Lotte in Weimar Page #6

She looks as though she were;

that's why she is today in the same danger

you yourself once escaped.

Ottilie is the image of your youth,

as such she is beloved.

As a mother,

save Ottilie from being sacrificed to a fascination.

Your husband, my dear lady, has passed away.

The woman who became August's mother is no more.

You are alone with the father.

My good child,

you plunge me into situations,

trying to make an old woman

believe in a return of her former self,

grant me maternal rights over his son!

it would appear as if I undertook this journey of mine ...

Frau Councillor will see you now.

Herr Chamberlain von Goethe.

I thank you for your kind reception.

If you like each other,

then get married.

Do it for his sake.

And be happy.

in your upper stories ???

I'm in no position to advise you against it.

God bless you.

God bless you, my child.

God bless you, my child.

Hallo everybody.

How do you do?

- Nice day.

- Yes indeed.

Herr Mager.

??? must come

It'll be dark soon.

I'm supervising.

How do you do?

How do you do?

the morning of the 23rd September

Alas, that it should vanish!

That my bright vision of the depths

must end so soon,

as though the whim of a genie gave it

and as suddenly snatched it away - it fades into nothing,

and I emerge.

It was so lovely.

And now what?

Where are we?

Jena?

Berka?

Tennstdt?

No.

This is the Weimar coverlet.

Silken.

The familiar hangings on the walls,

the bell-pull.

What's this? Powerfully aroused?

Mightily festooned?

Good show, old fellow.

Then you too should rejoice,

sprightly dotard.

Oh, sister.

So they mistrust my Germanhood,

they feel it's an abuse,

and my fame causes them hate and anguish.

Do your best to fend me off,

still I stand for you,

even though they've been shitting on my poetry,

emptying their bellies.

Did Your Excellency say something to me?

What? Have I been speaking aloud?

No, I was only talking to myself.

In old age, you known,

people start mumbling to themselves.

Who is it?

A good day, father.

Oh, it's you August, come in.

Am I disturbing?

You're putting your papers away so fast?

Disturbing? What does it mean, my child?

Everything disturbs.

It all depends on

whether the disturbance is welcome or not.

Yes, that's the question, even now.

What news are you bringing?

A visitor has arrived, father.

A female visitor.

A visitor from far away,

and out of the past.

She's staying at the Elephant.

I heard the news

before her letter came.

Yesterday.

The town is all agog.

An old acquaintance.

An acquaintance?

Old?

Don't make such a fuss.

Weimar, the 22nd. That was yesterday.

"to look once more upon a face which has ...

become famous to the world."

"ne ...

Curious.

This is what I call a curious thing to happen.

Don't you?

This is a hyalite.

A glass opal.

A crystal.

They've sent it from Frankfurt,

for my collection.

How goes the hay-making in the big garden?

It's done, father.

But I'm cross with the farmer

who again won't pay.

He thinks we owe him something

for the mowing and transport.

How long do you think

the poor soul worked over this little note?

People are careful when they write to you.

It makes me feel uncomfortable.

The is the discipline of culture

you exact from us all.

When I'm dead, they'll all say "Ugh"

and express themselves like pigs again.

You mentioned some gossip in town

about the event?

Quite a bit.

Crowds in front of the inn.

They wanted to see the heroine

of Werther's Sorrows.

Couldn't the old hag have refrained,

and have spared me this?

She wants to nibble a piece of fate herself.

Little she knows how close together

fame and notoriety lie.

We'll give a luncheon,

for small company.

But otherwise we'll keep aloof

and give the sensation-mongers nothing to feed on.

In front of the house on the Frauenplan

other guests arriving were already being greeted.

Dr. Riemer,

Herr Stephan Schtze,

excellent belletrist

and editor of albums,

Charlotte learned.

Chamberlain Meyer,

the art professor.

"Art-Meyer"

Riemer jocosely declined

to be introduced to Lotte:

"Frau Councillor would remember

an old friend of three days' standing"

Let us hope that we're fortunate to find the master

in a good and lively key, not taciturn and scruffy,

otherwise we'd have the distressing feeling

to be burden for him.

I know the master of this house

even longer than yourself, Herr Professor,

and I am not unfamiliar

with the variable moods of the poet.

The newer acquaintance is after all the more authentic.

SALVE:

Pardon.

... Talking of "taciturn"

"scruffy".

But the boy did good.

He lived more modestly in the Corn Market at Wetzlar.

There he had my silhouette on the wall,

morning and evening he greeted it with eyes and lips,

it's all in the book.

It's all in the book.

Frau Councillor Kestner.

Herr and Frau Chamberlain Riedel.

Herr and Frau Chamberlain Kirms.

Let me present my wife.

- My daughter Lotte.

- Madame Riemer.

Madame Meyer.

Superintendent of Mines, Werner.

Such excitement, Frau Councillor.

One knows who you are.

Your dress, Frau Councillor,

how meaningful, how charming.

The whole dress - an allusion.

And one knows what you're alluding to.

Oh, Lotte!

May I call you Lotte?

What a moment!

You in Weimar!

In this house!

Well, my daughter ...

My husband has talked much about you, my dear.

How nice to meet you at last.

It's superb.

A copy of the so-called Aldobrandini Marriage.

Prof. Meyer most kindly made it.

Very beautiful.

Very beautiful.

We seem to be our full count,

and let us hope our host will present himself without delay.

It is comprehensible that new-comers should feel

a certain nervousness in these last long minutes,

though they should rejoice

to be able to accustom themselves beforehand

to the surroundings and atmosphere.

What I mean is that it is always "besht"

to conceal as much as possible one's tension

and to greet him with no sign of stress.

That sensibly lightens the strain for both sides.

For the master and for yourself.

For he is sensitive to the guests' nervousness

and shares it with him;

he gets the contagion, so to speak, from afar.

It is distinctly the sensible thing to be entirely natural.

One doesn't have to entertain him on high intellectual themes,

as for example his own works.

Nothing is more ill-judged.

It's much wiser to chat about harmless matters

within one's own experience.

Needless to say,

I don't mean to encourage any indecent familiarities.

Thank you very much, Herr Councillor,

for your suggestions.

Many must have already been grateful for them.

But we must not forget

that in this case we are dealing with the renewal

of an acquaintance of 44 years' standing.

A man who is a different person

from day to day and from hour to hour

will certainly have become a different person in 44 years.

Well, Carl, what sort of mood are we in today?

Pretty jolly, on the whole, Herr Chamberlain.

His Excellency.

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