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    will enable our readers to make the comparison for themselves ; what follows may serve to show the point of view whence the comparison should be made . Iphigenia in Tauris was written originally in prose , and then laboriously versified . The manuscript was taken byhim into Italy , and there it underwent the last corrections . There is a report in Rome that Goethe wrote it in the Borehese gardens : he himself

    tells us that being once in the church of St . Agatha at he was so captivated by the stillness and solemn beauty of the spot , that he resolved to bring his Iphigenia into the church , and reperuse it there , * that it might not contain a line which the saint herself would not sanction by her approbation . ' We lately read this anecdote with great delight , because , on our first perusal of the tragedy , it appeared to us that one of its characteristic excellences lies in its being the successful solution of a problem by no means

    easy—harmoniously to combine the purity of the Christian character with the cool heroism in the females , and the incidents of the Greek mythology . Iphigenia is no less a schone seele ( a beautiful soul ) than Goethe ' s pious friend Fraiilein Kiettenberg herself , ( see p . 294 ;) and may take her place by the side of the Antigone of Sophocles , among the most perfect poetical representations of the female character . Goethe has , in the execution of his purpose , thus modified the classical fable , which our readers will find in

    any mythological dictionary . Iphigenia , the priestess of Tauris , is pressed by the king Thoas to become his queen . To divert him from his unwelcome suit , she relates the sad history of her family , and opposes her sacred character to his will . In that character she is called upon to sacrifice at the altar the two captive strangers , her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades . Perceiving them to be Greeks , she inquires concerning her family , and the

    recognition follows . But in this , the modern poet has varied from the ancient tale ; that Iphigenia , when urged to escape with the statue of Apollo , which Orestes came to bear away , refuses to be guilty of treachery towards her benefactor . With his consent they depart ; and the recovery of Orestes from his madness , proves that in the lost sister was meant by the oracle , not the statue of

    Diana , the sister of the god , but the sister of the sufferer , the priestess Iphigenia . Goethe imitates , we should rather say emulates , the ancients in the store of wisdom scattered profusely in every part of the dialogue , and in the pathetic representation of the madness of Orestes . The odes may challenge a comparison ( the song of the Parcse , for instance , in the fourth act ) with the subliinest choral poetry of the Greek lyrical drama .

    We should recommend to the student of German literature , who has mastered the difficulties of the language , and does not feel himself rewarded b y the perusal of this work , to abandon his pursuit , and to devote himself to mathematics , the course of exchange , or the practice of the courts . .

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    528 Goethe ' s Works .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 520, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/16/