as well as those on page 39, were added by Riemer, under Goethe’s direction. They thus appeared in the twelfth volume of Goethe’s Complete Works, in 1828, and it is understood that they were intended to indicate additional scenes, not written at the time. The failure, afterwards, to fill these gaps, was certainly not forgetfulness, as Düntzer charges, but rather weariness and the absence of fortunate moods, on the part of the octogenarian poet.
A theatrical atmosphere undoubtedly pervades, not only this, but many other scenes of the Second Part of Faust, and the English reader who may be not always agreeably conscious of this circumstance, should bear in mind that Goethe’s long management of the Weimar theatre, and his constant production of plays, masques, and vaudevilles (many of them of an “occasional” character), led him to consider, while writing, the possible representation of the drama upon the German stage. Prince Radzivill had already composed music for the First Part (in 1814), and at the very time when Goethe was preparing the Carnival Masquerade for publication, in 1828, Karl von Holtei was engaged in bringing out the First Part as a melodrama, with music by Eberwein. Nor must we forget that the German public had been educated to an appreciation and enjoyment of even allegorical representations. After Sophocles had been produced on the Weimar stage, and Schiller had revived the antique Chorus in his “Bride of Messina,” Goethe not unreasonably conjectured that the Second Part of Faust might be acceptably represented. The attempt has not yet been made; but a day may come when it shall be possible.
22. Wood-Cutters, Pulcinelli. Parasites.
The ruder and less attractive—nay, frequently repellent—elements of Society are represented in these three classes. The interpretation of each will depend upon the circumstance, whether we give them a purely social, or also a political character. In the former case, the Wood-Cutters are typical of those coarse-natured, brusque individuals, who pride themselves on disregarding the social graces and pro-
