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JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749-1832)
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JOHANN WOLFGANG VON See also:GOETHE (1749-1832) , See also:German poet, dramatist and philosopher, was See also:born at See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Main on the 28th of See also:August 1749 . He came, on his See also:father's See also:side, of Thuringian stock, his See also:great-grandfather, Hans See also:Christian See also:Goethe, having been a See also:farrier at See also:Artern-on-the-Unstrut, about the See also:middle of the 17th See also:century . Hans Christian's son, See also:Friedrich Georg, was brought up to the See also:trade of a tailor, and in this capacity settled in Frankfort in 1686 . A second See also:marriage, however, brought him into See also:possession of the Frankfort See also:inn, " Zum Weidenhof," and he ended his days as a well-to-do inn-keeper . His son, Johann Kaspar, the poet's father (1710-1782), studied See also:law at See also:Leipzig, and, after going through the prescribed courses of See also:practical training at See also:Wetzlar, travelled in See also:Italy . He hoped, on his return to Frankfort, to obtain an See also:official position in the See also:government of the See also:free See also:city, but his See also:personal See also:influence with the authorities was not sufficiently strong . In his disappointment he resolved never again to offer his services to his native See also:town, and retired into private See also:life, a course which his ample means facilitated . In 1i42 he acquired, as a See also:consolation for the public career he had missed, the See also:title of kaiserlicher See also:Rat, and in 1748 married Katharina Elisabeth (1731-1808), daughter of the Schultheiss or Burgermeister of Frankfort, Johann Wolfgang Textor.' The poet was the eldest son of this See also:union . Of the later See also:children only one, See also:Cornelia, born in 1750, survived the years of childhood; she died as the wife of Goethe's friend, J . G . See also:Schlosser, in 1777 . The best elements in Goethe's See also:genius came from his See also:mother's side; of a lively, impulsive disposition, and gifted with remarkable imaginative See also:power, Fran Rat was the ideal mother of a poet; moreover, being hardly eighteen at the See also:time of her son's See also:birth, she was herself able to be the See also:companion of his childhood .
From his father, whose stern, somewhat pedantic nature repelled warmer feelings on the See also:part of the children, Goethe inherited that "See also:holy earnestness " and stability of See also:character which brought him unscathed through temptations and passions, and held the See also:balance to his all too powerful See also:imagination
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Unforgettable is the picture which the poet subsequently See also:drew of his childhood spent in the large See also:house with its many nooks and crannies, in the See also:Grosse Hirschgraben at Frankfort
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Books, pictures, See also:objects of See also:art, antiquities, reminiscences of Rat Goethe's visit to Italy, above all a marionette See also:theatre, kindled the See also:child's See also:quick See also:intellect and imagination
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His training was conducted in its See also:early stages by his father, and was later supplemented by tutors
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Meanwhile the varied and picturesque life of Frankfort was in itself an See also:education
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In 1759, during the Seven Years' See also:War, the See also:French, as Maria See also:Theresa's See also:allies, occupied the town, and, much to the irritation of Goethe's father, who was a stanch See also:partisan of See also:Frederick the Great, a French lieu-See also:tenant, See also:Count Thoranc, was quartered on the Goethe See also:household
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The See also:foreign occupation also led to the See also:establishment of a French troupe of actors, and to their performances the boy, through his grandfather's influence, had free See also:access
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Goethe has also recorded his memories of another picturesque event, the See also:coronation of the See also:emperor See also:Joseph II. in the Frankfort Romer or town See also: He entered upon his university studies with zeal, but his own education in Frankfort had notbeen the best preparation for the scholastic methods which still dominated the German See also:universities; of his professors, only See also:Gellert seems to have won his interest, and that interest was soon exhausted . The literary beginnings he had made in Frankfort now seemed to him amateurish and trivial; he See also:felt that he had to turn over a new See also:leaf, and, under the guidance of E . W . Behrisch, a genial, See also:original comrade, he learned the art of See also:writing those See also:light Anacreontic lyrics which harmonized with the See also:tone of polite Leipzig society . Artificial as this See also:poetry is, Goethe was, nevertheless, inspired by a real passion in Leipzig, namely, for See also:Anna Katharina Schonkopf, the daughter of a See also:wine-See also:merchant at whose house he dined . She is the " Annette " after whom the recently discovered collection of lyrics was named, although it must be added that neither these lyrics nor the Neue Lieder, published in 1770, See also:express very directly Goethe's feelings for Kathchen Schonkopf . To his Leipzig student-days belong also two small plays in Alexandrines, Die Laune See also:des Verliebten, a See also:pastoral See also:comedy in one See also:act, which reflects the lighter side of the poet's love affair, and Die Mitschuldigen (published in a revised form, 1769), a more sombre picture, in which comedy is incongruously mingled with tragedy . In Leipzig Goethe also had time for what remained one of the abiding interests of his life, for art; he regarded A . F . Oeser (1717-1799), the director of the See also:academy of See also:painting in the Pleissenburg, who had given him lessons in See also:drawing, as the teacher who in Leipzig had influenced him most . His art studies were also furthered by a See also:short visit to See also:Dresden . His stay in Leipzig came, however, to an abrupt conclusion; the distractions of student life proved too much for his strength; a sudden See also:haemorrhage supervened, and he See also:lay See also:long See also:ill, first in Leipzig, and, after it was possible to remove him, at See also:home in Frankfort . These months of slow recovery were a time of serious See also:introspection for Goethe . He still corresponded with his Leipzig friends, but the tone of his letters changed ; life had become graver and more See also:earnest for him . He pored over books on occult See also:philosophy; he busied himself with See also:alchemy and See also:astrology . A friend of his mother's, Susanne Katharina von Klettenberg, who belonged to pietist circles in Frankfort, turned the boy's thoughts to religious See also:mysticism . On his recovery his father resolved that he should complete his legal studies at See also:Strassburg, a city which, although then outside the German See also:empire, was, in respect of See also:language and culture, wholly German . From the first moment Goethe set See also:foot in the narrow streets of the Alsatian See also:capital, in See also:April 1770, the whole current of his thought seemed to See also:change . The See also:Gothic See also:architecture of the Strassburg See also:minster became to him the See also:symbol of a See also:national and German ideal, directly antagonistic to the French tastes and the classical and rationalistic See also:atmosphere that prevailed in Leipzig . The second moment of importance in Goethe's Strassburg See also:period was his See also:meeting with See also:Herder, who spent some See also:weeks in Strassburg undergoing an operation of the See also:eye . In this thinker, who was his See also:senior by five years, Goethe found the See also:master he sought; Herder taught him the significance of Gothic architecture, revealed to him the See also:charm of nature's simplicity, and inspired him with See also:enthusiasm for See also:Shakespeare and the Volkslied . Meanwhile Goethe's legal studies were not neglected, and he found time to add to knowledge of other subjects, notably that of See also:medicine . Another See also:factor of importance in Goethe's Strassburg life was his love for Friederike Brion, the daughter of an Alsatian See also:village pastor in Sesenheim . Even more than Herder's See also:precept and example, this passion showed Goethe how trivial and artificial had been the Anacreontic and pastoral poetry with which he had occupied himself in Leipzig ; and the lyrics inspired by Friederike, such as Kleine Blumen, kleine Blatter and Wie herrlich leuchtet mirdie Natur1 See also:mark the beginning of a new See also:epoch in German lyric poetry . The idyll of Sesenheim, as described in Dichtung and Wahrheit, is one of the most beautiful love-stories in the literature of the See also:world . From the first, however, it was clear that Friederike Brion could never become the wife of the Frankfort patrician's son; an unhappy ending to the See also:romance was unavoidable, and, as is to be seen in passionate outpourings like the Wanderers Sturmlied, and in the See also:bitter self-accusations of Clavigo, it left deep wounds on the poet's sensitive soul . To Strassburg we owe Goethe's first important See also:drama, Gotz von See also:Berlichingen, or, as it was called in its earliest form, Geschichte Gottfriedens von Berlichingen dramatisiert (not published until 1831) . Revised under the now See also:familiar title, it appeared in 1793, after Goethe's return to Frankfort . In estimating this drama we must See also:bear in mind Goethe's own Strassburg life, and the turbulent spirit of his own See also:age, rather than the See also:historical facts, which the poet found in the autobiography of his See also:hero published in 1731 . The latter supplied only the rough materials; the Gotz von Berlichingen whom Goethe drew, with his lofty ideals of right and wrong, and his enthusiasm for freedom, is a very different personage from the unscrupulous robber-See also:knight of the 16th century, the rough friend of See also:Franz von See also:Sickingen and of the revolting peasants . Still less historical See also:justification is to be found for the vacillating Weisslingen in whom Goethe executed poetic See also:justice on himself as the See also:lover of Friederike, or in the See also:women of the See also:play, the See also:gentle Maria, the.heartless Adelheid . But there is genial, creative power in the very subjectivity of these characters, and a vigorous dramatic life, which is irresistible in its See also:appeal . With Gotz von Berlichingen, Shakespeare's art first triumphed on the German See also:stage, and the literary See also:movement known as See also:Sturm and Drang was inaugurated . Having received his degree in Strassburg, Goethe returned home in August 1771, and began his See also:initiation into the routine of an See also:advocate's profession . In the following See also:year, in See also:order to gain insight into another side of his calling, he spent four months at Wetzlar, where the imperial law-courts were established . But Goethe's professional duties had only a small See also:share in the eventful years which lay between his return from Strassburg and that visit to See also:Weimar at the end of 1775, which turned the whole course of his career, and resulted in his permanent See also:attachment to the Weimar See also:court . Goethe's life in Frankfort was a See also:round of stimulating literary intercourse; in J . H . See also:Merck (1741-1191), an See also:army official in the neighbouring town of See also:Darmstadt, he found a friend and See also:mentor, whose See also:irony and See also:common-sense served as a corrective to his own exuberance of See also:spirits . Wetzlar brought new friends and another passion, that for See also:Charlotte See also:Buff, the daughter of the Amtmann there—a love-See also:story which has been immortalized in Werthers See also:Leiden—and again the See also:young poet's nature was obsessed by a love which was this time strong enough to bring him to the brink of that See also:suicide with which the novel ends . A visit to the See also:Rhine, where new interests and the attractions of Maximiliane von Laroche, a daughter of See also:Wieland's friend, the novelist Sophie von Laroche, brought partial healing; his intense preoccupation with literary See also:work on his return to Frankfort did the See also:rest . In 1775 Goethe was attracted by still another type of woman, Lill Schonemann, whose mother was the widow of a wealthy Frankfort banker . A formal See also:betrothal took See also:place, and the beauty of the lyrics which Lill inspired leaves no See also:room for doubt that here was a passion no less genuine than that for Friederike or Charlotte . But Goethe—more worldly See also:wise than on former occasions—felt instinctively that the See also:gay, social world in which Lill moved was not really congenial to him . A visit to See also:Switzerland in the summer of 1775 may not have weakened his interest in her, but it at least allowed him to regard her objectively; and, without tragic consequences on either side, the passion was ultimately allowed to yield to the dictates of common-sense . Goethe's departure for Weimar in See also:November made the final break less difficult . The period from 1971 to 1775 was, in literary respects, the most productive of the poet's life . It had been inaugurated with Gotz von Berlichingen, and a few months later this tragedy was followed by another, Clavigo, hardly less convincing in its character-drawing, and reflecting even more faithfully than the former the experiences Goethe had gone through in Strassburg . Again poetic justice is effected on the unfortunate hero who has chosen his own personal See also:advancement in preference to his 'See also:duty to the woman he loves; more pointedly than in Gotz is the moral enforced by Clavigo's worldly friend See also:Carlos, that the ground of Clavigo's tragic end lies not so much in the See also:defiance of a moral law as in the hero's vacillation and want of character . With Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1794), the literary precipitate of the author's own experiences in Wetzlar, Goethesucceeded in attracting, as no German had done before him, the attention of See also:Europe . Once more it was the See also:gospel that the world belongs to the strong, which lay beneath the See also:surface of this romance . This, however, was not the See also:lesson which was See also:drawn from it by Goethe's contemporaries; they See also:shed tears of sympathy over the lovelorn youth whose See also:burden becomes too great for him to bear . While Gotz inaugurated the manlier side of the Sturm and Drang literature, Werther was responsible for its sentimental excesses . And to the sentimental rather than to the heroic side belongs also Stella, " a drama for lovers," in which the poet again reproduced, if with less fidelity than in Werther, certain aspects of his own love troubles . A lighter vein is to be observed in various dramatic satires written at this time, such as See also:Gotter, Heiden and Wieland (1774), Hanswursts Hochzeit, Fastnachtsspiel vom Paler Brey, Satyros, and in the Singspiele, Erwin and Elmire (1775) and Claudine von See also:Villa Bella (1776); while in the Frankfurter Gelehrte Anzeiger (1772-1773), Goethe drove home the principles of the new movement of Sturm and Drang in terse and pointed See also:criticism . The exuberance of the young poet's genius is also to be seen in the many unfinished fragments of this period; at one time we find him occupied with dramas on See also:Caesar and See also:Mahomet, at another with an epic on Der ewige See also:Jude, and again with a tragedy on See also:Prometheus, of which a magnificent fragment has passed into his works . Greatest of all the torsos of this period, however, was the dramatization of See also:Faust . Thanks to a See also:manuscript copy of the play in its earliest form—discovered as recently as 1887—we are now able to distinguish how much of this tragedy was the immediate product of the Sturm and Drang, and to understand the intentions with which the young poet began his masterpiece . Goethe's hero changed with the author's riper experience and with his new conceptions of See also:man's place and duties in the world, but the Gretchen tragedy was taken over into the finished poem, practically unaltered, from the earliest Faust of the Sturm and Drang . With these wonderful scenes, the most intensely tragic in all German literature, Goethe's poetry in this period reaches its See also:climax .
Still another important work, however, was conceived, and in large measure written at this time, the drama of See also:Egmont, which was not published until 1788
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This work may, to some extent, be regarded as supplementary to Faust; it presents the lighter, more cheerful and optimistic side of Goethe's philosophy in these years; See also:Graf Egmont, the most winning and fascinating of the poet's heroes, is endowed with that " demonic " power over the sympathies of men and women, which Goethe himself possessed in so high a degree
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But Egmont depends for its interest almost solely on two characters, Egmont himself and Klarchen, Gretchen's counterpart; regarded as a drama, it demonstrates the futility of that defiance of See also:convention and rules with which the Sturm and Drang set out
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It remained for Goethe, in the next period of his life, to construct on classic See also:models a new vehicle for German dramatic poetry
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In See also:December 1774 the young " hereditary See also:prince " of Weimar, See also: As Friederike had fitted into the background of Goethe's Strassburg life, Lotte into that of Wetzlar, and Lili into the gaieties of Frankfort, so now Charlotte von See also:Stein, the wife of a Weimar official, was the personification of the more aristocratic ideals of Weimar society . We possess only the poet's share of his correspondence with Frau von Stein, but it is possible to infer from it that, of all Goethe's loves, this was intellectually the most worthy of him . Frau von Stein was a woman of refined literary See also:taste and culture, seven years older than he and the mother of seven children . There was something more spiritual, something that partook rather of the passionate friendships of the 18th century than of love in Goethe's relations with her . Frau von Stein dominated the poet's life for twelve years, until his See also:journey to Italy in 1786-1788 . Of other events of this period the most notable were two See also:winter journeys, the first in 1777, to the Harz Mountains, the second, two years later, to Switzerland—journeys which gave Goethe See also:scope for that introspection and reflection for which his Weimar life left him little time . On the second of these journeys he revisited Friederike in Sesenheim, saw Lili, who had married and settled in Strassburg, and made the personal acquaintance of See also:Lavater in See also:Zurich . The literary results of these years cannot be compared with those of the preceding period; they are virtually limited to a few wonderful lyrics, such as Wanderers Nachtlied, An den See also:Mond, Gesang der Geister fiber den Wassern, or See also:ballads, such as Der See also:Erlkonig, a charming little drama, Die Geschwister (1776), in which the poet's relations to both Lili and Frau von Stein seem to be reflected, a dramatic See also:satire, Der See also:Triumph der Entpfindsamkeit (1778), and a number of Singspiele, Lila (1777), Die Fischerin, Scherz, See also:List and Rache, and Jery and Bately (178o) . But greater works were in preparation . A religious epic, DieGeheimnisse,and a tragedy Elpenor, did not, it is true, advance much further than plans; but in 1777, under the influence of the theatrical experiments at the Weimar court, Goethe conceived and in great measure wrote a novel of the theatre, which was to have See also:borne the title Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung; and in 1779 himself took part in a See also:representation before the court at Ettersburg, of his drama Iphigenie auf Tauris . This Iphigenie was, however, in prose; in the following year Goethe remoulded it in iambics, but it was not until he went to See also:Rome that the drama finally received the form in which we know it . In See also:September, 1786 Goethe set out from Karlsbad—secretly and stealthily, his See also:plan known only to his servant—on that memorable journey to Italy, to which he had looked forward with such intense longing; he could not See also:cross the See also:Alps quickly enough, so impatient was he to set foot in Italy . He travelled by way of See also:Munich, the See also:Brenner and Lago di See also:Garda to See also:Verona and See also:Venice, and from thence to Rome, where he arrived on the 29th of October 1786 . Here he gave himself up unreservedly to the new impressions which crowded on him, and he was soon at home among the German artists in Rome, who welcomed him warmly . In the See also:spring of 1787 he extended his journey as far as See also:Naples and See also:Sicily, returning to Rome in See also:June 1787, where he remained until his final departure for See also:Germany on the 2nd of April 1788 . It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Goethe's See also:Italian journey . He himself regarded it as a kind of climax to his life; never before had he attained such complete understanding of his genius and See also:mission in the world; it afforded him a vantage-ground from which he could renew the past and make plans for the future . In Weimar he had felt that he was no longer in sympathy with the Sturm and Drang, but it was Italy which first taught him clearly what might take the place of that movement in German poetry . To the See also:modern reader, who may well be impressed by Goethe's extraordinary receptivity, it may seem See also:strange that his interests in Italy were so limited; for, after all, he saw comparatively little of the art treasures of Italy . He went to Rome in See also:Winckelmann's footsteps; it was the See also:antique he sought, and his interest in the artists of the See also:Renaissance was virtually restricted to their See also:imitation of classic models . This See also:search for the classic ideal is reflected in the works he completed or wrote under the Italian See also:sky . The See also:calm beautyof See also:Greek tragedy is seen in the new See also:iambic version of Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787); the classicism of the Renaissance gives the ground-tone to the wonderful drama of Torquato See also:Tasso (1790), in which the conflict of poetic genius with the prosaic world is transmuted into imperishable poetry . Classic, too, in this sense, were the plans of a drama on Iphigenie auf Delphos and of an epic, Nausikaa . Most interesting of all, however, is the reflection of the classic spirit in works already begun in earlier days, such as Egmont and Faust . The former drama was finished in Italy and appeared in 1788, the latter was brought a step further forward, part of it being published as a Fragment in 1790 . Disappointment in more senses than one awaited Goethe on his return to Weimar . He came back from Italy with a new philosophy of life, a philosophy at once classic and See also:pagan, and with very definite ideas of what constituted literary excellence . But Germany had not advanced; in 1788 his countrymen were still under the influence of that Sturnt and Drang from which the poet had fled . The times seemed to him more out of See also:joint than ever, and he withdrew into himself . Even his relations to the old friends were changed . Frau von Stein had not known of his See also:flight to Italy until she received a See also:letter from Rome; but he looked forward to her welcome on his return . The months of See also:absence, however, the change he had undergone, and doubtless those lighter loves of which the Romische Elegien bear See also:evidence, weakened the Weimar memories; if he left Weimar as Frau von Stein's lover he returned only as her friend; and she naturally resented the change . Goethe, meanwhile, satisfied to continue the freer customs to which he had adapted himself in Rome, found a new See also:mistress in Christiane See also:Vulpius (1765-1816), the least interesting of all the women who attracted him . But Christiane gradually filled up a See also:gap in the poet's life; she gave him, quietly, unobtrusively, without making demands on him, the comforts la home . She was not accepted by court society; it did not See also:matter to her that even Goethe's intimate friends ignored her; and she, who had suited the poet's whim when he desired to shut himself off from all that might dim the recollection of Italy, became with the years an indispensable helpmate to him . On the birth in 1789 of his son, Goethe had some thought of legalizing his relations with Christiane, but this intention was not realized until 18o6, when the invasion of Weimar by the French made him fear for both life and See also:property . The period of Goethe's life which succeeded his return from Italy was restless and unsettled; relieved of his state duties, he returned in 1790 to Venice, only to be disenchanted with the Italy he had loved so intensely a year or two before . A journey with the duke of Weimar to See also:Breslau followed, and in 1792 he accompanied his master on that See also:campaign against See also:France which ended so ingloriously for the German arms at Valmy . In later years Goethe published his See also:account both of this Campagne in Frankreich and of the Belagerung von See also:Mainz, at which he was also See also:present in 1793 . His literary work naturally suffered.under these distractions . Tasso, and the edition of the Schriften in which it was to appear, had still to be completed on his return from Italy; the Romische Elegien, perhaps the most Latin of all his works, were published in 1795, and the Venetianische Epigramme, the result of the second visit to Italy, in 1796 . The French Revolution, in which all Europe was engrossed, was in Goethe's eyes only another See also:proof that the passing of the old regime meant the See also:abrogation of all law and order, and he gave See also:voice to his antagonism to the new democratic principles in the dramas Der Grosskophta (1792), Der Burgergeneral (1793), and in the unfinished fragments Die Aufgeregten and Das Mddchen von Oberkirch . The spirited See also:translation of the epic of See also:Reinecke See also:Fuchs (1794) he took up as a See also:relief and an antidote to the soc |