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Text
1874]
899
FRAU RATH.1
HE relations between the in Dr. Bohmer, August Wilhelm
tellectual world and dis Schlegel, and Schelling, affection
ately known to the literary public
tinguished women in Germany are
quite exceptional, and if, on first con as simple ‘ Caroline,’ if she has left
sideration of them, the foreigner is work behind her at all, has left it
amused by a tinge of somewhat fan in writings which pass under
tastic sentimentality, in the end he Schlegel’s name.
But of all gifted women, creative
becomes very favourably impressed
with the earnestness, sincerity, and or only appreciative, none has ever
been more nationally beloved than
amiability which pervade them.
A female artist, be the art she the lady whose name is prefixed to
professes what it may, is pursued this paper—the mother of Goethe,
by the public interest into all the called in her lifetime Frau Aja,
circumstances of her private life and now freshly remembered as Frau
and through all the processes of her Rath. During the year 1871 there
individual culture, and certainly appeared at Leipsic a collection of
receives from the spiritually edu letters to and from Frau Rath,
cated section of the country at edited by Herr Robert Keil; and as
large ample compensation, in en this contained no less than thirtycouragement and affection, for the four new letters from Frau Rath,
domestic sacrifices or social isolation and fifty-three new ones to her, it
the pursuit of art may involve. may be conceived that the interest
Nor is the interest confined only to created by it was considerable. It
those who have succeeded in mani does not, however, appear to have
festing their inner conceptions of life attracted any general attention in
and the world by distinct works or this country; and for readers outside
representations ; others find a warm of that circle which keeps a close
place in the national heart who have eye on German literature a notice
only exhibited an appreciation of of it may contain some novelty.
Katharina Elizabeth Goethe was,
the higher culture, and whose direct
influence has been confined to the as is well known, the daughter of
circles to which their conversation the SchultheissTextor of Frankfurt,
or correspondence extended. The of whom Goethe has related many
memory of Meta (known to us, pleasing traits in the Diclitung uncl
indeed, by hei’ exchange of sen Wahrheit, and whose portrait he
timents with Richardson, the has so prettily sketched as he re
novelist) is chiefly cherished across membered him in the still garden
the Rhine because she so valued at the back of Friedberg Street—
Klopstock and was by him deemed wrapt in his loose dressing-gown
so worthy of love in return ; and the and with a folded velvet cap on
great issues said to be attributable his head, wandering slowly to
to Rahel Levin, wife of Varnhagen and fro, and ministering to the
von Ense, must have had their wants of his pinks, tulips, and
source in her celebrity as an accom hyacinths. Elizabeth (as she more
plished talker, and in the letters commonly called herself) was born
which, with an easy hand, she in 1731, and was therefore only 18
distributed amongst all classes of when the great poet was born. Heri’
society. The intellectual daughter Keil, in the interesting introduction
of the Free Theologian, Michaelis, to his book, has pointed out that in
who was successively the wife of three of his works Goethe has en-
T
1 Frau Rath. Briefwechsel von K. E. Goethe nach den Originalen mitgetheilt von
Robert Keil. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1871.
�400
Frau Fath.
deavoured to depict his mother: in
Goetz von Berlichingen, in Wilhelm,
Meister, and in Hermann und Doro
thea. In looking over the extracts
he has adduced in proof, it strikes
one that the features, few as they are,
of Goetz’s wife, are by far the most
applicable to Frau Rath, as she has
drawn herself in the correspondence
under review. The cheerfulness, the
constancy, the shiftful household
habits, above all, the trust in God,
are each introduced; and, though the
strokes that bring out these traits
are slight, they are drawn with a
firm and masterly hand. How nobly
she shows in this little scene I—
4th Act.—Inn at Heilbronn.
Goetz.—What news, Elizabeth, of my
beloved adherents ?
Elizabeth.—Nothing certain. Some are
killed; some lie in the ToWer. No one can
or will give me closer particulars.
Goetz.—Is this the recompense of fide
lity— of childlike obedience? What be
comes of That it may be well with thee, and
thou mayst live long on the carthl
Elizabeth.—Bear husband! blame not our
heavenly Father. They have their reward:
it was born with them—an independent,
noble heart. In prison—they are free.
The allusion to his own mother,
in what Goethe says about the mo
ther of Wilhelm Meister and the
puppet-show, is very slight; but in
Hermann und Dorothea the love for
and pride in her son, as shown by
Lieschen—-her kind heart, thrift,
and humour—answer to qualities in
Frau Rath, and Herr Keil is con
vinced that the portrait is finished
from affectionate remembrances.
We are content to take his opinion;
but although fully recognising, as
we do, the similar traits, this charac
ter, as a whole, seems to owe some
of its attributes to other sources.
It appears that after the death of
Frau Rath, Goethe had contemplated
a direct poetical representation of
her, and even so late as the autumn
of 1831 he mentioned it to Riemer
as a work in posse and to be called
Aristeia. It was never, however,
accomplished, and Eckermann does
not appear to have even heard of
[September
the project. It is a curious thing
that, good critics as the Germans
are, it was a long time before the
literary imposture conceived by the
celebrated ‘child,’BettinaBrentano,
was fully unmasked ; and even then
the public seemed unwilling to dis
believe what they had once eagerly
accepted. Amongst the letters in
the book called Goethe's Correspond
ence with a Child are several pur
porting to have been written by the
Frau Rath to Bettina; but hardly
any of them answer in character,
tone, orthography, syntax, or any
thing else, to those in this collection.
Considering that Bettina was under
many obligations to Frau Rath, it
is hard to understand how she could
have brought herself to forge these
letters, which are so vapid and
colourless by the side of the genuine
ones ; and, what is worse, invent so
very malicious a scene as the sup
posed interview with Madame de
Stael at Bethmann-Schaaf. It can
not be called less than malicious,
because it was the outcome of a
deliberate attempt to turn the old
lady into ridicule, and to exhibit her
in a contemptible light. Now that
the narrative is known to be false,
it reads so like a caricature that
wonder arises at its long vitality
as a graphic anecdote. But it
would be presumptuous in any
one not German to say he should
have had suspicions from the first.
As it is now relegated to the
regions of ill-natured fiction, an
outline of it may be found curious,
and even instructive, as affording,
by a picture of what the original
was not, some idea of what she was.
Frau Hath (says Bettina) had adorned
herself in a wonderful way: certainly more
in accordance with German eccentricity
than French taste. Three waving feathers
floated from different sides of her head : a
red one, a white one, and a blue—the
French national colours—and had for a
groundwork a field of sunflowers! She
was painted with much art; her large
black eyes discharged flashes of artillery !
Round her neck was twisted the golden
ornament given her by the Queen of Prussia.
Old-fashioned lace of extraordinary richness
�1874]
Frau Rath,.
concealed her bosom. And thus she stood
with her white glace gloves, waving an
elegant fan in one hand, and with the other,
which was uncovered and be-ringed with
glittering stones,—taking an occasional
pinch from her gold snuff-box, on which
was a miniature of Goethe. At length
Madame de Stael arrived, conducted by
Benjamin Constant. As she stepped by
Frau Rath, whose astounding habiliments
were well calculated to disgust her, the
latter stretched out her dress with her left
hand and saluted with her fan, and whilst
thus continuously bowing with great con
descension, said in a loud, clear voice:
‘Je suis la Mere de Goethe.’ On which
the authoress replied, ‘Ah, je suis charmec; ’
and a dead silence fell on everybody.
Bettina professes to have wit
nessed this scene, but it is known
now that she was not in Frankfurt
when Madame de Stael visited that
city. Herr Keil is not disposed to
let Frau von Arnim go scot-free
after this imposture, and quotes
with great approval a satire of long
standing against her, in which the
contrarieties of her character are
depicted, at first with some point,
but afterwards with much tedious
ness. ‘ Half witch, half angel; half
priestess, half bayadere; half cat,
half dove ; half bird, half snake; half
lizard, half butterfly! ’ and so on
to lengths whither English faculties
of being entertained are unable to
follow.
Although the great interest which
Frau Rath created was mainly due,
of course, to her connection with
the national poet, yet, when people
had once made her acquaintance on
this account, they soon became
desirous of increasing it to a friend
ship with her for her own sake.
She was not literary; she had no
gifts of authorship. ‘ I have never,’
she says in a letter to her son,
‘ written even an A. B. C. book, and
my genius will in future guard me
against any possibility of the sort.’
In another place she repudiates,
with great vivacity, the idea of
writing a diary. ‘The good God
will not let me sink so low, that I
should reach the depth of keeping a
iournal. Forbid it, Heaven ! ’ Nor
401
does she seem to have read much;
but she was quite able to appreciate
anything that was put before her,
and could give sensible reasons
for admiring their works, both
to her son and Wieland who was
especially fond of her, and always
supplied her with the new number
of his h/L&rlmr. She delighted
also in the society of intellectual
people; was interested in drawings,
fond of music, and passionately
attached to the theatre. But the
traits in her character which
had such a charm for all who came
within her influence, were her love
of innocent pleasures, her cheer
fulness, her healthy philosophy in
clining always to the hopeful side of
things, and her dread of unrest
which led her to avoid all un
necessary emotions of a painful and
agitating sort, associating them in
her mind rather with, sins than with
the natural sorrows of life. Add to
this that she was, above all, the ‘ gute
Gattin und Deutsche Hausfrau: ’
great in her roasted venison and
fatted capons, and glorious in her
flagons of ‘ tyrants’ blood ’—a Rhine
wine which the Grand Duke, Karl
August, said pulled him through a
severe attack of illness.
In the early part of this collection
of letters, the old Herr Rath Goethe
himself is found, still moving about
that house his son has made so
familiar to everybody, but subdued
and silent, and greatly changed
from the meddlesome, but wellintentioned, father of the first books
of the Dichtung und Wahrheit. He
died in 1782, and for some years
after Frau Rath continued in the
family mansion ; but she sold it in
1795, and a^ a later period took up
her quarters in the Rossmarkt.
She was, of course, after his death
more free to shape her course in her
own fashion, and she has left more
than one charming vignette of her
daily life.
The following is from a letter to
the Grand Duchess Amalie (March
i783) :
�402
Frau Fath.
In the morning I attend to my little
housekeeping and other business matters,
and then my letters get themselves written.
No one ever had such a droll correspond
ence. Every month I clear my desk out,
and I never can do so without laughing.
Inside the scene is that of heaven—all
class distinctions done away with, and
high and low, saints, publicans, and sin
ners, in a heap together! A letter from
the pious Lavater lies, without animosity,
by the side of one from the actor, Gross
mann. In the afternoon my friends have
the right to visit me ; but they all have to
clear out by four o’clock, for then I dress
myself, and either go to the play or else
pay calls. At nine I am back again home.
On Saturdays she used to assemble
around her a party of girls (Samstagmiidel). Frau Rath was a rare
hand at games, and had an extraor
dinary gift for relating stories in
an effective way. In Goethe’s poet
ical account of the hereditary origin
of the different elements in his own
character and person, the lines
Von Miitterchen die Frohnatur,
Die Lust zu fabuliren—
From mother dear the frolic soul, ’
The love of spinning fiction—
is strictly true.
Another aptitude Frau RatlTpossessed—one which perhaps more
than aDy other tends to make a
genial companion—was her ready
talent for jumping with the humour
of any of her friends. The witty
hunchback, Fraulein von Gochliausen, who was lady in waiting to
the Duchess Dowager Amalie, and
whose astounding adventure with
her bedroom door is told with much
humour by Mr. Lewes in his Life of
Goetlie, had a fancy for writing
doggerel, or what is called in
Germany ‘ Kniittel-vers,’ and often
indited letters to Frau Rath, con
ceived in this form. Not to be
behindhand, Frau Rath always
answered in the same false gallop,
and acquitted herself at least as well
as the Fraulein; both, it must be
confessed, often trembling on. the
verge of gibberish. I our lines,
however, by Frau Rath, Herr Keil
lias prefixed to his book, for the
sake of the motherly pride and
[September
tenderness which, in their rough
way, they express :—
In Versemachen habe nicht viel gethan,
Das sieht man diesen wahrlich an,
Docli habe ich geboren ein Knabelein schon,
Das thut das alles gar trefflich verstehn.
No great things have I done in rhyme,
As you may judge, at any time ;
But I a handsome lad can claim
Who knows full well the tuneful game.
In selecting a few extracts from
different letters, the choice will be
guided chiefly by the light they
seem to throw on Frau Rath’s
character and circumstances; but,
before these are given, a letter to
her of Goethe himself seems to claim
to be translated, as illustrating a
point of great interest in his history.
It is new, we believe, to the general
English public, and puts strongly
and clearly the view he took of his
situation at Weimar, and how he
was convinced, notwithstanding the
fears of his friends lest the work of
the Artist should suffer from the
position of the Minister, that the
freedom from pettiness and con
striction, and the insight into the
world, his increased rank gave him,
were essential to his culture, and
would end in his complete develop
ment. Events showed he was
triumphantly right.
August ii, 1781.
The Devin du Village arrived yesterday
with Melchior’s work. I have up to this
had neither time nor quiet to answer your
last dear letter. And yet it was a great
joy to see expressed once more tho old
familiar sentiments, and to read them in
your own handwriting. I entreat you not
to be troubled on my account, nor to let
anything mislead you. My health is far
better than I could have expected or hoped
in former days ; and if it but last me for
at least the bulk of my work still remain
ing, I sHall by no means have reason to be
dissatisfied with it. As for my position
itself, notwithstanding considerable draw
backs, it has much that is most desirable
for me; and the best proof of this is. that
I cannot think of any other with which I
could at present manage at all. No one
can conceive that it would be becoming in
me to be wishing, out of mere hypochon
driacal uneasiness, to be otherwise situated
than I am. Merck and others judge my
position quite wrongly : they see only what
�Frau Fath.
1874]
403
I sacrifice, not what I gain ; and they can
not understand that I become daily richer,
whilst I daily give up so much. You re
member the last time I was with you,
before I accomplished the move here, and
the conditions then existing: had they
continued, I should certainly have come to
misfortune. The disproportion between
the narrow and slowly-moved citizen
circle and the breadth and activity of
my being would have driven me mad.
With all my lively imagining and fore
casts of human affairs I should have con
tinued unacquainted with the world, and in
a state of perpetual childhood, and this
state, through self-conceit and cognate
faults, would have grown unbearable to
itself and every one around. How much
more fortunate it was to find myself in
relations, for which indeed I was no match,
but where I had the opportunity, through
inany errors of misunderstanding and hasti
ness, of learning to know myself and others,
and where, left to fate and my own resources,
I had to go through many trials, not in the
least necessary for hundreds of men, but of
which, for the completion of my culture, I
was sorely in need! And now, to be in my
element, how can I wish for a happier posi
tion than one which has for me something
of infinity about it ? For not only do new
capacities develop themselves in me daily
■—my notions grow clearer, my power in
creases—my acquirements are extended—
my discernment corrected, and my mind
rendered more active—but I find daily
opportunity of directing my endowments—
it may be towards great objects, or it may
be towards small.
affectionate interest. It is very
pleasing to observe the way in
which she and, indeed, many other
correspondents introduce trifling
matters about Goethe, as if quite
casually, but purposely so intro
ducing them doubtless to delight
the mother’s heart. Goethe does
not seem to have written directly
to the Frau Rath very often, and
therefore these side views of him
were especially welcome. The
Duchess calls him all sorts of nick
names ; at one time Dr. Wolff, at
another friend Wolff; but perhaps
the choicest title is ‘ Hatschelhans,’
which may be translated by any
fond, nonsensical word; ‘ sweet
poppet ’ will do as well as another.
In replying, Frau Rath, at the be
ginnings and endings, makes use of
those profound expressions of respect
for rank which were then universal
in Germany in intercourse between
citizens and the nobility; but in the
body of the letter she lets loose her
high spirits, and is completely her
self. Amidst all her fun and satire
she seldom omits some aphorism of
her homely philosophy, and in times
of any trouble she expresses herself
as being entirely supported by it.
In the first gloom of her widow
Then, after dwelling on the folly hood she thus writes to the
it would be to throw up a post so Duchess:—
suited in many respects to him, the
All future joys must be sought for
writer adds:—
amongst strangers, and out of my own
Meanwhile believe me that a large
measure of the good heart with which
I endure and work, proceeds from the
thought that all my sacrifices are voluntary,
and that I have only to put the posthorses to, and to find with you again a
competency and a pleasant life in which
the repose would be absolute. And with
out this outlook, to regard myself, as in
hours of distress I cannot but do, as a
bondsman and day labourer to my own
necessities, would be a far more painful
task.
Fare thee well.
good old friends.
Weimar.
liemember me to my
house, for there—all is still and vacant as
in the churchyard. It was far otherwise
once!
But since, throughout nature,
nothing remains in its own place, but whirls
into the eternal rolling circle, how can I
suppose I am to be an exception ? Frau
Aja expects nothing so absurd. . Who
would distress himself because it is not
always full moon, or because the sun now
(October) is not so warm as in July ? If
the present is only well used, and. no
thoughts entertained of how things might
be otherwise, one gets fairly through the
world, and the getting through is—all said
and done—the main thing.
Frau Aja, she says, is determined
to keep her good temper and spirits,
The Dowager Duchess Amalie and to drive away the foul fiend as
figures frequently in this volume, he was driven away in the time of
and always writes in a strain of King Saul. Then she adds :—
VOL. X.—NO. LVII.
G-.
NEW SERIES.
F F
�404
Frau Rath.
Herr Tabor (your Highness will re
member the name at least) has provided
splendidly for our amusement. The whole
winter we are to have the play! Won’t
there just be fiddling and trumpeting!
Ha! I should like to. see the evil spirit
who dare trouble me with melancholy!
Just one Sir John Falstaff would put him
to the rout. We had such a gaudium with
the old dog.
This ‘ gaudium ’ is a very favourite
word with Frau Rath, and other
pet phrases are ‘ Summa summarum,’ ‘ per ssecula saeculorum,’
‘ lirum larum,’ &c. They quite
give the hall-mark to her letters,
and the absence of it from Bettina’s
imitations is a blemish—viewing
forgery as one of the mimetic arts.
We have glimpses of an interchange
of presents. Frau Rath, with many
apologies for the liberty, sends the
Duchess some biscuits, and the
Duchess works a pair of garters for
her dear old friend. The garter
letter is one of the new ones; but
Mr. Lewes had seen it at Weimar,
and mentions it in his biography.
There are fourteen letters from
Wieland to Frau Rath, but only
one reply; that however, though
not new, is characteristic. Merck
had been staying with her, and she
had found, after his departure, a
letter to Wieland, which he had
written but never posted. She sent
it on, and writes herself:—
Dear Son,—Merck was three days with
us. When he was gone, I searched in his
room and cleared it out, which in the case
of poets is a very necessary task, as you can
sufficiently judge by the letter which preceded
this. For that poor letter would have lain
where it was, and never have reached its place
and destination, had Frau Aja had less in
sight into the poet-nature. But, thank
God, she is not yet out of practice, though
for these three years Herr Wolfgang
Goethe has no longer gladdened her house,
but allowed the light of his countenance to
shine at Weimar.
Wieland appears in a very amiable
aspect. His genuine pride in and
affection for Goethe, his entire
freedom from literary self-compla
cency, his cheerfulness, openness,
and affection are all delightful at
tributes. He is very funny about
[September
his little son. He married late in
life; and when the baby came, of
course, as is usual in such cases,
there never was such a baby ! He
begs Frau Rath to kindly overlook
his own thin body and spindle legs,
as he belongs, he says, to an age
when it was usual for poets to
dispense as much as possible with
the physical, and concentrate their
powers in their heads. Taking
this into consideration, and re
membering also the amount of
Agathons, Idris, Amadis, Biri
binkers, Gerons, &c., he had already
produced, he must say he thinks
the baby in every way creditable
to him. We like to have Goethe
called by him ‘ Brother Merlin, the
magician.’ It is not always easy
to take the second place, after you
have held the first, even although
your good sense may tell you it is
your place; but Wieland does it
with infinite grace. To one of the
Fraulein von Gochhausen’s letters
he adds a postscript to his ‘ liebes
Miitterchen ’ to say they were all at
Ettersburg, and that a little pastoral
piece by brother Wolf (Goethe)
had made him twenty-five years
younger. He sends his best com
pliments ‘an den guten lieben Papa,’
which means the old Rath. There
is yet another postscript to this
same epistle by the old Duchess :
‘ Dear Mother, I and my donkey
are here too.—Amalie.’
Goethe had taken with him to
Weimar from his home at Frank
fort a man named Philipp Seidel,
who was employed both as secre
tary and servant. Frau Rath en
deavours to get side glimpses of
her son every now and then through
this intelligent domestic, and there
is a letter from him describing the
performance of the West Indian, in
which Goethe (or, as Philipp has it,
the Geheime Legations Rath) played
Belcour, dressed in a white coat,
with blue silk waistcoat and
breeches; and when painted and
surmounted by a white dress wig,
looked in Philipp’s eyes very hand-
�1874]
Frau Fath.
some. Indeed, one can well imagine
he looked so in everybody’s eyes.
All were amateurs except two. The
Duke took the part of O'Flaherty,
and Musaeus that of the Lawyer;
Eckhof, the actor of whom Lessing
had so high an opinion, was Stockwell, and Madame Wolf, a profes
sional singer, also played. As we
have mentioned Philipp, we must
introduce the name of Elizabeth
Hoch — ‘ Lieschen ’ — a favourite
maid-servant of Frau Rath. To
her Goethe was never anything
more than ‘our young master,’ but
she lived to see the statue put up
to him at Frankfurt. To so genial
a person as Frau Rath it came
natural to make the relations of
mistress and servant very pleasant,
so that Lieschen stayed with her to
the last; and marrying when the
old lady was gone, though then
nearly fifty years old, she lived on
to the spring of 1846.
In January, 1784, Frau Rath
opened communications with Fried
rich von Stein, the son of the Baron
ess von Stein, with whom Goethe
exchanged tender sentiments and
savoury sausages, in the droll fashion
of the day, and whose correspond
ence with the poet is so well known.
The boy was only eleven, but he
served admirably the purpose to
which Frau Rath was desirousof put
ting him—that of chronicling little
events in which Goethe took apart.
‘ Don’t you think, now, you might
manage to keep a little diary, and
just pop down things that happen
before you, and then send it to me
once a month ? A few words would
do : “ Goethe was at the play last
night;” “ to-day we had company;”
and so on.’ Such was the'purport of
her first letter, and the lad seems to
have caught at the idea, and writ
ten regularly, and to have felt an
extraordinary interest in telling all
particulars about Goethe, to whom
he was greatly attached. Some of
the letters of Frau Rath to this boy
are truly charming, and convey hn
idea of the peculiar fascination she
405
exercised over the young. In send
ing him two silhouettes of herself,
she writes:—
In person I am reasonably tall and
reasonably stout; have brown hair and
eyes, and could represent tolerably well
the mother of Prince Hamlet. Many per
sons—amongst them the Princess of Dessau
—declare there could be no mistake about
Goethe being my son. I do not find it so;
but there must be something in it, it has
been said so often.
In another letter she gives an
account of a fire at the theatre,
which caused great loss to the
director, Grossmann. A subsequent
curious scene is described, which
could scarcely have happened
out of Germany. They soon got
the theatre open again, and played
‘ Der Teutsche FLausvater,' in which
the manager took the part of
the painter; but before it began,
the curtain drew up and discovered
Grossmann in his half-burnt coat,
and with his head and hands tied
up in rags. He then came forward,
surrounded by his six children, all
weeping bitterly, and delivered a
speech. The audience wept sympa
thetically, and the manager with
drew amidst thunders of applause.
The young Stein paid Frau Rath
a visit in the autumn of 1785, and
Goethe, writing to Knebel, says
‘ Fritz is in Frankfurt, and will
most likely see Blanchard go up this
week.’ Blanchard was a French
man who earned a great reputation
by going up in fire balloons—an
excessively dangerous feat, to which
our modern ascents in gas balloons
are mere child’s play. Fritz, how
ever, did not see him, as the very
common occurrence of the balloon
being burnt took place. Room must
be found for an amusing remini
scence of his visit, which Frau
Rath calls up in answering a letter
that announced the boy’s safe
arrival at home. Everything, she
says, reminds her of him—the pears
he used to eat while she had her
tea, and then the fun they had
dressing up fine, and getting them
selves powdered and puffed.
�406
Frau Bath.
And then the vis-a-vis at table, and how
at two o’clock (I must admit, often very
rudely) I hunted my cherub into the
Fair; and how we met again at the play
house and came back home together, and,
lastly, the drama for two characters in the
hall, where fat Katherine attended to the
lighting, and Greineld and Marie repre
sented the audience—that was sport in
deed!
This Friedrich, in later life,
entered the Prussian political ser
vice, and died in 1844, holding a
high appointment at Breslau.
In August, 1797, Goethe took
Christiane Vulpius and his son
August to visit Frau Rath, who re
ceived them, most kindly. She
always alluded to Christiane as her
dear daughter, and sometimes wrote
to her in terms of sincere affection.
She lived to see Goethe married to
her. August had a great attach
ment to his grandmother, and ex
pressed himself very feelingly at
her death,
The only letters in this collection
which are disappointing are those
to the actor, Unzelmann. For
once, Frau Rath seems a little to
lose her simplicity and freshness;
there is an extravagance in the ex
pressions—the sentiment is pitched
too high, and a flavour of passion
ate affectation is perceptible to
which 4 beautiful souls ’ and other
fantastic beings were at that time
sadly addicted. Sometimes she
rallies and is her own healthy self
again, but the mere fact of writing
to Unzelmann seems sooner or later
to necessitate a bit of overstrained
writing.
As the book wears to its close the
reader becomes aware that Frau Rath
has changed with the cbangingyears,
and has lost some of the vivacity
so conspicuous in the earlier pages.
The jolly housewife who used to
sing hep son’s song of 4 The King
and his Flea,’ and call on the guests
for a chorus ; who poured out her
choice wine, and enjoyed nothing so
much as 4 ein lierzliches gaudium,’
and in her yearly feast could cater
nobly for forty friends, tones down
[September 1874
gradually to a calm and unexcitable
old lady, retaining, however, to the
last her easily-amused temperament,
and enjoying great peace of mind
from her belief that God could
safely be trusted. And so, with no
regrets for the past, and no feverish
curiosity about the future, her wellordered life drew to its end. She
had read the flower of Goethe’s com
positions, and had had the pride of
knowing that Germany recognised
him as its greatest man ; and with
this proud thought she might well
sing Nunc
Her death
seems at last to have been some
what sudden, as we gather from a
letter in which August announced
the event to his mother; but faith
ful Lieschen was with her, tenderly
caring for her. And she had inti
mation at least that her hour was
near, for, with characteristic calm
ness and foresight, she had made
every arrangement for the funeral,
descending so far into details as to
order wine and biscuits for the at
tendants. The date of death was
September 13, 1808 ; and on the
15th the remains were laid in the
old Frankfurt Friedhof, where, on
the right hand as you enter, a recent
gravestone now marks the spot.
Herr Keil has performed his task
as editor with much completeness.
He has selected from other pub
lished sources several interesting
letters, and has so pieced them in
with his original matter that shape
and proportion are given to the
volume as a whole. Those who are
conversant with German publica
tions—a largely increasing section
of the public—will know that the
days of botanical drying-paper and
half-impressed black letter have
passed away, and that Leipsic and,
perhaps still more, Berlin now vie
in beauty of typography and ele
gance of finish with Paris. Herr
Keil’s book is quite up to the
standard of the day in its clear
type and excellent paper, and is fur
nished, moreover, with convenient
indices.
J. W. Sherer.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Frau Rath
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Sherer, J.W.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: p. 399-406 ; 22 cm.
Notes: Printed in double columns. Includes bibliographical references. A review of Frau Rath, Briefwechsel von K.E. Goethe nach den Originalen von Robert Keil. Lepizig: Brockhaus, 1871. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Date
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1874
Identifier
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CT36
Subject
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Book reviews
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Frau Rath), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Book Reviews
Conway Tracts
Katharina Elizabeth Goethe
Women