Goethe On The Theater: Selections From The Conversations With Eckermann (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt From Goethe On The Theater: Selections From The Conversations With Eckermann In 1823, Nine Years Before GoetheS Death, Johann Peter Eckermann, A Young Man In His Early Thirties, Journeyed On Foot From Han Over To Weimar In Order To Meet Face To Face The Poet And Dramatist, Whose Works He Had Deeply Admired. He Was Cordially Re Ceived, And Soon Became An Almost Daily Visi Tor At GoetheS House. His Modest And Gen Tle Disposition, And His Genuine Enthusiasm For Literature And Art, And Particularly For The Drama, Seem To Have Endeared Him To The Aging Poet, Who Admitted Him To An Intimacy Denied To Far Abler Men. EckermannS Some What Passive Nature Was No Doubt More Agreeable Than A More Assertive Character Would Have Been. Despite His Mental Vigor, Goethe Was In His Last Years Frequently Un Well, And There Are Occasional Hints In The Conversations Of The Ruses Which He Adopted To Avoid Wearying Himself With Un Congenial Visitors. Probably, Too, He Had A Shrewd Idea That This Sensitive Adorer Mighttransmit To Posterity A Portrait Worth The Having, And More attering Than One From The Hand Of A More Vigorous Artist. Many Years Before, Goethe Had Met Madame De Stael, Who Made No Secret Of The Fact That She Intended To Immortalize Their Conversa Tion In Print. But Goethe Was Repelled Rather Than Stimulated By The Brilliant Frenchwoman, And He Might Well Have Feared That The Outlines Of A Likeness Of Him Self Etched By Her Hand Would Be Unduly Sharpened. Certainly He Had Nothing Of The Sort To Fear From Eckermann. He Knew Quite Well What His Disciple Was Doing; The Writing And Publication Of The Conversa Tions Was Agreed Upon By The Two Men Some Years Before GoetheS Death. It Was A Happy Inspiration; Few Books Throw More Light Upon The Convictions Of GoetheS Maturity, Or Give A More Vivid Impression Of His Personality. About The Publisher Forgotten Books Publishes Hundreds Of Thousands Of Rare And Classic Books. Find More At This Book Is A Reproduction Of An Important Historical Work. Forgotten Books Uses State-Of-The-Art Technology To Digitally Reconstruct The Work, Preserving The Original Format Whilst Repairing Imperfections Present In The Aged Copy. In Rare Cases, An Imperfection In The Original, Such As A Blemish Or Missing Page, May Be Replicated In Our Edition. We Do, However, Repair The Vast Majority Of Imperfections Successfully; Any Imperfections That Remain Are Intentionally Left To Preserve The State Of Such Historical Works.