In the dear vale, on heights the snow had covered,
Still was thine image near;
I saw it round me in the bright clouds hover;
My heart beheld it there.
Here learn to feel with what resistless power
One heart the other ties;
That vain it is when lover
From lover flies.
Still another piece belongs to the first months of Goethe's relations
to Lili--_Claudine von Villa Bella_, which appears to have been
written intermittently in April and May. Like _Erwin und Elmire_ it is
in operatic form--the prose dialogue being diversified with outbursts
of song. Entirely trivial as a work of art, it calls for passing
notice only on account of certain characteristics which distinguish
it as a product of the period when it was written. The intention of
the play, Goethe wrote at a later time, was to exhibit "noble
sentiments in association with adventurous actions," and the conduct
of his hero and heroine is certainly unconventional, if their feelings
are exalted. Claudine is the only daughter of a fond and widowed
father, and her dreamy emotionalism would have made her a welcome
member of the Darmstadt circle of ladies.
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