Mit Henry Crabb Robinson

In March 1804 1 had a reintroduction, and not a mere formal one, at the first was, to Goethe. He was sitting in his arm-chair, in the front row of the pit. I had repeatedly taken a seat near enough to him to have an occasional glimpse of his countenance, but I never presented myself to his notice. On the evening of which I write, I was [269] immediately behind him. Benjamin. Constant came in with him, and after shaking hands with me, whispered my name to Goethe, who immediately turned round, and with a smile as ingratiating as his ordinary expression was cold and forbidding, said: »Wissen Sie, Herr Robinson, dass Sie mich beleidigt haben?« -»How is that possible, Herr Geheimerath?« – »Why, you have visited every one at Weimar excepting me.« I felt that I blushed, as I said, »You may imagine anycause, Herr Geheimerath, but want of reverence.« He smiled and said, »I shall be happy to see you at any time.« I left my card, of course, the next morning, and the next day came an invitation to dinner; and I dined with him several times before I left the neighbourhood of Weimar.

It was, I believe, on the very evening on which he spoke to me in the theatre, that I asked him whether he was acquainted with our »Venice Preserved« [by Otway]. »Oh, very well! The comic scenes are particularly good.« I actually started at so strange a judgement. »Indeed! in England those scenes are considered so very bad, that they are never acted.« »I can understand that; and yet, on reflection, you will perceive that those scenes are quite essential to the piece. It is they alone which account for, and go near to justify, the conspiracy; for we see in them how utterly unfit for government [270] the Senate had become.« I recognized at once the truth of the criticism, and felt ashamed of myself for not having thought of it before. In all his conversation he spoke in the most simple and unpretending manner, but there was in it remarkable significance, – a quiet strength, a power without effort, reminding me of what I read of a painting, in which a man was wrestling with an angel. An ignorant man abused the picture, on the ground that in the angel there was no sign of effort – no muscle was strained. But this was designed to show the angelic nature. It is the same in the Greek sculpture of the gods.