BOOK THE FOURTH. THE GENIALISCH-PERIOD IN WEIMAR. 1775 to 1779. 'Quis novus hic nostris successit sedibus hospes ? Quem sese ore ferens! quam forti pectore et armis ! Credo equidem, nec vana fides, genus esse Deorum.' Virgil. Tolle Zeiten hab' ich erlebt und hab' nicht ermangelt, Selbst auch thöricht zu sein wie es die Zeit mir gebot.' 27* BOOK THE FOURTH. CHAPTER I. WEIMAR IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. On the 7th of November, 1775, Goethe, aged twentysix, arrived at the little city on the banks of the Ilm, where his long residence was to confer on an insignificant Duchy the immortal renown of a German Athens. Small indeed is the space occupied on the map by the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar; yet the historian of the German Courts declares, and truly, that after Berlin there is no Court of which the nation is so proud.* Frederick the Great and Wolfgang Goethe have raised these Courts into centres of undying interest. Of Weimar it is necessary we should form a distinct idea, if we would understand the outward life of the poet. Klein ist unter den Fürsten Germaniens freilich der meine, 'Small among German princes is mine, poor and narrow his kingdom, limited his power of doing good.' Thus * Vehse: Geschichte der Deutschen Höfe seit der Reformation, vol. xxviii. p. 3. sings Goethe in that poem, so honorable to both, wherein he acknowledges his debt to Karl August. The geographical importance of Weimar was, and is, small; but we in England have proud reason to know how great a place in the world can be filled by a nation whose place is trivial on the map. We know, moreover, that the Athens, which it is the pride of Weimar to claim as a patronymic, was but a dot upon the surface of Europe, a dot of earth, feeding some twenty thousand freemen, who not only extended the empire of their arms from Eubœa to the Thracian Bosphorus, but who left their glories in Literature, Philosophy and Art, as marvels and as models for the civilized world. It is interesting therefore to know how small this Duchy of Saxe-Weimar was, that we may appreciate the influence exercised by means so circumscribed. We must know how absurdly scant the income of its generous prince, who, as I am credibly informed, would occasionally supply the deficiencies of his purse by the princely unprinceliness of selling to the Jews a diamond ring, or ancestral snuff-box, that he might hand the proceeds to some struggling artist or poet. I mention this lest it should be supposed that a sarcastic spirit has dictated the enumeration of unimposing details, in the following attempt to reconstruct some image of Weimar and its Court. Weimar is an ancient city on the Ilm, a small stream rising in the Thuringian forests, and losing itself in the Saal, at Jena; a stream on which the sole navigation seems to be that of ducks, and which meanders peacefully through pleasant valleys, except during the rainy season, when mountain torrents swell its current and overflow its banks. The Trent, between Trentham and Stafford 'the smug and silver Trent' as Shakespeare calls it will give you an idea of this stream. The town is charmingly placed in the Ilm valley, and stands some eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. • Weimar,' says the old topographer, Mathew Merian, is Weinmar, because it was the wine-market for Jena and its environs. Others say it was because some one here in ancient days began to plant the vine, who was hence called Weinmayer. But of this each reader may believe just what he pleases.' * On a first acquaintance, Weimar seems more like a village bordering a park, than a capital with a Court, and having all courtly environments. It is so quiet, so simple; and although ancient in its architecture, has none of the picturesqueness which delights the eye in most old German cities. The stone-colored, light brown, and apple-green houses have high peaked slanting roofs, but no quaint gables, no caprices of architectural fancy, none of the mingling of varied styles which elsewhere charm the traveller. One learns to love its quiet simple streets and pleasant paths, fit theatre for the simple actors moving across the scene: but one must live there some time to discover its charm. The aspect it presented when Goethe arrived was of course very different from that presented now; but by diligent inquiry we may get some rough image of the place restored. First be it noted that the city walls were still erect; gates and portcullis still spoke of days of warfare. Within these walls were six or seven hundred houses, not more; most of them very ancient. Under these roofs were about seven thousand inhabitants - for the most part not handsome. The city gates were strictly guarded. No one could pass through them in cart or carriage without leaving his name in the sentinel's book: even Goethe, minister and favorite, could not escape this * Topographia Superioris Saxonia Thuringia, etc., 1650, p. 188. |