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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Goethe s Works . 511
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zipperf , yet it must be recollected that that important personage is very differently represented in different times and places . We recollect that W . Schlegel somewhere remarks , " We have in Germatiy two national theatres , one at Vienna , of which the public consists of 50 , 000 , and another at Weimar , where the public
consists pf 50 . persons / We shall have more or less to say of each of these pieces , some few of which merit a much larger share of our reader ' s attention than we think ourselves warranted in asking of them . Die Laune des Verliebten—The ill humour of one in Lovea pastoral drama in rhyme ; the characters , a partie quarree of lovers j the theme , jealousy ; the intrigue , a kiss given to the wrong shepherdess : —
* It is silly sooth , And dallies with the innocence of love , Like the old age / This juvenile exercise ( for its occaison , see p . 6 . ) is chiefly remarkable as showing how early our author had acquired a facility in verse-making . Die Mitschuldigen , i . e . The Accomplices—a comedy in three
acts , and in rhyme ; first performed at Weimar 1776—also a juvenile work , as well as the preceding ; it was produced by his study of Moliere , when learning the French language . Even in his youth , his productive talent was roused by whatever he read ,
a habit of mind which only died with him . Sophia , the handsome daughter of an inquisitive innkeeper , has the ill luck to be married to Soller , a worthless' gambler , and is an object of desire to Alcest , a wealthy guest at the inn . The husband actually robs Alcest ; the innkeeper is caught in an attempt to steal
also , but nothing more substantial than news , out of his guest ' s apartment ; and he , the guest , being also detected in his designs , is forced to purchase the silence of the other offenders by his own forbearance . So the wife saves her virtue , the husband his character , the lover submits to have his pocket picked , and Boniface also is taken in by being made privy to the birth of twins , when
he expected to have been let into the secrets of the state . The light anapestic verse suits the unpretending character of the piece . In his riper years Goethe made no attempt to imitate the French comedy . Die Geschwisfei i . e . The Brother and Sister—a play in one act . This belongs to the earlier collection of Goethe ' s writings ; also first represented in 1776 . It has not substance enough for the stage , but is an exquisite developement of a single feeling .
William , losing the mistress of his affections , brings up her daughter as his sister . He is embarrassed by his own attachment , so inconsistent with his supposed relation to her ; and consents , unwillingly , to yield her up to his old friend Fabrice , till Marianne declares that her sisterly love towards him is such , that she is incapable of feeling connubial love to any man * Nothing can
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 511, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/7/
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