The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-29

placed his william Shakespeare In the
forefront OF works about the English
poet.
1t is especially in the chapters on
Faust that Brandes eliminates tho
Goethe ideal. With Faust, dating
from 1775,' writes Brandes, Goethe
reaches an altitude as poet which in
strIbes his name alongside the greatest
men on the globe. These one hundred
pages contain a luxurious mass of feel
!ng. wit. fantasy and common sense:
such Astounding melody and 80 SUI
pcrior an art in the sketching OF three
very human and yet symbolical figures
th1, Ill criticism OF lesser things dis
= YES Itself in devotionlike admiration.
This * written for all time. Sc long
Is the German language is understood
il ,anuo be forgotten
" other Goethe biographers before
HIM Brandcs shows what a mass OF
Writings stood to the credit Of the poet
before the Faust idea struck him as
Ha approached his twenty-ifth year.
The start Of Faust. according to
Hgdud,s. was as follows:
THE yourg Wolfgang Goethe wrote
uut q dramatic fragment. the idea for
Uh.,H appears To have come 10 him at
the close Of 1873. and which he e,abo-
rated hctwccn October, INA. and the
|reginn.Eg of l7T5. so far as 1t con-
,cru"d the larger part. and during
the late summer and the all of ITS
As II %pertained to the lesser half. lie
then lcit the writing as il was until
iI>N, during his second stay IN
Bone. Ne once more took hold and
' "I To- possess himself OF the spirit
and atmosphere that surrounded the
material IN the younger days. He first
V.b.shrd i IN 1890 as a Fragment.
Nevertheless" declares DR.. Brandes.
WAT be- prepared in the fall of 1916
VS.. however careless it's treatment,
'uu finest poetry written on this earth
during ,hc last $50 years; a poetry
.Hst no himself never surpassed"
Brandes says hat were one to seek
q reason why these pages are like
asbestos. TO be destroyed neither by
ire nor water nor time, the reason
shoGld be based upon the fact that in
Faust Goethe attains to and pene-
tates the purely elementary in human
nature. lie here defines love and
sentiment as these qualities first re-
va. themselves in the life of a young
Woman. i~nscparable as they are in
their eternal simplicity, yet .mmovable
and strong as granite rock. The on
trasting figure is man the investigator:
one who thirsts after all encompass
iuy knowledge: who wants to learn
TIE origin of existence. the power OF
nature. the whole Of LIES rich and
secret contents. Goethe brings before
this mortal a young woman who at
tracts and fascinates. n yet fails
to bind and hold him prisoner.
Brandes writes that il was in Leip-
sic while "A young student that Goethe
became acquainted with A~uerbach's
neys and adventures of Faust and
Mephistopheles. In Frankfort, where
he he,itated between the pious teach
lngs of Fraulein Won Kettenberg n
the ~.ncredulity OF the period due to the
influence of Voltaire, he had busted
himself with alchemy n cabalistics.
IL had even tried his hand at being
magician. But IL was his stay In
Strassburg that proved decisive.
II was here hat the suffering
Herder supplied him with the outline
10 Faust. No one Goethe knew had
been the student like Herder, no n
approached him as genius. he thought.
IIerder's self-esteem was beyond
measure. In addition, the constant
satire and sarcasm as employed by
Horder furnished Goethe the clue TO
his Mrphistopheles. the sketching be-
ing made more complete later under
the influence Of Merck.
The Gretchen ideal Goethe obtained
from Frirderikc, but Gretchen's lame
was a transportation, referring to the
young girl with whom the ifteen-year-
old boy had been in love.
an The Italian Journey" writes
Brandes, Goethe tells us, under late
OF March |, l7SS. about his reflections
over the last three volumes of his coll
lerted works. He has laid the plan to
his Faust and thinks this undertaking
promises success.
"'uf course he says, 1T IL n dif-
fereut matter 10 write the piece now
than fifteen years earlier but he be-
leycs he has recovered the lost thread:
Even as concern. the tone of the
whole, ! console myself. I have already
written "a new scene, and should /
smoke the paper ! am sure no n
could tell it, difference from the old
scenes. Since my long rest n iso-
la'.on | have been brought back to my
former condition, and l am struck
With the fact that ] am my W self
ana that my consciousness Is but
h''." affected By years End events
Ell IS remarkable how Goethe de-
co.roa himself. Neither the spirit nor
~" tone Of the scenes that the poet
added 10 the older sketches while in
Italy resembles the latter. that he
brought with him,
There is, first. the scene In the
wlioh's kitchen, In which the magic
drink causes Faust's regeneration.
something never thought of origi-
nally. There is a very
curious start with Mephistopheles's
rational explanation of a possible re-
gaining 90 youth.
"Fher" is a certain struggle between
oil this ghOstlike material and all the
fairy creatures appearing in the
w,trh's kitchen; the talking felines
Of both sexes, and then Mephistoph-
Gloss answer TO Faust's query whether
rl'uro ana art have no better means
10 rd him II thirty years tina an
Oh wuman's foolish magic. He an
SN"rs, Yes. Of course, n you so de-
sire, You need neither doctor nor sor-
Gerry nor money. lust take a pick n
Ayddc. dig mp the soil. fertilize II and
c%"''lv1to II 1.-Two simply: that In the