Herder had said of _Goetz_ that its author
had been spoilt by Shakespeare, and he modestly accepted the censure.
_Goetz_, he admits, had been _thought_, not _felt_, and he would be
depressed by his failure, were he not occasionally conscious that some
day he would do better things.[119]
[Footnote 117: The _Praktikanten_ were voluntary attendants on the
Imperial Court, had little or no dependence on the authorities, and
lived on their own resources.]
[Footnote 118: Caroline Flachsland to Herder, May 25th, 1772.]
[Footnote 119: Goethe to Herder, _Werke, Briefe_, Band ii. 15.]
As in Strassburg, it was at a _table d'hote_[120] that Goethe made the
acquaintance of the youths who, like himself, were idling away their
time in Wetzlar. To relieve the tedium of the place[121] they had
formed a fantastic society on a feudal model, with a Grand-master,
Chancellor, and all the other subordinate officials--the point of the
jest being that each associate bore the name and played the part of
his office and title. For frolic of all kinds Goethe was ever ready;
his taste for practical joking, indeed, as we shall see, occasionally
led him to play questionable pranks.
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