15^ \ " FAUST " PRGHLEM. 



the 

 tive 



difficulty of such comments as the caUing Mephisto " a nega- 

 . , . existence," etc. But Mephisto says, " Ich verneine stets " 

 (I am always ," denying"), and I am right in doing so, because 

 " all things from the Void called forth deserve to be destroyed." 

 We ask then : What action that can possibly be indicated by 

 " z'cnicinen " does anyone that holds this pessimistic opinion 

 consider justifiaible and justified? '' Vernewen"' (to deny, 

 to contradict ) implies criticism and disapproval. Is the 

 step from criticising and disapproz'incj to " being in oppo- 

 sition " and " blaming that of which others approve," and 

 then to " trying to destroy what is blamed," too great to supjxjse 

 that even the latter, the wish for destruction of what is generally' 

 thought desirable, is more or less definitely implied here in the 

 verb " verneinen "? 



I am not one of those who ransack a writer's works for all 

 instances of his use of any particular word, and then talk as if 

 the meaning which the word has in one passage proves that, when 

 it occurs elsewhere, it must necessarily have that same sense 

 as before. But, if the meaning of a word as used by an author 

 is not very clear, and the context suggests a somewhat far- 

 fetched, but nevertheless possible, explanation, the probability of 

 that interpretation being correct is brought near to certainty if we 

 can show that the sense which we tentatively assign to the word 

 is .actually given to it by the author in a passage that does not 

 leave any doubt. It is therefore in support of my translation or 

 paraphrase of " verneinen " by " to oppose w'hat others approve " 

 and " to wish to destroy it " that I point out that Goethe him- 

 self speaks ( " Aus meinem Leben," III., XI. Buch.. Reclam 

 ausgabe, Bd. 24, Seite 26) of what we would call " destructive 

 criticism" as " Kritik verneinend. herunterzichend," and (ibid., 

 p. 42) places " verneinend " and " zers'torend " as synonymous 

 into close juxtaposition ; similarly, in his article " Deutsche 

 Sprache " ("Jenaische allgemeine Literaturzeitung," 1817), he 

 speaks of " A'erneinend, abrathend, widerstrebend zu werke 

 gehen." 



Thus, supported by Goethe himself, I think we may para- 

 phrase (I do not say translate!) the four lines somewhat as fol- 

 lows : " I am the Spirit who is always in opposition, and always 

 disapproving of what most people think right and good. I do 

 what I can against the established order of things, and I consider 

 that I am right in doing so, because, really, everything created 

 is so bad that it ought to perish, and consequently I hold that it 

 would be much better ' there were naught created.' " The three 

 lines that follow offer no real difficulty. W'e must only point 

 out that in Mr. Taylor's translation they are far from being as 

 definite and as clearly expressed as in the original. Nay. one 

 phrase which for our purpose is of great importance is, in the 

 translation, if not, perhaps, quite wrongly rendered, certainly ob- 

 scured. Let me recall to your memor\' Mephisto's very words in 

 the original. Paraphrasing or much comment will be found un- 



