[675]. xxix. 129 sq.
[676]. xxxiii. 255.
[677]. In same vol.
[678]. In the Bibliothek der Weltlitteratur of Cotta (Stuttgart, n. d.), which I use. Besides the texts more particularly noted above, Dichtung und Wahrheit is perhaps the chief place to be examined: but nothing can be quite neglected. Readers confined to English may profitably consult Criticism, Reflections, and Maxims of Goethe (London, n. d.), ed. by W. B. Rönnfeldt, who thinks Goethe “probably the greatest literary and art critic whom the world has seen.”
[679]. Goethe would probably not himself have refused this ascription, but might, on the contrary, have welcomed it. He even wanted the Nibelungen in prose: and more than once, I think, adopts translateableness as a criterion of Poetry (v. inf. note, p. [368]). But this does not bridge, it only deepens, the gulf. Again, it may be, and has been, urged that in the Hamlet piece he was avowedly speaking from the theatrical point of view in every direction. True again: but if anybody, with such literature as Hamlet before him, can take this point of view, we know that his heart and his treasure lie, not in the book, but on the boards.
[680]. Allgemeine Begriffe und grosser Dünkel sind immer auf dem Wege entsetzliches Unglück anzurichten.—Spr. in Pro., ed. cit., p. 109.
[681]. Ibid., p. 129.
[682]. Gehöre uns an, p. 128.
[683]. P. 177.
[684]. P. 216.