Erstes Buch.

PAGE 1.

I. mit dem Glockenschlage Zwölf, when the clock was just striking twelve; precisely at 12 o'clock.

2. We say both auf and in die Welt kommen.-We may add that Goethe's parents had been married on Tuesday, the 20th August, 1748, when his father was thirty-nine, and his mother eighteen years old.

3. The sentence begins with the general pronoun man, but goes on in the pronoun of the first person plural, wir. Though it would, perhaps, have been preferable to say at once wenn wir uns erinnern wollen, we should observe that Goethe varies his style in this manner in more than one passage, and there is indeed a certain ease, if we may say so, a grata neglegentia, in this construction which does not disgrace a great writer.

4. in einen Fall kommen, to come into a position.

5. anschauen means 'to behold', to look at something with much attention; hence the adj. anschaulich, that which becomes quite clear on ocular inspection, lucid; er hat uns die Sache mit viel Anschaulichkeit auseinander gesezt, he has explained the subject with much lucidity, very clearly. Anschauende Erfahrung may, therefore, be translated by 'direct experience'.

6. ohnehin, as it is, after all.

7. durchgebrochen, 'broken through'; doors had been broken through the intervening middle wall, and the two adjoining houses had thus been thrown into one. Observe the difference between durchbrechen (v. trans., ich breche durch in the original, mechanical sense) and durchbréchen (ich durchbréche which is used metaphorically); the first forms the past participle turchgebrochen, the second durchbrochen, though this may also be formed from durchbrechen; e.g. Grimm explains the present passage in his Wörterb. 2, 1592 by adding man hatte die Wände durchbrochen, and ib. 1591 he quotes from Goethe: die lezte Mauerecke durchbrochen zeigt einen anmuthig beschatteten Akaziensiz, ‘an aperture broken (made) in the farthest

edge of the wall shows a pleasant seat shaded by acacia-trees'.

But it

is only possible to say, er hat alle Schranken des Anstandes durchbrochen, 'he has broken through all restraints of decency', because this is metaphorical; and again, in the reflective, the only possible form is durchgebrochen, e. g. der Dieb hat sich durchgebrochen, the thief has broken out.'

8. thurmartig, lit. 'tower-like'; the stair-case was spiral, as is often the case in towers.

9. unzusammenhängend, 'disconnected', i.e. the rooms were not on the same level.

10. ausgleichen, lit. 'to make even', is often used metaphorically of 'smoothing over' a difficulty or 'remedying' a defect.

II. eine jüngere Schwester: Goethe's sister Cornelia, who will be mentioned again below, was born on Dec. 7, 1750; she married a clergyman, Schlosser, in 1773 (Lewes b. III ch. 4) and died in 1777 (ib. b. IV ch. 6); in 1779 Goethe, who was then travelling with his friend Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, visited her grave at Emmendingen (ib. b. v ch. 3). She was a gentle creature, and very dear to the poet's heart.

12. weitläuftig, very extensive, spacious. In this word the t before the suffix is not justifiable on etymological grounds, and indeed the more correct form remains weitläufig; but besides Goethe, such writers as Klopstock, Lessing, Wieland, and others have used the form with the t.

13. Gitterwerk, lit. 'framework'; Gitter is, perhaps, more frequently used of an iron trellis-work, an iron gate. There is also another form, Gatter, which evidently approaches the English gate.

14. Vogelbauer, 'bird-cage'. The word Bauer (commonly m., less correctly n.) is the same as the E. bower: M.H.G. der bûr, A.S. bûr, in Gothic probably báurs, from the verb báuan 'to build'. It will thus be seen that the word originally denotes a kind of aviary, in which the birds can build their nests.

15. 'In one corner of the hall there is a kind of lattice, opening by an iron or wooden grating upon the street. This is called the Geräms etc.' Lewes, Life of G. b. I ch. 2. This peculiar Southern word consists of the common prefix ge + Rahmen ‘a frame'; v. Loeper quotes the cognate words Ofengeräms (from Kurz) and Eisenkrems (from B. Auerbach).

16. Lesen is used in the sense commonly borne by the compounds belesen, auslesen, 'to pick'.

17. ein südliches Ansehen, a southern look; the streets then resembled the streets of a southern town, where much business is transacted outside and in the open air, while in northern towns all is limited to indoor life.

18. sich frei fühlen, to feel free and easy.

PAGE 2.

I.

lieb gewinnen, to become fond of some one.-gar is more colloquial and affectionate than sehr.

2.

Schultheiß denotes the highest magistrate of the city-of the dignity itself we shall hear more below. The word is a genuine old Teutonic term, derived from Schuld (O.H.G. scult) and the verb heißen, orig. one who orders that duties be fulfilled.

3. In E. we should say, 'in whose house we properly dwelt', or rather 'whose house it properly was in which we dwelt'. Comp. the phrase bei Jemanden zur Miethe wohnen, 'to rent a hose (or tenement) of some one'.—Goethe's grandmother, Cornelia, was 81 years old at the time of the birth of our hero.

4. hinten hinaus, looking towards the back.

5. hin is, strictly speaking, unnecessary, but it enforces the meaning of bis much in the same way as usque does that of ad.

6. gleichsam, as it were, if I may say so.

7. Hager is more than 'thin' or 'spare'; it means 'tall and thin' 8. Hirschgraben, not 'Stag-Ditch', but rather 'Stag-Foss', Graben meaning the 'moat defensive of a town'. This old moat had been dried up in 1333, and converted into a kind of park, in which deer were kept. The custom mentioned by Goethe was abandoned about the year 1556.

9.

'We wished to get an explanation of this expression.'

10. unterhalten, to keep, maintain. Observe the omission of the verb seien or wären.

11. bewahren, to preserve. The technical expression for this is, however, 'hegen'.

12. das Hérkommen, the tradition, custom.

13. Observe the full form of the past participle, instead of which it would, however, be more common to say verspeist. The verb verspeisen means to eat deliberately and in a dignified manner, while essen is the same process in its everyday aspect.

14. benn is in reality a mere expletive; we may, however, translate 'thus, therefore'.

15. wenn auch, even if, though.

16. Jagrbefugniß, right of chase.

17. verkümmern, to injure, to spoil; from Kummer, sorrow, grief. 18. wohi gar, it might be, even.

19. eine zahme Wildbahn, a park of tame deer. (The 'Zoological Gardens' opened at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1856 may now be said to fulfil this desideratum.)

20. It is, perhaps, more usual to say, zu unseren Zeiten or iu unserer Beit.

PAGE 3.

I. The boy was fond of this room, because it awakened in his breast longings (Sehnsucht) for the open country that could be espied from it.

2. Sommerszeit is a somewhat rare employment of the accusative, instead of zur Sommerzeit (omitting also the 8 in the compound). Sanders (Wörterb.) quotes from Bahrdt (a writer of the eighteenth century): nur Sommerszeit wurden sie auf den freien Plaß geführt, 'only in summer-time were they led out into the open space'; and from Zinkgräff (17th century): ein Schalk gieng Winterszeit über die Gaß, 'a roguish fellow was walking across the road in winter-time'.

3. ein Gewitter abwarten, to wait until a thunder-storm is over. ab. in the compound means 'to the end'.

4. sich an etwas satt sehen, to look one's fill at something, to satisfy one's self with looking at something.

5. wandeln lustwandeln, to walk (pace) up and down (for the sake of enjoyment and recreation).

6. besorgen is said emphatically of 'tending' the flowers.

7. sich ergeßen, 'to enjoy oneself', is now commonly both spelt and pronounced with an instead of e; but we have thought it right to preserve Goethe's own mode of spelling, which is, moreover, borne out by etymological reasons.

8. The student will do well to observe that Goethe is fond of using the neuters of adjectives instead of abstract nouns- -which is indeed a peculiarity of the German language as well as of the Greek (Tò kaλóv, tas Schöne, which Lord Lytton ventured to translate the

BEAUTIFUL”.)—das Ahnungsvolle means a tendency towards presentiments, a presaging mind.

9. die Folge die Folgezeit, is especially used in the phrase we have in the text. The citations in Grimm's Wörterb. 3, 1873 show how fond Goethe was of this word.

10.

II.

Vater.

12.

der Prospéct, here 'the view'.

der Vater is more stately because less usual, than mein

ein Stich means 'an engraving'.

13. Vorgänger, 'predecessor'; but 'successor' is Nachfolger. There is no word Nachgänger; a similar word, Nachtreter, denotes a servile imitator, who follows in the track of another.

14. The Roman painter Giambattista Piranesi (or Piraneze) published a splendid work Le Antichità Romane (Rome 1756, vols. fol.) with the designs of Roman buildings and monuments, and with explanations of them.' VON LOEPER. Piranesi, a celebrated architect and engraver, was a native of Venice, but resided at Rome during the greater part of his life. He was remarkable for a bold and free style of etching...he worked with such rapidity and diligence, that the magnitude and number of his plates almost exceed belief, and they are executed with a spirit and genius which are altogether peculiar to him... Antichità Romane comprised in 218 plates of atlas paper, commencing by a topographical view of ancient Rome, made out from the fragments of a most curious antique plan of the city found in the pavement of the temple of Romulus, and now preserved in the museum at the Capitol.... The exact time of his death we have not been able to learn, but it is supposed to have happened in, or near, the year 1780.' From the Biographical Dictionary (1798), vol. XII p. 243-245, where 12 great works of Piranesi are enumerated.

15. sich auf etwas verstehen, to be skilful in something. These men were masters of perspective and architecture.

16. Nadel=Radirnadel, etching-needle. The etchings of these masters were very clear and valuable, i.e. they were valuable on account of being so very clear and distinct.

17. The Piazza del Popolo ('Place of the People') is a large open place at Rome, at the foot of the Monte Pincio. From this place four streets diverge, which are among the most frequented of modern Rome, especially the Corso and the Strada Riparia.