with pleasure and comfort, he had his first copy very hand-
somely set up in grand octavo, and new type, so that of
course I felt myself bound to go carefully and attentively
through this strange work, which I have never re-read since
it was printed, and have at most, heard imperfectly, when
seated at a distance from the stage. Then, to my sur-
prise, I clearly perceived what I had aimed at and what I
had achieved in former days, and understood, how young
people can find pleasure and consolation, by hearing, in
well-set speech, that others have at one time tormented
themselves, as they themselves are being tormented now.
The translation is remarkable, some few mistakes have
been altered, at my suggestion, the language becomes more
and more fluent as one proceeds, and the last Acts, and the
passionate speeches are extremely good

The covi^^tletion of a ivorh of art in itself is the eternal,
indispensable requisite ! Aristotle, who had perfection be-
fore him, is said to have thought of the effect ! What a
pity !

• Probably C. Des Voeux, whose translation of Tasso was published
in this year.

284 Goethe's letters [1827.

If, in these quiet days, I had at my command more
youthful powers, I should give myself up entirely to the
study of the Greek, in spite of all the difficulties I am
conscious of. Nature and Aristotle would be the aims I
had in view. We can form no conception of all that this
man perceived, saw, noticed, observed, but he certainly
was over-hasty in his explanations.

But do we not do the same, up to this very day ? We
have no lack of experience, we only lack calmness of mind,
whereby alone our experience becomes clear, true, lasting,
and of use.

See the Theory of Light and Colour, as interpreted before
my very eyes, by Professor Fries * of Jena ; it is a series
of hasty conclusions, such as expositors and theoi'ists have
been guilty of, for more than hundreds of years past. I
do not care to say anything more about these in public,
but write it, I will ; some truthful mind is sure to grasp
it one day

In my preface to Manzoni's works, (Frommann's edi-
tion,t) you will, as a fact, find only what you know already
through my Kunst und Ältertimm. But in connection with
the Tragedy of Ädelchi, and the choruses that occur in it,
I have said some out of the way things, which you will
be sure to welcome gladly.

What is excellent, (I say this here with reference to the
beginning,) should never be carped at nor discussed, but
enjoyed, and reverentially thought over in silence. How-
ever, as people neither apprehend nor comprehend this, let

U8 do it, and be happy in so doing

213. — Zelter to Goethe.

8th April, 1827.
.... Old Bach, with all his originality, is a son of
his country, and of his age, and could not escape French

* Jacob Friedrich Fries, Professor of Philosopliy at Jena, author of
Julhis uiid Evagoras, oder die Schönheit der Seele, Ein 'philosophischer
Roman.

t Opere poetiche di Alessandro Mamoiii, con prefazione di Goethe,
Jena, per Federico Frommann, 1827.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 285

influence, especially that of Couperin. One wants to show
one's willingness to oblige, and so one writes only for the
time being. One can, however, dissociate him from this
foreign element ; it comes off like thin froth, and the
shining contents lie immediately beneath. Consequently,
I have arranged many of his Church compositions, solely
for my own pleasure, and my heart tells me, that old Bach
nods approval, just as the worthy Haydn used to say,
" Yes, yes, that was what I wished !".... The greatest
stumbling-block in our time is certainly to be found in
those utterly damnable text-books of the Grerman Church,
which cave in to the polemical earnestness of the Re-
formation, stirring up the unbelief, which no one wants,
by means of the thick fumes of belief. The rarity of Bach
consists in this, that a genius, in whom taste is innate,
should, from such a soil, have conjured up a spirit, that
must have sprung from great depths. He is most mar-
vellous, when he is in a hurry, and not in the humour.
I possess manuscripts of his, where he has thrice begun
and then erased again ; he could not get it to go, but the
music must be forthcoming, for next Sunday there was
some inevitable wedding or funeral before him. Even the
very worst foolscap paper seems to have been scarce at
times, but the work had to be done ; little by little he
gets into the swing, and at last the great artist is there,
Bach's very self. Afterwards he makes his improvements,
quite as an afterthought, and with his cramped penman-
ship, becomes so dark, misty, and learned, using his own
signs, which everyone is not acquainted with, that I have
to refrain almost entirely from meddling with his manu-
scripts, because I find it no easy matter, to get away from

them again

Tours,

214. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, April lutli, 1827.
.... I CALL to mind an experience of mine in
former days, when I had something to do with a man of
real mark. The Prince Primate, our neighbour and con-

286 Goethe's letters [1827.

staut companion, was Statthalter of Erfurt ; * from his
high and influential position, and still more as being
himself an author, he had a fearful number of literary
correspondents, to whom, as he was a man of rank, good
breeding, and kindly disposition, he always sent some
reply, however short. Now, it is true, he had knowledge
extensive enough for such emergencies, but how could he
have time to think over, and do perfect justice to each of
his correspondents ? So he adopted a certain style, which
veiled the emptiness of his answers, and appeared to say
something important to everyone, whereas in reality it was
mere politeness. There must be hundreds of such letters
lying about even now. I was often myself a witness of
such replies ; we used to joke about them, and as I was
trying to maintain an unconditional love of truth, in
dealing with myself and others, (which, as I too was often
wrong, at times seemed like a kind of madness,) I took a
solemn oath, never under similar circumstances — my cele-
brity at the time already threatened me with these — to
give in to such a practice, since if I did so, all pure and
sincere relations with my fellow men would in the end be
dissolved and scattered to the winds.

The result of this was, that since that time, I have
answered letters less frequently, and now, in my more
advanced years, I observe the same practice, for a twofold
reason : I do not care to write letters with nothing in them,
and to write important letters, leads me away from my
immediate duties, and takes up too much time. . . .',

Yours truly,
Goethe.

215. — Goethe to Zelter.

15th April, 1827.

.... Madame Catalani has scented out a few of

our extra Groschen, and I almost grudge them to her. Too

much is too much ! She makes no preparation as yet for

leaving us, for she has still to ring the changes on a couple

* Statthalter Dalberg, a Catholic prelate, and one of the most con-
fidential friends of the Ducal family of Weimar.

1827.] • TO ZELTER. 287

of old-new transmogrified airs, which she might just as
well grind out gratis. After all, what are a few thousand
of our TJialers, when we get " God save the King " into
the bargain ! It really is a pity ! What a voice ! A golden
dish with common mushrooms in it ! And we — one almost
swears at oneself — to go and admire what is so con-
temptible ! It is incredible ; " a beast that wants discourse
of reason " would mourn at it. What an impossible state
of things ! and yet it is a fact, that an Italian turkey-hen
comes to Germany — Germany with her Academies and
High Schools, — and old students and young professors
sit to listen, while she sings in English — let me write
angelically * — the airs of the German Handel. What a
disgrace, if that's to be reckoned an honour ! In the heart
of Germany too ! . . . .

216. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 22nd April, 1827.
I WAS very much struck by your significant remark,
that Bach, who was so thoroughly original, had allowed
himself to be affected by a foreign influence ; I imme-
diately looked up Franz Couperin in the Biographical
Dictionary, and can understand how, owing to the great
activity of the Arts and Sciences in those days, some

Gallicisms may have been blown over hither

But to return to Couperin and Bach. I do entreat you
to let me hear some of your thoughtful observations about
what you call French froth, as distinguished from the
German basis of the music, and thus, in one way or another,
to bring home to me, objectively and subjectively, this
instructive connection

Now I must tell you, that yesterday evening, while re-
vising our correspondence with Riemer, I was greatly
delighted with your splendid letter of the 20th of March,

* It is impossible to give the German play on the word Englisch,
with its double meanings, "English" and "angelically." Catalani's
Christian name was Angelica.

i^V-^A.*^

r- ■ ^- 7 kJ

288 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1827.

1824, where, whilst unravelling the course of Handel's
Messiah, you so admirably trace the gradual development
of the Chorale into four parts, out of the Canto fermo,
with which it originated. This leads me to hope, that you
will continue to think me worthy of enlightenment on similar
subjects, and therefore that you will, as soon as may be,
begin a friendly chat with me, by letter, about Couperin
and Bach.

Pardon these fragmentary pages ! there is such a hurly-
burly around rae, that I am in danger of being overtaken
by the two greatest failings of human nature — delay and
over-haste.

Yours unalterably,
G.

217. — Zelter to Goethe.

22nd April, 1827.
.... This very week we are to have Felix's last
Opera * — if it ever does come off, — we have yet to see. He
has been obliged to alter a great deal, the book is not much
to speak of, and even the improvements are not likely to
be brilliant.

My Good Friday music was fairly successful. I am seven
hundred Thalers to the good, and may rest content. ....

Yours,
. Z.

218. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 24th May, 1827.
.... The second part of the Wanderjahre is
finished ; it needs only a few rushes to bind the whole
garland of flowers together, and after all, any kind spirit,
capable of grasping the separate parts, would do this just
as well, and perhaps better than myself.

But now I mean to make a private confession to you,
viz. that the encouraging sympathy of kind spirits has
led me to take up Faust again, exactly at that point,

* Die Hochzeit des Camacho. See Letter 186.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 289

where, on descending from the cloud of antiquity, he
again confronts his evil genius. Do not say anything
about this to anyone; I will however confide to you, that
it is my intention to proceed from that point, and to fill up
the gap between it and the final conclusion, which was

ready long ago

Yours, as of old,

Goethe.

219. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 9th June, 1827.
. . . . Ä propos of this,* some of my old reflections
recurred to me, and I will write them down here. The
musician, if he is in other respects a sentient, sensible
being, moral and well-conducted, enjoys great advantages
in the course of his life, because he can assimilate himself
better than others to the current of life, and to every kind
of enjoyment. For this reason, your accounts of your
travels have quite a peculiar— nay, a twofold charm : the
architect and musician are combined with the man of sterling
worth, and the range of this society is practically infinite.

The English have introduced to us their Living Poets, —
in two thick octavo volumes, more or less by quotations, and
by short biographical notices. I have for some time past
been studying this work very diligently ; it suggests the
most interesting comparisons. The decided merits of all
these poets are the result of their descent and position ; the
least important of them has Shakespeare for an ancestor,
and the Ocean at his feet.

Truly yours,

J. W. V. Goethe

220. — Zelter to Goethe.

9tli -June, 1827.
What I called Sebastian Bach's French froth is not
so easily skimmed off, that you can catch it in your hand.
It is like the air, ever present, but impalpable. Bach

* Goethe had been reading an article by F. S. Kandier, on the condi-
tion of music at Naples.

290 Goethe's letters [1827.

passes for the greatest of harmonists, and rightly too.
As yet one can scarcely venture to style him a poet of the
highest order, although he belongs to those, who, like your
Shakespeare, are far above childish playthings. As a
servant of the Church, he wrote only for the Church,
though not what you would call ecclesiastical music. His
style is Bachish, like everything about him. He is neces-
sarily obliged to use common signs and names, su.ch as
Toccata, Sonata, Concerto, &c., which is no more than saying,
that a man is called Joseph, or Gl trist opJier. Bach's original
element is solitude, as you actually admitted, when you
once said, " I lie down in bed and make our Bm-yermeister-
organist of Berka play me Sebastiana." That is just like
him, you have to spy upon him.

Well, besides that, he was a man, a father, a godfather,
nay a Cantor in Leipzig, and as such, no more than anyone
else, even if not much less than a Couperin, who served
two kings of France, for over forty years. In the year
1713, Couperin published and dedicated to his king this
first bit of fundamental advice — Do not strike, but play
(touchez) the piano.

A King of France is playing the piano, perhaps even
the organ, pedals and all ! Who would not immediately
have imitated him ? Couperin's new method particularly
insisted on the introduction of the thumb, whereby alone
even and sure execution becomes possible. (If I am not
■} mistaken, in Carlo Dolce's picture of Saint Cecilia, the
thumbs, if not hanging down, are at all events idle !) The
more advanced Germans, and Bach, had long practised this
method,* as is self-evident, but it was still limited to the

* " Some persons have pretended that Couperin taught this method
of tin<Tering before him, in his work published in 1716, under tlie title
of L'Arl de ioucker le Clavecin. But, in the first place, Bach was at
that time above thirty years old, and had long made use of his manner
of fingering ; and secondly, Couperin's fingering is still very different
from that of Bach, though it has in common with it the more frequent
use of the thumb. I say only, the more fre(pient : for in Bach's method
the thumb was made the principal finger, because it is absolutely im-
possible to do without it, in what are called the diflicult keys : this is
not the case with Couperin, because he neither ha<i such a variety of
passages, nor composed and played in such difficult keys as Bach, and
consequently had not such urgent occasion for it." — See J. N. Furkel's
Life of Bach, p. 25.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 291

right and left hand, whereby the latter is evidently spared.
The Bach method claims the use of the ten fingers, which,
with their different length and strength, are meant to per-
form every kind of service ; to this method we are indebted
for the incredible performances of the latest toucheurs. Now
as all men must be French, if they mean to live, Bach
made his sons practise the small, finnikin, dainty, Couperin
notes, with their befrizzled heads ; nay, he himself made
highly successful efforts as a composer in this manner, and
so the French frizzlings insinuated themselves into his style.

Bach's compositions are partly vocal, partly instrumental,
or both together. In the vocal pieces, there is often much
more than the words imply, and he has often enough
been taken to task for this ; nor is he strict in the ob-
servance of the rules of harmony and melody, over which
he lords it with the greatest audacity. But when Biblical
texts, such as " Break for the hungry thy bread," &c., " Ye
shall mourn and lament," &c., " Jesus took unto himself
the twelve," &c., " Then was our mouth filled with
laughter," &c., are manufactured into Choruses, I am often
inclined to admire in these very passages the sacred in-
difference, nay, the apostolic irony, with which some quite
unsuspected effect is produced, without raising so much as
a doubt of the sense and taste displayed in it. A passus
and sepultus introduces the last pulsations of the silent
powers, — a resurrexit or a Gloria Dei Patris, the eternal
regions of sanctified suffering, in contrast with the hollow-
ness of earthly things. This feeling however is, as it were,
indivisible, and it might be difficult to carry away from it a
melody, or anything materialistic. It only renews itself,
strengthens itself, gathers up its strength again continually,
by the repetition of the whole.

In all this. Bach is hitherto still dependent on some kind
of theme ; one should follow him upon the organ. That is
his own peculiar soul, into which he breathes immediately
the living breath. His theme is the feeling just born,
which, like the spark from the stone, invariably springs
forth, from the first chance pressure of the foot upon the
pedal. Thus by degrees he warms to his subject, till he
has isolated himself, and feels alone, and then an inex-
haustible stream passes out into the infinite ocean.

292 goethe's letters [1827.

His eldest son, Friedemaim (of Halle), who died here,
meant pretty much the same thing, when he said, " Com-
pared with him, we all remain children."

I suppose that most of his gi^ander compositions for the
organ come to an end somehow, but they are never done.
There is no end to them. Here I must stop, however,
though much remains to be said. Weighing every possible
testimony against him, this Leipzig Cantor is one of God's
phenomena : clear, but we cannot clear him up. I might
call out to him : —

" You've made lae work with might and main,
And I've brought you to light again."

221. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 17th July, 1827.

The continuation of the fragment sent you on the
21st of June, through La Roche the actor, has been lying
on my desk ever since, and I have not been able to make
up my mind to send it off ; I know not how, but some
morose thoughts had got into it, such as one should never
send to a distance, for by the time they give a friend a dis-
agreeable hour, one has quite recovered from them oneself,
and by means of happy and resolute activity, one has
long since escaped from that gloomy condition, when vexa-
tion at being interrupted in one's work took one by sur-
prise for the moment

The high pressure of musical, dramatic, literary, scien-
tific, and other performances in Berlin, which are thrust
before us in the papers, would wellnigh bewilder and over-
power a distant recluse ; however, I willingly believe that
in the midst of all this bustle, one may well remain true to
oneself, just as good inspirations are quite possible on the
shore of the raging ocean, or elsewhere

Your friend has moved up from his Garden-House,
finding that he was too dependent upon artistic and literary
surroundings, which up here are always to his hand,
whereas, down yonder, he has them only partially at com-
mand. It was really funny to see the number of different
things, which had been dragged down, during his four

1827.] TO ZELTER. 293

■weeks' stay there. The greatest gain, however, that I
realize from this experiment, is that I have again grown
fond of that garden, to which I was almost a stranger,
and that it has again become a necessity to me. The
foliage there, and in the neighbourhood, especially on the
old trees, is remarkably fine this year, and I therefore enjoy
what has long been forgotten and neglected, still more
than if it had been missed and longed for. I feel com-
pelled to spend at least a few hours there every day.

As for the rest, I have rauch in my mind, and on hand,
which ought to please you all, if it is realized ; I certainly
should like to surprise and astonish you again once or
twice more ; the plan for doing so is already complete.

Please ask any English friends of literature in your
neighbourhood, if they know anything about Thomas
Carlyle of Edinburgh, who deserves remarkably well for

his services to German literature

In haste, as in truth,

GrOETHB

Enclosure.

(Continuation of my last letter of the 21st June, 1827, sent
through La Roche.)

Of course at this juncture, I thought of the worthy
organist of Berka ; for it was there, when my mind was in
a state of perfect composure, and free from external dis-
traction, that I first obtained some idea of your Grand
Master, (Sebastian Bach). I said to myself, it is as if the
eternal harmony were conversing with itself, as it may
have done, in the bosom of God, just before the Creation of
the world. So likewise did it move in my inmost soul,
and it seemed as if I neither possessed nor needed ears,
nor any other sense — least of all, the eyes.

As soon as music makes the first vigorous advance
towards exercising an objective influence, it powerfully
excites our inborn sense of rhythm, step aud dance, song
and rejoicing ; by degrees, it runs off into the Transoxanic,
{vulgo Janissary music,) or into the Jodel, into the love-
cooing of birds.

Now however, a higher culture steps in ; the pure Ganti-

294 Goethe's letters [1827.

lena flatters and charms us ; gradually, the harmonic Chorus
is developed, and thus developed, the whole strives to
return again to its divine origin

I was very pleased to hear that you opened the wandei--
ing Buch,* and made friends with its contents. I am
quite aware of what we owe to it, and to others of its
kind ; only it is a pity these gentlemen immediately set
up a priesthood, and — in addition to what is worth our
gratitude — endeavour to force upon us something which
they themselves are not acquainted with, and perhaps do
not even believe in.

Now as the human race invariably moves herd-like, they
soon make the majority follow their lead, and an intelli-
gent man, who is all for clear progress, and honours the
problem itself, stands alone, before he is aware of it. As
I no longer care to dispute, (and I never did like it,) I
allow myself to deride and attack their weak side, which,
I dare say, they themselves are quite well aware of.

Professor Fries,t who continues to hold forth in Jena
upon the old Newtonian nonsense, did not venture, in his
Compendium, to refer to the little hole, which I have made
rather hard for them, but he now talks about a narrow
strip, which is utterly senseless. But what is so stupid,
that party-folk will not dare to bring it forward as hocus-
pocus ?

It is a subject that does not affect you in any way, and
I should be sorry if you were to trouble yourself in the least
about it, but having watched it now for nearly forty' years,
I may surely venture to tell you, how the mathematico-
physical Leviathan conducts itself, with the harpoon which
I thrust at it, sticking in its ribs.

It is no vain boast, if I assure you, that there is no one
living, who has such a clear insight into these mysteries as
I have, seeing forsooth how people drag along the true
together with the false. Younger men indeed see and
observe this, but they neither may nor can free themselves
from tradition, as, of course, they would not have any

* A play on the name of Herr Leopold von Buch, (Bonk,) of Munich,
a celebrated traveller and man of science, with whom Goethe differed,
as to the progress of the formation of the eai"th.

t See note to Letter 212.

182?.] TO ZELTER. 295

language, wherewith to express themselves, and it is in
accordance with Nature, that one cannot speak the truth
with false words.

Excuse these remarks, and think of some similar in-
stance, that you may perhaps have met with in your own
province.

What you say about diction, is not unknown to me.
When, for instance, people want to praise a dramatic poem,
they say that the language is very beautiful ; but they
seldom take cognizance of what is actually said. In the
case of the Helena also, some very intelligent people have
been chiefly pleased with the three or four new words
introduced in it, and probably they have already considered
in silence, how they would themselves make use of them.
All this cannot, of course, aifect an already celebrated
author of sixty years' standing, but perhaps there has never
been an instance of anyone who has had so few readers,
and so many spies, pickers and stealers, who seize upon
his diction, because they imagine, that if they could but
speak in that way, it would be something done, even if
they have nothing to say.

One Xenion touches upon this characteristic of our day.
Unfortunately I withheld a good many of this kind, for
the sake of blessed peace. A few days ago the following
lines escaped me : —

America, thy lot was cast by powers,

Happier than those of our old Contineut;

Thou hast no ruined towers,

No basalt monument.

Thy heart endures no pain.

In the heyday of life.

From memories that are vain,

Unprofitable strife.

Then use the Present happily !

And when your child thirsts for poetic glories.

May some good genius keep him free

From knights, from robbers, and from ghost-stories !

... .In return for your kind reception of my Scotch
Wanderer* I send a ballad, (^Gutmann und Gutweih,)

* A Highland Song, translated by Goethe. It is to be found in his
works, under the title, Hochländisch. — Gutmann und Gutweih is a free
translation of the humorous old Scotch Ballad, Get up and bar the door.

296 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1827.

which I must not venture to praise ; the original stands
very high — the happy, animated blending of the Epic and
Dramatic in this extremely laconic form, cannot suffi-
ciently be admired. If I discover anything else of the
kind, it shall follow forthwith. This is the fruit of my
stay in the Garden-House, which I gave up, because Count
Sternberg of Prague was paying us a visit ; I have not
been there again, owing to the misty rain, and the damp
state of the valley resulting from it, — also on account of
the difficulty of communication.

222. — Zelter to Goethe
Enclosure.

Berlin, 10th August, 1827.

.... At last we have in our hands the much
disputed score of Mozart's Requiem, * corrected from
manuscripts, and we know what we knew. As you see
the periodical, Cäcilia, I suppose you are sure to have
become acquainted with the bitter, sour jabbering of Herr
Grottfried Weber of Darmstadt, against the authenticity
of this posthumous work. There he affirms, that the
Requiem is just as good as not Mozart's at all, and that ii
it be his, it is the weakest, nay, the wickedest thing, that
ever came from the pen of that illustrious man. Enough,
he says that Mozart left the work incomj)lete, but that
after his death, Süssmayr interposed, and embezzled
Mozart's thoughts, so that the work, owing to his com-
pletion of it, was corrupted, if not poisoned — that finally,
since Mozart's death, the world has been living in an astor
nished and astonishing state of deception about this legacy,
and that no one hitherto has had the heart to bring to light
the blunders, s})ots, and faults of a spurious work of art.
These are the humours of Weber. But we too have been
in the world from our youth up ; Mozart was born two years
before me, (1756,) and we remember, only too well, the
circumstances of his death. Mozart, I say, who had been
so soundly taught, that he could compose off-hand, and

* The whole question of the authenticity of Mozurt's Requiem has
been ably summed up in a short treatise, liy my friend, Professor Pole.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 297

have time left for hundreds of things besides, — dallying
with women, and the like, — had thereby run his good
natural disposition too close. In this way he comes to
have a wife and children, and falls into the extreme of
poverty, in which his civic existence is lost, Lying on his
sickbed, wretched in his home, worried, decried, with no
helpful friends, in the end he is without even the com-
monest necessities of life. Some honest fellow orders any
work Mozart may choose, so as to give him a little money
in the most delicate way. An Opei^a-book is not forth-
coming at the moment, and Mozart says, " I have a mind
to write a Requiem, which you may use for my funeral."
The weakness increases ; he begins to care for his soul, and
in solemn, solitary self-introspection, certain beginnings of
single parts of the Requiem are unfolded, (as once, with so
much truth, you placed them in the mouth of your
Gretchen,) dies iroe — tuha rnirum — rex tremendce — confuta-
tis — lacrimosa — and it is just these numbers which reveal
the deepest contrition of a religious mind, showing at the
same time, on one side, the last remains of a great school,
and on the other, the passionate feeling of a dramatic com-
poser. The style consequently is a medley, — uneven, nay,
fragmentary, — and so arises that confusion, in which the
criticism of to-day takes such delight. Thus tradition ran
at the time, but no honest man would repeat it out loud.

After Mozart's death, worthy Süssmayr comes forward
as the true friend, puts the Requiem together, and com-
pletes what is wanting, so that the suffering family gains
thereby a sufficiency for its nakedness. The work is sold,
and printed ; Süssmayr makes as good an explanation as
he can of his share in the work, and soon afterwards follows
his friend into Eternity.

Now comes the aforesaid Hans Taps, accuses the friend
of adulteration and lying, and talks in the most con-
temptuous tone about a well-meaning friend, without once
suggesting any safe criterion, as to where we are really to
look for Mozart, and where for Süssmayr, ascribing to
Süssmayr, what he cannot possibly have written, and vice
versa ; without reflecting, that if a clever man like Süssmayr
puts forth all his powers, he can quite well avoid the
dormitat Homerns part himself. And this really happened.

298 Goethe's letters [1827.

The Benedictus is as good as it can be, and cannot be
Mozart, the School decides so much. Siissmayr knew
Mozart's School, but it was not ingrained in him ; he had
not been through it in his youth, and here and there traces
of this are found in the heaTitiinl Benedictus. On the other
hand, whatever is found fault with in Mozart's work,
Siissmayr is said to have done. Thus the critic explains,
that the first number in the Requiem has been borrowed
from Handel, and consequently cannot be by Mozart, — who
often and unquestionably attempted to write in the Han-
delian manner, in order to convince himself, that he too
could do that kind of thing. In this piece, we have besides
the choral music, a Cantus firrnus, and an old melody too ;
guess what ? It is the simple melody — (how comes the
Magnificat anima rnea into a Requiem ?) in a word, it is the
old Cantus firrnus to be found in the Luther Chorale-Book
up to this very day. Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn. I just
now called the work fragmentary and uneven, by which
I mean, that the numbers collectively are like chequer-
work, and he who insists on considering them as a whole,
is mistaken, as are several excellent composers ; the whole
Requiem consists of such numbers, and in spite of that, it
is the very best I know of in the last century.

Before Mozart had taken a look round North Germany,
Handel may have shone before him, as the most powerful
intellect in Germany ; some of his compositions bear the
superscription Nel Stilo di Haendel. Then Mozart comes
to Leipzig, while Hiller is yet alive, and splits hi^ ears
over Sebastian Bach, to the great astonishment of Hiller,
who is trying to fill the Thomaner boys with horror at the
crudities of that Sebastian. What does Mozart do ? He
proves himself in this style with a dexterity, which only
such a School can give. Just listen to the music of the
schwarze Männer in the Zauherfiote, (before the ordeal by
fire). It is inlaid, it is the Luther Chorale, Wenn wir in
höchsten Nutheti, interwoven with the orchestra in Bach's
style, — and so on.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 299

223. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 17th August, 1827.
Schlegel's Lectures, extracts from which have
reached me, deserve our best thanks ; we recapitulate
with an intelligent and well-informed man all those means
of development, on the growth of which we throve suc-
cessfully. The younger public, in particular, may well be
satisfied with them, if they are inclined to take a rational
view of the immediate past.

He is over sixty years of age, and knows how to estimate
the trouble it cost him and others, to arrive at this point.

Here and there it would require a harder hit, to make
the egg stand on its end. In the history of Art also, there
are two considerations, that must never be lost sight of :
firstly, that all beginnings cannot be regarded as too
childlike and childish, and secondly, that in the sequel, the
demand for reality is always in conflict with taste and
meaninjJT

Goethe.

224. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 1st September, 1827.
.... Make my peace with the worthy F. Per-
haps I might let him have a few lines from time to time — as,
for example, I should have no objection to let Eösel print
his little poem there, if he likes to — but these good people
insist at once on our becoming associates, and we must be
on our guard against that, because, now and then, they
are wanting in tact and discretion. You will remember
too, how Gleim,* in his old age, ended by frittering away
his talent in this fashion ; I remember in those days, writing
on a page of the Mercur : —

In the devil's name,
AVliat matters your name I
In tlie German Mermrij,
Not a single trace I see

* Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, one of the so-called Anacreoütic
poets, author of the Versuch in Scherzhaften Liedern.

300 Goethe's letters [1827.

Of Fathei' Wieland ; yet, 'tis true,
He stands upon the binding blue ;
And under the most execrable rhynoe,
The name of Gleim.

My first and last topic is always your portrait. It is in
itself a work of great merit, and has therefore been univer-
sally admired. If on looking at it, the educated con-
naisseur still finds it something of a problem, and upon
closer examination, wanting in certain qualities, the reason
is, that this eminently talented man,* like all our modem
painters and sculptors, acknowledges no Sebastian Bach
as an ancestor, whose teaching and practice must be re-
spected. The result is, — with Begas, as with the others,- —
that they try their hand at all the different styles and
manners, and therefore do not early enough succeed in
developing the right style, and in coming to a perfect
understanding with it. The consequence is, that the public
does not know what to make of many honest efforts, be
the work of art planned and executed in ever so careful a
manner, for — whatever the artist may do — a false con-
ception remains without effect on the natural man

Tour attached

GOETHB.

Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6th September, 1827.

(Gontinuation.)

.... Be sure to note down on paper your ideas
about the minor scale; they would come just at the right
moment for me, as I too have thought out something on
the subject with Riemer ; I will dictate it and seal it up,
and wait until I hear from you, when I shall send it off
immediately. It would be very pleasant to find that we
had reached the same goal by different paths.

I think I shall now have to abandon Schlegel's Lectures
to the Berliners ; they certainly do not stand the test of a
closer examination. On reading the first pages, I was con-
tent to hear what was old, for what is new too often proves

* Begas, the artist who painted Zelter's portrait.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 301

vexatious to me. But, of course, one would like to have
the old rendered ever more complete, better arranged, more
concise, more readily surveyable ; and this is not accom-
plished here. And then, how can a man write a history of
anything that is not in his own line ? I have often re-
marked, that if I had to write a criticism of anything I did
not thoroughly understand, I was obliged to make mere
phrases, however much in earnest I meant to be

I got thus far before my birthday, when, as I well knew,
my good friends were making preparations for the usual
pleasant fete; but there was a surprise for me, which
almost unnerved me, and left behind it a feeling, that
I was hardly equal to such an event.

His Majesty of Bavaria arrived at night, on the 27th of
August, declared next morning that he had come expressly
for the day, honoured me with his august presence, just as
I was in the midst of my friends and dear ones, presented
me with the Grand Cross of the Bavarian Order of Merit,
and, in fact, proved himself so thoroughly interested in
and acquainted with my life hitherto, my work and en-
deavour, that I could not be sufficiently grateful in my
expressions of admiration and esteem. His Majesty re-
ferred in a friendly, familiar way to my stay in Rome ;
this of itself would have led one distinctly to recognize the
Princely Patron, who had there served his apprenticeship
to Art. If I were to tell you more, it would fill several
pages.

The presence of my most gracious Master, the Grand
Duke, made this unexpected condition of things quite
perfect, and now that it is all a bit of the past, I must
really try for the first time to recollect how it all happened,
and to think how one might have submitted more be-
comingly to such an ordeal.

But what we cannot experience twice in life, we must
get through as well as possible improviptu. The delightful
feelings, the significant proofs that remain, assure me that
at any rate it was no dream.

So I dedicate this to you, now more than ever, my
bosom-friend; your portrait was present always and every-
where.

Goethe.

802 Goethe's letters [1827.

225. — Zelter to Goethe.

AVeimar,* 18th October, 1827.

.... Old Voss once said to me, when I had merely-
altered the position of a single word in his Friedensreigen,
" You may as well let that alone ! " — and of course I might
have done so, but it would have been all up with my love
of the poem. I must be allowed to appropriate a part of
it, in order to make it completely my own ; what do I care
about the poet ? His word is a stone, hurled into space,
which I pick up, and how I pick it up, and how I look at
it, recognize and interpret it, is 'my aiSair ; and if he wants
to be just, and if he has understood me, as I have under-
stood him, he will remember that his word is printed, and

remains his own Naumann f of Dresden had not

altered a single word in Schiller's Ideal, and Schiller
scolded, like a reed-sparrow, at that famous man's compo-
sition, because it turned a beautiful poem into a throat-
exercise for a prima donna. But with no words am I more
chastely cautious than with yours. The very first time I
read your poems, I grasp the sense, the feeling of the whole,
and the melody comes at once ; I only stop short at a
word, a phrase ; then I let it lie, until — Heaven knows how
long afterwards — my word comes of itself, and then I
finish. Numbers of your poems have been lying thus for
years

226. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 24th October, 1827.
Pleasant and creditable as is the meeting of old
friends, and the renewal of old ties, still the influence of

* The date of this letter is somewhat puzzling, as Eckermann tells us
that Zelter, who had been to Weimar on a visit, left Goethe on the
evening of this very day, after a tea-party, given at Goethe's house, in
honour of Hegel.

t Johann Gottlieb Naumann, a prolific writer of Operas, and of
sacred music. His compositions are still performed occasionally in the
Court Chapel at Dresden, but the only wui'k known out of his native
Saxony, is his setting of Klopstock's Vater Unser.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 303

the present and the law of to-day apparently reassert them-
selves at once, so that these too are exposed to the nothing-
ness of passing hours. I made these reflections after your
departure, when I felt somewhat vexed, as the thought
struck me, that I had neglected to tell you the most
important things of all.

You were to have paid homage to Schiller's relics, and
you ought to have read a poem which I wrote, when they
were found again al Gal carlo* — a novel too, which is
quite peculiar in its style, f — several smaller jioems, among
them a collection, headed CJiinesische Jahreszeiten, — and
whatever else had any connection with these.

Perhaps it is not well to talk of and lament over such
things afterwards, yet why should one not also take note
of what has been neglected, when we have won and enjoyed
so much ? . . . .

Yours in haste, and sincerely,

GrOETHE,

227. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 27tli October, 1827.
... You did well to take a look at the world
again, in its wild state of activity ; it is always moving on,
on — like a siege, no one troubles himself about any who
chance to fall in the trenches, or in a sortie, and we will
not be too particular about what is finally carried by
storm.

I am very glad that my letter to Munich reached you ;
with regard to it, I will merely remark, that Schulze on the
Blood and Circulation did not by any means find favour
with me, for in referring to my earlier studies in the
botanical field, he — in a very arrogant, youthful, and gauche
way — calls me to account, for not having accomplished forty
years ago what has not yet been achieved !

On the other hand, your Link, whom I will not reproach,
because of your affection for him, lately had a certain
opportunity, when he ought of necessity to have mentioned

* Bei Betrachtung von Schiller's Schädel.

f Was this Die Novelle, afterwards translated by Carlyle ?

304 goethk's letters [1827..

my Metamorphose der Pflanzen, Sind yet lie carefully avoided
alluding to it, whereas lie brought forward again an old-
idea of Linnaeus, which is no doubt ingenious, but still un-
satisfactory. It seems to me, as if even good and eminent
persons were on certain days, and under certain circum-
stances, doomed to be good for nothing.

Had I not gone in for the study of the Natural Sciences,
I should never have gained this insight, for in ethical and
aesthetic matters, the true and the false can never be driven
into a corner in that way ; in scientific matters however, if
I am honest with myself, I must be so with others, and so
I do not grudge the incalculable amount of time I have
devoted to this branch of study ; for now that I have
treated the subject, every day must see my cause furthered,
every friend and every foe, whatever attitude he chooses
to assume, must help it on.

In haste,

Most truly yours,

J. W. V. Goethe.

228. — Zelter to Goi^the.

Berlin, 28th October, 1827.
.... I HAVE twice enjoyed seeing Mdlle. Sontag at
the Theatre Royal, as Myrrha in the Opferfest* and as
Susanna in Mozart's Figaro. Though I cannot particularize
any special quality in her, take her for all in all, she is a
joyful vision on the stage. She is a pretty darling, and
always looks well, whether as third, fourth, or fifth in a
great Theatre, surrounded by so much that is strange,
and her vocalization and articulation are so perfect, that
her voice shines out amongst much stronger voices, like a
bright star. Her face moves with the melody, so the
motions of her arms and hands, and all the rest of it are
not repeated ; it is always the same, and yet it is new.
One duett was called for again ; the two singers came back
as they had gone off ; first she had stood on the right side,
now she stood on the left, and the whole duett seemed like

* Das Unterbrochene Opfcrfest. an Opera by Winter.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 305

a new piece, which I, at all events, could have heard for
the third time ; some people too actually called out Da

Capo again

229. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6th November, 1827.
.... Thank you for having, by your graceful
account, helped me to realize the gracefulness of that
dainty songstress ; my ears have long been unaccustomed
to music, but my spirit is still susceptible. The recent
performance of the Zauberßöte had a bad effect upon me ;
formerly I was more susceptible to such things, even
though the performances may not have been better. Now
two imperfections had to do with this, one external, the
other internal, and the sensations produced were such as
one experiences, on striking a bell with a crack in it. It
is very strange ! for even your much-loved songs, sung
again and again, would not succeed. It is better to put
up with such a state of things, than to talk, or even to
wi'ite much about it.

On the other hand, the Art of Form, and especially
Plastic Art, continue to give me as much pleasure as ever ;
the copies from Stosch's collection are keenly interesting
to me ; Herr Beuth's kind presents too supply me and
Meyer with excellent subjects for instructive and edifying
conversation. We are arranging a number of Kunst und
AltertJium, in doing which, I always think that I am
working first-hand for you.

You will be sure to gain pleasure and profit from a more
intimate acquaintance with Zahn * and his works ; as for
me, I feel that the contemplation of antiquity, in its every
relic, lifts me into an atmosphere, wherein I realize my
humanity

I have come into the possession of some very pretty
drawings, for a moderate sum, and am expecting a con-

* Wilhelm Zahn, an architect, with whose tracings of the wall-paint-
ings at Pompeii, Goethe had been greatly delighted. It was he, whc
afterwards wrote to Goethe, about the house that was called after him
in Pompeii. See also Letters 340, 381.

306 Goethe's letters [1827.

signment of majolica from Nürnberg ; this is a kind of
folly, which my son shares with me. However, the sight
of these dishes, plates, and vessels impresses us with the
idea of a sturdy, bright kind of life, which is squandering
an inheritance of grand and powerful Art. And as, after
all, we like living with spendthrifts, who make life easy to
themselves and us, without much enquiry, whence it comes,
and whither it goes, in the same way, these objects, when
seen in a mass before one, ai'e full of bright meaning.
How poor, in contrast to them, is our porcelain ware, on
which you see flowq^s, landscapes, and heroic deeds ; they
give no impression as a whole, and never remind one of
anything but botany, topography, and the History of
warfare, things which I can only love in the garden, on a
journey, and during my leisure hours. You see how one
can gloss over one's own follies ; but praised be every folly,
that grants us innocent enjoyment like this !

And now let this letter set out upon the road, which I
myself would so gladly take, and may it suggest a friendly
meeting soon.

So be it !

Goethe.

230. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 16th November, 1827.

.... What I wrote to you about Mdlle. Son tag
was intended as a sort of epitome of the universal impres-
sion. One may well suppose that such a person, who in a
few weeks can put by a sum of 11,000 Thalers — let alone
valuable presents — provokes the envy of those immediately
around her. Her fellows however confess, that they like
to act and sing with her, and are always sure of happy

co-operation

In England they have made a pretty good translation
into English of Schiller's Ballad, The Glove, with my music
— I wish I got any benefit from it ! Old Wieland may
be right : it is not enough to live, one should also let live.
Addio.

Yours,
Z.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 307

231. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 2 1st November, 1827.
I MUST tell you, that our wandering nightingale
arrived on Sunday, the 11th of November, but owing to
some undecipherable brouillamini, the result of misappre-
hension, neglect, ill-will, and intrigue, she has not appeared
in public. She sang on Monday, at a dejeuner, given by
the Dowager Grand Duchess, and was greatly applauded ;
afterwards, she paid me a visit, and gave us some little
specimens of her extraordinary talent ; these were enough
for me, in so far as the idea I had entertained of her was
confirmed and renewed

I have felt, ever since it was first announced, what a
great boon Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon would be to
me, so I have let all sorts of people have out their tittle-
tattle about it beforehand ; but now I cannot refrain any
longer, and I take up the book with confidence. Scott
was born in 1771, just at the outbreak of the American
Revolution ; he was impressed, as a young man, by the
throwing overboard of the tea-chests at Boston, as I was
by the earthquake at Lisbon ; how many strange things
he — as an Englishman — must have had to look on at !
I will tell you what I think about it, as I have oppor-
tunity. Even beforehand, I found the public true to its
character. Customers, no doubt, sometimes allow the
tailor to choose a particular stuff, but they insist upon
having the coat fitted to their own bodies, and are highly
indignant, if it proves too tight, or too loose ; they are
most comfortable, when wearing the loose dressing-gowns
of the day and hour, in which they can feel as easy as they
like ; you may perhaps remember, that they treated my
Wahlverwandtschaften as though it had been the garment
of Nessus.

The Second Part of Faust is still shaping itself; the
task here is the same as in the Helena, — so to formulate
and arrange existing elements, that they may suit and
accord with what is new ; to accomplish this, much has to
be thrown aside, and much to be remodelled. So it

308 Goethe's letters [1827.

required resolution to begin the business ; as I advance,
tlie difficulties get less.

And now, with kindest greetings, let me exhort and
cheer you on to persevere in that activity, to cultivate
which — in the midst of peace — we are encouraged and
compelled by the hostile pressure of the world. If we
help ourselves, God will help us.

Ever truly and faithfully yours,

Goethe.

232. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 23rd November, 1827.
.... Our King occasionally takes the reins into
his own hands : e.g., he refuses to recognize any virtuoso
as his Kapellvieister . Bernhard Romberg,* who as a com-
poser is justly ahead of all virtuosi, only achieved that dis-
tinction through favouritism, and at the cost of a great
deal of trouble, and he took his departure, when he learnt
that the King had engaged Spontini at Paris. At that
time I objected to him, that a king anyhow should be
allowed to do, what the most ordinary person would — viz.
to buy a Kapellmeister at his own price, wherever he liked.
So Romberg bears me a grudge still, although he wants
to be again what he refused to remain, and might have
been still, had he followed my friendly advice.

Yours,
' Z.

233. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 4th December, 1827.
As for Walter Scott's Napoleon, I have thus much
to say : if you have time and inclination, in your quiet

* Bernhard Romberp, who died at Hamburg in 1841, is always re-
garded as the head of tlie (ierman School of violoncellists. Spohr met
him at Bei'lin in the early part of the present centui'y, and played in
quartetts with him. One of these was by Beethoven, (Op. 18,) and
Romberg asked, how Spohr could play " such absurd stuflF?" This
question sijuares with the well-known story of Romberg's tearing the
copy of the first Kasouinowsky quartett fi-om the desk, and trampling
on it.

1827.] TO ZELTER. 309

leisure at home, to harp back again in thought upon the
significant course of the world's history, which has carried
us hurriedly along with it during the last fifty years, I can
give you no better advice, than to read tranquilly the
aforesaid work, from beginning to end. Here you have an
able, intelligent citizen, whose young days fell within the
time of the French Revolution, who in his best years, and
as an Englishman, watched, reflected upon, and doubtless
discussed this important event in various quarters ; besides
which, he is the best narrator of his time, and takes the
trouble to describe the whole series of events, in his usual
clear and definite style.

The way in which — from his politico-national stand-
point — he treats all this, and the way in which his view of
this and that matter, — from the other side of the Channel
— differs from ours, in our limited position on the Con-
tinent, — all this is a new experience to me, a new way of
looking at and into the world.

The most remarkable thing however, is that he speaks
like an upright citizen, endeavouring to judge of facts in
a pious, conscientious spirit, and strictly on his guard
against any Machiavellian views, which we should have
thought, were inseparable from the treatment of universal
history.

In these respects, I am very well satisfied with him as
yet, having got to the fourth volume, and shall quietly go
on with the book, looking upon him as a reporter, who
has a right to submit his documentary extracts, his repre-
sentation, and his vote, that he may then await the decision
of the assembled judges.

Therefore, not until I have read the whole work through,
the nine parts of which, by the way, have come just at the
right time to cheer, and help in shortening the long, dreary
evenings — do I intend to weigh, with equal interest, the
objections that are brought against it. This cannot but
prove interesting. It will then be seen, whether he has
neglected to bring forward facts, whether he has distorted
them, whether he looks at them as a partisan, whether he
is prejudiced in judging them one-sidedly, or whether he
must be acknowledged right. In the first place however,
I say to myself, that in so doing, one will become more

310 Goethe's letters [1827.

intimately acquainted with mankind, than with the subject,
and on the whole one will, after all, have to acquiesce, for
if one is not satisfied with history as with a legend, every-
thing will finally resolve itself into doubt

Your Lady correspondent * from Sans Souci may be an
amiable girl ; at the same time she is a true German. This
nation always fails to adjust things properly, they always
stumble over bits of straw. You have answered the ques-
tion very fully, kindly, and rationally ; you may look upon
it too as an accident, that might easily occur amongst
friends, who act and re-act so much upon one another. In
like manner, they torment themselves and me about the
Weissagungen des Bakis ; they used to do so about the
Hexen- Einmaleuis, and many other bits of nonsense, which
they think they can adapt to straightforward human in-
telligence. If only they would look for the physical-moral-
aesthetic problems, which I have scattered so plentifully
throughout my works, and apply these to themselves, and
thus solve the enigmas of their own lives ! However,
many after all do this, and we will not grumble, because it
is not done always and everywhere.

How much there is still, to say and to write ! More
anon. And herewith accept a store of sincerest good
wishes.

* A pupil of Zelter's, who had written to him, to know why two
Distichs, published among Schiller's poems, had also appeared among
Goethe's. Zelter told her that as they had been written by both poets
together, they had appeared " under the firm of Goethe and Schiller."

1828.] TO ZELTER. 311

1828.

234. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimai-, 24th January, 1828.
.... I HAVE kept tolerably well all this time, and
have been able to devote my hours to a great deal of
good and serious work. From three to four scenes of the
Second Part of Faust have been despatched to Augsburg ;
I trust that when they appear in print, you and yours may,
amid the streaming currents of life, be able to consecrate a
little time to these pictures of mine. I am still engaged
with this work, for I should very much like to finish the
first two Acts, so that the Helena may be linked to them
naturally, as a third Act, and thus adequately introduced,
prove itself to be no longer a phantasmagoria and an in-
terpolation, but an aesthetically rational sequel. We must

wait and see with what success

In my suri-oundings, as you know them, there has been
no change ; Ottilie's time is devoted to rearing her little
daughter, who now looks quite pretty and pleasing. The
world of young ladies here has been thrown into no slight
commotion, by the recent arrival of some English recruits ;
they have been amusing themselves with all kinds of
flirtations, so that there may be no lack of passion for
capital, on which, when the time of leave-taking and final
renunciation comes, they will have to draw abundantly for
the interest of sorrow.

Yours unalterably,
G.

236. — Goethe to Zelter.

20th February, 1828.

.... And now, one word more about Walter
Scott's much discussed, and still to be discussed Napoleon.
Be the work what it may, I feel indebted to it, for it has

312 Goethe's letters [1828.

helped me happily over the last six weeks of the past year ;
and that was no trifling matter, when you think of the
solitary evenings, which people like us, are fain to pass in
an interesting way, whilst everything that has but a spark
of life in it, goes off to the Theatre, Court Fetes, parties
and balls. I found the work very convenient as a subject
for thought, inasmuch as I took note, chapter by chapter,
of everything that struck me as new, and of everything
that was recalled to my remembrance ; after that however,
I immediately filled in, in their proper places, experiences
of my own, that I had forgotten, and thus I no longer
know what I found in the book, and what I added to it.
Enough for me, that the long, ever important, and at the
same time troublesome period from 1789 onwards, (when,
on my return from Italy, the revolutionary nightmare
began to oppress me,) up to the present time, has become
perfectly clear and connected in my mind ; besides, I can
now bear to look at the details of that period again, because
I see them in a certain connected order.

So here you have another example of my egotistical way
of reading ; I trouble myself less and less about what a
book is ; the main point is, what it brings me, what it
suggests to me. I suppose you are not much better, and
I hinder nobody from doing as he likes.

Walter Scott's confession that an Englishman will not
budge a step, unless he sees some " English object " before
him, is of itself worth many volumes. Quite recently we
have seen, that the English can find no right object in the
battle of Navariuo. We will wait and see m what quarter

it (the object) will really show itself

Most truly yours,

236. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 28th February, 1828.

Tour little letter has either come at a favourable
hour, or it has made one, as it always does. I was busy
at the time, arranging a number of simple, but genuine
and masterly drawings and sketches, which I have bought
at a reasonable price. This reminds me of a passage I

1828.] TO ZELTER. 313

dictated long ago, which I shall look up and have copied
for you : —

" Dilettanti, when they have done their utmost, are wont
to say, by way of excuse, that their work is not yet
finished. Finished it certainly never can be, because it,
has never been properly begun. The master represents
his work as finished with a few strokes ; whether worked
out or not, it is already complete. The cleverest dilettante
gropes about in uncertainty, and as the working out of the
design proceeds, the insecurity of the first design becomes
more and more apparent. It is only quite at the last, that
the irreparable want is discovered, and of course the work
cannot be finished in this way."

Our reader, (v. Holtei,*) does his work well ; he has dined
at my house, where he seemed pleasant company. Be he
what he may, he has brought a certain kind of general
intellectual stimulus into our circles, A really educated
public should, I think, make a halt once in a way, listen to
what it otherwise would have no chance of hearing, and
thus gain new ingredients for its gossip about the town,
the Court, and the English, and make the passing moment
somewhat more significant.

Some private masquerades have afforded an opportunity
for revealing a few of the truly astonishing poetic talents,
that reign in silence among us here. Postmen, gipsies,
and other messengers of the World and Fate, distributed
to certain persons hundreds of little poems, many of which
were distinguished by thoughts so appropriate as to make
one envious. On inquiry it was found, that they had been
written by persons whom one would never have thought

Tours unalterablv,

* A vaudeville-writer, whose Readings and Recitations made some
sensation in Weimar. He threw such expression into his rendering of
Faust, that August Goethe declared, he had never understood his
father's work before. Goethe himself, however, disap])roved of the
adaptation. Von Holtei also contributed to a weekly periodical, started
by Uttilie Goethe, called Das Chaos. See Letter 315.

314 Goethe's letters [1828.

237. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 22nd April, 1828.
.... The third issue of my new edition will
appear at the Fair ; some fresh things here and there in
these little volumes I may perhaps recommend ; the next
issue has already been sent to Augsburg, and I now have
on my conscience the fifth, in which the transformed Wan-
derj((hre are to make their appearance. If man were not
by nature damned to his talent, we should be forced to
inveigh against the folly of burdening ourselves, through-
out a long life, with ever fresh anxieties, and ever recurring
toil.

A Number of Kimst und Altertlium is also coming to the
front, and much else besides ; meantime Faust is looking
askance at me from one side, reproving me most bitterly,
for not giving him the preference in my labour, him, the
worthiest — and pushing all else aside.

I am also extremely inconvenienced by the wonderful
influx of manuscripts, which I am asked to touch up, and
of printed things, concerning which I am requested to say
a few kind words — a trouble from which I have seen our
impatient Wieland suffer grievously in his old age — for
after all, the result is neither important nor encouraging.
Every person, no doubt, is entitled to make and to think
as much of himself as possible, only he ought not to worry
others about this, for they have enough to do with and in
themselves, if they too are to be of some account, both now
and in future

My surroundings still continue tuneless and unmelodious ;
one day lately I tried the effect of an Opera, but the big
drum, which made our whole wooden house quake to the
rafters, frightened me off any further attempt. On the
other hand, my garden at the Seven Cross Roads entices
me at every favourable hour ; there, I succeed in collecting
my thoughts, and harmonizing and centralizing them to
many a good issue {z^i inanchem guten Hervorbringen mich
zu einigen und zu innigen)

1828.] TO ZELTER. 315

There have been many messengers, ascending and de-
scending the heavenly ladder between this and Berlin, who
have looked in upon me, so I am much nearer to you than
you may suppose.

Thy very own,

238. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 26th April, 1828.
.... OcR Fete in honour of Milder, celebrated in
my house on the 9th, as well as the Dürer fete on the 18th,
succeeded beyond expectation. For the latter occasion
Felix wrote music,* which, in spite of the words, con-
tains beautiful passages ; the workmanship is masterly

throughout

239. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 2nd May, 1828.
Enclosure sent by Goethe to Zelter, and headed,

For the Friends of Mademoiselle Sontag.

Old and young are talking of Mademoiselle Sontag.
She could not have been better received in Berlin or Paris,
than she has been in London. She will undoubtedly carry
away a good purse-full with her from here. Such facility
and finish in singing have never been heard here before.
I saw her on her first appearance, and shall never regret
it. However, as all the papers are talking about Sontag's
singing, I will merely add this. It was the French Am-
bassador, Prince Polignac, who introduced her at the
Duke of Devonshire's, where, (Royalty excepted,) our great
people here first made her acquaintance. At a ball given
by the same Duke, Sontag was also among the guests,
and she danced there with singular grace ; everyone who
managed to exchange a few words with her, seemed to

* The SoTis of Art, a Cantata.

316 Goethe's letters [1828.

think himself very fortunate. Snch distinction is with-
out parallel in London. To-morrow a grand Drawing
Room is to be held at Court, and it is thought, that the
whole of the brilliant assemblage will attend the Opera
in the evening, to hear Sontag again in the Barbiere di
Seviglia. Should the King too intend to hear her one
evening at the Opera — as no doubt he will, — the immense
crowd will make it rather a dangerous affair.

To those who are interested in great Technical Enterprises.

In spite of all mishaps, the work in connection with
the Thames Tunnel is being proceeded with. Not only
the Company, but the nation itself seems to have made it
a point of honour. You know what that means. An
Englishman would rather become bankrupt, than allow
himself to be disgraced. The whole nation acts in the
same spirit

240. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 21st May, 1828.
.... I MUST further remark, that like the Ma-
gician's Apprentice, I am threatened with drowning, by
the flood of universal literature that I myself have called
forth. Scotland and France pour themselves out almost
daily ; in Milan they are publishing a very important daily
paper called L'Eco; it is in every respect admii'able, re-
minding one of the familiar style of our morning papers,
but it takes a broad intellectual view of things. Draw the
attention of the Berliners to it ; they may commendably
.season their daily dishes with it.

In consequence of this, I must tell you, that I now know
what reception Helena met with in Edinburgh, Paris, and
Moscow. It is very insti'uctive, thus to become acquainted
with three different modes of thinking : the Scotchman
seeks to penetrate into the work, the Frenchman to under-
stand it, the Russian to apply it to himself. Perhaps a

German reader might combine all three endeavours

Thy very own

Goethe.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 317

A graceful translation of ray small poems * gave rise to
the following parable, which I herewith send you, as a
forerunner of the next Number : —

I plucked some flowers, the meadow's bloom.
And full of thought, I took them home ;
There, by my warm hand circled round,
Their crowns were drooping to the ground.
I set them in a fresh cool glass ;
And lo, a wonder came to pass .'
The little heads looked up so gay,
The leafy stems in green array ;
And all as healthy, sweet and good,
As though on Mother Earth they stood.

So was it, when I heard my song, —
And marvelled, — in a foreign tongue.

241. — Zelter to Goethe.

27th May, 1828.
.... Yesterday, being Whit-Monday, Professor
Hegel paid me an early morning call ; then came Professor
Wolff, and it was agreed to look up a fourth man for a
rubber of whist this evening. That man turned out to be
Wilken ; so four German Professors were together in peace

until midnight. Cosa vara

242. — Zelter to Goethe.

4th June, 1828.

Surely it is a loss, that Lessing f did not have it
out with you over Götz von Berlichingen, as he really would
have enjoyed it, and he must have been sufficiently roused

* Goethe's poems were translated into French in 1825 by Madame
Panckoucke, under the title, Po6sies de Goethe. He could enjoy his
Fatisi in Gerard's translation, when he no longer cared to read it in his
own language.

+ In a subsequent letter, Zelter thus alludes to Lessing's exclamation
on reading Werthcr, " Lessing pleases me most, the earnest, severe,
powerful Lessing, touched in spite of himself^ tender, affectionate : ' Dear
Goethe, one little chapter more ! ' "

318 Goethe's letters [1828.

for discussion. He was the man in defiance of whom, and
for whose delight, you, in pure mischief, would have thrown
off many a piece, and you might have shaken his over-firm
faith in Aristotle, and made a breach in it here and there,
for Lessing was an honest heart. He has done more than
Aristotle ; he has tried himself, and actually shown what
cannot be done. Goethe's farce, satirizing Wieland,*
doubtless gave him the greatest amusement. As a neces-
sary consequence of his sentiments about Wieland, he
must have envied you this farce, which he would much
rather have written himself. Without this farce, the
excellent Euripides would perhaps have long remained an
unfamiliar friend to me, for at that time I thought very
highly of Wieland, whom I only began to suspect, from his
panegyric of Schweizer. Professor Engel too was of a
similar opinion. As Schweizer's airs, especially those given
to Hercules, the boastful, did not please me, I set the words
to music for myself, and after singing them to Engel, he
said, " Capital ! but why will you wear yourself out with
such a shabby Hercules ? A calfskin is the proper thing
for such a fellow."

Otherwise, Schweizer was not amiss, even if he was not
on a level with his contemporary, Geoi'g Benda of Gotha,t
whose Romeo and Juliet I still affectionately remember,
because his whole personality was thoroughly sympathetic
to me. So true a musician I have never seen again ; my
darling wish was to become as he ; he too was attached to
me. With him all was truth and openness, and he had
absorbed just so much of Italy as a clever German of his
time could take in. With Naumann it was quite another
thing, for he never knew where to stop, and so too he came
to an end. But you, I expect, must have known these men
yourself, for they were nearer to you. So too with Götz von
Berlichingen ; Lessing grudges it you, and cannot hide his

* Götter Helden und Wielaiid, a farce thrown off by Goethe one
Sunday afternoon, in a fit of irritation at the Letters iu Der Deutsche
Merkur, comparing Wieland's Operetta, Alceste, to the Tragedy of
Euripides.

f A famous clavier-player and oboist. His Duodrama, Ariadne auf
Naxos, (1774,) was the first of its kind. His Medea was equally suc-
cessful.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 319

vexation. Just think a moment : is it not impertinent,
that a stripling from Frankfurt should, like a second
Prometheus, construct such beings out of such clay, whe-
ther you like it, or whether you don't, and pass by all the
gods, without lifting his hat ? . . . .

243. — Goethe to Zelter.

Dornburg, 10th July, 1828.

Sad to the inmost heart, I was forced to spare my
eyes and ears at least, so on the 7th of July I repaired to
Dornburg, to escape those gloomy functions * through
which — as is both right and proper — we give the multitude
a symbolical illustration of its recent loss, which, in the
present instance, it certainly feels in every sense.

I do not know if you are acquainted with Dornburg, a
small town on the height in the Saale- valley, below Jena ;
in front of it, just on the slope of the Kalkflötz ridge, is a
series of Castles, big and little, which have been built at
widely different periods, and there are villas, surrounded
by pretty gardens. I am occupying the little old Castle
at the southernmost end, which has been newly done up.
The view is glorious and inspiriting, the well-kept gardens
are full of blooming flowers, the trellised vines are covered
with rich clusters of grapes, and below my window I see a
thriving vineyard, f which was planted on the most barren
of hill-sides, only three years ago, by the Deceased, who
loved to rejoice in the first green leaves of it, even so
lately as last Whitsuntide. On the other side, the bowers
of roses are quite fairy-like in their bloom, and the

* The funeral of the Grand Duke, Karl August. The news of his
death, on the 14th of June, was broken to Goethe on the day following,
by his son August. Goethe was inconsolable. " I thought," said he,
'' that I should depart before him ; but God disposes as He thinks best ;
and all that we poor mortals have to do, is to endure and keep ourselves
upright as well and as long as we can." See Eckermann's Conversations
of Goethe, p. 322.

+ " I . . . . hold spiritual communion with the tendrils of the vine,
which say good things to me, and of which I could tell you wonders."
See Eckermann's Conversations of Goethe, p. 323.

320 Goethe's letters [1828.

mallows, and I know not what besides, are blossoming and
gay ; to mo all this appears in heightened colours, like a
rainbow on a dark gray background.

For fifty years past, I have frequently enjoyed life on
this spot with him, and could not at this time have stayed
at any place, where the beautiful results of his activity
could have been more strikingly brought before me. The
more ancient part has been preserved and restored, the
new bit, (I mean the Uttle Castle I am living in, which
was formerly private property,) has been suitably and
carefully arranged, and connected with the old Castle
gardens by lovely sloping walks and terraces. It is suflS-
ciently spacious for a numerous household, if no exorbitant
demands are made ; there is no fuss nor pedantry, yet
everything the gardener* is called upon to do, is perfect,
the laying out of the grounds, as well as the flowers-beds.

And as it is, so it will continue, for the younger master
and mistress can also understand what is good and siiitable
in these arrangements, and they have given proofs of this
for several years past, when staying here on longer or
shorter visits. It is a pleasant feeling too, that one about
to leave the world, should give into the hands of the sur-
vivors, a kind of clue, by which they are enabled to guide
their onward steps.

I too intend to keep the symbol granted to me, and to
abide by it.

I want you to know, how your friend here, in his airy
Castle, overlooking a pretty valley, with flat mep-dows,
hilly fields, and vegetation reaching up to the steep, in-
accessible edges of the forest, spends these long days
from sunrise to sunset, so I will tell you in confidence,
that for some time past I have been induced by foreign
agencies, to take up again the study of natural science.
Dear old Germany is quite unique in her peculiai-ity ;
I have been honestly on the watch to see, whether,
among the results of the Scientific meetings, which have
been going on for the last three years, I could find any-
thing that might rouse, interest, and excite me, who for

* The Court-Garflener, Sckell, afterwards published a record of
Goethe's stay in Dornburg.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 321 äk

the last fifty years have been passionately devoted to the
stady of Nature ; but with certain exceptions here and
there, — though even these, in truth, contributed only to
my knowledge, — I have gained nothing, no new claim has
been made on me, no new gift oifered me, so I was
obliged to turn the interest into capital, and now I am
going to see what fruit the summa summarum produces
abroad. Keep this to yourself, please, for I have just re-
membered, that the scientific world is again about to meet
in Berlin, in great force.

May all good be with you !
G.

244. — Goethe to Zelter.

Castle Dornburg, 26th July, 1828.
.... I REMEMBER well your telling me how de-
lighted you were with the valley of the Saale, between
Naumburg and Jena, and I thought of you affectionately
from the very first. The terraces, like a Ducal garden,
which expects its owner every moment, are in good order,
and cai'efully attended to, all the summer flowers showing
their gayest colours, and the vines hanging in such rich
clusters, that the sight is quite amazing.

I send you a print, which, though I cannot exactly
praise it, will at all events give you an idea of the place,
more rapidly than any mere description would. The names
below, referring to the letters above, will give you the
necessary explanation. And your friend is dictating his
present letter, behind the windows, (so far off, that they
are almost invisible,) of the little castle, that stands on the
edge of the rock to the left ; this is the private property,
lately acquired by their Royal Highnesses

You will readily believe that during the last twenty days,
I have got through a good deal of work, the outcome of

£mnui, unrest, and a feeling that work I must ; unfor-
tunately, it is so various in kind, that the publication will
be no easy matter. My near hope of giving you all, the
continuation of Faust, at Michaelmas, has also been frus-
trated by these events. If this continuation does not point
to an extravagant condition of things, if too it does not

322 Goethe's letters [1828.

force the reader to rise above his ordinary level, it is
nothing worth. As far as it has gone, I think a good head
will have enough to do, to master all that is hidden away
in it. You are the very man for this, and consequently,
the time before the continuation appears, will not hang too
heavy on your hands.

The beginning of the second Act is successful ; we will
say this out with all modesty, because, were it not already
in existence, we should not put it on paper. It now remains
to link it to the first Act, the invention of which is com-
pleted down to the last detail, and which, but for this
misfortune, would ere now have been ready, in a neat,
clean copy. This too must be left to the uncertainties of
time.

I can tell you thus much of the general state of feeling,
that the first thought of every true heart is to continue on
the path, marked out by the footsteps of the Departed ;
thereby those alterations which must be made, will at any
rate become bearable, and in some points they may per-
haps deserve applause

Finally, as nothing essentially useful should be kept back
from you, I must tell you that my table is well attended
to, owing to the strange coincidence, that the Custodian
of the Castle, my present host, was formerly employed in
the Court kitchens, and is still able to do credit to his
former vocation.

" That, at all events, sounds comfortable and pleasant ! "
you will say, and so it would, did not the gloomy cata-
falque appear at the same time in the background, exciting
all those thoughts, which a man, in his cheerful moments,
rightly lays aside. We might well be made dizzy by the
rotation of human life, and the world around us.

Therefore keep firm on your feet, as far as you can, and
I will endeavour to do the same.

Commending you heartily to all beneficent spirits.

Yours,

GOETHB.

Dornburg, 27th July, 1828.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 323

245. — Goethe to Zelter.

Dornbur^, 27th July, 1828.
.... To tum to human affairs ! I am glad you
followed my advice, and directed your attention to Moliere.
Our dear Germans fancy they possess intellect (Geist), only
when they are paradoxical, i.e. unjust. What Schlegel
said about Moliere in his lectures, wounded me deeply ; *
I kept silence for many years, but shall now bring forward
one thing and another, with a view of exposing errors like
these, for the comfort of many, who in our own day look
before and after, and of many, who will do so in the
future.

The French themselves are not quite clear about the
Misanthrope ; sometimes M. is supposed to have taken his
model from a certain brusque courtier, sometimes to have
described himself. Of course, he could not but draw it
from his own heart, he had to delineate his own relations
with the world ; but what relations those were ! the most
•universal that could possibly exist ! I would wager you
have caught yourself in the act of committing some folly,
in more than one passage. And do you not play the same
part towards your companions of the day ? I am old
enough by this time, yet hitherto I have not succeeded in
going so far as to set myself by the side of the Epicurean
gods

As above, and ever,

Yours,
G.

.... I wish you could tell me of an author, from
whom I could gain information, as to what kind of musical

• "To a man like Schlegel, a genuine nature like Moliere's is a
veritable eyesore ; he feels that he has nothing in common with him, he
cannot endure him. The Misanthrope, which I read over and over
again, as one of my most favourite pieces, is repugnant to him ; he is
forced to praise Tartuffe a little, but he lets him down again as much as
he can. Schlegel cannot forgive Moliere for ridiculing tlie affectation
of learned ladies ; he feels probably, as one of my friends has remarked,
that he himself would have been ridiculed, if he had lived with Moliere."
See Eckermann's Conversations of Goethe, pp. 230-231.

324 Goethe's letters [1828.

system was in vogue, during the first half of tlie seven-
teenth century, and how it could have been so expressed,
that a Hamburg Rector, of that day, (Joachim Jungius,)
was able to hand it down to his pupils in three printed
sheets ? I am just now occupied in studying that im-
portant epoch, to which we owe so much.

246. — Zelter to Goethe.

4th August, 1828.

You ask me — what kind of musical system was in
vogue, during the first half of the seventeenth century, and
how it could have been so expressed, that a Hamburg
Rector of that day could hand it down to his pupils in
three printed sheets ? In the first place — so far as I can
tell you, — there were many such treatises, partly copied by
students of music, partly dictated by teachers ; these take
up very little room, inasmuch as they contain only single
examples, or none at all. In Vienna I saw just such a
treatise, the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ; I myself
have dictated several to my pupils — possibly Eberwein,

your Musical Director, may have kept one of them

A relic of that time, still in much requisition, containing
a collection of musical theories, is David Kellner's True
hidruction in Thorough Bass, &c., a little tract consisting of
less than a hundred pages, printed at Hamburg, in quarto,
in the year 1732 ; this has outlived several editions. . . *. .
, Pietro della Valle, whom you know better than I do,
places the music of his time high above that of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries ; * the chromatic scale had been
smuggled in, and had given to music, character, supple-
ness, and freedom

The subtler laws of harmony, by which a master in the
art could be recognized, wei'e already systematized at the
end of the seventeenth century, although they were handed
down only by tradition, to certain favoured persons. The
product of that time appeared in a work by John Joseph

* De mttsicä atatis sius, in Joh, Bapt. Doni; de prcBstantiä musicce
ueteris lihri III. Florendce, 1647.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 325

Fux, Gi'odus ad Parnassum, sive vianuductio ad compositionem
muswoe regulärem, nova ac certa nondum ante tarn exacto
ordine in lucem edita. In accordance with this theory, the
author had for years trained his illustrious pupil, Charles VI.,
who became a master in the art ; and the cost of publishing
the work in the Latin language, in a splendid folio edition,
was defrayed by the Emperor, in the year 1725. The work
has been translated into German ; * the Latin edition is
getting scarce, although I possess two copies.

The work is written, as all the educational works of
Germany were in those days, in Question and Answer,
between master and pupil, and people laugh at it now for
that reason. The master was unwilling to aj^pear before
all the world, as superior to his illustrious pupil, and calls
the pupil Joseph, (the author himself,) but the mastei*,
Aloysius, to wit Pränestinus, whose principles are here to
be preserved for posterity, as being incomparable. Finally,
these principles are the groundwork of all great and beau-
tiful masterpieces of music, up to the present day ; they
are the manual of composition, and they leave to anyone
who has mastered them, plenty of elbow-room to write
what is beautiful correctly.

Yours,

247. — Goethe to Zelter.

Dornburg, 9th August, 1828.

4 ... I FEEL twice as good-humoured with my old
friend, Joachim Jungius, for having induced you to write
those precious and instructive pages ; they are just what
I required, and something more ; just as much as I un-
derstand, and in addition to that, something that I dimly

feel

If we want to get only half way to the proper under-
standing of a man, we must, before all things, study the
age in which he lived, perhaps completely ignoring him
the while ; but finding, on our return to him, that we are
fully satisfied with his conversation. Therefore I made it

* Bv Lorenz Mizler.

1/ }yuyrf\ ^v^ 'W-rt^v/^-'-C —

326 Goethe's letters [1828.

my business, to learn, if only imperfectly, what this tho-
rough-going man might have dictated to his pupils, in the
first half of the seventeenth century. Even at a very early
age, he was Professor of Mathematics and Physics at
Giessen, and later on, the practical part of the Theory of
Sound could not have been a hidden or unfamiliar study
to him

If, as I judge, Herr Mendelssohn practically influences
Dr. Klöden's actions, he might perhaps try to further my
wishes about the Fürstenwalder granite. I should, above
all things, like to help the dear Prussians, on this side the
Oder and the Spree, to a solid primeval mountain, so that
we might not — as heretofore — have to borrow ignominiously
from Sweden and Norway. Pardon me ! but all these
things amuse me. I know very well what I want, and
I also know what the rest know, and how they would like
to impose upon themselves and others. The greatest ai*t
of life, theoretical and worldly, consists in changing the
prohle7n into a 'postulate; by doing this, we gain our end.
Whether your philosophers care to explain this to you, I
do not know ; my old Jungius, in his Logica Hamburgensi,
has something to say about it.

I shall not trouble myself, as to the look of my scribble
on paper. Glance now and again at the last tiny little
Castle on the left of the engraving,* and take it kindly,
that the friend, around whom an angry storm is raging,
should turn his thoughts to you

Farewell ! and in the midst of men, music, business, and
diversion, think of me ; take some passing moment by the
wing, and compel it to let me have a good letter. Write as
usual to Weimar, — although I have no intention yet of
leaving this place, for where else should I find so much to
look out upon and in upon ? When I look down ujion the
slate-covered house, I think of you, my eyes resting on
the little window, at which you may liave sat in days
gone by.

Yours ever,

* See Letter 244.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 327

248. — Goethe to Zelter.

Dornburg, 26th August, 1828.
I AM asked to introduce and recommend to you
Herr Chelard, Maitre de Ghapelle de S. M. le Roi de Baviere.
He brings me this request from Weimar, whither he came
with good letters of introduction ; you will know him by
his works. I do not quite understand his position ; in
Paris he wrote an Opera — Macbeth, with which he probably
expected to open up a new path for himself ; I fancy they
never allowed it to be performed there, anyhow, I have
never read anything about it in the Paris newspapers.
Enough, it was either refused, or it failed ; he took his
score, went off to Germany, and came to Munich, where
a German text was put to it, and the work was performed
with great applause. The King conferred on him the above
title. He is now going to Berlin, probably to make ar-
rangements for a performance there, and if possible, to
double the good reputation he has gained, and re-establish
his celebrity in the Fatherland. He may, besides this, be
looking about for other advantages, derivable from German
music, for the furtherance of his own ends. All this you
will soon see through and through for yourself ; you will
form your own opinion about it, and kindly assist him, as
you think fit

I have not yet seen Hegel's portrait, as they have not
forwarded my boxes from Weimar. I dare say it is in
one of them. I never doubted that you would all like
Stieler's portrait of me. That excellent artist wrote about
it to my son. Tou must, I think, have taken to the man
himself. He is natural and truthful, and has developed
his art in the right direction, ....

If you will bestow a few notes upon the enclosed verses,
I should rejoice to get them back, and see them live anew.

Alas ! I must once more revert to that desolating tem-
pest ; the furious storm and torrent of rain, which I drove
through, in coming hither, on the evening of the 20th
of July, was raging simultaneously from Havre de Grace
and Nantes, across Lyons and Weimar, as far as Vienna,
and who knows how much further eastwards ? The very

328 Goethe's letters [1828.

next day, it came upon you, and thus it has continued,
alternating between you and us ; I should be in utter des-
pair, were it not that the vanity of having foretold it all
is somewhat refreshing. And I cannot venture to hope
for anything better, just at present. The misfortune is,
that a high state of the barometer may — it is true — control
the rain for the moment, but it cannot clear the atmo-
sphere of clouds, nor rule the west wind ; and thus, the
moment it falls, incessant storm and rain set in, in full
force. Do not quarrel with my way of expi'essing myself,
for it wul show you, just how I talk to myself. Those
who have a professional knowledge of the weather, no
doubt use other terms.

You are an admirer of old established laws. I will one
day write down, what I think on the subject. These
things are too great for us, raerely because we always seek
them, only in what is little. And so, ever in reverence for
the all-prevailing powers,

Yours as of old,
G.
To THE Rising Full Moon,

Dornburg, August, 1828.

Wilt thou suddenly enshroud thee,

Who this moment wert so nigh ?
Heavy rising masses cloud thee,

Thou art hidden from mine eye.

Yet my sadness thou well knowest,

Gleaming sweetly as a star !
That I'm lov'd, 'tis than that showe.st,

Thougli my lov'd one may be far.

Upward mount then ! clearer, milder,
Rob'd in splendour far more bright !

Though my heart with grief throbs wilder,
Fraught with rapture is the niglitl

(BOWRING.)

249. — Goethe to Zelter.

Dornburg, 7lh September, 1828.

You, dearest Friend, have written often enough to
please me, so 1, at your request, make an effort to comply
with your wish.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 329

When I want to arrive at a partial explanation of the
extremely various and irregular phenomena of the weather,
I proceed thus : I assume the existence of two atmospheres,
a lower and an upper one ; the lower one does not extend
particularly high, it really belongs to the earth, and has a
violent tendency to carry itself and all that it contains
from West to East ; perhaps it may itself be obeying the
diurnal movement of the earth. The peculiarity of this
atmosphere is to generate water, especially when the baro-
meter is low ; the mists which rise from ponds, brooks,
rivers, and lakes, then ascend, gather into clouds, and
descend in rain, when the barometer falls still lower ;
when it is at its lowest point, raging storms are engendered.

The rise of the barometer however immediately effects
a counterpoise ; the wind blows from the East, the clouds
begin to break, to contract, to be jagged at their upper
ends, and gradually — in the form of mares' tails and of
various light strips and lines, to rise into the upper regions,
where, little by little, they lose themselves, so that when
the barometer with us stands at 28 degrees, we can no
longer see the smallest cloud in the sky, the east wind blows
fresh and briskly, and it is only the clearer blue of the sky
that still shows there is something overcast in the atmo-
sphere, and that it is extended between us and the endless
darkness.

What I have here stated is the pure law, eternally the
same, in an alternation that cannot be further defined.
This little bit of knowledge will enable one to judge of all
other variations and contingencies, unless one allows one-
self to be perplexed. But it is necessary to observe the
following : —

I have only named two winds, the east wind and the
west wind ; the north in its operation is allied to the east,
the south to the ivest wind, and thus we have two regions
in the sky, opposed to each other, both as regards their
position and their phenomena.

Let the above be borne in mind, and meanwhile assume
it as a rule ; then it will be easier to give some account of
what follows.

For the last three or four years, the lower atmosphere
has admitted an enormous accumulation of water, and the

330 Goethe's letters [1828.

upper air cannot sufficiently maintain the balance. At
a low state of the barometer, clouds accumulate upon
clouds, the west wind drives them from the sea on to the
Continent, where mists enough are rising over the watered
surface of the earth, and clouds are forming, and con-
stantly being driven forward towards the east. And even
though the barometer should rise, and the passage towards
the east be checked, still the quantity of vrater and cloud
engendered, is so great, that the upper air cannot absorb
and disperse it. In this way, for some days past, with
a rise in the barometer, we have had a north wind, though
the sky, especially towards the south, is heavily laden, and
filled with masses of cloud. To the north-east, behind
heaps of clouds, we see the blue sky peering through, and
in it we trace an effort to produce streaks and lines of
fleecy cloud ; we may be sure that no rain will descend,
but the sky does not clear, and when the barometer falls
lower than the middle point, we have streams and torrents
of rain. Thus during the whole of August, the sky was
clouded, even if it did not rain, so our vintage, which
promised so well, was spoilt. The vines below, above, and
close to me, attached to stakes and trellises, display rich
clusters of swollen grapes, which however, not being
thoroughly penetrated with heat, cannot ripen. So of
what use to us is the good sense and advice of your
connoisseur of vines, Kecht ? * If, according to his plan,
the wealth of grapes were doubled, our despair at their
failure would be doubled likewise.

Having, in all I say above, placed the barometer, from
first to last, in relation with eveiy phenomenon, I will now,
in conclusion, state the main point, viz. that I ascribe that
elasticity, heaviness, pressure, (or whatever that may be
called, by which an otherwise unobservable peculiarity of
the atmosphere is made observable,) to the increased or
diminished state of the earth's power of attraction. If it
increases, it dominates the moisture ; if it decreases, the
mass of moisture increases, and we see those effects as the
consequence. Now, as for some years the formation of
water in the lower atmosphere has been increasing, even a

* J. S. Kecht of Berlin, inventor of a new method in the cultivation
of the vine.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 331

high state of the barometer can scarcely overpower it, for
even at 28 degrees, the sky does not become perfectly clear.

At present, I do not know what more to say ; for all
the experiences of these last three years, to my mind
resolve themselves into these simple propositions. The
fearful torrents of rain on mountain heights last year, such
as that at the sources of the Neisse, as well as the late
phenomena in level districts, the hailstorm in Hanover,
the violent tempests in Germany, the awful rush of waters
on the evening of July 20th, which extended from Havre
de Grace and JN^ancy across Lyons, over Thuringia, as far
as Vienna, — a taste of which you may have experienced on
the 21st — all this, I think, I find explained by the above.

Now, if we think how — in the rapid rotation of the
globe — this tendency to storm and moisture sets in violently
from the Great Western Ocean, across England, where,
during this very year, agriculture has suffered from the
wet, we are certainly peering into an Infinity, for the pene-
tration of which our mental organs are perhaps unequal.

Get yourself a good barometer, hang it up near you,
compare its rise and fall with the physiognomy of the
atmosphere, with the movement of the clouds, and what-
ever else may strike you ; and as you do so, think of me, as
I am thinking of you, at this moment, now that, towards
noon, the sunshine is at last breaking through. The most
wonderful massive clouds are forming and settling on a
sky, here and there of a deep blue ; they are still being
carried about and held up by the elastic air ; were the ba-
rometer to sink, they would fall. Glorious in very truth,
and fearful, are these masses, illuminated by the sun.

Take from these general and special statements what
may interest and be of use to you ; I have adopted this
method of looking at things, for the last forty years, and
so I am able to be on good terms with Nature ; of course
everyone must know best, how to adapt his own difficulties.

Meanwhile evening has set in, so now I will bring this
day of storms to a close, with only a few words more. The
barometer kept steady, the sky cleared gradually, though
not entirely ; before sunset there were only a few strips of
cloud, hovering low on the horizon ; but over the range of
hills to the east, a few shining clouds, like mountains, had

332 Goethe's letters [1828.

settled gloriously, the light and dark sides of which, nay,
the very cast shadows of projecting masses, indicated a
perfectly substantial body. The illuminated portions ap-
peared yellowish red, those in the shade, blue. And as
they were not too high, and remained stationary for hours,
they looked all the more deceptively like snowy Alps. The
highest point at all events might have rivalled Monte Rosa.

Dornburg, 7th Scptciiiber, 1828.
Sunday morning, at half-past five o'clock, there is a
perfectly unbroken, impenetrable fog, the barometer has
risen, the wind is in the north-east, the windows are covered
with moisture. Now this would be according to rule, and
it would promise a beautiful, happy dissipation of the mist,
for which spectacle I wish you could be here, as well as
for the bright day which will follow it, of which more
anon.

Evening.

And so it was too — a beautiful clear day, and by sunset,
the sky was perfectly free from clouds ; I drove down
into the valley with a friend, and crossed over the bridge
you know of, to the right bank. We ascended a hill be-
tween meadows, fields and vineyards, from which we could
see the Saale below us, winding up and down the valley,
through a fertile district. To the south, Jena was dis-
tinctly visible.

The whole scene was beautifully lit up. The chain of
Castles about Dornburg, with the buildings at the back,
and the town rising among the jagged masses of rock, —
all this in shadow really looked quite solemn and dignified ;
whilst we up here in the sunshine, could view our territory
to the right and left.

Monday, 8th September, 1828.

The barometer has gone up to 27" 8'" degrees; at six
o'clock this morning, the fog was as thick as it was yes-
terday, yet we are sure to have a fine day, of which more
by-and-bye.

And so the barometer has to-day uttered an emphatic

1828.] TO ZELTER. 333

qtios ego. It was just striking nine, the atmosphere had
become perfectly clear, and the objects in the valley were
peeping out from behind a faint mist. As everywhere else,
so too it is in the World's history ; as soon as Charles
Martel appeared, the chaos which had enveloped Gaul and
the rest of the world, disappeared. Happily Pepin and
Charlemagne follow, but then again a long period of chaos.

Thursday, lltli September, 1828.
.... I drove back to Weimar, and thus my uninter-
rupted view came to an end at the same time with my
contemplation of the heavens. Business had to be de-
spatched, whatever the weather might be ; the barometer
moved up and down, the weather changed likewise, and
there was nothing further to be said about it : —

For with th&hearvenly bill of fare,
The same old trumpery's always there.

.... As I am anxious to send off these pages to-day,
and am prevented from filling them, though unwilling to
leave them empty, I am going to have copied out for you,
the contents of some leaflets, countless numbers of which
are lying before me. I should like to classify them.
Meanwhile take them unclassified, as they come into the
writer's hands.

In the history of natural science one invariably remarks,
that investigators hurry too quickly from the phenomenon
to the theory, and thus become inadequate, hypothetical.

There is a delicate kind of empiricism, which identifies
itself most intimately with the subject, and thereby becomes
actual theory. This heightening of the intellectual faculty
however, belongs to a highly cultivated age.

The most objectionable people are the quibbling in-
vestigators and the crotchety theorists ; their endeavours
are petty and complicated, their hypotheses abstruse and
strange. Worthy Wünsch was one of this sort. Minds like
his are easily satisfied with mere words, and they hinder
the advance of science, for in point of fact one has to

334 gobthe's letters [1828.

make after-experiments, and to clear up what they have
obscured. Now, as there are not many, whose business it
is to do this, the matter is allowed to rest, and some de-
gree of value is ascribed to their endeavours, though no one
is to blame for it.

' Whole, half-, and quarter-mistakes are very difficult and
troublesome to correct, and to sift, and it is hard to set
what is true in them in its proper place.

It is not always necessary, that truth should be em-
bodied, it is sufficient, if it hovers about in the spirit,
producing harmony ; if — like the chime of bells — it vibrates
through the air, solemnly and kindly.

When one considers the problems of Aristotle, one is
astonished at his gift of observation, and at all that the
Greeks had an eye for ; only they err in being over-hasty,
for they go directly from the phenomenon to the explanation,
thereby producing very inadequate theoretical conclusions.
This however is a general mistake, that is still made, even
in our own day.

In reality we only know, when we know a little ; as we
learn more, doubt gradually sets in.

No phenomenon can be explained by itself and of itself ;
only a number of them, when viewed collectively, and
arranged methodically, end by yielding something that may
pass for theory.

And yet Natural Science is as much in need of a cate-
gorical imperative as Moral Science, — only let it be borne
in mind, that this does not bring us to the end, but merely
to the beginning.

Yours ever,
G.

Weimar, 5th October, 1828.
(Forgive this more than casual communication.)

1828.] TO ZELTBE. 335

250. — Zelter to Goethe.

19th October, 1828.
.... Yesterday evening I went in a fit of despair
to the Theatre — Preciosa. The story is illustrated by dance
and choral music, with Recitatives spoken to music, so
that you understand neither the one nor the other — they
call it Melodrama, and it is described on the play-bill as
Schauspiel mit Gesang, (a play with incidental music,)
which means neither one thing nor the other, through four
short Acts ; even these are much too long, as really there
is no action, and everyone is bored. The actors do not
understand themselves, why they are all turned out so
smartly ; one is always waiting for the other to do some-
thing. The composer has taken the greatest pains, by
strange modulation and all kinds of tem/pi, to produce a
gloomily humouristic work, characteristic of a gipsy mob.
The people in the Theatre and Orchestra do not know
what they are listening to, nor what they are playing, and
the public sits as quiet as a Church mouse, until it is all
over.

A pretty stranger appeared for the first time as Preciosa.
She is said to be her Prince's intimate friend. Who would
like to see the object of his affections on the street like
that ? Were she mine, she should stay properly at home.

It now occurs to me for the first time, that poet and
composer are no longer alive. De murttiis nil. I dare say
you see what kind of humour I am in. Fling away my
letter, and forgive

Yours,

251. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 30th October, 1828.

.... As you cannot be rid of the Theatre, get as
much pleasure out of it as you can ; but do not modify
your criticism. Of what use is all the splendour of days
gone by, if the nullity of the present is to be allowed to
obtrude itself, simply because for the moment, it enjoys the
privilege of being present and alive ?

336 Goethe's letters [1828.

That worthy fellow, Oehlenschläger,* has given me per-
sonally a great deal of worry ; he persisted, on his return
from Italy, in wanting me to let him read aloud that same
Correggio ; this I obstinately declined, but offered to look
at the play quietly by nvyself, whereupon he flew into such
a passion, that at last he behaved quite like a madman.
Indeed I have had to put up with a great deal from this
brood.

He is one of those halves, that think themselves a com-
plete whole, and something more. These sons of the North
go to Italy, they get no further than to prop their bear
upon his hind legs, and when he learns to dance a bit, then
they think it is all right

There are some Tyrolese here again, and I mean to get
them to sing me their little songs, although I cannot stand
their beloved Jodeln, except in the open air or in large
rooms

I have enjoyed some excellent talk with the returning
Naturalists. t But when carefully considered, it will ever
remain an established truth, that what I know well, I in
reality know only for myself ; as soon as I come out with
it, conditions, definitions, and contradictions are imme-
diately thrust upon me. This happens to you oftener than
to me, as you come into contact, and have dealings with
all sorts of people ; and yet I am as certain to meet with
opposition in my own house, as iE I looked for it in the
market-place. The safest plan is always to endeavour to
change all that is in us and of us into action ; then, let
others speak of it and treat it just as it pleases them,

252. — Zelter to Goethe.

14t]i November, 1828.

Yesterday evening, we treated the public to Han-
del's Samson We had just heard the sorrowful news

of the death of the Dowager Empress of Russia ; it was

* Author of Correggio, a Tragedy. Zelter had witnessed a per-
formance of it in Berlin ; Emil Devrient acted the part of the hero.

f There was a meeting of scientific men at Berlin in 1828, many of
whom paid Goethe a visit un their way home.

1828.] TO ZELTER. 337

a double loss to us, for the King sent an excuse. In
other respects, we had an attentive and grateful audience.
The Duke of Cumberland, who, as a rule, invariably com-
plains of our having no organ, on this occasion declared
himself fully satisfied.

Handel, who was a distinguished organist, wrote no
organ-part for any of his Oratorios, though he looked after
the Chorus most assiduously and artistically. Were he
still alive, he must have said, " With such a Chorus as
that, I will have no organ ! " Even if he did not say it,
he carried it out in practice. An organ may be necessary,
either to veil, or to fill up the weakness of a Chorus. On
the other hand, played neither wisely nor well, it may
weaken and spoil the best choir. I was obliged to say
as much to Cramer, the English king's Capellmeister,
who was here a short time ago, for I know how it
fared with the Choirs, throughout England, from the
best source, (Handel himself,) and it is just the same
now. Those people might confound us, but that we are
old hands. If they are in love with themselves and their
pit-coal, who shall blame us for loving what it is in our
power to have ? What business have they to talk about
Handel ?

Our knight, Spontini, was full of admiration, and said,
" Laissez-moi vos chosurs." Youth and beauty of every
rank, disciplined, brought into order, and properly balanced,
ought, it is true, to make an impression upon anyone,
unless like me, he has had for years past to work from the
centre of the organization outwards, and, all through the
varying seasons of success and failure, to go on unweariedly
accumulating fresh stores.

The cost of training the Choruses of the Theatre Royal
amounts yearly to six thousand Thalers ; for that sum they
ought to be better, if the teachers realized even their most
elementary duties. Many of the Chorus do not know their
notes, and are tortured into them by a violin, badly played.
Our Choruses are sung by all, a privia vista, and the most
diflicult music often goes as well as possible at the third
rehearsal, for they pull themselves together, and talking is
not the fashion. The late King of Saxony was the first
and last, who spoke to me on the subject, like a man who

338 goethe's letters [1828.

Id sn
Thy

understood it, — and he gave me the loveliest gold snuff
box. Farewell, and think of

253. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 16th December, 1828.
Enclosed herewith, you have at last a transcript of
the worthy Jungius' Harmonie ; it was difficult enough to
get this done, — a translation, such as you wished, could not
be managed. Amongst your musical friends and pupils,
there is sure to be someone, who understands Latin, and
who would go through the work with you ; afterwards, I
should like to have your full opinion of it, for I am anxious
to raise a solid memorial to that worthy man.

I enclose a transcript of the letter you despatched at my
request ; what you say refers more particularly to the close
of the seventeenth, and the beginning of the eighteenth
century; but with regard to the state of music in 1650,
the most reliable information is probably to be got from
the pamphlet in question, for though the man was a tho-
rough mathematician and logician, he had of his own
free wiU devoted himself to animated nature, and had
issued works in advance of his time. As to the varied
interests it awakened in me, you must remember that he
was a contemporary of Lord Bacon, Descartes, and Galileo,
and yet he managed to keep himself perfectly original, -both
in his studies and his teaching. You will pardon this new
exaction ! All good attend you !

Most truly yours,

254. — Zelter to Goethe.

22iid December, 1828.

.... You did well not to spare my idle modesty ;
I can read the work pretty fairly off-hand. As the con-
tents are musical, I could spell out what is problematical
in it more easily than many a Latin scholar could put it
into German for me ; for many a mistake lias arisen from

1828.] TO ZELTER. 339

the GermaniziBg of Greek and Latin terms of Art. The
fundamental principles of Harmony, here laid down, were
carried out in practice by Hans Leo Hassler,* Palestrina,
and others, as early as the beginning of the sixteenth
century, and they still hold their ground, though the most
modern theorists would fain persuade us, that it is all quite
different now. This is so little the case, that even the old
mistaken definitions, quite as mistakenly Germanized, pass
muster, e.g. Soni dissoni sunt, quorum mixtura auditui ingrata
est — which to this day still runs : A dissonance is a caco-
phony. But a dissonance, (if you do not mean by that
something absolutely unmusical,) is no cacophony. As
well in its origin as in its resolution, it is — more correctly
speaking — consonant, and it does duty for the harmony,
into which it must resolve itself. Similarly, dur and moU
are neither hard nor soft, yet everyone knows what is
meant by the terms, so long as people do not translate them
into German.

Yours,
Z.

• A pupil of the famous Gabrieli. Proske, speaking of his style,
says that he " imitates all the greatest beauty and dignity that can be
found in both the Italian and German art of that day. The well-known
chorale, Herzlich thut mich Verlangen or Befiehl du deine Wege, so much
used by Bach in the Passion, was originally a love song, Mein Gemuth
ist mir verwirret, in his Lustgarten deutscher Gesänge (1601)."

340 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1829.

1829.

255.— Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 2nd January, 1829.
. . • . My mother used to say, when she was overrun
with visitors, " I could not get time to blow my nose " —
I am glad to think of you in a similar predicament

I could not possibly spare Herr Krüger even a few hours,
though he deserved it, for I am deeply indebted to him
for his portrait of Prince William. But no one can under-
stand how I value a succession of hours, for the interrupted
ones are, in my opinion, not only completely lost, but
hurtful and disturbing into the bargain. It is the same
with strangers, who do not understand what I am robbed
of, just by an inteiTuption.

And yet it is always disagreeable to me, when, in self-
defence, I am obliged to refuse to see people, who have
come from a distance.

You might complain much in the same way, but as a
musician, you are forced to keep up with the world ; of
me the world has nothing, except what it can see in black
and white.

When I have properly equipped my Wa'riderers,*^z,ndi
sent them off, you light-minded people may receive them
as you can ; I, however, shall at once turn to Nature, and
first of all, I shall try to further a French translation of
my Metamorphose der Pflanzen, f with some additions. My
two months' stay in Domburg revived and encouraged my
old reflections, most agreeably.

I must now really try and see, day by day, hour by hour,
what can be done to make good the foundation of our
principles, and practically to fortify it. There are some very
clever youngsters, but every Tom-fool wants to begin from

* An allusion to Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre.
+ I'he French translation was made by Soret.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 341

the very beginning, to be independent, original, absolute,
self-sufficient, to keep apart from others, to look straight
ahead, and whatever else you may choose to call all those
follies. I liave been watching this course of things, since
the year 1789, and I know what might have happened, had
any one man cut straight in, without reserving a pecuUum
for himself. Now, in 1829, it is my duty to become clear
about what lies before me, and perhaps to give it expression,
but even if I succeed in this, it will do no good, for truth
is simple, and gives little trouble, but falsehood gives
occasion for the frittering away of time and strength.

And now, accept what I have dictated for you in the
solitary hour that I have gained, and give me an oppor-
tunity of being edified again by one of your welcome
letters.

Yours unalterably,
J. W. V. Goethe.

256. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6th January, 1829.

CANZONETTA NÜOVA

sapra la Madonna, quando si forth in Egitto col bambijio

Gesu e San Giuseppe*

ZiNOARBLLA.

Dig ti salvi, bella Signora,
E ti dia buona Ventura !
Ben venuto, vecchiarello.
Con questo bambino bello I

Madonna.

Ben trovata, sorella mia !
La sua grazia Dio ti dia ;
Ti perdoni i tuoi peccati
L'infinita sua bontade.

* See Egeria. Raccolta di Poesie Itallane popolari, cominciata da
Guglielmo Mueller e pubblicata da Ü. L. B. VV'olft'. Lipsia, 1829, p. 73.

342 Goethe's letters [1829.

ZiNGARELLA.

Siete stanchi e meschini,
Credo, poveri pellegrini,
Che cercate d'alloggiare.
Vuoi, Signora, scavalcare ?

Madonna.

Voi, che siete, sorella mia,
Tutta plena di cortesia,
Dio vi renda la caritk.
Per I'infinita sua bontk !

ZiNGARELLA.

Son'una donna zingarella ;
Benche sono poverella,
Ti offei'isco la casa mia,
Benche non e cosa per tia.

Madonna.

Sia per me Dio lodato,
E da tutti ringraziato !
Sorella, le vostre parole
Mi consolano il mio cuure.

Zingarella.

Or scavalca, Signora mia ;
Hai una faccia d'una Dia,
Ch'io terrb la crcatiira,
Che sto core m'innamora.

Madonna.

Noi veniam da Nazaretto ;
Siamo senza alcun ricetto,
Arrivati alia strania,
Stanchi e lassi dalla via.

Zingarella.

Aggio qua una stallella
Buona per sta somarclla ;
Paglia e fieno ce ne getto,
Vi e per tutti lo ricetto.

Se non h come meritate,
Signoruccia, perdonate ;
Come posso io meschina
Ricettare una regiua ?

1829.] TO ZELTER. 343

E tu, vecchiarello, siedi,
Sei vemito sempre a piedi ;
Avete fatto, oh bella figlia,
Da tret'ento e tante miglia.

Oh ch'e bello sto figliarello,
Che par fatto col pennello !
Non ci so dare assomiglio;
Bella madre e bello figilo.

Hai presenza di regina ;
Lo mio core I'indovina,
Questo figlio e il tuo sposo ;
Troppo e bello e grazioso.

Se ti piace, oh mia Signora,

T'indovino la Ventura.

Noi, Signora, cosi sino

Facciam sempre I'indovino. etc. etc.

The gipsy then modestly goes on to relate to the Virgin,
what has happened since the Annunciation, and what will
happen in the fntnre. All this in rhymes so graceful, that
you could not ask for better from a legend. It is thus
that Italian children and women sing at their ease an
artless harmony of the four Evangelists, and strengthen in
their minds the Christian faith.

Anyone who recollects with pleasure the Conversation
between Christ and the Woman of Samaria* (which I pub-
lished many years ago,) will be none the less delighted
with this parallel.

I hope this poem, and the enclosed extract will divert you
somewhat, until I get the better of my present, overworked
condition, and am able to answer your friendly letters with

something more than superficial words

In haste, yours truly,
G.

Enclosure.

On the Performance of Faust at the Theatre de la Porte

St. Martiyi, in Paris, Sth of November, 1828.
" It is Goethe's Faust ; it is Gretchen, Mephistopheles,
Martha, but travestied, materialized, confined to earth and
hell, — all the spiritual part is effaced. We have every

* See Ueber Italien, a part of Die Italiänische Reise.

344 Goethe's letters [1829.

scene in the original, but all at cross purposes — the walk
in the garden, the flaming wine, (though this is in a village
alehouse,) the prison, the scene with the witches, even the
Blocksberg. The arrival of Gretcheu, the laugh of Me-
phistopheles, are true to Retsch's outlines. He has retained
the laugh, but it is a wild, scoffing laugh, in everything
else he is a Catholic devil. Faust's compact becomes valid
at the first crime. Grretcheu does not murder her child,
but she poisons her mother with a sleeping draught, which
Faust hands her, to secure a rendez-vous, when the devil
increases the dose. For this, she is put upon the rack, and
after she has been brought back, we see her cowering in
horror, on her bed of straw, tearing at her chains, and
pointing, mad with agony, to her wounds. Martha dis-
guises herself, and comes to save her ; Faust enters, fails
to recognize her, and strikes at her. So passes the interval ;
Gretchen might but will not fly, and the executioner comes
to fetch her. We have already seen the scaffold outside,
and the crowd awaiting her. Scarcely has she come out,
when a cloud descends, and as it rises again, we see Paradise
above, in Bengal lights, Gretchen among the gods, kneeling
at the feet of the Virgin, and Faust among the devils and
the flames, in the usual style. All this allows of more than
twenty different scenic decorations, many of which are
brilliant surprises. The journals and daily papers have
taken offence at it ; even at this, the fourth representation,
I heard a few pious hisses. However, the piece will pay
its expenses. The common people will not find it wanting
in interest ; the contrast is what interested me.

"As Gretchen is kneeling before the image of the Virgin,
the devil rises out of the earth, upon an enormous pedestal,
formed of monsters and serpents, and thunders down his
curses upon her, from this height; this is the way the
people of Paris theatricalize the evil spirit, whispering into
the ear ! I must also mention a waltz, danced by Mephis-
topheles and Martha, which is really ingenious. The devil
has her wholly in his power, as a magnetizer has the person
who is being magnetized ; with horrible energy she follows
his gesticulations, her expression changing quickly from
the coarsest, most abandoned sensuality, to an agony of
pain and terror."

1829.] to zelter. 345

257. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th January, 1829.
After Easter, my readers will be good enough to
make a walking-tour in the high Alpine valleys, with the
familiar Wanderers* (who will appear at that opportune
season,) and there content themselves awhile, amongst the
spinners and weavei's. In case you like to prepare before-
hand, listen to what follows.

A thoughtful and discerning friend, who undertook the
business of looking over my manuscript, before it was sent
to press, returned it to me with the following remarks : —

" It is pleasant to find oneself in the spinning-rooms of
those simple, honest, mountain folk. Your desci'iption of
these last in particular was doubly interesting to me, for I
must confess that in former days I knew nothing more
wretched, than the life of weavers and spinners in towns,
and it was only on my last journey, that I had a very
different experience, in the family life of an honest Swiss,
at Leuk. I have observed that these weavers know how to
express themselves better than other artisans, and I still
remember my conversation with them. When I confessed
my surprise, that with so large a family, — (four children
were spinning beside their mother,) — he could live in so
small a room, he answered quite cordially, 'And what will
you say, when you hear that in addition to the weaver,
two other labourers, a shoemaker, and a porkbutcher, live
in this same nest, and that they all sleep in the same bed,
and sit on the same chair ? I am myself this Trinity, so
you can understand, that we all get on very well together
here, as I myself set so good an example.' "

I send the above to amuse you beforehand, asking you
to keep the scene in your mind, when your friends, the
Wanderers, introduce you to those regions.

At the same time, accept my best thanks for the kind
reception you gave to my Holy Family in Egypt, f and
their hostess. I own that when reading this and similar
poems, I feel as if I were eating sweets, biscuits or the like ;

* See Note to Letter 255.

t See the Italian poem, Letter 256.

346 Goethe's letters [1829.

food I admit, but a dainty morsel, such as women and
children may find very toothsome in their native land.
As a rule, Italian children have something inconceivably
gentle, attractive, and graceful about them, which is in
perfect harmony with this song.

A truce to these reflections, and let me beg you to tell
me faithfully about Holtei's Fansf* as he appears to such a
kindly disposed and well-meaning friend as you are. I
no longer recognize my old theatrical friend in the news-
paper ; at one time it is all forbearance and hesitation, at
another, enthusiasm got up to order.

" As it is constituted, so will it abide," says BeineJce
Fuchs.

To fill up the remaining space, let me tell you, that I
have been presented with the portrait of a famous Frascat^
beauty ; standing before her, one feels as though one were
in the beneficent sunshine.

Yet it is somewhat strange ! These regular features,
this perfect health, this intensely self-complacent cheerful-
ness, has something offensive about it to us poor cripples
of the North, and we can understand, why our works of
art are sickly, because otherwise no one would look at them.

A few days ago, a very well-painted Ecce Homo stood in
this place ; everyone who looks at that will feel comfortable
and at his ease, because he sees before him someone who
is worse off than himself. Space compels me to finish at
the right time ; so be it ever !

258. — Zelter to Goethe.

24th January, 1829.

As, in your letter of the 18th of January, you talk
of the pictures you have been lucky «enough to get, I want
to tell you, that Ternite made me a similar present on
my birthday. It is a likeness of the botanist, J. Usteri.
.... To me, the special charm lies in its exquisite re-
semblance to the face and figure of our Sebastian Bach,
in his modest, grey-green cloth coat. I think I never yet

* See Note to Letter 236.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 347

saw flesh and blood of the same colour. It reminds me of
the following storj.

Kirnberger had just such a portrait of his master, Se-
bastian Bach ; it was my constant admiration, and it hung
in his room, between two windows, on the wall above the
piano. A well-to-do Leipzig linendraper, who had formerly
seen Kirnberger, when he was a chorister at the Thomas-
Scliule, singing in a procession before his father's door,
comes to Berlin, and it occurs to him, to honour the now
celebrated Kirnberger with a visit. Hardly were they seated,
when the Leipziger bawls out, " Why, good Lord ! you've
actually got our Cantor, Bach, hanging there ; we have
him too in Leipzig, at the Thomas- Schule. They say he
was a rough fellow ; why, the conceited fool did not even
have himself painted in a smart velvet coat." Kirnberger
gets up quietly, goes behind his chair, and lifting it up
with both hands in the guest's face, exclaims, first gently,
then crescendo, " Out, you dog ! Out, you dog ! " My Leip-
ziger, mortally frightened, seizes his hat and .stick, makes
with all haste for the door, and bolts out into the street.
Upon this, Kirnberger has the picture taken down and
rubbed, the Philistine's chair washed, and the portrait,
covered with a cloth, restored to its old place. When
someone inquired, what was the meaning of the cloth ? he
answered, "Leave that alone! There's something behind
it." This story was the origin of the report, that Kirn-
berger had lost his senses.

259. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 26th January, 1829.
I WAS very much pleased to hear of your invitation
to the Bitterfest, and it enhanced my satisfaction to find
that you were No. 17 in the newspaper, and in such ex-
cellent company ; now you yourself will give me the details,
as between friend and friend.

Anything that lifts a man out of the common herd,
always redounds to his advantage, even if it sinks him
into a new crowd, in the midst of which his powers of
swimming and wading must be put to the test again.

348 Goethe's letters [1829.

These marks of honour are really nothing but magnified
encumbrances, upon which, notwithstanding, we must con-
gratulate ourselves and others, because life — if it goes
well — should ever be considered as a perpetual fight and
a perpetual conquest.

Forgive these abstruse words, but I do not know how
else to express myself ; for in proportion as I think I un-
derstand myself better and better, I seem to become obscure
to others. But you are such a queer fish, that nothing of

that soi't can fail to explain itself to you

J. W, V. GOETHB.

260. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 12th February, 1829.

.... I THINK I understand your complaints, or
rather invectives against inadequate performances of music,
prepared long beforehand. The tendency of the day to
drag down everything, and make it weak and whining, is
ever more and more prevalent. I could show you half a
dozen poems, that have been written in my praise and
honour, but in which I am actually treated as already one
of the blest departed. It will end, according to the latest
system of philosophy, in everything crumbling into Nothing,

ere it has yet begun to be

Now and then, by the wise management of our reigning
Gi*and Duchess, I am called upon to attend to one or other
piece of business, that may still be in keeping with my years
and strength.

After as before, thy
Goethe.

261. — Zelter to Goethe.

14th February, 1829.

.... Yesteuday, for the first time, I heard Auber's

Muette von Pm-fici. One may look upon the work as the

beginning of a new genre, for it is neither an Opera proper,

nor a Play, but a true Melodrama, only sung, instead of

1829.] TO ZELTER. 349

spoken. It is not inconsistent, and the interest is sufficiently
sustained throughout the five Acts to give them real unity.
Scribe's text is nothing particular. The leading character, a
Neapolitan fisherwoman, has been seduced by the son of the
Viceroy, who forthwith gets married to a Royal Princess.
But why, and from what cause the lady is dumb, never
appears. Running through all this, is a conspiracy of the
Neapolitans against the Viceroy, who is inveighed against
as a tyrant. The mounting of the piece is regal. Whoever
has not seen Vesuvius in full action on the spot, let him
come to Naples-BerKn, and we will show him a thing or
two.

Yours,
Z.

262. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 4th March, 1829.
It is really for such old fellows as you, dearest Friend,
that I have had the Schiller Correspondence printed now ;
the world of the present and the future, may make what
they can of it. For them it is completely historical, and
even so, it will be wholesome and serviceable to many
intelligent readers ; but to those who were living and
working in those days, it will serve as a fuller and more
convenient reference, should they wish to strike the balance
of their lives.

But as a rule, it will interest every thoughtful person to
look into the game, and see how the cards were dealt in
those days, and with what various luck, skill, and ingenuity,
every undertaking was carried on

The exaggerations which are forced upon the Theatres of
great, far-reaching Paris, injure us as well, for we have not
got nearly far enough, to feel the want of them. But
these are the consequences of the onward march of uni-
versal literature, and the only one comfort to be derived
from it is, that even though the world in general is the
worse for it, individuals are sure to reap the benefit; I
have known very brilliant instances of this. For after all,
what is truly rational and satisfactory is the inheritance of
a few individuals, who work on quietly

350 Goethe's letters [1829.

That very amtising anecdote of yours, about the servant,*
who could not master the fact, that hot and cold water
mixed produce tepid water, comes at the nick of time. It
is rather like the Irish bulls, which are the result of a
strange awkwardness of mind, and about which a good
deal might be said from a physiological point of view.
Here is one : — An Irishman is lying in bed ; people rush in
and call out, " Save yourself ! the house is on fire ! "
" How so ? " answers he, " sure, I am only a lodger here ! "
If you remember any others of a similar kind, or could tell
me where to find them, you would be doing me a favour.
I would let you know what I think about them.

The study of meteorological science, like so many other
things, only issues in despair. The first lines of Faust
are perfectly applicable here too. However, for the pro-
tection of truth, I must add, that he who does not ask for
more than what is granted to man, Avill herein also be well
i-ewarded for the pains he has taken. But it is not every
man's way to be content. Here, as everywhere, people
feel vexed at not obtaining what they want and expect,
and then they fancy they have not received anything at
all. For instance, you must, first of all, renounce fore-
knowledge and prophecy, and whom could we expect to
do this ? . . . .

Yours ever,
G.

263. — Zelter to Goethe.

9th March, 1829.

.... Your Irish Bull is worth as much as my

story ; I knew it partly in another form, though it is best

as you have it. Passing into heroics, let me tell you

the following : — Once, during the Carnival here, in the

* The passage referred to runs thus : " I knew Levin Markus, th«
father of Frau von Varnliagen, very well, as a humourist. On the
day of his death, the cunning old fellow ordered his servant to bring
him some water to wash in, and found fault with him, because it was
as cold as ice, whereupon the servant fetched boiling water. ' You ox,
am I a pig then, that you want to scald V ' Back came the servant
agaiiu ' Not a drop of tepid water to be had, in the whole house 1 '
L. M. gave a loud laugh, and expired."

1829.] TO ZELTER. 351

middle of January, the lightning struck the King's Castle,
and set it on fire. The hussar on guard rushes into Fre-
derick the Great's Cabinet, " Your Majesty, it has come
in. The Castle is on fire ! " " Be off, and see that the
staircase remains clear ; I am busy," says Frederick.

One day, a drummer, who thought his honour insulted
by the King, shot himself at the very door of the King's
cabinet. " Bury him well ! " said Frederick, " why was
he only a drummer ?"....

You will already have seen from the paper, that we are
going to perform The Passion Music of J. S. Bach. Felix
has studied it under me, and is going to conduct it, so I
give up my desk to him. One of these days I will send
you the text, to which I have written a preface. Felix,
owing to his friend Moscheles, has been invited to London,
whence he may subsequently go to Italy. The lad is a joy
to me, and it is good for him to get away from the parental
roof. All that he wants intellectually, he takes with him,
and I hope soon to hear more of him. Vale !

Yours,

264. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 12th March, 1829.

Our Bach music came off successfully yesterday,
and Felix, without any fuss, held his forces well in hand.
The King and the entire Court saw a closely packed house
before them ; I, with my score, posted myself in a small
corner near the Orchesti"a, whence I could survey my little
people and the public at the same time. About the work

itself, I scarcely know what to say Were it not that

here and there a resemblance in melody to the more modern
German operatic composers, such as Gluck and Mozart,
reveals itself, bringing us back again for a moment to our
own time, Ave should feel ourselves between heaven and
earth, and thirty years older into the bargain. And it may
be this, which makes the music in general scarcely prac-
ticable. But would that old Bach could have heard our
performance ! That was my feeling at every successful
passage, and here I cannot but praise highly the wh-)le

362 Goethe's letters [1829.

body of my pupils at the Singdhidemie, as well as the
Solo Singers, and the double Orchestra. You might say
that the whole was an organ, in which every pipe was gifted
with reason, power, and will, — nothing forced, no man-
nerism. There is no Duet, no Fugue, no beginning, no
end, and yet all is as one, and everything in its place. A
wonderful dramatic truth is followed out ; one hears the
False Witnesses, i.e. one sees them step forth ; one sees the
High Priests with their " What is that to us, &c. It is
the price of blood ; " and the turba, " Not on the feast-day,
&c.," and the disciples, true, honourable followers, betes,
"For what purpose was this waste?" They seem to be
the very tones, which we knew not hitherto, but are now
compelled to recognize. Then, after a while, the heartfelt
lament for the glorious Son of Man, the Friend, the Coun-
cillor, the Helper, the Judge, &c Stumer of the

Theatre Royal, one of my former pupils, sang the narrative
part so admirably, (especially at the performance,) that
you heard the repetition of the Gospel words with delight.
Before the performance, I had advised him not to hinder
the progress of the story by sentimentality, and he did it
as well as it could be done.

" Now, ye Muses, enough ! " Farewell, and " Know me,
my Shepherd ! "

265. — Zelter to Goithb.

(Undated.)

In compliance with a universal request, we have
repeated the Passion Music before a full house. The old
audience returned, and a new one came besides. The cri-
ticisms are tolerably different ; and amongst many, one only
shall be named, who has the right to judge, — a right as
great as that of any other, and greater. Philosophers, who
divide the Real from the Ideal, and throw away the tree, in
order to recogni/e the fruit, are to us musicians, as we are
with regard to their philosophy, of which we understand
nothing, further than that we bring before their very door,
the treasure which we have found. Hegel for instance !
He is just now lecturing upon music ; Felix takes admirable

1H29.] TO ZELTER. 353

notes, and — young rascal that he is — understands how to re-
produce them very naively, with all his teacher's personal
peculiarities. Now Hegel says, that Bach's is not the right
kind of music ; that now they are further advanced, although
they are still a long way from the right thing. Well, that
we know, or we don't know, as well as he, if he could
only exp]ain to us musically, whether he has already found
the right thing. Meanwhile, let us go forward, piano and
saao, as the God, whom we all serve, inspires us. For to
be sure, we none of us know what to pray for, and yet we
always pray for more and more ; so let others do the
same. ....

Yours,

266. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 28th March, 1829.
Your last letters, my dearest Friend, did me good, in
jest and in earnest, for they came at a good time. The most
recent, bringing news of the successful performance of that
grand old musical work, has set me thinking. I seem to hear
the distant roar of the sea. At the same time, I must con-
gratulate you on such a perfectly successful rendering of
that which it is wellnigh impossible to represent. I dare say,
the connoisseur who is an associate of such an art, when
listening to such works, has the same mental experience,
that I myself had lately, when I set the legacy of Mantegna
again before my eyes. It is Art already. Art in its entirety,
its possibilities and impossibilities fully alive, and yet stül
undeveloped ; were it not so, it would not be what it is here,
not so venerable, not so rich in hope and in foundation. I
heartily and ungrudgingly rejoice with you about Felix ;
among my many pupils, I have scarcely been so fortunate,

even with a few

Dr. Eckermann, whom I see daily, is by degrees culti-
vating purer and more sympathetic powers of criticism";
with laudable patience, he is looking through an old and
hopeless accumulation of manuscripts, tied up in bundles,
and to my joy, he finds a good deal, worthy of being preserved
and published ; so the rest can now be safely burnt. ....

A A

354 Goethe's letters [1829.

They want to give my Faust at the Theatre ; with regard
to that, I play a passive, not to say, a suffering part.
However, on the whole, I need not feel uneasy about
this piece, for Duke Bernard found it, in Upper Carolina,
in the house of an Indian.

So much for to-day ! All good wishes accompany this
letter.

Your ever faithful

Goethe.

267. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 6th April, 1829.
.... I ENCLOSE yon an extract about a similar little
dispute,* which is just now to the fore ; it will enable you
to see what one has to contend with. In return, I present
my adversary with a snare for so-called connoisseurs, and
if he falls into it, he shall have it hotter next time. He is
an earnest admirer of the compositions of W. Priedemann
Bach, (eldest son of Sebastian Bach,) which I am not, and
so he finds fault with me. Ä propos of this, he sent me an
Organ Concerto by Friedemann Bach, and copied for me
the saying of Quintilian, referred to in the letter. To save
you the trouble of looking up chapter and page for your-
self, here it is : —

" Modeste tarnen et circumspedo judicio de tantis vi/ris
judicandum est, ne, quod plerisque accidit, damnent quoe nan
i/ntelligunt."

This Friedemann Bach of Halle was the most perfect
organ-player, whom T have ever known. He died here in
1784, when I had already obtained my rights as a citizen,
and had become Master- Mason. He was thought capri-
cious, because he would not play for everybody ; towards us
young people he was nothing of the sort, and would play for
hours together. As a composer, he had the Tic douloureux
of being original, of separating himself from father and
brothers, and consequently he sank into affectation, petti-
ness, barrenness, whereby he was as easily recognized, as
one who shuts his eyes that he may be invisible. We

* Goethe had been irritated by some observations of Herr Bendavid,
concerning the Farbenlehre, a subject on which he was unduly sensitive.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 365

were always quarrelling about this, and as my testhetic
friend is still, to this very day, bitten with such original

views, I cannot forbear to snub him

Yours,

Enclosure.
Passage from a Letter of Zelt er' s to Herr Bendavid.

.... The highest thing that I can say of the above
work, (the Passion Music,) is, that I cannot express my
delight in it. We were obliged to leave out some Chorales
and Airs, and in spite of that, the performance takes some
three hours. If you reflect that this music was given on
Good Fi'iday, and that the afternoon sermon intervened,
five full hours must have been taken up in devotion. The
good Leipzigers came and went as they chose, and so the
music went its own way, and the world may thank its
stars it is still there, for the worthy sons of old Bach, tutti
quanti, took so little pains to keep together the works of
their great father, that now even I, one born out of due
time, deserve a little credit for picking up and admiring
the crumbs, which they have left under his table ; they,
whose school exercises the loving father copied fair. In
one word, dear friend, the above-named Organ Concerto,
which you have so neatly copied from Sebastian Bach's
own manuscript, and with which you have honoured me,
is a painfully elaborated composition, with no mind in it !
— How ! No mind ? — Yes, yes, and I am strongly tempted
to think it even un-Friedemannic. Of course you know
that old Bach copied his Concerto for four Claviers from
honest old Vivaldi, note for note, only transposing it one
tone lower. I too still possess twelve Organ Concertos *
by Vivaldi, which Bach arranged for the organ in the
same way, and I doubt my being mistaken, when I declai'e
this Friedemann Organ Concerto to be just such a work,
because there is not a claw of a single thought of Bach's in
it, while on the other hand, there are whole handf uls of the
fiddle- scrapings of those days. But you are not therefore to

* Zelter must have meant Horn Concertos.

356 Goethe's lettbks [1829.

call me ungrateful. For fifty years I have been wont to
honour Bach's genius. Friedemann died here, Emmanuel
Bach was Kammermusicus to the King, Kirnberger, Agri-
kola, pupils of old Bach, Ring, Bertuch, Schmalz, and others
used to play hardly anything but old Bach's pieces ; I my-
self have taught them for thirty years past, and have pupils
who play every note of Bach well, and do you want to impose
upon me, by saying, that such a bony canonic introduction,
with a Fugue upon a succession of mere sevenths, (which
old Bach called cobbler's patches,) is the genuine work of
so noble a spirit as Friedemann Bach ? Bach ? — Not that
I mean to run down Anton Vivaldi for it ; only he is no
Friedemann, just as Friedemann is no Sebastian, by a long
way, whatever fuss Forkel may choose to make about him.
What does Forkel mean, by saying, that Friedemann came
next to his father in originality ? Is that logic ? What
is originality ? Either Friedemann was original, or he
was not. If the first, he is what he is, first-hand from
Nature, having none over him and none beside him ; for
the nearer he is to one before him, the less original is he.
Explain your Forkel better to me, it will do you no harm.
But who would think of saying old Bach was original, if
he came near someone above himself ? Would you say so
of Homer, or Sophocles, or Shakespeare ? I knew the
greater part of Friedemann's compositions, and himself
personally into the bargain ; he himself unquestionably laid
claims to peculiarity, which in his last years, became caprice,
obstinacy, contradictoriness, nay, frivolity, for he. had
nothing to live upon, and preferred letting his wife and
daughter starve, to earning anything, — though, with his
great cleverness, this would have been an easy matter. The
well-to-do and well-educated father of an only son sent me
once, to offer Friedemann an important engagement, as
a teacher. " I am no Informator," was his answer. He
was highly honoured here in respect of his talents. His
extemporary playing on the organ, especially when he was
in the humour, was the admii-ation of such men as Mar-
purg, Kirnberger, Benda, Agrikola, Fasch, Bertuch, Ring,
lirst-rate organ-players most of them, and yet they all felt,
how far they were left behind by him. He played whatever
first came into his head, and the longer he played, the more

1829.] TO ZELTER. 357

certain, magnificent, and overwhelming was the effect upon
us youngsters. Still more often have I been compelled to
recognize his superiority on the harpsichord, the grand piano,
and the clavier, although I never heard him play a single
note of his father's music, which everyone would have
liked to hear.

268, — Zelter to Goethe.

Good Friday, 17th April, 1829.
.... To-day, instead of the usual Passion Music,
by Graun, I mean, by special request, to give another per-
formance of Bach's Passion, bidding defiance to my old bent
fingers, for my helper, Felix, is swimming on the high seas,
past Heligoland, to England, whither he has been invited.
As he plays the organ well, and there the organs are better
than the organists, I think he may try his hand there too.
.... Paganini with his accursed Violin- Concertos is
driving men and women mad here ; I dare say he will once
more carry off from Berlin 10,000 Thalers, if he does not
once more lose them first at Faro. I have not money
enough to give him two Tlialers every time for his artifices,
and have heard nothing of him, beyond seeing his portrait,
which makes him very like the son of a witch. The real
misfortune he brings upon us is, that he is the downright
ruin of the young violinists in our Orchestra. Vale !

Yours,

269. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 28th April, 1829.

.... In any case, it is our duty to look far afield,
and to listen to voices that are powerful and convincing.
The last quarterly issue of the Edinburgh Review on Foreign
Literature has just arrived, and it is exceedingly curious
to see what the leading men think of Continental authors.
They are very conscientious about themselves, and re-
spectful towards their public. Earnestness, thoroughness,
moderation, and candour are their characteristics through-
out, and the extent and depth of their insight is incre-
dible.

358 Goethe's letters [1829.

The above was written some few days ago, and mean-
wtile I have been reading that remarkable piece in the
seventh volume of Calderon's plays, translated by Gries,
called The Locks of Absolom. Perhaps you may come
across it at a fitting time, and have leisure to read it.

The old truth reasserts itself in my mind, that in the
same way as Nature and poetry have perhaps, in modern
days, never been more closely united than in Shakespeare,
so the highest culture and poetry have nowhere been more
closely allied than in Calderon. We cannot expect our
contemporaries to see this clearly

A Frenchman * has set eight passages of my Faust to
music, and sends me the score, very beautifully engraved ;
I should much like to send it on to you, for your friendly
criticism.

This reminds me that you still have a score of my Can-
tata, Binaldo,f composed by Winter, for Prince Frederick
of Gotha ; I still have the voice-parts, and many strange
memories are associated with this opus. Let me have

it back, therefore, if you can find it

And thus for ever,
G.

270. — Zelter to Goethe.

30th April, 1829.
Last Tuesday, Paganini paid me a visit at the Aca-
demy, and listened to our performance ; next day I a£ last
heard one of his concerts. The man's achievements are
marvellous, and I must say this, that though everyone
would be glad to produce his effects, yet his method of pro-
ducing them quite passes the comprehension of other vir-
tuosi '-a-pon his instrument. His individuality is therefore
more than music, though it is not higher music, and I expect
I should be of the same opinion, if I heard him oftener. I
was so placed, that I could see every movement of his hand
and arm ; as his figure is rather small, these members must
be of rare flexibility, strength, and elasticity, for he is never

* Hector Berlioz.

+ Rinaldo was written in 1811.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 359

weary of conquering ever greater difficulties, in an ascend-
ing scale, with the same regularity as a clock with a soul
inside it. The hundi-ed artifices of his bow and fingers,
to each one of which he has devoted thought and practice,
follow each other in good taste and order, and distinguish
him as a composer as well. But in any case, he is, in the
highest potentiality, a perfect master of his instrument ;
that which, with the best will in the world, he does not suc-
ceed in, comes forth as a bold variation

Please send your Frenchman's Faust one of these days ;
the subject is, as it were, specially devised for composers of
our time.

Yours,
Z.

271. — Zelter to Goethb.

14th May, 1829.
.... Yesterday I heard Paganini again ; the man
is a rarity, and no mistake, a living violin. One starts, one
laughs, one is in despair at the most hazardous antics ; the
difficulty is intelligible to all, for the effect is felt by all. Nor
are grace and intellectual force wanting, and even that
which is not perfectly successful, is still new and interesting.

272. — Zelter to Goethe.

May, 1829.
.... In Letter 345 of your Correspondence with
Schiller, he writes that the melody for the Bajadere does
not fit all the strophes equally well. Perhaps you will
remember, that I sang it to the Dowager Duchess Amalie,
and that Wieland told the Duchess, he had thought
it impossible for one and the same melody to be so often
repeated without becoming wearisome, whereas it really
became more effective. My singing, to be sure, is not
much to speak of, but then, as against that, many a singer
cannot declaim. For the rest, Schiller was quite satisfied
with my music to Der Taucher, and he railed at Naumann,
who had just set I)ie Ideale. I had won a wager with

360 Goethe's letters [1829.

the Taucher too. One of our friends was dissatisfied with the
Ballad-forms, used by the poets, and exclaimed, " Who
could think of setting such verses, such a Diver as this, to
music ? " Several of us were present, and I, who had been
listening to the whole conversation in silence, called out,
" I could ! and Schiller himself shall praise it ! " Then and
there I wrote down the very notes, and so they have re-
mained, however clumsy they may look. Immediately
afterwards, when I gave them forth — for I had the poem
on my lips, — an anything but musical matron, planted
herself by my side, and kept beating time with her knit-
ting-needle. Hardly was the last word over, when she
exclaimed, choked with emotion, " Well, that was an
infamous King ! "

Yours,

273. — GoETHB TO Zelteb.

Weimar, 17th May, 1829.
First of all, let me thank you heartily for your

description of Paganini I envy him such a listener,

and you such a virtuoso

I could not help being very much pleased to hear of the
good old lady,* who treats my Farbenlehre as a sort of
Bible. The little book certainly contains a good deal,
which everyone can assimilate, even though a great deal
that does not concern us is allowed to remain in statu' quo.
There is a very intelligent essay on colouring, which refers
to this same Farbenlehre, in the January number of this
year's Morgenblatt. The author is a practical artist, and all
that he can make use of has become alive to him ; he
might go still further. For my own satisfaction I shall
take up the subject again, from this point of view. Once
you are penetrated by a fundamental maxim, you can begin
to advance. Happily nothing in my work is in opposition
to the artist, and what he acknowledges in me, he can at
once make use of. But probably I shall never live to see a
mathematician look at Nature, unaffected by the weird

* Zelter's aister-in-law, an old lady of seventy-six.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 361

} confusion of his formulae, and use his common sense and
understanding independently, like a sane person. Yet this
alone will enable a young man of energy, before plunging
into those labyrinths, to take the thread from the hands of
kindly Nature, the true Ariadne, who alone blesses us, and

to whom, all our life long, we cannot fail to be loyal

So far to-day I With best wishes and greetings.

Faithfully yours,

Goethe.

274. — Zelter to Goethe.

21st May, 1829.

I AM reading, bit by bit, the Second Part of the
Schiller Correspondence, about the original publication of
Wilhelm Meister, which took place, just when I, for the first
time, got through your outer skin. A new era had dawned
for me out of the deepest affliction. I had just been happily
married to my second wife, whom I had known from her
childhood, (having been at the same G-i/mnasiurn with her
brothers). Before this I had given her lessons in sing-
ing, or rather, through her ci-ystal voice and transparent
execution, I had felt for the first time, what no teaching
can give. I could not help being pleased with my own
Airs, when she sang them. People held their breath, so
as not to let elip the smallest note. For her, I had already
in early days written down my first fresh impressions of
your Songs, on a series of leaves ; I am sorry they are
lost, for they marked the transition from my condition as
a citizen, to my natural vocation.

I had so many children, so many mouths to feed, so
much work, such delight in my strength, and then, I
had another gentle wife, who kept the children in order,
— and whenever the father came home, we had fine
times of it. I built houses for people, who to this day
owe me the money which I laid out, and when others
bothered themselves about what it would all come to, I
was as cheerful as possible. To be sure, there were diffi-
culties now and then ; I spoiled my customers, who had
too good a time of it, and wanted to have what I myself
had not got. That was the humour of the thing. Then

362 Goethe's letters [1829.

enters to my household Wilhelm Meister, with his motley
troop of rational and irrational cattle. People said, I had
lost my wits — I saw only green meadows, and the sky full

of fiddles

Yours,
Z.

275. — Goethe to Zelter.

5th June, 1829.
.... To-day the Princess Augusta * came to take
a friendly leave of me ; she is really as gifted as she is
amiable. Good luck to her on that wide, tempestuous
sea !

Do not put off writing. I am revising the account of my
second stay in Rome, a curious little volume, which — how-
ever it may turn out, — will always encourage thought and
feeling.

Your truly attached

J. W. V. GOETHB.

276. — Zelter to Goethe.

Sunday, 21st June, 1829.
Certain people can only show their presence of
mind and their share of the business, by means of loud
coughing, snorting, croaking and spitting ; Herr Berlioz
seems to be one of these. The sulphur-smell of Mephisto
attracts him, and so he must needs sneeze and puff,
till all the instruments in the Orchestra get the jumps —
only not a hair of Faust's head moves. Thank you however

for sending me the music Worthy Winter's Minaldo,

on the contrary, has anyhow a human form of some kind,
which is suitable for a Tenor ; but now we are as far re-
moved from that, as that so-called artificiality of tones

is from music

Ever yours,
Z.

* The present Empress of Germany, then on her way to marry
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 363

277. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th July, 1829.

.... Here, in my little den on the ground floor,
I have been arranging and hanging up in long rows, a
series of pictures of ancient Latium and modern Rome.
Besides that, I have collected around me a number of books
on the same subject, thus reviving, as far as I can, the
recollection of my second stay in Rome ; I commend to
your kind consideration the volume, which will contain
these written reminiscences

The Polish poet* paid me a visit, accompanied by the
Princess Wolkonsky and a large suite ; he did not utter a
single word, and had not the good sense to present himself
to me alone. One would feel inclined to inveigh against
such behaviour, but that one has often been clumsy enough
oneself.

Pi-ofessor Rauch spent a day with us ; he was pleasant,
cheerful, active, just as of old. A young man whom he
brought with him, and who may have a good deal of
talent, showed us a design for a kind of frieze ; the con-
ception and the drawing were creditable, but the subject
was Christ's entry into Jerusalem, which makes the rest
of us feel vexed, at the trouble an able man takes, to look
for motives, where there are none to be found. If people
would only keep piety, which is so essential and lovable in
life, distinct from Art, where, owing to its very simplicity
and dignity, it checks their energy, allowing only the very
highest mind freedom to unite with, if not actually to
master it !

I am delighted at your return to the Second Part of
Faust; that will urge me on to put aside various other
things, and, at all events, to complete as soon as possible,
the immediate work which touches upon it. The end
is as good as quite finished, much that is important
in the intervening passages is complete, and if some
of the higher powers would only lay hold of me, and

* Adam Mickiewicz, who came to Goethe with a letter of introduction
from Madame Szymanowska, the pianiste. Goethe, however, afterwards
discovered, that on the occasion mentioned in this letter, his visitor was
a Russian, and not the poet at all.

364 Goethe's letters [1829.

confine me in a high fortress, for three months, there would
not be much left for me to do.* I realize it all so vividly
in heart and mind, that I often feel qnite oppressed.

And now, the sweetest thing last ! It gives me heart-
felt pleasure, to hear that the Princess Augusta impressed
you so favourably with her many good qualities ; she com-
bines the characteristics of a woman and a Princess so
perfectly, that one is really lost in admiration, which again
gives rise to a feeling of deep respect, mingled with affec-
tion. I hope that you may in future have more frequent
opportunities of convincing yourself of this.

Thus much from my quiet, and — now that the haymaking
is over, — perfectly green valley. The calm is so great, that
early this morning, a pretty roe came out of the bushes,
and quietly began to eat the grass. I hope you are enjoy-
ing an equally pleasant morning in Berlin, with its abun-
dant life, noise, and bustle.

Faithfully and ever diligently yours,

Goethe.

278. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 20th August, 1829.
.... Felix is in Scotland, and has already written
down to us here, from the Highlands. I have commissioned
him to make a more accurate study of the national songs
and dances, on the spot, than did those travelling amateurs,
and uninstructed copyists, from whom we have hitherto
derived our knowledge. The dear rascal has the luck of
finding and making friends everywhere ; he has seen Sir
Walter Scott too. Then he found in London a young
Hanoverian, who was attached to the English Embassy
liere, and who is now his com})anion on this instructive
journey, whether they walk, ride, or go by water. Later on,
he is to visit Ireland and Holland, coming home in the
autumn for his sister's marriage with Hensel, the Court
painter, and then starting for Italy. He is working hard,
and trying to build himself up, whei'e there is no lack of
stone. ....

* Compare Schiller and Goethe Correspondence, Letter 480.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 365

279. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 20th August, 1829,
.... We have just had with us an Englishman,*
who, at the beginning of the century, studied in Jena, and
who, since then, has followed up German literature, with a
perseverance that is quite incredible. He was so well in-
structed in the merita causce of our circumstances, that even
had I wished to do so — and it is our usual way of treating
foreigners — I could not have dared to try and humbug him
with phrases. It transpired from his conversation, that for
the last twenty years and more, very well-educated English-
men have come over to Germany, and they have carefully
studied the personal characteristics, as well as the sesthetic
and moral relations of those men who may now be called
our ance.<tors. He told strange stories of Klopstock's ossi-
fication, f

Then he proved himself a missionary of English litera-
ture, and read poems to me and my daughter, when we
were together or alone. I particularly enjoyed following
Byron's Heaven and Earth both with eye and ear, for I had
a second copy in my hand. Finally, he drew my attention
to Milton's Samson, and read it with me. It is curious to
recognize in it Byron's ancestor ; the latter is as grandiose
and far-seeing as the former, but the descendant certainly
runs off into the illimitable, into the strangest complexity,
where the former appears simple and stately.

Our Polish poet has just presented himself; had he
come a few days earlier, he would have been welcome
to join our circle, but now I shall have to receive him
alone, and that is a very difficult, almost an impossible
matter

On gloomy days and bright days,

Your truly attached,
G.

* Crabb Robinson.

■f- " I have not the slightest recollection of having mentioned Klop-
stock at all, and cannot think what he referred to. Voigt says he never
knew Goethe forget anything, so perfect was his memory to the last,
and that, therefore, I probably did speak about Klopstock." — Crabb
Robinson's Diary, vol. ii. p. 240.

366 Goethe's letters [1829.

280. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 19th October, 1829.

Once more I must entrust my affection and my
thoughts to paper, and first of all, let me confess that since
you left, I have felt quite down in the mouth. Any number
of attractive and suggestive vporks of Art were lying and
standing all around, everyone of which I might have
shared with you ! And what then did we share ? Hardly
anything worth mentioning.

There is really something absurd about the Present ;
all that people think of is, the sight, the touch of
each other, and there they rest, — but it never occurs
to them, to reflect upon what is to be gained from such
moments. We should express our opinion on the subject
thus. The absent one is an ideal person, those who are
present, seem to one another to be quite commonplace. It
is a silly thing, that the ideal is, as it were, ousted by the
real ; that may be the reason, why, to the moderns, their
ideal only manifests itself in longing. However, we will
not brood over this subject further, but let the matter rest,
with this seemly and unseemly preface, — though no doubt
I could spin out another long Litany, explaining the
general style of more modern life.

Now however, — to pass from what is fanciful to what is
pleasant, — I must tell you that Herr Ternite has proved
himself truly generous ; for while I already owe him .my
best thanks for the drawings and facsimiles he presented
me with, he has shown the most flattering confidence in me,
by entrusting me with his valuable traceries, which are now
lying before me. I shall take the greatest possible care
of them, and if there is anyone that deserves to see them, I
shall show them to him myself.

Here now is the greatest marvel of antiquity ; he that
hath eyes to see, let him see, viz. let him see the healthiness
of the moment, and what this is worth. For although
by a most terrible calamity, these pictures were buried
amongst ruins for nearly two thousand years, they are still
just as fresh and as sound as they were in the happy, easy
hour, which preceded their fearful entombment.

1329.] TO ZELTER. 367

If we were asked, what they represent, it might perhaps
be rather perplexing to give an answer ; meantime I
should say, that these forms give ns the feeling, that
the moment mnst be pregnant and suflBcient to itself,
if it is to become a worthy segment of time and eternity.

What is here said about Plastic Art, applies in reality
even better to music, and you, old fellow, when you re-
flect upon your own work and your own Institution, will
not dispute the strange words I have uttered above. In-
deed, from this point of view, music fills up the present
moment more decisively than anything else, whether it
awakens in the tranquil mind reverence and worship, or
whether it summons the active senses to dance and revelry.
The rest I leave to a heart that is pious and reverential,
and a mind that is full of discernment.

Now and ever yours,

J. W. V. Goethe.

281. — Zelter to Goethe.

27th October, 1829.

.... My Felix has met with an accident in
London ; he has been thrown out of a carriage, and pre-
vented from coming to his sister's wedding in Berlin. I
am afraid he may have broken something, for it is a long
business, and he cannot write ; still, they say he is getting
better. He is expected to return by way of Calais, so I
Buppose he will come through France to Weimar, and pay

you a call

Yours,
Z.

282. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 1st November, 1829.

.... One word about what I am reading ! I
have got as far as the eighth volume of Bourrienne's *

• Goethe observes that Bourrienne's History of Napoleon's campaign
in Egypt " destroys the romantic cast of many scenes, and displays
facts iu their naked, sublime truth." See EckerinanrCs Conversations with
Goethe, p. 391,

368 Goethe's letters [1829.

Memoirs. Recollection and illustration aVe here combined
for us. The new view of an important point in history, here
set before the reader, is noteworthy ; the author makes it
seem highly probable that Napoleon never meant to cross
to England — that his real object was only, under this pre-
tence, to form the nucleus of a great, active, military
power, ready for all emergencies, and to arrange and locate
a large body of troops round this centre, so that, at the
shortest notice, he could bring them to and across the
Rhine;* a plan in which he was so far successful, that
(contrary to universal expectation) he surrounded Ulm,
and got the place into his power, — to speak no further of
the consequences of this expedition.

When we are challenged to turn our thoughts back to
that period, we feel astonishment beset us afresh. It is
fortunate, that at the time when we were living through
all this, we could not clearly realize the immensity of such
events

I feel myself specially called upon to preserve what I
have done for the study of Nature. Of the three hundred
assembled Naturalists, f there is not one, who shows the
faintest approximation to my way of thinking, and it may
be, that is as well. Approximations only produce errors.
If one wants to bequeath something useful to posterity, it
must be confessions ; one must present oneself as an indi-
vidual, one's thought, one's opinions, and those who come
after may pick out for themselves what suits them, and
what will pass current universally. Our ancestors left us
plenty of that kind of thing.

Herewith I close to-day's discourse.

I heard Paganini yesterday evening.

Goethe.

* Zelter observes in his next letter, " If I am not mistaken. Lag
Cases has a passage, in which the hero reveals his intention at that
time. The English alone were wise enough to make some use of such
demonstrations, by exciting the whole of their Island, and so on."

f Goethe alludes to scientific meetings, one of which had been held
some time before, in Berlin. See Letter 251.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 369

283. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 9th November, 1829.
.... I too have now heard Paganini, and imme-
diately afterwards, on the very same evening, I opened
your letter, which enabled me to fancy that my estimate
of these marvels was fairly sensible. I thought there was
something lacking to make up what we call enjoyment,
which in me is always hovering between sense and under-
standing — a base to this pillar of flame and cloud.

Were I in Berlin, I should seldom miss the Moser
Quartett evenings. I have always found performances of
this kind more intelligible than other instrumental music ;
you hear four rational persons conversing together, and fancy
you get something from their discourse, and learn to know
the peculiarities of their different instruments. This time
I felt the want of such a foundation, both mentally and
orally ; I only heard something meteoric, and could give
no further account of it to myself. Yet it is curious to hear
people, and especially women, talk about it ; without the
slightest misgiving, they gave utterance to what are really
confessions.

And now I want to know, if you have good news of the
worthy Felix ; I take the greatest interest in him, for it is
a very painful thing to see a person, who has become
so famous, threatened in his onward course by a mean
accident. Let me have a few comforting words about
him

I must own that the Fi'ench entertain me more than
anyone else ; I follow with quiet thought the lectures of
Guizot, Yillemain, and Cousin. Le Globe, La Bevue Fran-
<^aise, and — for the last three weeks — Le Temps, introduce
me to a circle we should look for in vain throughout
Germany. But although I can give them the highest
praise in all that touches immediately upon practical ethics,
I am not equally well satisfied with their observations of
Nature. Even granting that their method of experiment
is fully entitled to our respect, still when it comes to re-
flection, they cannot rid themselves of mechanical and ato-
mistic images, and once possessed of an idea, they want to

B B X

370 Goethe's letters [1829.

bring it in by tbe back door, which, once for all, cannot
be done.

In everything which is termed natural philosophy, I
adhere to my own path, earnestly and attentively, step by
step. Our contemporaries are really too odd, the more's
the pity. The Milanese told me lately, with much as-
tonishment, that Herr von B. was going to give them
visible proof, that the Euganean range, which they had
hitherto regarded as a natural offshoot of the Alps, had —
some time or other — shot up out of the earth. They
accept this, much in the same way as savages do a mis-
sionary's sermon. And a few days ago, I received a com-
munication from the far North, to the effect that the Altai
mountains also had once upon a time been heaved up out of
the depths. And you may all thank God, if the earth's
paunch does not some day think of relieving itself of its
fermentation, in a similar fashion, between Berlin and
Potsdam. The Paris Academy sanctions the idea, that
after the earth's crust had been fully formed. Mount Blanc
rose up out of the abyss at the very last moment. Thus,
by little and little, nonsense is gaining the ascendancy,
and will become the general belief of nations and scholars,
just as in the darkest ages, people believed so firmly in
witches and demons, and their doings, as actually to pro-
ceed against them with the most hideous tortures.

Herein I have always admired the great King Matthias
of Hungary, who made a law forbidding all mention of
witches — wasmuch as there were none. Without being a
king, I — in a quiet way — act just in the same fashion to-
wards these babblers, dabblers, and splutterers, by crediting
Nature, in her great operations, with simpler and grander
means. Meanwhile however, it is a pity, that from the
Chinese boundary to this point, we are not allowed to
announce anything but what holds good in Paris. Pardon
me, if I continue to speak of things, which have no direct
interest for you ; I think you will find some echo of them
in your own circumstances. Nothing draws me from my
old, tried path, or hinders me from softly, softly, unveiling
problems, as if I were peeling onions, — or from respecting
every bud that shows real, though silent life.

I could say a great deal more about the way I am dealing

1829.] TO ZELTER. 371

with the last things that have been sent to me. Here and
there too, it is cheerful and pleasant enough, but in the end,
I feel as if the roses are fading, though not without leaving
offshoots and buds. The older I get, the more I rely upon
tJie law which bids the rose and lily bloom. . .

Yours ever,

284. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 13th November, 1829.

Let me tell you a strange thing, that time has
brought to light ; it will amuse you to think about it.
Your Frederick, who, I think, is justly called the Great,
was in fact a regular King incarnate, and insisted that
everything produced throughout the wide world, was also
to be found in his kingdom. It is well known, that in
consequence of this, the bread-eating people, served by
patriotic millstones, had for some length of time, to swallow
a goodly portion of clay and gravel with their food.

But never mind that ; what I really wanted to tell you,
is this. The King used to plague his Mining Department
most dreadfully, to find him rock-salt in his dominions.
For as it was found in Poland yonder, and in many other
parts of the earth, he could see no reason, why it should
not be met with in Prussia as well.

I have read several annual reports of the Mining Depart-
ment, at the end of which, honest Count Heinitz states with
all possible modesty, "that in accordance with our duty,
the greatest pains have been taken, to find rock-salt in
your Majesty's Dominions, but we have not yet been for-
tunate enough to attain this object ; however, the invee-
tigations and examinations shall be continued with the
greatest zeal." This phrase was traditionally repeated for
several years. Many theories were discussed to and fro by
the geologists of those days ; many salt springs revealed
themselves, but nobody hoped for blocks of mineral salt.

Now however, I am informed by the Superintendent of
Salt Mines, Glenk, that in the night between the 22nd and
23rd of October, he sank a shaft to the depth of 1,170 feet,
and came upon a perfectly pure form of crystal salt, which.

372 goethb's letters [1829

judging by the fragments, was partly granular, partly
laminated. He thought of sinking it another twenty feet
deeper into this solid mass, and then taking further measures.
The place is called Stotternheim, and it is situated behind
the Ettersberg, in a great plain. I dare say you have a
pleasant recollection of the mountain aforesaid.

I will say no more, yet it is strange that a royal magic
wand could order beforehand that, which — after the lapse
of so many years — is discovered in the lowest possible
depths. To be .sure, Prussia has no longer any need to
trouble herself about salt at such a depth, but it is clear
from the above, that such a thing might be obtained in the
kingdom. Here therefore, let us make honourable mention
of the fact, that during the last fifty years, our knowledge
and technique have advanced so far, that a man is bold
enough to bore down 1,200 feet into the earth, knowing
and saying beforehand, what must be found there. This
is much, but not enough ; the treasure has then to be raised,
and brought into common use, as one of the most essential
needs of man and beast. Here however, we have the
powerful assistance of Physics, Mechanism, and Chemistry.

If, before this, you have bestowed any attention upon the
poem * sent you, (on the 29th of February, 1828,) which
was printed in the Leipzig Musenalmanach (of 1880), you
will forgive my being so explicit on the subject. The salt
water then obtainable, came from a higher, and less favoured
region. In earlier times, people were satisfied with a region
that yielded little, but they feared to lose it, if they Went
deeper. Judgment and enterprise came in with later days,
and thus we live to see, what Frederick the Glorious desired
and commanded.

Be kind to this little story ; it was interesting to me, one
quiet evening, when the wish to tell it to someone made

me turn to you

* Die ersten Erzettgnisse der Stotternheimer Saline, &c.

1829.] TO ZELTER. 373

285. — Zelter to Goethe,

15th November, 1829.
That fine word Faustus, Fauste, Faust, has been
invested by yon with snch ominous importance, that by all
laws, human and divine, you ought to be told of its further
consequences. So listen ! for the first time yesterday
evening, I heard and saw, from beginning to end, Faust,
the Grand Opera by J. C. Bernard and Spohr.

If I am not mistaken, the composer got together a San-
hedrin, or whatever they call it, in order that they might
jointly sanction laws, which are to be universally current,
alike for grand Opera and for light Opera, as is clear from
the above stupendous work. In connection with this, he
seemed especially to have reckoned on C. M. von Weber ;
•whether an understanding was arrived at, I know not, nor
have I asked.

Yesterday's performance of this full, highly wrought
work, was worthy of the greatest praise, nor did the
crowded house fail to applaud it. The Orchestra, the
highest faculty of an Opera, was 07ie man ; the singers
were as perfect as possible ; machinery, decorations, witches,
ghosts, and other monsters — all met with the fullest re-
cognition and the best reception Now, with regard

to the work of the composer, who certainly merits more
recognition as an artist in tones, than as a musician and
melodist — everything — up to the smallest detail, is as-
toundingly worked out, with the greatest elaboration of
art, so as to outwit, to outbid the most watchful ear. The

finest Brabant lace is coarse work compared to it

286. — Zelter to Goethe.

17th November, 1829.
As you speak of Möser's Quartetts, it seems you must
have heard them, even as far as Weimar. I must say,
however rarely I go to hear them, they are the things I like
best of their kind. I know not, if I ever wrote to you upon
this subject, but I venture to doubt, if Haydn, Mozart, and

374 Goethe's letters [1829.

Beethoven ever enjoyed so pure, healthy, and sure a ren-
dering of their Quartetts, as is given here, when Moser is
at his best ; for it would be too much to ask, that he should
succeed every day

To hear you praising my old Fritz is as valuable to me,
as though I had discovered in my own cellar rock-salt
enough for the whole monarchy. I certainly have read
your poem in the Leipziger Musetudmanach, and I knew it
even at the time, because you sent it to me, on the occasion
of your Festival.

I am much amused with our " patriotic millstones," as
you call them, when I see so many old gentlemen, between
seventy and a hundred years old, doddering about rue, who
have held out for so long, on a diet of clay and silicious earth.
The old King was also severely blamed, for forbidding the
further import of Swedish iron into the country. Our
cannon- wheels had to be covered with native iron, and
when they were driven over our pavements, the tires
snapped asunder, like the stems of tobacco pipes. At that
time, people laughed at him, and never thought our iron
could be utilized as it is now, when we make bracelets and
chains of it. I pride myself not a little on having seen him
so often ; for when he died, I was already a citizen of
Berlin, and had much more than I have now, because

I spent less

Yours,
Z.
287. — Goethe to Zeltek.

Weimar, 20th November, 1829.

If we once let ourselves in for historical and etymo-
logical investigations, we almost always end in greater
uncertainty than we began with. Your question as to the
origin of the name of Mephistopheles, I cannot answer
directly ; but the accompanying pages may coniirm your
friend's surmise, which refers it to the same fantastic source
and time, as the legend of Faust; probably, however, we
must not assign it to the Middle Ages. It seems to have
arisen in the sixteenth, and to have developed itself in
the seventeenth century. The Protestant necromancers
had no immediate need to fear ecclesiastical excommuni-

1829.] TO ZELTER. 375

cation, and so there were all the more Cophtas, who knew
how to profit by the stupidity, the helplessness, the pas-
sionate desires of mankind ; for it was certainly easier to
grow rich by means of a few cramped characters and
senseless mutterings, than to eat one's daily bread in the
sweat of one's brow. Have we not recently, among the
Neustadt circle, unearthed a similar nest of treasure-
diggers, and with them a dozen of the same sort of
treatises on magic, none of which, however, is equal in
value to the Codex, from which the accompanying extract
has been made ?

So much to begin with, together with my kindest greet-
ings to Herr Friedländer, and pray pardon my elaborate
reply

May all good spirits follow in the train of so many
devilish ones !

1. Enclosure.

The Romish Church always dealt with heretics and
magicians, as belonging to the same class, and hurled the
severest anathemas against them, as well as at everything
connected with soothsaying and chiromancy. With the
advance of knowledge, and a closer insight into the work-
ings of Nature, the yearning after strange, mysterious
powers seems to have increased. Protestantism freed
men from all dread of ecclesiastical penalties ; student life
became more independent, and furnished opportunities for
loose and impious tricks, and thus, in the middle of the
sixteenth century, the belief in demons and magic seems
to have assumed a more methodical form, whereas it had
previously found followers only among the puzzle-headed
vulgar. The scene of the story of Fernst was laid in Witten-
berg, and therefore in the heart of Protestantism, and
certainly by Protestants themselves ; for in all the writings
relating to the subject, there is no trace of priestly bigotry,
which, where it is found, is always obvious enough.

In order to give you a proof of the high dignity of
Mephistopheles, I enclose the copy of an extract from a
passage in Faicsfs Höllenzwang. This very remarkable
work of closely reasoned nonsense is said to have been

376 Goethe's letters [1829.

printed in Passau in 1612, after it had long been circulated
in manuscript. Neither I, nor any of my friends, have
seen an original, but we possess, (in the Grand Ducal
Library,) a very neat and perfect copy, which — to judge
from the handwriting, and other circumstances — probably
belongs to the last half of the seventeenth century.

2. Enclosure.

rt Praxis.

^ ^ Cabulae nigrae

Doctoris Johannis Faustii
Magi celeberrimi
Passau MDCXII.

SECOND TITLE.

D. Johannis Faustii

Magia

naturalis

innaturalia.

The Inscrutable Book of Infernal Magic,

That is,

The Book of Wonders and Magic Arts,

Whereby

I have coerced the spirits of Hell, that they have been

obliged perforce to carry out my will.

Printed at Passau Aö. 1612.

■ The First Part

of this Book

treats of the

Nigra mantia

^ Or

Ö Cabula nigra

As also of

Magia naturali, et innaturalL

1829.] TO ZELTER. 377

Cap. I.

Treats of the Classification of the Spirits, and their names,
also of what assistance they can be to men.

Now in order, dear Descendant, that you may be made
acquainted with the government and distribution of the
Spirits into Satanic bands and princedoms, I will herewith,
in this chapter, teach and show to you their names, one
after the other, but in the following chapter, their division
into bands and principalities.

Nadanniel is the Spirit, who is rejected of God, otherwise
called Lucifer, also Bludohn, also Beelzebub.

There are also among the whole Hellish host seven
Electors, as Lucifer, Marbuel, Ariel, Aciel, Barbiel, Mephis-
tophiel, Apadiel.

But among these seven Electors, there are also counted
four Grand Dukes — Lucifer, Ariel, Aciel, Marbuel.

There are also among the Lords of Hell seven Counts-
Palatine, by name : Ahisdophiel, Camniel, Padiel, Coradiel,
Osphadiel, Adadiel, Capfiel. All of these are very mighty
spirits in the Army of Hell.

There are also among this Hellish host seven lesser Counts,
by name : Radiel, Dirachiel, Paradiel, Armodiel, Ischsca-
badiel, Jazariel, Casadiel.

Ischscabadiel is a spirit of Pride.

Jazariel brings forth to men all those primeval Spirits, which hover
about in mid-air, outside the Paradise of Joys.

There are likewise among the Hellish host seven Barons,
by name :

1. Germiciel, a powerful Spirit of the air.

2. Adiel, a powerful fire Spirit.

3. CraflBel, a powerful war Spirit.

4. Paradiel. 5. Assardiel. 6. Kniedadiel. 7. Amniel.
There are likewise among the Helhsh host seven Spirits

of Nobility, by name :

1. Amudiel. 2. Kiriel ; these two are mighty fire
Spirits.

3. Bethnael. 4. Geliel. 5. Requiel. 6. Aprinaelis.
7. Tagriel.

These last four, 4, 5, 6, 7, are minor fire Spirits, and are numbered
among the army of Hell.

378 Goethe's letters [1829.

There are likewise among tlie Hellish host seven Civic
Spirits, by name :

1. Alhemiel. 2. Amnixiel. 3. Egibiel. 4t. Adriel.
These four also belong to the ai*my of Hell.

5. Azeruel. 6. Ergediel. 7. Abdicuel.
These three are fire Spirits.

There are likewise among the Hellish host seven Peasant
Spirits, which are named :

1. Aceruel. 2. Amediel. These two are fire Spirits.

3. Coradiel. 4. Sumnidiel. 5. Coachtiel. These three
are Spirits of the air.

6. Kirotiel. 7. Apactiel. These two belong to the
army of Hell.

There are likewise among the Hellish host seven Wise
Spirits. These are the fleetest of all, and the head of the
army of Hell, and they may be made use of for any Arts,
whenever they are desired.

1. Mephistophiel. 2. Barbiel. 3. Marbuel. 4. Ariel.
5. Aciel. 6. Apadiel. 7. Camniel.

There are likewise seven Foolish Spirits, who have great
power, and are also skilled in many artifices, but never-
theless are very foolish ; they are fond of making com-
pacts and agreements with mankind, so they can easily
be eluded again by many artifices. These are by name :

1. Padiel. 2. Cafphiel. 3. Paradiel. 4. Casdiel. 5.
Kniedatiel. 6. Amniel. 7. Tagriel.

There are likewise four Free Spirits, byname as follows:

1. Asmodiel is the Chief, and the Spirit of murder.

2. Discerdiel, the Spirit of contention.

3. Amodiel, the Spirit of harlots.

4. Damniel is the Spirit of theft, (a spirit of the air).
These four Free Spirits also belong to the army of Hell.

Nadanniel is the Spirit bound and rejected of God.

Cap. II.

Treats of the Classifying of all Spirits into the bands of
their Princes.

All the Spirits of the army of Hell are under Nadanniel
or Lucifer, also called Beelzebub.

All Fire- Spirits under Ariel.

1829.] TO zisLffEB. 379

All the Spirits of the Earth and Air under Marbuel.

All the minor Dakes and Barons under Aciel.

All the Counts Palatine under Barbiel.

Under the seven Counts-Palatine are the seven Spirits of
Nobility.

And Mephistophiel stands above Amudiel, for

N.B. Mephistopliiel, instead of Lucifer, is placed at
the head of all the Spirits.

Under the seven minor Counts stand the seven Spirits of
Nobility, as they follow in order, for as the seven Spirits
of Nobility follow in order, so also do the seven Civic
Spirits follow in order.

Under the seven Spirits of Nobility stand the seven Civic
Spirits, according to order, in the same way as the Spirits
of Nobility follow in order.

Under the seven Civic Spirits stand the seven Peasant
Spirits, in order, like the seven Civic Spirits.

Under the seven Peasant Spirits stand the seven Wise
Spirits, according to order, as the Civic Spirits follow in
order, and

Under the seven Wise Spirits stand the seven Foolish
Spirits in order ; as the Wise stand in order, so too the
FooUsh stand in order.

288. — GoBTffB TO Zelter.

Weimar, 16th December, 1829.
As I know it always puts you into the best of
humours, when one introduces something creditable to
your old King's memory, I send you herewith a good
pinch of rock-salt, with the friendly request, that you will
sprinkle it into your soup at the next opportunity, and
when you feel the taste of it on your tongue, bear in mind
that Frederick the Second could not easily have enjoyed a
more delightful dinner, than if his food had been seasoned
with this product of his own Kingdom, and he had seen
his golden salt-cellars liberally filled with it

380 goethe's letters [1829.

289, — Zelter to Goethe.

17th December, 1829.
Small causes and great effects ! A dumb fisher-
maiden, seduced by the son of the Viceroy of Naples, is
the heroine of the famous French Opera, La Muette de
Portici. The maiden is dumb as a fish, but all the others,
Mr. Auber at their head, make such a horrible shindy, five
Acts long, that at last, even Vesuvius awakes, and feeling
very uncomfortable in his interior, grumbling and roaring,
spits at the sky. Our public is revelling in this dinner
of the Titans, which it has now devoured for the twenty-
seventh time, and yet it never cries, " Hold, enough ! " The
singers and players are half roasted afterwards, but really
I came away almost done to a turn. However there is no
lack of talent, and it makes a precious pother

18th December, 1829.

I have just heard Auber's Opera, La Fiancee. When
you speak of a man, you should remember at least two of his
actions. The lady is bent upon marrying an upholsterer,
and gets a cavalry officer in his place ; a grand spectacle
arises from this, which the band has to make, and does
make, alone, for thunder and lightning are on this occasion
engaged elsewhere. One is amused and interested, and
there is some stuff in it, though the whole thing is a merry-
go-round.

They have just brought me your letter of the 16th, in
which you speak of the Muette, by this same composer.
You arc quite in your own way, which is also mine. All
true music can only be mental, and work mentally; what
is beyond that, has been already forbidden by Lycurgus,
and rightly, for it is of evil ! But in spite of that severe
lawgiver, I must make an exception in favour of the oi-gan,
because that, from my youth upwards, has stirred my
deepest conscience, like an earnest confessor, as you long
ago showed quite involuntarily in Faust. That scene, in
its place, is crushing in effect, and if no one knows how, I

know it, for I have the whole Church before my eyes

Salve !
Z.

1829 ] TO ZELTER. 381

290. — Goethe to Zeltek.

Weimar, 25th December, 1829.
.... The reason why I mention the worthy name
(of Dr. Primrose) here, and ilhistrate my circumstances,

by the picture of his family circle, I will now briefly exs

^plainjto xou. jl lately chanced to fall in with Tlie Vicar of
Wakefield, and felt compelled to read the little book over
again, fi'om beginning to end, being not a little affected by
the vivid recollection of all that I have owed to the author,
for the last seventy years. The influence Goldsmith and
~S^erne exercised upon me, just at the chief point of my
development, cannot be estimated. This high, benevolent
irony, this just and comprehensive way of viewing things,
this gentleness to all opposition, this equanimity under
every change, and whatever else all the kindred virtues
may be termed, — such things were a most admirable train-
ing for me, and surely, these are the sentiments, which in
the end lead us back from all the mistaken paths of life . ' . -
"^ By the way, it is strange that Yorick should incline '
rather to that which has no Form, and that Goldsmith
should be all Form, as I myself aspired to be when the
worthy Germans had convinced themselves, that the pecu-
liarity of true humour is to have no Form i

J. W. v. Goethe.

291. — Goethe to Zelter.

New Year's Eve, 1829.
I gather from your letter, dearest Friend, that it
was Milton's tragedy that induced Handel to write his
Samson. However, I should be curious to know, how he
treated that glorious poetic work, and how he epitomized it.
I read Milton's Samson, last summer, with an English man
of letters, (Crabb Robinson,) who was staying with us, and
my admiration of it was boundless. I could not mention
any work, that approached so closely to the purport and
style of ancient Greek Tragedy, nor one that deserved equal
recognition, both as regards design and execution. Handel
probably has dealt with it, as with the Bible, extracting.

382 Goethe's letters [1829.

in accordance witli dramatic rules, the most expressive,
the most important, and at the same time the most vocal
portions of the story. If any little book was printed for
your performance, pray let me see it, or tell me, in what
other way I can obtain the information I want

The above has been lying by me for some time, and
now at the end of the year, I will avail myself of the
opportunity to add what has been occupying me for some
time past. When at one with oui"selves, we are so too with
others. I have observed, that I regard that thought as
true, which is fruitful to myself, which is connected with
the rest of my thoughts, and at the same time, helps me
on ; now it is not only possible, but natural, that such a
thought should not connect itself with the mind of another,
nor help him on — nay, it may even hinder him, and con-
sequently he will regard it as false. Once we are thoroughly
convinced of this, we shall never enter upon controversies.

The belief that I had discovered Myron's cow * on the

L coins of Dyrrachium, gave me special encouragement, and

it is still of use to me. The people of Leipzig and Gröt-

tingen would not hear of it ; that does not affect me in

the least, for I have my advantage from it

Goethe.

• For Myrons Kuh, see Kunst und Alterthum.

1830.] TO ZELTER, 383

1830.

292. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 12th January, 1830.
It is both right and true, that every man has some-
thing to work at and to do, either in breadth or depth,
even though he may not exactly aspire to height. I am
delighted to find that you are firm and energetic, as of
old, and actively interested in the doings of the world,

■which I indeed have long since given up

The Schiller letters are another proof, that where friends
are in earnest, each day bz-ings its own gain, so that at last,
the year, when summed up, is of incalculable advantage.
Details, in reality, constitute the life ; results may be
valuable, but they are more surprising than useful.

Your dear letter of the 9th of January has just arrived ;
I well remember, that you had always rather a liking for
the Rogue of Timnath, and that I admiröd your courage,
in not hesitating to declare yourself Samson's rival.

In Milton, according to the way of the ancients, the lady
should not have appeared again, after that scene of hatred
and violence. I quite understand, that the musician would
have further need of her ; all the more so, because in our
day, people demand a complete solution, whether for good
or evil. I will inquire whether the score, left here in old
days, may not possibly still be in existence, somewhere in
the Chamberlain's office, and then amuse myself by making
further comparisons

Herewith, my kindest farewell !

384 Goethe's letters [1830.

293. — Zelter to Goethe.

25th January, 1830.

.... From the enclosure, you will see again, how,
often enough, I represent your Vicar or Chaplain. What
a lot our Anglomaniac knows about his translation of Mac-
heth ! Now as I consider this nothing but one translation
the more, and do not conceal it from him, I had rather not
disoblige my next neighbour.

Tours,

Enclosure.

18th January, 1830.

A special circumstance, my dear Zelter, makes it im-
portant for me to know, if Schiller understood English, or
not ? In his Correspondence with Goethe, they certainly
discuss Macbeth, but not a word is said, as to whether
Schiller had really mastered the English language. Herr
von Goethe would be sure to know more exactly ; in case
you too are ignorant on this point, you would very much
oblige me, if, when the occasion of your writing to him
offered an opportunity, you could ask for more definite
information.

Ever yours, &c.

Answer.

So far as I know, Schiller read English well enough, and
even Goethe would not say more. But I should not like to
swear, that both these men were not of opinion, that they
understood Shakespeare the poet, better than his learned
countrymen.

Surely Goethe's opinion must be known to you, that it
is impossible to put that colossal man, skin, hair, and all,
down upon a German table, like a live sucking-pig.

At Weimar too, (in his time,) they used so to manage
at the little Theatre, that eveiy week a really good piece,
was given in the best style, which, I suppose, necessitated
the translation of French, Italian, and Spanish plays.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 385

The spectator cares not a jot for historical accuracy ; he
wants to be carried away, edified, charmed. And the
Theatre exists for the spectator, even if it is much too
Hmited for a poet like Shakespeare, though up to the present
time, he has shown himself unmistakable, in every dress that
German tailors put upon him. Once for all, he will not
let himself be killed.

" Take care of him," says Polypheme, " that I may eat
him last of all !" *

294. — Zelter to Goethe.

27th January, 1830.
Yesterday we had our first Carnival Opera, The
Siege of Gorinth, music by Rossini, whom the German
critics, for the last fifteen years, have wearied themselves out

with writing down. The story is a strange jumble

The music is fresh and dashing, with powerful passages,

which go off like fireworks The dance music is so

charming, lively, and exciting, that it makes one want to

dance too

Yours,

295. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29th January, 1830.
As I now know that all Europe, as well as my
cloister-garden, levelled by the snow, has to get on as best
it may, I submit to it the more readily, that I am not called
upon to set foot outside my door. So on this bright night,
while Madam Venus is still clear, radiant, and lovely,
shining in the Western heavens, above the horns of the
young moon, and Orion with his dog and glittering neck-
lace, is rising gloriously from the East, over my horizon of
dark pine-trees, — inspired by all this, I will send you a
cheerful, friendly word to your busy, lamp-lit city, and,
before I do anything else, I will answer your last letter.

I observe that friends, particularly at our age, had better
not let any external event, which may be made the subject

* This is a quotation from Goethe.

C C

386 Goethe's letters [1830.

of controversy, fall at once into limbo ; they ouglit rather
to go on considering it. For this reason, all that you say,
relating to the Aristotelian point in question,* is most
welcome to me, as it forms a most perfect commentary on
your and my own convictions. Moreover, differences like
these are important, if only, because when closely examined,
the dispute does not concern merely one individual case, but
two distinct factions which stand opposed to one another,
two kinds of representations, opposing one another at
particular points, because they would fain set each other
aside entirely. We contend that a work of Art should
be perfect, in and of itself ; others think of the outward
effect produced by it — a point, which the true artist does
not trouble himself about in the least ; as little as Nature
herself, when she produces a lion, or a humming-bird.
And even if we were only importing our own conviction
into Aristotle, we should be right, for it would be perfectly
correct, and proven, even without him ; let him who
chooses to do so, interpret the passage differently.

Following on what went before, let me tell you in
fun, that in my WaMverivandtschaften, I took care to round
off the inward, true Katharsis, with as much purity and
1 finish as possible, but I do not therefore imagine that any
; pretty fellow could thereby be purged from the lust of
I looking after the wife of another. The sixth commandment,
which seemed to the Elohim- Jehovah to be so necessary,
even in the wilderness, that he engraved it on granite
tables with His own finger,— this it will still be neces-
sary to uphold in our blotting-paper Catechisms.

Pardon this ! the subject is of such great importance,
that friends should ever take counsel with one another
about it ; nay, I go so far as to add, that an incalculable
service has been rendered by our old Kant to the World,
and I may say, to my own self, in that he has, in his Kritik
der TJrtheilshraft, placed xirt and Nalure side by side, and
admitted that both have the right to act from great prin-
ciples, independently of any aim. In the same way,
Spinoza, in earlier days, confirmed me in my abhorrence
of those absurd final causes. Nature and Art are too

* This refers to a difference of opinion between Goethe and Professor
llaumer, as to the meaning of a passage in Aristotle's Poetics.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 387

grand to go fortli in pursuit of aims, nor is it necessary
that they should, for there are relations everywhere and
relations constitute life.

Hardly have I got so far, when another Berliner begins

a quarrel with me. For it seems that Herr S too wants

to win his spurs, by having a tilt at me. If only the good
people, who generally ignore me, when they are making use
of me, would also leave me in peace, when they cannot
make use of me, they might express their opinions as
powerfully and convincingly as they chose, and find as
many followers as they could. I have found that idea
absurd,* I have already said as much, and I shall say it
again. However, we must not let this astonish or annoy
us, for after all, there are still able ecclesiastics, who
interpret The Song of 8olomon,f of the sacred relationship
between Christ and His Bride, the Church.

I had occasion lately to look at the original again ; one
is always glad to be led to it. I have dictated a few pages
on this subject, which I shall probably send you, on condi-
tion that you do not show them to anyone. For who
would care to let himself in further, for this feeble, poverty-
stricken business ?

I repeat what I said above : Let us become more and
more convinced, that these differences indicate an immense
chasm, which separates men from one another ; nay, not
one chasm, but many chasms, which in our younger days
we leapt across, or bridged over, but which in maturer
age, must be looked upon as given to us for the strengthen-
ing of our position.

I have — it is true — carefully to raise my drawbridges,
and am constantly pushing my fortifications further for-
ward ; you, on the other hand, have to keep constantly on
the field, and after your own fashion, to fight your way
through in the given direction, and this suits you so well,
that one cannot wish it were otherwise. And besides, you
reap from it great and inestimable enjoyment, which the
rest of us are unfortunately shut out from. ...

* See Goethe's Werke, vol. xlv. p. 1 13.

+ Goethe had made a free translation of The Song of Solo7non, in his
youth. In a letter to Merck, he calls it " the most splendid collection
of love lyrics that God has made."

388 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1830.

I have not been able to continue reading Bourrienne ;
he is always plucking at the freshly embroidered Imperial
mantle, which was so soon cast aside, thinking to elevate
himself thereby, — just as Böttiger rejoiced, when the Doge
of Venice was deposed, as if his leader had died, and he
were now to be promoted.

I would not exactly advise you to take in hand the more
recent History of France, by Bignon, though the author is
a genuine and thorough Napoleonist ; as a diplomatist of
many years standing, he has had the opportunity of seeing
deeper than most men into the leading causes and effects.
All this may pass muster, like the efforts of astronomers,
whose observations and calculations we will not find fault
with, inasmuch as, at all events, they bring us a little
nearer to the idea of the Incomprehensible.

Thus ever, yours,

J. W. V, GOETHB.

296. — Zelter to Goethe,

6th February, 1830.

.... I HAVE just read Corneille's Cinna, moved
thereto by your last letter, and at the same time by
Napoleon, who said, that he would have made Corneille a
prince, had the poet lived under him. To be sure, Cinna
is one of the crowns of French Tragedy. * . . •

297. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 15th February, 1830.

** As to the title of my life's confidences — Wahrheit
und DicJitung — which is certainly somewhat paradoxical,
I adopted it, because my experience is, that the public
always entertains 'some doubt as to the truthfulness of
such biographical efforts. To meet this, I acknowledged
to having written a kind of fiction, driven to it, to some
extent unnecessarily, by a certain spirit of contradiction.
For it was my most earnest endeavour, as far as possible,

1830.] TO ZELTER. 389

to represent and express the genuine, fundamental truth,
which, as far as I could see into it, had prevailed through-
out my life. But if such a thing is not possible in later
years, without the co-operation of memory, and therefore
of the imaginative faculty, so that in one way or other, we
never fail to exercise the poetic gift, then it is clear, that
we shall present, and bring into relief the results, and the
past as it seems to us now, rather than the individual
events, as they happened then. For does not the most
ordinary chronicle necessarily embody something of the
spirit of the time in which it was written ? Will not
the fourteenth century hand down the tradition of a comet
more ominously than the nineteenth ? Nay, in the same
town you may hear one version of a striking event in the
morning, and another in the evening.

Under the word Dichtung, I comprised all that belongs
to the narrator and the narrative, so that I could make
use of the truth, of which I was conscious, for my own
ends. Whether I have attained them, I leave to the
generous reader to determine, for then the question arises.
Is what has been related consistent ? Does it give an idea
of the gradual development of a personality, already well
known through his works ?

In every History, even if it be written diplomatically,
we always see the nation, the party, to which the writer
belonged, peering through. The French speak of English
History in a very different tone to that of the English
themselves !

I was lately very much struck by this, in the memoirs
of the Due de St. Simon ; you cannot fully enjoy the
detailed reports of this highly educated and truth-loving
man, unless you remember, that they are written by a Due
and a Pair. It is the reflection of a period, in which grand
people find less to win, than they must fear to lose.

I felt it my duty to write the above, dearest Friend, in
reply to a question very much like yours, which was put to
me hy one whom I highly honour ; I give you the answer
I gave him, as it is to the point in both instances. Re-
member that with every breath we draw, an ethereal
stream of Lethe runs through our whole being, so that
we have but a partial recollection of our joys, and scarcely

390 Goethe's letters [1830.

any of our sorrows. I have always known how to value,
profit by, and enhance the use of this precious gift of Grod.

Therefore, by the time it is a question of the cuffs and
thumps, with which Fate, our lady-loves, our friends and
foes have put us to the proof, the recollection of such
things has — in the mind of a good and resolute man — long
ago vanished into air.

It would be difficult, nay, impossible for me to specify
any particular instance, as you request ; * still, to please
you, I bethink myself that our schoolmaster used to wield,
as an emblem of majesty, a flexible ruler, which was other-
wise not unserviceable, and with which he dealt occasional
whacks, by way of punishment or encouragement. Yet
even in those days of vigorous pedagogues, a humanizing
means of information had been discovered, foreshadowing
that, which since Beccaria's time, has had so gracious an
influence on our Criminal Code, — for those who were to be
punished, were made to hold out a hand, and submit again
and again to canings more or less severe. This gave one
an opportunity of boldly stretching out one's hand, like
Mucins Scäjvola, and gaining an heroic martyr's wreath,
without moving a muscle of one's face. Now, whatever
may be the prospect of your winning or losing the dozen
of champagne, I wish to bring forward my testimony, to
the best of my recollection, with the greatest show of
Truth (Wahrheit), and leaving Poetry {Dichtung) out of the
account entirely.

We had got thus far, when a sorrow, f which indee'd we
had feared, though hope deferred it, came upon us ; the
news of this has already reached you, and my black seal,
alas ! confirms it. As you share in all our thoughts and

feelings, it will give you much to ponder over

Always your most constant friend,

J. W. v. Goethe.

• Much discussion had been raised among some of Zelter's friends,
about the interpretation of a passage in Wahrheit und Dichtung, which
might, or might not mean, that Goethe himself had, as a boy, received
" cuts and thumps " from the schoolmaster, in his own person. Zelter
laid a bet of a dozen of champagne, that this was not so.

+ The death of the Grand Duchess Luise.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 391

298. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 4th March, 1830.

.... Once more I sat out Spontini's Opera,
Olymina ; from first to last, it takes tip nearly four hours.
It is wearisome to endure so much in the enjoyment of so
meritorioixs a work of Art ; I cannot justify it, nor can I
let it alone. What I learn from it is, that confessedly I
cannot live without music. Your metaphor ahout the silk-
worm in Tasso * went right through me, each time I heard
it. I recognize myself

Yesterday evening I happened to pass by the Theatre,
and went in, without knowing what the play was. It was
Emilia Galotti. Now that is a Tragedy according to the
rules of Aristotle. Father and mother wretched ; bride-
gi'oom and bride wretched ; a wretched prince ; a love-lorn
lady, cast off and wretched too ; a wretched painter ;
Marinelli, a ragamuffin — all lying against one another and
the world. There's the thinkitig artist for you ! . . . ,

Farewell.

299. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 7th March, 1830.
.... I HAVE laid aside the French Memoirs, for a
time, as well as Le Globe and Le Temps. For it does strike
one now and then, that all this does not concern one in the
least, that about the past one probably knows as much as
anyone else, and that one is neither the wiser nor the better

for knowing what the day brings foi'th

I have been unceasingly engaged for the last two months
upon a work which gives me pleasure, and is meant to
please you all as well ; I am drawing fresh breath for it,

* Go tell the silkworm, he should cease to spin,
When ever nearer death he spins himself !
From his most secret being he unfolds
The costly woof, and never doth he rest,
Till in his coffin he himself hath sealed.

Torquato Tasso, act v. scene 2.

892 gobthe's letters [1830.

and hope to get it finished before Easter, so that I may
once more burden myself with some new business.* ....

You are quite right not to give up your conception of
Napoleon ; it has cost us too much to get thus far, for us
to abandon it for the sake of fools. It is therefore more
interesting for us to read Les Memoir es de Bignon, an earnest
diplomatist, who knows how to appreciate the hero and
ruler, who worked in accordance with his great aims, and
who remembers the achievements of the past in a pi'oper
spirit.

I am dictating this to the solemn tolling of bells, sum-
moning people to the funeral service in the church ; this is
enough to make you realize my state of mind. The poetic
confederates of Weimar too, have agi'eed to celebrate the
event quietly, in their weekly paper {Chaos), which is
familiar to you. I enclose you a copy ; you will read it

sympathetically

Now and henceforward,

J. W. V. Goethe.

300. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 27th March, 1830.
.... Do not let your clear and peculiar affinity
with Emilia Galotti be spoiled for you. This piece arose
in its day, from out of the deluge of Gottsched, Geliert, and
Weisse, as the island of Delos did, that it might com-
passionately receive a goddess in labour. We young folks
took courage from it, and so became greatly indebted to
Lessing.

In the present stage of culture, it can no longer be in-
fluential. If we look into it narrowly, we respect it, as we
do a mummy, because it gives us a proof of the high and
ancient dignity of the person preserved.

But now I should like to lead you into temptation, and
recommend you to read a little book which you are sure to
have heard of — L'Ave mart et la Femme guillotinee. The
gay and talented young Frenchmen imagine that they can

* Goethe had been devoting himself entirely to the completion of Die

Classische WaljMrgis -Nacht,

1830.] TO ZELTER. 393

fix a limit to the miserable genre of horrible, revolting
plays and romances, by ingeniously outdoing them. Herein
they fail to see, that they are whetting the public appetite
for works of that kind, and making the need of them felt
more vividly.

I will add nothing further, except my hope, that after
reading this little volume, you will find your wild Berlin
quite idyllic.

And so for ever.*
G.

.... My kindest remembrances to Felix, whose arrival
you tell me of. I say nothing about it here, in order that
the pleasure of seeing him again may be enhanced by the
surprise.

As ever and everywhere,
G.

301. — Zelter to Goethe.

12th April, 1830.
.... Last week Mademoiselle Sontag made her
first appearance as Desdemona, in Rossini's Othello, at the
Grand Opera. 1 have already spoken highly of her to you,
andldon't want to retract anything In short every-
thing about her, from head to foot — even her very dress — is
song. This is Easter-tide, and as in the interim, on Palm
Sunday and Good Friday, I have conducted two versions
of the Passion Music, I have had plenty to do. Herewith I
wished to satisfy, as far as I could, two sections of my
good Berliners, by putting forward, within short intervals
of one another, in one week, side by side, two genuine
German, religious composers ; J. S. Bach, whom people
here compare to Calderon, and C. S. Graun, whom his
friends compare to Tasso. Each performance had its special
public. The Tod Jesu is especially dear to those, who have
received the Communion on Good Friday, and Bach's
J'dssion attracts persons, who understand something more
than the general public ; I wanted to show both parties
the mutual relationship of two original German geniuses —

* These words are in English, in the original.

394 goethe's letters [1830.

one of whom formed himself entirely upon Italian models,
nay, generally worked npon Italian texts, while the other
never went out of Germany, and as far as I know, never
set any Italian piece ; — naturally they are distinguished
from each other, one by depth, another by clearness, while
in fertility they are equal ; both however, with regard to
the GanUlena, where they speak to us on common ground,
are genuinely Italian, i.e. natural.

Yesterday, after following to the grave my oldest friend,
who died at the age of ninety, I went straight off to Mozart's
Figaro, and found the charming Sontag as brilliant and

delightful a Susanna as possible Her special charm

to me was this, that by her natural gift she divines, how
this Opera, as I feel it, differs from Mozart's other works,
by ihe style of intrigue in the tnusic. One finds this style
perhaps in the single pieces of any other Italian composer
— Cimarosa, Grretry too, and others — but here it starts
at once with the Symphony, pervading the whole action,
and this seems to me to be new.

Felix had a letter from me to you, but the measles have
detained him here ; I commissioned him to let the letter
go to you, and I hope it has arrived. They say here, that
your son August is going with Eckermann to Italy ; I
wish him a safe arrival, lovely weather, and an eruption of

Vesuvius

Tours,
Z.

302. — Zelter to Goethe.

] 6th April, 1S30.

.... I HAVE just come back again from Rossini's
Othello; Spontini took me to the Opera-house in his
carriage. He too, (like all the critics,) is tooth and nail
against this Opera. He afl&rms, that there are hardly six
bars suitable to the action ; that it is a Charivari, a
Galimathias, no dignity, no strength, no sense, and all
the rest of it. For his justification, I had again read
right through Shakespeare's Othello, to stamp upon my
mind the cruel effect of jealousy in a moral " depolarity,"
as I might call it, so I do not openly confute Rossini's
enemies. I observe a discreet silence, for the thing is

1830.] TO ZELTER. 396

quite sui generis In a word, I cannot find fault

with it, even if I were forced to go yet again ; nay, if
that most senseless play, the Opera, with its songs and
dances, is to have its own place, in mirth and gravity, then
is Rossini, to me alone, a born man of Operas, for I have
been charmed, and — so have all the others too, against
their will. The clapping, shouting, and calling went on
and on, and the house was full, and beside itself with
enthusiasm. Finally, I agree with Rossini himself, that
he is a man of genius, and besides that, he handles his

tools well

Tours,
Z.
303. — Zelter to Goethe,

18th April, 1830.
, , . . Madame Milder, on her journey to St. Peters-
burg, passed by Reval, and assisted at the celebration of
the eightieth birthday of our Elizabeth Mara. That ancient
nightingale still pipes, and cannot give it up ; she teaches
singing, and is true to the words she said to me, " I shall
die, when I no longer sing." ....

Tours,
Z.

304. — Zelter to Goethe.

22nd April, 1830.
The following extract has, by way of justification,
been reprinted in our paper, from the Allgemeine Literatur-
Zeitung of Halle : —

" Herr von Goethe's dedication to the King of Bavaria,*
which prefaced the last part of the Correspondence with
Schiller, published by him, is an indirect reproach to
those German Princes, who were Schiller's contemporaries ;
it leaves us to infer, that that poet found amongst them
no patron, through whose favour his existence might
have been brightened, and his intellectual activity kej^t

* The King of Bavaria had been very kind to the poet, and had sent
his own painter, Stieler, to take his portrait. Goethe naturally wished
to express his feelings in poetry, but finding himself unable to do so,
availed himself of the prose Dedication instead.

396 Goethe's letters [1830.

alive longer than it actually was, for the Fatherland. In
order to remove this reproach, at all events from His
Majesty, the King of Prussia, my most gracious master,
and with a feeling, which all my compatriots will share
with me, I venture to bring before tlae public the fact,
only known to me in my official capacity, that our beloved
King, when Schiller had expressed a wish to settle in
Berlin, and had come to Potsdam for that purpose, assured
to him of his own motion, a yearly income of three thousand
Thalers, with free use of a royal carriage.* It was only
the poet's subsequent illness, and early death, that de-
prived the generous Monarch, and our own more narrow
Fatherland, of the distinguished honour of counting in
Schiller one more illustrious Prussian."
" Berlin, 27th March, 1830."

« v. Beymb."

The thing was certainly known to me, and others besides,
even though not officially, and if only out of respect for
my dear patron, Beyme, then Geh. Cabinetsrath, I will
testify, that he took up Schiller's cause zealously and pro-
voked discussion about it. But obstacles were not wanting.
The Xenien wrung the Academic withers of the gentlemen
of the Guild. Hufeland and Fichte, honest and downright,
had not yet taken root. Schiller was esteemed, and
Kotzebue read, enjoyed, encored. Goodwill was to
anticipate the deed ; Schiller was to take it all on credit
(zu Gute) ; money down (schlechtivcg gut) would have suited
him better, and — meanwhile the grass grows — well, that
proverb one knows well enough !

Who that is living now can picture to himself the
political-poetic-prophetic anarchy of that time, — the time
of Die Jungfrau von Orleans ? Each individual was then

* " A rich man, one day, threw from his window, a bank-note for a
considerable amount, to a ]ioet, who was passing that way, with the
words, ' There, take it ! ' The note was immediately carried away by
the wind. ' Many thanks, if only I catch it ! ' said the poet."

" Fro7n the lap of the Immortals,— from the clouds doth fortune fall,
And the moment, now and ever, is the strongest lord of all."

Tliis, [Die Gunst des Augenblicks, and Schiller's Theiluvg der Erde too,)
I have, in its time, set to music, with bitter tears." — Note by Zelter.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 397

an object of suspicion to his neighbour, and if men like
Johannes Müller seemed to attract and repel at the same
time, who then was to be trusted ? Why, the all-powerful
Beyme even, — because he did not want the war, they did
not want him

305. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29th April, 1830.
I HAVE no reply to make to that publication. Alas I
it only renews my old grief, that this most excellent man
should, up to his forty-fifth year, have been left to himself,
to the Duke of Weimar, and to his publisher, — whereby, no
doubt, he was able to secure a moderate subsistence, though
only a very limited one ; only at the very last was a pro-
posal made, to offer him a wider sphere, which would not
even at an earlier date have been suitable, but when
proposed, was hopelessly impracticable.

By the way, let me tell you a queer thing, viz. that
after a severe but swift resolve, I have given up all
newspaper reading, and am content with what I gather
from social intercourse. This is of the greatest impor-
tance ; for when carefully considered, it is mere Philistinism
on the part of private individuals, to bestow too much
interest upon matters that do not concern them.

During the six weeks that I have left all the French and
German newspapers lying in their wrappers, it is incredible,,
what an amount of time I have gained, and what work I
have got through.

The last volumes of my works are now in the hands of the
printers, and the most urgent letters and the answers to-
them have almost all been attended to. And now I may
whisper in your ear, that I have the happiness of finding
that at my advanced age, thoughts arise within me, for the
following out and practical realization of which, it might be
well worth while, to live one's life over again. Therefore, as
long as it is day, we will not occupy ourselves with Allotria.

One, Dr. Lautier, an able man, has sent me a little book,
with a pamphlet and an explanatory letter, from which I
can plainly see, that the good man has likewise bravely

398 Goethe's letters [1830.

attacked the problems that have engaged the world, ever
since it had any thoughts at all. As he refers me to you,
pray give him my kindest regards. Unfortunately I dare
not meddle with things in the abstract ; I have so much of
the concrete upon me, that I have to drag along anyhow.
There is nothing more natural, than that such a man, who
wants to penetrate into the depths that have to be fathomed,
in his own way, should have to make his own language for
himself. It will, at first, be a wearisome task for anyone
else to understand it, although, if fortune be kind, he will
be rewarded in the end. But now, have the goodness to
send me the most realistic work in the world, the Red
Book for the two Royal Residences — Berlin and Potsdam
— the newest edition that can be got. I occasionally come
across the local authorities, and after carefully attending
to the contents of my letters, I do not want to neglect the
proper formalities.

And thus ever,
G.

306. — Zelter to Goethe.

28th April, 1830.

Again we have finished off Haydn's Creation, and

again we have not exhausted it. Everything that can be

called a Musical Director by name, standing, and dignity,

assembled upon this occasion, to solemnize the work, under

Spontini, as chief commander

As we are talking about Schiller, and I find, on my
return from the Theatre, your letter of the 29th, I may as
well tell you, that I have just seen Cahale und Liehe again.
What electrical power that play had over me, and over all
the impetuous youth of that time, fifty years ago, you can
well inaagine. He who can look back upon it from that
time, will not reckon it so low as Moritz did in those
days ; he was right enough indeed, but he did not suspect
the coming on of the Revolution. The play belongs to that
time, and is so far an historical piece, full of power and
mind, in spite of the low company at war with each other
therein. This, and Die Rauher, it was reported had
endangered Schiller's success, by the personal allusions

1830.] TO ZELTER. 399

contained in them. You might call these two plays the
Chaos of the Schillerian Creation.

As yoiT will hardly read to the two hundred and eighth
page of Dr. Lautier's System of Thorough-Bass, let me
recommend you to read the last fourteen lines of that page,
for they say w^hat the whole book means, — which indeed

can be understood of itself

Yours,

Ekclosdre.

" On the conclusion of Haydn's Oratorio, The Creation,
in which the respective members of the Singakademie,
led by the excellent Zelter, especially distinguished them-
selves, Spontini, turning to the latter, addressed him
warmly in these terms : ' Je salue avec respect le digne
Nestor de la musique Prussienne et sa vaillante et unique
Academic de chant, qu'il a bien voulu confier ä ma direction
et aupres de laquelle je le prie d'etre I'interprete de mes
sentimens pour eile.' Undoubtedly these few but earnest
words do as much honour to the veteran of music, as, on
the part of the speaker, they are in complete contrast to
the rumours, constantly circulated by some persons, to the
effect that Spontini has no reverence for what is great, and
does not give it full recognition." — From the Berliner
Courier, &c., by M. G. Saphir, 1830, No. 973, p. 4.

307. — Zelter to Goethe,

lOth May, 1830.
.... I HAVE now heard Mademoiselle Sontag
three times in Othello. I wanted to see if she was alivays
mistress of the situation. She was as different as three

days of the week, and yet she vpas always Desdemona

Unhappily the sweet creature is about to become a countess;
what a pity !

Felix, to whom I have given a letter for you, has been on
the point of starting, from day to day. On Friday he
played another Concerto of old Bach's at my house, like a

400 Goethe's letters [1830.

true master ; the Concerto is as diificult as it is beautiful,
and it was good enough for old Bach himself to listen to.
I am getting impatient for the time, when the lad will
get away to Italy, out of the wild jingling of Berlin ; in
my judgment, he ought to have gone there at the begin-
ning. There the stones have ears, here they eat lentils with

pigs ears

Yours,

308. — GoETHB TO Zelter.

Weimar, 3rd June, 1830.

A PEW minutes ago, at half-past nine this morning,
the excellent Felix left for Jena, with Ottilie, Ulrike, and
the children, favoured by the clearest weather, and the
brightest sunshine, after having spent a happy fortnight
with us, and delighted everyone with his finished, lovable
art ; there too he will charm his sympathetic friends,
leaving behind in our neighbourhood, a remembrance which
will ever be held in high honour. To me his presence was
especially beneficial, for I found that my relation to music
is still the same as ever ; I listen to it with pleasure, and
meditative interest, and I love the historical part of it.
Who can understand any kind of phenomenon, if he is not
thoroughly imbued with the course of its development down
to the present time ? The great thing for me was, that
Felix understood this progressive advancement very cona-
mendably, and happily his excellent memory brings before
him at will every kind of specimen. Beginning with the
Bach epoch, he brought Haydn, Mozart, and Gluck to
life again for me, gave me an adequate idea of the great
masters of technique in more modern times, and lastly,
made nie feel and ponder over his own compositions ; so
he parted from me with my fervent blessing.

AH this I have written olf to you in hot haste, that I
may challenge you to a fresh letter. Pray, say the very
best you can, in words that mean something, to the worthy
parents of this extraordinary young artist ; give a kindly
disposed botanical friend the enclosed note, and think of me
as of a friend, who is not indeed always at his ease, though

1830.] TO ZELTER. 401

still ever earnestly, nay, passionately active and aspiring.
He gladly edifies himself with the example that you give
him.

And thus as ever, yours,

309. — Zeltbr to Goethe.

Berlin, 15th June, 1830.
The tender, fatherly affection, with which you have
honoured our Felix, has exalted his parents and brothers
and sisters into the seventh heaven. I thank you as I can ;
it will be a lifelong joy to him. At times I grow frightened,
when I look at the coui'se of the boy's life. Up to the
present time, he has met with scarcely a contradiction.
As a pupil, I have not over-estimated him, nor found it
necessary to praise him, although I can only view with
complacency his natural obedience, and the instinct that
he has, of busying himself mentally, when he is not forced
to do anything ; nay, I dare think of myself as having
taught him the truth, as I recognize it in the second and
third power, making up the full sum. He takes away with
him from here a complete system, upon which he can build
what genius inspires him with, and if he continues to

develope in this way, he must think of his teacher

A letter from Felix to his parents has just arrived from
Munich, where he has had capital introductions. The
lad still revels in the happiness that fell to his lot at
Weimar and at Jena.

Farewell ! Yours,

310. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 8th July, 1830.

.... I MUST tell you, that Felix has recalled his
delightful presence to our minds, by a very charming letter
from Munich, in which he discusses that strange place with
great judgment. His special friend there was the Court-
painter, Stieler, who when painting my portrait, during a
stay of more than eight weeks here, became quite one of
ourselves. It is pleasant to learn, what such a man, at

D D

402 Goethe's letters [1830.

such a time, and under such circumstances, regarded as
profitable. Furthermore, I suppose I must have told you
already, that my son and Dr. Eckermann started for the
South, the end of April. My son's journals on the way as
far as Milan, and thence to Venice, testify to his clear
views of worldly matters, his thoughtful activity in learn-
ing to know and to be friends with men and things. The
great advantage that this will be, to him and to us, is,
that he will get to know himself, and learn what he is
worth, far better than he was able to, in our simple and
limited surroundings. In all this you will give him your

blessing

Most sincerely yours,
G.

311. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18th July, 1830.
.... All success to your Student Chorus ! I can
quite imagine, that more modern listeners, who care for
nothing but sentimental drawling and murmuring, should
find a vigorous style of song which lifts the heart and
splits the roof, detestable ; their Choral singing is never
anything else but Ein laues Bad ist unser Thee, \Our tea is
all a lukewarvi bath,) and then they imagine nevertheless
that they have something of eine feste Burg, (a Strong-
hold sure,) and that a " God " of some kind or other is

troubling himself about them

I should like to add thus much about my son : he is
looking about him witli much quiet observation, and writing
diaries full of detail, which is after all the main thing, for
the objects themselves disappear, and impressions vanish.
He went from Milan, after he had thoroughly explored the
city and its environs, by way of Brescia, Verona, and
Padua, to Venice ; there too he rummaged about famously,
and then went back to Milan, by way of Mantua, Cremona,
and Lodi. There he picked up what he had left behind
him, and made the acquaintance of your Professor Rauch ;
they liked each other, and started together for Genoa, about
the 5th of July. Eckermann has accompanied him hitherto,
and will do so further. My son is truly the very model of

1830.] TO ZBLTER. 403

a realistic Traveller, and now lie feels for the first time,
how much knowledge he has sucked in. He has shown
his judgment too in purchasing, at a moderate price, for my
collection of medals, — especially those cast in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, — nearly a hundred very valuable
specimens ; these, to my great delight, have already reached
me safely.

What I have promised you in the way of books and
papers will be sent by coach, and herewith, Herr Doctor,
I remain.

Your truly attached,
G.

312. — Zelter to Goethe.

13th August, 1830.
.... To save the post, I will conclude, enclosing
herewith an account of my installation as artium liberalium
viag ister — a compliment not of my own seeking, but freely
and ungrudgingly bestowed. Next day there was a banquet
at Tivoli, every man paying for himself. There were plenty
of toasts ; at last it came to the turn of the newly-made
Doctors. I was the only one present, the others had left
Berlin, and I had to make the speech. In the ecstasy of
my gratitude, and full of sweet wine, I must have ex-
pressed myself peculiarly, for everyone laughed through
all the octaves ; my speech was something like this : " In
the name of my absent and worthy colleagues, I thank you
sincerely ; as regards myself, the honoured persons who
have conferred on me such dignities as I now enjoy, will
have to be responsible for it to God."

Yours,

313. — Zelter to Goethe.

27th August, 1830.

.... For the first time for several months, I
went yesterday to the Theatre. Hans Sachs* a play by

* Two years before, Count Brühl had asked Goethe's permission to
use his poem, Hans Sachsens poetische Sendung, as a Prologue to Dein-

404 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1830.

Deinhardstein, is rather well given here; the poet has
very cleverly contrasted the position of a mechanic, who, in
addition to his craft, has acquired intellectual distinction,
with that of other citizens and artisans. In the main, the
ordinary citizen is quite right, and in particular instances,
it is just the same with them, as with the higher and the
highest classes. You too have expressed yourself satis-
factorily upon the subject, and experience this more and
more every day. But you must feel glad that you suggested
this pretty play, by your honourable mention of the ancient
father of German poets. The house was not full, but the
play had a good effect — on me at any rate, if not to such
an extent on any other of the audience.

One of our young musicians in the Orchestra had com-
posed music for the Entr'actes, which seemed to me quite
charming, if only because it does not attempt to say what it
cannot. Many composers of this class will repeat after
the end of an Act the very thing we are glad to be quit of,
or else they betray beforehand, what is to come, tormenting
the ear with strains which it cannot understand. Conse-
quently, the value of a piece of music, which falls into its
right place, and fills up the given time successfully, is
untold.

Yours ever,

314. — Zelter to Goethe.

26th September, 1830.

.... I HAVE no comfort to give you about musical
matters ; I rub on in my old way, and let the rest of the
world wag. Herr Mai-x or Markus, not the Evangelist,
although in the Musikalische Zeitung he preaches the new
doctrine of bunglers, brought me greetings from Felix,
who is at Munich ; this is understood of itself, as there
is no good understanding between me and the bearer.
This Marx has just published in quarto a Kunst des Gesanges,

hardstein's play. It may safely be conjectiu-ed, that the musical Hans

Sachs of our day would make the revival of the Berlin play a liazardous
scheme for au Impresario, but the comparison would interest the disciples
of Wagner.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 405

at which, by his own account, he has worked for nine
years, that he may end by making- Italian music a grief to
the Germans. The work begins thus : " We now find our-
selves at the outset of a period in the Art of music, in
which Italian music fills all countines, Germany included,
almost making us forget what German Art and German
music are." If that were true, undoubtedly the best thing
the Germans could do, would be to compose music, that
would make us glad to forego the Italian. But the
attack on the excesses of the Italian style, as exemplified
in the once salv. ven. Castrati and other forgotten horrors,
is as stale as the whole doctrine of Marx. Have but talent,
my worthy Germans, and with that, go seek for ears and
eyes, feeling and stimulus ; foreign countries will do you no
harm ! Dürer, Hackert, Grothe, and many others besides,
strengthened and confirmed their talent in Italy, and he who
takes nothing thither, will bring nothing back. Handel,
Graun, Hasse, Mozart, made music wherever they were,
whether Scotch, Italian, Evangelical, it was all one to
them, — and the world is filled with what they did, and did
well. All honour to your German science — ye professorial
gentlemen — if you will only let music be music still !

The quarrels over the new Berlin Hymn-Book are
still going on ; the truth may lie betwixt and between,
though each faction may be far from it. The Porst Hymn-
Book is certainly not enjoyable, unless one venerates the
sentiment, the earnestness, and the truth contained in it ;
the new Book, on the contrary, is neither a new one, nor
the old one, — nay, the very necessity of a new one just now
would be open to attack, when the inability to make a new
one is so candidly confessed. The cobbling and soling of
the old ox-hide verses is — however brave a name one
may attach to it — at best a green fig-leaf to the original
sin

To-day is the 6th of October, so I conclude in memory
of the prophet of St. Helena.

Farewell, and let me soon hear your voice again.

Yours,

406 goethe s lettebs [1830.

315. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 5th October, 1830.

At a pleasant party lately, I compared you to a well-
built mill, which requires water to turn its wheel -works,
and must have plenty of corn, to prevent the stones from
rubbing against each other. Now although, as an organic
being, all this is your own, still you require a flood from
without for your mill-stream, and many customers ; the
Theatre and the ergo hibamus may count among them. We
wish you the choicest wheat in the shape of teachable
pupils, whom you will not crush indeed, but — which is all
the more desirable — grind and discipline. Take this simile
in good part, for, according to Gall,* that sort of thing is
innate in me.

Latterly I have again been looking into Sterne's Tris-
tram, which made a great sensation in Germany, just at
the time when I was a wretched little fellow at school. As
years went on, my admiration for it increased, and it is
still increasing, for who, in the year 1759, saw through
Pedantry and Philistinism so well, or described it so
cheerily ? As yet I have not found his equal in the wide
circle of letters.

Forgive me for thinking it important enough to tell you,
that this is Sunday morning, and that nothing from without
disturbs me ; we have almost become accustomed of late
to the wild excesses of masses of people and mobs, ^ and
marching bands too, we take for granted. It certainly
seems !?trange to me, after the lapse of nearly forty years,
to see a revival of the old uproarious tumults.

Since Herr von Henning was here, I have sent various
things to the Berlin Jahrbücher ; my contributions have
been kindly received, and I recommend them to you, so that
you may know what I am about. I am again taken up

* Johann Joseph Gall, the craniologist and phrenologist, whose lec-
tures Goethe liad attended in Hallo. He was so much interested in the
subject, that wlien prevented from attending by illness, he prevailed
upon Gall to deliver the lectures, which he had missed, at his bedside.
" Gall's assertion, that Goethe was born for political oratory more than
for poetry, has much amused those who knew Goethe's dislike of
politics." See Lewes's Life of Goethe.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 407

with Nature, the best of all objects for a contemplative
person like myself. The deeper one penetrates into her
domain, the truer she becomes. She, no doubt, energeti-
cally resists awkward, incompetent persons, but in order to
justify her sex, she yields to perseverance.

The Campanella was published in the Chaos ; * if you were
to send me the music for it, we should get a glimpse of
flats and sharps again. The conclusion of the series for the
year, i.e. fifty-two pages, is close at hand. I encourage them to
go on ; it gives our little society occupation, and is of some
influence in many quarters. The title-page will have for a
vignette a plan of Weimar, drawn like a compass, with
points marking the places where the contributors reside.

My Frankfort patrons and friends sent me on my birth-
day a valuable silver goblet and several bottles of good
wine, with some little verses, referring to the General- Beichte.
Thus it resounds hither and thither, and in the end an echo
comes back delightfully, now and again, to the sources
amongst the rocks.

Remember me to your dear young people, and cheer them
up as much as possible.

The above has been lying by me for several weeks past.
The shocks of the Paris earthquake have branched out
energetically through Europe ; in Berlin too, you have
experienced a fever fit. All the skill of those who are
still proof, consists in making the single paroxysms harm-
less, and this gives us too plenty to do at every turn and
comer. If we can manage this, we shall again be quiet
for a time. I say no more.

Outside Troy mistaJces are viade, and inside Troy as well.

Beineke Fucks.

316. — Zeltee to Goethe.

Berlin, 26th October, 1830.

.... As a wind-up to the Royal wedding festi-
vities (of Prince Albrecht), they gave ns at the Opera a

* Ottilie's weekly paper, for circulation among friends. It came out
every Sunday. See Letter 236, Note.

408 Goethe's letters [1830.

grand performance of Wilhelm Tell, en masque. The proper
Wilhelm Tell wae composed by Rossini for Paris ; it gave
offence however, on account of its revolutionary tendency,
so they (h) offered (Jiofirt) us a completely new and altered
text, and the Opera is now called Andreas Hofer. No one
is supposed to notice this. Really they are just like little
children, who fancy that no one can scent them out, if they
keep their eyes shut.

What kind of a man Rossini is, will now be shown. My
reputation is at stake. If however the work pleases, I
have won, because I affirm, that no poet can do him any
harm, nor make an end of him. One of these days some

on« will venture to adapt a Figaro to his Semiramis

317. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29th October, 1830.

.... I AM glad you spoke kindly and gratefully
to Herr von Humboldt, about his observations respecting
my stay in Rome ; it gave me much to think of and re-
member. He had a wonderful way of turning everything
inside out, merging himself in the local conditions, and
observing me as I then was. I found there was every
reason to bring my inmost thought to bear on his remarks,
and this has led me back to make all kinds of reflections
on myself.

How I should like again to go over all I have recognized
and known in your invaluable Museum, confess my igno-
rance, enrich and complete my ideas, but above all, gain for
myself this once some free enjoyment, unspoilt by Criticism
and History ! Reflection on a work of Art is a fine thing,
but praise must lead the way, and judgment follow.

Your Art Exhibition is also a living proof that everyone
is busy and at work. Men with technical talent are always
being born, and these are seldom without mind, even
though it may not predominate. Pray let me have a few
words about No. 392. It represents a royal pair in sor-
row. That is a curious su1)ject. I like the three Holy
Kings adoring the Lord of the world, born in secret, and
His mother and foster-father, better and better, the oftener

1830.] TO ZELTER. 409

iihej are painted. But I will not censure that which I
have no conception of.

Limited as I am, I have been obliged to open up special
paths, in order to get forward. Thus, for instance, I have
been studying pearl fishery, i.e. trying to find out whether
one could possibly obtain a jewel from gaping shells and
half-decayed matter ; and in this I succeeded. I have also
come into the possession of such drawings as I am not
likely to part with again all my life long.

6tli November, 1830.

As to that branch of your Liedertafel,* you are not
dissatisfied with it, and I should say that these excellent
young people, in accordance with the advancing age,
naturally want to go forward also ; but whither ? That is
the question ! We others, as all our Songs prove, required
mirth within the bounds of sociability, and placed ourselves
in innocent opposition to the Philistines. They, it is true,
are neither conquered nor exterminated, but they no longer
•come into consideration. The more modern boon compa-
nions seek their opponents on a higher stage, and it would
surprise me, if your pupils did not follow in Beranger's
footsteps. That certainly is a field where there is still
something to be done, and where they can outbid us, pro-
vided they have as much talent as the aforesaid. How-
ever, let us commend this, with much besides, to those
demons who have their fingers in every pie of this kind.

It does not surprise me, that Burger's talent is again
a matter of discussion ; he was decidedly gifted, and a
thorough German, but he had no foundation, and no taste,

* A second Liedertafel had been started in Berlin, in imitation of the
first, and the youthful members had come to Zelter, to ask him for the
original Songs. " If you want to be a mere shadow of us, you are no
good at all," said he, '• but if you want to look ujjon your affair as a good
sequel to a good thing, why then make your own ISongs, or steal
them, as you can." — " This the}' did," (he continues;) " I myself wrote
some completely new Songs for them, and some of their fellow-members

have composed such good pieces, that one cannot but pi'aise them

They are vigorous young fellows, somewhat inclined to anarchy, but
really well-behaved, and well-disposed towards all that is beautiful,
though they are like my barometer, which is always dancing up to, and
■down from fair AVeather, without ever coming to Settled."

410 Goethe's letters [1830.

and he was as flat as his public. Certainly, as a young
enthusiast, I contributed much to his success before the
world, but at last a shudder used to come over me, when a
well-educated Court-lady, in the height of neglige, raptu-
rously declaimed his Frau Fips, or Faps, or whatever the
name may be. It became rather dangerous to continue the
addresses one had begun to pay her, even though in other
respects she seemed quite charming and seductive. Schiller
indeed confronted him abruptly with his ideally polished
mirror, and here we may take Burger's part ; yet Schiller
could not possibly endure such commonplace near him, for
his own aim was different, and moreover he attained it.

It cost me nothing to recognize Burger's talent ; it was
anyhow remarkable in its day, and anything genuine and
true in it will always be acknowledged, and mentioned
with honour, in the History of German Literature.

It lies in the nature of the thing, that the contents of
our six little volumes,* which you have been devouring,
should delight as well as grieve you to the quick at the same
time. Now if you consider that Schiller departed this life
just at the right time, leaving us burdened with the period
from 1806 onwards, you will have plenty of food for reflec-
tion, for it weighed heavily enough upon you also.

My Farbenlehre was printed up to about the tenth sheet ;
the papers belonging to it were the first that I saved.
Strangely enough, it was found that someone else had also
sought out the same asylum for important things, and re-
moved what I had saved. So it was rescued over again. • I
found myself enabled, using my best judgment, to publish the
entire work four years afterwards, and even now there is
not much in it that I should care to alter. What had to be
supplemented, I have inserted elsewhere ; perhaps no one
yet knows exactly what to make of it.

In giving those particulars, I expressed myself to the
effect, that since Schiller's death we have not ceased to exert
ourselves in a thousand different ways, up to the present
day, which also, after its own fashion, brings its own
burdens.

Forgive me this strange leap-frog manner ; else there is

* Tlie Correspondence between Goethe and Schiller.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 411

no talk, no diversion. I let you do the same, without
much deliberation. The great thing after all is only.
Forwards !

318. — Zelter to Goethe.

2ik1 November, 1830.

.... A CERTAIN Madame Birch-Pfeiffer ingratiated
herself with me the day before yesterday, by her acting as
Countess Orsina (in Lessing's Emilia Galotti), and I shall be
very glad to see her again. The objection I have never ceased
to feel in my inmost heart, from old times, to the chief
character in this well-known Tragedy, has now been brought
into tragical agreement with the rest, by this Madame Bircli-
Pfeiffer aforesaid. From her first appearance in the Fourth
Act, until she accompanies Claudia, the mother, to Guastalla,
she makes herself an object of deep sympathy, as an Italian,
as a lover, — nay, as almost lovable. A downright passion,
disciplined by modesty and good breeding, must inspire
respect. With all this, she is no beauty ; her face scarcelv
pleased me — still she makes up for that by her deportment,
her cleverness, and her clear elocution. In her version of
it, the Prince is a murderer, and Marinelli, who is intended
to be her counterpart, is a made-up, marred abortion.
Madame Birch-Pfeiffer is also the authoress of a play,
I)as Pfefferrösel, which pleased me ; I hope I shall get to
know her personally

Yesterday, I at length saw and heard the much-abused
soi-disant Andreas Hofer, ci-devant Wilhelm Tell, and I think
I have won my game.

This time the Composer has written an Opera for Paris,
which has a capital Orchestra, and screamers for singers. I
recognized the man himself in his complete individuality;
still, his work is a novelty, as his ground is new, and I con-
sider this Opera actually unfeasible in Italy, as the singers
will decline to sing it, and the Orchestra cannot play it. The
work is in four Acts, and throughout, all is spirit and life.
Though in Rossini's Italian Operas we may have many a
dreary moment, here there is nothing but continuous anima-
tion, fire, and variety. The poem is a ridiculous falsifica-

412 Goethe's letters [1830.

tion of the history of oiii' time, and reminds one of the
countless defeats of the triumphant party, nay, of the dis-
graceful fall of a brave patriot, about whom no one has

troubled himself, except the enemy of the Fatherland

The music so excited me, that I could not sleep that night;
perhaps I may send you fuller details about the second
performance

Your account of your pearl-fishery is a second peai'l

Hegel and his wife have got the fever again, and I am
anxious about both of them. Felix will, I expect, be in
Rome now, whereat I greatly I'ejoice, as his mother was
always opposed to Italy. I dreaded seeing him here, and in
the country too, dissolving like a jelly under the corrupting
influence of family gossip, for I consider him really a first-
rate player, because he plays everything, and is a master of
all styles. Let him go forth, therefore, into the world, and
discover his masters, and awake them, and begin where
the beginning is; the materials for that he brings with

him Yours,

319. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 9th November, 1830,

You have been good enough to send a silhouette of
your world of wonders, deeds, and sounds into my cell
here ; here are Cephalus and Procris for you, with my
interpretation of them.* Place yourself in front of it, stick
in hand, thoughtfully, while you interpret it, as a ballad-
singer does his song ; anyhow it will satisfy jon for the
moment. But here where it ends, it ought properly to begin.
Oh, the grandeur of the representation of a thing that can
scarcely be represented at all !

Let me skip over to the Woman of Samaria ! f Each of

* Appended to this letter is a long and minute description of Giuho
Komano's picture.

t Tliis refers to Ilensel's pictui'e of Christ at the Well of Samaria,
The following; quotation sliows the impression that it made on Zelter's
mind : — " In the distance, the ])isciplos are coining out of a wood, and
the foremost of tliem, witli arm uplifted, seems to say, ' Tliere He sits
again, talking with a maiden, while we must go and look fur Him ! ' —

1830.] TO ZELTER. 413

Chi'ist's appearances, every oeie of His utterances tends to
bring what is above us within the range of contemplation.
He is always rising Himself, and raising others from what
is low, and as this is most striking with sinners and trans-
gressors, such instances occur very frequently.

This grand, moral, Prophet-like act cannot, however, be
sensuously represented, and pictures of this kind are only
painted, because they have often been painted before, and
because artists like to repeat a seductive woman doing the
devotional. When we consider the many husbands of the
Samaritan woman, we certainly find it hard to conjecture
what the meek prophet can be to her. It may be a good
picture, but it says nothing. Modern artists have no idea
of this, and in the end, they have to put up with your ex-
planation of the minor details of the story. But herein lies
the fundamental error of German artists for nearly forty
years past. What have they to do with me ? Have we not
our Moses and our prophets ?

I cannot forbear stating what has just occurred to me.
Schiller had this same Christ-like tendency innate in him ;
he touched nothing low without ennobling it. It was the '
bent of his inward activity. Some manuscript notes are still
in existence, Avritten by a lady,* who lived for some time in
his family. She jotted down simply and faithfully what
he said to her, on leaving the Theatre, when she was making
tea for him, and on other occasions ; all was conversation
in the higher sense, and his belief that this kind of thing
could be taken up and made use of by a young woman, quite
touches me. And yet it has been taken up and has been
made use of, just as the Gospel was. " A sower went forth
to sow," &c.

Now, let anyone paint Schiller at a tea-table, sitting
opposite a young woman ; what can possibly be expressed
in that way ? although a young, innocent child, confront-
ing an eminent man, whose words she reverences, and
would like to understand and preserve, is always a more

The painter appeared almost angry at this suggestion, for he answered,
that he had never thought of such a thing. ' And what did you think,
of, then ? ' I said rather pettishly, ' if in looking at your work, one
may not think the best that is possible of a man.' "
* Fräulein von Wiu'mb, See Letter 355.

414 Goethe's letters [1830.

commendable subject [than tbe Woman of Samaria], — only-
it is not a picturesque one.

Meanwhile, enough of this ; turn back again to your
Giulio Bomano, where J on will feel yourself fortified against

all this twaddle

Yours in haste,

320. — Zelter to Goethe.

13th November, 1830.
.... Krüger, the painter, whose fine lai'ge picture
of the Military Parade has been so successful, has hurt
his head, owing to a fall from his horse at a boar-hunt on St.
Hubert's day,— but there was no further damage. I tell
you this, merely because it was said, that his right hand had
been severely injured — which is not the case, as I learn from
his father-in-law. It would be an irreparable loss to Art, if
this fine young fellow could no longer use his right hand.
One may carry anything too f ai', and I say this, only because
I happen to remember, that the excellent Mozart used to
have his meat cut up for him by his wife, for fear of
wounding himself with the knife

To-morrow, Sunday, our Art Exhibition closes. The
life-size marble statue of Hope, by Thorwaldsen, does not
explain itself to me, although the individual parts are well
worked out. The attitude seems to me pai-alyzed, — murumi-
fied, — and the drapery fits, or rather lies upon the figure,
like a shroud. I do not understand this rightly, therefore
forgive my mistakes ; I cannot help doubting, whether it is
possible to represent Hope in statuary

Farewell ; I think of you every hour, and feel you every-
where. Your bust, and those of Schiller nnd our King, in
all shapes and sizes, stand on the chests and tables of the
humblest abodes. The plaster-cast dealers carry them about

all day long, shouting, through the streets You can

buy all three busts for six silver Gruselt en, and a bargain-
driver can get them even cheaper, though one can hardly
believe that it pays for the plaster ; but the casts are so thin,
that they must be handled very gently.

Yours,

1830.] to zelter. 415

321. — Zelter to Goethe.

13th November, 1830.
What I learn at third hand,* now that my last
letter to you is already in the post, will be no secret to
thee, thou best of men ! This news opens up an old sore
in me, which I thought had cicatrized at last. I had just
begun to devour Thomas Carlyle's Life of Schiller, when
the letter from Weimar, coming like a flash and a thunder-
bolt, dashed the book from my hand.

Our brotherhood, old friend, proves itself solemnly
enough. Must we live through this, endure in silence,
and be still ! — Yes, with our own eyes we must see that
pei'ish, wherein we have no part. That is the only comfort
we can feel. With pride I say "We," for I feel pain, i£
a needle pricks you. — —

I have now taken up the book again, and think to under-
stand it better, nay, I find myself again in it. If you endured
with Schiller two periods of distance and neighbourhood,
there were three with me, though I do not therefore thrust
myself either near or between you two, for each of you
must have been conscious of his influence upon the world.

Die Biiuber was a play which wounded me as deeply, as
it delighted me greatly. If I was horrified at Franz Moor,
and allowed there was something unpleasant about that
old fool of a father, still I myself was a Karl Moor, like all
the rest of us young people, — just that we might step
forth as heroes, from our youthful commonplace.

Then appeared Kahale tend Liebe, in which a musician
was represented, in whom I recognized the exact counter-
part of our Stadtpfeifer, George. This man was a first-rate
hand at various instruments, a well-intentioned fellow,
though of rough manners, and entirely devoted to me.
Then there appeared a review of Kahale tmd Liebe, which
made me angry ; — I think Moritz was the author of it. I
could have killed the reviewer ; I declared so often and so

* This refers to the death of Aupjust Goethe at Eome, on the 27th of
October, 1830. He was buried near the Pyramid of Cestius, where
Goethe, many years befoi'e, had planned a grave. Thorwaldsen de-
signed a monument, which he erected there, out of respect for Goethe.

416 Goethe's letters [1830.

loudly against bim, that my father once said to me, " You
seem to me like one who washes himself with dirty water,
for you take pleasure in that which displeases you, you love
going on about what vexes you ; I think you can do some-
thing better than what you have never learnt to do, nor do I
myself understand it." This — like everything that my father
used to say — made me reflect ; and when Fiesco appeared,
and was played here by Fleck with great applause, there
arose a coolness in me, which almost passed into coldness, —
so that now, what I liked best, was to take my part as a
player in old Döbbelin's Orchestra, let the Operas be what
they might. This second epoch extended itself up to the
time of Wallenstein. I had then become more intimately
acquainted with Engel, Nicolai, Zöllner, Moritz, and others.
Then I heard the faults of the play discussed : — it was not
in harmony with history, it had cost eight years' work and
was still so incomplete, &c. — I was obliged to hold my
tongue, though I could not agree with them.

Fleck's acting of Wollenstem was masterly ; the more I
saw him, the more I was attracted. I summed up to myself
all that I had hitherto heard about Schiller, and a deep
desire arose within me, to make the personal acquaintance
of the poet. Speaking sincerely, the chief inducement I
had, in coming to you people in the first instance, was,
that I might learn to know Schiller, and therefore I came
by way of Jena, because I did not know, that Schiller had
already settled in Weimar, He was not long back from
Dresden. Naumann had composed music for his Idealef and
made a pupil of his, a Mdlle. Schäfer, sing it to the poet.
The first thing that Schiller talked to me about was this
composition, over which he got quite angry — that so illus-
trious a man could so belabour a poem, as to tear its
soul to tatters with his vile tweedle-dee, — and so he launched
out against composers as a body !

I need not describe the eifect of so comforting an oration.
I had brought Schiller's and your poems in my bag, and
in one moment lost all desire to unpack them. This was
before dinner. Schiller and I were to dine with you. His
wife came and said, " Schiller, you must go and dress —
time's up." So Schiller goes into the next room and leaves
me alone. I seat myself at the piano, play a few chords,

1830.] TO ZELTER. 417

and hnm the Taucher quite quietly to myself. Towards
the end of the strophe, the door opens, and Schiller — only
half -dressed — steals in. "Yes, that's right, that's as it
ought to be," &c. Then the wife begins again ; " Dear
Schiller, it is past two o'clock ; do just dress first, you
know Goethe does not like waiting too long." — And so it
all came right.

You will remember, how often in those days I showed
off my musical divertissements before him, and you, and all
the rest, — how you used to send Ehlers* to my room, to
practise the little pieces with me, and how well he did
several of them.

Forgive me for being such a gossip. To-day is Sunday,
(the 14th of November,) when one has an hour's peace,
though I have already attended a stiff musical rehearsal,
three hours long. I agree pretty well with what I find in
Thomas Carlyle about Schubart. I too felt strongly about
the violent treatment he met with, for he was a musician,
though his music gave me no pleasure ; nor did his Ästhetik
der Tonlmnst, wherein he taught what I was just on the
point of abjuring, — how to break through the wall, so as to
penetrate into the Sanctuary, when the door is close by.
He had learnt nothing, and is gone to the place from
whence he came.

This letter was not intended to go, until I knew some
more particulars about you, but to-day is the 18th, so I
shall send it.

Felix arrived in Rome on the 1st of November, and
has written to his parents from thence. Let me have a
word from you ; I cannot set foot in the street, without
being asked how you are.

Tours,

322. — Zelter to Goethe.

Sunday, 21st November, 1830.
Yesterday, Prince Radzivil let me hear three new
scenes from his Faust. I cannot sufficiently praise the

* Wilhelm Ehlers, actor, singer, and author of a volume of Songs,
w^ith giiitar accompaniment.

E E

418 goethb's letters [1830.

care with which everything is thought out, even to the
smallest details

The Concert given by our Madame Milder went off suc-
cessfully enough last Thursday, in spite of opjjosition from
all quarters. In accordance with her wish and the first
announcement, I had to conduct the music, though I only
did so as a mediator, for without my presence, it would
have been difficult to avoid a complete breach with friends
and foes, who would not put up with her temper, caprice,
bad behaviour, and so on. She likes having her own way.
Her voice is even now a work of God.

Nothing is yet announced about the approaching Carnival.
Spontini is looked for, if he is not hoped for. In Paris he
is said to have praised Berlin, just as he praised Paris, when
he was here. No new Operas have been heard of, and
Andreas Hofer has not yet been given again. The Ballet
is now the chief interest, and little Elsler really dances,
or I should rather say, twists and pirouettes, marvellously.
Madame Birch- Pfeiffer has not appeared again ; she did
not take. She could not get into the running, and tried
it on with other Tragedies, which are no go here. The
critics also did not exactly express themselves in her
favour, and that goes for something ; now and then too

they are right

Tours,

323. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 21st November, 1830.

Nemo ante ohitnm heatus is a phrase which figures
in the world's history, but in reality means nothing. Had
it any real meaning, it should be construed, "Expect trials
up to the last." You, my good friend, have had no lack
of these, nor I either, and it seems as though Fate were
convinced that we are not woven together of nerves, veins,
arteries, and other organs derived from them, but of wire.
Thanks for your dear letter : once before too I had to
send you a Job's message * like that, as an hospitable
greeting. Well, let the matter rest !

* See Letter 104.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 419

The element iu this trial that is really strange and sig-
nificant is, that all those burdens which I thought to divest
myself of immediately, — nay, with the New Year, — letting
them devolve on one younger than myself, — I shall now
have to drag on alone, and that too with more difficulty
than ever.

In such matters, it is the grand idea of duty that can
alone u[)hold us. I have no care but to keep myself in
physical equilibrium ; everything else will follow as a
matter of course. The body must, the mind will, and he
■whose will can trace the inevitable path marked out before
it, need not feel much anxiety.

I will not add more, but reserve for myself the privi-
lege of advancing from this point, as occasion offers. My
warm and grateful remembrances to all those, who have
shown themselves so truly sympathetic.

Your faithfully attached
J. W. V. Goethe.

324. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, •2nd December, 1830,

Eckermann's comforting letter of the 29th of N'o-
vember told us, that on that day you had left your bed, and
that as you had ordered a calf's head for dinner, that showed
you had a good appetite. This gave me the fancy to get
Doris, to whom I read the letter, to order a calf's head
that very evening, for supper after our concert, and as the
daily inquiries after you at my house are many, sixty or
more calves' heads may have been devoured here in Berlin,

yesterday and to-day

Sunday, 4th December, 1830.

.... The joy of my household, when they brought me
yesterday evening your manuscript letter of the 1st of
December,* was, you may well believe, very great. Dr.
Vogel's fortune is made in Berlin, He can come when he

* Goethe had been seized witli a violent hsemorrhage on the 25th
of November, but owing to the skilful treatment of Dr. Vogel, he
recovered so quickly, that on the 29th he wrote to Zelter in pencil,
" The individual is still together, and in his senses. Cheer up!"'

420 Goethe's letters [1830.

likes ; although there is no lack of helpers' helpers here,
we have plenty of patients too.

Yesterday evening-, whilst I and two other friends were
at Hegel's, his pupils brought him a gold medal, engraved
with his portrait. He is not yet completely recovered,
there are still remnants of the fever, but he reads at least
once a day. We clinked glasses to your recovery. A
thousand greetings from thousands ; on such an occasion
as this, many a little being turns up, that hardly ever let
himself be seen before. On Wednesday my pupils chanted
their " Juvenes dum sumus," in honour of your recovery, as i£
they wanted to sing the roof down on to their heads. Vale!

Yours,
Z.

My grateful thanks to Dr. Vogel. The lines of his bul-
letin are for me the whole of Hippocrates ; I know them
now by heart, and shall not forget them,

325. — Zelter to Goethe.

6th Decembei-, 1830.

.... The new Opera by Theodor Körner and J.
P. Schmidt is called Alfred the Great ; in the war against the
Danes, the king loses his bride, but wins her back again
intact. The poem may be a weak one, but the composer
publishes its weakness so loudly, that I should gladly have
gone to sleep, if the devil had not carried me straight away
into the midst of the batteries, for I was in the Orchestra,

having given up my stall to my daughter Rosamunde

It calms my mind, to know that Eckermann is with you
again. Why cannot I too be to you, what after all no one
else can be in the same way ?

Yours,
Z.

326. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 6th December, 1830.

" I THINK we can manage that our communications
shall not be interrupted. I write a good deal in pencil.

1830.] TO ZELTER. 421

whicli is afterwards copied out. All depends upon the
proper econom}' of those faculties which still remain, and
which are gradually strengthening ; I have great need of
them. The burdens imposed iipon me do not diminish,
but I distribute them among kindly-disposed persons, who
prove their worth doubly in this instance. By degrees
you shall hear the rest. For some time past I have dis-
trusted peaceful appearances, and am engaged in putting
my house in order ; this, to my great comfort, is now going
forward steadily, and without confusion.

"Arrangements have been made respecting our correspon-
dence. If, as I suspect, you have determined that Doris
also is in the future to enjoy the not inconsiderable profits,
express this wish to me in a legal instrument, in order that
it may be annexed in legal form to the other documents,
by which I consider it my duty, as far as possible, to sim-
plify the strangely complicated state of aifairs, for my
immediate successors.

" To be sure, you and I are on the same footing, as re-
gards collections ; we jwssess what to us is most precious,
but it cannot be valued."

So much for to-day.

I enclose the original,* that you may see how we shift
for ourselves.

Step by step !

As ever,
G.

327. — Zelter to Goethe.

9th December, 1830.
Tour truly kind ofFer of the 6th instant would
leave me at a loss, how to express anew my gratitude for
your love, if I could ever feel troubled about anything that
you do.

If our collection of letters is some day or other to appear
before the world, it is an honour for me to know, that the
name of my worthy father will be kept for my posterity in

* Goethe wrote the first part of this letter in pencil, so that it had
to be copied out.

422 Goethe's letters [1830.

alliance with yours. That is more than I, who can only
take, and give nothing, thought to deserve.

So much you ought to know for your purpose, that I
look upon four of my six living children, (daughters,) as
provided for ; I should like to see the two, who are still
unmarried, Doris and Rosamunde, so well circumstanced,
as not to be a burden to their sisters, who have several
children of their own. Besides this, there is my grand-
child, Louise, who also lives with me, the daughter of my
unhappy Karl. I mean to leave this pretty, gentle girl,
to the care of her benefactresses, Doris and Rosamunde.
They have brought her up from childhood, and they may
keep her. I have a little capital in ready money, to be
invested for the child at interest, should she need a dowry.
Now, as I gather from your letter, that you are making
provisional arrangements, in respect of our correspondence,
let me recommend to you, as entitled to equal shares, my
unmarried daughters, Doris and Rosamunde, as they both
have been devoted and good children to me. Neither
of them is over strong. Good — honourable — excellent
managers — and universally respected, — they bear with
patience my advanced years, and I do not know how I
could live more happily, were it not for my wish to leave
these dear things rather more comfortably off. I write
this with some emotion, as I cannot conceal from myself,
that one of us two will find himself here alone, and I
have no wish but to be with thee, where thou art, and to
go whither thou goest.

Let me know now, if it would be agreeable to you, to
make this legacy of love in favour of both my daughters,
when you only know one of them personally, and I will at
once give the necessary directions, through my solicitor.

Ever your most faithful
Zelter.

328. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 10th December, 1830.
You are perfectly right, my dear Friend. Did I
not keep the clockwork of my life's activities in good
order, I could scarcely continue to exist in so pitiful a

1830.] TO ZELTER. 423

condition. This time, however, the hand has only been
put back a few hours, and now everything is going again
in the old steady way.

However, since the expiration of N'ovember, I have
another confession to make. The loss of my son weighed
heavily upon me in more than one way, so I seized upon
a piece of work that should completely absorb me. The
fourth volume of my Autobiogrcqyhy had lain quietly aside,
for more than ten years, in the form of sketches, only
partially worked out ; I had not ventured to take it up
again. But now I laid hold of it with a will, and it has
so far succeeded, that the volume might be printed as it
is now, were it not that I hope to make the subject-
matter fuller and more important, and the treatment of it
still more perfect.

I got so far in a fortnight, and there can be no doubt,
that the suppressed grief, and strenuous mental effort
occasioned that shock, for which my body was predisposed.
Suddenly, without any premonitory symptom, or any dis-
tinct warning, I broke a blood-vessel in my lungs, and the
loss of blood was so great, that had not prompt and skilful
help been at hand, the ultima linea rerum would, I suppose,
have been drawn here. Ere long, I will write again about
other things, which I worked at industriously, during the
past sunless summer, in the hope that they would prove

satisfactory, before and after

The faithful Eckart * is a great help to me. Loyal, pure,
and high-minded, he daily grows in knowledge, insight,
and judgment, and is quite invaluable to me in the way
of encouragement and sympathy ; Riemer too, on his side,
makes my work and my life easier, by associating himself
with me in correcting, amending, revising, and finishing
off both manuscripts and proof-sheets. May we both have
strength and consolation given us, to persevere actively
unto the end.

Therefore, while often looking back, let us go bravely
forward in this game of Goose !

J. "W". Y. GOETHB.
• Zclter's name for Eckermann.

424 Goethe's letters [1830.

329. — Zelter to Goethe.

17th December, 1830.

.... I THINK I told you that we had a perform-
ance of Haydn's Seasons, with Thomson's words ; this
music ought to be esteemed one of our lost treasures, sung
as it is by rustics, vine- dressers, and tillers of the soil, —
countrified, yet with a brilliancy of its own, — so realistic,
that I am always transported by it to a condition of inno-
cence, and perfect mental equilibrium

Your last of the 10th-14th instant was a great pleasure
to me. My last could not yet have reached you, and I
am now expecting your decision, as to the course to be
adopted in the matter of our correspondence. I must
confess too, that I cannot help feeling amused, for when I
read Lessing's Correspondence with friend Nicolai, I could
hardly get over the inclination to read Lessing's letters
only, — and so people may feel about mine. At all events
my letters have the merit of suggesting yours, and that is

no slight consolation to me

Tours,
Z.

330. — Zelter to Goethe.

30 th December, 1830.

.... A letter from Felix, dated Rome, 1st of
December, tells me of the Pope's death, which occurred the
evening before at the Quirinal. That lad came into the
world at a happy hour. In Hungary he sees an Imperial
head crowned, in Rome he finds a Conclave, and at Naples
Vesuvius is getting itself ready for a performance. In
Rome I gave him an introduction to the Maestro dl Gapella
del Somtno Ponfeßce, Baini, and to the Abbate Santini.
The latter, a musical antiquary and collector, writes to me,
" Oh, what a brilliant youth that is ! with what pleasure
do I call him my friend ; one may well say of him, as
Scaliger used to say, when speaking of Pico della Miran-
dola, ' He is a monster without vice.' "

Santini has written an Italian version of Ramler's words
to Graun's Passion Music, and they write to him fi'om

1830.] TO ZELTER. 425

Naples about it, '* All our connoisseurs nowadays will
listen to nothing else but the music of Grraun and Handel,
so true is it, that the truly beautiful can never be lost."
To be sure, I knew what they are now learning in Italy,
that there ai'e people who live on the other side of their

Alps

Yours,

331. — Goethe to Zelter.

'\\'eimar, 28tli December, 1830.
Our business, my dearest Friend, has now been
handed over to the juristical workshop, whence it is to
be hoped, it will issue right and tight, fit to endure, and

adequate for future times

I will not conceal fi'om you, that I have, in thought,
compared your letters and Schiller's ; when I tell yon this,
you will feel entirely satisfied. I only wish my thoughts
had a shorthand writer, to save myself the trouble of

expressing them

For the last eight weeks, I have not read any newspaper,
a habit I took up some years ago, and found beneficial.
We other Philistines are, after all, much like the fly which,
while sitting on the wheel of a coach that was travelling
along, fancied it was stirring up clouds of dust. ....

Most truly yours always,

J. W. v. Goethe.

426 Goethe's letters [1831.

1831.

332. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 4th January, 1831.

To-day Falstaff makes his appearance, and everyone
has gone to the Theatre. The Weimaranians are fair and
hospitable, and therefore deserve all the good things that
are offered them. Devrient has the advantage of pos-
sessing a remarkable presence ; of course it is now a wreck,
but still it always commands respect, and one intuitively
feels what he must have been, which is attractive to every-
one who can still appreciate anything of the kind. Have
we not sat and looked at old castles, to get artistic views
of them ?

Felix, whose successful visit to Rome you tell me of,
cannot but be favourably received, wherever he goes : such
great gifts, so young, so charming ! . . . .

The two first Acts of Faust are finished. Cardinal von
Este's exclamation,* which he meant as a compliment to
Ariosto, might here perhaps be in place. Enough ! Helena,
without more ado, appears at the beginning of the third
Act, not as a secondary character, but as a heroine. The
course of this Third Part is well known ; how far the gods
will assist me in the fourth Act, remains to be seen. The
fifth is likewise ready on paper, up to the end of the end. I
should one day like to read this Second Part of Faust from
the beginning, as far as the Bacchanal, straight through.
But I usually guard myself against such a proceeding ;
others may do it afterwards, who come to it with fresh
organs, and they will meet with many a knotty point.

And now a pregnant little word in conclusion : Ottilie
says, that to a reader, our correspondence is still more in-
tertaining than Schiller's. What she means by this, and

* On the first appearance of Orlando Furioso, Cardinal d'Este said to
Ariosto, " Dove, diavolo, Messer Lodovico, avetepigliate tantc coglioiierie?"

1831.] TO ZELTER. 427

how she explains it, you shall, if possible, hear one day soon,
if Fortune favours.

And thus, as always,
J. W. V. G.

333. — Zelter to Goethe.

7tli January, 1831.

Tue day before yesterday I was again at the

Opera, and heard a capital performance of the Vestalin.
The work itself is a colossal nonentity, and at the same
time, a perfectly reliable measure of the present condition
of Art in Europe ; for this Opera is on all sides considered
as one of the better kind, — nay, as a work in the grand
style. It is the clumsiest trifle I can imagine. The house
was in raptures, and the Overture had to be repeated,
which you may look upon as a sign of the hopes that are
entertained of the Opera itself.

Yesterday, I saw for the first time, JDie Striclcnadeln, by
Kotzebue. The play is really good, and the performance
excellent. The character of the old Baroness is masterly.
But as you, a short time ago, said of Schiller, that the
commonplace became dignified in his hands, so Kotzebue
degrades everything worthy of respect to commonplace,

and so it is in this play

Yours,
Z.

334.— Zelter to Goethe.

Thursday, 10th Januaiy, 1831.

Yesterday evening, between six and eight o'clock,
all the world here was admiring the most beautiful Aurora
Borealis, in a perfectly clear, starry sky. The barometer
had all at once risen extraordinarily high, and we had from
seven to eight degrees of cold. I can't tell you anything
further about it, except that our Professor Link, upon one
occasion, when examining a young naturalist, gave him as
a problem to solve, the origin of the Aurora Borealis. The
youth, who had generally stood the test well, answered in
confusion, that he did know it, and it had only just
escaped him, but he would think it over. " Yes, please do

428 Goethe's letters [1831.

so," said Link, " it's of great importance to me, for I don't
know it, nor does anyone in the Academy."

2üili January, 1831.

I reckon it no small matter, that you allow me to take a
share in everything that interests yon, in every kind of way.
Personally I knew Niebuhr well, without knowing his
many merits ; he too, though he could have known nothing
more about me, than I did about him, w^ould ask after you,
when we happened casually to pass one another, and that
alone gave him a value in my eyes. He seemed to me
discontented with the world and with his lot, and it was
just his luck, to be debarred the pleasui-e of hearing,
shortly before his death, as you meant him to, how well
pleased you were, with the Second Part of his Roman
History. What does his rare talent avail a man, if it is to
shrink up into itself, and if he finds no second person with
the power of contemplating his hard-won treasure ? Wolf
was not satisfied with the First Part of the Roman History,
but what would he ever have been satisfied with ? . . . .

In re-reading your letter,* I stumble again on your view
of Niebuhr's work, in relation to the individuality of the
writer, and I enclose a book of the words of Handel's Te
Beum, which we performed here last week, that you may
see my preface. Strictly speaking, no one knows liow a Te
Deum ought to be, although thousands have written more
than one. Here I wanted to explain how Handel treated
it in this one instance, as a German in England, -as a
Lutheran German Christian, and as no other than Handel.
Of course I have been familiar with the work for the last
fifty years. Farewell !

Yours,

335, — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 17th January, 1831.
Some three weeks ago, I received a beautiful letter
from the inestimable Niebuhr, with a copy of the Second
Part of his History of Rome ; it was written in the full

* See Letter 335.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 429

confidence that I knew him, and should acknowledge his
merits. This important book came to me just at the right
moment, when I had given up all newspaper reading. 80
I was glad to transport myself into those ancient times,
and read myself into the book uninterruptedly, an ab-
solute necessity, if we would really steep ourselves in such
an existence. Properly speaking, it is not my ambition to
see clearly and definitely into the dark regions of history,
except up to a certain point ; but for the man's own sake,
when once I had realized his endeavour, his views and
method of research, his interests became mine also. It
was in reality Niebuhr, and not Roman history that en-
gaged my attention. It is the profound intelligence and
industry of such a man, that really edify us. The agrarian
laws, one and all, do not interest me in the least, but the
way in which he explains them, the way in which he makes
those complicated relations clear to my mind, this it is that
helps me on, this it is that makes me feel that my duty is,
to be equally conscientious with what I take in hand.

From early days he seems to have indulged in a pe-
culiar kind of scepticism, not like one who acts from a
spirit of contradiction, but like one who has a special
faculty for discovering the false, while the truth itself is
as yet unknown to him.

In this way I have been living with him for nearly a
month, as with a living man. I have read through the
work, which is really a tei'rible one to look at, and have
wound my way through the labyrinth of the to be or not to
be, of legends and traditions, stories and evidences, laws
and revolutions, public offices, and their metamorphoses,
and thousands of other conti-asts and contradictions ; I was
just about to send him a friendly reply, such as he could
not have expected to receive from any of his colleagues,
near or far, nor from the initiated of any class.

For as I had read and studied his book, for his own sake,
I was best able to say and to express what he had done for
me, and that was just what he wanted to do, for I was
satisfied with what he affirmed, whereas professional men,
as is their wont, necessarily begin to doubt again at the
very point, where he thought he had made an end of it.

This unexpected blow of Fate, in addition to my other

430 goethe's letters [1831.

anxieties, is most untoward ; and now I do not know of a
single soul, with whom I could confer on the subject. All
people of recognized position have their own method, and
anyhow, they look at the same things in a different asso-
ciation and connection, while the dear young people feel
their way about in the dark, and would, no doubt, like to
discover what is right in their own way too, — only, though
their intention is good, their means are inadequate. I
find no one who shares my own peculiar convictions ; how
could I expect them to agree with me about the thoughts
of others ? In this state of affairs, it must comfort me —
me, whom it in no way concerns to know how it fared in
Rome and Latium, with Volscians and Sabines, the Senate,
the people, and the plehs, — to think that I have thereby
won for my certain edification, principles of universal
human application, with which the memoiy of that ex-
cellent man is most closely interwoven.

Of least interest to you would be the most important part
of the work, which treats of the measurement of acres, for
you, and all other musicians, raay thank God, that you have,
by means of an equable temperature, never attainable
there, succeeded in quietly turning your acres to profitable
account.

Thus always yours,

336. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 29 th January, 1831.
Your document comes just at the right moment, for
I shall very soon have settled with the future, so that I can
live again in and for the present. My will, in which our
arrangement has been attended to in detail, was handed
over to the Grand Ducal Government, as early as the 8th
of January, and lately I have had a codicil added, in order
to make the extremely complicated state of my affairs clear
to those who come after me. In such things we ought to
do all we can, for if, as history teaches us, the very least
regard is paid to the last wills of kings, a private person
has all the more hope of influencing the future, especially
if he understands well the advantages of those who succeed

1R31.] TO ZELTER. 431

him, i'artj spir^, capi'ice, and unreasonableness, have less

scope I

status.

)irü,

scope :ft)r actiöifl»nd are less in their element in our legal

Your introduction to Handel's Te Deum is capital, and
quite worthy of you. That precious public of ours always
thinks nowadays, that it ought to be served with fresh,
hot cakes from the pan. They have no idea, that one has
first to be educated up to anything new or any really antique
novelty. But how should they know this ? Why, they
are always being born anew.

I have all my life long heard it said by scientific people,
incidentally to many an important production, that tvhat
is true in it, is not new, and what is new, is not true ; which
means nothing more than — What we have learnt, we fancy
we understand, and what we have still to learn, we do not
understand. . — —

Had i not taken up the study of Natural Science, I
should never have got to know mankind. In matters
aesthetic and philosophical, it is difficult to distinguish
benevolence from malevolence ; but in Natural Science,
earnest and honest men very soon see distinctly, what
sort of people those are, who blame Nature, when she
expresses herself distinctly, and even when she has found
expression through man.

But now let me confess, that I was very wrong the other
day, when, in my vexation at Niebuhr's death, I presumed
to say, it was Niebuhr alone, and not the Roman affairs, so
ably discussed by him, that interested me ; that is in no way
correct. For when a man versed in his subject treats any
topic lovingly and thoroughly, he gives us a share in his
interest, and forces us to enter into his topics. And this
is my experience just now, since the Roman Antiquarian
Society continues to send me the report of its proceedings,
which are quite in the spirit of Niebuhr, were suggested by
him, and are now being carried on in the very way he
would himself have chosen, so that they really make
him live again after his death. He still goes about and

works

432 Goethe's letters [1831.

Weimar, 1st February, 1831,
.... ECKERMANN, who like a true Ali, is penetrated
with the noble idea, that light and darkness in shadow
produce colour, has brought me a small bust of Napoleon,*
made of opal glass, which of itself is worth a journey round
the world. It stands facing the rising sun, and when the
first beam strikes it, it rings all the precious stones together,
gleaming and shining with a blaze of colour. If I continue
to turn it towards the sun, it does the same all day long.
This, then, is the hermit's privilege over all those who have
so much and think so much of themselves. One can be very
happy without demanding that others should agree with
one ; for this reason, both the happiness and unhappiness of
you musicians is carried to an extreme. Of actors I will not
speak at all; they dance on the razor edge of the moment. f

Pardon such life- disturbing reflections ; it is these which
preserve my life for me

As I have still time and space, I will give you the
following piece of news, which I hope you will be gratified
to hear. Our good Mara, whom you justly love and admire,
is celebrating somewhere in the ultima Thide — I believe at
Reval — her birthday-fete, — which is an old story. The
people there — wishing to pay her a compliment — applied
to Hummel for some music, and to me, through him, for
some poetry. And so it was pleasant to remember, that in
the year 1771, when I was an excitable young student, I
had enthusiastically applauded Mademoiselle Schmeling ;
this furnished me with a good parallel contrast, and I
easily threw off a few stanzas. To be sure — had a genial,
musical combination been possible — we might here too

* This bust had been bought at Geneva by Eckermann, and pre-
sented by him to the Poet, who records in a letter to liis friend, the
fascination which it exercised over him : —

" If your Dicmon again brings you to Weimar, you shall see the
image standing in a strong, clear sun, where beneath the calm blue of
the transparent face the tliick mass of the breast and the epaulettes go
through the ascending and descending scale of every shade from the
sti'ongest ruby red. As the granite head of Memnon utters sounds, so
does this glass figure produce a coloured halo. Here we see the hei'o
victorious, even for tlie theory of colours." See Eckermann's Conver-
sations of Goethe, p. 494.

t A transcript of tlie Greek proverb, liri ^vpoT ÜKfxric.

1S31.] TO ZELTER. 433

have given the lady endless pleasures of recollection, if the
first strophe had been furnished with the once famous
motives of the Sta. Elena al Galvario, which would have
painfully, yet gracefully, led her mind back to the days of
her youth. I had ah'eady thought out the programme,
but it remained locked in my own bosom. What occurred,
I do not know. I shall keep the two stanzas secret from
you ; most probably they will come to light from that

quarter, or from elsewhere, but I will not anticipate

Yours,
G.

837. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 12th February, 1831.
.... Yesterday a new Opera by Ferdinand Ries *
was given for the second time, with the applause of his
friends, myself included. The technical part is admirable,
and the Orchestra, though it had hard work, kept an
artistic fete-day, and covered itself with glory. The piece

is called Die Baiiherbraict Madame Schröder-

Devrient made a very dainty bride, and her singing left
nothing to be desired. In my judgment, she is superior to
her illustrious mother, inasmuch as she combines this gift

with smooth acting, dignity, and womanliness

Yours,

338. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 19th February, 1831.
.... I GO on collecting in a quiet way, and have
acquired some works of the greatest value, which fortu-
nately, no one else was on the look-out for. One of
Annibale Caracci's drawings is fine beyond all conception,

* The pupil of whom Beethoven said, " He imitates me too much."
His works are learned, but they have no vitality or real genius in them.
He is best remembered by his Biographical Notices of Ludwig van
Beethoven, parts of which were translated into English by Moscheles.

F P

434 Goethe's letters [1831.

being as it is, the successful achievement of a complete
man, who has thrown his whole soul into the picture ; I
want nothing higher or better.

This is not undei'stood by our latest aristocrats of Art,
who assume an absurdly high and mighty attitude to-
wards this most estimable and influential family ; and yet
they are just the very Leos and Durantes of their Art and
time.

You do well to live and let live in your Art ; I too in
the long run, do the same, — for where a human spark
glimmers but half-way up the horizon, I am glad to be in
the way.

I do not care to trust individual instances of my blessing
and cursing, even to this sheet of paper ; let them wander
up or wander down, as they may.

But as in general I can refuse you nothing, the stanzas
on Mara's fete shall follow. I do not know what Hummel
has done. According to my idea, the first verse ought to
have recalled the echoes of Hasse's Sta. Elena al Calvario ;
the second might be as original and modern as it chose.

Let me add a further point to my own credit ! I have
now by degrees come to see, that I must submit to living
without my son, and the enforced attempt at again acting
as paterfamilias is not succeeding badly ; but that the echo
of that impressive nature may not die away too abruptly
for those who befriended him, I have jotted down for his
Italian friends in the first place, a very brief sketch of his
travels, a transcript of which I shall send you one day soon.
After all, that is something. His diaries are certainly
most interesting, but owing to the continual prominence of
those characteristics, to which you were no stranger, they
cannot be made public in their own energetic and pointed
style. They would be reading for us some day, if things
could be so happily arranged, that you came to pay us
another visit; the " Swan " would spread out its wings for

you

Always yours,

1831.] TO ZELTER. 4.35

To Mademoiselle Schmeling.

After a Performance of Hasse's Sta. Elena al Calvano.

Leipzig, 1771.

Clearest notes, the heart to stir.
Youthful gladness owing,
To the Holy Sepulchre,
With the Empress going ;

Pure and true, no shade of wrong.
Heaven hast thou brought rae !
Thither, O thou Queen of Song,
Did thy voice transport me !

To Madame Mara,

On the happy ficoasion of the Anniversary of her Birthday.

Weimar, 1831.

Rich in song, thy honoured way!
All rejoiced in hearing. —
I too sang, a rougher day,
Toilsome journeys cheering.
Now — when I am near the goal —
Ancient charms confessing,
Would that thou couldst feel my soul
Greet thee, with a blessing !

339. — Zelter to Goethe.

Undated.
Thank you for sending those two glorious little
poems, whicii, across an interval of sixty years, have a
double value, illustrating as they do, two characters, both
full of life and action. Our lady is about a year younger
than you, and throughout her long career as an artist, has
retained her special characteristics, independence and indi-
viduality. She wrote to me two years ago, to say that she
was on the point of writing her Biography, as people knew
only one half about her, and by no means the right half, —
which we may now hope to get. Even up to the last, she
has nobly ignored the original source of her many sorrows,

436 goethb's letters [1831.

and that was her husband, the most abandoned of all
Greeks.

She came to ns from Leipzig, as Mdlle. Schmeling, in the
year 1771, and made her debnt in Basse's Firamo e Tisbe,
with Concialini, to the admiration of the King, who would
hardly listen to her before, perhaps because he thought her
paternal name sounded so dreadfully Grerman. From that
time up to 1773, she sang here in the Carnival Operas,
Britannico, fyhigenia, Ilerope. Then she fell in love with
Mara, a violoncello-player and a favourite of Prince Henry,
(the brother of the King,) and as neither of these gentle-
men would permit a marriage between Berlin and Rheins-
berg, the lovers ran away, taking French leave. They were
caught, and Mara was transferred to a regiment at Ciistrin,
where he was obliged to play a fife in the band. Mdlle.
Schmeling was re-engaged, and for life. Mara came back
to Berlin, and was allowed to marry her. From December,
1773, onwards, she sang in the following Carnival- Operas,
as Madame Mara : — \. Arminio. 2. Demofoonte. S.Europa
Galante. 4. Partenope. 5. Attilio Regolo. 6. Orfeo.
7. Angelica e Medoro. 8. Gleofide. 9. Artemisia. 10. Bode-
linda. In the year 1779 there was no Carnival, on
account of the Bavarian War of the Succession, and in the
following year, 1780, after a revival of the Opera, Bodelinda,
man and wife, for the second time, absconded secretly. A
second time they were detained, but the King ordered
them to be let go, because, even at that high price, he
wanted to get rid of the husband. We have documeptary
evidence of this, but our friend declines to recognize it,
and it is quite possible, she might complain of force. She
became the rage everywhere, from the moment of her first
appearance in the Opera of Britanvico, in which, when as
Agrippina, with a voice of thunder, changing into maternal
tenderness, she sang the air, *■' Mi pavenii il Jiglio indegno ! "
addressing someone behind the scenes, she made me weep
streams of bitter tears every time I heard her. The air is
the orthodox bravura air of those days ; it seemed as if a
thousand nightingales were shouting for vengeance. In
all tragic parts, she looked a head and shoulders taller
than other people. I have heard nothing grander than
her Queen Rodelinda. Connoisseurs blamed her for being

1831.] TO ZELTER. 437

too quiet in passionate parts. " What ! " she exclaimed,
*' am I to sing with my hands and legs ? I am a singer ;
-what I can't do with my voice, I don't choose to do with
anything else." The relations between such a person and
her husband were a subject of general concern.* .... I
don't say this for the pleasure of being unkind, although
Mara was no friend of mine, but in justification of the great
King, who got as little praise for this, as for the Miller
Arnold trial, f since people praise no one who does the right
thing, and indeed, would rather not know what the right
thing is. There was a good deal besides : beautiful Rheins-
berg, close to the Mecklenburgh country, was a nest of
banditti, upon whom, as they were under the protection of
the favourite, no one who valued his life, ventured to lay
a hand. The King, however, knew perfectly well, where
the smuggler's thread began, which twined itself as far as
Berlin, by means of the Court carriages of Rheinsberg.
Mara ended his days here in utter sottishness, although
his wife never completely forsook him. I once confessed
to her my admiration of her noble behaviour to him, where-
upon she remarked, " But you must own, he was the hand-
somest man you could find." Reichardt too had perpetual
quarrels with him, because Mara wanted to mix himself
up with the affairs of the Royal Opera. The King let
him sleep, all through the Carnival time, in the Watch-
house, on a bed of boards, where the common soldiers were
allowed to indulge in their coarse jokes with him. That
gave Reichardt the upper hand, and now, as a young
Capellmeister, enjoying protection, he wrote a gi-eat many
letters to the King, complaining about the old musicians.
Thereupon the King said, " I thought I had quite got rid
of the Opera, and now I have the old worry, and one fool
more into the bargain." Had Reichardt pitched Mara into
the Spree, he would have been punished, but it would have
been a gain to him in the end. The King was just like
that, — but Reichardt made himself unpleasant.

* Here follows the stoi-y of Herr Mara's refusal to play, already
given in Letter 165.

t For an account of the celebrated INIiller Arnold case, which at-
tracted the notice of all Europe, even in the early days of the French
Revolution, see Carlyle's Frederick the Great, vol. x. bk. xxi. cap. 7.

438 Goethe's letters [1831,

I have begun to gossip. Forgive me, these are common
topics, but I cannot forget them ; people were frivolous, I
dare say, but I never could endure unfairness, especially
when it had to do with my Fritz. My father could not
stand an unjust word about the King. His brother, who
used to visit us periodically, nearly every year, was always
very well received, but when he began to speak of the
behaviour of the King in Dresden, my father used to say,
" My dear brother, when are you going back ? At home,
in your straggling Gros-Röhrsdorf, you are in your element,
and if I come back to you again for another visit, I will
praise your Saxons, till they blush up to the roots of their
hair."

I do not know whether I told you, that it was the elder
Schmeling who denounced me to my father, as a composer.
Of an evening, my father used to frequent a select circle
of citizens, clergymen, musicians, &c., who talked together
over their beer and tobacco. On one occasion, when they
were reading the newspaper, they lit on a composition of
mine which was announced in it, — I think it was my
Pianoforte Variations on an air of Cherubino's, in Beau-
marchais' Figaro. My father said, it was the first time he
had ever found mention of his own name, unconnected
with himself, whereupon Schmeling said, " It is your son
too; why, I know him." Next day at dinner my father
asked me, what that meant ? did I know the man ? " Oh,
yes," I answered, "and you, dear father, know him also."
" Then it's you they are complimenting. Take care' that
they compliment you on your drawing and geometry," —
which, so far as I know, never did happen.

I wonder if Hummel knows Hasse's Sta. Elena al Cal-
vario. These spiritual Dramas, (the result of which was
the Opera,) are now crowded out by the Cantata. The
Cantata belongs to Chamber-music, but the Oratoi'io, even
if it is no part of the Liturgy, belongs to the Clmrch, like the
musical vespers, &c. Hasse twice set to music this Oratorio
of Metastasio's — once for Dresden, and afterwards for
Vienna. Possibly what you heard in Leipzig in the year
1771, was the first composition. I was fortunate enough
to come across the arrangement for Vienna, just as you
came across your Annibale Caracci ; I got it from eminent

1831.] TO ZELTER. 439

connoisseurs, for people fancy the one is better than the
other, because it is the other. Hasse wrote about a hundred
Operas, if not more, without counting his sacred composi-
tions. Each of his works contains powerful passages, such
as only a German genius, cultivated in the better times of
Italy, could produce. In spirit, energy, grace, and fer-
tility, he outstripped the Leos, Durantes, Vincis, and Per-
goleses, as also the master, whom he extolled, Alexander
Scarlatti. If you discard the Italian mannerism, uni-
versally adopted in those days, you have an original, in all
its German strength and glory. Besides that, he was a
universal favourite, so that, having full confidence, both
in the Avorld and in himself, he could give the world what
it will have, and at the same time smuggle in, as it were,
his own most marked individuality ; hence, if regarded too

superficially, he is not assessed at his true value

I prize those passages in your letter about our August,
for in answer to repeated questions, I boldly ventured to
give the same answer, founded, after my custom, on your
earlier letters, and daily and yearly records ; Felix's letters
from Rome too agree beautifully with your narrative. That
dear lad has never given me anything but pleasure. Art
goes on crutches in Italy. Outsiders, whether voluntarily
or involuntarily, dominate it ; still the Italians continue
working, and if they hold out to sea, I dare say they may
expect good sailing weather again. They say the new
Pope is a worthy man, and if he only proves himself a

man, the worthiness is sure to follow

Yours,
Z.

340. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 23rd February, 1831.

In memoriam — to a sympathetic friend.

My son was travelling for the recovery of his health.
His first letters from beyond the Alps, were a great comfort
and pleasure to me ; he had seen and visited, with real,
bright sympathy, Milan, and the fertile plains and glorious
lakes of Lomliardy, returning thither, after he had been to
Venice. The unbroken narrative of his diary bore witness

440 goethe's letters [1831.

to his open, unclouded views of Nature and of Art, and he
was happy in applying and extending the varied know-
ledge he had formerly acquii-ed. So it continued up to
Genoa, where, to his great pleasure, he fell in with an old
friend, a Mr. Sterling, through whom I was made ac-
quainted with Lord Byron. Thereupon he parted with
Dr. Eckermann, who had accompanied him so far, and
who now returned to Germany.

The fracture of his collar-bone, which unhappily occurred
when he was on his way from Genoa to Spezzia, kept him
there nearly four weeks, but even this accident, and a skin
disease that attacked him at the same time, (and was also
very troublesome in the great heat,) he endured manfully,
and with good humour ; he continued writing his diary,
and did not leave the place, till he had seen all the country
round about, and even visited the quarantine establishment.
He knew how to make the very best of his short stay in
Carrara, and his longer visit to Florence, always paying
due attention to things in their proper order ; his diary
might serve as a guide to any like-minded person.

After leaving Leghorn by steamer, and encountering a
heavy storm, he landed at Naples on a fete-day. There he
found the able artist, Herr Zahn,* who had become very
intimate with us, during his stay in Germany ; he received
him in the most friendly way, and now proved himself a
most desirable guide and assistant.

His letters from this place, however, I must confess, did
not altogether satisfy me ; they showed a certain haste, a
morbid state of exaltation, although, as regarded the record
of his careful observations, he remained fairly equal to
himself. He felt quite at home in Pompeii ; his thoughts,
observations, and doings in that city, show that he was
cheerful, — nay, in high spirits.

A rapid journey to Rome did not calm his already over-
wrought nerves, and he only seems to have enjoyed with
a kind of feverish haste, the honourable and friendly re-
ception given him by the Germans, and the distinguished
artists residing there. After a few days he was carried to
his rest near the Pyramid of Cestius, at the spot for which

♦ See Letters 229 and 381.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 441

his father used to long, in poetic dreams, before he was
born. Perhaps his diaries will give us an opportunity, in
future days, of reviving and recommending to sympathetic
friends the memory of a youth so exceptional.
And thus, over graves, forward !

341. — Zelter to Goethe.

Monday, 14th March, 1831.

. . , . I HAVE only just read for the first time, about
L. da Vinci's cartoon, and am all the more eager to have
the print before my eyes ; meanwhile, an anyhow kind of
composition dances before my imagination. It is all very
well for you to talk, my beloved, about my explaining your
Fugues ! * You have grown up fi'om childhood, surrounded,
and inspired by such treasures. To be sure, we saw old
Fritz on horseback, lifting his hat to the passers-by, — and
that was good too. There were Collections here also, but a
dragon always sat at the door, stretching out his claw for
a ducat. One had to struggle, to submit, if not to be
refused. Princess Amalie once let me see her music books,
— the titles, — through a glass door. Then she took out a
work, held it in her hands, turned over the leaves, and let
me have a peep at them. Then I made a dart, and seized
the folio volume out of her hands. She stepped back, and
made eyes like carriage-wheels ; they were the eyes of her
great brother. Had I known Homer in those days, she

would have been my ox-eyed goddess

Youi-s,
Z,

342. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, Holy Thursday, 31st March, 1831.
First of all I must tell you, that I have received a
delightful and circumstantial letter from Felix, dated

• In a previous letter, Goetiie had pi-omised Zelter an engraving of a
picture by Leonardo da Vinci, adding, " Frame it and glaze it at once,
— keep it before your eyes, all your life long, — refresh and edify your-
self with it. Really — by way of analogy — you should be able to explain
to me, better than anyone else, this leading Fugue of the power of Art
over Form."

442 Goethe's letters [1831.

Rome, the 5th of March ; it gives me a transparent picture
of that rare young fellow. His parents and friends in
Berlin will no doubt receive similar accounts, written with
the same disciplined freedom. For him we need have no
further anxiety ; the fine swimming-jacket of his talent
"will carry him safely through the waves and surf of the
dreaded barbarism.

N^ow, I dare say you will remember, that I have always
passionately adopted the cause of the minor third, and was
angry that yon theoretical cheap- jacks of music would not
allow it to be a domim Naturce. Of course a piece of gut or
wire is not so precious, that Nature should exclusively con-
fide her harmonies to it alone. Man is worth more, and
Nature has given him the minor third, to enable him to
express with cordial delight to himself, that which he can-
not name, and that for which he longs. Man l:)elongs to
Nature, and he it is, who can take up into himself, control,
and modify the tenderest relations of all the elementary
phenomena combined.

Why, chemists make use of the animal organism as
a Reagent, and shall we persist in sticking to mechanically
definable relations of sound, while we are driving the
noblest of gifts out of Nature into the domain of arbitrary
artificiality ?

You will pardon me. My interest in the subject has
been excited lately, and I should like above all things to

let you know lohere I obstinately insist, and why

Ever yours indefatigably, •
Goethe.

343. — Zelter to Goethe.

Wednesday, 6th April, 1831.

.... Spontini, who is full of your praises, let me

know at once that you were in good case. Ho is going to

send you his Athenienserinnen ; you have promised him

good advice, which will, I hope, meet with an equally good

reception

1 have heard 'Beethoven's Fidelio again, with great pleasure.
The composer has been admirably successful, just in those
parts where the poem is weak to a degree ; he has breathed

1831.] TO ZELTER. 443

such life into one sad, di-eary scene in particular, that I
marvel again and again, when I hear it. This is the
advantage we derive from genius : it offends and recon-
ciles, it wounds and heals ; one must go along with it, there
is no use stopping and loitci'ing.

Yours,
Z.

344.— Zelter to Goethe.

14th April, 1831.
I HAVE lately heard Der Gott und die Bajadere, a new

opera by Scribe, with music, songs, and ballet, by Auber

The music is not to be despised, and has many happy pas-
sages, though it is much criticised, and so am I, for trying
to discover a good vein in it. On the other hand, Madame
St. Romain, the Bajadere elect, was incessantly applauded,

though here and there, individuals objected Your

honest, sympathetic interest in my music is ever present
with me ; just so, I think of you as one of our audience,
especially when everything is in good trim, and goes off
slick. Schale, our late Cathedral organist, Graun's most
devoted worshipper, told me as far back as six-and-thirty
years ago, how he wished his departed friend, Graun, could
have heard his music performed in that way. I need not
feel ashamed of that, when I have earned already close
upon twenty thousand Thalcrs by this work, though to be
sure they have all gone in dinners. Who knows, how else
I should have been forced to earn the money ? . . . .

Dr. Seebeck has sent me your two poems on the birth-
day-festival of our old friend, Mara ; they were printed in
Reval, with another, by a local poet. I suppose you have
seen them.

Youi's,
Z.

345. — Zelter to Goethe.

19th April, 1831.
.... Yesterday, thanks to Moser, we had an
extraordinarily good performance here of Beethoven's

444 Goethe's letters [1831.

Oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives. The work appears
to be a fragment, and it seems as if the composer had
adapted his own text. Witness the following : —

1. In the Introduction, we recognize the deep, sorrowful,
heartfelt prayer of a soul in the keen agony of a fresh grief.
The full Orchestra is like an overcharged heart, a pulse of
superhuman power. I was deeply moved. After the In-
troduction, Christ sings (upon the Mount of Olives) :—

"Jehovah, Thou my Father, send
Comfort, 2}ouwr, and strength to me !
It is now at haixd, the hour of my sufferings,
Chosen by me already, ere yet the world
At Thy command, from Chaos did emerge" &c.

The underlined words stand in the happiest connection,
employed with marvellous art, simply as picturesque
motifs, — something like an exercise in sketching, when,
between five or more given points, chosen at random, a
beautiful form, or group, has to be drawn in by a master-
hand. The nonsense of the words vanishes, familiar tones
appear as if we had never heard them before, — we are
carried away.

No. 4. The soldiers, who are to seize Jesus, march like
regular troops to the attack, and sing, first softly, and then
more loudly : —

*' We have seen Him
Going to the mountain,
He cannot escape,
Judgment awaits Him."

The music of the march is beyond all praise, and if the
Russians have anything like it, God help their enemies !

At last the disciples are aroused, and sing, still half
asleep : —

" What means the noise ?
How will it fare with us ?" &c.

And now a Trio begins : Peter wants to interfere, Jesus
commands submission, and a Seraph, who at an earlier
stage was already conspicuous, like Saul among the pro-
phets, now joins with them, each keeping his own style.
Meanwhile, the soldiers are at their work, and coarse enough :

1881.] TO ZELTER. 445

" Up ! Seize the betrayer !
Tarry here no longer !
Drag Him hastily to judgment!"

and so on. Thereupon peals forth a final chorus of
angels only, " Worlds unhorn shall sing His praise," &c.
Even if the work has no style as a whole, yet all is dis-
solved and fused into the most refreshing forms, with so
beneficial and happy an effect, that it is like a pleasant
summer night's dream. Viewed critically, the work is a
fragment, parts of which are wanting, and one could dis-
pense with a book altogether. Still one must have it close
at hand, if only to convince oneself with surprise, of the
truth of what Ramler tells me about Graun, incidental to
the Tod Jesu, " Only words, my dear Ramler ! Only give
me words, I will make the rest." The rest ! — is not that
nice ? . . . .

346. — Goethe to Zeltee.

Weimar, 24th April, 1831.

.... I HAVE received a very graceful autograph
letter from Madame Mara, to the effect that the poet de-
serves all praise, for the pretty and transparent manner in
which he recognized and clearly expressed a connection,
which spun its invisible threads through many a year

A passage in one of your earlier letters, which I came
across, whilst reading them over again, brought my thoughts
back to the minor third ; your last explanation has com-
pletely set my mind at rest, for what exists in Nature, must
after all one day be avowedly taken up in theory and prac-
tice.

Your friend Graun, who only requires words, in order to
make music, reminds me of Telemann with his playbill.
Those good people respect neither the value of words, nor
the powerful variety of their art. Bad thoughts, bad
verses, they can make use of, and perhaps they prefer these,
as it enables them to act with perfect freedom. You have
given an admirable sketch of the opportunities, which
significant words, even in an absurd connection, afford the
musician

446 Goethe's letters [1831.

The Vavipijr* has been repeated here; the subject is
detestable, but, from all I hear, the piece, as an Opera, is very
well thought of. There you are ! Significant situations
arranged in an artful succession, and the musician is sure
of applause. Words, in a rational, sensible connection,
aif ord the same opportunity, as you have so often proved in
the case of my poems.

Commending you to the best spirits of earth and air !

347. — Zelter to Goethe.

lOth May, 1831.
.... Felix — so his father tells me — has arrived in
Naples ; I have not heard from him.

I suppose you would like to have my version of the
Campanella, which I enclose for you in score. The solo-
singer must fix the tempo, in accordance with his own well-
regulated feeling, and the movement must then be kept
going evenly, up to the end. I hate the chronometer, and
still more the man who is nowhere without it. The
theorists would make an end of me ; why, they actually
misled the excellent Beethoven into putting tempi to his
works, which do not bear it in the least. What can't go
and stand by itself, to the devil with it ! . . . .

Yours,

348. — Zelter to Goethe.

19th May, 1831.
Old Körner t died last Friday, and yesterday
evening, his body was taken to Wöbbelin, to be buried
beside his children. There was a great gathering in the
house of mourners, speeches were made, and hymns sung ;
he was a zealous member of the Sinrjalcademie. I was not
present, and at my time of life, I must decline such emo-

* An Opera, written by Heinrich Marscliner in 1828, It had a great
success in London, the following year, and ran for sixty nights at the
JLyceiini Theatre.

t Father of Theodor Körner, the poet.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 447

tions. We shall follow soon enough, if not hy way of
Wöbbelin.

A young actor, Emil Devrient, is starring here ; I have
seen him twice, and like him. Figure, voice, elocution,
and stage-business are fairly in keeping ; he actually re-
minded me of our Wolff, who left a considerable gap, when
he was lost to our stage. West's Donna Diana is a most
charming play, a true comedy ; Devrient played Don Cäsar,
and was quite up to the mark, for the play is always a
favourite here.

Our Opera too is a sickly body ; they are obliged to
come to the doors of pensioned-off members, and submit
to their rather arrogant demands. Madame Milder gets,
over and above her pension, a hundred and fifty Thalers for
every Opera, and for one of Spontini's, she asks fifty Louis
cl'or, because he is guilty of her being pensioned off. This
I had from Spontini himself.

Demoiselle Schechner of Munich asks five thousand
Thalers yearly, two thousand five hundred as a pension for
life, and three month's leave every year; further, her own
choice of parts, and full pay, when absent from sickness.

So sajs Count Kedern, our present Intendant

Yours,
Z.

349. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 1st June, 1831.
Do not fail, my good Friend, to continue sending
me, from time to time, a few sheafs from the rich harvest
of the outer world, to which you are sent, unlike myself,
who am confined wholly to the inner life of my garden-
hermitage. In one word, let me tell you, that I submit to
this, in order to finish the Second Part of my Faust. It is
no trifle, in the eighty-second year of one's age, to repre-
sent objectively, that which was conceived at the age of
twenty, and to furnish a living skeleton, like this, with
sinews, flesh, and skin ; probably also, I shall cast over it,
when finished, some folds of drapery besides, so that the
whole may be an open riddle, to delight mankind for ever
and aye, and give them something to think of

448 Goethe's letters [1831,

Have you seen the four series of marginal drawings, by
Neurenther, for my Parables and Poems ? Tbey are not
regularly out for sale, but I do not know who is to blame
for it.

He has honoured me with a most charming illustration,
in large folio, admirably drawn with the pen. His text is
the Parable, I stood at my garden gate. His penetration
into the meaning is really wonderful; nay, — and this is
most remarkable, — his modest courage has set forth what
is arrogantly mysterious in the poem

I often feel inclined to draw up the noteworthy results
of my silent, solitary reflection, but then I give up the idea
again. For, after all, these things might occur to anyone,
if he entered into certain relations, where he cannot dis-
pense with what is rational

Yours ever,

J. W. v. Goethe.

350. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 9th June, 1831.
.... The first important thing I take in hand is
the discussion about your coat-of-arms. I am sending
back the model, made by our excellent Facius,* together
with another, made by a clever young fellow here ; at the
same time, I am telling her what else she ought to con-
sider, so that our good little artist may, with ease and
freedom, attain the end she has in view. I shall be pleased
if it has a cheerful look about it ; a light little cross of
honour is always rather enjoyable. No rational man ought
to trouble himself to unearth and set up the wretched
wood of torture, the most repulsive thing under the sun.
That was work for a bigoted Empress-Mother f ; we ought
to be ashamed to cai'ry her train. Pardon me ! but were
you here, you would have to put up with even more. At
eighty-two years of age, we are, in fact, more serious in
and with ourselves, but we let the poor dear world wander
on, in God's name, in the fool's life it has led for many

* Angelica Facius, daughter of an engraver in Berlin.
+ Helena, mother of Constantine the Great.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 449

thousand years. It is frightful to see, how it prides itself
over and over again upon its errors !

I find, on reading this over again, that I should like to
■withhold it ; this is very constantly my feeling now, for as
one does not even like to say what one thinks, why should
it occur to one to write thus ?

After all these somewhat Timonian utterances, — which
one should not always deny oneself, — I may, I think, tell
you in confidence, that since the beginning of the yeai-,
many efforts of mine have proved successful ; I hold to this,
since I at least, could not improve upon them. N^ow you
will have learnt all about my literary bequests

In the Revue de Paris, No. 1, the 1st of iMay, in the third
year's issue, there is a curious article on Paganini. It is
written by a doctor, who knew and attended him for many
years ; he shows in a very able manner, that the musical
talent of that remarkable man was influenced by the con-
formation of his body, and by the proportions of his limbs,
which helped, nay, compelled him to do what seemed in-
credible, — impossible even. This leads the rest of us back
to our former conviction, that the organic functions cause
the strange phenomena of living beings.

As I have still some room left, I will here write down one
of the greatest sayings, which our ancestors have bequeathed
to us : " Animals are instructed through their organs."

Now if we reflect, how much of the animal is still left
in man, and that he is capable of instructing his organs,
we shall always return willingly to these considerations.
And now, into the envelope with all speed, before I repent
of having put such strange things on paper !

Thus, as ever, yours,

J. W. V. Goethe.

351. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimai-, 9tli June, 1831.

.... The French Theatre will never cease to be

instructive in the design, as well as in the execution of its

bright, social comedies. Here, Art and technique are more

than a hundred years old, it is a metier with an ancestry, —

G G

450 Goethe's letters [1831.

while with us, one wearies oneself in vain. Our actors
no longer know anything more about Art, and they have
no idea whatever of the handicraft; everything still de-
pends upon this and that individual person. But enough
of this; I have long since turned my back upon that
region. Still, the " pros and cons " about the shortcomings
of the actors, the claims made upon them, and their feeble-
ness of response, are being constantly poured into my ears,
by those of my own household, and other intimate friends.
No more to-day ; continue to write to me, and stir
me up.

Thus, as ever !
G.

352. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 10th June, 1831.

.... I MUST save myself in my own way ; other-
wise it won't do. I should require a considei'able time, be-
fore I ventured to say, whether Sargines * is a good Opera,
or not. Hitherto, I had heard it without knowing the text,
and could not enter into it. Paer, productive and instruc-
tive as he is, has been for a long time the pet of the singing
tribe. He himself is said to have sung his own songs with
so much grace, that such a man as Napoleon for instance,
whom I consider genuine, as he was not in the habit of put-
ting constraint upon himself, was enchanted with the perfor-
mance ; this kind of thing surprises me. So now I have given
myself a libretto, and am beginning to use my eyes

15th June.
.... The enclosed is a copy of an extract from one
of our Felix's letters ; I dare say he is back again in Rome
by this time. His father positively refused to let him see
Sicily. He may have his reasons, but the father of a duti-
ful son should know the limits of his power. I have taken
cai'e to point this out to the old gentleman.

* This Opera was written b}' Ferdinando Paer, at Dresden, in 1803.
In 1806 Paer accompanied Napoleon to Warsaw and Posen, was made
his maitrc dc chapclle the following year, and subsecjuently took up his
abode in Paris.

1831.] to zelter. 451

Enclosure.

"7 th May, 1831.
" Sterne has become a great favourite with me. I
remembered that Goethe, when talking about The Senti-
mental Jonrney, once said, that the frowardness and despon-
dency of the human heart could not possibly be better
expressed, and when I chanced upon the volume acciden-
tally, I thought I should like to make myself acquainted
with it. I am delighted with the free handling of the sub-
ject throughout, and the sharjj, incisive writing. Here I get
very little German to read, so I am limited to Goethe's poems,
which Häuser presented me with, and, by Heaven, there is
enough food there for reflection ; they are always new. The
poems that specially interest me here, are those which he evi-
dently wrote in or near Naples, e.g. Alexis unci Dora; for I see
almost daily before my window, how that marvellous poem
arose — nay, as happens with all masterpieces, I often think
of it involuntarily, and without preparation, so that it seems
to me, that the same thing must have struck me too under
similar circumstances, and that it was only an accident,
that he expressed it. I maintain that I have actually found
the locality of the poem, Gott segne Dich, junge Frau; * I
maintain that I have actually dined with the Frau, though
naturally she mnst by this time have become quite an
old woman, and the babe at her breast, a lusty vinedresser ;
there they were both of them. Between Pozzuoli and
Baia3 lies her house, ' the ruins of a temple,' and to Cumre
* 'tis a good three miles.' So you can imagine, how the
poems are renewed for one, and how differently and freshly
they affect one, on closer acquaintance. I really cannot
speak of Mignon's Song. But seeiiig that Goethe and
Thorwaldsen are alive, and Beethoven only died a few years

ago, — what madness for H to maintain that German

Art is as dead as a door-nail ! Quod nan "

Continuation.

I could support in my own instance, your conviction of
the effect of organism upon the intellectual nature. Morally

* Der Wanderer. See Letter 356,

,1 k/ux^

462 Goethe's letters [1831.

too it has something to do with the most remarkable in-
dividuals of my personal acquaintance. One might say of
old Bach, that the pedal was the ground-element of the
developement of his unfathomable intellect, and that with-
out feet, he never could have attained his intellectual heüjht.
Thus I fail to understand the strange question which Les-
sing makes his painter ask, Whether Raphael would have
been just as great a genius, if he had been born without
hands r^ Here is a man, (our painter Begas,) who can carry
a pinch of tobacco to his nose, with his arm stretched round
the back of his neck. Perhaps such elasticity belongs to
a painter ; but had I been so endowed, my talent, eager-
ness, and industry would have made me the best of violin-
players, for all my instincts drove me to that instrument,
which I practised unweariedly, — and by so doing, helped
on the gout in my hand. In spite of that, in earlier days,
I played first-rate music on the violin, both in drawing-
rooms and churches, and I was successful in public with
Tartini's, Benda's, Celli's, and Corelli's concertos. To sum
up — in the human organism there dwells a soul, which
seeks for its fellow, as you long ago expressed it, when

you said that one talent hinges on another

Yours,
Z.

353. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 18tli June, 1831.

.... As the world is now, we are forced to say to
ourselves, and to repeat it again and again, that good people
have existed and will exist, and that we must not grudge
them the expression of a kind word in writing, but bequeath
it as a written legacy. This is the Communion of Saints,
of which we confess ourselves members. With the lips I
am but rarely willing to utter an absolutely truthful word ;
usually, people hear something different to what I say, —
and that too is perhaps as well.

However, I have been rewarded for my patience and per-
severance, by a drawing of Sachtleben 's, an artist of the
seventeenth century, a pupil and a master of the epoch in
Art then flourishing. The little sketch is square, and

1831.] TO ZELTER. 453

slightly coloured. He had fallen in love with the country
about the Rhine ; his best pictures represent scenes of this
description, and this is one of them.

The remarkable point about this little drawing is, that we
see Nature and the artist on an equal footing, as peaceful
friends together. It is he who perceives her advantages, and
who acknowledges and tries most fairly to come to terms
with them. Here there is already thought and reflection, a
definite consciousness of what Art ought to and can accom-
plish, — and yet we see the innocence of never-changing
Nature quite untouched.

The sight of this picture kept me upright, nay, so great
was its influence, that when for the moment, I was out of
sorts, and stepped in front of it, I really felt myself unworthy
to look at it. The clever, courageous fellow, who, hundreds
of years ago, wrote down this sort of thing amid the brightest
surroundings, could scarcely tolerate such a pitiful spectator
as I was, in the midst of the gloomy Thuringian hillocks.
But when I wiped my eyes and got up again, why then in-
deed, it was cheerful day, as of old.

Now, however, I am moved to lead you into very different
regions, for I must tell you briefly, that owing to the whirl
of ephemeral publications, I have been dragged into the
boundless hon^ors of the latest literature of French novels.
In one word, it is a Literature of despair. In order to pro-
duce an immediate effect — just that one edition may
follow on another, as quickly as possible — the opposite
of everything that ought to be offered to man for his
good, is so forced upon the reader, that in the end he no
longer knows how to save himself. To outbid the hate-
ful, the repulsive, the horrible, the worthless, and all that
abandoned tribe, by the impossible, is their Satanic business.
One ought to and must, I suppose, say hndness, for it is
based upon deep study of olden times, of past conditions, of
strange complications, and incredible facts, so that one
ought not to call such a work either empty or bad. More-
over, it is men of marked talent who undertake this kind of
thing, intellectually eminent, middle-aged writers, who feel
condemned, throughout life, to occupy themselves with

these abominations

454 Goethe's letters [1831.

354. — Zelter to Goethe.

Wednesday, 22nd June, 1831.

.... I AM just skimming through the Life of
Schiller, as told by his sister-in-hiw, Frau von Wolzogen.
Such a collection of letters, each of which was despatched
at its own time, to its own place, and under various circum-
stances, is an important item in the literary world. Any-
one who knew Schiller in his best days, must wonder how
such a fruitful tree could grow up, out of the philandering
life he led for so many of the bright years of his youth.
Comparing the women in his Tragedies with the race he
was obliged to make shift with, one would suppose that
education and culture worked their own opposites. I hope
to find the second part more interesting, for barring the
name of that noble poet, which is always dear to me, the
long-drawn phrases devoted to the mutual billing and

cooing are rather meagre food

Yours,
Z.

355. — Zelter to Goethe.

Undated.
.... After all, the book, [Schiller's Life,] remains
an historical document, on account of the original letters ;
J. Kant's and Herder's are a real ornament to it. The
last days and hours of that noble man are very touching,
and provoked me to weep hot tears. In one's old age, it is
a glory to have seen such lights burning ; everyone may
pride himself to some extent, on having been a contemporary
of such men as I have seen, the like of whom the world will
not soon again bo mistaken in.

The summary of thoughts at the end of the book, de-
rived from Schiller's ])ersonal conversation, as recorded by
Fräulein von Wurmb, might well have been omitted.
According to her, Schiller is made to say, " One ought not
to give children too early a conception of God ; the demand
ought much rather to come forth from within." As regards
children, they understand well enough, if you only refrain
from trying to tell them, what you do not know yourself.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 455

On the other hand, it is quite another matter when Schiller
himself says, " That at times he could have been unphilo-
sophical enough, to give up all he knew of Elementary
-Esthetics for an empirical advantage, for the grip of a
craftsman." ....

To-day, the 29th of June, I have received a letter
from Felix, dated the 16th of this month, and written
from Rome ; I expect it is the last I shall get from that
quarter, and it is damaged by the quarantine regulations.
It contains an account of the Easter functions in the
Sistine Chapel, during the Holy Week. The lad did
not let a single note escape him ; he looks at the whole
thing historically, without betraying the foreigner and
the heretic. It says something for him, that he can grasp
the whole, which was well planned originally, though
now worn away to rags, and also that he can recognize
the hollow body, behind the outward dignity and gran-
deur

In setting your poems to music, I have been obliged to
look around me for a locality, to see hoio and tvhere they
arose, and as many a one of my melodies has taken your
fancy, the apple cannot have fallen so very far from the
tree. I can boast of similar good fortune with several very
different poets. Schiller, Voss, Matthisson, Tieck, Tiedge,
and even Klopstock, have praised my melodies. When
Naumann's eldest son was born, the Countess Eliza com-
missioned Himmel, myself, and others, to set to music a
Cradle- Song she had written for him. Naumann, the
father of the child, was himself to select the piece that
pleased him most, without Knowing the names of the
authors. He said, that in the melody which he liked best,
he recognized Himmel, his pet pupil — but that melody was
mine.

7th July, 1831.
On Sunday, the 3rd of July, Schinkel's new Church was
at last consecrated The second and younger clergy-
man, who recited the Liturgy before the Altar, complained
that preaching here must be a difficult matter, because of
the height of the Church, and that if the Church was
empty, thex'e would be too much of an echo. For empty

456 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1831.

Churches, I know no better remedy than full thoughts,
cloarly and purely expressed. On the other hand, if de-
frauded of its rig-hts, the great building rears itself, resist-
ing, and rings hollow.

Yours,

356. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 2Sth June, 1831.

Tour Potsdam expedition * gives the rest of us
meditative people a fine opportunity of tracing out that
egoism and anarchy, by means of vphich everyone forces his
way in where he has no business, to some agreeable post,
which he cannot properly fill. But after all, this much can
be said in praise of anarchy, that when once it has a fixed
aim in view, it looks about it for a dictatoi", and sees that
that is the right thing.

The advantage, however, that you musicians have over
all other artists is that a universal, universally-accepted
foundation exists for the whole, as well as for the parts, so
that anyone can write a score, with the full assurance of get-
ting it performed, whatever it may be. You have your pro-
vince, your laws, your symbolic language, which everybody
must understand. Everyone of you, even though he had to
perform the work of his deadly enemy, would necessarily, on
this occasion, do what was required of him. There is no Art,
— scarcely any handicraft even, — that can boast of the like.
You may cling to what is oldest without pedantry, you can
revel in what is newest without heresy and obstruction ;
and even if an individual of your circle produces something
strange and unusual, still in the end it must be made to
coincide with the totality of the Orchestra.

And now a word or two about the excellent Felix. Herr
Papa was very wi'ong in not allowing him to go to Sicily ; the
young man will feel unsatisfied, and that might have been
avoided. In one of my last letters from Sicily, or the sub-
sequent one from Naples, there must be some traces of the

• Zelter had been summoned to Potsdam, to take the place of a
Conductor, who was too ill to lead a performance of Haydn'.s Oratorio,
The Creation.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 457

unpleasant impression, left on my mind by that idolized
island ; I will not bore you, by returning to this subject.

In the second place, I must tell you — but in this you must
not betray me — that that poem, Ber Wanderer, was written
in the year 1771, and therefore several years before my
journey to Italy. But this is the poet's advantage, that
he can feel beforehand the value of a thing, which the seeker
of reality loves with a double love and greatly rejoices over,
when he finds and recognizes it in actual existence.

In many an hour of quiet mental work, when you are
continually in my thoughts, I too have been drawn towards
modern French literature, and on such occasions, have been
led to reflect on the Religion Simonienne. The leaders of this
sect are very clever people, they know very accurately the
defects of our time, and they understand too, how to bring
forward a worthy ideal; but when they want to arrogate
to themselves the power of removing what is unseemly, and
promoting the ideal, they go dead lame. The fools imagine,
that they can play Providence judiciously, and certify that
everyone will be rewarded, according to his merits, if he
joins himself to them wholly — body and soul — and becomes
one of them.

What man, what society dare express such sentiments ?
seeing that we cannot easily know anyone from his youth,
up, nor criticise the rise of his activity. How else does
character finally prove itself, if it is not formed by the
activity of the day, by reflective agencies which counteract
each other ? Who would venture to determine the value of
contingencies, impulses, after-effects ? Who dare estimate
the influence of elective affinities ? At all events, he who
would presume to estimate what man is, must take into
consideration what he was, and how he became so. But
such barefaced pretensions are common, and we have often
enough met with them ; indeed they are always recurring,
and they must be tolerated.

These thoughts occurred to me in connection with St.
Simonism, and no doubt it might suggest many other sub-
jects for thought.

Of the latest productions in the way of French novels,
and the literature nearest akin to them, I will only say
thus much, — it is a literature of despair, from which by

468 Goethe's letters [1831.

degrees everything true, everything aesthetic, is banishing
itself. In Notre Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo allures
the reader by the good use he makes of his earnest
studies of old localities, customs, and events, but there
is no trace whatever of natural life in the persons of
the actors. These inanimate male and female lay figures
are constructed according to very correct proportions, but
except for their wooden and iron skeletons, they are
absolutely mere stuffed puppets, which the author treats in
the most merciless manner, turning and twisting them into
the strangest positions, torturing and lashing them, lacera-
ting them in mind and body — though indeed they have no
real body — and mangling and tearing them to pieces, with-
out pity. All this, however, is done with decided historical,
rhetorical talent, and it cannot be denied, that the author
possesses a vivid imagination, for without it he never could
produce such abominations.

Your letters, including the announcement of the musical
flower-fete, have arrived safely ; I was specially glad to
hear from you. So much for to-day.

Yours as ever,

357. — Goi:the to Zelter.

Weimar, 13th August, 1831.

.... I HAVE lately been presented with some hand-
some elephants' teeth, dug out of our gravel-pits, whicbare
being busily worked for the construction of roads. Just
fancy ! The outer part, with which the elephant chews, has
roots, which however recede, and either chew likewise, or
remain for ever unused.

Nature does 7uithing in vain is an old Philistine maxim.
She works ever vitally, superfluously, and lavishly, so that
the Infinite may be ever present, because nothing can last.

Herein I fancy I am actually approaching the philosophy
of Hegel, which otherwise both attracts and repels me ; —
may a good Genius be gracious to us all !

As the Royal Theatre has found out the right way of
filling its exchequer, I send you the latest antithesis, which
the worthy descendants of the ancient Thespis have been

1831.] TO ZELTER. 459

able to arrive at. I enclose the original, as otherwise it
would not be credited, but let me have it back.

" Theatrical announcement.

" Carlstadt, the 10th of July, 1823, for the benefit of Herr
Ignaz Viol and his daughter Liuhnille :

Menschenhass und Reue, (Misanthropy and Hepentunce,')
a Tragedy never seen here hitherto ; unfortunately it is by the
fallen Kotzebue ; it consists of six Acts, together tvith a Pro-
higue, which icill be recited separately, at the end of the piece,
by Herr Viol.

" Postscript. Many pressing debts place us in the agreeable
dilemma of our creditors, so that we cannot travel further. I
act the old man, my Ludmille plays JEidalia, therefore do not
let us go to grief ; Misanthropy is unknotvn to the inhabitants
of this toivn. Repentance is unknoivn to us, for having ivandered
hither. Therefore ive ask for encouragement, for we really are
reduced to nothing."

But may all good spirits grant us ungrudgingly, what
we have hitherto enjoyed. So be it !

J. W. T. Goethe.

Enclosure.

"London, 29th July, 1831.
" I have written to you so long and so often about
political matters, that it is pleasant for once, to be able to
begin a letter with something quite apart from politics,
though it will certainly interest all your German readers.
To-day a present was sent from England to your old master,
Goethe, which does honour to those who give, as well as
to the honoured man who receives it. It consists of a
large seal for his writing-table. On a beautiful stonr/,
greenish in colour, is engraved a serpent, biting its own
tail ; the motto is Ohne Rast aber ohne Hast, (Without rest,
but loithout haste,) a simple and beautiful reference to the
activity of the great man. The stone is set in a claw of pure
gold, some two inches long, upon which are a number of
allegorical ornamentations in relief, partially overlaid with
coloured enamel. One of these is the horse, the emblem of
England, and another is a wreath of oak leaves, which

460 Goethe's letters [1831.

is probably meant to represent Germany. There are
two masks, and two cornncopiff", with the inscription,
' From Friends in England to the German Master.'
This beantiful work of art, (from the workshops of
the eminent goldsmiths, Salter, Widdowson, and Tate,)
is the gift of nineteen Englishmen and Scotchmen,
(each of whom subscribed two guineas,) admirers of
German literature, and of ' the German Master.' At the
head of the list stands Thomas Garh/le, the author of a
Biography of Schiller, that has been translated into German ;
I expect his brother, Dr. Garli/le, suggested the undertaking.
Then follow the names of W. Fräser, the Editor of the
Foreign Review, Dr. Magien, a clever writer, Herand, the
author of the pithy article on Klopstock and the Stolbergs,
in the above Review, and the present Editor of that
excellent periodical, Fräser' s Magazine ; G. Movi, one of the
translators of Schiller's Wallenstein, and Ghurchill, whose
masterly translation of Wallenstein' s Lager appeai'ed in
Fräser' s Magazine; Jerdan, the Editor of the Literary
Gazette ; Professor Wilson, Editor of Blackwood's Magazine;
Sir Walter Scott, and his son-in-law, LocJchard, the present
Editor of the Quarterly Review; Lord Francis Leivison Gower,
. the translator of Faust; the poets, Southey, Wordsworth,
C/l and Proper, (Barry Cormvall,) — a brilliant constellation,
/ whose friendly sign of recognition from the far-off northern
/ horizon cannot fail to touch the noble old man, and give

him pleasure." *

* This ill-spelt letter is from a London correspondent of Zelters.
See Lyster's Translation of Diintzer's Life of Goethe, vol. il. j). 472,
for an explanation, and Lewes's Life of Goethe, p. 559, For Mogein
read Maginn ; for Herand, Heraiid ; for Movi, Moir ; for Lockhard,
Lockhart; for Leivison Gower, Levison (iower; for Prorter, Procter.
Carlyle himself conceived the idea of making this present to Goethe,
and the design of the .seal, — the serpent of Eternity, encircling a star, —
was sketched by Mrs. Carlyle. The motto is a (juotation from some
well-known lines of Goethe's, which Carlyle, in his Essay on Goethe's
Works, afterwards translated thus:

I.,ike as a star,
Tiiat makcth not haste,
'J'hat takelh not rest,
Be each one fultilling
His god-given Hest.

1831.] to zelter. 461

358. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 20th August, 1831.
. . . . As I connect jour handsome present * with my
approaching birthday, I must also tell you of the famous
gift I have received from the other side of the Channel.
Fifteen English Frie7icls,f as they sign themselves, have had
a seal made for me by the first goldsmiths in the country ;
it is something like an oblong vase in shape, so that you
can hold it conveniently in the hollow of your hand. Its
workmanship shows all that the united arts of the goldsmith
and the enameller can achieve. One is reminded of the
descriptions, in which Cellini is accustomed to praise his
own works, and they have evidently aimed at an approach
to the style of the sixteenth century. The English seem
to have found the motto, Ohne Bast, doch Ohne Hast, full of
significance, for in the main, it is a very good description
of their own activity. The words are engraved round a
star, within the well-known serpent circle, but unfortunately
in old German capitals, which rather obscure the sense. The
gift deserves my gratitude in every respect, and I have sent
them a few friendly rhymes in return for it.

As the dear good Weimar folk will not let this festival
pass without an Ergo hibamus, (the accompaniment of so
many others,) and propose making capital out of various
other incidental circumstances, I shall probably run away
for a few days, even though I may not go far. It is
becoming more and more impossible for me, to accept in
person such acts of well-meant homage. The older I get,
the more full of gaps do I perceive my life to be, whereas
others like to treat it as a whole, and make merry over
it

I have received from England a Review of German
Literature, written by W. Taylor, who studied in Göttin-
gen forty years ago, in which he suddenly gives vent to
theories, opinions, and phrases, which have been my aver-

* A present of engravings, from Zelter.

f There is a discrepancy in the number. Goethe's poem, Worte die
der Lichter spricht, is dedicated to his niiicteen friends in England,
Uniy fifteen of the subscribers' names are known.

4G2 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1831.

sion for the last sixty years. The ghostly voices of Messrs.
Sulzer, Bouterwek, and the rest frighten us now, like
echoes of the departed. Friend Carlyle, on the other hand,
defends himself like a real master, and is making great
advances, of which more anon.

And thus ever, youi'S,

359. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 28th August, 1831.

.... At the Singahadeinie yesterday evening, we
"began with Fasch's grand Gloria in Excelsis Deo, followed
by the Chorus in sixteen parts, Laudamus Te, henedicimus
Te, adoramus, &c. Afterwards, in unspoken honour of you,*
we had old Bach's strong, sonorous Motett, Sing to the Lord
a new song, let the congregation of the Saints praise Him. I
knew by the performance that they had seen what I meant,
and they asked for that great masterpiece over again, and
sang it with such reverential joy, in accordance with my
pi'cvious instruction, that old Bach, (who was still living
when you were born,) must have quivered in his grave ; —
anyhow that was my feeling.

After the Academy, I went to the Festival, given by the
Society of Friends of The Poets. I came a little late, and the
proceedings had already begun. At that moment, Madame
Wolff was reciting the Fourth Act of Iphigenia. Afterwai'ds,
Herr Schall read the principal Scene from Clavigo in a
masterly fashion, and we ended with Die Laune der Ver-
liehten, most charmingly read by two young benuties. Then
we went to supper, and I was directed to take my place
under your bust. What ought I to have said, and how
ought 1 to have played the modest man ? As long as you
know who I am, that is enough for me. Between the courses
at supper, poems were read ; the best part of them was their
brevity and the good intention of the authors. I was
obliged to say something, not to appear a regular stick, and
instead of a speech, after your health had been proposed,
I read that ])assage in your last letter, describing the English

* The 28th of August was Goethe's birthday.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 463

seal. The wine which they placed before me was most
excellent, and I could not help noticing that I had the best.
It was the hour of midnight, and the second half of it I can
praise from my bed.

God be with you !

Yours,

360. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 4tli September, 1831.

For six days, and those too the gayest of the whole
summer, I was absent from Weimar, having gone my
ways to Ilmenau, where, in former years, I worked
much, though a long time had elapsed since I last saw it.
On a lonely little wooden summer-house, at the highest
point of the pine forest, I recognized the inscrijition of that
song, written on the 7th of September, 1783, which you
have so lovingly and soothingly sent forth to all the world,
upon the wings of music :

TJeber alien Gipfeln ist RuTi, &c.
So all these years afterwards, there lay before my view
what abides, what has vanished. Success stood out in relief
and was cheering, failure was forgotten and ceased to
grieve. The people were all living on as before, in their
own way, from the charcoal-burner to the porcelain manu-
facturer. Iron was being smelted, and manganese procured
from the mines, though it is not now so much in request as
formerly. They were boiling pitch, and collecting soot, in
tubs, which were most artistically and elaborately finished.
Hard toilers were bringing up coals to the pit's mouth.
Gigantic, primaeval trunks of trees had been discovered in
the pit, whilst the men were at work ; one of these I forgot

to show you — it stands in the Garden-House

The Forsters have probably told you of the fete in Weimar
on my birthday ; * it went off very successfully. The

* Though Goethe had escaped from the Weimar festivities, the people
of Ihiienau would not let his birthday pass unnoticed. Early in the
morning, tliey assembled in front of the Lion Inn, where he was staying,
and sang the Chorale, Nun danket alle Gott ! In the evening, they per-
formed the miners' comedy, mentioned in Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.

464 Goethe's letters [1831.

pretty little person, -whom I was so glad to see at my
table, made considerable effect. Ladies declare that her
exquisitely tasteful bonnet had much to do with it

You inquire about Faust; the Second Part is now com-
plete in itself. I have for many years past known per-
fectly well what I wanted, but only worked out those par-
ticular passages wbich interested me at the moment.
The consequence was that gaps became evident, and these
had to be filled up. I firmly resolved to set all this to rights
before my birthday. And so it was done ; the whole work
now lies before me, and I have only to correct a few trifles.
So I shall put a seal on it, and then, it may add to the
specific weight of the volumes that are to follow, w^iatever
may come of it

Now that these demands are satisfied, new ones im-
mediately press forward from behind, a la queue, as at a
baker's shop. I know well what is wanted ; the future
must show what can be done. I have planned far too many
buildings, and in the end, I have neither means nor strength
to finish them. I dare not think at all of Die Natürliche
Tochter; how could I recall to memory the monstrous
catastrophe, which is there forced upon one ? . . . .

Yours always,
Gt.

361. — Zelter to Goethe.

Sunday, lltli September, 1831.
.... One more recommendation ! One of my
young disciples, Otto Nicolai,* — this time, no relation to the
Nicolai of the Universe, — has made himself a very cultivated
singer ; and besides that, he has set several of your poems to
most graceful music. I have given him an introduction to
our dear Ottilie, begging her to introduce the little man to
you. I feel tolerably satisfied too with his singing of my
trifles, and am glad to acknowledge this, as I know through
him, that the fault does not lie at ray door, if certain people

* In 1833, Nicolai was made organist of tlie Prussian Embassy at
Rome, where he studied Italian music, and composed a series of" Operas
for Italian theatres. The later years of his life were passed at Vienna.
The best of his works is Die Lusiu/en Weihe?' von Windsor, or Falstaff, as
the Opera was called, when it was bi'ought out in London, in 1864.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 465

do not take to them. Now, if you could find a leisure
hour, in wlaich to hear this youth, that would be a lifelong

joy to him

Yours,

362. — Goethe to Zelter.

Undated.
.... The Jackanapes of the day would like to
see the Nobility abolished, as though it were possible for a
man of worth to lose anything, by possessing worthy
ancestors ! Why, I suppose they will be taking away your
great-uncle next. Instead of that they ought to ask God,
daily and hourly, to let all that has stood the test of years
be called legitimate, and to make it their prayer, that from
time to time, a creature may be born, who shall stamp
entire centuries with his name.

One quiet evening, I remembered that Cicero had left be-
hind him a little work, called De Senectufe ; for the first
time I felt inclined to apply it to myself, and I found it
most charming.

As these ancient authors, for the most part, write in
dialogue, it is only as if what one understands as a matter
of course, were thrown olf in conversal ion. He makes the
elder Cato speak, and he — if you look into it narrowly
— only gives a list of the excellent people in histoiy, who
have grown old, and describes how well old age agreed
with them.

Then by way of illustration, he discusses the unreason-
ableness of wishing to recall anything, even the immediate
past. Much else that does not concern me, I leave unnoticed,
but I must tell you, how highly he esteems the honour, the
respect, the reverence that are paid to old age, after a career
worthily fulfilled. This comes with no uncertain sound
from the lips of a first-rate Roman, who both thinks and
speaks so finely about his ancestors, that we should be poor
creatures indeed, were we not affected by it

I have determined to bring Felix's most charming
letter to light through the Chaos, when a fitting opportunity
presents itself.

H H

C6o*-«j

466 Goethe's letters [1831.

Your protege shall be kindly received. Ottilia knows
how to manage, so that a stranger, who may not happen
to interest me at the moment, is brought to me in a happy
hour. I must not omit to tell yon, by the way, that she
and the children behave most charmingly ; about that a
great deal might be said, though there is actually nothing
to say, because so delicate a matter cannot be expressed in
words.

I myself have been renewing my friendship with the
twenty-four year old MS.,* (some sheets of which, you
have already seen.) I trust it will yet one day give you a
cheerful, and even at your advanced age, an instructive
hour. Herein I am confirmed by the words of the ancient
sage, the force of which I have just felt anew : " I am
ever learning, and only thus do I notice my increasing
years." t - • •

363. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 4th October, 1831.

, . . , All these circumstances considered, I cannot
sufficiently prize the good fortune, that so early forced me
to take an interest in Plastic Art. Having no talent for
the practice of Art, I was obliged to take all the more
pains to acquire theoretical knowledge, mastering just so
much of it as would serve me for home use, i.e. would
enable me to regulate my enthusiasm for any work, and
make it permanent.

Now I very often become acquainted with eminent
artists, whose names I never heard of, liy means of the
engravings sent me ; and that makes the whole world
rich to me, for their talent is absolute and tangible. With
poetry it is quite different ; there I have to make too many
additions, and I never exactly know, if I am right in
accepting this and rejecting that. Music, which is your

* Goethe alludes to the beginning of the Fourth Part of his Bio-
graphy.

t A translation of Solon's line : —

ytjpätJKW S'aiii TToWu CicaaKUfitrog.

1831,] TO ZELTER. 467

life, is almost completely vanishing from my unpractised
senses.

I have got a strange specimen of the newest school of
German poetry, the Poems of Gustav Pfizer, which were
sent me the other day ; I read bits here and there in the
little volume, but I have only half cut it. The poet seems to
me to have real talent, and to be a good man besides. But
while I was reading, it made me so wretched, that I quickly
threw the book aside ; when cholera is imminent, one ought
to be most strictly on one's guard against all depressing
and enervating influences. The little work is dedicated
to ühland, and the region over which he rules, is not calcu-
latedto produce anything exciting, excellent, or likely to con-
quer the destiny of men, so I will not find fault with it,
though I shall not look into it again. It is strange, how
cleverly these little gentlemen manage to wrap themselves
up in a kind of beggar's mantle of moral and religious
poetry, in such a way that even if it is through at the
elbows, that defect must be regarded merely as a poetical
intention. I will enclose the book for you in my next
parcel, if only to get it out of the house.

So much for to-day. The continuation has already been
copied.

364. — Goethe to Zeltee,

Weimar, 5th October, 1831.
Ottilie is reading Plutarch's Lives to me of an even-
ing, adopting a new method, i.e. taking the Greeks first, for
thus at all events, we remain in one locaUty, with o/ie nation,
and one way of thinking and acting. When we have done
with these, we shall pass on to the Romans, and go through
that series in like manner. We leave out the com-
parisons, expecting to learn from our own, unassisted im-
pressions, how far the whole of the Roman part is compar-
able to the whole of the Greek

I have been looking through two volumes, which I re-
ceived lately. Fragments de Geologie, &c., par A. von Hum,'
holdt ; I will tell you the strange thought, that they
suggested to my mind. The extraordinary talent of this
extraordinary man manifests itself in his oral delivery, and

468 goethe's letters [1831.

if we look at it carefully, all oral delivery aims at per-
suasion, at making the listener believe he is convinced.
Few persons are capable of being convinced ; the majority
allow themselves to be persuaded, and hence the treatises
here before us are genuine orations, delivered with great
facility, so that at last one might fancy one had grasped
the impossible. That the Himalayas have raised them-
selves 25,000 feet out of the ground, and nevertheless
point heavenwards, as stiffly and proudly, as though it
were a matter of course, — this is beyond the limits of my
brain, in the dark regions where transubstantiation, <fec.
dwell, and my cerebral system would have to be completely
reorganized, (which surely would be a pity,) if room had to
be found for these marvels.

But there are minds which have compartments for such
articles of faith, side by side with other quite reasonable
Loculamenta ; I do not understand it, but I hear of it, never-
theless, every day. But is it necessary then, to understand
everything ? Once more — with us the greatest rhetorician
is perhaps the conqueror of the world. For as all facts are
present to his vast memory, he contrives to use and apply
them with the greatest skill and boldness. But he who
belongs to the craft, sees pretty clearly, where weakness is
intertwined with strength, and strength does not object to
see itself somewhat dressed up, decked out, and toned down.

And so the eifect is great, when such a paradox is de-
livered artistically and energetically, and for this reason
many of our ablest physiologists plume themselves on^being
able to conceive the impossible. Consequently, I appear to
them the most stiff-necked of heresiarchs, in which charac-
ter may God graciously preserve and confirm me ! Selah !

365. — Zelter to Goethe,

Undated.
.... After the destruction of Troy — I mean the
conquest of Paris — the victorious Blücher was received by
ns at the Singakademie with this Song,* and he compli-

* Goethe's Voruarts, from the Epiincnid(s. It will be remembered,
that Blücher was nicknamed " General Vorwärts " by his soldiers.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 469

mented me as a good general, adding that he never yet
ventured an action with such a mass of pretty women, and
that he doubted whether it would succeed with him ; where-
upon I replied, that his good sword was at home every-
where, and that he might surely be contented with his
victory over our hearts.

9 th October.
In return for your poetical testimony to my genealogical
tree, I give you back an equivalent, which I had not
f oi'gotten :

"But he whom the poet praises, he hath received a form."

Goethe's Euphrosyne.

That poem left upon me an impression of undying happi-
ness. During the fii'st years of my frequent visits to
Weimar, I used to be enticed away, as it were, by a Sibyl,
in the earliest calm of the morniug, to the monument in
the Park, although I had never known the dear one. Once
it was like a vision, — the stone had vanished, — it was as if
I heard wafted towards me, " Avaunt ! thou belongest to
the earth." I tremblingly withdrew. On my return
through the garden, I found you, standing at the open
window of your room, and you sang out to me, " Good
morning, old gentleman ! " That was a good morning, and
it remained with me, and ever since that time, my affec-
tion for you has been growing. When I heard people
talking about you, with their so and so, and this and that
and the other, it was like salt to my flame. I could not
be angry with them, but I was forced to esteem myself
higher, because I thought that I alone understood you and
myself. So it is still, though we two are no longer chil-
di'en ; and yet again we are as children, for we are still
growing and exercising ourselves in the recognition of all
that is true and right, owning our imperfection still, because

we hope to be perfect

We are far advanced in the improvement of our piano-
fortes. Comparing our Fortepiano with the first, made by
Silbermann of Strasburg, it ought to be allowed, that he
laid the foundation of a Babylonian building, i.e. of the
confusion of tongues and the despair of musical sages, who
lead the lives of dogs, trying to cram all that into their

470 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1831.

theory. French music may be compared to French politics ;
it is mongrel, effeminate tittle-tattle ; their best writers can-
not shake themselves free of it. A short time ago, I heard
the Wasserträger again, an estimable "work, against which I
have nothing to say. And yet the music in itself, in those
parts where it aims at personifying the real earnestness of
the poem, is about as good as a drum, covered with human
skin, — and this is the best work of one of their best men.
As to the Medea of this composer, I will not discuss it at
all. Blows in the air, and fights in the looking-glass ;
too much of everything, in order to secure something.
Let him who finds the confusion of sensations unedifying,
keep away. Gretry is too soon forgotten ; he does not fly
into regions too high for him, but his feathers are his own.
He lets himself down gently, and still keeps his wings
moving, so that he can raise himself again at once.

Yours,

366. — GrOETHE TO ZbLTER.

Weimar, 26th October, 1831.
.... The brothers Schlegel, in spite of their many
fine gifts, were, are, and will be all their life long, unfor-
tunate; they wanted to produce more than they were by
nature capable of, and to effect more than was in their
power ; consequently they have done much mischief, both
in Art and Literature. German artists and amateurs have
not yet recovered from their false doctrines of Plastio Art,
which proclaimed, taught, and disseminated egotism com-
bined with weakness ; nay — one must even leave them to
their error for a time, for they would be in despair, if
their eyes were opened. Meantime, we others have to
suffer, we, who.se business it is, to help forward artists,
whose works there is no demand for after all, because they
suit the taste of no one. So those amiable Societies honestly
laugh at the public, instituting lotteries for articles which
no one would buy, and on which the winner can scarcely
be congratulated.

I would even love and encourage what is false, if only it
were in request, and well paid for. So, let it be !

To return to those Dioscuri, — Frederick Schlegel, at all

1831.] TO ZELTER. 471

events, ehoked himself, ruminating over moral and religious
absurdities, which, in the course of his uneasy career in
life, he would have liked to communicate to and dis-
seminate amongst others ; he therefore sought refuge in
Catholicism, and in his downfall, drew after him a consider-
able, but over-rated man, Adam Müller.

Carefully considered, the Indian tendency too was only
a. pis-aller. They were wise enough to see, that they could
not achieve anything brilliant in the field of German, Latin,
or Greek Literature, so they threw themselves upon the
far East, and here August Wilhelm distinguished himself
honourably. All this and +, the time to come will evidence
more clearly. Schiller did not love them, — nay, he hated
them ; I do not know whether it appears from our corre-
spondence, that I endeavoured to bring about social inter-
course at least, within our own circle. In the great revolu-
tion which they actually effected, they took little notice of
me, to the annoyance of Hardenberg (Novalis), who wanted
me to be extinguished too. I had enough to do with
myself ; why trouble myself about others ?

Schiller was justly exasperated with them ; as he stood
in their way, he could not get in their way. He once said
to me, when he was chafing at my habit of general forbear-
ance, and even of pi-omoting what I did not myself like, —
" Kotzebue seems to me to be entitled to more respect,
because of his fruitfulness, than that unfruitful race, which
really and trixly, does nothing but hobble along, calling
back and checking anyone who is making rapid progress."

We must not bear August Schlegel a grudge, for having
lived long enough to bring forward those disputes again.
Envy at seeing so many more influential talents rising up,
and vexation at having, as a youngster, cut so bad a figure,
make it impossible for the good man, in his heart of hearts,

to attain to a feeling of benevolence

367. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, Thursday, 27th October, 1831.
Our zealous theologian, Hengstenberg, is said to have
delivered himself of a criticism on Die Wahlverwandtschaften,

472 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1831.

that is as heavy as lead. I do not know him, and if he
does not understand you, you will not know him either.

This reminds me of a story about the Hamburg Bach,
when Agricola asked him, " Have you read Marpurg's
criticism of your new Fugue ? He has taken you to task
for it pretty sharply." "No," said Bach; "had he told
one his criticism beforehand, one might pei'haps have
shaped one's ways accordingly ; but if he likes his own
Fugues, I do not see how mine are calculated to please
him." ....

A new Opera by Scribe and Auber, Le Philtre, is so
hopelessly weak and empty, that the house, on the occasion
of the second performance, seemed as quiet as the grave.

On the other hand, the people of Künig.>.;stadt have
arranged for themselves another new Opera by Kossini, La
Donna del Lago, and very nicely too ; it is pretty sure to
last. Douglas, a Scottish knight, has promised his beautiful
daughter to a Mr. Roderick ; James Y., King of Scotland,
is also bent on having her, but she, come life or death, is
bent on having a j\Ir. Malcolm Grame. That might happen
anywhere, and the text is the most marvellous composition
of everlastingly repeated, worn-out, Italian operatic tags;*
yet the whole thing is as manageable and practicable, as a
good-tempered girl. So there you have the Opera.

The absence of a long, broad, pathetic Symphony, so far
from being regrettable, conciliated me at once. The Opera
starts with itself ; it has all the distinctive marks, which
enable us to recognize at once the well-known composer,
while at the same time, there are very evident signs, that his
vein is far from being exhausted. The singers have enough
to do, and yet they are spared, by means of the Orchestra,
which Rossini handles as easily as if he were holding a bell
firm in his hand, — weaving his insti'umentation in as inge-
niously, as if it were a natui'al growth. There is plenty to
find fault with too, but he who sticks at that, is in danger
of missing the boldest and most delicate passages, as they
fiy by, like game on the wing. The Chorus frequently
attacks with such brilliancy and force, that for a moment

* The gems of the text of this Opera are to be found in a very
humorous article in the Cornhill Magazine for Novemljer, 188.'), called
With Sn/,i>- Lihretthts.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 473

one feels older by a few thousand years. The scene is, as
I said before, in Scotland, and now and then I really
fancied myself transported from the King's Bridge in
Berlin, to a solemn Highland region, although the composer
has not even been at the pains to look up so much as a
single national Scotch song

1 told you before, that I had taken another turn at the
Schiller Correspondence. The two Letters, numbered 389
and 390, have set me thinking again. Schiller says, " Can
it really be, that Tragedy does not suit your natui-e, because
of its pathetic force ? " And again, "A certain reckoning
on the spectators is a liindrance to you, and perhaps for
that very reason, you are the less fitted to be a writer of
Tragedy, because you are altogether created for a poet in
the highest sense. Anyhow, I find in you all the poetic
specialities of the writer of Tragedy, in their fullest
measure, and if, notwithstanding this, you are really unable
to write a perfectly genuine Tragedy, the reason must lie in
the non-poetical requisites."

I, for my part, do not understand this chiaroscuro, and
much I know about v:ritinij a Tragedy, or whether such
things let themselves be written ; when poetry bears about
the same relation to the wx'iting, as music does to the notes.
It becomes somewhat clearer to my mind, when I remem-
ber, that Schiller was just then wrestling hard with his
Wallenstein, and trying, as it were, to hook poetry on to it.
ToiTr answer, No. 390, contains all that Aristotle says, and
something more besides. " For the rest," (you say,) " only
go on without anxiety. The inner unity, which Wallenstein
will have, must be felt, and you have great privileges in the
Theatre. An ideal whole imposes on men, even if they do
not know how to decipher it in its individual elements, nor

how to estimate the value of the individual parts "

Yours ever,

368. — G-OETHE TO Zelter.

Weimar, 31st October, 1831.
.... I AM glad to hear that you sometimes go
back to the Schiller Correspondence; there you find two

474 Goethe's letters [1831.

men of serious aim, at a fairly high standpoint ; you are
incited to the same intellectual activity, you seek to place
yourself beside them, if possible above them ; and that is all
so much gain for the rising generation.

One day soon, you will receive the first numbers of the
Chaos; it seems to me like the second year of a fairly
happy marriage. But do give me leave to insert in it your
delightful remarks about La Donna del Lago and the
Köuigsstadt Theatre in general

I have of old denounced the canting lot, and I have
soundly anathematized the Bei'liners, as I know them, so
it is but fair, that I should be excommunicated by them in
their diocese. One of that tribe, wanting to have a fling
at me lately, talked about Pantheism ; he made a good shot
there ! I assured him with great simplicity, that I had
never yet met with anyone, who knew what the word meant.

I had an interview the other day, with a very good-look-
king young fellow, a Prussian too, who, after some very
proper talk, confided to me, that he also had taken up
poetry as a profession, adding that he was trying to work
against me and my followers. I assured him, that he was
doing very wisely ; for as no one could readily be of the
same way of thinking as another, so nothing could be more
natural, than for everyone, in verse or prose, to express
himself differently also.

As regards Tragedy, that is a ticklish point. I was not
born to be a tragic poet, for my nature is conciliatory ; con-
sequently, a purely tragic incident cannot interest me^ for
it must be essentially irreconcilable, and to me, in the
exceeding flatness of this world, the irreconcilable seems
an utter absurdity. I must not continue, for in the course
of discussion one might go astray, and this one would

rather avoid

369. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 15th November, 1831.

As I know that one can ingratiate oneself with you,
by thinking and speaking kindly of your Berlin folk, I may
safely tell you, that yesterday we had a real fete, in honour
of one of the most admirable of your heroes of peace.

1831.] TO ZELTER. 475

It is really curious, that for the last 4,124 years, strictly
calculated — that is, since Noah's experiment in getting
drunk — though people have always gone on wishing for good
wine, and as much of it too as possible, still no one has ever
got to the bottom of the question, as to the greater or less
amount of skill required in dealing with the details of vine
culture, until at last, a plate-polisher in Berlin * made the
egg stand on end, and gave us a standard, by which we can
judge, how far people have hitherto approached the right
treatment of the subject.

I dare say I wrote to you about this from Dornburg ;
since then, I have constantly devoted myself to it, as also
to botany in general. In Weimar, Belvedere, Jena, and
elsewhere, people caught up the published maxim at once,
so I planted a few vines, which are now three years old,
and have been pruned in that way. But in my garden, on
the wall of the outhouse, there is a very old and healthy
Hungarian vine, which bears very fine, large grapes, though
you cannot rely on a regular crop. An experienced pupil
and disciple of Kecht's has just been maiming it methodi-
cally, and he promises us eighty bunches of grapes for next
year ; you are invited to witness the vintage and to enjoy
it with us

Tou see that things with me go on after the old fashion.
Amid the hundreds of subjects that interest me, one always
constitutes itself the chief planet in the middle, and the
remainder of the Quodlibet of my life revolves around it
variously, moon fashion, until one or other of the satellites
succeeds likewise in moving to the centre.

I should like to hear what news you have of our excel-
lent Felix. I had an exceedingly interesting letter from
Switzerland, part of which I confided to the Chaos; I
wrote to him at Munich, but have not heard from him
since.

My blessings on all that is good and beautiful !

J. W. V. G.

• J. S. Kecht. See Letter 249, Note.

476 Goethe's letters [1831.

370. — Zelter to Goethe.

Sunday, 26th November, 1831.
Thet are just putting the worthy Hegel under
ground ; he died suddenly of cliolera, the day before yester-
day. On the Friday eveniuu-, he was actually at my house,
and he gave a lecture the day afterwards. I ought to be
one of the mourners, but I have got my Academy to attend
to, and a cold besides. ]\Iy house is open every week regu-
larly to some four hundred people, and should anything
happen to me, my Institution would suffer, and I should be
reproached with having tempted Providence, — all the more,
as contrary to universal custom, I neither fumigate nor
disinfect, as it is called, clumsily enough.

Our University is so torn and divided, that I have not
yet been able to make a fresh start. Now Hegel's death
will give me an opportunity of rehearsing some music in
memory of him, and we shall have a performance
there

The youngest daughter of Moses Mendelssohn was buried
yestei'day. She, of all the family, was most like her father,
small and weakly, — a woman of delicate, fine intellect, and
lovable l)eyond everything. She inherited very little from
her father, and went away to Paris, where she made the
acquaintance of General Sebastiani, and became governess
to his only daughter. She educated this child up to the
time of her marriage, and received a pension for the^rest
of her life, which she enjoyed in her native city of Berlin.
It was a remarkable thing, to find no difference in lan-
guage, manners, or habit of life, in the once Jewish maiden
of Bei'lin, who, without the aid of an imposing ]n'csence,
had become a lady in one of the first and most distinguished
of Parisian houses. Since she came back to Berlin, ten
years ago, though I have seen her frequently, (and always
with plea.sure,) I have scarcely heard her utter a word of
French, English, or Italian ; on the contrary, she spoke
the most transparent, fiowing German, with a brightness,
which reminded me of your schöne Set'le. Her vocation as
a governess in Paris had made her turn Roman Catholic,
but apart from her daily attendance at INIass, no appearance

1831.] TO ZELTER. 477

of positive religiosity would have been observable in her.
Felix was lier special favonrite ; she liked to have my
letters to him, and copied them for hei'self. She was at
my house only a short time ago, and now all that abides

with me is her sweet memory

Yours,

371. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 23rd November, 1831.
. . First of all, let me tell you that I have
retired into my cloister cell, where the sun, which is just
now rising, shines horizontally into my room, and does not
leave me until he sets, so that he is often uncomfortably im-
portunate, — so much so, that I really have to shut him out
for a time. This reminds me of a little old verse, which,
when translated, would run somewhat thus :

Nay, not with love, — with bare respect,
May we unite ourselves to thee :
O Sun ! couldst thou but take effect.
And never shine, — how nice 'twould be .'

I have further to tell you, that a new edition of the
Ipliigenia in Aldis of Euripides, edited by Hermann, Knight
and Professor of Leipzig, has once more turned my attention
to that incomparable Grreek poet. His great and unique
talent of course excited my admiration as of old, but what
chiefly impressed me this time, was the element, as bound-
less as it is powerful, in which he moves.

Among the Greek localities, and their mass of primaeval,
mythological legends, he sails and swims, like a cannon-
ball on a sea of quicksilver, and cannot sink, even if he
wished it. Everything is ready to his hand — subject-matter,
circumstances, connecting links ; he has only to set to
work to bring forward his subjects and characters in the
simplest way, or to make the most complicated limitations
even more complicated, and then at last, symmetrically,
but entirely to our satisfaction, either to unravel or to cut
the knot.

I shall not lay him aside the whole of this winter. We
have translations enough, which well warrant our presump-

478 goethe's letters [1831.

tion in looking into the original ; when the sun shines into
my warm room, and I am helped by the stores of learning,
acquired in days long gone by, I shall anyhow fare better
than I should, at this moment, among the newly discovered
ruins of Messene and Megalopolis.

As for the rest, you understand, that I am leading a
testamentary and codicillary life, in order that the body of
the property by which I am surrounded, may not be all too
quickly dissolved into the meanest elements, like the indi-
vidual himself. Yet even kings cannot accomplish any-
thing a finger's-breadth beyond their earthly existence; so
why should we other poor devils make a fuss about it? ... .

1832.] TO ZELTER. 479

1832.

372. GrOETHE TO ZeLTER.

Weimar, 14th January, 1832.
.... Jour's libretto for Spontini's Opera, {Les
AtJieniennes,) is truly admirable. I have read it through
once: there is great perception of dramatic eft'ects, the
treatment of such commonplace situations as are inevitable,
is fresh and successful, there are pleasant resting places in
the mid-current of the movement, (which is partly solemn,
partly passionate,) where homely airs can be introduced,
and the Finale is well-gi'ouped, and full of life and move-
naent. Let anyone who must sit out the third Act have at
hand a cordial, both for heart and senses. Still, I do not
know of any passage that I would omit or alter. I
shall only be able to praise, and to give sound reasons for

my favourable opinion, from the right point of view

It will be all right for little Faeius ; her maintenance
for one year more, is already as good as secured. The
presence of Professor Rauch in Berlin will, in any case, be
very advantageous to her. He who ceases to converse
with the masters of his Ai*t, will not make any advance,
and will always be in danger of falling back. From every
gifted person, we ought to demand unwearied endeavour, —
a self-denial, which however, no one cares to form any idea
of. Everyone would like to possess Art in his own fashion,
but Art will be wooed and won only in her own way. How
often I see gifted people conducting themselves like a wasp
on a window pane ; they want to force their heads through
the impenetrable, fancying that they can do this, because it

is transparent

480 Goethe's letters [1832.

373. — Zelter to Goethe.

Berlin, 22ik1 January, 1832.

.... You need not trouble yourself about Jouy's
operatic text ; you have only to send it back to Spontini,
who, I am sure, will be certain to put it before me, with
his own casual observations. I too will let him know of
your satisfaction with the poem. I am on proper artistic
terms with him, and this he understands very well, as we
don't force our opinions upon one another. We have often
conducted important concerts, cheek by jowl, and at such
a time, I have found myself between two forces. On the
last occasion, in our largest Church, and in the presence of
the whole of the Royal Orchestra and Chorus, he launched
out very loudly in my praises ; while I, in my turn, could
not but admire his potential discretion, in letting things
with which he was absolutely unfamiliar, take their own
course. The most agreeable part of it was the universal
sensation ; I had not stirred, but everybody knew what

was meant

I enclose you another playbill. The Italian composer,
Bellini, was till lately, unknown to me ; Heaven only can
say, whether I know him now. A Duke has forcibly stolen
the lad^-love of a Count, and made her his wife. The
Count comes back six years afterwards, as a pirate, kills the
Duke, and then comes to grief himself about it ; the wife
goes mad, and all that is left is a little rascal of five years
old. The music is the most casual jumble of ideas, which
purposely contradict every interpretation of what is going
on. One is pitched and tossed between one's eyes and ears,
one's feeling and one's reason, which are all biting and
scratching each other. With all this, the fellow has talent
and audacity, and lords it over the Orchestra and the
singers, in the most impertinent fashion. Such stuff is
now being carried oif by a kind of virtuosity at the Königs-
stadt Theatre. Now and then I was in such despair,
that I was on the point of running away, but before I could
quite get up from my chair, something always pushed me
back again. I felt at last, as if there was nothing left
of me

1832.] TO ZELTEE. 481

Tuesday, 24th January.

My brave Concert-Meister, Rietz,* died the day before
yesterday. We are all very unhappy, — and there's an end
of it. Now I shall have to roll the new stone up-hill
again. There are some left to pick from still ; they are all
keen about it ; tact and ability will come in time. Rietz
had all those qualities, and the spirit of obedience besides.
.... Help, ye Muses ! And thou, Apollo ! forsake not

Thy
Z.

37-1. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 27th January, 1832.
.... The excellent Doris seems to be quite cheer-
ful and at home here ; she has come just at the right time,
when we are all in full swing, and things are a little crazy,
even in my house. A few days ago, they performed a
Quodlibet of dramatic fragments, at a private house, under
the direction of Ottilie, who understands this sort of thing
very well , and is therefore in great request as a manager

I dare not say, how much I dislike the reverse side of
Hegel's medal ; one does not know in the least what it is
intended for. I have proved in my verses, that I knew
how to venerate and how to adorn the Cross, as a man and
a poet ; but it jars upon me, to see a philosopher leading
his disciples by a round-about way over the primary and
negative grounds of Being and not Being to that contigna-
jtion. It can be had cheaper, and expressed better.

I possess a medal of the seventeenth Century, stamped
with the likeness of a high dignitary of the Romish
Church ; on the reverse-side are figures of Theologia and
Philosophia, represented as two noble women, facing each
other, and the relation between the two is conceived with
such exquisite purity, and is so entirely satisfactory, and

* Edward Eietz, an excellent violin-player, was the founder and
conductor uf an Orchestral Society at Berlin. His early death deeply
affected his intimate friend, Mendelssohn, who inscribed the Andante in
the String-Quintet, op. 18, with the words : '' In memory of E. Ritz."
The autograph is dated " Jan. 23, 1832," and entitled Nachruf.

I I

482 GOETHE'S LETTERS [1832.

gracious in expression, that I am keeping the medal to
myself, so as to give it to someone worthy of it, if I can
find him.

One lives, inwardly and outwardly, in a perpetual state
of conflict, because of the young people, whose ways and
doings one cannot approve of, and yet cannot altogether
avoid. I often pity them, for having made their appearance
in times that are so out of joint, when a stiff, unbending
egotism hardens itself in ways that are half or altogether
false, and liinders pure Self from working out its own
development. The consequence is that when a free spirit
perceives and expresses what admits of being clearly seen
and expressed, very many good people must inevitably fall
into despair. Now they entangle themselves in the old,
conventional labyrinths, without noticing what stands in
their way. I shall guard against expressing myself more
definitely, but I know best what it is that keeps me young
in extreme old age, and moreover in the 'pracHcnl-producHve
sense of the word, which after all is the main thing.

And thus ever,

J. W. V. Goethe.

375. — Zelter to Goethe.

1st February. 1832.

.... Felix is now in Paris, and is making a stir,
both as composer and performer. I enclose a short extract
from his letter, by which you will see for yourself what
else he is doing in a general way.

" Paris, 21st January, 1832.

" Yesterday, Rodriques was with me, talking of St.
Simonism ; he thought me stupid or clever enough, (I
don't know which,) for him to make disclosures, which so
enraged me, that I resolved not to have anything more
to do with him, or any other of his accomplices. Early
this morning, Hillor rushed into my room, to tell me how
he had just been i)resent at the arrest of the St. Simonians ;
he wanted to hear their sermon, — no Popes — soldiers sud-
denly appear upon the scene, and people are asked to be

1832.] TO ZELTER. 483

off as fast as they can, as Herr Enfantin and the others are
arrested in the Itue Monsigny. National Guards and other
soldiers are posted in the Rue Monsigny, every door is
bolted, and now the trial has begun. It will go hard with
them, for the new juiy, consisting no longer of Odilon-
Barrot candidates, is ministerial, and has already delivered
some very stringent verdicts," &c.

376. — Goethe to Zeltee.

Weimar, 4th Pebruary. 1832.
.... A LITTLE while ago, you told me, that some
cultivated Berliners rejoiced in the thought, that probably,
with the exception of your copy of my Farbenlehre, there
was no other in Berlin. If, by chance, there is one in the
Royal Library, it will be locked up, and tabooed, as a for-
bidden work. Two octavo volumes, and one number in
quarto, have been in print for three-and-twenty years, and
it is one of the most important experiences of my old age,
that since those days, the Guilds and Societies have always
opposed it, and regarded it with grim fear. Right they are !
and I praise them for it. Why should they not curse the
broom, which threatens, sooner or later, to destroy their
cobwebs? I kept quiet at the time, but now I will not
spare a few words.

The circle you tell me of, is made up entirely of honour-
able, well-meaning people ; but they certainly belong to a
Guild, — a persuasion, — a party, — whose best part it un-
doubtedly is, to shelve, if it cannot annihilate, all the hostile
elements that encroach upon it.

What is a Minister, but the head of the party, which he
has to protect, and upon which he depends ? What is the
Academician, but an initiated and adopted member of a
great Society ? If he were not connected with it, he would
be nothing ; the Society, on the other hand, must carry out
the traditions it has accepted, and must admit and assimilate
only a certain kind of novelty, in the way of select observa-
tions and discoveries ; everything else must be set aside as
heresy.

Seebeck, an earnest man, in the highest and best sense

484 Goethe's letters [1832.

of the word, knew very well, in what relation he stood to
me, and to my method of thinking about Natural Science,
but, once received into the reigning Church, he would
have been considered a fool, had he shown the least trace
of Arianism. When the multitude is, once for all, satisfied
with words and phrases about certain difficult and doubtful
phenomena, we must not bewilder it. Judging by your
letter, the interlocutors themselves confess that he has been
moderate, — i.e. that he did not explain himself upon the
chief points, that he was able to listen silently to what
displeased him, and, while fulfilling his academic duties, to
conceal his sentiments behind palpable specialities, — I
mean, by remarkably successful experiments, in which he
showed great cleverness. His son, only a short time ago,
assured me of his excellent father's sincere appreciation of

I must tell you of the strangest thing that has just
happened

Continuation.

Weimar, 20tli February, 1832.

Whilst dictating the above, I get a dissertation from
Prague, where a year ago, under the auspices of the Arch-
bishop, my Farhenlehre was taken up regularly, in the series
of other physical subjects, and now looks very well on the
list. I am much amused by the paradox, that Catholic
countries should consider allowable, what in CalviEiistic
countries is not only forbidden, but even discredited. I am
well aware, that one has only to live long, and try to get
breadth into one's work, and everything will lead to a
result of some kind in the end

Doris will have many pleasant things to tell you about
Weimar ; in Frau von Pogwisch, Frl. Ulrike, and Emma
Froriep, she found old and intimate allies, and her wise
and quiet, yet actively sympathetic ways won for her
many new and attached friends. She had an opportunity
too of getting to know, and up to a certain point, take
delight in my collections, so far as they can be seen and
enjoyed by the world. In our modest household, she could
be as comfortable as she liked in a quiet way, and no

1832.] TO ZELTER. 485

doubt she will go back to her daily, domestic life, which is
full of stir and activity, feeling refreshed and all the better

for the change

And thus ever,

377. — Zelter to Goethe.

7th February.
.... I AM just now reading Italian, and looking

up a passage in Benvenuto Cellini I still remember

the first impression it made on me, thirty years ago, when
you brought the book to my study. I have now begun it
all over again, and am reading it through, from the first to
the last chapter. The naivete with which that young fellow
describes his very just hatred of that accursed music,
attracted me most powerfully, as I myself had endured
the exact opposite. How often, with tears and earnest
prayers, have I called on God to change that confounded
taste of mine for the music that I loved, into a talent more
befitting my condition, and more gratifying to my father.
All that came before me, as \'ividly, as though the agon\-
of my soul at that time were brought befolge my eyes in a
vision. I dare say I have Avritten to you about this ten
times already, but the effect is always the same.

Young Friedländer, who has been appointed custodian of
the Royal Library here, tells me that he has just discovered
an hitherto unknown MS. of the life of Benvenuto Cellini,

and besides that, a work upon the Goldsmith's Art

I told you, I was reading Italiaa ; that reminds me, that
the Italian Spontini has just been dissolving your little
Mignon, like a pearl, in the river of German instrumenta-
tion. The little piece is pretty and effective, and Mignon
plays with it, like a child among children ; if it went on in
this strain to the end, it would be a complete thing. But
he lays the chief stress on his long-drawn, everlasting
repetitions of Kennst Du es wohl ? and I should like to see
the man who would say. Es muss vxiJd Italien gemeynt
seyn, (" I suppose that means Italy.") It was given at
yesterday's Concert, with full Orchestra, (drums excepted,)

486 Goethe's letters [1832.

and witla great applause. As the people were going out,
someone exclaimed quite audibly, Dahin ! scheer' Er sich
imd lass uiis tmgeschoren.* ....

Yours,
Z.

378. — Zelter to Goethe.

16th February, 1832.
.... I THINK I have already written to you about
Auber's Opera, Der Gott und die Bajadere.f Yesterday's
performance was so perfect in every respect, that I really
quite revelled in the music. There is something Indian
about it, quite different to anything we have had before.
Brilliancy, novelty, easy flow, — and our star, ]\Idlle. Elsler,
(the Bajadere,) not only dances, but acts more perfectly
than anyone I have seen, since Vigano. The whole house
was delighted. Her figure presents a mark for thousands
of eyes. Every part of her face is a keyboard of colour,

played upon with marvellous grace The vocal parts

too were admirably cast. Mantius,J (the God,) is to be
sure a beginner, and rather undersized, but his tenor voice
is even in compass, and of the greatest beauty. He has

made immense progress in a very short time

Yours,
Z.

379. — Zelter to Goethe.

Sunday, 19th February, 1832.

.... Now for another Opera, Fra Diavoh ! . . . .
This DiavoJo is a handsome, young, long, thin, pale banditti-

* We give a literal translation of what is obviously meant for the
parody of a line in Mignon's Song, " Be off with you thither, {scheer" Er
sich,) and leave us unfleeced ! " {^ungeschoren .') in other words, " Be off
with you, Spontini, to Italy, — you and your high prices! " — Thei'e is a
similar play on the word wohl in the sentence above,

t See Letter 344.

X Edwar<l Mantius, originally a legal student at Leipzig, was for some
time a favourite Handelian singer at Berlin. He was greatly appreciated
by Mendelssohn, and sang the leading tenor parts, during the career of
Jenny Lind at Berlin. He was twenty-seven years on the sta^e, and
apjx^ared in no less than a hundred and fifty-two characters. He died
at Ilmenau in 1874.

1832.] TO ZELTER. 487

man, and sings tenor like all tenerinos, piping on in falsetto,

for that is the fashion nowadays Now about the

action !

The drag'ions, they booze and sing ;
Tlie banditti, they steal and sing.

My lord is sulky and sings, how he loathes tliat confounded singing.
Tlie lovers worry each other and sing, and make it up, and sing again.

It takes a man like Anber, (and the critics are not agreed
about his talent,) so to be-music three such Acts, as to pre-
vent anyone dying of ennui, and for this, an Orchestra is
Avanted as good as the Parisian, and not worse than ours,
for the difficult passages given to singers and Orchestra

are the best thing about it, if all goes well

I have received from Paris a letter from Felix, dated
the 15th of this month. As he has often been there, new
acquaintances have trodden on the heels of the old, and
seemingly, the political, no less than the artistic life there,
stimulates his love for the Fatherland. As regards the
artistic life, his confession squares pretty tolerably with
my prophecies to him, though I never was at Paris, — and
to be sure, business-men or merchants, amongst whom he
has lived from childhood, sniif out the places where there

is most doing. Of late years, the activity of trade has

been most dangerous for well-to-do people, though a sharp
look-out in the mai'ket has often enough enriched the raga-
muffin. — But I do not understand that

Yours,
Z.

380. — Goethe to Zelter.

Weimar, 23rd February, 1832.

.... I WILL insert here, what I found occasion to
jot down, a few days ago.

" The consciousness of having effected the artistic de-
velopment of an important natural taste abides with us,
as one of our finest feelings ; but at the present time, it is
a greater merit than formerly, when every beginner still
believed in schooling, in regime, and in mastei's, and
modestly sulijected himself to the grammar of his par-

488 Goethe's letters [1832.

ticular department, about which most of the young people
of to-daj decline to know anything.

" German plastic artists have, for the last thirty years,
been under the delusion, that natural talent can develop
itself, and a host of enthusiastic amateurs, who also have
no fundamental principles, confirm them in this belief. A
hundred times, I hear an artist boast, that he owes every-
thing to himself alone ! I generally listen to this patiently,
but sometimes I am goaded into replying, ' It looks like it
too.'

" For what then is man, in and through himself? When
he opens his eyes and ears, he cannot avoid objectivity,
example, tradition ; he educates himself by these, accord-
ing to his individual taste and convenience, as far as he can,
for a time. But just when he reaches the highest point, he
finds this fragmentary existence does not suffice ; he feels
that discomfort, which is the special trouble of practical
m.en. Happy he, who is quick to grasp what Ai't means ! "

Much as I have effected for the whole community, and
much as has been set in motion by me, still I can name
but one man, who has cultivated himself from the very
beginning, in entire accordance with my ideas ; this was
the actor, Wolff, who is still held in honourable remem-
brance in Berlin. In the hope of receiving a friendly
answer, more anon.

J. W. v. GoETEtE.

381. — Goethe to Zeltek.

Weimar, 11th March, 1832.
That's right ! After having built and established
your citadel, at the expense of your whole life, you should
not be without a trustworthy body-guard, and warlike allies ;
so you are laying about you manfully, to preserve what you
have won, to promote your chief aim, and thus to lessen the
burdens, which must necessarily accompany a position like
yours.

Here there come across my mind all sorts of examples
from Ancient History ; these, however, I cast aside, for, as

1832.] TO ZELTER. 489

a i"ule, one does not find any comfort in the thought, that
the greatest of one's ancestors must have fared much worse
than oneself.

Fortunately, your individual gift has to do with sound,
that is, with the moment. Now, as a series of consecutive
moments is always a kind of Eternity itself, you have been
allowed to remain firm and constant in the midst of what
is transitory, and thus perfectly to satisfy my mind, as well
as Hegel's, so far as I understand it.

Look at me, on the other hand ! me, living chiefly in the
past, less in the future, and for the moment, in the dis-
tance, — and remember, that in my own way, I am quite
content.

I have received from Naples a very pleasant reminder
from Zahn,* that good, energetic young fellow, whom I
dai'e say you still remember. I am well pleased to find
that they have given my name to the house, which has
been recently discovered, though they have not yet com-
pletely unearthed it. This is an echo from afar, meant to
commemorate my son's death. The house is admitted to
be one of the most beautiful hitherto discovered, and re-
markalile for a mosaic, such as we have not yet met with in
antiquity. This was announced in the newspapers long-
ago, so perhaps you have already heard something about it.

However, they are sending me a detailed drawing of the
great, enclosed space, columns and all, as well as a small
copy of the famous painting. We must take care that we
do not behave like Wieland, who, owing to his great sus-
ceptibility, allowed what he read last to blot out, as it
were, all that went befox'e, for we might quite be tempted
to say, that nothing has as yet come down to us from
antiquity, equal to this in picturesqueness of composition
and execution.

What would you say, were they to lay before you an
intelligible page in musical type, belonging to that time, —
a time suggestive of earlier Grecian models, — in which you
were forced to recognize a master of the Fugue, with its
inner and outer criteria ?

The few, but really earnest coiuioisseurs, whom you know

* See Letters 229 and 340.

490 Goethe's letters [1832.

of, will find ample material for conversation and edification
in this subject, for some days to come. Besides this, some
perfectly different, yet equally interesting things have
found their way to me, — namely, several specimens of
an organic world, that disappeared before all historic times.
Remains of fossil animals and plants are accumulating
around me, but one must of necessity refrain from thinking
of anything but the origin and position of the place of dis-
covery, because to absorb oneself further in the contempla-
tion of the ages, could only lead to madness. I should
really like one day, as a joke, when you are rehearsing
bright and lively Choruses, with your jovial youngsters, to
place before you a primaeval elephant's grinder, dug out of
our gravel pits ; you would feel the vivid and charming
contrast.

But now, I beg of you to continue, as you did in your
last, to express aphoristically the old eternal maxims of
Nature, by which man makes himself comprehensible to
man through language, in order that the decrees of Fate
may one day be fulfilled in the Future. It is strange, that
English, French, and now Germans too, like to express
themselves incomprehensibly, just as others like to listen
to what is incomprehensible. I only wish, that an Italian
would occasionally step in, and let us hear his emphatic
language.

So be it, then !

J. "W. V. Goethe.*

382. — Zelter to Herr Geheimrath und Kanzler von
Müller, at Weimar.

Berlin, 31st March, 1832.
I COULD not thank you, until to-day, honoured Sir,
for your most friendly sympathy, — which is all the occasion
allows of.

What we expected, what we dreaded, inevitably came.

* This is Goethe's last letter. Zelter wrote to Goethe for the last
time, on the day of the poet's death, the 22nd of March; the letter
reached Weimar on the day of the funeral.

1832.] TO ZELTER. 401

The hour sti'uck. The minnte-haud stauds still, like the
sun at Gibeon ; for see ! the man lies overthrown, who
bestrode the Pillars of Hercules, whilst under him, the
powers of the earth contended for the dust beneath their
feet.

What can I say of myself — to you, to all there, and
everywhere ? As he is gone before me, so daily do I draw
nearer to him, and I shall find him again, and j^erpetuate
that sweet affection, which, for so many successive years,
cheered and enlivened the space of six-and-thirty miles
that lay between us.

Now I have a request to make. Continue to honour me
with your kindly letters. You will be able to judge, how
far I may be trusted, as the undisturbed relations between
two close friends, who were really one, — though judged by
their capacities, far apart, — are well known to you. I am
like a widow, who has lost her husband, her lord and
guardian ! And yet, I dare not grieve ; I am forced to
stand amazed, at the riches he brought me. It is my duty
to preserve that treasure, and to turn the interest into
capital.

Pardon me, noble fi'iend ! I surely ought not to com-
plain, and yet the old eyes are disobedient, and must have
their way. But once I saw him weep ; that must justify
me.

Zeltee.

INDEX.

A BEAM, 258.
Abschatz, 8.

Acoustics, 7.

Agrikola, 356, 472.

Afittfraii, Die. 164.

Albertinelli, 201.

Albrecht, Prince, 407.

Alcestis, 99.

AMobrandini, 17.

Alexanders Feast, 145.

Alfieri, 89, 95.

Allgemeine Literarische Zei-
tung, 18, 83.

A 1 1 gemein e Literaturzeitung,
i)ie, 18, 395.

Aloysius, 325.

Amalie, Princess, sister of
Frederick the Great, 441.

Amelang, Fräulein, 26.

America, 277, 295.

Andre. 136.

Angelico, Fra, 281.

Anton, Archduke, 186.

Apollo, 8.

Apostolo Zeno, 56.

Ariosto, 130, 426.

Aristarchus, 57.

Aristophanes, 28.

Aristotle, 282, 283, 284, 31->,
834, .386, .391, 473.

Arnim, 63.

Arnim, Bettina von, 79.

Arnold, 437.

iEschylus, 13, 261.

Msop's Fahles, 205.

Artaserse, 99.

Ascanio in Alba, 98.

Auber, 348, 380, 443, 472, 4S6,
487.

Augereau, Marshai, 45.

Augusta, Princess, 362, 364.
Aus meinem Leben, 213. 214,

236.
Austria, Emperor of, 177, 181,

190.
Austria, Empress of, 77.
Austria, Joseph IL, Emperor

of, 186.

Bach, E., 4, 110, 115, 132, 167,
265, 356, 472.

Bach, F., 292, 354, 355, 356, 409.

Bach, S., 99, 110, 115, 123, 127,
1.32, 133, 167, 168. 194, 201,
232, 236, 263, 265, 284, 285,
287, 288, 289, 290. 291, 292,
293, 298, 300, 339, 346, 347,
351, 353, 354, 355, .356, 357,
393, 399, 400, 452, 462.

Bacon, Lord, 338.

Baini, 424.

Banks, 135.

Bagge, Baron, 202.

Barabbas, 14.

Barrentrap, 224.

Bassi, 161.

Bavaria, 160.

Bavaria, King of , 301, .395.

Beaumarchais, 4,38.

Becarria, 390.

Beethoven, 4, 65, 73, 90, 91, 103,
126, 1.3,3, 134, 1,35, 167, 173,
ISO, 181, 185, 188, 189, 194,
308, 374, 433, 442, 443, 446,
451.

Begas, 227, 300. 452.

Bellini, 182, 480.

Benda, 318, 356, 452.

Bendavid, 354, 355.

Beranger, 281, 409.

494

INDEX.

Bernhard, J. C, 37i;.

Berlioz, 358, 362.

Bernini, 159.

Bertuch, 356.

Bertuch, Legationsrath, 18, 236.

Bethiaann, 11.

Beiith, 305.

Bevme, 396, 397.

Bignon, 388, 392.

Blackwood's Magazine, 400.

Blücher, 112, 468.

Bohemia, 84, 109, 1Ü1, 214,

220.
Bohn, 264.
Bonoldi, 161.
Bora, Catherine von, 43.
Bossi, 158.
Bot tiger, 18, 388.
Boucher, A., 202, 206.
Boucher, Madame, 203, 206.
Bourrienne, 367, 3SS.
Bouterwek, 462.
BoAvring, E. A., 78. 107, 325.
Bracebridge, 260, 262.
Braschi, Prince, 160.
Brand, 9.
Braut von Messina, Die, 11, 12,

15.
Brentano, 63.
Brizzi, 73, 84.
Bruch, Max, 37.
Brühl, Count, 118, 123, 128, 217,

238, 247, 403.
Bran, Fran Friderike, 1.
Buch, 294.

Buchheim, Prof., 1. 121, 152.
Buclihok, 18.
Bürger, 409, 410.
Burnev, lh\, 16.
Byron^ 365, 440.

C.
Calderon, 85, 358, 393.
Cainpagne in Frankreich, Die,

214.
Campe, 166.
Campi, 174.
Canova, 160, 182.
Caracci, A., 4.33, 4.38.
Carlyle, Dr., 460.
Carlyle, Mrs., 460.

Carlvle, T., 293, 303, 417, 460,

462.
Carlvle's Frederick the Great,

437.
Carlvle's Life of Schiller, 415,

460.
Caspar, Dr., 225.
Castiglione, Duke of, 102.
Castle of St. Angelo, 211.
Catalani, 138, 159, 206, 286, 287.
Catel, 117.
Cato, 465.
Cebes, 269, 270.
Celli, 452.
Cellini, Benvenuto. 17, 19, 97,

116, 485.
Cervantes, 18.
Chaos, Das, 313, 392, 407, 465,

474, 475.
Charlemagne, 333.
Charles VI., 325.
Charles Martel, 333.
Charlotte von Stein, 149.
Chelard, 327.
Cherubini, 65, 179, 245.
Chiaramonti, 160.
Chinesische Jcüircszeifoi, 303.
Chladni, Dr., 7, 136.
Christ, 14, 143. 271. 343, 363,

412, 413.
Christus am Oelbcrge, 91, 444.
Chrysostom, St., 120.
Churchill, 460.
Cicero, 465.
Cimarosa, 394.
Cinna, 388.
Clavigo, 129, 462.
Clemenza di Tito, La. 174.
Concerts Spirituels, 16.
Coucialini, 436.
ConfessionsofaFcmalePoisoner,

The, 18.
Constant Prince, The, 75.
Constantine IX., 57.
Constant ine tlie Great, 448.
Constantinu.s, 57.
Conversations of Goethe with

Eckermann, 2Ö0, 319, 323, 367,

432.
CoreUi, 452.
Corneille, 388.

INDEX.

495

Cornhill Magazine, 472.

Correspondence between Schiller
and Goethe, 7, 9, 10, 16, 17,
18, 19, 32, 47, 100. 241, 349,
359, 361, 364, 383, 384, 395,
410, 473.

Cotta, 18, 45, 47, 228.

Coudrav, 241.

Cousin,' 240, 369.

Couperin, 285, 2S7, 2SS, 230,
291.

Cramer, 337.

Cramer, L. W., 137.

Criation, The, 398, 399.

Cumberland, Duchess of, 195,
198.

Cumberland, Duke of, 337.

Cuzzoni, 99.

Cyclops, The, 233, 234.

Dalber^, 286.

Damenkalcnder, Der, 63.

Dunuiden, Die. 5.

Dante, 267, 269, 270. 271, 272.

David, 159, 160.

Deinhardstein, 404.

Delilah, 88.

Denner, 98.

Descartes, 338.

De Senectute, 465.

Des Yceux, C, 283.

Deutsche Lyrik, 1.

Devonshiie, Duke of. 315.

Deraent, 426.

Dement, E., 336, 447.

Dichtung und Wahrheit, 85.

Die Lnstigen Weiber von Wind-
sor, 464.

Dican Westöstlicher, 117, 119,
121, 122, 124, 164, 181, 183,
193.

Döbbelin, 416.

Dort of Aubry, The, 40.

Dolce, Carlo, 290.

Don Ciccio, 119.

Don Giovanni, 91, 122, 155, 222,
265.

Doni, 324.

Dschinnistan, 5.

Duncker, 132.

Diintzer, 196.

Diintzer's Life of Goethe, 36, 40,

64, 113, 460.
Durante, 434, 439.
Dürer, 182, 315, 405.
Dussek, 167.
Dyk, 135.

Early Letters, Goethe's, 36.
Ebenvein, K., 54, 55, 58, 62, 64,

67, 69, 72, 81, 192, 205, 227,

324.
Eckermann, 5, 17, 21, 280, 302,

353, 394, 402, 419. 420, 423,

432, 440.
Edinburgh Review, 357.
Egeria, 341.
Egniont, 103.
Eiivpt, 367.
Ehlers, 417.
Eichstädt, 17.
Einsiedel, 85.
Elpenor, 46.
Elsler, F., 418, 486.
Emilia Galotti, 391, 392, 411.
Enfantin, 483.

Engel, J. J., 93, 259, 318. 416.
England, 39, 331, 357, 459.
Entoptische Farben, 157.
Epi/nenides Erwachen, Des, 115,

118, 119, 468.
Ericin und Elmire, 28.
Essex, 135.

Este, Cardinal d', 426.
Esterhazy, Prince, 181.
Eugenie, 17.
Eumenides, The, 13.
Euripides, 13, 233, 234, 261, 318,

477.
Enryanthe, 238, 255.
Eycic, 182.

Fahre, Mdlle., 161.
Facius, A., 448, 479.
Fantuzzi, Count, 160.
Farbenlehre, Die, 44, 45, 67, 70,

75, 80, 81, 11.3, 157, 278, 354,

360, 410, 483, 484.
Farinelli, 99.
Fasch, 4, 115, 156, 182, 356, 462.

496

INDEX.

Famt, 47, 55, 73, 74, 1-26, 127,
128, 129, 159, 169, 193, 195,
196, 197, 206, 262, 288, 307,
311, 313, 314, 317, 321, 343,
344, 346, 350, 354, 358, 359,
362, 363, 373, 374, 375, 380,
417, 426, 447, 460, 464.

Faust's Hollcnzwang, 375.

Faustina, 99.

Fichte, 15, 16, 17, 18, 396.

Fidelio, 73, 90, 442.

Fie-sco, 416.

Figaro, 304, 394, 408.

Fleck, 416.

Fleck, Madame, 34.

Foreign Review, The, 460.

Forkel's Life of Baeh, 290, 356.

Forster, 463.

France, 25, 316, 367.

Franklin, 75.

Frascr's Magu:^inc, 460.

Fräser, W., 460.

Frederick I., Emperor, 231.

Frederick the Great, 4, 16, 28,
156, 219, 220, 229, 230, 262,
.351, 371, 372, 374, 379, 437,
438, 441.

Freischütz, Der, 203.

Friedläuder, 76, 79, SO, 81, 97,
100, 375, 485.

Friedrich, Prince of Gotha, 87-

Fries, 284, 294.

Froberger, 232.

Frommann, 284.

Froriep, 484.

Für Fre^mde der Tonkunst, 7,
227.

Fnx, 325.

Gabrieli, 339.

Galileo, 338.

Gall, 40, 406.

Gartenhans, 18.

Gastmahl der Weisen, Das, 119.

Gaul, 333.

Gazza Ladra, La, 172.

Geliert, 392.

Gerard, 317.

Gerbert, 57.

Gerhard, 8.

Germany, 48, 59, 95, 96, 98, 99,
115, n8, 125, 126, 152, 191,
209, 214, 283, 287, 298, 320,
327, 331, 365, 369, 394, 405,
406, 440, 460.

George IV., 316.

George, St., 211.

Giotto, 269.

Gleim, 299, 300.

Glenk, 371.

Globe, Le, 369, 391.

Gluck, 90, 91, 98, 171, 173, 251,
351, 400.

Goethe, 1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 16, 17, 18,
19, 21, 24, 28, 29, 32, 36, 37,
40, 42, 45, 46, 47, 57, 59, 64,
76, 83, 85, 86, 91, 92, 100, 109,
110, 113, 115, 118, 121, 122,
130, 135, 137, 149, 150, 156,
163, 167, 182, 195, 200, 205,
208, 213, 214, 217, 221, 226,
228, 233, 2.34, 236, 239, 241,
242, 243, 244, 248, 251, 256,
259, 261, 262, 266, 280, 284,
289, 294, 295, 302, 305, 310,
313, 317, 318, 319, 320, 336,
343, 354, 363, 365, 368, 384,
385, 386, 387, 390, 392, 395,
403, 406, 410, 415, 417, 419,
421, 441, 451, 459, 460, 461,
462, 463, 466, 468, 469, 490.

Goethe, Christiane Sophie, 135,
224.

Goethe, Julius August "Walther,
37, 41. 53, 137, 149, 169, 216,
217, 223, 224', 313, 319, 394,
402, 415, 439.

Goethe, Katharina Elisabeth,
223, 224.

Goethe, Uttilie {)i('C von Pog-
wisch), 41, 149, 169, 200, 223,
226, 311, 313, 400, 407, 426,
464, 466, 467, 481, 484.

Goldsmith, 381.

Görres, 63.

Gotha, Prince of, 87, 358.

Gott und die Bajadere, Der, 122,
443, 486.

Götter Helden und Wielandy
318.

Gottsched, 392.

INDEX,

497

Götz von Bcrlichingcn, 21, 23,
20, 27, 28, 32, 317, 318.

G(nver, Levison, 4(50.

Graun, 233, 357, 393, 405, 424,
425, 443, 445.

Greece. 121.

Greek Tragedv, 5, 12, 14, 381.

Gretry, 394, 4^0.

Gries, 358,

Griepenkerl, 251.

Grillparzer, 164, 189, 278.

Grothe, 405.

Grotius, 213.

Grove's Dictionanj of Music, 4,
91, 133.

Grünbaum, Madame, 236.

Grüner, 131.

Guercino, 256.

Guizot, 369.

Hackert, G., 182, 183.
Hackert, Philip, 182, 191, 405.
Hagen, August, 200.
Hagen, Frau von, 350.
Hamilton, Lady, 118.
Hamlet, 86.
Handel, 123, 133, 142, 145, 155,

167, 194, 227, 229, 230, 231,

233, 287, 288, 298, 336, 337,

381, 405, 425, 428, 431.
Handschuh, Der, 306.
Hardenberg, 121.
Härtel, 133.
Hasse, 98, 405, 434, 435, 436,

438, 439.
Hassler, 339.
Haude nncl Spenersche Zeitung,

227, 255.
Hauser, 451.
Havdn, 91, 110, 167, 173, 174,

175, 181, 191, 194, 260, 265,

285, 373, .398, 399, 400, 424,

456.
Hegel, 212, 302, 317, 327, 352,

353, 373, 412, 420, 424, 458,

476, 481, 489.
Heidelberg, Jahrbücher of, 158.
Heine, 152,
Heinitz, Count, 371.
Helena, 13.

Helena, mother of Constantine

the Great, 435, 448.
Hengstenberg, 471.
Henning, 406.
Henry, Prince, brother of

Frederick the Great, 229, 230,

436.
Hensel, 221, 364, 412.
Heraud, 460.
Hercules, Pillars of, 491.
Herder, 8, 9, 10, 141, 229, 454.
Hermann, 261, 477.
Hertzberg, 219.
Hevse, 250.
Hiller, 298.
Hiller, F., 482.
Himmel, 84, 455.
Hippocrates, 420.
Hirt, 68, 162.

History of Art, The, 17, 19.
Hochzeitlicd, 6.
Holland, 280, 304.
Holtei, 313, 34U.
Homer, 29, 30, 163, 213, 233,

356, 441.
Horcn, Die, 93.
Hufeland, .396.
Hügel, Fräulein, 123.
Hugo, v., 458.
Humboldt, A. von, 467.
Humboldt, Frau von, 127.
Humboldt, K. W., 16, 66, 85,

265, 408.
Hummel, 203, 221, 222, 236, 263,

432, 434, 438.
Hungarj', 186, 188, 424.
Hungary, Matthias, King of,

370.
Hymn-Book, Berlin, 405.
Hymn-Book, Porst, 405.

I.
Ideale, Die, 302, 359, 416.
IfHand, 11, 22, 32, 34, 44, 84,

100, 101, 115, 119.
Iliad, The, 116, 235.
Iphigenia in Aulis, 477.
Iphigenia, Opera, 90, 91.
Iphiefenie in Taiiris, 13, 150,

241, 283, 462.
Ireland, 364.

E K

498

INDEX.

Italiänische Reise, Die, 112, 118,
119, 150, 152, 161, 343.

Italy, 4, 51, 56, 98, 99, 112, 152,
156, 160, 182, 312, 318, 336,
351 364, 394, 400, 405, 411,
412 439, 457, 485, 486.

J.
JacoW, F. H., 36, 193.
Jagemann, Caroline, 40, 85.
Jassy, 48.
Jerdan, 460.

Joanna, Queen of Bohemia, 196.
Jomelli, 108.
Jordan, 460.

Journal of Fashion, The, 18.
Jouy, De, 199, 479, 480.
Judas Iscariot, 29, 31.
Jungfrau von Orleans, Die, 396.
Jungius, 324, 325, 326, 338.

Kabale und Liebe, 34, 398, 415.

Kaiser, Christoph, 112.

Kandier, 289.

Kant, 386, 454.

Kappe, 48.

Karsten, 40.

Kecht, 330, 475.

Kellner, 324.

Kerl, C, 232.

Kiesewetter, 105.

Kirnbergcr, J. P., 115, 169, 347,

356.
Kittel, 133.
Klöden, 326.
Klopstock, 166, 188, 302, 365,

455, 460.
Knebel, 10, 153.
Korner, 446.
Körner, T., 420, 446.
Kotzebue, A. F. F., 23, 151,

188, 396, 427, 459, 471.
Kraus, G. M., 200.
Kritheis, 29, .SO.
Krüger, 283, 340, 414.
Kügelgen, 76.
Kugler, 269.
Kunst und Alterthian, 156, 158,

165, 200, 202, 217, 2.34, 241,

242, 262, 282, 284, 305, 314,

382.

' La Coorl, 115.
Langermann, 217.
Lannes, Marslial, 45.
Laocoon, 17.
La Roche, 292, 293.
Las Cases, 368.
Laune des Verliebten, Die, 109,

462.
Laucherv, 20.
Lautier,'397, 399.
Lehrjahre, Wilheim Meisters, 1,

7, 35, 36, 1 11, 165, 361, 362, 463.
Leibnitz, 282.
Lemni, 126, 128.
Leo, 434, 439.
Leonardo da Vinci, 153, 157,

158, 182, 439, 441.
Lessing, 166, 193, 203, 236, 256,

358, 317, 318, 411, 424, 452.
Lesueur, 182.
Levezow, Frau von, 83.
Levezow, Ulrike von, 221.
Levin, 28.
Lewes's Life of Goethe, 16, 18,

36, 57, 64, 406, 460.
Lichtenstein, Prince, 188.
Liedertafel, 65, 66, 71, 73, 106,

119, 229, 409.
Lied von der Glocke, Das, 36.
Lind, Jenny, 486.
Link, 303, 427, 428.
Linnaeus, 139, 140, 304.
Literarische Zeitung, 19.
Literatur Zeitung, 17, 33. •
Literary Gazette, The, 460.
Lockhart, 460.
Longfellow, 267.
Lorenz Stark, 93.
Lorzing, 68.
Lotti, 191.
Ludwig, Carl, 29.
Lulu oder Die Zauberflote, 5.
Luther, 42, 43, 44, 142, 144, 226,

232, 298.
Lützow, 105.
Lycurgus, 380.
Lysippus, 234.

M.
Maas, Mdlle., 87, 131.

INDEX.

499

Macbeth, 253, 255, 327, 384.
Maelzel, 134.
Ma<äiiii, 460.
Mahomet, 150, 183.
Mantegna, 353.
Mantiiis, 486.
Manzoni. 266, 284.
Mara, 229, 230, 436, 437.
Mara, Madame, 7. 10, 12. 16,

138, 212, 229, 2.30, 231. 395,

432. 434, 435, 4.36, 443, 445.
Marelieni, 159.
Marens Aurelius, 186.
Markus, Levin, 350.
Marpurg, 167, 168, 169, 356,

472.
Marschner, 446.
Martial, 1, 18.
Marx, 404, 405.
ISIattausch, 34.
Mattheson, J., 155, 167.
Matthisson, 53, 261, 455.
Mayer, J. S., 156, 159, 160, 161,

186.
Mecklenburg, George, Prince of.

126.
Mecklenburg, Karl, Prince of,

126, 127, 128.
Medea, 470.
Melancthon, 43.
Megerle, Ulrike, 120.
Meles, 29, 30.
Mellecher, 224.
Mendelssohn, A., 19, 117, 127,

128, 206, 207, 217, 236, 244,
245, 326, 450, 456.
Mendelssohn, F., 3, 16, 19, 122,

127, 203, 206, 207, 208, 209,
218, 224, 226, 237, 238, 244,
245, 248, 250, 263, 264, 278,
279, 288, 315, 351, 352, 353,
.357, 364, .367, 369, 393, 394,
399, 400, 401, 404, 412, 417,
424, 426, 439, 441, 446, 450,
455, 456, 465, 475, 477, 481,
482, 485, 486, 487.

Mendelssohn, Fanny, 236, 237,

264.
Mendelssohn, Henriette, 245,

476.
Mendelssohn, Lieutenant, 106.

Mendelssohn, M., 19, 193, 258,

476.
Merck, 387.

Merkur, Der Deutsche, 299. 318.
Messmh, The, 212, 229, 231, 233,

288.
Metamorjihose der Pflanzen, Die,

18, 139, 304, 340.
Metastasio, 56, 4.38.
Mever, H., 17, 19, 83, 119, 120,

137, 141, 201, 281, 30.5.
Meverbeer. G., 112, 159.
Michel, 258.
^Slickiewicz, 363.
Milder-Hauptniann, P. A., 90,

91, 95, 117. 138, 220, 221, 236,

315, 395, 418, 447.
Milton, 16, 365, .381. .383.
Mirandola, Pico della, 424.
Misanthrope, Lc, 323.
Mitschtddigen, Die, 236.
Mizler, 325.
Moir, 460.
Moliere, 236, 323.
Monti, 160.
Moravia, 31, 213.
Morgenblatt, Das, 118, 129, 165,

360.
Morghen, 153, 158.
Moritz, 398, 415, 416.
Morphologie, 157, 165, 181, 217,

242.
Mosciieles, 236, 351, 4.33.
Moser, 369, 373, 374, 443.
Mozart, 5, 10, 12, 91, 98, 110,

116, 167, 172, 174, 175, 179,

227, 251, 265, 296, 297, 298,

304, 324, 351, 373, 394, 400,

405, 414, 465, 475, 477, 481.
Murtte von Portici, La, 348,

380.
Müller, A. E., 81, 471.
Müller, Cantor, 10.
Müller, F., 158.
Müller, J., 21, 22, 397.
Müller, Kanzler von, 241, 490.
Musenalmanach, 1, 2, 372,

374.
Musikalische Zeitung, 33.
Musäus, 236.
Myron, 234, 382.

600

N,
Nagel, 169.
Naiioleon, 45, 64, 73, 79, 132,

135, 162, 202, 367, 368, 388,

392, 432, 450.
Napoleon, Due de Reichstadt,

173, 189.
Naturlehre, 152.
Natürliche Tochter, Die (or

Eugenie), 12, 16, 17, 23, 28,

2GÖ, 464.
Nathan der Weise, 258.
Naiimaim, 236, 302, 318, 359,

416, 455.
Navarino, Battle of, 312.
Nepomue, St. John, 196.
Netherlands, The, 138.
Nc u griechisch e Heldenlieder,

259.
Neureuther, 448.
Newton, 80.
Newtonians, 75.
Nicolai, 57, 201, 416, 424.
Nicolai, Otto, 464.
Niehuhr, 428, 429, 431.
Noah, 475.
Norway, 55, 326.
Novalis, 471.
Novelle, Die, 303.

Odilon-Barrot, 483.
Odyssey, The, 116.
Oeiilenschliiger, 63, 336.
Oggionno, Marco d', 158.
Ohlenhurg, 74.
Olfricd und Lisena, 200.
Orgagna, A., 269.
Orgagna, B., 269.
Orientalischer Divan, 119.
Orlando Furioso, 426.
Othello, 171, 393, 394, 399.

Pachelbel, 226, 231, 232.

Pachiarotti, 159.

Paer, 73, 450.

Paesiello, 157, 160.

Paganini, 357, 358, 359, 360, 368,

369, 449.
Palestrina, 339.

Panckoucke, Madame, 317.

Pandora, 59, 74, 83, 221.

Parry's Last Days of Lord
Byron, 246, 249.

Pastor Fido, 237.

Penelope, 26.

Pepin, 333.

Pergolesi, 439.

Periera, Baroness von, 186.

Peter the Great, 280.

Pfeift'er, IMadame Birch-, 411,
418.

Pfizer, 467.

Pfund, 102.

Phaeton, 261.

Phidias, 39.

Philoctctcs, 261.

Pilate, 14.

Pisaroni, 159.

Plotinus, 38.

Plutarch, 467.

Poems, 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 26, 52, 53,
55, 57, 59, 67, 71, 72, 73, 77,
78, 81, 94, 104, 106, 107, 108,
109, 110, 111, 113, 117, 122,
123, 125, 130, 133, 154, 159,
161, 164, 165, 187, 188, 192,
193, 196, 205, 206, 213, 214,
215, 221, 256, 259, 260, 266,
277, 295, 299, 300, 303, 306,
317, 328, 341-3, .359, 360, 372,
396, 403, 407, 435, 440, 451,
457, 461, 468, 469, 477, 485.

PogAvisch, Ulrike von, 208^ 217,
400, 484.

Poland, 371.

Pole, 296.

Polignac, Prince, 315.

Porpora, 98.

Poussin, 182, 237.

Prater, The, 172, 174, 176, 177.

Prrciosa, 335.

I'reusz's Friedrich der Grosse,
220.

Prinz, 232.

Procter, 460.

Prolcgometia ad Homerum, 21,
162.

Proiitetheus, or Pandorens Wie-
derkunft, 59, 193, 198.

Propertius, 10, 28.

INDEX.

601

Projiyläen, Die, 100.
Prüsrrpina, HS, 119.
Proske, 339.

Prussia, 23, 184, 22S, 371, 372.
Prussia, Crown Prince of, 197,

2,57, 340, 372.
Prussia, Kini; of. 44. 65, 66, 115,

128, 195, 197, 203, 257, 308,

337, 351, 396, 414.
Prussia, Louisa, Queen of, 11,

12.
Pygmalion, 95.
Pythagoras, 96.

Quarterly Review, The, 460.
Quiiitilian, 354.

Raphael, 182, 191, 198, 452.
Radzivil, Prince, 126, 195, 417.
Radzivil, Princess, 195.
Rameau, 87.
Eameaii's Keffe, 35, 242.
Ramler, 424,445.
Rasoumowsky, 308.
Paiiber, Die,U, 308. 415.
Rauch, 200, 201, 234, 363, 402,

479.
Raumer, 386.
Raynal, 28.

Recke, Frau von der, 126.
Redern, Count, 447.
Reichardt, J. F.. 7, 16, 27, 33,

112, 230, 437.
Beincke Fnchs, 346.
Reinhard, 48.
Rembrandt, 120.
Remorini, 161.
Revue de Paris, 449.
Revue Franqaise, La, 369.
Retsch, 344.
Richter, J. P. F., 63.
Riemer, 77, 85, 86, 279, 287, 300,

423.
Ries, F., 433.
Rietz, 481.
Righini, V., 91.
Rinaldo, 87, 88, 94. 35a
Ring, 356.
Rintel, 1.

Rol)ert, 89.

Robinson, Crabb, 365, 381.

Rochlitz, 7, 227, 229, 230, 231.

Rochus Fest, 137, 141.

Rodriques, 482.

Romano, Giulio, 256, 412, 414.

Romberg, 37, 308.

Romeo and Juliet, 85, 86.

Rondanini, 257.

Rosel, 299.

Rosenmeier, 219, 220.

Rosenmüller, 232.

Rossini, 155, 156, 166, 171, 172,

174, 184, 237, 385, 393, 394,

395, 408, 411, 472.
Rousseau, 95.
Rubens, 120, 182.
Rudolf, Archduke, 185.
Rumpf, K., 2.32.
Russia, 55, 184.
Russia, Czar of, 40.
Rus.sia, Empress of, 221.
Russia, Maria Feodorowna,

Dowager Empress of, 167, 336.
Ruth, Book of, 226.

Sachs, Hans, 403, 404.

Sachs- Weimar-Eisenach, Karl

Bernhard, Duke of, 277, 354.
Sachtleben, 452, 453.
St. Cyr, General, 103.
St. Romaine, Madame, 443.
St. Simon, Due de, 389.
Sahen, 91, 173, 179, 186.
Salis, 53.
Salter, Widdowson, and Tate,

460.
Salvandy, 240.
Salzmann, 16.
Samson, 87, 88, 89, 381.
Samson Agonistes, 365, 381.
Santini, 424.
Saphir, 399.
Sartorius, 110.
Satyr OS oder der vergötterte

Waldteufel, 193.
Saxony, 302.
Saxony, King of, 337.
Sc^liger, 424.
Scarlatti, 232, 439.

502

INDEX.

Sca?vola, Mucins, 390.

Schadow, 124, 162, 182, 227.

Schäfer, Mdlle., 416.

Schale, 443.

Schall, 462.

Schechner, Mdlle., 447.

Sclieidt, 232.

Sciiein, 232.

Sclicrz, List nnd Rache, 112.

Schikaneder, 5.

Schiller, 1,2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15,16,
17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28,
32, 34, 35, 36, 40, 46, 47, 52,
53, 69, 92, 100, 119, 121, 235,
241, 244, 262, 265, 302, 303,
306, 310, 359, 360, 384, .395,
396, 398, 399, 410, 413, 414,
415, 416, 417, 425, 426, 427,
454, 455, 460, 471, 473.

Schinkel, 455.

Sclilegel, A. AV., 299, 300, 323,
470, 471.

Schlegel, R, 59, 470, 471.

Schleiermacher, 25.

Schlosser, E., 224.

Schlosser, F., 224.

Schmalz, 356.

Schmeling, 438.

Schmidt, 45.

Schmidt, J. P., 420.

Schopenhauer, 40.

Schriftproben, 63.

Schröder-Devrient, Madame,
433.

Schröder, F. L., 86.

Schröter, Corona, 236.

Schnbart, 417.

Schnbarth, 206, 209.

Scliulz, 113, 117, 128, 157, 162,
264.

Schultz, Prof., 303.

Schulze, 120.

Schulze, Oberbaurath, 303.

Schuster, Ignaz, 171.

Schütz, 132, 168.

Schutz, H., 232.

Schutz, Hofrath, 18.

Schutz(/eist, Der, 151.

Schwabe, 241.

Schweizer, 318.

Schwcizerfamilic, Die, 89, 90, 175.

Sckell, 320.

Scotland, 55, 316, 364, 473.

Scott's Life of Netpoleoti, ,307,

308, 311.
Scott, Sir Walter, 307, 312, 364,

460.
Scotti, Count, 160.
Scribe, 349, 443, 472.
Sebastiani, General, 245, 476.
Sebbers, 266.

Seebeck, 129, 264, 443, 483.
Seidler, 236.
Seneca, 203.
Senfe], 232.

Sejdiinental Journey, The, 451.
Seven before Thebes, The, 13.
Seviglia, II Barbiere di, 237,

316.
Shakespeare, 86, 98. 119, 140,

233, 253, 289, 290, 356, 358,

384, 385, 394.
Sibbern, 104.
Sickler, 165.
Silbermann, 469.
Silesia, 83.
Singakademie, 4, 25, 49, 51, 73,

81, 112, 126, 199, 203, 222, 2.36,

352, 399, 446, 468.
Singe-Thees, 51.
Siiigscliidc, 50.
Singspielen, 16.
Sulinc des Thals, Die, 42.
Solomon's Song, 242, 387.
Solon, 151, 466.
Sontag, Mdlle., 268, 304,*306,

315, 316, 393, 394, 399.
Sophocles, 13, 261, 356.
Soret, 340.
Soutliev, 460.

Spain, Philip V., King of, 99.
Spiker, 253.
Spinoza, 140, 193, 386.
Si.ohr, 202, 253, 308, 373.
Spontini, 79, 166, 197, 199, 246,

247, 248, ,308, 3.37, .391, 394,

398, .399, 418, 442, 447, 479,

480, 485, 486.
Sfabat Mater, 53.
Stadler, 189.

Stael, Madame de, 21, 197.
Stein, Charlotte von, 40.

503

Steiner, 188, 189.

Stendhal, de, 161.

Sterling, 440.

Sternberg, Count Caspar, 214,

296.
S.terne, 381, 406, 451.
Stieler, 327, 395, 401.
Stolberg, Count, 460.
Stosch, 305.
Streckfuss, 225, 226, 266, 267,

268.
Streicher, 204.
Struve, 256.
Stümer, 352.

Stuttgarter Kunstblatt, 259.
Suetonius, 94.
Sulzer, 462.
Suj^ljlices, The, 13.
Süssmavr, 296, 297, 298.
Sweden, 326.
Switzerland, 475.
Szymanowska, Madame, 221,

363.

Tacitus, 23.

Tancred, 183.

Tancredi, 166, 237.

Tartini, 452.

Tartuffe, 323.

Tasso, 393.

Taucher, Der, 359, 417.

Taylor, 10, 461.

Teaching of Spinoza, The, 36.

Telemann, 101, 232, 445.

Temps, Le, 369, 391.

Terence, 213, 250.

Ternite, 281, 346, 366.

Thaer, 227, 334.

Thayer's Life of Beethoven, 91.

Theatre de Clara Gazul, Le,

281.
Theaulon, 247.
Theüe, 232.
Tiiibaut, 123, 164.
Thomas-Schule, 10, .347.
Thomson, 424.
Thorwaldsen, 414, 415, 451.
Tieck, 455.
Tiedge, 53, 127, 455.
Titian, 182, 210.

Toniuato Tasso, 1.30, 240, 283,

.391 393.
Trent', Council of, 209.
Triunqjh der Empßnd^amkeit,

Der, 118.
Troilus and Cressida, 233, 235.

ü.

Ueber Reinheit der Tonkunst,

123.
Uhland, 467.
Ulrich, 182.
Ulrike, 484.
Unger, 3, 18, 19.
Unger, Madame, 1.
Unzelmann, 19.
Unzelmann, Madame, 19.
Usteri, 346.

Vallo, Pietro della, 324.

Varnhagen, Frau von, 350.

Vespasian, 94.

Vespino, 158.

Vestalin, Die, 79, 199, 427.

Vetter, 2.32.

Vicar of Wakefield, The, 381.

Victor, General, 45.

Vigano, 486.

Villemain, 309.

Vinci, 4.39.

Viol, 459.

Virgil, 271.

Vivaldi, 3.55, 356.

Vogel, 419, 420.

Vogler, 112.

Voi"t, 16, 365.

Volkommcne Capellmeister, Der,

155, 167.
Volkslieder, 9.
Volkslieder, Servian, 246.
Voltaire, 75, 87, 150, 183, 184.
Von Kunst und Altcrthmn am

Rhein und Main, 121, 124,

151.
Voss, 17, 21, 59, 72, 264, 302,

455.
Voss, Ernestine, 264.

Wa-ner, E., 404.

504

INDEX.

Wahlverwandtschaften, Die, 67,

92, 307, 386, 471.
Wahrheit und Dichtuncf, 388,

390, 423.
Wallenstcin, 17, 40, 121, 416,

460, 473.
Walpurgis Nacht, Die Clas-

sische, 392.
Walpurgis Nacht, Die Erste, 3,

95.
Walter, 232.
Wanda, 42.

Wanderjahre, Wilhelm Meis-
ters, 202, 206, 288, 314, 340, 345.
Wasserträger, Der, 470.
Weber's Life of Weher. 112.
Weber, B. A., 124, 132.
Weber, C. M., 112, 203, 238,

264, 373.
Weber, G., 296.
Weigl, 175, 186.
Weihe der Kraft, Die, 42.
Weimar, Amalia, Dowager

Duchess of, 28, 46, 85, 3.'>9.
Weimar, Constantine, Prince

of, 10.
Weimar, Karl August, Grand

Duke of, 16, 18, 40, 153, 163,

218, 239, 241, 277, 301, 319,

397.
Weimar, Karl Friedrich, Grand

Duke of, 9.
Weimar, Luise, Grand Diicliess

of, 208, 390.
Weimar, Maria Paulowna,

Grand Duchess of, 9, .348.
Weimar, Princess of, 362.
Weiss, SO.
Weisse, 392.
Weissagungen des Bakis, Die,

310.
Wenceslaus, King, 196.
Werneburg, 96.
Werner, Z., 42, 52, 63. 213.
Werther, 57, 93, 125, 317.
W^est, 447.
Wieland, 5, 18, 28. 130, 300, 306,

314, 318, 359, 489.
Wilhelm Teil, 21, 22, 26, 27,

131, 408, 411.
Wilken, 317.

Willemer, Marianne von, 122.

AVilman's Taschenbuch, 4.

Wilson, 460.

Winckelmann, 120.

Winter, 15, 87, 89, 304, 358, 362.

W ohltemperirte Ciavier, Das,

155, 168.
Wolf, F. A., 21, 33, 36, 37, 45,

52, 64, 132, 133, 137, 141, 162,

181, 214, 233, 261.
Wolff, Madame, 123, 133, 135,

462.
Wolit; P. A., 123, 130, 131, 447,

488.
Wolff, Prof., 317.
Wolkonsky, Princess, 363.
Wolzogen, Frau von, 454.
W^olzogen, Geh. Rath von, 10, 12.
Wordsworth, 460.
Wranitzkv, 5.
Wünsch, 333.
Wurmb, Fräulein von, 413, 454.

Xenien, 1, 205, 295, 396.
Xenia, 18.
Xenophon, 163.

Zahn, 305, 440, 488, 489.

Zauherflöte, Die, 5, 15, 91, 265,
298, 305.

Zelter, Cliirchen, 139, 198.

Zelter, Doris, 206, 208, 217, 419,
421, 422, 481.

Zelter, Georg, 281.

Zelter, K. F., 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 15,
29, 32, 37, 42, 45, 51, 59, 76,
115, 137, 139, 150, 162, 191,
198, 199, 208, 213, 226, 236,
241, 243, 244, 246, 247, 251,
256, 281, 300, 302, 310, 317,
3.36, 355, 368, 390, 396, 399,
409, 419, 423, 441, 456, 460,
461, 490.

Zelter, Karl, 92, 422.

Zelter, Louisa, 422.

Zelter, Rosamunde, 420, 422.

Zenobius, 92.

Zinkgräf, 8.

Zöllner, 416.

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WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY.

Seventy years passed Ijcfore Jolinson was followed by Webster an
American writer, who faced the task of the English Dictionary with a
full appreciation of its requirements, leading to better practical
results. ...

' His laborious comparison of twenty languages, though never pub-
ished, bore fruit m his own mind, and his training placed him both in
knowledge and judgment far in advance of Johnson as a philolocrist
Webster s American Dictionary of the English Language ^^'?,s pub-
lished m 1828 and of course appeared at once in England, where
successive re-editing has yd kept it in the highest place as a practical
Dictionary.^ ^

' The acceptance of an American Dictionary in England has itself
had immense effect in keeping up the community of speech, to break
which would be a grievous harm, not to English-speaking nations
alone, but to mankind. The result of this has been that the common
Dictionary must suit both sides of the Atlantic'

'The good average business-like character of Webster's Dictionary
both in style and matter, made it as distinctly suited as Johnson's was
distinctly unsuited to be expanded and re-edited by other hands
Professor Goodrich's edition of 1847 is not much more than enlarged
and amended ; but other revisions since have so much novelty of plan
as to be described as distinct works.' ... ^ v

' The American revised Webster's Dictionary of 1864, published in
Aiiienca and England, is of an altogether higher order than these last
[Ihe London Imperial and Student's]. It bears on its title-page the
names of Drs. Goodrich and Porter, but inasmuch as its especial im-
provement IS in the etymological department, the care of which was
fu^.T/'!^"^ ^",P';- '^^'''''" °^ "^^xXm, we prefer to describe it in short as
the Webster-Mahn Dictionary. .Many other literary men, among them
Professors Whitney and Dana, aided in the task of compilation and
revision. On consideration it seems that the editors and contributors
have gone far toward improving Webster to the utmost that he will
bear improvement. The vocabulary has become almost complete as
regards usual words, while the definitions keep throughout to Webster's
simple careful style, and the de/ivations are assiinicd 7uith the aid of
s;ood modern authorities.'' '

' On the whole, the Webster-Mahn Dictionary as it stands is most
respectable, and certainly the best Practical English Dic-
tionary extant.'— From the (Juartcrly Rc7'ie7v, Oct. 1873.

London : G. BELL & SONS, York Street, Covent Garden.

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New Edition, with a New Biographical Supplement of up^V^ä^Föf 900 Names.

WEBSTER'S COMPLETE DICTIONARY

AND BOOK OF LITERARY REFERENCE.
1919 Pages. 3000 Illustrations.

Besides the matter comprised in the Webster's Guinea Dictionary, this
volume contains the following Appendices, which will show that no pains have
been spared to make it a complete Literary Reference-book : —

A Brief History of the English Language. By Prof. James Hadley.

Prin'Ciples of Pronunciation. By Prof. Goodrich and \V. A. Wheeler, M.A,
Including a Synopsis of Words differently pronounced by different authorities.

A Short Treatise on Orthography. By A. W. Wright. Including a com-
plete List of W^ords that are spelt in two or more ways.

Vocabulary of Noted Names of Fiction. By W. A. Wheeler, M.A. This
work includes Mythical Names ; including also Pseudonyms, Nick-names of
eminent persons and parties, &c. &c.

This work may also be had separately, post ?iVO. price 55.

A Pronouncing Vocabulary of Scripture Proper Names. By W. A.
Wheeler. M.A.

A Pronou.ncing Vocabulary of Greek and Latin Proper Names. By
Prof. Thacher.

An Etymological Vocabulary of Modern Geographical Names. By the
Rev. C. H. Wheeler.

Pronouncing Vocabularies of Modern Geographical and Biographical
Names. By J. Thomas, M.D.

A Pronouncing Vocabulary of Common English Christian Names, with
their derivations, signification, iS:c.

A Dictionary of Quotations. Containing all Words, Phrases, Proverbs, and
Colloquial Expressions from the Greek, I.,atin, and Modem Languages met
with in literature.

A New Biographical Dictionary of upwards of 9700 Names of Noted
Persons, Ancient and Modern.

A List of Abbreviations, Contractions, and Arbitr.vry Signs used in
Writing and Printing.

A Classified Selection of Pictorial Illustrations (70 pages). With
references to the text.

' The cheapest Dictionary ever published, as it is confessedly one of the best. The intro-
duction of small woodcut illustrations of technical and scientific terms adds greatly to the
utility of the Dictionary.' — Chuixhinan.

l/. WS. 6ii. ; half-calf, 2/. ; calf or half-russia, 2/. 2s. ; russia, 2/. 10s.

LONDON :

Printed by Strangewavs and Sons, Tower Street, Upper St. Martin's Lane.

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