[Footnote 9:  The word “Gelegenheitsgedicht” (occasional poem) properly applies to poems written for special occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, etc., but Goethe here extends the meaning, as he himself explains.  As the English word “occasional” often implies no more than “occurrence now and then,” the phrase “occasional poem” is not very happy, and is only used for want of a better.  The reader must conceive the word in the limited sense, produced on some special event.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 10:  Goethe’s “West-oestliche (west-eastern) Divan,” one of the twelve divisions of which is entitled “Das Buch des Unmuths” (The Book of Ill-Humor).—­Trans.]

[Footnote 11:  Die Aufgeregten (the Agitated, in a political sense) is an unfinished drama by Goethe.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 12:  The German phrase “Freund des Bestehenden,” which, for want of a better expression, has been rendered above “friend of the powers that be,” literally means “friend of the permanent,” and was used by the detractors of Goethe to denote the “enemy of the progressive.”—­Trans.]

[Footnote 13:  Poetry and Truth, the title of Goethe’s autobiography.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 14:  This, doubtless, means the “Deformed Transformed,” and the fact that this poem was not published till January, 1824, rendering it probable that Goethe had not actually seen it, accounts for the inaccuracy of the expression.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 15:  It need scarcely be mentioned that this is the name given to a collection of sarcastic epigrams by Goethe and Schiller.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 16:  “Die Natuerliche Tochter” (the Natural Daughter).—­Trans.]

[Footnote 17:  Vide p. 185, where a remark is made on the word nature, as applied to a person.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 18:  These plays were intended to be in the Shakesperian style, and Goethe means that by writing them he freed himself from Shakespeare, just as by writing Werther he freed himself from thoughts of suicide.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 19:  This doubtless refers to the Heath country in which Eckermann was born.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 20:  This poem is simply entitled “Ballade,” and begins “Herein, O du Guter! du Alter herein!”—­Trans.]

[Footnote 21:  A It must be borne in mind that this was said before the appearance of “Robert le Diable,” which was first produced in Paris, in November, 1831.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 22:  B That is, the second act of the second part of “Faust,” which was not published entire till after Goethe’s death.—­Trans.]

[Footnote 23:  In the original book this conversation follows immediately the one of December 21, 1831, and with the remainder of the book is prefaced thus:—­“The following I noted down shortly afterwards (that is, after they took place) from memory.”—­Trans.]

[Footnote 24:  A distinguished die-cutter in Rome.]