So far as Goethe is
concerned, it was in three of the priestesses, one of them Caroline
Flachsland, the betrothed of Herder, that he found the attraction of
the society. For the youth who two years later was to give classic
expression to the cult of sensibility in his _Werther_, his
intercourse with these ladies of Darmstadt was an appropriate
schooling. For their sensibilities were boundless, and they did not
shrink from giving them expression. Caroline relates to her future
husband how one night in the woods she fell on her knees at sight of
the moon and arranged some glow-worms in her hair so that their loves
might not be disturbed. On one occasion when Merck and Goethe met two
of the coterie, one of them embraced Merck with kisses and the other
fell upon his breast. Goethe was not a youth to be indifferent to such
favours, and the attentions of Caroline were such as to disquiet
Herder and to occasion an estrangement between the two friends which
lasted for nearly two years.
[Footnote 109: It was Schlosser who had made Goethe and Merck
acquainted. Herder, to whom Merck was known, had been a previous
intermediary.]
From the effusive Caroline herself we learn the impression Goethe made
on the precious circle.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178