Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels: From the German of Goethe ...

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Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1851

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Page 383 - 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 com'st in such a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane, O, answer me!
Page 295 - There is an oak-tree 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 which it cannot bear and must not cast away.
Page 362 - What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passion, That I have?
Page 362 - I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinore. Ros. Good my lord ! HAM. Ay, so, God be wi' ye; [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] Now I am alone. 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 424 - O, ask me not to speak, I pray thee ! It must not be reveal'd but hid ; How gladly would my tongue obey thee, Did not the voice of Fate forbid ! At his appointed time revolving, The sun these shades of night dispels ; The rock, its rugged breast dissolving, Gives up to Earth its hidden wells. In Friendship's arms each heart reposes ; There soul to soul pours out its woe : My lips an oath forever closes, My sorrows God alone can know.
Page 362 - 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?
Page 76 - ... to get at the harpsichord; on that, threw her gown upon the bed, that he might find a seat; when she herself, with careless freedom, did not seek to hide from him many a natural office, which, out of respect for the presence of a second person, is usually concealed; he felt as if by all this he was coming nearer to her every moment, as if the communion betwixt them was fastening by invisible ties.
Page 261 - 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 every trace of Hamlet's character, as it had shown itself before his father's...
Page 349 - I feel to cultivate my mental faculties and tastes, that so, in this enjoyment, henceforth indispensable, I may esteem as good the good alone, as beautiful the beautiful alone. Thou seest well that for me all this is nowhere to be met with except upon the stage; that in this element alone can I effect and cultivate myself according to my wishes. On the boards a polished man appears in his...
Page 114 - Preceded by a drum, the manager advanced on horseback; he was followed by a female dancer mounted on a corresponding hack, and holding a child before her, all bedizened with ribbons and spangles. Next came the remainder of the troop on foot; some of them carrying children on their shoulders in dangerous postures, yet smoothly and lightly ; among these the young, dark, black-haired figure again attracted Wilhelm's notice. Pickleherring ran gaily up and down the...

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