Part I

, except the essay on “German Architecture,” have been taken from Goethe’s _Essays on Art_, translated by S. G. Ward (Boston, 1845). Wilhelm Meister’s critique of _Hamlet_ has been excerpted from Carlyle’s rendering of _Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre_. The version of John Oxenford has been used for the selections from the _Conversations with Eckermann_, and Oxenford’s version, as revised by Miss M. S. Smith, for the selection from Goethe’s _Autobiography_. The remaining essays were translated by the late Randolph S. Bourne, by Professor F. W. J. Heuser, and by myself. I am indebted to Mr. Bourne for translating the following essays: “On German Architecture,” “Shakespeare ad Infinitum,” “The First Edition of _Hamlet_,” “_Troilus and Cressida_,” “The Methods of French Criticism,” “Supplement to Aristotle’s _Poetics_,” “Tieck’s Dramaturgic Fragments,” “On the German Theatre,” “Didactic Poetry,” “Superstition and Poetry,” “The Theory of a World Literature,” “Byron’s _Manfred_,” “Byron’s _Don Juan_,” “Calderon’s _Daughter of the Air_,” “Molière’s _Misanthrope_,” “Folksongs again Commended,” and “Laurence Sterne.” Professor Heuser has translated the following: “The Production of a National Classic,” “Epic and Dramatic Poetry,” and “English Reviewers.” I have made material changes and corrections in almost all the translations, but on the whole each translator should be held responsible for the accuracy and style of his own work. For the selection and arrangement of the material, and for the titles given to some of the excerpts, I am alone responsible.

Some of Goethe’s judgments on books, and his maxims on life and art, have already appeared in volumes of selections in English translation; but no other work in any language, so far as I am aware, attempts to include in a single volume the whole range of Goethe’s critical and æsthetic studies. Some of the selections have never before appeared in English.

J. E. S.

TROUTBECK, May, 1919.

Since the above was written, I have become greatly indebted to Lord Haldane for contributing the Foreword, and especially to Professor Friedrich Bruns for reading the proofsheets and revising some of the translations. Miss L. Bonino has prepared the Index.

J. E. S.

NEW YORK, September, 1921.

II. _On the Chronology of Goethe’s Critical Studies_

The following chronology of Goethe’s critical activity is intended chiefly to indicate the original sources of the selections in the present volume.

1772-73. Reviews in the _Frankfurter gelehrten Anzeigen_:

Goethe as a Young Reviewer (reviews of Blum’s _Lyrische Gedichte_, and Sulzer’s _Cymbelline, ein Trauerspiel, nach einem von Shakespeare erfundnen Stoffe_, both translated in full).

1773. _Von deutscher Baukunst_:

On German Architecture (complete translation).

1788 sq. Articles in Wieland’s _Teutscher Merkur_:

Simple Imitation of Nature, Manner, Style (_Über Italien: Einfache Nachahmung der Natur, Manier, Stil_, complete translation).

1794-1805. Correspondence of Goethe and Schiller:

Epic and Dramatic Poetry (complete translation); also footnote on page 104.

1795-96. _Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre_:

Wilhelm Meister’s Critique of _Hamlet_.

1795-97. Articles in _Die Horen_:

The Production of a National Classic (_Literarischer Sansculottismus_, complete translation except for four introductory paragraphs).

1798-1800. Articles in _Die Propyläen_:

Introduction to the Propylæa.

On Laocoon (complete translation).

On Truth and Probability in Works of Art (complete translation).

The Collector and his Friends.

Notes on Dillettantism. (By Goethe and Schiller).

1804 sq. Reviews in the _Jenaische Allgemeine Literaturzeitung_:

Old German Folksongs (review of _Des Knaben Wunderhorn_, translated in full except that only a few of Goethe’s characterizations of individual poems are included).

1811-14. _Dichtung und Wahrheit_ (Autobiography):

German Literature in Goethe’s Youth (selected passages from part ii , book 7 ); also footnote on page 14 (from part ii ,