e I dispatched the
waiter with my card to Goethe, inquiring whether he would receive me.
The waiter returned with the answer that His Excellency, the
Privy-councilor, was entertaining some guests and could not, therefore,
receive me at the moment. He would expect me in the evening for tea.

I dined at the hotel. My name had become known through my card and the
report of my presence spread through the town, so that I made many
acquaintances.

Toward evening I called on Goethe. In the reception-room I found quite a
large assemblage waiting for His Excellency, the Privy-councilor, who
had not yet made his appearance. Among these there was a court
councilor, Jacob or Jacobs, with his daughter, whom Goethe had
entertained at dinner. The daughter, who later won a literary reputation
under the pseudonym of Talvj, was as young as she was beautiful, and as
beautiful as she was cultured, and so I soon lost my timidity and in my
conversation with the charming young lady almost forgot that I was in
Goethe's house. At last a side door opened, and he himself entered.
Dressed in black, the star[65] on his breast, with erect, almost stiff
bearing, he stepped among us with the air of a monarch granting an
audience. He exchanged a few words with one and another of his guests,
and finally crossed the room and addressed me. He inquired whether
Italian literature was cultivated to any great extent in our country. I
told him, which was a fact, that the Italian language was, indeed,
widely known, since all officials were required to learn it; Italian
literature, on the other hand, was completely neglected; the fashion was
rather to turn to English literature, which, despite its excellence, had
an admixture of coarseness that seemed to me to be anything but
advantageous to the present state of German culture, especially of
poetry. Whether my opinion pleased him or not, I have no means of
knowing; I am almost inclined to believe it did not, inasmuch as he was
at that very time in correspondence with Lord Byron. He left me, talked
with others, returned, conversed I no longer remember on what subjects,
finally withdrew, and we were dismissed.

I confess that I returned to the hostelry in a most unpleasant frame of
mind. It was not that my vanity had been offended--on the contrary,
Goethe had treated me more kindly and more attentively than I had
anticipated--but to see the ideal of my youth, the author of _Faust_,
_Clavigo_, and _Egmont_, in t