Goethes Faust EDITED BY CALVIN THOMAS PROFESSOR OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND Literatures, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY VOLUME II: THE SECOND PART BOSTON, U. S. A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1897 COPYRIGHT, 1897 BY CALVIN THOMAS. Typography by James Cooper & Son, Boston, U. S. A. 2 THE guiding principles of this edition of Faust are sufficiently explained in the preface to the First Part. In this volume, as in the first, I have given much space to genetic considerations, my conviction being that these studies, far from being a hindrance, are the greatest of helps toward the right understanding and the full enjoyment of the poem as a work of art; and that they are also the best of safeguards against subjective vagaries of interpretation. One who regards Faust as if it had come into the world ready-made, who looks at it always from the logical point of view and is over-anxious about its philosophic unity, will invariably miss its poetic Eigenart and end by giving us himself instead of Goethe. One may learn much, I have myself learned much, from the philosophic expounders; but they need to be taken cautiously, with the antidote ever at hand. I fear it does not strengthen the case for the Second Part to claim for it,' as did Bayard Taylor, 'a higher intellectual character, if a lower dramatic and poetical value, than the First Part.' Both parts must stand or fall as poetry. And they are going to stand. There is no longer room for doubt on that point. In editing the Second Part I have wished to make friends for it, but I have thought that I could do this best not by praising it or arguing for it, but simply by showing how it came to be what it is, giving necessary explanations and leaving the rest to the reader's poetic sense. The quam pulchre of an editor or a guide (i) can not give sight to the blind, but it may easily bore those that have eyes to see. With critical questions I have tried to deal in a spirit remote alike from the 'toothless piety' which Vischer deprecated and from the unteachable rigor which he exemplified. One should indeed be inexorable with a great poet, as Lessing says; but one should never forget that the initial presumption is always in the great poet's favor. In my commentary I have tried to be useful and to meet every genuine difficulty, but not, like some of my German predecessors, to supply a manual of general intelligence. For example: One who does not know the rudiments of the Greek and Roman mythology will not find them in my notes. The Second Part of Faust is not for analphabetics of any kind. As in the First Part, I have avoided the extended discussion of conflicting opinions, preferring that the learned should accuse me of dogmatism rather than that the student should find me prolix. To illustrate the necessity of conciseness: Had I quoted and discussed the pros and cons of all the interpretations of the line Das Unerhörte hört sich nicht, I should have needed several pages. For a similar reason I have foreborne to cite parallel passages save where they are unusually illuminative. Following the Weimar text, as I have done, I have felt exempt from the necessity of dealing much with textual questions or of quoting paralipomena and variant readings, except where they are clearly and highly important for the understanding of the text in its final form. The most of the variant readings published in Vol. 15 of the Weimar Goethe are mere chips from the poet's workshop. Scholarship owes a lasting debt of gratitude to Prof. Erich Schmidt for the skill and care with which this mass of material has been edited; for among it is much that is valuable. But the mass is very great and the bulk of it has only a curious interest. Finally, I wish to express my thanks to Prof. Suphan, of Weimar, who kindly gave me access to the manuscripts of the GoetheSchiller archives and to the library of the Goethe-Gesellschaft; also to the able corps of scholars who are engaged under his general supervision in preparing the monumental Weimar edition of Goethe's works. To Dr. Wahle, Dr. Fresenius, Dr. Steiner and Dr. Leitzmann I often had occasion to go for help, and was met always with the most obliging courtesy. I am also under great obligation to the genial Dr. Ruland, who permitted me to make use of Goethe's private library, to examine his collection of engravings, and to make photographs at my pleasure. The inspiration of working with these gentlemen for half a year in the quiet city of the muses Weimar with the 'peculiar lot'. will always remain in my memory as the pleasantest part of a task which has been throughout a labor of love. NEW YORK, August, 1897. CALVIN THOMAS. |