(February 10, 1811, to Bettina von Arnim.)
139. “I would have gone to death, yes, ten times to death for Goethe. Then, when I was in the height of my enthusiasm, I thought out my ‘Egmont’ music. Goethe,—he lives and wants us all to live with him. It is for that reason that he can be composed. Nobody is so easily composed as he. But I do not like to compose songs.”
(To Rochlitz, in 1822, when Beethoven recalled Goethe’s amiability in
Teplitz.)
140. “Goethe is too fond of the atmosphere of the court; fonder than becomes a poet. There is little room for sport over the absurdities of the virtuosi, when poets, who ought to be looked upon as the foremost teachers of the nation, can forget everything else in the enjoyment of court glitter.”
(Franzensbrunn, August 9, 1812, to Gottfried Hartel of Leipzig.)
141. “When two persons like Goethe and I meet these grand folk must be made to see what our sort consider great.”
(August 15, 1812, in a description of how haughtily he, and how humbly
Goethe, had behaved in the presence of the Imperial court.)
142. “Since that summer in Carlsbad I read Goethe every day,—when I read at all.”
(Remarked to Rochlitz.)
143. “Goethe ought not to write more; he will meet the fate of the singers. Nevertheless he will remain the foremost poet of Germany.”