The Works of Thomas Carlyle: Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship and travels, translated from the German of GoetheC. Scribner's Sons, 1899 |
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Common terms and phrases
acquainted actors Actuarius altogether appeared asked Aurelia Baron Baroness beautiful began Castle chamber CHAPTER charming child continued Count Countess creature cried delight door Elmira entertainment ere long eyes father favour feeling felt gave German give Goethe Hamlet hand happy Harper hastened heart Herrnhut honour hope humour Jarno labour lady Laertes live looked louis-d'or manner Mariana means Meister Melina Mignon mind Narciss nature neckerchief never night noble nosegay observed occasion once pasquinader passion person Philina piece play pleasant pleasant hopes pleasure poet praise present Prince replied rest scarcely scene secret seemed Serlo singular songs soon sorrow soul speak spirit spleen Stallmeister stept stood stranger theatre thee things thou thought took Torquato Tasso turn understrapper vaulting company Werner whole Wilhelm Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship wished words young youth
Popular passages
Page 323 - O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit...
Page 323 - Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann'd, Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
Page 263 - An oak-tree is planted in a costly jar, which should have borne only pleasant flowers in its bosom ; the roots expand, the jar is shivered ! A lovely, pure, noble, and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a Hero, sinks beneath a burden...
Page 264 - A lovely, pure, noble and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burden which it cannot bear and must not cast away. All duties are holy for him; the present is too hard. Impossibilities have been required of him ; not in themselves impossibilites, but such for him.
Page 319 - they destroy at once the sense and the effect. What these two persons are and do it is impossible to represent by one. In such small matters we discover Shakespeare's greatness. These soft approaches, this smirking and bowing, this assenting, wheedling, flattering, this whisking agility, this wagging of the tail, this allness and emptiness, this legal knavery, this ineptitude and insipidity, — how can they be expressed by a single man ? There ought to be at least a dozen of these people, if they...
Page 326 - Can you conceive him to be otherwise than plump and fair-haired ? Brown-complexioned people in their youth are seldom plump. And does not his wavering melancholy, his soft lamenting, his irresolute activity, accord with such a figure? From a dark-haired young man you would look for more decision and impetuosity.
Page 116 - ... with rapture if, among the dingles we are crossing, the voice of the nightingale starts out touching and strong. They found a home in every habitation of the world, and the lowliness of their condition but exalted them the more. The hero listened to their songs, and the conqueror of the earth did reverence to a poet; for he felt, that, without poets, his own wild and vast existence would pass away like a whirlwind, and be forgotten for ever. The lover wished that he could feel his longings and...
Page 303 - Men are so inclined to content themselves wkh what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things.
Page 342 - Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou comest in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
Page 234 - I next went through the entire piece, without interruption ; but here, too, I found much that I could not away with. At one time the- characters, at another time the manner of displaying them, seemed inconsistent ; and I almost despaired of finding any general tint, in which I might present my whole part with all its shadings and variations. In such devious paths I toiled and wandered long in vain, till at length a hope arose that I might reach my aim in quite a new way. " I set about investigating...