wrote his first
romantic-historical play, "Goetz von Berlichingen." In the following year
he published his sentimental romance, "The Sorrows of Werther," based in a
measure on one of his own unfortunate love affairs at Wetzlar. Both of
these early works achieved instant success. "The Sorrows of Werther"
inaugurated in German literature what is known as the period of storm and
stress. Disenchantment of life, or "Weltschmerz," became a fashionable
malady. The romantic suicide of Goethe's sentimental hero Werther was aped
by a number of over-susceptible young persons. Wieland drew the attention
of the Duke of Weimar to Goethe, and the young poet was invited to Weimar.
He remained under the patronage of this enlightened prince until the end of
his days. At Weimar, Goethe was the centre of a court comprising some of
the foremost spirits of Germany. The little capital became a Mecca for
poets, scholars, artists and musicians from all over the world. Goethe's
only rival poet in Germany, Schiller, was drawn into the circle and the two
became life-long friends. Most of Goethe's lyric poems were written during
the first ten years at Weimar. At the outbreak of the French Revolution he
accompanied the Duke of Weimar in one of the campaigns against France. The
thrilling atmosphere of the Revolution furnished him with a literary
background for his epic idyl, "Hermann und Dorothea." Goethe's subsequent
journey to Italy, which was a turning-point in the poet's career, was
commemorated in his "Letters from Italy"--a classic among German books of
travel. Another eminently successful creation was the epic of "Reynard, the
Fox," modelled after the famous bestiary poems of early Flemish and
French literature.

[Illustration: THE KING OF ROME
Painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence]

[Sidenote: Goethe's dramas]

[Sidenote: "Wilhelm Meister"]

[Sidenote: "Dichtung und Wahrheit"]

[Sidenote: "Faust"]

During the same period Goethe wrote four of his greatest dramas, "Iphigenie
in Tauris," "Torquato Tasso," "Egmont," and the first part of "Faust."
Later he wrote his great prose work, "Die Wahlverwandtschaften," a
quasi-physiological romance; "Wilhelm Meister's Lehr und Wander Jahre," a
narrative interspersed with some of Goethe's finest lyrics, such as the
songs of Mignon and of the old harper, as well as the famous critique of
Hamlet. The height of Goethe's superb prose style was reached in "Dichtung
und Wahrheit," which stands as one of t