On the ground of these supposed
sinister implications the sale of _Werther_ was prohibited in Leipzig
under a penalty of ten thalers, a translation of it was forbidden in
Denmark, and the Archbishop of Milan ordered it to be publicly burned
in that town. There was, of course, no thought in Goethe's mind of
recommending suicide by the example of Werther, but he felt the
reproach keenly, and indignantly repudiated it. Yet, when a few years
later, a young woman was found drowned in the Ilm at Weimar with a
copy of _Werther_ in her pocket, he was painfully reminded that the
book might be of dangerous consequence to a certain class of
minds.[159]
[Footnote 159: The judgment of Lessing, who had no sympathy with the
effeminate sentimentality of the time, was severe. "We cannot," he
said, "imagine a Greek or a Roman _Werther_; it was the Christian
ideal that had made such a character possible." Goethe, he thought,
should have added a cynical chapter (the more cynical the better) to
put _Werther's_ character in its true light. As the friend of
Jerusalem, Lessing naturally resented the liberty which Goethe had
taken with him.]
_Werther_ has been described as "the act of a conqueror and a
high-priest of art,"[160] and of the truth of this description we have
interesting proof from Goethe's own hand.
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