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Untitled Article
joy at the prospect of her speedy elevation to rank . * The governess comes , and there is brought on the stage a cupboard -which was not to be opened without leave of the duke , but of which ! Bugenia has the key . However , having that morning learned the secret of her birth , she breaks the command and
opens the cupboard . It contains royal garments which , in a delirium of joy , she puts on in spite of the obscure admonitions of the governess . Herder happily compared this scene to the Greek epigram on a child sleeping under a rock which is every instant threatening to fall . We know not whether Goethe in his youth was fond of dress ; but this is not the only occasion he has taken to exhibit the naif expression of youthful joy in the wearing of fine clothes , which , as symbolic of higher prerogatives , is a happy
topic in poetry . Act third . The plot has been carried into execution ; how , we are not told . Eugenia ' s higher purposes did not permit her exciting sympathy for r common-place distress . The first scene introduces to us the secretary and his agent , the secular priest , ( Weltgeistlicher ) who is not so thoroughly the villain as not to lament the loss of his innocence through his introduction to high
life , and the seductions of the secretary and his superiors in the back-ground . The rest of the act is filled with an exhibition of the grief and despair of the duke . Never was the passion of grief at the loss of a child more eloquently displayed . He hears from the priest the false tale of his daughter ' s violent death . These scenes have all the pathos of the domestic , and the dignity of the heroic tragedy .
Act fourth . The scene is transferred to a sea-port to which Eugenia has been conveyed ^ and from which she is to be transported . The governess , whose conduct and character are designedly enigmatical , puts into the hands of the Gerichts-rath , ( a judicial officer whom we must call judge , in approximation to the sense , ) a paper , which we must consider as a lettre de cachet , and asks his advice ; he does not conceal his abhorrence of an act of tyranny , and laments his inability to assist the _ oppressed .
* I do not blame the tool , nor can I strive With those who have the power to do such deeds . They also are , alas ! compelled and bound : Seldom they act from voluntary impulse ; Solicitude , the fear of greater evils , Forces from kings acts woeful and unjust . Do what you must , —depart at once from hence , The narrow sphere within my jurisdiction . '
The governess , however , persists in forcing upon him an unwelcome confidence : he is informed that an escape is possible . Eugenia might remain in the country could she be induced to marry . At her request the judge confers with Eugenia ; she implores his protection , but he is unable to afford her aid . Her pathetic
Untitled Article
GoetMs Works . 601
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 601, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/25/
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