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Page 120
STRANGER. So freedom means: freedom to oppress others. That's new
to me.
MELCHER. Then let's go on without further comment to the portrait
collection. Number one in the catalogue. Boccaccio, with two heads--
all our portraits have at least two heads. His story's well known.
The great man began his career by writing dissolute and godless
tales, which he dedicated to Queen Johanna of Naples, who'd seduced
the son of St. Brigitta. Boccaccio ended up as a saint in a
monastery where he lectured on Dante's Hell and the devils that, in
his youth, he had thought to drive out in a most original way.
You'll notice now, how the two faces are meeting each other's gaze!
STRANGER. Yes. But all trace of humour's lacking; and humour's to
be expected in a man who knew himself as well as our friend
Boccaccio did.
MELCHER. Number two in the catalogue. Ah, yes; that's two-headed
Doctor Luther. The youthful champion of tolerance and the aged
upholder of intolerance. Have I said enough?
STRANGER. Quite enough.
MELCHER. Number three in the catalogue. The great Gustavus Adolphus
accepting Catholic funds from Cardinal Richelieu in order to fight
for Protestantism, whilst remaining neutral in the face of the
Catholic League.
STRANGER. How do Protestants explain this threefold contradiction?
MELCHER. They say it's not true. Number four in the catalogue.
Schiller, the author of The Robbers, who was offered the freedom of
the City of Paris by the leaders of the French Revolution in 1792;
but who had been made a State Councillor of Meiningen as early as
1790 and a royal Danish Stipendiary in 1791. The scene depicts the
State Councillor--and friend of his Excellency Goethe--receiving
the Diploma of Honour from the leaders of the French Revolution as
late as 1798. Think of it, the diploma of the Reign of Terror in
the year 1798, when the Revolution was over and the country under
the Directory! I'd have liked to have seen the Councillor and his
friend, His Excellency! But it didn't matter, for two years later
he repaid his nomination by writing the _Song of the Bell_, in
which he expressed his thanks and begged the revolutionaries to
keep quiet! Well, that's life. We're intelligent people and love
_The Robbers_ as much as _The Song of the Bell_; Schiller as much
as Goethe!
STRANGER. The work remains, the master perishes.
MELCHER. Goethe, yes! Number five in the catalogue. He began with
Strassburg cathedral and _G�tz von Berlichingen_, two hurrahs for
gothic Germanic art against that of Greece and Rome. Later he
fought against Germanism and for Classicism. Goethe against Goethe!
There you see the traditional Olympic calm, harmony, etc., in the
greatest disharmony with itself. But depression at this turns into
uneasiness when the young Romantic school appears and combats the
Goethe of _Iphigenia_ with theories drawn from Goethe's _Goetz_.
That the 'great heathen' ends up by converting Faust in the Second
Part, and allowing him to be saved by the Virgin Mary and the
angels, is usually passed over in silence by his admirers. Also the
fact that a man of such clear vision should, towards the end of his
life, have found everything so 'strange,' and 'curious,' even the
simplest facts that he'd previously seen through. His last wish was
for 'more light'! Yes; but it doesn't matter. We're intelligent
people and love our Goethe just the same.
STRANGER. And rightly.
MELCHER. Number six in the catalogue. Voltaire! He has more than
two heads. The Godless One, who spent his whole life defending God.
The Mocker, who was mocked, because 'he believed in God like a
child.' The author of the cynical 'Candide,' who wrote:
In my youth I sought the pleasures
Of the senses, but I learned
That their sweetness was illusion
Soon to bitterness it turned.
In old age I've come to see
Life is nought but vanity.
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