Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 7.djvu/182

 128 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS pernickel, and the like, it is hard to find anything more absurd than these ac counts of the best way which the leaders of the state found for the occupation of their time, and for the edification of their people. The private theatricals of this court, however, will be long remembered, because the rollicking experiences of these parties, which were a sort of picnics in a courtly style, give the frame- work, or machinery for the story of " Wilhelm Meister." This famous and remarkable book was begun soon after Goethe went to Weimar. But it was not published until 1 795, after Goethe had spent more than a year in Italy, a period which marked a crisis in his life. In ten months' hard study of painting in Rome, he satisfied himself, at last, that he should never be a painter. It seems strange now to say, that until then, he had diligently nursed the hope that as a painter he should achieve great success. In Italy he looked at the petty court of Weimar from a point distant enough to see it in its true relations and perspective. He measured his own powers as a man does who is removed from the petty detail of small official duty. And he returned to Weimar in 1788, determining wisely to give the rest of his life to science and literature. The " determination " proved to be a determination. And from this time, his life as a master of the thought of his time may be said to begin. He had received from the grand duke a title of nobility, and from that time he is " von Goethe," instead of " Goethe " simple, without that prefix of dignity. On his return from Italy he gave up all his official work, except the direction of the mines and of the theatre. It is interesting to remember that Goethe thus di- rected the work of the mines in which Luther's father had been a workman. His interest in natural science made him hold this position ; and his charge of the theatre was almost a matter of course in such a court as that of Weimar. He was, however, relieved from the presidency of the council and from the direction of the War Department. The duke retained for him a place in the council " whenever his other affairs allowed him to attend." It must be remembered that aU such appointments were made wholly at the wish of the duke, who was the absolute monarch of this little state, until he gave to his people a liberal consti- tution in 18 1 6. It will be convenient to American readers to remember that the size of the duchy is about the same as that of the State of Rhode Island about fourteen hundred square miles. In Goethe's time, the population was less than a million. The city of Weimar had about ten thousand inhabitants. To Weimar Goethe returned, resolved to give his life, from that time forward, to science and litera- ture. Before the Italian journey he had done so in large measure. But after his return, relieved from almost all duties of administration, he brings forward finished works, with untiring enthusiasm, on many different lines, many of which are among the masterpieces of the time. Schiller had come to Weimar in 1 794. Goethe and he had met before. There were differences between these men so great that in some lines they had no sympathy. All the more is it to the credit of both, that each appreciated the other and that they lived and worked together as friends. When Schiller proposed the literary journal called The Hours, Goethe