16. Carnival Masquerade.
In the “Carnival Masquerade” we reach the first entangling episode of the Second Part of Faust. That the entire scene is an allegory, is evident; and we can scarcely be mistaken in assuming its chief motive to be the representation of the human race in its social and political organization. This basis has been accepted, almost, unanimously, by the German critics; but upon it each has built his own individual theory of the development of the idea through the characters introduced. Whether intentionally or unconsciously, Goethe himself has added not a little to the confusion by introducing, now and then, a double (possibly even a triple) symbolism: therefore, although we may feel tolerably secure in regard to the elements which he represents, so many additional meanings are suggested that we walk the labyrinth with a continual suspicion of our path.
I shall endeavor to hold fast to the firm determination with which I commenced the work,—that of not adding another to the many theories already in existence. The reader, nevertheless, requires, if not an infallible clew, at least an adequate number of indications pointing in the same direction, to carry him forwards. Unless he is sufficiently interested to add his own guesses, on the way, to those of the critics and commentators,—to perceive, at least, the concentric meanings in which the allegorical forms are enveloped,—he will probably grow weary long before this digression returns again to the original course of the drama.
The design of the Carnival Masquerade is similar to that of Scene II. (“Before the City-Gate”) of the First Part. The latter gives us a picture of life in a small German town,—a narrow circle of individual characters, as they would appear to Faust in his “little world.” The broader sphere into which he has now entered requires an equally broad and comprehensive picture of Human Life, as it is moulded by Society and Government. Schiller, to whom Goethe confided his literary plans more fully than to any other friend, foresaw the difficulty to be encountered. He wrote (in June
