Not yet three days had passed away,
       When an angel from heaven came down: 
     “Take ye the boy from the scaffold away;
       Else the city shall sink under ground!”

     And not six months had passed away,
       Ere his death was avenged amain;
     And upwards of three hundred men
       For the boy’s life were slain.

     Who is it that hath made this lay,
       Hath sung it, and so on? 
     That, in Vienna in Austria,
       Three maidens fair have done.

ELISABETH BRENTANO (BETTINA VON ARNIM)

(1785-1859)

No picture of German life at the beginning of this century would be complete which did not include the distinguished women who left their mark upon the time.  Among these Bettina von Arnim stands easily foremost.  There was something triumphant in her nature, which in her youth manifested itself in her splendid enthusiasm for the two great geniuses who dominated her life,—­Goethe and Beethoven,—­and which, in the lean years when Germany was overclouded, maintained itself by an inexhaustible optimism.  Her merry willfulness and wit covered a warm heart and a vigorous mind; and both of her great idols understood her and took her seriously.

[Illustration:  ELISABETH BRENTANO]

Elisabeth Brentano was the daughter of Goethe’s friend, Maximiliane de la Roche.  She was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1785, and was brought up after the death of her mother under the somewhat peculiar influence of the highly-strung Caroline von Guenderode.  Through her filial intimacy with Goethe’s mother, she came to know the poet; and out of their friendship grew the correspondence which formed the basis of Bettina’s famous book, ‘Goethe’s Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde’ (Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child).  She attached herself with unbounded enthusiasm to Goethe, and he responded with affectionate tact.  To him Bettina was the embodiment of the loving grace and willfulness of ‘Mignon.’

In 1811 these relations were interrupted, owing to Bettina’s attitude toward Goethe’s wife.  In the same year she married Achim von Arnim, one of the most refined poets and noblest characters of that brilliant circle.  The marriage was an ideal one; each cherished and delighted in the genius of the other, but in 1831 the death of Von Arnim brought this happiness to an end.  Goethe died in the following year, and Germany went into mourning.  Then in 1835 Bettina appeared before the world for the first time as an authoress, in ‘Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child.’  The dithyrambic exaltation, the unrestrained but beautiful enthusiasm of the book came like an electric shock.  Into an atmosphere of spiritual stagnation, these letters brought a fresh access of vitality and hope.  Bettina’s old friendly relations with Goethe had been resumed later in life, and in a letter written to her niece she gives a charming account of the visit to the poet in 1824, which proved to be her last.  This letter first saw the light in 1896, and an extract from it has been included below.