The Youth of Goethe | Page 2

KESTNERS AND WERTHER 198 WERTHERISM 199
CLAVIGO 200 DRAMATISED FROM BEAUMARCHAIS 200
ORIGIN OF CLAVIGO 202 ITS PLOT 202 CONSTRUCTED ON
CLASSICAL MODELS 205 CLAVIGO AND GOETHE 206
CHAPTER XI
GOETHE AND SPINOZA--DER EWIGE JUDE
1773--1774
GOETHE'S DEBT TO SPINOZA 209 MISDATES SPINOZA'S
INFLUENCE 210 DER EWIGE JUDE 212 ORIGINAL PLAN OF IT
213 AS IT WAS ACTUALLY WRITTEN 216 ITS DIVISIONS 216
ITS CHARACTERISTICS 216 UNPUBLISHED TILL AFTER
GOETHE'S DEATH 218
CHAPTER XII
GOETHE IN SOCIETY
1774
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER 220 HIS CHARACTER 220 HIS
INTEREST IN GOETHE 222 VISITS FRANKFORT 224 HIS

INTERCOURSE WITH GOETHE 225 JOHANN BERNHARD
BASEDOW 227 HIS CHARACTER AND CAREER 227 HIS VISIT
TO FRANKFORT 228 GOETHE, LAVATER, AND BASEDOW AT
EMS 228 THEIR VOYAGE DOWN THE RHINE 230 JUNG
STILLING 231 SCENE AT ELBERFELDT 232 FRITZ JACOBI 233
GOETHE MAKES HIS ACQUAINTANCE 233 THEIR
INTERCOURSE 234 JACOBI'S ESTIMATE OF GOETHE 237
KLOPSTOCK 238 GOETHE'S ADMIRATION OF HIM 238 THEIR
MEETING IN FRANKFORT 239 AN SCHWAGER KRONOS 240
BOIE AND WERTHES ON GOETHE 241 MAJOR VON KNEBEL
AND GOETHE 242 GOETHE AND THE PRINCES OF WEIMAR
243 VON KNEBEL ON GOETHE 244 DEATH OF FRÄULEIN VON
KLETTENBERG 245
CHAPTER XIII
LILI SCHÖNEMANN
1775
THE SCHÖNEMANN FAMILY 247 GOETHE'S INTRODUCTION
TO LILI SCHÖNEMANN 248 HIS SUBSEQUENT MEMORY OF
HER 249 LILI COMPARED WITH HIS PREVIOUS LOVES 250
GOETHE'S SONGS ADDRESSED TO HER 251 COUNTESS
STOLBERG 253 GOETHE'S RELATIONS TO HER 253 ERWIN
UND ELMIRE 255 STELLA 257 CLAUDINE VON VILLA BELLA 263
A DISTRACTED LOVER 266 BETROTHED TO LILI 268 SHRINKS
FROM MARRIAGE 269 COUNTS STOLBERG IN FRANKFORT
270 GOETHE STARTS WITH THEM FOR SWITZERLAND 271
VISITS HIS SISTER AT EMMENDINGEN 273 WITH LAVATER IN
ZURICH 275 ACCOMPANIES PASSAVANT TO ST. GOTHARD
276 LYRICS TO LILI 276 RETURN TO FRANKFORT 278
CHAPTER XIV
LAST MONTHS IN FRANKFORT--THE URFAUST

1775
RELATIONS TO LILI ON HIS RETURN 279 A CRISIS IN THEIR
RELATIONS 281 MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTS 282
ESTIMATES OF GOETHE BY SULZER AND ZIMMERMANN 283
INVITATION TO WEIMAR 284 PROPOSED JOURNEY TO ITALY
285 A DELAYED MESSENGER 286 DEPARTS FOR WEIMAR 287
EGMONT AND THE URFAUST 287 THE URFAUST 288
CHARACTERISTICS 293

PREFACE
"Generally speaking," Goethe has himself said, "the most important
period in the life of an individual is that of his development--the period
which, in my case, breaks off with the detailed narrative of Dichtung
und Wahrheit." In reality, as we know, there is no complete breach at
any point in the lives of either nations or individuals. But if in the life
of Goethe we are to fix upon a dividing point, it is his departure from
Frankfort and his permanent settlement in Weimar in his
twenty-seventh year. Considered externally, that change of his
surroundings is the most obvious event in his career, and for the world
at large marks its division into two well-defined periods. In relation to
his inner development his removal from Frankfort to Weimar may also
be regarded as the most important fact in his life. From the date of his
settlement in Weimar he was subjected to influences which equally
affected his character and his genius; had he continued to make his
home in Frankfort, it is probable that, both as man and literary artist, he
would have developed characteristics essentially different from those
by which the world knows him. There were later experiences--notably
his Italian journey and his intercourse with Schiller--which profoundly
influenced him, but none of these experiences penetrated his being so
permanently as the atmosphere of Weimar, which he daily breathed for
more than half a century.
As Goethe himself has said, the first twenty-six years of his life are
essentially the period of his "development." During that period we see

him as he came from Nature's hand. His words, his actions have then a
stamp of spontaneity which they gradually lost with advancing years as
the result of his social and official relations in Weimar. He has told us
that it was one of the painful conditions of his position there that it
made impossible that frank and cordial relation with others which it
was his nature to seek, and from which he had previously derived
encouragement and stimulus; as a State official, he adds, he could be on
easy terms with nobody without running the risk of a petition for some
favour which he might or might not be able to confer.
For the portrayal of the youthful Goethe materials are even
superabundant; of no other genius of the same order, indeed, have we a
record comparable in fulness of detail for the same period of life. And
it is this abundance of information and the extraordinary individuality
to whom it relates that give specific interest to any study of Goethe's
youth. From month to month, even at times from day to day, we can
trace