The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-21
MAS GOETHE A THIEF?

Il
curious article recently published by the we'll
known RfcrGteUr, Hermann Grimm, in the
PreuSSiSche JditrbUcher. 1t is entitled Goethe
and Suleika," and charges that several of the
pieces which the great poet published as his
own in his "Westostlichen Divan," were really
the production of Marianne Won Willemer with
whose name the readers of Goethes life are
tolerably familiar When Grimm made her ac-
quaintance not many years ago, she was gar
nlous old lady, whose chief occupation was
recalling the golden past when she had been
pretty and Goethe had been her friend and cor
respondent Herr Grimm wrtes:-
] remember distinctly one evening when we
had been walking together in the flower garden
talking of Goethe; the clouds were gathering in
the west, foreteling bad weather, and signing
wind was passing over the fields. / know not
how il was that GOethe's words from the West
ostlichen Divan,' "Ach, um dcine leuchten
Schwingen, West, vie schr ich dich beneide,'
came into my mind and as we walked along |
repeated them half to myself Marianne stood
still, looked at me for u while with her bright
and moving grey-blue eyes and said stop;
what makes you repeat that poem?' "Oh, it just
came to me so wildly, answered; lit IS one
of Goethe's most beautiful ones Marianne
still continued to look at me- as if she wanted to
say something, but could not make up her
mind to do so. Il will tell you something
called out suddenly. withoat knowing
yo,rS-you made it," This suppostion was,
after all, not very mush out of the way.
That part Of the ''Diyan' is almost entirely kept
up like duet, and l knew besides what large
share Marianne had had, generally SpeahjRg, in
the production of these poems. (Is not this
delicious y You must not tell ii to anybody
she began again after time holding out her
hand to me. eyes, ! did make those verses"
And yet il was Il surprise TO @ me. She then
ended the conversation and the next morning
was the day of her departure She was expected
at Ncuburg. near Heidelberg. From that place
had letter, in which, for the first time, she
expressed herself more openly upon her rela-
lions with Goethe. Frau Won Stein" she wrote,
II never knew; was never in Weimar, and saw
Goethe first in Frankfort in the year IA
During Il visit he paid us in the country,
from the 18th Of August till the 9th of
October, 1915, got to know him, and to love
him, and till four weeks before his death | was
in constant correspondence with him But his
letters were quite different TO those he wrote to
Frau Won Stein, and it seems to me fatal piece
of indiscretion that they should have been
printed. About six or eight weeks before
Goethes death he sent me neatly tied-up
packet, and wrote to me at the same time most
aftectionately, saying that he sent me herewith
my letters, and begged me to keep the packet
| unopened until the uncertain hour which, alas
! must but too soon strike. In the very hour that
| was told OF his death | broke the seal and
| found at once some lines in his own hand
| writing. They are in the new edition, and |
wish to impose upon you the task of finding
them" There was no difficulty about this.
| The poem is to be found among the posthumous
| ones (vii, 219):-''Vor die Augen meiner
Lieben," etc, Weimar, March s. 1881.
|
| subject OF our conversation in the garden. In
| the Divan' (she writes April 5, 1866 you must
| not sift anything; have nothing on my con-
science but the 'Ost und Westwinde, 'Hoch-
| begluckt in deiner Iiebe,' and Sag du hast wOhl
viel gedichtet.' But much of it have inspired,
| suggested, and experienced / think ] promised
| you the original of the West wind 1t differs
| very little from the printed version, but still
| Significantly. May this leaf be leaf of Spring
to you, and greet you stormily, for such a storm
blows here as we have not had for long"
On the 2lst of January 1857, she writes still
| more to the point
II send You with this letter the lines that you
asked for; after all, there is only one which
| G. altered, and | really do not know why,
for think my own are really more beautiful;
and so as not to disappoint your expectations
too greatly, / also send you few small bits
which then formed the greatest charm of our
correspondence, in which the secret could not
but be an essential Ingredient. Those which I
have marked out are from the Diyan of Hafs.
Now, when you read in the
Divan' the beautiful poem Geheimschrlft,
LAST euch, Diplomaten,' it will
no longer be secret writing to
you, and l again have told you something more
| should do SO just this evening, when | have
already been struggling for an hour with bad
pen and worse ink, is just because -, etc.
This has excited me so much that | resolved TO
write TO you at once, and send you this inclo-
| sure, which looked for few days age. | am
possessed with the feeling that l shall soon be
| no longer able TO write to you, so want to mako
up for lost time, and begin by sending you this
sheet KEGS true to me, and be discreet, and re-
member the little grandmother. VI. W."
InclOsed in this letter was a small sheet, on
one side of which was written:-"O "Ostwind,
WiedeTsehn d. Il. October 15.' WAS bedeutet
die Bewegung:' etc, the poem to be found in
the original edition of the ''Westostchen
Divan," p. 16l. Goethe has changed the fourth
stanZa, making it more passionate (did it never
strike Herr Grimm that the process might have
| been reversed, and that Frau Won Willemer
made it into Goethe-and-water in her cOpy),
and not to its advantage either, to my thinking?
On the other side OF the leaf stood the other
poem, "Ach um define feuchten SchwinGen ~
etc. but in this Goethe has altered very little.
"Hochbegluckt in deincr Leibe," which Mari
anne further confessed to, stands at page 1875 ia
the 'Diyan,' under the title OF ''Suleika:" and
"Sag du hast wOhl yiel gedichted,' at page 1872
under the same title.
As she says that she has inspired much beside.
(Which she may have forgotten we may sureLy
attribute 10 her some Others of the poems bear
ing the title of ''Suleika" For instance, "Al,
ich auf dem Euphrat schitfte,' where the las
stanza was no dOuOt originally something diff
terCnt--
Also traumt'ch, MOrgenrothe
BlitZt lDs Auge durch den Baum
Sag POcte sage Goethe,
p Was bedeutet dieser Traum?
simrock first drew attention to the necessary
alteration here of Hatem into Goethe, whicl
seems quite as natural as in the poem 'Hatem
page 49,