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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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GoethJs Works . 751
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m $ y th £ following , nevertheless , b * receivied with Jrirad # < e $ sl Tfcue q 1 £ leg-end say ^ for instance , and the puppet-show does iwt , fyil to giy $ the scene , that Faustjus , in the insolence of power , requires pf I ^ lep jus - topheles the possessj , Q n of ffie beautiful fl eleijja pf Grejecje , aq , 4 a / ? some resistance , this was grante , d jto him . I considered it a duty not to omit so significant a situation in my work ; and how it has been discharged will appear in this intermezzo /
Of this intermezzo we are unwilling to spe » k : indeed we have no right . The unsuccessful attempt to comprehend it would have been truly painful , but for the consolatory lines in the * Geheimnisse '—Mysteries—a poem to be noticed hereafter . ' Ein wunderbares Lied ist euch bereitet , Vernehmt es gern und jeden ruft herbei
• • • • • Und wenn der Pfad sachtf in die Biische gieitet So denket nicht , dass es ein Irrthum sey ? * • Doeh , gljaube l ^ einer , dass mit alien Sinnen I ) as g-anze Lied er je enjtrath ^ seln werd e , '
( A wondrous song is here prepared for you—give a willing ear to . it , and call jevery one to it ... . And if jtjie p atji lose > s itself in the wood—< jlo not think that this is an error . . * . But let no one believe that , with all his efforts , he can ever unriddle the whole of the song . ' ) There is much , indeed , in all Goethe ' s works , in Faustus especially , which his warmest admirers confess they dg not understand . But Helena is perhaps the only production of any
importance of which the whole remains , according to the confession of many a disciple , still a riddle . The second part contains but two scenes : indeed , there is but one which affords a glimpse pf the author's scheme in effecting the deliverance of Faustus ; and for that purpose he has adopted one of the poetical offsprings of the greatest of his predecessors . Faustus is seen lying on a grass-plot , wearied and restless from suffering . Ariel , Shakspeare ' s Ariel , is tending
him . The Beneficent Genius convokes the spirits of the air to shed their benign influence over him . The -choral songs are delicious . Faustus expresses his joy in nature at this twilight hour , in stanzas of ottave rime , the verse in which Goethe succeeds the most perfectly . This lusciously-sweet scene is succeeded by one of the boldest and bitterest of Goethe ' s satires on public life . It wants only a
closer connexion with his plan , to be on « of the most excellent of his works . We see the emperor—aye I the German emperor hiaoself—on his throiafi : he is surrounded by all his ministers ^ but Ahese deiigsht hina not ; he misses his £ opl . In answer to his anxious inquiries , foe is told that his fa * counsellor has faiien down , apd is carried away drunk or dead ; tjhey do not know . And at the same time , Mephistopheles , in a . fooi ^ s dress , forces
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 751, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/31/
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