The plot is of the simplest kind. Two pairs of
lovers, Egle and Lamon, and Amine and Eridon, the first pair happy in
their loves, the second unhappy, make up the characters of the piece.
The leading part is taken by Egle, who is distressed at the misery of
her friend Amine, occasioned by the jealous humours of her lover
Eridon. Complications there are none, and the sole interest of the
play consists in the vivacity of the dialogues and in the arch
mischief with which Egle eventually shames Eridon out of his foolish
jealousy of his maiden, who is only too fondly devoted to him. What
strikes us in the whole performance is that Goethe, if he was so
madly in love with Kaethchen as his letters to Behrisch represent him,
should have been capable of writing it. From its playful humour and
entirely objective treatment it might have been written by a
good-natured onlooker amused at the spectacle of two young people
trifling with feelings which neither could take seriously.
[Footnote 42: This play was based on an earlier attempt made in
Frankfort.]
Equally objective is Goethe's handling of the very different theme of
the other play, _Die Mitschuldigen_ ("The Accomplices"),[43] and in
this case the objectivity is still more remarkable in a youth who had
not yet attained his twentieth year.
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