Chapter XV: Appendix: I. On the Selection and Translation of the Essays in this Volume

This book was first suggested to me in 1909, and was virtually completed seven or eight years ago; but the manuscript was mislaid among some old papers, and when it was recovered the European War was at its height. Never again, it then seemed, could I regard my work with the same disinterested temper in which it was begun, for what was recovered was no longer a manuscript but a ghost, no longer a book but a strange spirit returned from an all too irrecoverable past. When I re-read these words from the lips of one who had spent his life “with spirits god-like mild,” and related them to our new and altered world, I understood once more how man forever fashions history to his own meaning, and how it has no life except such as is given to it by his creative mind. Every word I now read assumed a new and heightened significance, a more intimate relation with life; and every word was a call to sympathy and understanding,--the word of a man who had withheld all hate from enemy France, had praised England and its literature, had analyzed the defects of his own countrymen, and had made constant denial of the compatibility of poetry and partisanship. How could I approach work of this kind in the spirit of the fiery national partisan, not to mention that of the mere dryasdust scholar, when every word Goethe uttered shed light and meaning on the warm life about me, and every accent of his voice taught a high forebearance? So when on sick-leave from my regiment at the very end of 1917, to while away the tediousness of convalescence, I played once more with the work begun in the old days when I was still able to live in “the wise man’s only country, Life”; and before I sailed for France, leaving behind me the manuscript as it here stands, I determined that if it were ever published, I should add nothing in the form of preface, introduction, or critical apparatus, but allow Goethe to speak for himself to such hearts as could hear and understand him. Some readers may find a key to that understanding if they begin with the famous passage on “Poetry and Patriotism” on page 251.

No adequate estimate of Goethe’s critical work has yet been achieved; and the sensible but unilluminating chapter on this subject in the late Calvin Thomas’s _Goethe_ is not much more disappointing than the more extended studies in German of Oskar Walzel and Wilhelm Bode. For a complete estimate of Goethe as a critic we should have to ransack all his essays and reviews, his novels and poems, his autobiography and his journals, his letters and conversations, for in all of them he has scattered judgments on books and thoughts on the theory of art. It would almost seem as if his reputation as a critic rests more securely on these casual utterances than on his formal essays and studies. There more than elsewhere Sainte-Beuve and Matthew Arnold recognized “the supreme critic”; there above all we find that mellow wisdom which we have come to associate with Goethe’s name.

In this little volume, however, we have most of Goethe’s successive moods represented by some characteristic utterance,--the young reviewer, the lover of Shakespeare and Gothic art, rebelling against schools and rules but most of all against dullness and formality; the contributor to Wieland’s _German Mercury_, the collaborator of Schiller in the _Horen_ and in an exchange of letters of incomparable interest, after the life of Weimar and the journey to Italy had mellowed his talents; the student of art and æsthetics in the _Propyläen_, championing the antique spirit and voicing a protest against the excesses of romanticism; the more thoughtful but still sympathetic student of Shakespeare, enthusiastic in _Wilhelm Meister_, more temperate in _Shakespeare ad Infinitum_; the mature reviewer, welcoming the publication of old German and foreign folksongs, and hailing in turn Byron, Manzoni, Carlyle, Niebuhr, and all the young French and German writers of his day; and finally, the literary dictator in his old age, as shown in the careless and incessant wisdom of his recorded conversation. We have here, it is true, a very small part of his extraordinary output, but quite enough to form a just judgment of his place among the great critics. In a career so extended and a mind so active and all-embracing we must expect to find inconsistencies and errors of judgment. Some of the ideas in this volume have only an historical interest; a perverse mind might indeed garner from it an anthology of critical errors. It was not these which won for him from so many the title of “supreme critic,” but rather the sanity, insight, and impartiality of his mind and his extraordinary gift for foreseeing the direction of critical thought.

All of the selections in Part I, except the essay on “German Architecture,” have been taken from Goethe’s _Essays on Art_, translated by S. G. Ward (Boston, 1845). Wilhelm Meister’s critique of _Hamlet_ has been excerpted from Carlyle’s rendering of _Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre_. The version of John Oxenford has been used for the selections from the _Conversations with Eckermann_, and Oxenford’s version, as revised by Miss M. S. Smith, for the selection from Goethe’s _Autobiography_. The remaining essays were translated by the late Randolph S. Bourne, by Professor F. W. J. Heuser, and by myself. I am indebted to Mr. Bourne for translating the following essays: “On German Architecture,” “Shakespeare ad Infinitum,” “The First Edition of _Hamlet_,” “_Troilus and Cressida_,” “The Methods of French Criticism,” “Supplement to Aristotle’s _Poetics_,” “Tieck’s Dramaturgic Fragments,” “On the German Theatre,” “Didactic Poetry,” “Superstition and Poetry,” “The Theory of a World Literature,” “Byron’s _Manfred_,” “Byron’s _Don Juan_,” “Calderon’s _Daughter of the Air_,” “Molière’s _Misanthrope_,” “Folksongs again Commended,” and “Laurence Sterne.” Professor Heuser has translated the following: “The Production of a National Classic,” “Epic and Dramatic Poetry,” and “English Reviewers.” I have made material changes and corrections in almost all the translations, but on the whole each translator should be held responsible for the accuracy and style of his own work. For the selection and arrangement of the material, and for the titles given to some of the excerpts, I am alone responsible.

Some of Goethe’s judgments on books, and his maxims on life and art, have already appeared in volumes of selections in English translation; but no other work in any language, so far as I am aware, attempts to include in a single volume the whole range of Goethe’s critical and æsthetic studies. Some of the selections have never before appeared in English.

J. E. S.

TROUTBECK, May, 1919.

Since the above was written, I have become greatly indebted to Lord Haldane for contributing the Foreword, and especially to Professor Friedrich Bruns for reading the proofsheets and revising some of the translations. Miss L. Bonino has prepared the Index.

J. E. S.

NEW YORK, September, 1921.

II. _On the Chronology of Goethe’s Critical Studies_

The following chronology of Goethe’s critical activity is intended chiefly to indicate the original sources of the selections in the present volume.

1772-73. Reviews in the _Frankfurter gelehrten Anzeigen_:

Goethe as a Young Reviewer (reviews of Blum’s _Lyrische Gedichte_,
and Sulzer’s _Cymbelline, ein Trauerspiel, nach einem von
Shakespeare erfundnen Stoffe_, both translated in full).

1773. _Von deutscher Baukunst_:

On German Architecture (complete translation).

1788 sq. Articles in Wieland’s _Teutscher Merkur_:

Simple Imitation of Nature, Manner, Style (_Über Italien: Einfache
Nachahmung der Natur, Manier, Stil_, complete translation).

1794-1805. Correspondence of Goethe and Schiller:

Epic and Dramatic Poetry (complete translation); also footnote on
page 104.

1795-96. _Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre_:

Wilhelm Meister’s Critique of _Hamlet_.

1795-97. Articles in _Die Horen_:

The Production of a National Classic (_Literarischer
Sansculottismus_, complete translation except for four introductory
paragraphs).

1798-1800. Articles in _Die Propyläen_:

Introduction to the Propylæa.

On Laocoon (complete translation).

On Truth and Probability in Works of Art (complete translation).

The Collector and his Friends.

Notes on Dillettantism. (By Goethe and Schiller).

1804 sq. Reviews in the _Jenaische Allgemeine Literaturzeitung_:

Old German Folksongs (review of _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_, translated
in full except that only a few of Goethe’s characterizations of
individual poems are included).

1811-14. _Dichtung und Wahrheit_ (Autobiography):

German Literature in Goethe’s Youth (selected passages from part
ii, book 7); also footnote on page 14 (from part ii, book 10).

1815 sq. Articles in the _Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände_:

Shakespeare ad Infinitum, parts i-ii, written 1813 (_Shakespeare
und kein Ende_, complete translation).

On the German Theatre (complete translation).

1816-32. Articles in _Über Kunst und Alterthum_:

Ancient and Modern.

The Theory of a World Literature, part i (review of Duval’s _Le
Tasse_), part ii (_Bezüge nach Aussen_, complete translation),
part iii (_Edinburgh Reviews_), part v (review of Carlyle’s _Leben
Schillers_).

Supplement to Aristotle’s _Poetics_ (complete translation).

On Didactic Poetry (complete translation).

Superstition and Poetry (_Justus Möser_).

The Methods of French Critics (_Urteilsworte französischer
Kritiker_, complete translation).

On Criticism, § 1 (review of Manzoni’s _Carmagnola_), § 3 (review
of Rochlitz’s _Für Freunde der Tonkunst_).

The First Edition of _Hamlet_ (complete translation).

Byron’s _Manfred_ (complete translation).

Byron’s _Don Juan_ (complete translation).

Calderon’s _Daughter of the Air_ (complete translation).

Molière’s _Misanthrope_ (review of Taschereau’s _Histoire de la Vie
et des Ouvrages de Molière_, complete translation).

Shakespeare ad Infinitum, part iii, written 1816, published 1826
(complete translation).

Folksongs again Commended (complete translation).

Laurence Sterne (complete translation).

The English Reviewers (review of Manzoni’s _Carmagnola_).

1822-32. _Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens_,
by J. P. Eckermann (published 1836-48):

Extracts from Goethe’s Conversations with Eckermann.

Posthumous Works (_Nachgelassene Werke_, 1833):

Tieck’s Dramaturgic Fragments (complete translation).

_Troilus and Cressida_ (_Über die Parodie bei den Alten_).

INDEX

INDEX

Anacreon, 239.

Aristotle, 104 _sq._

Arnault, Antoine Vincent, 258.

Arnim, Achim von, 213 _sq._

Blümner, Heinrich, 184.

Blum, J. C., 199 _sq._

Blumauer, Alois, 206.

Bodmer, Johann Jakob, 233, 239.

Breitinger, Johann Jakob, 231, 233.

Brentano, Clemens, 213 _sq._

Bürger, Gottfried August, 74, 262.

Burns, Robert, 262.

Byron, 202 _sq._, 263, 268, 270, 276, 279, 283 _sq._

Calderon, 208 _sq._, 251, 269, 273, 276.

Carlyle, Thomas, 267 _sq._, 293.

Characteristic art, 11, 37.

Chinese literature, 249.

Chodowiecki, Daniel Nicolaus, 67.

Claudius, Matthias, 74.

Cousin, Victor, 97.

Criticism, theory of, 134, 140, 224, 230, 276, 283.

Diderot, Denys, 138.

Drama, and Theatre, 50, 75, 79, 100, 104, 109, 126, 158, 170, 179, 184,
190, 268 _sq._

Dürer, Albrecht, 13.

Erwin von Steinbach, 3, 7, 10, 12.

Fabroni, Angelo, 40.

Folksongs, 213, 220, 267.

Frederick the Great, 241.

Fürnstein, Anton, 259.

Gellert, Christian Fürchtegott, 232.

Gessner, Salomon, 74, 239.

Gleim, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig, 236, 242, 244.

Goldsmith, Oliver, 256.

Gottsched, Johann Christoph, 230 _sq._, 239 _sq._

Gozzi, Count Carlo, 272.

Gries, Johann Dietrich, 210.

Grimm, Friedrich Melchior, Baron von, 138 _sq._

Guizot, François Pierre Guillaume, 97.

Günther, Johann Christian, 234.

Haller, Albrecht von, 235.

Hamann, Johann Georg, 14.

Handel, Georg Friedrich, 107.

Herder, Johann Gottfried von, 14, 262.

Hirt, Alois, 36.

Homer, 10, 240.

Horace, 136, 199 _sq._, 231, 239 _sq._

Hugo, Victor, 279 _sq._

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm, Baron von, 257.

Huysum, Jan van, 62.

Iffland, August Wilhelm, 113.

Johnson, Samuel, 201.

Kant, Immanuel, 257.

Kleist, Ewald Christian von, 240 _sq._

Kleist, Heinrich von, 126.

Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb, 74, 112, 236, 244.

König, Johann Ulrich von, 233 _sq._

Körner, Theodor, 251.

Laocoon, 22, 24 _sq._, 33 _sq._, 39, 42.

Laugier, Marc Antoine, 14.

Leonardo da Vinci, 68, 256.

Lessing, 38, 112, 232, 236, 244, 257, 269.

Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph, 206.

Lichtwer, M. G., 232.

Liscow, Christian Ludwig, 228.

Lowell, James Russell, 179.

Mannerists, 36, 64, 67.

Manzoni, Alessandro, 205, 253, 268.

Matthisson, Friedrich von, 250.

Menander, 275.

Mérimeé, Prosper, 278 _sq._

Michelangelo, 68.

Milton, 240.

Molière, 212, 269, 272 _sq._

Napoleon, 252.

Nicolai, Christoph Friedrich, 201.

Niebuhr, B. G., 293.

Novel, the, 170.

Oeser, Adam Friedrich, 237.

Originality, 255.

Perugino, 68.

Pindar, 240.

Plato, 256.

Pope, Alexander, 239, 284.

Rabener, Gottlieb Wilhelm, 228 _sq._

Ramler, Karl Wilhelm, 235 _sq._, 242.

Raphael, 68.

Richardson, Samuel, 249.

Romanticism, 179, 263, 277.

Rubens, 69.

Ruysch, Rachel, 62.

Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 267.

Schiller, 38, 100, 104, 109 _sq._, 115 _sq._, 119 _sq._, 129, 184, 191,
255, 257, 264 _sq._, 268, 272 _sq._, 282 _sq._, 292.

Schlegel, August Wilhelm von, 257, 269, 276 _sq._

Schlegel, Friedrich von, 257, 269.

Schlegel, Johann Elias, 239.

Schroeder, Friedrich Ludwig, 124, 188 _sq._

Schubarth, Karl Ernst, 65.

Scott, Sir Walter, 286 _sq._

Seylerin (i.e., Sophie Friedrike Seyler), 118.

Shakespeare, 65 _sq._, 124, 127, 136, 145 _sq._, 171 _sq._, 181 _sq._,
200 _sq._, 204, 209 _sq._, 225, 238, 254, 256, 268 _sq._,
272, 275, 284.

Steevens, George, 193.

Sterne, Laurence, 222, 256.

Style, 61, 265.

Sulzer, J. G., 200 _sq._

Taschereau, J., 212.

Theatre, see Drama.

Thomson, James, 252.

Tieck, Ludwig, 126 _sq._

Uvaroff, Count, 137.

Villemain, Abel François, 97.

Virgil, 34 _sq._, 240.

Voss, Johann Heinrich, 262.

Wieland, Christoph Martin, 74, 86, 164, 236 _sq._, 292.

Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, 38, 257.

World Literature, 89 _sq._, 267.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s note

Italics in chapter headings and spelling of title of works were standardized. Hyphenation was standardized where appropriate.

Page number references in the index are as published in the original publication and have not been checked for accuracy in this eBook.

Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:

Page vii: “Tieck’s _Dramaturgic_” “Ludwig Tieck’s _Dramaturgic_”
Page viii: “Subject-matter of Poetry” “Subject-Matter of Poetry”
Page 36: “with my possessessions” “with my possessions”
Page 89: “its aesthetic and ethical” “its æsthetic and ethical”
Page 166: “These s approaches” “These soft approaches”
Page 200: “Cymbelline, a Trageay” “Cymbelline, a Tragedy”
Page 207: “art of poety ever” “art of poetry ever”
Page 244: “and the stubborness” “and the stubbornness”
Page 255: “made many distiches” “made many distichs”
Page 291: “of the compatability” “of the compatibility”
Page 292: “elsewhere Sainte-Beauve” “elsewhere Sainte-Beuve”
Page 297: “(complete translalation” “(complete translation”