ate with great appetite some soup which I had sent him; his eye, too, is better, but he is very melancholy, and they say he wept for three hours; especially he weeps when he sees August, who has in the meantime taken refuge with me: I am sorry for the poor boy, he was dreadfully distressed, but he is already accustomed to drink away his troubles; he lately in a club belonging to his mother's class, drank seventeen glasses of champagne, and I had the greatest difficulty in keeping him from wine when he was with me. 15th. Goethe sent to me to-day, thanked me for my sympathy, and hoped he should soon be better; the doctors consider him out of danger, but his recovery will take a long time yet.' Who could believe that this was written by one passionately loved for ten years, and written of one who was thought to be dying? Even here her hatred to Christiane cannot restrain itself. CHAPTER IX. TASSO. WHAT Johnson said of Comus may be equally applied to Tasso, that it is a series of faultless lines, but no drama. For the full enjoyment of this exquisite work, it is necessary we should approach it with no expectation of finding the qualities demanded from a drama. It has its charm, which few will resist; but it is, with the exception of Die Natürliche Tochter, the weakest of Goethe's serious dramatic efforts. There is a calm broad effulgence of light in it very different from the concentrated lights of effect, which we are accustomed to find in modern works, and which are inseparable from the true dramatic form. It has the clearness, unity, and matchless grace of a Raphael, not the lustrous warmth of a Titian, or the crowded gorgeousness of Paul Veronese. There is scarcely any action, and that action is only the vehicle of an internal struggle in the mind of Tasso, whose love and madness are felt to be constantly present, but are not seen flaming into dramatic effect. The tragedy is purely psychological: the fluctuation of feelings, and the quiet development of character. And this is represented through dialogue, not through action. Hence the beauty of this work lies solely in its poetry. the magic of the form, we have no more chance of being moved by it, than by a bad copy of a fine statue. Trans Unless we can feel lation, however meritorious, cannot reproduce this magic; although the magic tempts translators to essay their skill. The latest and best translation is that by Miss Swanwick ;* but how inadequately even that, notwithstanding its great elegance, represents the original, may be seen in the following examples. Here is a couplet, often quoted because it so finely expresses an old truth: Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, Sich ein Charakter in dem Strom der Welt. When Miss Swanwick translates it Talents are nurtured best in solitude, But character on life's tempestuous sea the reader has no objection to make to the translation, except that he feels the whole charm of the original has vanished. Again : Willst du genau erfahren was sich ziemt; So frage nur bei edlen Frauen an is scarcely recognizable in Wouldst thou define exactly what is fitting, And, to conclude: Nach Freiheit strebt der Mann, das Weib nach Sitte is not felicitously rendered by 'Tis order woman seeketh, freedom man. I have purposely selected passages which, containing plain and weighty thoughts, lend themselves more to translation than the passages which charm by their poeti * Ir Pohr's Standard Library, vol. lii. cal grace; and from these it will be evident that translation can give no adequate idea of a poem the principal charm of which lies in its grace. The remarks just made render criticism of Tasso somewhat difficult. The reader will expect, however, some analysis of so important a work, and an analysis must be given, in spite of the disadvantages under which it will labor. The moment chosen by Goethe is that when Tasso, having just completed his Jerusalem Delivered, gives unmistakeable signs of the unhappy passion and the unhappy malady which have made his biography one of the saddest in the long sad list of 'Mighty poets in their misery dead.' I am not sufficiently versed in this chapter of literary history to offer an opinion on the skill with which Goethe has worked historical facts into his fable; but German critics declare that he has saturated the work with such facts. Certain it is that the strictness of history has been disregarded both in the character of Alphonso, and in the tone of the whole drama. Indeed there was too close an affinity between the position of Tasso at the court of Ferrara, and the position of Goethe at the Court of Weimar, not to make this divergence from history commanded by a desire to illustrate personal experience, and a desire not to seem to imply a sarcasm on Court protection. Had Goethe painted truly the relation between Tasso and Alphonso, the public might have read between the lines,' reflections against the Court of Weimar. Indeed, as it is, ingenuity has been fruitful in supposition: Alphonso has been regarded as representing Karl August, the Princess as Luise, Antonio as Herder, and Leonora as the Frau von Stein. It is difficult to say what amount of truth there may be in such conjectures; for it is certain that in many of the honorable traits of Alphonso we recognize Karl August; it is certain that Goethe had a very tender regard, -not, however, approaching love,- for the Duchess; and although Herder cannot, by any one well versed in the literary history of this period, be recognized in Antonio, yet the Frau von Stein assuredly lent some traits to Leonora. These indications, coupled with the notorious fact that Goethe always gave poetic expression to his own experience, assures us that Tasso contains much of personal history; but how much cannot be determined. Tasso was commenced in the year 1777, and to that year we must recur, if we would seize the leading idea of the poem. Tasso is introduced living completely absorbed in poetry, but restlessly vague in his purposes. He lives in a small city, distinguished from all other cities by the greatness of its Princes, not by the greatness of its people. Ein edler Mensch zieht edle Menschen an, Und weiss sie fest zu halten. He withdraws himself from the Court, and seems only happy in solitude. Antonio the diplomatist, the much experienced man, arrives, and fills the mind of Tasso with strange envy at his power and experience. In vain has the Princess taken from the bust of Virgil the laurel crown to place it on her poet's head; in vain has Alphonso expressed his deep delight at the completion of the Jerusalem Delivered; Tasso has heard Antonio the Ideal has come in contact with the Real, and marvels at its greatness: * So strangely have his nature and his words A want of inward harmony I feel.* Throughout, the translation followed is that of Miss Swanwick. |