Goethe at court

Poussin, Landscape in Calm Weather (1651)

My irregularly posted Goethe Tweets, following our poet through his diaries -- I am now in 1777 -- show that, after scarcely a year in Weimar, he is thoroughly immersed in the life of the court. Indeed, a letter of January 8 to Lavater, which opens with comments about the Physiognomische Fragmente, shows that all his old interests are being left behind:

In meinem iezzigen Leben weichen alle entfernte Freunde in Nebel, es mag so lang währen als es will so hab ich doch ein Musterstückgen des bunten treibens der Welt recht herzlich mit genossen.

He goes on to characterize this "hustle and bustle" and indicates that is making the most of it:

Verdruss Hoffnung, Liebe, Arbeit, Noth, Abenteuer, Langeweile, Hass, Albernheiten, Thorheit, Freude, Erwartetes und Unversehnes, flaches und tiefes, wie die Würfel fallen, mit Festen, Tanzen, Schellen, Seide und Fitter ausstaffirt es ist eine treffliche Wirtschaft.

Participating in all this "silliness" means cutting off certain past associations. In a letter a week later to P.E. Reich, publisher of the Fragments, he alludes to Lenz. I am not sure of Reich's assocation with Lenz, but Goethe alludes to such an association in this letter:

Wegen Lenzen bitte ich Sie zu verfahren als wenn ich gar nicht existirte ...

The same month Goethe drew on one of his former acquaintances, A.F. Oeser, for help in procuring a stage decoration for a festivity that was planned for the birthday of Duchess Louise. Oeser was not a stranger to the Weimar court, was often consulted for "art advice." For this occasion a "new piece" was in planning, for which a backdrop was required:

Wir mögten auf diesem Prospket gern eine herrliche Gegend vorstellen mit Haynen Teichen, wenigen Architekturstücken pp. denn es soll einen Parck bedeuten.

Goethe wrote to ask if Oeser happened to have something handy ("Hatten Sie so was vorrathig ...).

Nicholas Boyle mentions in his Goethe bio that Goethe quickly established January 30, the duchess's birthday, "as the high point in the Weimar theatrical calendar." In 1777 the "new piece" was Goethe's Singpiel Lila. The backdrop Goethe had in mind was evidently planned for act 2 of the piece, characterized as a "Romantische Gegend eines Parks." Since he mentions Poussin in his letter to Oeser, the foreground in the painting at the top of this post may be what he had in mind. (Poussin never omitted architecture in his paintings.)

What interests me is that Goethe was composing Singspiele at this point, a genre that would seem to represent a real change of direction for the author of Götz von Berlichingen and The Sorrows of Young Werther. But perhaps not such a change. In my next post, I will digress on the subject of Goethe's Singspiele.