No More Learning

Nobody else will lie beside me! -
Ah, within thine arms to hide me,
That was a sweet and a gracious bliss,
But no more, no more can I attain it!
I would force myself on thee and constrain it,
And it seems thou repellest my kiss:
And yet 'tis thou, so good, so kind to see!
FAUST
If thou feelest it is I, then come with me!
MARGARET
-
Out yonder?


## p. 6411 (#393) ###########################################

GOETHE
6411
FAUST
To freedom.
MARGARET
If the grave is there,
Death lying in wait, then come!
From here to eternal rest:
No further step-no, no!
Thou goest away! O Henry, if I could go!
FAUST
Thou canst! Just will it! Open stands the door.
MARGARET
I dare not go: there's no hope any more.
Why should I fly? They'll still my steps waylay!
It is so wretched, forced to beg my living,
And a bad conscience sharper misery giving!
It is so wretched, to be strange, forsaken,
And I'd still be followed and taken!
FAUST
I'll stay with thee.
MARGARET
Be quick! Be quick!
Save thy perishing child!
Away! Follow the ridge
Up by the brook,
Over the bridge,
Into the wood,
To the left, where the plank is placed
In the pool!
Seize it in haste!
'Tis trying to rise,
'Tis struggling still!
Save it! Save it!
FAUST
Recall thy wandering will!
One step, and thou art free at last!
MARGARET
If the mountain we had only passed!
There sits my mother upon a stone,-


## p. 6412 (#394) ###########################################

6412
GOETHE
I feel an icy shiver!
There sits my mother upon a stone,
And her head is wagging ever.
She beckons, she nods not, her heavy head falls o'er;
She slept so long that she wakes no more.
She slept, while we were caressing:
Ah, those were the days of blessing!
FAUST
Here words and prayers are nothing worth;
I'll venture, then, to bear thee forth.
MARGARET
No-let me go! I'll suffer no force!
Grasp me not so murderously!
I've done, else, all things for the love of thee.
FAUST
The day dawns: Dearest! Dearest!
MARGARET
Day? Yes, the day comes, -the last day breaks for me!
My wedding day it was to be!
Tell no one thou hast been with Margaret!
Woe for my garland! The chances
Are over 'tis all in vain!
We shall meet once again,
But not at the dances!
The crowd is thronging, no word is spoken:
The square below
And the streets overflow:
The death-bell tolls, the wand is broken.
I am seized, and bound, and delivered -
Shoved to the block-they give the sign!
Now over each neck has quivered
The blade that is quivering ov mine.
Dumb lies the world like the grave!
FAUST
Oh, had I ne'er been born!
MEPHISTOPHELES [appears outside]
Off! or you're lost ere morn.
Useless talking, delaying, and praying!


## p. 6413 (#395) ###########################################

GOETHE
6413
My horses are neighing:
The morning twilight is near.
MARGARET
What rises up from the threshold here?
He! he suffer him not!
What does he want in this holy spot?
He seeks me!
FAUST
Thou shalt live.
She is judged!
MARGARET
Judgment of God! myself to thee I give.
MEPHISTOPHELES [to Faust]
Come! or I'll leave her in the lurch, and thee!
MARGARET
Thine am I, Father! rescue me!
Ye angels, holy cohorts, guard me,
Camp around, and from evil ward me!
Henry! I shudder to think of thee.
MEPHISTOPHELES
VOICE [from above]
She is saved!
MEPHISTOPHELES [to Faust]
Hither to me!
[He disappears with Faust.
VOICE [from within, dying away]
Henry! Henry!


## p. 6414 (#396) ###########################################

6414
GOETHE
THE DEATH OF FAUST
LEMURES
[Digging with mocking gestures]
IN
N YOUTH when I did love, did love,
Methought it was very sweet;
When 'twas jolly and merry every way,
And I blithely moved my feet.
But now old Age, with his stealing steps,
Hath clawed me with his crutch:
I stumbled over the door of a grave;
Why leave they open such?
Overseer!
[Comes forth from the palace, groping his way along the door-posts]
How I rejoice to hear the clattering spade!
It is the crowd, for me in service moiling,
Till Earth be reconciled to toiling,
Till the proud waves be stayed,
And the sea girded with a rigid zone.
FAUST
MEPHISTOPHELES [aside]
And yet thou'rt laboring for us alone,
With all thy dikes and bulwarks daring;
Since thou for Neptune art preparing-
The Ocean Devil - carousal great.
In every way shall ye be stranded;
The elements with us are banded,
And ruin is the certain fate.
Here!
FAUST
MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
However possible,
Collect a crowd of men with vigor,
Spur by indulgence, praise, or rigor,-
Reward, allure, conscript, compel!
Each day report me, and correctly note
How grows in length the undertaken moat.


## p. 6415 (#397) ###########################################

GOETHE
6415
MEPHISTOPHELES [half aloud]
When they to me the information gave,
They spake not of a moat, but of-a grave.
FAUST
Below the hills a marshy plain
Infects what I so long have been retrieving;
This stagnant pool likewise to drain
Were now my latest and my best achieving.
To many millions let me furnish soil,
Though not secure, yet free to active toil;
Green, fertile fields, where men and herds go forth
At once, with comfort, on the newest earth,
And swiftly settled on the hill's firm base,
Created by the bold, industrious race.
A land like Paradise here, round about;
Up to the brink the tide may roar without,
And though it gnaw, to burst with force the limit,
By common impulse all unite to hem it.
Yes! to this thought I hold with firm persistence;
The last result of wisdom stamps it true:
He only earns his freedom and existence
Who daily conquers them anew.
Thus here, by dangers girt, shall glide away
Of childhood, manhood, age, the vigorous day:
And such a throng I fain would see,-
Stand on free soil among a people free!
Then dared I hail the Moment fleeing:
"Ah, still delay-thou art so fair! "
The traces cannot, of mine earthly being,
In æons perish,- they are there!
In proud fore-feeling of such lofty bliss,
I now enjoy the highest Moment, - this!
[Faust sinks back: the Lemures take him and lay him upon the ground. ]
—
MEPHISTOPHELES
No joy could sate him, and suffice no bliss!
To catch but shifting shapes was his endeavor:
The latest, poorest, emptiest Moment-this,—
He wished to hold it fast forever.
Me he resisted in such vigorous wise,
But Time is lord, on earth the old man lies.
The clock stands still-


## p. 6416 (#398) ###########################################

6416
GOETHE
'Tis past!
Stands still! silent as midnight, now!
The index falls.
CHORUS
MEPHISTOPHELES
It falls; and it is finished, here!
THE
CHORUS
MEPHISTOPHELES
Past! a stupid word.
If past, then why?
Past and pure Naught, complete monotony!
What good for us, this endlessly creating? —
What is created then annihilating?
"And now it's past! " Why read a page so twisted?
'Tis just the same as if it ne'er existed,
Yet goes in circles round as if it had, however:
I'd rather choose, instead, the Void forever.
THE SALVATION OF FAUST
ANGELS
[Soaring in the higher atmosphere, bearing the immortal part of Faust]
HE noble spirit now is free,
And saved from evil scheming:
Whoe'er aspires unweariedly
Is not beyond redeeming.
And if he feels the grace of love
That from on high is given,
The blessed hosts, that wait above,
Shall welcome him to heaven!
THE YOUNGER ANGELS
They, the roses, freely spended
By the penitent, the glorious,
Helped to make the fight victorious,
And the lofty work is ended.
We this precious soul have won us;
Evil ones we forced to shun us;


## p. 6417 (#399) ###########################################

GOETHE
6417
Devils fled us when we hit them:
'Stead of pangs of hell, that bit them,
Love pangs felt they, sharper, vaster:
Even he, old Satan Master,
Pierced with keenest pain retreated.
Now rejoice! The work's completed!
THE MORE PERFECT ANGELS
Earth's residue to bear
Hath sorely pressed us;
It were not pure and fair,
Though 'twere asbestus.
When every element
The mind's high forces
Have seized, subdued, and blent,
No angel divorces
Twin natures single grown,
That inly mate them:
Eternal love alone
Can separate them.
THE YOUNGER ANGELS
Mist-like on heights above,
We now are seeing
Nearer and nearer move
Spiritual Being.
The clouds are growing clear;
And moving throngs appear
Of blessed boys,
Free from the earthly gloom,
In circling poise,
Who taste the cheer
Of the new springtime bloom
Of the upper sphere.
Let them inaugurate
Him to the perfect state,
Now, as their peer!
THE BLESSED BOYS
Gladly receive we now
Him, as a chrysalis:
Therefore achieve we now
Pledge of our bliss.
XI-402


## p. 6418 (#400) ###########################################

6418
GOETHE
The earth-flakes dissipate
That cling around him!
See, he is fair and great!
Divine Life hath crowned him.
DOCTOR MARIANUS
[In the highest, purest cell]
Free is the view at last,
The spirit lifted:
There women, floating past,
Are upward drifted:
The Glorious One therein,
With star-crown tender,-
The pure, the Heavenly Queen,
I know her splendor.
[Enraptured]
Highest Mistress of the World!
Let me in the azure
Tent of Heaven, in light unfurled,
Here thy Mystery measure!
Justify sweet thoughts that move
Breast of man to meet thee,
And with holy bliss of love
Bear him up to greet thee!
With unconquered courage we
Do thy bidding highest;
But at once shall gentle be,
When thou pacifiest.
Virgin, pure in brightest sheen,
Mother sweet, supernal,-
Unto us Elected Queen,
-
Peer of Gods Eternal!
Light clouds are circling
Around her splendor,-
Penitent women
Of natures tender,
Her knees embracing,
Ether respiring,
Mercy requiring!
Thou, in immaculate ray,
Mercy not leavest,
And the lightly led astray,
Who trust thee, receivest!


## p. 6419 (#401) ###########################################

GOETHE
6419
In their weakness fallen at length,
Hard it is to save them:
Who can crush, by native strength,
Vices that enslave them?
Whose the foot that may not slip
On the surface slanting?
Whom befool not eye and lip,
Breath and voice enchanting?
The Mater Gloriosa soars into the space
CHORUS OF WOMEN PENITENTS
To heights thou'rt speeding
Of endless Eden:
Receive our pleading,
Transcendent Maiden,
With mercy laden!
MAGNA PECCATRIX [St. Luke, vii. 36]
By the love before him kneeling,—
Him, thy Son, a Godlike vision;
By the tears like balsam stealing,
Spite of Pharisees' derision;
By the box, whose ointment precious
Shed its spice and odors cheery;
By the locks, whose softest meshes
Dried the holy feet and weary! -
MULIER SAMARITANA [St. John, iv. ]
By that well, the ancient station
Whither Abram's flocks were driven;
By the jar, whose restoration
To the Savior's lips was given;
By the fountain pure and vernal,
Thence its present bounty spending,-
Overflowing, bright, eternal,
Watering the worlds unending! -
MARIA ÆGYPTIACA [Acta Sanctorum]
By the place where the immortal
Body of the Lord hath lain;
By the arm which, from the portal,
Warning, thrust me back again;
By the forty years' repentance
In the lonely desert land;
—


## p. 6420 (#402) ###########################################

6420
GOETHE
By the blissful farewell sentence
Which I wrote upon the sand!
THE THREE
Thou thy presence not deniest
Unto sinful women ever,—
Liftest them to win the highest
Gain of penitent endeavor,—
So, from this good soul withdraw not-
Who but once forgot, transgressing,
Who her loving error saw not-
Pardon adequate, and blessing!
UNA POENITENTIUM
[Formerly named Margaret, stealing closer]
Incline, O Maiden,
With mercy laden,
In light unfading,
-
Thy gracious countenance upon my bliss!
My loved, my lover,
His trials over
In yonder world, returns to me in this!
BLESSED BOYS
[Approaching in hovering circles]
With mighty limbs he towers
Already above us;
He, for this love of ours,
Will richlier love us.
Early were we removed,
Ere Life could reach us;
Yet he hath learned and proved,
And he will teach us.
THE PENITENT
[Formerly named Margaret]
The spirit choir around him seeing,
New to himself, he scarce divines
His heritage of new-born Being,
When like the Holy Host he shines.
Behold, how he each band hath cloven
The earthly life had round him thrown,


## p. 6421 (#403) ###########################################


GOETHE
6421
And through his garb, of ether woven,
The early force of youth is shown!
Vouchsafe to me that I instruct him!
Still dazzles him the Day's new glare.
MATER GLORIOSA
Rise thou to higher spheres! Conduct him,
Who, feeling thee, shall follow there!
DOCTOR MARIANUS
[Prostrate, adoring]
Penitents, look up, elate,
Where she beams salvation;
Gratefully to blessed fate
Grow, in re-creation!
Be our souls, as they have been,
Dedicate to thee!
Virgin Holy, Mother, Queen,
Goddess, gracious be!
CHORUS MYSTICUS
All things transitory
But as symbols are sent:
Earth's insufficiency
Here grows to Event:
The Indescribable,
Here it is done:
The Woman Soul leadeth us
Upward and on!
MIGNON'S LOVE AND LONGING
From Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. Carlyle's Translation
NOTH
OTHING is more touching than the first disclosure of a love
which has been nursed in silence; of a faith grown strong
in secret, and which at last comes forth in the hour of
need and reveals itself to him who formerly has reckoned it of
small account. The bud which had been closed so long and
firmly was now ripe to burst its swathings, and Wilhelm's heart
could never have been readier to welcome the impressions of
affection.



## p. 6422 (#404) ###########################################

6422
GOETHE
She stood before him, and noticed his disquietude. "Master! "
she cried, "if thou art unhappy, what will become of Mignon? "
"Dear little creature," said he, taking her hands, "thou too art
part of my anxieties. I must go hence. " She looked at his eyes,
glistening with restrained tears, and knelt down with vehemence
before him. He kept her hands; she laid her head upon his
knees, and remained quite still. He played with her hair, patted
her, and spoke kindly to her. She continued motionless for a
considerable time. At last he felt a sort of palpitating movement
in her, which began very softly, and then by degrees, with in-
creasing violence, diffused itself over all her frame. "What ails
thee, Mignon? " cried he; "what ails thee? " She raised her lit-
tle head, looked at him, and all at once laid her hand upon her
heart, with the countenance of one repressing the utterance of
pain. He raised her up, and she fell upon his breast; he pressed
her towards him, and kissed her. She replied not by any press-
ure of the hand, by any motion whatever. She held firmly
against her heart; and all at once gave a cry, which was accom-
panied by spasmodic movements of the body. She started up,
and immediately fell down before him, as if broken in every
joint. It was an excruciating moment! "My child!
" cried he,
raising her up and clasping her fast,-"my child, what ails thee?
The palpitations continued, spreading from the heart over all the
lax and powerless limbs; she was merely hanging in his arms.
All at once she again became quite stiff, like one enduring the
sharpest corporeal agony; and soon with a new vehemence all
her frame once more became alive, and she threw herself about
his neck, like a bent spring that is closing; while in her soul, as
it were, a strong rent took place, and at the same moment a
stream of tears flowed from her shut eyes into his bosom. He
held her fast. She wept, and no tongue can express the force
of these tears. Her long hair had loosened, and was hanging
down before her; it seemed as if her whole being was melting
incessantly into a brook of tears. Her rigid limbs were again
become relaxed; her inmost soul was pouring itself forth; in the
wild confusion of the moment, Wilhelm was afraid she would
dissolve in his arms, and leave nothing there for him to grasp.
He held her faster and faster. "My child! " cried he, "my child!
thou art indeed mine, if that word can comfort thee. Thou art
mine! I will keep thee, I will never forsake thee! " Her tears
continued flowing. At last she raised herself; a faint gladness


## p. 6423 (#405) ###########################################

GOETHE
6423
shone upon her face. "My father! " cried she, "thou wilt not
forsake me? Wilt be my father? I am thy child! "
Softly, at this moment, the harp began to sound before the
door; the old man brought his most affecting songs as an even-
ing offering to our friend, who, holding his child ever faster in
his arms, enjoyed the most pure and undescribable felicity.
"KNOW'ST thou the land where citron-apples bloom,
And oranges like gold in leafy gloom,
A gentle wind from deep-blue heaven blows,
The myrtle thick, and high the laurel grows?
Know'st thou it then?
'Tis there! 'Tis there,
O my true loved one, thou with me must go!
"Know'st thou the house, its porch with pillars tall?
The rooms do glitter, glitters bright the hall,
And marble statues stand, and look each one:
What's this, poor child, to thee they've done?
Know'st thou it then?
'Tis there! 'Tis there,
O my protector, thou with me must go!
"Know'st thou the hill, the bridge that hangs on cloud?
The mules in mist grope o'er the torrent loud,
In caves lie coiled the dragon's ancient brood,
The crag leaps down, and over it the flood:
Know'st thou it then?
'Tis there! 'Tis there
Our way runs: O my father, wilt thou go? "
Next morning, on looking for Mignon about the house, Wil-
helm did not find her, but was informed that she had gone out
early with Melina, who had risen betimes to receive the ward-
robe and other apparatus of his theatre.
After the space of some hours, Wilhelm heard the sound of
music before his door. At first he thought it was the harper
come again to visit him; but he soon distinguished the tones of
a cithern, and the voice which began to sing was Mignon's.
Wilhelm opened the door; the child came in, and sang him the
song we have just given above.
The music and general expression of it pleased our friend
extremely, though he could not understand all the words. He


## p. 6424 (#406) ###########################################

6424
GOETHE
made her once more repeat the stanzas, and explain them; he
wrote them down, and translated them into his native language.
But the originality of its turns he could imitate only from afar:
its childlike innocence of expression vanished from it in the pro-
cess of reducing its broken phraseology to uniformity, and com-
bining its disjointed parts. The charm of the tune, moreover,
was entirely incomparable.
She began every verse in a stately and solemn manner, as if
she wished to draw attention towards something wonderful, as if
she had something weighty to communicate. In the third line, her
tones became deeper and gloomier; the "Know'st thou it then? "
was uttered with a show of mystery and eager circumspectness;
in the "'Tis there! 'Tis there! " lay a boundless longing; and her
"With me must go! " she modified at each repetition, so that now
it appeared to entreat and implore, now to impel and persuade.
On finishing her song for the second time, she stood silent for
a moment, looked keenly at Wilhelm, and asked him, "Know'st
thou the land? " "It must mean Italy," said Wilhelm: "where
didst thou get the little song? " "Italy! " said Mignon, with an
earnest air. "If thou go to Italy, take me along with thee; for
I am too cold here. " "Hast thou been there already, little
dear? " said Wilhelm. But the child was silent, and nothing more
could be got out of her.
WILHELM MEISTER'S INTRODUCTION TO SHAKESPEARE
From Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. Carlyle's Translation
“H^
AVE you never," said Jarno, taking him aside, "read one of
Shakespeare's plays? "
"No," replied Wilhelm: "since the time when they be-
came more known in Germany, I have myself grown unacquainted
with the theatre; and I know not whether I should now rejoice
that an old taste and occupation of my youth, has been by
chance renewed. In the mean time, all that I have heard of
these plays has excited little wish to become acquainted with
such extraordinary monsters, which appear to set probability and
dignity alike at defiance. "
"I would advise you," said the other, "to make a trial, not-
withstanding: it can do one no harm to look at what is extraordi-
nary with one's own eyes. I will lend you a volume or two; and


## p. 6425 (#407) ###########################################

GOETHE
6425
you cannot better spend your time than by casting everything
aside, and retiring to the solitude of your old habitation, to look
into the magic lantern of that unknown world. It is sinful of
you to waste your hours in dressing out these apes to look more
human, and teaching dogs to dance. One thing only I require,-
you must not cavil at the form; the rest I can leave to your
own good sense and feeling. "
The horses were standing at the door; and Jarno mounted
with some other cavaliers, to go and hunt. Wilhelm looked after
him with sadness. He would fain have spoken much with this
man who though in a harsh, unfriendly way, gave him new
ideas,-ideas that he had need of.
Oftentimes a man, when approaching some development of his
powers, capacities, and conceptions, gets into a perplexity from
which a prudent friend might easily deliver him. He resembles
a traveler, who, at but a short distance from the inn he is to
rest at, falls into the water: were any one to catch him then
and pull him to the bank, with one good wetting it were over;
whereas, though he struggles out himself, it is often at the side
where he tumbled in, and he has to make a wide and weary cir-
cuit before reaching his appointed object.
Wilhelm now began to have an inkling that things went for-
ward in the world differently from what he had supposed. He
now viewed close at hand the solemn and imposing life of the
great and distinguished, and wondered at the easy dignity which
they contrived to give it. An army on its march, a princely
hero at the head of it, such a multitude of co-operating warriors,
such a multitude of crowding worshipers, exalted his imagination.
In this mood he received the promised books; and ere long, as
may be easily supposed, the stream of that mighty genius laid
hold of him and led him down to a shoreless ocean, where he
soon completely forgot and lost himself.
Wilhelm had scarcely read one or two of Shakespeare's plays,
till their effect on him became so strong that he could go no
further. His whole soul was in commotion. He sought an
opportunity to speak with Jarno; to whom, on meeting with him,
he expressed his boundless gratitude for such delicious entertain-
ment.
"I clearly enough foresaw," said Jarno, "that you would not
remain insensible to the charms of the most extraordinary and
most admirable of all writers. "


## p. 6426 (#408) ###########################################

6426
GOETHE
"Yes! " exclaimed our friend: "I cannot reconect that any
book, any man, any incident of my life, has produced such im-
portant effects on me, as the precious works to which by your
kindness I have been directed. They seem as if they were per-
formances of some celestial genius descending among men, to
make them by the mildest instructions acquainted with them-
selves. They are no fictions! You would think, while reading
them, you stood before the inclosed awful Books of Fate, while
the whirlwind of most impassioned life was howling through the
leaves, and tossing them fiercely to and fro. The strength and
tenderness, the power and peacefulness of this man, have so
astonished and transported me, that I long vehemently for the
time when I shall have it in my power to read further. "
"Bravo! " said Jarno, holding out his hand, and squeezing our
friend's. "This is as it should be! And the consequences which
I hope for will likewise surely follow. "
"I wish," said Wilhelm, "I could but disclose to you all that
is going on within me even now. All the anticipations I have
ever had regarding man and his destiny, which have accompanied
me from youth upwards often unobserved by myself, I find de-
veloped and fulfilled in Shakespeare's writings. It seems as if
he cleared up every one of our enigmas to us, though we cannot
say, Here or there is the word of solution.
His men appear
like natural men, and yet they are not. These, the most myste-
rious and complex productions of creation, here act before us as
if they were watches, whose dial-plates and cases were of crystal,
which pointed out according to their use the course of the hours.
and minutes; while at the same time you could discern the com-
bination of wheels and springs that turn them. The few glances
I have cast over Shakespeare's world incite me, more than any-
thing beside, to quicken my footsteps forward into the actual
world, to mingle in the flood of destinies that is suspended over
it; and at length, if I shall prosper, to draw a few cups from
the great ocean of true nature, and to distribute them from off
the stage among the thirsting people of my native land. "


## p. 6427 (#409) ###########################################

GOETHE
6427
WILHELM MEISTER'S ANALYSIS OF HAMLET
From Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship >
SE
EEING the company so favorably disposed, Wilhelm now hoped
he might further have it in his power to converse with them
on the poetic merit of the pieces which might come before
them. "It is not enough," said he next day, when they were
all again assembled, "for the actor merely to glance over a dra-
matic work, to judge of it by his first impression, and thus with-
out investigation to declare his satisfaction or dissatisfaction with
it. Such things may be allowed in a spectator, whose purpose it
is rather to be entertained and moved than formally to criticize.
But the actor, on the other hand, should be prepared to give a
reason for his praise or censure: and how shall he do this if he
have not taught himself to penetrate the sense, the views, and
feelings of his author? A common error is, to form a judgment
of a drama from a single part in it; and to look upon this part
itself in an isolated point of view, not in its connection with the
whole. I have noticed this within a few days so clearly in my
own conduct, that I will give you the account as an example, if
you please to hear me patiently.
"You all know Shakespeare's incomparable Hamlet': our
public reading of it at the Castle yielded every one of us the
greatest satisfaction. On that occasion we proposed to act the
piece; and I, not knowing what I undertook, engaged to play
the Prince's part. This I conceived that I was studying, while
I began to get by heart the strongest passages, the soliloquies,
and those scenes in which force of soul, vehemence, and elevation
of feeling have the freest scope; where the agitated heart is
allowed to display itself with touching expressiveness.
"I further conceived that I was penetrating quite into the
spirit of the character, while I endeavored as it were to take
upon myself the load of deep melancholy, under which my proto-
type was laboring, and in this humor to pursue him through the
strange labyrinths of his caprices and his singularities. Thus
learning, thus practicing, I doubted not but I should by-and-by
become one person with my hero.
"But the farther I advanced, the more difficult did it become
for me to form any image of the whole, in its general bearings;
till at last it seemed as if impossible. I next went through the
entire piece, without interruption; but here too I found much


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that I could not away with. At one time the characters, at
another time the manner of displaying them, seemed inconsistent;
and I almost despaired of finding any general tint, in which I
might present my whole part with all its shadings and varia-
tions. In such devious paths I toiled, and wandered long in
vain; till at length a hope arose that I might reach my aim in
quite a new way.
"I set about investigating every trace of Hamlet's character,
as it had shown itself before his father's death: I endeavored to
distinguish what in it was independent of this mournful event;
independent of the terrible events that followed; and what most
probably the young man would have been, had no such thing.
occurred.
"Soft, and from a noble stem, this royal flower had sprung
up under the immediate influences of majesty; the idea of moral
rectitude with that of princely elevation, the feeling of the good
and dignified with the consciousness of high birth, had in him
been unfolded simultaneously. He was a prince, by birth a
prince; and he wished to reign, only that good men might be
good without obstruction. Pleasing in form, polished by nature,
courteous from the heart, he was meant to be the pattern of
youth and the joy of the world.
"Without any prominent passion, his love for Ophelia was a
still presentiment of sweet wants. His zeal in knightly accom-
plishments was not entirely his own; it needed to be quickened
and inflamed by praise bestowed on others for excelling in them.
Pure in sentiment, he knew the honorable-minded, and could
prize the rest which an upright spirit tastes on the bosom of a'
friend. To a certain degree, he had learned to discern and value
the good and the beautiful in arts and sciences; the mean, the
vulgar was offensive to him: and if hatred could take root in his
tender soul, it was only so far as to make him properly despise
the false and changeful insects of a court, and play with them.
in easy scorn. He was calm in his temper, artless in his con-
duct, neither pleased with idleness nor too violently eager for
employment. The routine of a university he seemed to continue
when at court. He possessed more mirth of humor than of
heart; he was a good companion, pliant, courteous, discreet, and
able to forget and forgive an injury, yet never able to unite
himself with those who overstept the limits of the right, the
good, and the becoming.


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6429
"When we read the piece again, you shall judge whether I
am yet on the proper track. I hope at least to bring forward
passages that shall support my opinion in its main points. "
This delineation was received with warm approval; the com-
pany imagined they foresaw that Hamlet's manner of proceeding
might now be very satisfactorily explained; they applauded this
method of penetrating into the spirit of a writer. Each of them
proposed to himself to take up some piece, and study it on these
principles, and so unfold the author's meaning.
Loving Shakespeare as our friend did, he failed not to lead
round the conversation to the merits of that dramatist. Ex-
pressing, as he entertained, the liveliest hopes of the new epoch
which these exquisite productions must form in Germany, he ere
long introduced his 'Hamlet,' who had busied him so much of
late.
Serlo declared that he would long ago have played the piece,
had this been possible, and that he himself would willingly en-
gage to act Polonius. He added with a smile, "An Ophelia too
will certainly turn up, if we had but a Prince. »
Wilhelm did not notice that Aurelia seemed a little hurt at
her brother's sarcasm. Our friend was in his proper vein, be-
coming copious and didactic, expounding how he would have
'Hamlet' played. He circumstantially delivered to his hearers
the opinions we before saw him busied with; taking all the
trouble possible to make his notion of the matter acceptable,
skeptical as Serlo showed himself regarding it. "Well then," said
the latter finally, "suppose we grant you all this, what will you
explain by it? "
"Much, everything," said Wilhelm. "Conceive a prince such
as I have painted him, and that his father suddenly dies. Ambi-
tion and the love of rule are not the passions that inspire him.
As a king's son, he would have been contented; but now he is
first constrained to consider the difference which separates a sov-
ereign from a subject. The crown was not hereditary; yet a
longer possession of it by his father would have strengthened the
pretensions of an only son, and secured his hopes of the succes-
sion. In place of this, he now beholds himself excluded by his
uncle, in spite of specious promises, most probably forever. He
is now poor in goods and favor, and a stranger in the scene
which from youth he had looked upon as his inheritance. His
temper here assumes its first mournful tinge. He feels that now


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GOETHE
he is not more, that he is less, than a private nobleman; he
offers himself as the servant of every one; he is not courteous
and condescending, he is needy and degraded.
"His past condition he remembers as a vanished dream. It
is in vain that his uncle strives to cheer him, to present his sit-
uation in another point of view. The feeling of his nothingness
will not leave him.
"The second stroke that came upon him wounded deeper,
bowed still more. It was the marriage of his mother. The
faithful tender son had yet a mother, when his father passed
away. He hoped in the company of his surviving, noble-minded
parent, to reverence the heroic form of the departed; but his
mother too he loses, and it is something worse than death that
robs him of her. The trustful image which a good child loves
to form of its parents is gone. With the dead there is no help;
on the living no hold. She also is a woman, and her name is
Frailty, like that of all her sex.
"Now first does he feel himself completely bent and orphaned;
and no happiness of life can repay what he has lost. Not reflect-
ive or sorrowful by nature, reflection and sorrow have become
for him a heavy obligation. It is thus that we see him first enter
on the scene. I do not think that I have mixed aught foreign
with the piece, or overcharged a single feature of it. "
Serlo looked at his sister and said, "Did I give thee a false
picture of our friend? He begins well; he has still many things
to tell us, many to persuade us of. " Wilhelm asseverated loudly
that he meant not to persuade but to convince; he begged for
another moment's patience.
"Figure to yourselves this youth," cried he, "this son of
princes; conceive him vividly, bring his state before your eyes,
and then observe him when he learns that his father's spirit
walks; stand by him in the terrors of the night, when the ven-
erable ghost itself appears before him. A horrid shudder passes
over him; he speaks to the mysterious form; he sees it beckon
him; he follows it, and hears. The fearful accusation of his
uncle rings in his ears; the summons to revenge, and the pier-
cing oft-repeated prayer, Remember me!
"And when the ghost has vanished, who is it that stands be-
fore us? A young hero panting for vengeance? A prince by
birth, rejoicing to be called to punish the usurper of his crown?
No! trouble and astonishment take hold of the solitary young


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6431
man; he grows bitter against smiling villains, swears that he will
not forget the spirit, and concludes with the significant ejacula-
tion:
«The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right! '
"In these words, I imagine, will be found the key to Hamlet's
whole procedure. To me it is clear that Shakespeare meant, in
the present case, to represent the effects of a great action laid
upon a soul unfit for the performance of it. In this view the
whole piece seems to me to be composed. There is an oak-tree
planted in a costly jar, which should have borne only pleasant
flowers in its bosom; the roots expand, the jar is shivered.
"A lovely, pure, noble, and most moral nature, without the
strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burden
which it cannot bear and must not cast away. All duties are
holy for him; the present is too hard. Impossibilities have been
required of him, not in themselves impossibilities, but such for
him. He winds, and turns, and torments himself; he advances
and recoils; is ever put in mind, ever puts himself in mind; at
last does all but lose his purpose from his thoughts; yet still
without recovering his peace of mind. "
Aurelia seemed to give but little heed to what was passing;
at last she conducted Wilhelm to another room, and going to the
window, and looking out at the starry sky she said to him, “You
have still much to tell us about Hamlet; I will not hurry you;
my brother must hear it as well as I; but let me beg to know
your thoughts about Ophelia. "
>>>>
"Of her there cannot much be said," he answered; "for a few
master strokes complete her character. The whole being of
Ophelia floats in sweet and ripe sensation. Kindness for the
Prince, to whose hand she may aspire, flows so spontaneously,
her tender heart obeys its impulses so unresistingly, that both
father and brother are afraid; both give her warning harshly and
directly. Decorum, like the thin lawn upon her bosom, cannot
hide the soft, still movements of her heart; it on the contrary
betrays them. Her fancy is smit; her silent modesty breathes
amiable desire; and if the friendly goddess Opportunity should
shake the tree, its fruit would fall. "
"And then," said Aurelia, "when she beholds herself forsaken,
cast away, despised; when all is inverted in the soul of her crazed


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lover, and the highest changes to the lowest, and instead of the
sweet cup of love he offers her the bitter cup of woe - ”
"Her heart breaks," cried Wilhelm; "the whole structure of
her being is loosened from its joinings; her father's death strikes
fiercely against it; and the fair edifice altogether crumbles into
fragments. "
Serlo, at this moment entering, inquired about his sister; and
looking in the book which our friend had hold of, cried, "So
you are again at 'Hamlet'? Very good! Many doubts have
arisen in me, which seem not a little to impair the canonical
aspect of the piece as you would have it viewed. The English
themselves have admitted that its chief interest concludes with
the third act; the last two lagging sorrily on, and scarcely unit-
ing with the rest: and certainly about the end it seems to stand
stock still. "
"It is very possible," said Wilhelm, "that some individuals of
a nation which has so many masterpieces to feel proud of, may
be led by prejudice and narrowness of mind to form false judg
ments; but this cannot hinder us from looking with our own
eyes, and doing justice where we see it due. I am very far
from censuring the plan of 'Hamlet': on the other hand, I be-
lieve there never was a grander one invented; nay, it is not
invented, it is real. "
"How do you demonstrate that? " inquired Serlo.
"I will not demonstrate anything," said Wilhelm; "I will
merely show you what my own conceptions of it are.