Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/278

260 any encouragement, and yielded to them in the very least, they would try a hundred follies with me, and end with crowning me on the Capitol, of which they have already seriously thought—so foolish is it to have a stranger and a Protestant to play the first part in a comedy. What connection there is in all this, and how great a fool I was to think that it was all intended for my honour,—of all this we will talk together one day.

6, 1787.

I have just come from Moritz, whose arm is healed, and loosed from its bandages. It is well set, firm, and he can move it quite freely. What during these last forty days I have experienced and learned, as nurse, confessor, and private secretary, to this patient, may prove of benefit to us hereafter. The most painful sufferings and the noblest enjoyments went side by side throughout this whole period.

To refresh me, I yesterday had set up in our sitting-room a cast of a colossal head of Juno, of which the original is in the Villa Ludovisi. This was my first love in Rome, and now I have gained the object of my wishes. No words can give the remotest idea of it. It is like one of Homer's songs.

I have, however, deserved the neighbourhood of such good society for the future; for I can now tell you that "Iphigenia" is at last finished, i. e., that it lies before me on the table in two tolerably concordant copies, of which one will very soon begin its pilgrimage to you. Receive it with all indulgence; for, to speak the truth, what stands on the paper is not exactly what I intended, but still it will convey an idea of what was in my mind.

You complain occasionally of some obscure passages in my letters, which allude to the oppression, which I suffer in the midst of the most glorious objects in the world. With all this, my fellow traveller—this