Johann Peter Eckermann - Conversations with Goethe

Translated by ALLAN BLUNDEN
with an Introduction and Notes by
RITCHIE ROBERTSON

JOHANN PETER ECKERMANN was born in 1792. In 1823 he sent Goethe, his literary idol, a manuscript collection of essays, largely on Goethes works, and he became Goethes literary assistant till the latters death in 1832. This long relationship led to the creation of Eckermanns best-remembered work Conversations with Goethe, first published in 1836. Eckermann died in 1854 in Weimar.

Abeken, Bernhard Rudolf (17801866), literary historian.

Ampre, Jean-Jacques (18001864), literary critic and frequent contributor to Le Globe; son of the physicist Andr-Marie Ampre (17751836), who gave his name to a unit of electric current.

Angoulme, Louis Antoine, duc d (17751844), elder son of Charles X of France; in 18234 commanded a French army sent into Spain to help the reactionary Ferdinand VII to gain absolute power by abolishing the constitution.

Ariosto, Ludovico (14741533), Italian epic poet; his main work is Orlando Furioso (1532).

Arnault, Lucien-mile (17871863), dramatist whose works include Gustave-Adolphe, ou La bataille de Lutzen (1830).

Arndt, Ernst Moritz (17691860), German author of patriotic poetry.

Ballanche, Pierre-Simon (17761847), French philosopher.

Balzac, Honor de (17991850), French novelist; his first major work, Les Chouans, appeared in 1829.

Basedow, Johann Bernhard (172490), educator, who founded a progressive school, the Philanthropinum, at Dessau; Goethe describes him in Book 14 of Dichtung und Wahrheit.

Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron de (173299), French playwright, whose memoirs provided Goethe with material for his play Clavigo.

Bechtolsheim, Julie von (17511847), contributed the poem Elegie to Ottilie von Goethes journal Chaos.

Becker, Heinrich (17641822), actor.

Behrisch, Ernst Wolfgang (17381809), tutor to young noblemen; close friend of the young Goethe, who met him in 1767 while studying in Leipzig. Goethe describes him in Book 7 of Dichtung und Wahrheit.

Bentham, Jeremy (17481832), English philosopher, spokesman for utilitarianism.

Branger, Pierre-Jean de (17801857), French poet and songwriter, twice imprisoned in the 1820s for songs against the Bourbon monarchy; celebrated on his death as Frances national poet.

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques-Henri (17371814), French novelist, author of Paul et Virginie (1788) and La Chaumire indienne (The Indian Cottage, 1790).

Bethmann, Simon Moritz von (17681826), banker and diplomat, a leading citizen of Frankfurt; ennobled 1808 by the Emperor of Austria.

Beulwitz, Friedrich August von (17851871), army officer and chamberlain at Weimar.

Beuther, Friedrich (17771856), actor and stage designer.

Bignon, Louis Pierre douard, Baron (17711841), historian, author of Histoire de France sous Napolon (10 vols, 182938).

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich (17521840), naturalist and anthropologist in Gttingen.

Boissere, Sulpiz (17831854), German art historian with a special interest in medieval art, a friend of Goethe from 1810 on.

Bonaparte, Lucien (17751840), younger brother of Napoleon; supported the French Revolution, and served as president of the Council of Five Hundred (the lower house of the revolutionary parliament) from 25 October 1795 till Napoleon overthrew the revolutionary constitution on 9 November 1799.

Bonstetten, Karl Viktor von (17451832), Swiss writer.

Bttiger, Karl August (17601835), classical scholar, whom Goethe and Schiller disliked for his malicious tale-bearing.

Bourrienne, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de (17691834), French diplomat who knew Napoleon well and was his private secretary from 1798 to 1802; author of Mmoires sur Napolon, le directoire, le consulat, lempire et la restauration (10 vols, 182830).

Bril, Paul (15541626), Dutch painter.

Bristol, Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of (17301803), Lord Bishop of Derry (not Derby!) from 1768 to his death.

Buch, Leopold von (17741853), geologist in Berlin; he upheld the Vulcanist theory which Goethe rejected.

Brger, Gottfried August (174794), poet, best known for his gothic ballad Lenore (1774). His Frau Schnips is a ribald colloquial poem about an old woman who goes to heaven and scolds various Old Testament characters for their bad behaviour.

Burns, Robert (175996), Scottish poet.

Bury, Friedrich (17631823), painter.

Byron, George Gordon, Lord (17881824), poet and celebrity, hugely popular across Europe for his poems, especially Childe Harolds Pilgrimage (Cantos 1 and 2 published 1812; the complete text 1818) and Don Juan (181924), and his plays, of which Goethe knew Manfred (1817), Marino Faliero, The Two Foscari, Cain and Sardanapalus (all 1821), and The Deformed Transformed (1824). Goethe also mentions Byrons early verse satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809). Byron died of fever at Missolonghi in Greece, where he had gone to support the Greek War of Independence (182130) against Turkish rule.

Cagliostro, Count, real name Giuseppe Balsamo (174395), notorious impostor and charlatan; Goethe, though sceptical, was intrigued by him, and in 1787 visited the Balsamo family in Palermo, pretending to be an Englishman who had known Cagliostro in London.

Caldern: Pedro Caldern de la Barca (16001681), dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age whom Goethe greatly admired, especially for The Constant Prince (1636).

Campe, Joachim Heinrich (17461818), educator.

Camper, Peter (correctly Pieter, 172289), Dutch anatomist.

Canning, George (17701827), British Foreign Secretary.

Carlyle, Thomas (17951881), Scottish translator, essayist and historian; his Life of Schiller appeared in 1825, and his translations, German Romance, in four volumes in 1827.

Carracci, Lodovico (15551619), Agostino (15571602) and Annibale (15601609), family of Italian painters.

Carus, Carl Gustav (17891869), painter and writer on art; Goethe wrote an introduction to his Briefe ber Landschaftsmalerei (Letters on Landscape Painting, 1824).

Charles V (15001558), Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 till his abdication in 1556.

Chateaubriand, Franois-Ren, vicomte de (17681848), French Romantic writer; Goethe had read his treatise Gnie du christianisme (1802).

Chodowiecki, Daniel Nikolaus (17261801), painter and prolific book illustrator.

Clauren, pseudonym of Karl Gottlob Samuel Heun (17711854), sentimental novelist.

Cooper, James Fenimore (17891851), American adventure novelist; his The Red Rover (1828) is mentioned on 27 December 1829.

Corneille, Pierre (160684), French dramatist.

Cornelius, Peter (17831867), painter, a member of the Nazarene school, which rejected classicism and drew inspiration from medieval and early Renaissance painting.

Correggio, Antonio da (14891534), Italian painter.

Cotta, Johann Friedrich von (17641832), publisher in Stuttgart, the sole publisher of Goethes writings from 1809 on.