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Aus den Memoiren des Marschalls von Bassompierre
=The Memoirs of Marshal Bassompierre (Basler prints 23)
17 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
2 people want to read
About the author
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
13.4k books7,110 followersA master of poetry, drama, and the novel, German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent 50 years on his two-part dramatic poem
Faust
, published in 1808 and 1832, also conducted scientific research in various fields, notably botany, and held several governmental positions.
George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .
With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.
Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.
Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.
George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .
With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.
Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.
Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.
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October 31, 2019
From the Memoires of the Marechal de Bassempierre
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe had evidently read Bassempierre’s Memoires.
He must have been charmed by the short, and unusual love adventure Bassempierre remembers of his young years.
He translated the story into German and published it in 1795.
Goethe’s translation is without any modification, addition or abridgement, even if some of the vocabularies could have been interpreted differently.
The story is about Bassempierre’s encounter with a beautiful laundry girl on the road returning on horseback from the Royal Court in Fontainebleau to his home in Paris.
The girl had expressed great pleasure every time he passed her laundry shop;
made low head bows and courtesies and followed him with her eyes as long as she could see him.
One day he sent back his servant to inquire if she would like to meet him any place; and yes she said, yes, any place but between two bedsheets.
Bassempierre never hesitated to accept this straight forward proposal and had his servant organise a safe and clean place, even if not of good reputation.
There they had this unforgettable love night together.
The two lovers were eager to meet again on the following Sunday night.
The meeting place was to be at a more acceptable reputation.
Bassempierre found the place and was there at the time agreed. But the door was locked.
The house was all lit up inside with flickering light like by a fireplace.
When Bassempierre knocked at the door it was opened.
What he saw in the room made him nearly faint, and he ran away in horror.
The second love night was not to be.
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe had evidently read Bassempierre’s Memoires.
He must have been charmed by the short, and unusual love adventure Bassempierre remembers of his young years.
He translated the story into German and published it in 1795.
Goethe’s translation is without any modification, addition or abridgement, even if some of the vocabularies could have been interpreted differently.
The story is about Bassempierre’s encounter with a beautiful laundry girl on the road returning on horseback from the Royal Court in Fontainebleau to his home in Paris.
The girl had expressed great pleasure every time he passed her laundry shop;
made low head bows and courtesies and followed him with her eyes as long as she could see him.
One day he sent back his servant to inquire if she would like to meet him any place; and yes she said, yes, any place but between two bedsheets.
Bassempierre never hesitated to accept this straight forward proposal and had his servant organise a safe and clean place, even if not of good reputation.
There they had this unforgettable love night together.
The two lovers were eager to meet again on the following Sunday night.
The meeting place was to be at a more acceptable reputation.
Bassempierre found the place and was there at the time agreed. But the door was locked.
The house was all lit up inside with flickering light like by a fireplace.
When Bassempierre knocked at the door it was opened.
What he saw in the room made him nearly faint, and he ran away in horror.
The second love night was not to be.
Displaying 1 of 1 review