Having chosen to fight fire with fire, the author of these letters could not change the events of the Werther story. He must, then, get his results from the emphasis he puts on the events. Charlotte is an odd mixture of Clarissa and Miss Howe; she is not wholly the "well-conducted person" of Thackeray, at the end-for she is so overwhelmed that she has to dictate to Theresa. In Goethe's story, Charlotte did 1This may be shown, as well as a single quotation can show it, by a passage from letter xv,-where the Miss Howe side, is, perhaps, upper most. ". . . 'Do not,' I said, 'do not subject your imagination to fictitious distress; it is thus you weary your spirits, and not only darken but shorten your days.' He sighed, and lifting up his eyes towards heaven; 'Alas!' he said, 'when I cannot bear to think of the time, when there will be no Charlotte, what days of misery must I count, when-but thou art here my Charlotte, and I will be composed.' 'Werter,' I replied, 'it is ungenerous to distress me thus ; you know Charlotte's friendship is-' 'It is,' said he, 'beyond all price it binds me to the earth, and gives me a foretaste of heaven.' 'There was a time,' I said, 'when Charlotte was unknown to Werter; recollect those days, and be happy.' 'Alas!' he replied, 'the recollection of past pleasures, however innocent, makes us melancholy. I never yet felt content so absolute, but that hope flattered me with unknown prospects; and now the paradise, the blooming Eden, is revealed one moment I feast on celestial delicacies; the landscape shows nothing but perennial brilliancy: it vanishes the next; just as the sun this moment sinks behind the hills, and, like him, leaves a few rays of hope to keep me from despair.' 'Yes,' said I, 'but you remember the poet : Sitting (sic) suns shall rise in glory And to-morrow, Werter, I shall expect your promised translation of a song of Ossian. It is now time to bid the children good-night.' "We went, and after kissing the children all round, I played some lively airs on my harpsichord; and, soon after my father came, Werter went away, I thought, in tolerable spirits. "You see, my dear Carolina, you see there is a wild enthusiam in the friendship and sentiments of Werter, that must subject him to perpetual extremes of happiness or misery. That spark of divinity which animates his frame, resembles one of those glaring meteors that sometimes cross the hemisphere, at once exciting dread and pleasure. I thank heaven, the soul of Albert more resembles a fixed star." not "go on cutting bread and butter," so how could she here? even if the anonymous author had wanted to have her. The "antidotal" character of the book is more marked toward the end, when the author has to tell of the suicide he condemns. "How dangerous is that philosophy which lends its aid to melancholy, and dresses creation in the robes of sorrow! which extinguishes the lambent flame of cheerfulness, and sinks in clouds the glimmering star of reason! This is that fatal philosophy which, instead of repressing, gives internal succour to the passions, and adds the influence of sentiment to the emotions of desire; and, O my Carolina, this is the philosophy of Werter!" 2 "Now, my Carolina, now it is, that I feel the sacred influence of religious sentiment, and the unspeakable blessing of a spotless mind. Amidst all my distress, it conveys a sensation which philosophy cannot communicate. It is the holy star that guides my wandering steps, and saves me from despair!" After Werter has shot himself, and Charlotte has read his last letter, she apostrophizes him thus: * . "I shall say nothing of Albert's distress or of Charlotte's grief. . The steward and his sons followed the corpse to the grave. Albert was unable to accompany them. Charlotte's life was despaired of." End of Goethe's Sorrows of Werther. 2 Letter 1. 3 Letter lvii. Cf. also, letter lx: "Chance, no, it is not chance; for what, Father of lights, what has chance to do in a world governed by thy Providence?" * Letter lxiii, and last. In letter xiv, she had drawn Werter's character: "It seldom happens that the language of panegyric is just; yet so excellent is your judgment, that I cannot withhold my assent to the character you have drawn of Werter; but give me leave to tell you, the picture is not finished, and that another dash of the pencil, a dark shade, is wanting to perfect the likeness. "... Notwithstanding his philosophic reasonings, and the apparent complaisancy of his disposition, he is the very slave of a temper naturally impetuous, and, if I may so express it, rarefied by irritability of nerves, and extreme delicacy, or, at least, peculiarity of taste. "I cannot call Werter a synic; but his infirmity of temper is augmented by his delicacy of taste, and the most trifling occurrences make "O, Werter! was it not cruel for ever thus to wound the peace of Charlotte? Surely thy love-but despair led thee to the brink-despair taught thee this sad lesson!" May my death remove every obstacle to your happiness!' Death, Werter! Does it not add to our misery? Is not Albert unhappy? Is not Charlotte wretched? My father weeps over thee! we shall meet no more in the groves of Walheim! no more shall we see thee musing by the river in the valley. "His last letter recalls to my memory a thousand images of past felicity they . . . add to my grief. . . . "Sure, 'tis a fearful, a tremendous act precipitately to rush before the awful throne of God! not more dreadful would it be for men to behold at midnight, a rising sun shorn of his beams, spread horror on the earth, than it is for the angelic host to see an unsummoned spirit pass the everlasting portals of the heavens, and unprotected stand before the great tribunal! . . ." The Letters of Charlotte gets its effect by showing the reverse side of the picture; it follows Werther as the Sentimental Comedy followed that of the Restoration. It is an English book, written with a purpose: it emphasizes the unromantic side of suicide, and it borrows some romanticism from Goethe, to make its lesson more effective. Werter suffers, because he does not listen to Charlotte's common sense: it is not love that drives him to death, but despair. Charlotte loves, and is happy, save when Werter's eccentricities make her uncomfortable; Werter dies because he is unusual-a "genius," if you like, but not a man whose example it is good to follow.' With all its crudities, the book lasted some forty years. As soon as something better took the public attention, it lasting impressions on his mind. He has little command over himself; and whilst his natural temper thus overpowers him, how will he stem the torrent of passion? Like the exuberance of his imagination, it will know no bounds as the one is the source of his most exalted pleasures, so the other, I fear, will prove the cause of his severest afflictions." 1 Cf. letter xiv. Cf. also the quatrain quoted above, p. 31, n. 4. quietly passed from notice. It is the book of a period; interesting historically only because it mirrors the state of mind produced in some people by the appearance of Goethe's first well-known work. It is worth considering not for its own sake, but in the light of the book it sought to counteract. That it failed in this aim is readily seen by comparing the relative positions of The Sorrows of Werther and The Letters of Charlotte in the world's literature to-day. ROBERT WITHINGTON. III. THE TRIUMPHE OF DEATH TRANSLATED The Triumphe of death, a poetical translation of Petrarch's Trionfo della Morte, is found in мs. 538. 43. 1., ff. 286-289, in the Library of the Inner Temple, in London. As may be seen from the title, and from the signatures to each chapter, the translation is accredited. to Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. The folios containing the translation form part of a group of miscellaneous pieces-in poetry and prose-preserved among the Petyt MSS. William Petyt (1636-1707), archivist and antiquary, was for many years keeper of the records in the Tower of London. After his death, his private collection of manuscripts became the property of the Library of the Inner Temple, where they still remain (Nos. 512-538). No adequate catalogue of these мSS. had been made until the completion of the Royal Historical Manuscripts Commission report, in 1888.2 The group of miscellaneous pieces under discussion538. 43. 1., ff. 284-303b.-contains, besides Lady Pembroke's translation of Petrarch's Trionfo della Morte, three of the Psalms as translated by her: nos. 51, 104, and 137. It also comprises: 1 See article in Dictionary of National Biography. 'Historical Mss. Commission, Eleventh Report, Appendix, Part VII. (House of Commons, 1888). Reports from Commissions, Inspectors, and Others, vol. LXII, pp. 227-308. |