[Goethe's works] . ceir inst icolai 11 ( ?;ied the talent of the work, he only echoed Lessings objec- ; s tendency. His criticism, moreover, was but in the scale against the praise which poured ies. Tiililli: w;.. rcacliiig the tragic story of Wi oars, a painful sense ?r sts of Kestner and ug ><i !i counsel of your heart, you would not cAge zu Groethes Werke : Lief. i. r ^ Portrait of Goethe Photogravure after the painting by (.eorge Darve. LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE 221 have so prostituted the real persons whose featuresyou borrow. You wished to draw from nature, thatyour picture might be
[Goethe's works] . ceir inst icolai 11 ( ?;ied the talent of the work, he only echoed Lessings objec- ; s tendency. His criticism, moreover, was but in the scale against the praise which poured ies. Tiililli: w;.. rcacliiig the tragic story of Wi oars, a painful sense ?r sts of Kestner and ug ><i !i counsel of your heart, you would not cAge zu Groethes Werke : Lief. i. r ^ Portrait of Goethe Photogravure after the painting by (.eorge Darve. LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE 221 have so prostituted the real persons whose featuresyou borrow. You wished to draw from nature, thatyour picture might be truthful; and yet you have com-bined so much that is contradictory, that you havemissed the very mark at which you aimed. The dis-tinguished author will revolt against this judgment,but I appeal to reality and truth itself when I pro-nounce that the artist has failed. The real Lottewould, in many instances, be grieved if she were like theLotte you have there painted. I know well that it issaid to be a character compounded of two, but the whom you have partly inwoven was also incapableof what you attribute to your heroine. But thisexpenditure of fiction was not at all necessary to yourend, to nature and truth, for it was without any suchbehaviour on the part of a woman — a behaviourwhich must ever be dishonourable even to a more thanordinary woman — that Jerusalem shot himself. The real Lotte, whose friend you nevertheless wish
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgoethejo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1901
