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"I cannot," said I, "reconcile to myself this view, though it is so extensively spread. Werther made an epoch because it appeared not because it appeared at a certain time.
On the other hand there is both greater variety and greater distinction in the characters, a more developed fabulation and a wonderful deepening and refinement of emotional description. Werther was not yet out of fashion and lovers of his "Sorrows" found in Hesperus a book after their hearts. It established the fame of Jean Paul for his generation. It brought women by swarms to his feet.
A clear sweet humor and blitheness of heart blend in this romance. What is called its artificial tone is not insincerity; it is the play of an artist conscious of his skill and revelling in it, even while his hand and his heart are deeply in earnest. Werther is a romance, Disraeli's Wondrous Tale of Alroy is a romance, but they belong to the realm of Beverley and Julia in Sheridan's Rivals.
Suicide is not a national habit in Germany as it is in England.’ ‘But that poor creature, Werther, who committed suicide, was a German.’ ‘Werther is a fictitious character, and by no means a felicitous one; I am no admirer either of Werther or his author. But I should say that, if there ever was a Werther in Germany, he did not smoke. Werther, as you very justly observe, was a poor creature.’
I know no one whom I less admire than Goethe; he seems a very epitome of the sins of genius, breaking open the doors of private life, and wantonly wounding friends, in that crowning offence of "Werther," and in his own character a mere pen-and-ink Napoleon, conscious of the rights and duties of superior talents as a Spanish inquisitor was conscious of the rights and duties of his office.
It is precisely because Goethe is an elusive Proteus that all doctrines may equally claim him. Romanticists turn with predilection to the creator of Werther or the first “Faust.” Classicists admire the plastic beauty of Tasso and Iphigenia. The cosmopolitan sees in Goethe the Weltbürger, the citizen of the world, the incarnation of die Weltweisheit.
No one could mistake 'Esclarmonde' for the work of a German; in melodic structure and orchestral colouring it is French to the core. 'Werther' was written in 1886, though not actually produced until 1892, when it was given for the first time at Vienna. The plot of Goethe's famous novel is a rather slight foundation for a libretto, but the authors did their work neatly and successfully.
On both occasions it was the man of arms who sought out the man of letters par nobile fratrum. They talked of Werther and his sorrows; the Emperor appreciatively, and with a knowledge of detail. It is said that the latter took exception to some one passage in particular; which one is not known.
The slender youth finished rolling up his left sleeve and smiled down at the other. "Put on the saddle," he said. Werther looked at him anxiously; then his eyes brightened with a solution. He stepped closer and laid a hand on the other's arm. "Son, if you're broke and want to get the price of a few squares just say the word and I'll fix you.
The clever daughter of the gentleman who entertains Pank at his home reads a satirical poem on the then popular literature, but expressly disclaims any attack on Yorick or “Siegwart,” and asserts that her bitterness is intended for their imitators. Lotte, Pank’s sensible and unsentimental, long-suffering fiancée, makes further comment on the “apes” of Yorick, “Werther,” and “Siegwart.”
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