[199] She is described as a pretty blonde, with blue eyes and fair hair. In a letter (March 30th, 1801) addressed to Lili, then a widow, Goethe writes: "Sie haben in den vergangenen Jahren viel ausgestanden und dabei, wie ich weiss, einen entschlossenen Mut bewiesen, der Ihnen Ehre macht."
[200] It may be regarded as significant that Goethe makes no reference to the Countess in his Autobiography.
[201] Werke, Briefe, ii. 230.
[202] Ib. pp. 233-4.
[203] Ib. p. 113.
[204] He says of the piece that it cost him "little expenditure of mind and feeling." Ib.
[205] Goethe was not known to be the author. In a letter to Johanna Fahlmer, he expresses his curiosity to know if Lili was present at its performance. Erwin und Elmire, it should be said, contains two of Goethe's most beautiful songs, the one beginning "Ein Veilchen auf der Wiese stand," and the other "Ihr verblühet, süsse Rosen."
[206] In deference to the general opinion that this ending was immoral, Goethe, in a later form of the play, makes Fernando shoot himself.
[207] Stella and other German plays are wittily parodied in The Rovers; or, The Double Arrangement.
[208] Goethe gives Fernando his own brown eyes and black hair.