Goethe’s stay at Strasburg is generally connected still more closely with another circumstance—­his passion for Frederike Brion of Sesenheim.  The village lies about twenty miles from Strasburg, and her father was pastor there.  Goethe was introduced by his friend Weyland, as a poor theological student.  The father was a simple, worthy man, the eldest of the three daughters was married, the two younger remained—­Maria Salome, and Frederike, to whom the poet principally devoted himself.  She was tall and slight, with fair hair and blue eyes, and just sixteen years of age.  Goethe gave himself up to the passion of the moment.  During the winter of 1770, Goethe often rode over to Sesenheim.  Neither storm, nor cold, nor darkness kept him back.  As his time for leaving Strasburg came nearer he felt that his love was merely a dream and could have no serious termination.  Frederike felt the same on her side.  On August 6th Goethe took his degree as a doctor of law.  Shortly afterwards he bade adieu to Sesenheim.  Frederike lived till 1813 and died single.

Goethe’s return to Frankfort is marked by a number of songs, of which the “Wanderer’s Sturmlied” is the most remarkable.  He had outgrown many of the friends of his youth.  Those with whom he felt most sympathy were the two Schlossers and his sister Cornelia.  He found in her one who sympathized with all his aspirations.  The work into which he threw all his genius was the dramatization of the history of the imperial knight of the Middle Ages, Gottfried or Goetz von Berlichingen.  The immediate cause of this enterprise was his enthusiasm for Shakespeare.  After reading him he felt, he said, like a blind man who suddenly receives his sight.  The study of a dry and dull biography of Goetz, published in 1731, supplied the subject for his awakened powers.  From this miserable sketch he conceived within his mind a complete picture of Germany in the sixteenth century.  The chief characters of his play are creatures of his imagination, representing the principal types which made up the history of the time.  Every personage is made to live; they speak in short, sharp sentences like the powerful lines of a great master’s drawing.  The first sketch of Goetz was finished in six weeks, in the autumn of 1771.  It ran like wild-fire through the whole of Germany.

Goethe left Frankfort in the spring of 1772 for Wetzlar, a quiet country town on the Lahn, one of the seats of government of the Holy Roman Empire.  The emperors lived at Vienna; they were crowned at Frankfort; they held their parliaments at Ratisbon, and at Wetzlar their courts of justice.  It was the custom for young lawyers to attend the sittings of these courts for a certain time before they could be admitted to practice on their own account.  The company of these students, of the embassies from the component parts of the empire, and of various imperial officials, made the society a pleasant and lively one.  Goethe soon found friends.  His favorite house was occupied