“What can be expected,” said I to him, “from a five-act play, finished in four weeks?”
“I mean to dedicate Werner,” said he, “to Goëthe. I look upon him as the greatest genius that the age has produced. I desired Murray to inscribe his name to a former work; but he pretends my letter containing the order came too late.—It would have been more worthy of him than this.”
“I have a great curiosity about every thing relating to Goëthe, and please myself with thinking there is some analogy between our characters and writings. So much interest do I take in him, that I offered to give 100l. to any person who would translate his ‘Memoirs,’ for my own reading.[1] Shelley has sometimes explained part of them to me. He seems to be very superstitious, and is a believer in astrology,—or rather was, for he was very young when he wrote the first part of his Life. I would give the world to read ‘Faust’ in the original.
- ↑ An English translation of this interesting work has lately appeared, in 2 vols. 8vo.
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