F. 66 Oh! what a long speech! But who could find out the names I wonder, unless they were marked!" Coleridge were favoured and strength- cients used in war), the friendly, phiened by an isolation from boy-compa- lanthropic lizard, the croaking frog nions, and by household circumstances that foretels the spring; and they are all otherwise tending to foster musing and done to the life." melancholy. It was owing to this conjunction, that reflection developed itself as strongly as imagination. The boy early learned to see himself as others saw him; a power that renders his mental history unique. The following, translated from one of his early exercises in Latin, gives proof of the existence of this phenomenon, and suggests some of the causes of its occurrence. It is a conversation with his father; probably a transcript from life. Father. "What are you doing there, my boy?" Son. " Making things in wax." F. "I thought so: Oh! when will you give up nuts!"* S. I am not playing with nuts, but with wax." F. "Ignorant boy: don't you know what I mean by nuts?" S. "Oh! now I remember: but just see, what a splendid wax-modeller I am become already." F. "Yes, a wax-spoiler !" S. "Oh no, papa! just look what pretty things I have made." F. "Well, show me, then, what these monsters mean." S. "Among other beasts, I have made a cat with a long beard,— next a citymouse and a country-mouse, such as Horace talks of in one of his biting epistles the story that Drollinger has translated into capital German doggrel." F. "Your memory pleases me better than your animals. But have you made nothing else; no more brilliant specimen of your talents?” S. "Alas! alas! But is not every one the best explainer of his own works?" F. "That is certainly a true principle generally; but it by no means suits the present case." S. "Pardon my stupidity, and do be so kind as to look at this sledge-team. There are exactly a dozen animals, part creeping, part flying. I think the swan, the stag, the sea-horse, and the dragon are the best." F. "Well, I hope you will continue to be as well satisfied; but it is pretty clear that you know nothing yet about the difference between beautiful and ugly." S. "Will you be so good as to teach me, dear father?" F. "Certainly I shall, in due time. But your eyes must grow a little older and more experienced first." S. "Oh, no! why should we put it off? Do tell me to-day. I shall prick up my little ears to listen, you may be sure." F." Not to-day; another time. Now, put away your playthings and attend to your lessons." S. "Yes, father."* The Latin makes this juvenile dialectic rather stiff; but it is as near the genuine style of childhood as modern Latin could well be, and in "Götz of Berlichingen" we find to what use a poet could turn such exercises. The tone of this one is singular; in one reS." Oh, yes! here is a whale, open-spect, misleading. Of the philosophical ing his jaws as if he were going to swallow us up; and two chamois, which the Emperor Maximilian was so fond of hunting, that he wandered out to such a dangerous place in the rocks, that an angel, in the shape of an old man, was obliged to show him the way back again." F. "You bring in your droll remarks so cleverly, that we must pardon your monstrosities. And is that all?" S. "By no means: of all the beasts constructed by my skill, the most admirable are, -the false-weeping_crocodile,— the huge elephant (which the an * Linques istas nuces;" that is, "Give up childish trifling." distinction between beauty and its opposite, Goethe knew, perhaps, quite as little as most of his seniors; but he had an instinctive and even excessive æsthetic sensibility in regard to objects around him. An ugly face in the room would excite in him a very passion of disgust; nothing would satisfy him but the expulsion of the unfortunate possessor. It is worth remarking, too, that such exercises go far to acquit of pedantry or harshness, the father who could so considerately foster youthful genius, by allowing it to develop itself in its own peculiar direction. * Viehoff's "Life of Goethe." 66 Goethe belonged to a numerous ment is sure to afford to the younger family, but all died in early childhood branches of the family. except Wolfgang and his sister Cornelia. The earthquake at Lisbon in 1755, He remembered a brother, three years though Wolfgang was only six years old younger than himself, " of delicate con- at the time, had given a terrible shock stitution and reserved disposition," and to his youthful trust in Providence. a fairy girl, "who also soon vanished." Indeed he scarcely recovered it for years We are told much of Cornelia's plain- after. A writer already quoted, thinks ness of person and vigour of mind. She never. Small-pox had diminished the seems at any rate to have entered cherubic beauty of his infancy; and, heartily into all the literary occupations with other maladies of childhood, had of her brother's boyhood, and they turned his thoughts within. Ever since shared the occasionally severe labours the days when Cox and his fellow-Proimposed by their father. The feeding of testant exiles in Frankfort began the a host of silk worms, and the bleaching great battle between Puritanism and of those Italian prints, seem to have Episcopacy, which was afterwards transbeen intolerable grievances. ferred to England, that city had been Klopstock's Messias" was at that the scene of warm religious controversy. time "the rage" in Germany. The elder" Pietism" had contended against the Goethe would not tolerate it, because it colder orthodoxy of the time, and was blank verse. Nevertheless, Rath Goethe's mother inclined in that direcSchneider, a friend of the family, con- tion. From such a mind, serious retrived to smuggle it into the house, for flections of any kind were not likely to the benefit of the Frau and her children. be absent; and her son became intent The latter were especially delighted with on theological enquiries. The spirit of the infernal dialogues, which form a religious separatism around him wrought striking portion of the poem. These upon his singular temperament in a they learned by heart, and recited them truly peculiar manner. His mother's diligently with due division of the parts; friends rejoiced in an ecclesiastical inbut generally with the profoundest cau- dependence; and the youthful theotion. At one of these rehearsals, a most im-logian was so determined to better the portant domestic ceremony was proceed-example, that he presumed to found a ing; none other than their father's Satur- doctrine and ritual of his own. Burnt day night shave. The children were behind sacrifices seemed to the child to promise the stove, muttering "hellish mysteries" a more direct approach to the Supreme as usual. Cornelia, who sustained the Being than any other form of worship. part of Adramelech, had been gradually A red-lacquered quartett-stand, shaped increasing the vehemence of elocution, with the heightening fury of an invective against Satan; till, at the dolorous interjection, "Oh! how am I crushed! her voice rose considerably above a whisper. The thunderstruck barberwho was fortunately wielding no more dangerous implements than the shavingbrush and soap-bowl-bestowed the contents of the latter pretty liberally on the good father's person. Klopstock was once more prohibited, and this time, it should seem, to better purpose. like a pyramid, presented a most appropriate altar. This the young hiereus adorned with such natural curiosities as were within his reach, by way of symbolical offerings. Pastilles lighted by the sun's rays through a burning-glass, sent up fragrant incense from the summit, and for some days the solemnity was repeated without harm. But, on one unfortunate occasion, the intervening saucer was missing, the pastilles burned into the polished surface of the lectern, and the youth was fain to lay aside his novel cultus, not without serious misgivings as to its spiritual worth. Changes at home and catastrophes abroad had wrought joyfully and painfully on the growing mind of the youth. The old house had been renovated, from A new and strange life had opened. the top story downwards, to evade civic The seven years' war brought the restrictions; and the young Goethes had miseries of a campaign into the city, been delighted to find themselves roost- and even into the house itself. ing, like birds, on props rising from the French, as allies of Austria, occupied ground floor; to say nothing of rides on Frankfort, and the king's lieutenant, loose boards, and the other infinite di- Count Thorane, was billetted on Goethe's versions which a domestic bouleverse-father. As the latter was a vehement The partisan of the Great Frederick, such à quartering was highly distasteful, and many unpleasant rencontres fol lowed, though the Count made himself as agreeable as it is possible for such an intruder to be. At first the new order of things in the city occasioned the stricter retention of the children within bounds. The puppetshow was once more produced to supply the lack of out-door amusement, but the wooden performers soon made way for living actors. Wolfgang arranged the pieces and furnished the green-room for his playmates, little dreaming, perhaps, how much of his future life would be occupied with similar duties. his elders disapproved his early passion for the stage, they were in some measure appeased by his linguistic progress; and his attention to the language was of value in forming his style. The clearest and most brilliant language in Europe helped to produce that sparkling lucidity through which Goethe excels-far excels-all other German prose writers. Enthusiasm for Gallic studies passed away towards the close of his abode at Strasburg, but not until it had performed an invaluable office. It was during this vacation period that painting first engaged much of his attention. The Count was a zealous patron of living talent. Young Goethe was well content to perform some of the menial offices in the æsthetic temple which had been established in the Hirsch-Graben; and the painters saw something of the future connoisseur in the lively boy who brought their coffee, and made pert remarks upon their per formances. But the long-protracted stay of the Count almost broke the spirit of his unwilling entertainer; the studies of the children were less strictly regulated, and freedom was allowed to Wolfgang-it would seem to range at will. He had improved his acquaintance with French by sundry conversations with sentinels and servants; but the greatest inducement The dramatic work just mentioned to the study was the French theatre. A was by no means a first effort of invenlad belonging to the company, whom tion. Wolfgang had long been distinhe calls Derones, a youth possessed of guished as the bard and fabulist of a a large share of that precocious assur- little circle of admirers. Like Sir Walter ance which is not uncommon in such a Scott, his creations began in boyhood; condition, became his intimate friend. and like Hartley Coleridge, when pubAs one of the initiated, young Derones lishing a fresh budget of news from was not slow to give instruction in the Ejuxria, he gained a quasi belief in mysteries of the histrionic art; talked their reality. Goethe boldly laid the even of Aristotle and the Unities, (if scene of some of his fictions in his native Goethe's memory has not played him city; and, as he himself was their hero, false), and ventured to criticise and me- they lost nothing of the vivacity of tamorphose most unmercifully the first actual experiences. Frankfort abounded dramatic performance of his parvenu more than most old towns in mysterious friend. This essay was in the French passages, high walls, and masses of pastoral style; but all that was remem- antique architecture; but Goethe taxed bered of it in late years was, that "the the belief of his juvenile public to the scene was laid in the country, and that full; and well-known localities were there was no lack of Princesses, Princes, forced, like the fairy tent, to expand and and Gods," among whom Mercury played collapse at his will. "The New Paris" a most important part. The caduceus is a memorable relic of these early roand golden pinions of this latter di-mances. It is luxuriantly rich in fancy vinity made so deep an impression on and invention. Every word adds a the boy's fancy, that he deemed himself brilliant colour, and every paragraph is favoured with an actual Epiphany. In- a graceful picture. As recorded in the deed, connecting this with the above-"Wahrheit und Dichtung," it is doubtmentioned oblations, we may judge him to have been at this time a very tolerable little Pagan. less an amended version; redundancies are filed away and beauties are heightened. But the groundwork is childlike; Performances at the theatre, and the ever excepting the strange precocity critical decisions of his friend were, which presents the passions and reflec however, not the sole channels of Goethe's tions of later years among the lightacquaintance with the French drama. hearted sallies of very early youth. As in Corneille, Racine, and Moliere were all Goethe's works, we are in a region of read at home, and with zest. Though pure poetry; no trace of childish vul garity or limitation can be found, even in what is manifestly the genuine basis of the tale. Poems, too, had been written in competition with juvenile companions; and, to Wolfgang's astonishment, each and every one of the competitors deemed his own production the best. Elders were referred to, and they decided in his favour. Overwhelmed by an unheard-of multiplicity of studies, he endeavoured to lighten the load by calling in the aid of fiction. Seven different languages (including "Jew-German") were in hand at once. Such a philological constellation, like the Pleiades to the naked eye, must, one would think, have been hopelessly bewildering; and the pupil was not content till he had given them distinctness by impersonation. Instead of the ordinary jog-trot of exercises, whose object-fair enough in its way—is to isolate speech from sense, and to refine upon the abstractions of grammar, nothing would satisfy the youthful realist but a rehabilitation de la chair, a restoration to actual, sentient life. A correspondence between seven members of a family, each writing a different language or dialect, was his self-chosen discipline: e. g. The collegian of the house writes Latin and quotes Greek; a second brother makes his debut in the musical world, and by way of cultivating his ear indites Italian; business men in Marseilles and Hamburgh transact business inFrench and English respectively; while we may fairly presume that the ingenuity of the matter surpassed the elegance of the style. Our curiosity would be much gratified by the file of the Hamburgh correspondence, but among much that is preserved of Goethe's early essays, this seems to be lost. To perfect his "Jew-German," and for more substantial reasons, the boy must needs learn Hebrew. Theology and poetry united gave him a deep interest in the narrations of the Pentateuch; and here again he was not content with a merely receptive attitude. It was his nature to create. Whatever is thrown into the seething waters of his imagination, whether stiff, rigid, and alien to art, or vital and glowing with a beauty of its own,-grammars and lexicons, or the living forms and scenes of Hebrew poetry,— there is "Nothing of it that doth fade, more "Joseph," a prose-epic, was an under taking of this period, which does not seem to have come to anything important. Another attempt was permanently productive. A poem on "The Descent into Hell," is dated 1766, and was published in a Frankfort magazine. Those who list may read it in the collection of his works, and will find Klopstock's vein distinctly traceable. Fräulein von Klettenberg, a religious lady of his mother's acquaintance, urged him to this and similar labours. Like the Wizard of the North, Goethe was destined by his father to be given over, bound hand and foot, to the intolerant rival of literature — Jurisprudence. But this is by no means the first time that Themis has had reason to complain that her noblest vassals have been seduced from their allegiance by the Muses; and though the subject of our sketch learned as much law as a poet can in anywise be expected to know and rather more his name must be added to the list of revolters. A popular epitome of law he had, indeed, at his fingers' ends; so that while he early formed the resolve not to be buried alive among parchments, red tape, and drab leather folios, his father had not very much reason for complaint. In such a capacious mind-if the profanity may be pardoned there was a corner for law. All these things seemed to come to him-as the German phrases it—" flying." Dancing, which his father taught him, fencing, and music, were not forgotten. The last was not a very successful study. Strange to tell, throughout life Goethe professed a deficiency of taste in respect of music, though certainly not of love for it. It is hardly given to any man to behold the glory of the One Good and Fair through every possible medium; or, at least, so to behold it as to be able to give a clear revelation of it to others. Of that more comprehensive Music-μovoký, as Plato understands it- that divine harmony without whose presence life is but a succession of stupid or violent discords- none was ever a more potent master. Through the vast diapason of that celestial instrument of which all others are but imitations, he has touched every string; from the thin brief treble for which the heart of childhood might be frame and setting wide enough, down to the deep sonorous chords that span and thrill the universe, school. application of the rule in this case is doubtful. A most important civic and national transaction took place at this time; the coronation of the emperor, Joseph II. Wolfgang's father obliged him to write Gervinus and others regret that, in his early development, Goethe seldom or never mingled freely with his equals in age; and that hence he was debarred from the opportunity of cultivating sympathy with the masses. Yet it is certain that no inconsiderable a full and accurate record of the events amount of youthful radicalism breathes of each day; and a more rhetorical and through his earlier works-as in "Götz" genial description of the same was given and "Werther." Still Goethe may him- to Gretchen afterwards. Excitement and self have regretted that a part of his pleasure were at their height. But a education - of that moral" flaying," terrible catastrophe was impending. which he regards as indispensable to Goethe's friends, Margaret included, an effective training- should have been were accused of high crimes and misdepostponed till a later period, on account meanours - impositions and forgery. of his not having to "rough it" among Poor Wolfgang himself was suspected; the democratic asperities of a public and though, in any case, he might probably have been shielded, the danger of Hitherto old men and children had his companions, and especially of his ladyformed the bulk of endurable com- love, left him in torturous suspense. He panions. His occasional school-fellows gave himself up to the unaffected viohad, for the most part (not without re-lence of the most tragical despair; and quital), kicked, pinched, and cuffed it was not till he learned that all the him beyond endurance. But as boyhood innocent were safe, that he was in any advanced, his circle of acquaintance degree pacified. Fortunately-but not enlarged. His rhyming faculty intro- to his thinking at the time-this assurduced him to a society of young people ance was accompanied by a piece of of inferior rank and indifferent character, information far from gratifying to his who constituted among themselves a self-esteem. The fair lady had conkind of juvenile free-masonry. Their ducted herself admirably during the mysteries and mystifications were un-judicial examination, and her evidence happily not confined to the masonic quite exculpated her adorer; but she lodge, and the neophyte was induced to aid in hoaxing" their victims, and in replenishing their treasury. But the charm of mystery and the evening banquets of the initiated would scarcely have been sufficient to detain him among them, had not a more powerful enchantment been present. A coy maiden, the sister of Derones, had formerly attracted a kind of reverential affection; but Margaret-known as "the beautiful Gretchen," (so Bettine tells us,)- -was the object of his first, we might say, his only, entire devotion. She inspired his pen in the service of the fraternity; in her presence he was eloquent; and for her sake he tolerated the less pleasant contingencies of his new acquaintanceship. Emerson tells us that 66 "Tis written on the iron leaf, Who drinks of Cupid's nectar cup Some might add this one true love of had stated in her declaration the unpleasant truth, that she had always looked upon him as a child, and treated him accordingly; warned him against engaging in practical jokes, and given him the best of counsel; in short, watched over him like a mother. He had, in fact, experienced the tenderness of a guardian angel-not of a chere amie. The sentimental thermometer cooled down to zero rapidly; the despairing Corydon washed, dressed, and behaved himself; and a cure of love was effected, such as neither Ovid, nor Avicenna, nor Burton of "Melancholy" fame ever imagined or recorded. This adventure, like most others, passed into the alembic of poetry some time afterwards, and re-appeared in the form of a comedy-"Die Mitschuldigen "—"The Accomplices." Frankfort now became intolerable. The youth had been dragged into unpleasant publicity; he fancied that suspicion dogged him in the streets; and the charm of love had vanished from its disenchanted precincts. We hear of little else but stoicism and Epictetusmoody wanderings in woods and fields, |