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    this ' dramatic whim / and sufficiently , vol . vi . p . 298 . We merely add that there is incorporated in this piece a monodrama , Proserpine ; a lyrical exposition of the feelings of the queen of hell after her abduction . It is introduced by a satire on the then rage for picturesque gardening d lAnylaise .

    Dw rdgel , i . e . The Birds . An imitation of the first scenes in the well-known comedy of Aristophanes . It is one of the author ' s earliest pieces , written for performance on the duke of Weimar ' s private theatre at Ettersburg . There is nothing foreign about it , though every part of it is wild and extravagant . The satire bold , various , and by no means malignant .

    Der Gross-Cophta , i . e . The Great-Cophta , a comedy in five acts . It was in 1785 that all Europe rung with the adventures of a political adventurer , Cagliostro , who amused an idle and frivolous generation , and even obtained partisans among the noblesse of the profligate court of France , by pretensions to magic . Among the dupes was the famous cardinal Rohan ; among his confederates , the notorious countess de la Motte . These

    distinguished persons contrived to defraud a Parisian jeweller of a diamond necklace of immense value , which they pretended to purchase for the then young queen of France , Maria Antoinette . Her enemies endeavoured to implicate her in the fraud . Men took sides from party motives , but the revolution broke out , and its astonishing incidents threw into shade all the preceding intrigues of the French court . Though a very insignificant work , the poorest , perhaps , that Goethe ever wrote , as a representation of the state of society immediately before that momentous event even this comedy is not without historic value . We here behold Cagliostro , a successful impostor , frightening the women out of

    their wits , and even overawing the very men who more than half suspect him to be a knave . The Count promises to introduce his dupes to the Great-Cophta , a prophet of vast powers—of course , himself . His accomplice , a niece of the Countess , in a pretended trance , describes the Queen of France to the enamoured Cardinal , and so

    ensnares him . And an incident is imagined which forms the catastrophe of the drama , in sufficient harmony with the real occurrence . The parties are detected at night , during the practice of a trick , in which the Queen was personated : and the

    arrest of the conspirators is the denouement of the play . The Cardinal , though acquitted by the Parliament of Paris , was exiled by the King to his bishopric . The Countess and Cagliostro were both banished . She published her life in England—he died in a prison in the Roman states . *

    * Goethe felt a strong interest in all that concerned Cagliostro ; and published an account of his family , which he obtained at Palermo , by an innocent a fraud an ever was practised . The impoator ' * mother and sister were living there in great poverty . Goethe introduced himself to them as sent by Cagliostro . In their extreme ignorance

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    Goethe ' s Works . 113

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 113, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/45/