wherein the elves represent the delicate, mysterious agencies through which Nature operates on the human soul. Ariel—who was Poetry in the Intermezzo of the Walpurgis-Night—here takes the place of Oberon as leader of the elves, possibly because the soul capable of a poetic apprehension of Nature is most open to her subtle consolations.
2. Four pauses makes the Night upon her courses.
Goethe here refers to the four vigiliæ, or night-watches, of the Romans, each of three hours; so that the whole, from six in the evening until six in the morning, include both sunset and sunrise. I see no reason to suspect, in addition, a reference to Jean Paul’s four phases of slumber, especially as the latter division is rather fantastic than real, the phases of healthy slumber being only three. The line,—
Then sprinkle him with Lethe’s drowsy spray,”
recalls a passage in one of Goethe's letters to Zelter: “With every breath we draw, an ethereal current of Lethe flows through our whole being, so that we remember our joys but imperfectly, our cares and sorrows scarcely at all.”
3. Chorus.
The four verses of the Chorus correspond to the four vigiliæ. The first describes the evening twilight; the second, the dead of night; the third, the coming of the dawn; and the fourth, the awaking to the day. The direction in regard to the chanting of the verses by the alternate or collective voices of the elves was added, in view of the possible representation of the drama upon the stage. Even where he had no such special intention, Goethe was fond of attaching a theatrical reality to his poetic creations; but throughout the Second Part he has purposely done this, in order to counteract the tendency of his symbolism to become vague and formless.
4. With a crash the Light draws near.
We may conjecture that Goethe had in his mind the Rospigliosi Aurora of Guido, which suggests noise and the sound of trumpets; but he also referred both to ancient myths and
