rhymed. The word schleichenden, in the fourth line, which I have endeavored to express by “clinging” (Hayward has creeping,” Blackie “through his veins creeping,” and Dr. Hedge “trailing”), is nearly equivalent to the English phrase “dogging one’s steps.” The first of the three Angelic Choruses rejoices over Christ’s release from Mortality, the second exalts him as the “Loving One,” and the third celebrates his restoration to the Divine creative activity.
Goethe heard a similar chant sung by the common people in Rome, in the year 1788; but his immediate model was undoubtedly the German Easter-hymn of the Middle Ages, many variations of which are given in Wackernagel’s work, One of these, dating from the thirteenth century, thus commences:—
The universal Easter greeting, at this day, among the Greeks, is Christos aneste! and the answer: alethos aneste! The same custom prevails throughout Russia, and in some parts of Catholic Germany.
In 1772, Goethe, writing to Kestner on Christmas Day, says: “The watchman on the tower trumpeted his hymn and awakened me: Praised be thou, Jesus Christ! I dearly love this time of the year, and the hymns that are sung.”
33. And prayer dissolved me in a fervent bliss.
Again Goethe recalls his own early memories. These lines describe the religious exaltation excited in his boyish nature by Fraulein von Klettenburg, whom he has introduced into Wilhelm Meister (Book VI.), in the “Confessions of a Fair Spirit.” The above line suggests a passage of this episode: “Once I prayed, out of the depth of my heart:
