A facetious coinage by Goethe meaning approximately “buttock ghost-imaginer.” This is a reference to Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811), Goethe’s literary adversary and an undeviating rationalist, who believed that hallucinatory visions of ghosts could be treated effectively by the application of leeches to the buttocks.
56. Although Nicolai had repeatedly—by rational and “enlightened” argument—demonstrated the impossibility of ghosts, the castle at Tegel (near Berlin) continued to be haunted under his very nose, so to speak. It was a well-publicized affair, which angered Nicolai.
57. Nicolai had written a travelogue of no fewer than twelve volumes, covering his voyage through Germany and Italy.
58. Allusion to an episode in Greek mythology where Perseus struck off Medusa’s head.
59. Prater. A famous public park in Vienna, relatively new in Goethe’s time.
60. SERVIBILIS. A huckster and announcer, such as one might find before a circus tent.
61. WALPURGIS-NIGHT’S DREAM, etc. This scene has no organic connection to the Faust drama. While somewhat patterned after Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the scene consists of polemic verses criticizing the contemporary literary scene. The piece was originally intended as the so-called Xenien for the Almanac of Muses (Musenalmanach), a journal organized by Goethe’s friend Schiller. As Schiller was disinclined to use these verses for the journal, Goethe cast about for another, appropriate setting for them, and for better or for worse, decided to include them as an “intermezzo” in his Faust. Actually some parallels between the rather personal polemics of the previous “Walpurgis Night” scene and those of the “Intermezzo” may be found. It is well to keep the designation “Intermezzo” in mind, as well as the operetta-like character of the piece.
62. Mieding. The manager of the Weimar theater where Goethe directed many plays, including his own.
63. XENIES. Personifications of polemic verses.
64. Friedrich von Hennings, a Danish author who had taken severe exception to Goethe’s and Schiller’s polemics in the Almanac of Muses.
65. MUSAGET is the title of a collection of poems by Hennings. See note above.
66. CI-DEVANT GENIUS. A satiric attack on Hennings’s periodical Genius der Zeit.
67. INQUISITIVE TRAVELER. This is Nicolai (see note 55). In this case, however, he is not the speaker, but the person spoken to.
68. Nicolai was a militant Protestant.
69. WORLDLING is likely to be Goethe himself.
70. The dancer calls attention to a group of philosophers of various persuasions, now approaching.
71. Here begins the political satire.
72. Raven Stone. Block of stone and mortar used for executions. Traditionally, crows circle over it.
73. The Juniper Song. In the old legend, an evil stepmother slaughters her child and serves it as a dish to the father. The child’s sister gathers up the bones and buries them under a juniper tree. Soon a bird arises from the bones, and its song lures the stepmother from her house. Once outside, she is crushed by a falling millstone. Goethe was familiar with this tale as a young boy.
74. The juniper tree legend seems to work on Gretchen’s mind. See previous note.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS IN ENGLISH CONCERNED WITH GOETHE’S FAUST
Atkins, Stuart. Goethe’s Faust: A Literary Analysis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949.
Butler, E. M. The Fortunes of Faust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952.
Dieckmann, Liselotte. Goethe’s Faust: A Critical Reading.
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