ness and knowledge of character, Frau Aja as they christened her, was at once grave and hearty, dignified and simple. She had read most of the best German and Italian authors, had picked up considerable desultory information, and had that "mother wit" which so often in women and poets seems to render culture superfluous, their rapid intuitions anticipating the tardy conclusions of experience. Her letters are full of spirit: not always strictly grammatical; not irreproachable in orthography; but vigorous and vivacious. After a lengthened interview with her, an enthusiast exclaimed, "Now do I understand how Goethe has become the man he is!"[1] Wieland, Merck, Bürger, Madame de Staël, Karl August, and other great people sought her acquaintance. The Duchess Amalia corresponded with her as with an intimate friend; and her letters were welcomed eagerly at the Weimar Court.[2] She was married at seventeen, to a man for whom she had no love, and was only eighteen when the poet was born.[3] This, instead of making her prematurely old, seems to have perpetuated her girlhood. "I and my Wolfgang," she said, "have always held fast to each other, because we were both young together." To him she transmitted her love of
- ↑ "Ephemeriden der Literatur," quoted in "Nicolovius über Goethe."
- ↑ A large portion of this correspondence has recently been published ("Briefwechsel von Katharina Elizabeth Goethe," 1871), and amply proves what, from private sources, I had been able to state in the text. The letters, both of the Duchess Amalia and the Frau Rath, are very amusing, very unrestrained, and extremely unlike any other correspondences between the court and the bourgeoisie. Indeed they are not unfrequently more like what one would expect to find two lively grocers writing to each other. There is a free and easy tone which the editor idealises when he says that "the wash of the Main is heard between the lines, and the vineyards look down on every sentence." It is interesting to see how every one at the court writes to her as "dear mother" and sends her all the gossip of the hour.
- ↑ Lovers of parallels may be reminded that Napoleon's mother was only eighteen when the hero of Austerlitz was born.
