GOETHE 125 absurd imitation of the despotism of Louis XIV. In Germany, the revolt against the traditions of the past showed itself in the new outburst of national literature. Young men were sick of the sway of France and the French lan- guage, to which Frederick even had been so subservient. In all senses Frederick was now a very old lion and there were those who said he had lost his teeth. To 'be German, to write and read German, to recall German memories, and to throw off conventional restraints of whatever kind such was the drift and determina- tion of the movement which received the excellent title of the *' Sturm und Drang." Soon after Goethe left Strasburg he printed his play of " Goetz von Ber- lichingen." The hero is a true character of history. He was born about the year 1480 and died in 1562. His life had been published in 1731, and Goethe made the drama on the lines of the true history. The play defies all the " unities " of the French drama, like the plays of Shakespeare, whom all the young Ger- mans were reading with enthusiasm ; and the action passes from place to place, and from year to year, just as the author chooses. The whole tendency of the drama is revolutionary, and as Goetz dies, his last words are : " Freedom ! Free- dom ! " His wife cries, " Only above, above with thee ! The world is a prison- house." His sister says, "Gallant and gentle ! Woe to this age that has lost thee ! " And the last words of the play are : " And woe to the future that cannot know thee." With such an appeal to all the fresh young life of Germany, the young author comes before the world. His play is received with enthusiasm and, at the first step, his genius is recognized by his countrymen. Before it was published, he had returned to Frankfort, having in a way satis- fied his father's wishes by his legal studies, and his career for his future calling is to begin in a residence at Weslar. This was the seat of the Court of Appeal of the old German Empire. How far justice was really promoted, may be seen from the single statement that, while the docket of cases was twenty thousand behindhand in 1772, only sixty decisions were made in a year. In what was called praxis or practice, the young Goethe was placed in a " circumlocution office" like Weslar. There is something ludicrous in the position, so absurd is it To take Schiller's capital figure, it is indeed Pegasus in harness. It happened that in this formal residence, he became intimately acquainted with Charlotte Buff and a young man named Kestner, to whom she was be- trothed. They were fond of him, he of them, and he shared in the hospitalities of their new home after they were married. In the simple life of Kestner and Charlotte Buff and in the suicide of a young man named Jerusalem, whom they all knew, he found the details for the picture of life described in his celebrated novel called the " Sorrows of Young Werther," the novel most remarkable per- haps of modern times, if its influence on literature and society be regarded. In the characters of the book, Werther, Lotte, and Albert show traits which were at once recognized as belonging to Goethe, Charlotte Buff, and Kestner. But it must not be understood that the intricate " elective affinities " of the novel
