.. That man
is so fickle a being!" What was said of Werther as the counterpart of
Goethe applies, of course, equally in the case of Clavigo. Goethe was
not at any moment the feeble creature we have in Clavigo, yet in
Clavigo's inconstancy and ambition, in his womanish susceptibility and
the need of his nature for external stimulus and counsel, we have a
portrayal of Goethe of which every trait holds true at all periods of
his life. In the Maries of _Goetz_ and _Clavigo_, both betrayed by
false lovers, Goethe tells us that we may find a penitent confession
of his own conduct towards Friederike. But assuredly it was not with
the primary intention of making this confession that either play was
written. Both plays, in truth, are evidence of what is borne out in
the long series of his imaginative productions from _Goetz_ to the
Second Part of Faust: their conception, their informing spirit, their
essential tissue come immediately from Goethe's own intellectual and
emotional experience. Objective dramatic treatment of persons or
events was incompatible with that passionate interest in the problems
of nature and human life by which he was possessed at every stage of
his development.
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