THE GOETHE HOUSE AT FRANKFORT 
In 1782, the Herr Rath died in his sev- 
enty-second year. For thirteen years the 
Frau Rath lived alone in the Casa Santa — 
nominally, at least, alone, for the stream of 
visitors was almost constant. ‘‘ I am much 
more fortunate than Frau von Reck,” she 
writes; “that lady must travel about in 
order to see Germany’s learned men, they 
all visit me in my house, which is by far 
more convenient — yes, yes, those to whom 
God is gracious. He blesses in their sleep.” * 
Our visit to Goethe’s early home termi- 
nates with the inspection of his own rooms 
on the fourth floor. We return to the con- 
sideration of what we have ventured to call 
the dramatis personcE of the home circle, 
and having already spoken of the father, we 
now come to the sister and the mother. 
The relations between Goethe and his sis- 
ter Cornelia were of the most intimate kind. 
There was but a year’s difference in their 
ages, and they were often taken to be twins. 
They shared together the joys and sorrows 
of childhood, and no new experience was 
complete until communicated to the other. 
The brother’s departure for the University of 
Leipsic was their first separation, and in W olf- 
gang’s absence, Cornelia led a weary life. 
All the father’s pedagogy was now exerted 
upon her. He left her no time for social 
pleasures or for associating with other young 
girls; an occasional concert was her only 
relaxation. Even the relation of mutual 
confidence between the brother and sister 
was entirely broken up, as all their letters 
passed through the father’s hands. It was 
therefore not strange when Goethe returned 
home after an absence of nearly three years, 
that he found the father and daughter living 
in a state of almost open hostility, and was 
himself made the confidant of his sister’s 
complaints, and of his mother’s anxieties 
in her position of mediator and peace- 
maker. Of his sister Goethe writes : 
“ She had by turns to pursue and work at 
French, Italian, and English, besides which 
he (the father) compelled her to practice at 
the harpsichord a great part of the day. 
Writing also was not to be neglected, and I 
had already remarked that he had directed 
* ja, wem ’s Gott gonnt giebt er ’s im 
Schlaf,” — an idiomatic phrase difficult to translate ; 
a similar one, “Gott giebt es den Seinen im Schlaf” 
(God blesses his own in their sleep), is in frequent 
use in Germany. “ Im Schlaf ” is used to express any- 
thing that has been obtained without personal effort ; 
for example, should any one become rich by inherit- 
ance or a sudden rise in values, the Germans would 
say,“Er ist reich geworden im Schlaf” (He has be- 
come rich in his sleep). 
119 
her correspondence with me, and commu- 
nicated to me his teachings through her 
pen. My sister was, and still continued to 
be, an indefinable being, the most singular 
mixture of strength and weakness, of obsti- 
nacy and compliance ; which qualities acted, 
now united, and now separated, at her own 
will and inclination. Thus she, in a man- 
ner which seemed to me terrible, had turned 
the hardness of her character against her 
father, whom she did not forgive, because dur- 
ing these three years he had forbidden or 
embittered to her many an innocent pleas- 
ure, and she would acknowledge no single 
one of his good and excellent qualities. She 
did all that he commanded or directed, but 
in the most unamiable manner in the world ; 
she did it in the established routine, but 
nothing more and nothing less ; out of love 
or favor she accommodated herself to noth- 
ing, so that this was one of the first things 
about which my mother complained in a 
private conversation with me.” 
Cornelia seems to have inherited many 
of her father’s traits of character, and the 
Herr Rath found his own inflexibility 
matched against the same quality, which had 
been transmitted to his child. 
On Wolfgang’s return from Leipsic the 
old confidential relations were resumed be- 
tween the brother and the sister. All their 
thoughts and feelings were shared ; Cornelia 
read his letters from his University friends, 
and went over with him his replies to them. 
These were the happiest days of Cornelia’s 
life; they amount, deducting Wolfgang’s 
absence for a year and a half at Strasburg, 
to about three years and a half. They are 
most interesting to us in connection with 
Cornelia’s influence upon the production of 
“ Goetz von Berlichingen,” as Goethe thus 
relates it : 
“ I had, as I proceeded, conversed cir- 
cumstantially about it with my sister, who 
took part in such matters with heart and 
soul. I so often renewed this conversation 
without taking any steps toward beginning 
work, that she at length, impatient and inter- 
ested, begged me earnestly not to be ever 
talking into the air, but once for all to set 
down on paper that which was so present 
to my mind. Determined by this impulse, 
I began one morning to write, without hav- 
ing first sketched out any draft or plan. I 
wrote the first scenes, and in the evening 
they were read to Cornelia. She greatly 
applauded them, yet qualified her praise by 
the doubt whether I should so continue ; 
indeed she expressed a decided unbelief in 
