in 1800 Goethe commenced the composition of the Helena, which is frequently mentioned in his correspondence with Schiller during that year. He writes on one occasion: “During these eight days, I have fortunately been able to hold fast the conception of the situations, of which you already know, and my Helena has actually entered on the stage. But now the beauty in the rôle of my heroine attracts me so much, that I shall be disconsolate if I must at last (since the whole can only be represented as a spectral appearance) transform her into a grinning mask.” Schiller answers, apparently referring to former conversations: “It is a very important advantage, that you consciously advance from the (artistically) pure to the impure, instead of seeking a method of soaring from the impure to the pure, as is the case with the rest of us barbarians. In Faust, therefore, you must everywhere assert your right of force” (Faustrecht, an untranslatable pun).
In the autumn of 1800, Goethe laid the Helena aside, and devoted himself seriously to the completion of the First Part. He wrote the Walpurgis-Night and the scene of Valentine’s death, and then endeavored to fill the gap remaining between the Intermezzo and the “Dungeon” scene. In this he was unsuccessful, and all his remaining labor from that time until the publication of the First Part, complete, in 1808, was probably merely that of adjustment and revision. The depression which weighed upon him after Schiller’s death in 1805 affected his interest in Faust more than in any other of his literary plans.
When the First Part finally appeared, the following portions of the Second Part appear to have been already in existence: Scene I., and possibly a part of Scene II., of Act I.; Scene I. of Act II.; nearly the first half of Act III. (Helena); and some fragments of Act V. There is no doubt that Goethe knew, as he wrote to Zelter nearly twenty years afterwards, “what was still necessary to be written, but was not yet decided in regard to the how.” It is not necessary to recapitulate here all the interruptions, the varying literary and scientific interests, which came between the
