Neither family approved of the engagement between the youthful couple.  Goethe tore himself away, and went for a tour in Switzerland.

He returned to Frankfort on July 20.  August was spent delightfully with Lili at Offenbach; his letters speak of nothing but her.  He wrote some scenes in Faust—­the walk in the garden, the first conversation with Mephistopheles, the interview with the scholar, the scene in Auerbach’s cellar.  Egmont was also begun under the stimulus of the American Rebellion.  A way of escaping from his embarrassments was unexpectedly opened to him.  The duke of Weimar passed through Frankfort both before and after his marriage, which took place on October 3.  He invited Goethe to stay at Weimar.  It was not for his happiness or for Lili’s that they should have married.  She afterwards thanked him deeply for the firmness with which he overcame a temptation to which she would have yielded.

At this time the smaller German courts were beginning to take an interest in German literature.  Before the Seven Years’ War the whole of German culture had been French.  Even now German writers found but scant acceptance at Berlin or Vienna.  The princes of the smaller states surrounded themselves with literature and art.  The duke of Brunswick had made Lessing his librarian.  The duke of Wuertemberg paid special attention to education; he promoted the views of Schubart, and founded the school in which Schiller was educated.  Hanover offered a home to Zimmermann, and encouraged the development of Schlegel.  Darmstadt was especially fortunate.  Caroline, the wife of the landgrave, had surrounded herself with a literary circle, of which Merck was the moving spirit.  She had collected and privately printed the odes of Klopstock, and her death in 1774 seemed to leave Darmstadt a desert.  Her daughter, Louisa, seemed to have inherited something of her mother’s qualities.  She married, on October 3,1775, the young duke of Weimar, who was just of age.  She was of the house of Brunswick, and after two years of marriage had been left a widow at nineteen, with two sons.  She committed their education to Count Goerz, a prominent character in the history of the time.  She afterwards summoned Wieland to instruct the elder, and Knebel to instruct the younger.

Upon this society Goethe rose like a star.  From the moment of his arrival he became the inseparable companion of the grand-duke.  The first months at Weimar were spent in a wild round of pleasure.  Goethe was treated as a guest.  In the autumn, journeys, rides, shooting parties; in the winter, balls, masquerades, skating parties by torch-light, dancing at peasants’ feasts, filled up their time.  Evil reports flew about Germany.  We may believe that no decencies were disregarded except the artificial restrictions of courtly etiquette.  In the spring he had to decide whether he would go or stay.  In April the duke gave him the little garden by the side of the Ilm.  In June he invested him with the title, so important to Germans, of Geheimlegationsrath, with a seat and voice in the privy council and an income.