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every appliance was sought after which eternal effect demanded. It took place behind a large white curtain en silhoutte. In the Histoire universelle des Théâtres there is only one example of a theatrical representation of this kind, namely, the drama which Chiron presented to his pupil, Achilles, and which had the same object and significance as the Tiefurt drama. In antiquity such representations were called umbræ palpitantes, by moderns, ombres chinoises. They were introduced at the Weimar Court about this time, by the Duke George of Saxe-Meiningen, and were very much in favor there.

The subject of this Tiefurt piece is remarkable: Jupiter (in the person of the painter Kraus, on whose shoulders was placed a colossal paste-board head), in order to frustrate the prophecy that on the accouchement of his wife Metis, he would be thrust from the throne, has devoured Metis. Thereupon he suffers terrible pains in the head; Ganymede, hovering behind him on a great eagle, offers him the cup of nectar: the pains of the Thunderer increase visibly, and Ganymede soars into the air to fetch Æsculapius and Vulcan. Esculapius seeks in vain to cure his master. A Cyclops, who is summoned, bleeds him at the nose, without effect. Then comes the powerful Vulcan (represented by the young Duke Karl August), who, holding in one hand his hammer, in the other a great iron bar, and encircled by an apron, approaches his suffering father, and with one good stroke of the hammer splits his divine skull, out of which proceeds Minerva, the goddess of wisdom (represented by Corona Schröter), at first quite a small figure, but by means of appropriate machinery becoming larger and larger every moment, till at last the whole of her tall, slim form is revealed, enveloped in light gauze. She is received by Father Zeus in the most friendly manner; and rich gifts are presented to her by all

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the gods. She is furnished with a helmet, an ægis, and a lance; Ganymede places Jupiter's owl at her feet, and amidst music and choral singing the curtain falls.

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In the third and last act, the poet had departed from the materials of the myth. He made the new-born goddess read in the Book of Fate, and find there the 28th of August* marked as one of the most fortunate days. She says that on that day three-and-thirty years ago a man was given to the world, who will be honored as one of the best and wisest.' Then appears a winged genius in the clouds, bearing Goethe's name. Minerva crowns this name, and at the same time dedicates to it the divine gifts which have been immemorially the tokens of her favor; for example, the golden lyre of Apollo, and the flowery wreath of the Muses. The whip of Momus alone, on the thong of which stood the word Aves,' is laid aside and rejected by the goddess; while the names Iphigenia and Faust appear in the clouds in fire transparencies. At the close, Momus advances unbashed, and brings the reprobated symbol of his Art as a present to Goethe.

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Such was the opening and dedication of the new Weimar-Tiefurt Court Theatre. It is obvious that the piece was intended purely to celebrate the birthday of Goethe, the director of this social theatre; and gives us not a bad idea of the ingenuity and pains bestowed upon these amusements. The reader will not fail to notice that if Goethe prepared fêtes for the birthday of his Duchess, Weimar also prepared fêtes for the birthday of its poet.

Another favorite magic-lantern piece was King Midas, which is mentioned in Amalia's letters to Knebel in the year 1781. But the best known of the Tiefurt dramas is Goethe's Operetta Die Fischerin, performed in the sum

* Goethe's birthday.

mer of 1782. The charming text, beginning with the famous Erl-König, is preserved in Goethe's works. The piece was represented in the Tiefurt park, partly on the bank of the Ilm near the bridge, partly on the Ilm itself, which was illuminated with numerous torches and lamps. Under lofty alders against the river were placed scattered huts of fishermen; nets, boats and fishing implements stood around. On Dortchen's (Corona Schröter) hearth fire was burning. At the moment in which the fishermen, who had been called together, lighted their strips of wood and torches, and spread themselves with their brilliant lights in boats and on the banks of the river, to search for the lost maiden, the light flashed suddenly up from the necks of land which stretched forward into the Ilm, illuminating the nearest objects, and showing their reflection. in the water, while the more distant groups of trees and hills lay in deep night. The spectators had assembled in great numbers, and as they crowded on the wooden bridge, the better to catch the magical effect of the illumination on the water, their weight crushed the bridge in, and the eager gazers fell into the river. No one, however, was injured. The involuntary bathers were heartily laughed at, and the accident was regarded as an amusing interlude.

I find further that when the Birds' of Aristophanes was performed at Ettersburg, the actors were all dressed in real feathers, their heads completely covered, though free to move. Their wings flapped, their eyes rolled, and ornithology was absurdly parodied. It is right to add, that besides these extravagances and ombres chinoises, there were very serious dramatic efforts: among them we find Goethe's second dramatic attempt, Die Mitschuldigen, which was thus cast:

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Little did the Leipsic student, when writing that comedy, imagine he would one day perform it at the court of Weimar! Another play was the Geschwister, written in three evenings, it is said out of love for the sweet eyes of Amalia Kotzebue, sister of the dramatist, then a youth. Kotzebue thus touches the point in his Memoirs: 'Goethe had at that time just written his charming piece, Die Geschwister. It was performed at a private theatre at Weimar, he himself playing William and my sister Mariane - while to me, yes to me was allotted the important part of postillion! My readers may imagine with what exultation I trod the stage for the first time before the mighty public itself." Another piece was Cumberland's West Indian, in which the Duke played Major O'Flaherty, Eckhoff (the great actor) the Father, and Goethe Belcour, dressed in a white coat with silver lace, blue silk vest, and blue silk knee breeches, in which they say he looked superb.

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While mentioning these, I must not pass over the Iphigenia (then in prose), which was thus cast:

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'Never shall I forget,' exclaims Dr. Hufeland, ‘ the im

Grecian costume;

Never before had

pression Goethe made as Orestes, in his one might have fancied him Apollo. there been seen such union of physical and intellectual beauty in one man!' His acting, as far as I can learn,

had the ordinary defects of amateur acting; it was impetuous and yet stiff, exaggerated and yet cold; and his fine sonorous voice displayed itself without nice reference to shades of meaning. In comic parts, on the other hand, he seems to have been excellent; the broader the fun, the more at home he felt; and one can imagine the rollicking animal spirits with which he animated the Marktschreier in the Plundersweiler; one can picture him in that extravagance of the Gepflichtes Braut,* giving vent to his sarcasm on the sentimental' tone of the age, ridiculing his own Werther, and merciless to Woldemar.†

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I have thus brought together, irrespective of dates, the scattered indications of these theatrical amusements. How much enjoyment was produced by them! what social pleasure! and what endless episodes to which memory recurred in after times, when seated round the dinner table! Nor were these amusements profitless. Wilhelm Meister was designed and partly written about this period, and the reader who knows Goethe's tendency to make all his works biographical, will not be surprised at the amount of theatrical experience which is mirrored in that work; nor at the earnestness which is there made to lurk beneath amusement, so that what to the crowd seems no more than a flattery of their tastes, is to the man himself a process of the highest culture.

Boar-hunting in the light of early dawn, sitting in the middle of the day in grave diplomacy and active council,. rehearsing during the afternoon, and enlivening the even

* Published under a very mitigated form, as the Triumph der Empfindsamkeit. See the next chapter for further notice of this

piece.

† Jacobi and Wieland were both seriously offended with his parodies of their writings; but both soon became reconciled to him.

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