The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-18

telectual but Goethe's love was evidently n
harmless If not quite an innocent sentiment.
1t was held in check by his strong will and
his sense of honor, and even more, per-
haps. by Lottes steadfast loyalty and serene
dignity. 1t was yet far from Platonic
attachment. calm and cool and wise: it was
warm and tender and foolish enough, but
impassioned rather than passlonate-ideal
and IMAGINATIVE, a luxury of sensiblity and
fancy The woman was not the need of his
great life, but to love her was the necessity
of his genius. The man could forego her,
but the artist made royal claim to as much OF
her as he required for his great plan; for, as
he said, "'Werther' must, must be.
The three friends-a wonderful triad-lived
on in the closest intimacy for some two years,
Goethe's affection bringing no disquietude to
Kestner, no shadow of reproach upon his
Lotte. The poet-lover even furnished the
wedding-ring, and afterwards offered to stand
godfather for their first boy, who was named
for him.
About the time of little Wolfgang's birth,
Goethe wrote to his mother, II will soon
send you friend who has much resemblance
to me, and hope you will receive him well:
he is named Werther
Kestner says-''As soon as the book was
printed, he sent us copy, and thought we
should fall into raptures with it.
But he had wofully miscalculated. The
hapless pair felt their faithful affection for
their friend, their love for each other, the
privacy of their home, all profaned. Char
lotte was inexpressibly grieved-Albert was
outraged. So, in acknowledging the book,
they wrote to their great friend in q strain of
sorrowful surprise and reproach, which first
revealed to him the astonishing blunder
he had made. Before this he had but
waited for their glad approval to crown
his fame, as the wreath for the intoxi-
eating wine-cup of his success. He was ex-
ulting in the royal Immortality he had be-
slowed upon them in return for their humble
love and fealty. HHd he not made his faithful
Albert q marked and envied man as the pos
SCISSOR of that peerless heroine of romance?
Had he not embalmed Charlotte's amiable
name in the tears and sighs of admiring
thousands? But the perverse Kestner saw
little glory in being identified with that
miserable creature of an Albert" the
husband of a woman who looks with sem
timental indulgence, with tender smiles
and naive Establishments, on the passion
of a false friend, and for whom that false
friend sighs and poetizes and maddens till he
blows his unhappy secret and his brains out
together. The prudsh Charlotte felt that
those sighs and tears of voluptuous pity and
passion would breathe on her pure fame a
nameless taint that must ever cling to it-not
embalming but withering.
For his part, Goethe showed how truly
great he was by taking to heart their sad
complaint, acknowledging his error, and
humbly and passionately entreating their
pardon. And they forgave him, and tried to
forget it, but the world would not let them.
| They lived ever after in the glare of their
questionable glory. The privacy and dignity
of the old life never returned. The faith of
the constant husband was not as contagious
| as the morbid romance of the novel.
| Poor Madame Kestner, q modest, sensitive
| little woman, saw her double, so like vet SO
cruelty unlike, everywhere, in every language
and in every form. She was sung, and painted,
| and carved, and baked in china, and wrought
into tapestry, and stitched into embroideries.
She stood in perpetual mourning at the tomb
of Werther in doleful prints; she simpered in
her ball dress on tea-trays, and swung on
sign-boards cutting bread and butter for hum
| CRY travellers. She must have felt like a
poor little bird spitted alive on the diamond
pointed pen of the great novelist.
The loyal friendship between the three
never wholly died out, but the old init
macy was not renewed. Indeed Madame
Kestner never again met Goethe till she
mother of twelve children, when she visited
him at Weimar. What meeting that must
have been
Charlotte has been described as a very
charming old lady, lively and gracious; so the
majestic old poet had not to blush as he re-
called the admiration of his youth.
Our friend the chevalier had in his
possession nearly all of the letters per-
tanning to the publication of ''Werther, "
as we'll as much of the preceding and
succeeding correspondence between Goethe
and his parents. Mr.. Lewes has made free
use of these interesting letters; and it is plea
SAINT to know, even at this late day, that the
real Charlotte was not only an admirable
daughter, sister, and friend, but loving
wife and noble mother; that she was always
worthy to cut bread and butter for innocent
children; that she had none of the weak SEN
sibility and sentimentality of the heroine OF
Werther, who so daintily dallies with sin and
demurely plays with fire, and whose rashness
is only equalled by her cowardice.
The Chevalier had a profound and tender
respect for the memory of his father, the no
blest of all the early friends of Goethe while
of his mother, the sweetest of all the loves Of
the great poet, he spoke to familiar friends
more and more frequently and fondly as he
grew old, and felt himself nearing her day by
day. Whenever l saw him there arose in my
mind q fair vision of lovely German nader
in ''plain white gown with pale pink rib
bons, either with ''loaf in her hand" ant
the little ones around her at home, or Joy
ously dancing an dHemdRde with Werther a
the ball. Yet as / looked on his pale
withered face, found it difficult to realiz
that it had been kissed over and over by thC
''sweet lips" about which Werther raves
saying, "Could / live one moment on thost
lips, / would eontentedly die the next.
1t was difficult to think of this grey-haireC
old diplomat as a flaxen-headed little lad
taking real bread and butter from those be