Chapter 33 who can identify

one Twenty years ago I described Goethe's life in Weimar in an academic book.It was not easy to find information about this at that time, but I found some one after another. I know that Goethe lived a pampered life in that beautiful small city, from his twenties to his death.Those quiet accounts always read with a lot of doubt at the time, because we have been told that all good literature is always directly related to the writer's personal suffering.Maybe Goethe is an exception, but the weight of this exception is too heavy, and it is very difficult to omit it.From this exception, I thought of a large number of well-fed poets in the Tang Dynasty in China, as well as many well-off foreign writers such as Tolstoy, Hugo, Hemingway, etc., who seemed to be among the exceptions, and my doubts changed direction.If a literary law can exclude so many first-rate masters, what kind of law is it?

It was only when I arrived in Weimar today that I realized that Goethe's residence here was even more luxurious than people imagined. There is a long row of yellow buildings on the entire corner of the street, occupying an area so wide in the downtown area that people mistakenly think it is an important state institution or an aristocratic school, but it is actually his personal home.When you enter the door, you can see that there is another building inside, which is connected to the previous building by several corridors, separated by a long courtyard-like empty stone corridor, which is actually a carriageway inside the gate. The carriages in the garage are all the same, except that the horses are gone. .

The garage is located on the ground floor of the inner building, and the upper floor is Goethe's living area. The bedroom is relatively simple. It is said that the books in the library are arranged exactly as they were before his death, and one book has not been moved.As for the front building, it is a palace-style social place, with famous paintings and sculptures, orderly collections, multiple doors and elegant decorations, as if walking into a museum. What creaked under his feet was the floor he had stepped on for fifty years, and that sound was the earliest beat of every sentence in "Faust".

I watched very carefully and slowly from room to room, and my partners couldn't wait, saying that they had already made an appointment with the Goethe Archives for shooting time and had to rush there.I said I haven't finished reading it yet, you go first, I will definitely find it. The partners left first very worried, so I just calmed down and walked around Goethe's house again and again.Go straight to every step of the stairs, turn every corner, and look at every cabinet before coming out in a hurry. Relying on the impression of Weimar map when I was studying Goethe, I walked through the old streets and passed by. The square, along the river, across the bridge, slowly walking towards the archives in the feeling.

The road was not straight, so I deliberately walked forward confidently without asking anyone, and sure enough, the archives were right in front of me.The partners cheered when they saw it. The Archives is a solid old building deep in the slope.On the second floor, I saw their handwriting. Goethe's characters are slanted, but neat and unrestrained, like a willow branch blown down by a strong wind.Schiller's handwriting is normal and slightly free, which I think should be the customary writing style of most talented Western writers.The weirdest thing is Nietzsche, with such wild and uninhibited thoughts, but the manuscript is rigid and rigid, like the brushstrokes of a dull copyist.

two Goethe came to Weimar at the invitation of Duke Karl August of the Duchy of Weimar when he was only twenty-six years old. Before reunification, Germany was divided into many small states, up to two or three hundred at most.This state is very unfavorable to the development of the economy and the enlightenment of the atmosphere, but it is not necessarily a scourge to the culture.The monarchs of some countries are very happy and have a certain cultural appreciation ability, so they may do some good things to recruit talents and build monuments. Many cultural elites have thus obtained a comfortable creative environment and left good achievements.A large part of the astonishing cultural achievements that emerged in Germany before unification has to do with this.On the contrary, in the face of unified power, the dream of empire, and the myth of the nation, it is difficult to have a decent cultural performance, let alone under the cover of war fanaticism.

The cultural achievements Goethe created in Weimar far exceeded the expectations of the Duke of Weimar, especially after he met Schiller. Before they met, Goethe and Schiller were both famous Cyclonus champions in the history of literature. Goethe used "The Sorrows of Young Werther", Schiller used "The Robber", and their other works to show a kind of condescension to feudal ideology. sweeping momentum.Their spiritual predecessor should be Lessing, who has a low status in reality but a high status in history.Goethe in "The Sorrows of Young Werther" deliberately made the protagonist commit suicide while still reading Lessing's works.

By the time Goethe and Schiller met in Weimar, the Sturm und Drang had passed and they were ushering in an era of classicism.History will admit that the heyday of German classicism was chiefly marked by their friendship. These three people constitute our impression of the starting point of German literature.Almost all of them are philosophers, not only deep thinking, but also macroscopic, with extremely high academic quality.This gives their work a rare quality of ultimate contemplation.This kind of character has two directions. It may move towards the direction of a scholar with a rough concept, and it may move towards a direction of a giant.In contrast, Goethe is completely moving towards the latter direction. Lessing and Schiller are both integrated, but they are not as complete as Goethe in the latter direction.Of course, this is related to Goethe's prosperity and longevity.

In any case, the strong philosophical quality of German literature has been determined in this way. Jung said that every German has a shadow of Faust in his soul.Therefore, when Goethe and they set the quality of German literature, they also set the quality of Germans. Perhaps conversely, their quality was originally the product of the German noumenal quality, and they just froze it through the breathing of genius. Then again Jung was right: it was not Goethe who created Faust, but Faust who created Goethe. In fact, here is a magnificent relationship of mutual creation.Weimar is an important co-creation site.

three After reading the Goethe Archives, we sat in a cafe in the city center for a while, and then went to see Schiller's former residence. Schiller's former residence is a nice small building facing the street, but compared with Goethe's house, it is too far behind.From this, one cannot but think of the personal relationship between Goethe and Schiller. As far as life circumstances are concerned, there is always a big gap between the two. Goethe is extremely prosperous and rich, while Schiller is always in embarrassment. They didn't hit it off at first sight, the reason was the gap, and the vigilance that this gap aroused in two sensitive hearts.This kind of vigilance is a permanent barrier to others, but it is a careful preparation for bosom friends.

Judging from various indications, the two confided in each other in the mid-1890s.Schiller's life was miserable, and he only enjoyed this friendship for ten years.Goethe was ten years older than Schiller, but he lived for more than 20 years after Schiller's death, and endured more than 20 years of piercing nostalgia. During their relationship, Goethe tried his best to help Schiller with his own status and reputation, let him move to Weimar, first lived in his own house, and then helped him buy a house. Firewood, and more importantly, concrete support for a series of important creative activities of Schiele.Conversely, Schiller also used his great genius to re-inspire Goethe's creative enthusiasm that had been exhausted by government affairs, so that he completed the first part of "Faust".Thus, the pair of friends, living in a small town, started an era in the history of European literature and art. It was already difficult for them to separate, but they did.God made them sick at the same time. Goethe visited Schiller when he was sick. Later, when he learned of the death of his best friend in the hospital bed, he burst into tears.Schiller's family was poor when he died, and his bones were placed in the basement of the church. It was not the choice of the family members, but the helplessness of the family members.Goethe, who was ill, didn't know the burial situation. He buried his dead friend in his heart. Unexpectedly, twenty years later, when the basement of the church was cleaned up, people would remember the issue of Schiller's remains again.There is no clear mark, everything is messy, which one belongs to Schiller?This incident terrified the elderly Goethe. Twenty years of missing his deceased friend had accumulated into a huge guilt for his negligence about the funeral of his deceased friend.He immediately volunteered to identify Schiele's remains. Identifying the skulls of twenty years ago in the messy pile of bones is a tricky thing even for modern forensic experts, not to mention that Goethe has neither Schiller's medical files nor basic identification tools. , is the memory of friendship.This is really the greatest test of friendship. How many people in the world can still recognize the remains of a friend when the friend has lost his voice, eyes, and even his skin?I guess Goethe was not sure when he decided to go to identify it, and he was terrified when he first entered the basement of the church, but he quickly found the only feasible way: hold the skull and stare at each other for a long time.This is a reply to those long late-night scenes of twenty years ago, and scenes always had the function of cutting and repairing.So he held the skull in the end, proudly wrapping up the vague information from the beginning.Goethe held it carefully, looked back and forth, looked around, and finally nodded: go home, great friend, just like living in my house that year. Goethe first took Schiller's skull home and placed it in his home, and then began to design the coffin.It was hard to express his feelings in those days. It was indeed Schiller himself who came back, but all the pouring out that had been accumulated for twenty years did not elicit any response, and every sentence became a soliloquy.This kind of loneliness in front of the dead friend's skull was so strong that the old Goethe couldn't bear it for a long time. He finally found an ideal place for Schiller to be buried in Weimar's most noble princely mausoleum. Unexpectedly, more than a hundred years later, Schiller's coffin was transferred for protection during World War II. After the war was over, when the coffin was opened, there was another skull inside.It is estimated that it was an error caused by the rush of the staff during the transfer. So, which one is Schiller's?There is no Goethe in the world, who can recognize it!Schiller, too, felt compelled to break free only in the presence of Goethe.In a world without Goethe, he can only accept loneliness when he escapes, so perhaps deliberately, he is willing to bury himself. From this, I understand that there should be more outstanding people in the world, but just because there is no friendship enough to correspond with them, they are willing to mix with mediocrity and withdraw quietly. Goethe's former residence and Schiller's former residence are not far away. I walked back and forth twice, thinking about the various interactions between the two of them on this road, and always slowed down as I walked.Then I stood for a long time in front of the statue of the two at the gate of the National Theater, watching them standing side by side, with a slogan that was newly hung yesterday on the garland in front of them. Friends in Weimar told me that whether it was a demonstration or a political party election, they always liked to hang their slogans on the wreaths of Goethe and Schiller, as if the two masters were their backstage. It was humorous, and even the Weimarans, who had great respect for Goethe and Schiller, were not offended by it.Because they know very well that all passing clouds will inevitably float around the Eternal Cliff, and the Eternal Cliff will not refuse. If they refuse, it will appear too monotonous.