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host of the Golden Lion , who , though of humble station , is nevertheless well worthy of his name . The action lies in a village , and the actors suit the place ; they are Hermann ' s father and mother , the clergyman , and the apothecary . The intrigue is to obtain the consent of the prudent father to the marriage of his son with the fair fugitive . The means are poetic dev elopements of character ,
and conversations of sterling wisdom , which hardly leave a topic of domestic morality untouched . Alike cosmopolitical and patriotic is the view taken of the French revolution , and its apprehended influence on the future well-being of mankind . The close is idyllic ( not romantic ) and happy . All who derive their notions of epic poetry from monsieur Bossu , whose shallow frivolities obtained great currency from the adoption of Pope in the preface to bis Homer , will be scandalized that such a work should be
entitled an epic poem . The same persons will be still more offended by the presumption of Goethe ' s concluding epic essay , which is neither more nor less than a continuation of the Iliad , under the title of ' Achilleis . * The more liberal and curious scholar will be pleased to know how the modern rhapsodist purposed to connect his own with the Work
of his predecessors . Diverted from the execution of his plan ( formed in 1798 ) by his attention to fine art , he executed only a single canto of about 700 lines . Achilles , from his tent , at night , beholds the light proceeding from the funeral obsequies of Hector ; and with the mournful anticipation of his own early death , accompanies his friend Antilochus to the spot where his myrmidons are raising a monument to Patroclus , but which he foresees is also to be his own . Hence
the poet soon transports the reader to the council of the gods , where a wordy war is carried on with the same adherence to anthropomorphistic nature , for which the gods of the other Homers are so deservedly famous . Thetis deplores the fate of her son with heart-rending pathos . Juno is the same fierce and
unrelenting virago which she ever was . And Jupiter holds the same ambiguous language which has for ever rendered him a model for the imitation of all diplomatists . A more temperate dialogue succeeds between Juno and Minerva . It is at last agreed , that * Pallas Athene * shall administer the last consolations to the hero
in the shape of his friend Antilochus . He is found still at the spot whence his fame is to be perpetuated to all ages . A dialogue of deep feeling and lofty wisdom takes place , in which our author repeats a sentiment we have above extracted . And Achilles is reminded , that he , dying young , will live for ever young in the memory and lamentations of all future ages , while Nestor , dying
old , will scarcely be mourned by his own children . The arrival of a fleet with provisions is descried . And the supposed Antilochus is dispatched to secure provisions for the hungry myrmidons . The epic style is preserved in its equable movement and sustained simplicity and propriety ; though the hexameters want the magniloquence of Voss ' s incomparable translation . The Homeric
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Goethe ' s Works . 283
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1833, page 283, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2612/page/67/
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