Goethe: His Life and Works. An EssayLee and Shepard, 1872 - 276 pages |
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activity admirable æsthetic battle of Jena beautiful brain called Christiane dear death deep Doctor of Law double rhymes drama Duke earth Egmont eyes faculties Faust feeling felt Frankfort Frau von Stein Frederika French Revolution friendship gave genial genius German gift give glow Goethe writes Goethe's Greeks Gretchen happy heart heaven Herder Hermann and Dorothea human ical ideal imaginative individual intellectual Iphigenia Italy Jena Leipzig letter light literary live look manhood marriage ment mental Mephisto Mephistopheles Merk mind mood moral Naples Nature ness never pagan passion personages poem poet poetic poetry prosaic prose reader Rome scene Schiller sensibility Shakespeare sion song soul spirit Strasbourg sure sympathy Tasso thee thence things thou thought tion translation truth utter verse warm Weimar Werther Wetzlar whole wish woman words wrote young youth Zelter
Popular passages
Page 28 - As Heaven and Earth are fairer, fairer far Than Chaos and blank Darkness, though once chiefs; And as we show beyond that Heaven and Earth In form and shape compact and beautiful, In will, in action free, companionship, 210 And thousand other signs of purer life; So on our heels a fresh perfection treads, A power more strong in beauty, born of us And fated to excel us, as we pass In glory that old Darkness: nor are we Thereby more conquer'd, than by us the rule Of shapeless Chaos.
Page 45 - Thou seem'st to me like Saul, the son of Kish, who went out to seek his father's asses, and found a kingdom.
Page 93 - His epic poem you have read ; you will admit that it is the pinnacle of his and all our modern art. I have seen it grow up, and have wondered almost as much at the manner of its growth as at the completed work Whilst the rest of us are obliged painfully to collect and to prune, in order slowly to bring forth anything passable, he has only gently to shake the tree, in order to have fall to him the most beautiful fruit, ripe and heavy. It is incredible with what ease he now reaps...
Page 184 - Her golden-brown locks, laughing eyes, ruddy cheeks, kiss-provoking lips, small and gracefully rounded figure, gave her " the appearance of a young Dionysos".^ Her naivete, gaiety and enjoying temperament, completely fascinated Goethe, who recognized in her one of those free, healthy specimens of Nature which education had not distorted with artifice. She was like a child of the sensuous Italy he had just quitted with so much regret; and there are few poems in any language which approach the passionate...
Page 115 - ... which he can render available the extraordinary gifts he possesses, is to abuse them. As to the observation that persons of merit may think themselves unjustly passed over: I observe, in the first place, that nobody to my knowledge, in my service, has a right to reckon on an equal degree of...
Page 119 - I must go somewhat deeper into it. " It is something to have passed a life of eighty years in unblemished dignity and honour ; it is something to have attained to that pitch of refined wit, of tender, elegant thought, which predominated so delightfully in Wieland's soul ; it is something to have possessed that industry, that iron persistency and perseverance, in which he surpassed us all.
Page 182 - Her father was one of those wretched beings whose drunkenness slowly but surely brings a whole family to want. He would sell the coat off" his back for drink. When his children grew up, they contrived to get away from him, and to support themselves : the son by literature, the daughters by making artificial flowers,* woollen work, etc. It is usually said that Christiane was utterly uneducated, and the epigrammatic pen glibly records that " Goethe married his servant." She never was his servant. Nor...
Page 83 - ... regard those days as an epoch in my life, and how contented I feel in having gone on my way without any particular encouragement ; for it seems to me that after so unexpected a meeting we cannot but wander on in life together. I have always prized the frank and rare earnestness which is displayed in all that you have written and done, and I may now claim to be made acquainted by yourself with the course taken by your own mind, more especially during these latter years. If we make it clear to...
Page 83 - Ettersburg, August 27, 1794. On the anniversary of my birthday, which took place this week, I could not have received a more acceptable gift than the letter in which you give the sum of my existence in so friendly a manner, and in which, by your sympathy, you encourage me to a more assiduous and active use of my powers. Pure enjoyment and true usefulness can only be reciprocal, and it will be a pleasure to me to unfold to you at leisure : what your conversation has been to me ; how I, too, regard...
Page 93 - ... at the completed work. Whilst the rest of us are obliged painfully to collect and to prune, in order slowly to bring forth anything passable, he has only gently to shake the tree, in order to have fall to him the most beautiful fruit, ripe and heavy. It is incredible with what ease he now reaps for himself the fruits of a well-bestowed life and a persistent culture ; how significant and sure all his steps now are ; how the clearness as to himself and as to objects, preserves him from every idle...