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Untitled Article
taste to works . of imagination , — -a faculty which does not refase alj alliance with frightful realities , but which refines and idealise them ; and it will not be disputed that it requires far less talent tp excite pity and terror with the aid of & material incident , which
alone can do much , than by exhibiting the calamities to which humanity is . subject , by the mere untoward combination of virtues and excellencies ; and the entanglement that arises out of the conflict of interests and weaknesses which are common to all , and
for which all feel indulgence and compassion—while all are aiik ^ exposed to the wretchedness which arises from them . JOiet natftrliche Toehter , *\ e , the Natural Daughter . —This tra- » gedy held a very high place in the author's estimation , though but a low one in public opinion . It is one of the least read an 4 most unjustly appreciated of his elaborate compositions . Had he needed it , he would have bud th ^ cpnsolation of the Athenian .
at the recital of whose poem the audience left the hall empty , except that Plato remained , Herder , who would not concur in the praises lavished on som © of Goethe ' s most popular works , was a warn * admirer of this ; and in the closet it will be found , by the * thinking reader , as admirable as it is unsatisfactory on the stage } and for an obvious cause *^ -it is but the first of a trilogy of tragedies 7—rather the excessively long first act of a play , than a play it *
self , It is so remarkable a work , and so entirely unknown , that ws shall present g , sketch of it . It appears from the Diary ( vol f 31 , 84 ) to have been suggested in the year 1799 by the Memoirs of Stephanw de Bourbon CVraft ' , —a book that made great noise ia its day at Paris , but is now forgotten , The authoress , if we mis * take not , played , in the early years of the French revolution , the part of the unfortunate person who , from some one or other of
our prisons , sends forth from time to tinae lamentable appeals tp the public which no one will listen to , in the name of Olive , Pruu cess of Cumberland , and who may be , for aught we know , the person she pretends to be . ¦ In this work , ' he informs us , ' I had prepared myself a vessel , in which I hoped to deposit , with du $ earnestness , all that I for so many years had written and thought about the French revolution and its consequences- ' And in tbs
year 1802 he speaks of it as his favourite work , of which he ha 4 the whole go completely in his mind that he was able to devote his whole attention to the diffuse development of each part . And in 1803 it whs printed and performed at Weimar . But though he was gratified by the approbation of many , and the spe- > culations of others concerning hie purpose , Yet / he says , I had
committed the unpardonable fault of suffering the first part tQ appear before the whole wa » completed . I call the fault unpar * donable , because it was committed in defiance of my ol ^ l expeT riepced superstition , which however may be rationally explained . There is a very deep sen&e in the Qld illusion th « t ft teeker of th ? hidden treasure must hold hit toflgw , wh&teye * frightful , wb <**
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 599, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/23/
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