Goethe as a Ghost
Goethe often bathed at night in the Ilm. One beautiful summer night, when the moon shone full on the poetic swimmer, a countryman on his way to Upper-Weimar, wanted to make a short cut, by climbing over the gate of the castle’s bridge. Goethe saw him and in one of his mad moods, which set Weimar so often in commotion, he uttered the most unearthly yells and shrieks, while jumping up and down in the water. Those terrible sounds coming from a white figure with long, floating black hair, terrified the countryman so much, that he turned and fled as if possessed.