Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 13.djvu/81

Rh Schlosser, who was ten years his senior, not only awakened emulation by his own superior knowledge and facility, but further aided him by introducing him to a set of literary friends with whom poetic discussions formed the staple of conversation. This circle met at the house of one Schönkopf, a Weinhändler and Hauswirth, living in the Brühl, No. 79. To translate these words into English equivalents would only mislead the reader. Schönkopf kept neither an hotel, nor a public-house, but what in Germany is a substitute for both. He sold wine, and kept a table-d'hôte; occasionally also let bedrooms to travellers. His wife, a lively, cultivated woman, belonging to a good family in Frankfort, drew Frankfort visitors to the house; and with her Goethe soon became on terms of intimacy, which would seem surprising to the English reader who only heard of her as an innkeeper's wife. He became one of the family, and fell in love with the daughter. I must further beg the reader to understand that in Germany, to this day, there is a wide difference between the dining customs and our own. The English student, clerk, or bachelor, who dines at an eating-house, chop-house, or hotel, goes there simply to get his dinner, and perhaps look at the Times. Of the other diners he knows nothing, cares little. It is rare that a word is interchanged between him and his neighbour. Quite otherwise in Germany. There the same society is generally to be found at the same table. The table-d'hôte is composed of a circle of habitués, varied by occasional visitors, who in time become, perhaps, members of the circle. Even with strangers conversation is freely interchanged; and in a little while friendships are formed over these dinner-tables, according as natural taste and likings assimilate, which, extending beyond the mere hour of dinner, are carried into the