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Untitled Article
Frenchmen would have delighted in it * It was set to music by Kaiser at Zurich . The Zauberflote , i . e . Magic Flute , second part . — One might fancy , had Goethe been a Catholic , that this composition had been a penance imposed on him by his confessor . The text of the Zauberflote , which is known perhaps all over Europe as one of
the most perfect of Mozart ' s operas , was written by one Schickaneder , the court poet of Vienna , a sort of Flecknoe , a byename of ridicule , such as we have not had of late years . Goethe never completed the act of humiliation . It appears as a fragment , and we suppose never was acted . Our opera-going readers will know , as this is a continuation of the well-known piece , that the persons are fantastic and praeternatural creatures of the element , put into melo-dramatic action . Even this thing has some lovely
songs . Palaeophron and Neoterpe . —This elegant mask was first performed at court on the birth-day of the the Duchess-dowager of Weimar , 24 th October , 1800 . One person alone was permitted to appear , * in all the grace of her own personal attractions ; ' coming into the hall as a suppliant , and clasping more antico an altar , she solicited the protection of the princely and noble company .
She is IVeoterpe , the new age , or the spirit of the age , and is persecuted by an elderly person Palaeophron , who follows her , representing the old age , or as some call him , the golden age . He hopes , from the wisdom of the lofty assembly , that they will afford no protection to so worthless a creature as Neoterpe . It turns out , however , when they come nearer , that they do not so much dislike each other as the mute companions by whom each
is attended . Neoterpe is accompanied by two very unpleasant youngsters Naseweis and Gelbschnabel , who appear , in conformity with their names , in masks , the one of a monstrous white nose , and the other of a yellow beak . Now Naseweis pretty well answers to our Sauce-box 9 and Gelbschnabel approaches to Greenhorn . His yellow beak , not ossified by age , indicates his youth ; as a character , he is not quite so silly , but more disagreeable than his English relative . Palaeophron ' s attendants are Habe-recht , plainly
our ever-right , and Griesgramy croaker . He is very surly , and full of wrinkles , and quite ugly enough to frighten away all young ladies , as Saucebox and Greenhorn are very likely to displease all elderly gentlemen . At length , however , the old and new age agree to join hearts and hands , each sacrificing to the other the unwelcome associates . The mask terminates by their presenting their united homage , —Neoterpe offering her crown of roses , and Palaeophron his oaken chaplet to the excellent princess in honour of whom the festival was given .
In the Monthly Magazine for April , 1801 , is a translation by the late Mr . Mellish , the author of a version of Schiller ' s Mary Stuart . Mr . Mellish has here ventured to use the verse of the
Untitled Article
Goethe ' s Work * . 687
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 687, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/37/
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