Under the name of Goetz von
Berlichingen he became a member of the brotherhood, and, according to
his own account, he contributed to the gaiety of the proceedings.
Among the company, however, there were a few serious persons with
tastes kindred to his own, and he specially names F.W. Gotter,
Secretary of the Gotha Legation at Wetzlar, as one who, like Salzmann
and Schlosser, impressed him by his character and talent. In English
literature they had a common interest, and, as a poem which both
admired, they each made a translation of Goldsmith's _Deserted
Village_--Gotter, according to Goethe, being the more successful in
the attempt. Gotter was thus still another of those grave counsellors
whom Goethe had the good fortune to discover and attach to himself
amid the distracting frivolities of every society he frequented.[122]
[Footnote 120: In the _Kronprinz_, the principal hotel in the town.]
[Footnote 121: Goethe's own lodging (still shown) was in the
_Gewandsgasse_, a narrow, dirty street, whence sun or moon could be
seen at no season of the year.]
[Footnote 122: In his contemporary letters, Goethe does not always
speak of Gotter so favourably as he does in his Autobiography.
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