CHAPTER V.

Weimar; Goethe’s relations to the Duke, the Duchess, and the Duchess Dowager; Wieland; Herder settles at Weimar; the Duke proposes that Goethe shall enter the public service; opposition of Goethe’s father; Goethe becomes a member of the Privy Council; his friendship with Frau von Stein; Corona Schröter; his self-discipline; his public duties; the earnestness with which he discharges them; change of manner as well as of character; visits Switzerland, and sees Frederika Brion and Lili on the way; death of his father in 1782; is made “Geheimerath” and President of the Chamber of Finance; ennobled; visits the Harz Mountains; devotes himself to the study of science; discovers the intermaxillary bone in the human jaw; his doctrine of types in organic nature; “Iphigenie” in prose; change in the methods of his art as a dramatist; “Wilhelm Meister” begun; “Torquato Tasso”; minor plays and poems; the literary movement in Germany; longing for Italy; starts for Italy in September, 1786; edition of his collected writings 86