Letters from Switzerland and Travels in Italy

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Letters from Switzerland and Travels in Italy

LETTERS FROM SWITZERLAND

PART THE FIRST

Fancies and feelings

Conventional education

An Adventure

Art and nature

Studies of the nude

PART THE SECOND

The valley of the Birsch

La Vallée de Joux

Dent de Vaulion

The Dole

View from the Dole

Geneva

The cavern of the Col de Balme

The Valley of Chamouni-Mont Blanc

The Ice-Lake

Col de Balme

Valais

The water-fall of Pisse Vache

From Martinac to Sion

Sion-Seyters

Inden – The Gemmi

Leuk

Brieg

The legend of S. Alexis

The legend of S. Alexis

The passage of the Furca

The passage over the Furca

The capuchins at Realp

The Capuchins at Realp

Mount S. Gotthard

Mount S. Gotthard

TRAVELS IN ITALY

FROM CARLSBAD TO THE BRENNER

Ratisbon

Munich-Mittelwald

The road up the Brenner

Innsbruck-Meteorology

Meteorology-Vegetation

Geology – My fellow travellers

FROM THE BRENNER TO VERONA

Trent

Botzen – Trent

Trent

Lago Di Garda

An incident at Malsesine

An incident at Malsesine

Lago Di Garda

From Brenner to Verona

FROM VERONA TO VENICE

Verona

Verona

Verona

Verona

Verona-Vicenza

Vicenza

Vicenza

Vicenza

Padua

Padua

VENICE

The passage to Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

Venice

FROM FERRARA TO ROME

Ferrara-Cento

Bologna

Bologna

Bologna

Bologna-Legano

A papal soldier's ideas of protestants

Assisi – an adventure

Terni

Road-side fantasies

ROME

Rome – Festival of all souls

Rome – Titian – Guido

Rome – Its present aspect

Rome – Raffaele

Rome-The Grotto of Egeria, &c

Rome-Farnese Gallery, &c

Rome

Rome – St. Peter's

Rome – Monti's Aristodemus

Rome – Archenholtz's Italy

Rome – The Apollo Belvedere, &c

Rome – Winckelmann's letters

Rome – Dr. Münter

Rome – Portrait by Tischbein

Rome – My plans for the future

Rome – Colossal head of Juno

Rome – Christmas-day

Rome – Monti, "Aristodemo."

Rome – Death of Frederick the Great

Rome – The removal of Antiques

Rome – Father Jacquier

Rome – The Coliseum

Rome – "Iphigenia" – "Tasso."

Rome – Tasso's burial-place

Rome – Italian skies

Rome – The "Tasso."

NAPLES

Velletri – A trick upon travellers

S. Agata

Naples – My lodgings

Naples – The Prince Von Waldeck

Naples – Vesuvius

Naples-Filangieri

Naples – Ascent to Vesuvius

Naples – An antique-A horse's head

Naples

Naples – A dinner party

Naples – A dinner party

Naples – Pompeii – Portici

Naples – Sulzer's theory of the fine arts

Naples – Lady Hamilton

Naples – Rousseau

Naples – Engagement with Kniep

Naples-Sir William Hamilton

Naples – A sketching excursion

Naples – An apparition

Naples-Departure for Sicily

SICILY

The voyage to Sicily

The voyage to Sicily

PALERMO

Sicily – Palermo

Sicily-Palermo

Sicily-Palermo

Sicily – Palermo

Palermo – S. Rosalia

Sicily – Palermo

Sicily – Palermo

Palermo – Castle of Count Pallagonia

Sicily – Palermo

Sicily – Palermo

Sicily – Palermo

Palermo – Count Cagliostro

Palermo – Count Cagliostro

Palermo – Count Cagliostro

Palermo – Count Cagliostro

Palermo – Count Cagliostro

Palermo – Its streets

Alcamo

Sicily – Segeste

Sicily – Sciacca

Sicily-Girgenti

Sicily-Girgenti

Sicily-Girgenti

Sicily – Caltanisetta

Sicily – Castro Giovanni

Sicily – Castro Giovanni

Sicily – Molimenti

Sicily – Catania

Catania – The Prince Biscani's Palace

Sicily – Catania

Sicily – Taormina

Sicily – Sketch of Nausicaa, a tragedy

Sicily-The road to Messina

Sicily – Messina

Sicily – Messina

Messina – The Palazzata

Messina – The Governor

Messina – Character of the Governor

The voyage from Messina to Naples

The voyage from Messina to Naples

The voyage from Messina to Naples

Отрывок из книги

When, a few years ago, the copies of the following letters were first made known to us, it was asserted that they had been found among Werther's papers, and it was pretended that before his acquaintance with Charlotte, he had been in Switzerland. We have never seen the originals: however we would not on any account anticipate the judgment and feelings of our readers; for whatever may be their true history, it is impossible to read them without sympathy.

Were, then, these Switzers free? Free, these opulent burghers in their little pent-up towns – free, those poor devils on their rocks and crags? What is it that man cannot be made to believe, especially when he cherishes in his heart the memory of some old tale of marvel? Once, forsooth, they did break a tyrant's yoke, and might for the moment fancy themselves free; but out of the carcase of the single oppressor the good sun, by a strange new birth, has hatched a swarm of petty tyrants. And so now they are ever telling that old tale of marvel: one hears it till one is sick of it. They formerly made themselves free, and have ever since remained free! and now they sit behind their walls, hugging themselves with their customs and laws – their philandering and philistering. And there, too, on the rocks, it is surely fine to talk of liberty, when for six months of the year they, like the marmot, are bound hand and foot by the snow.

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We were told that we were getting near the famous water-fall of Pisse Vache, and wished heartily for a peep at the sun, while the shifting clouds gave us a good hope that our wish would be gratified. On the road we examined various pieces of granite and of gneiss, which with all their differences seem, nevertheless, to have a common origin. At last we stood before the waterfall, which well deserves its fame above all others. At a considerable height a strong stream bursts from a cleft in the rock, falling downward into a basin, over which the foam and spray is carried far and wide by the wind. The sun at this moment came forth from the clouds, and made the sight doubly vivid. Below in the spray, wherever you go, you have close before you a rainbow. If you go higher up, you still witness no less singular a phenomenon. The airy foaming waves of the upper stream of water, as with their frothy vapour, they come in contact with the angle of vision at which the rainbow is formed, assume a flame-like hue, without giving rise to the pendant form of the bow, so that at this point you have before you a constantly varying play of fire.

We climbed all round, and sitting down near it, wished we were able to spend whole days and many a good hour of our life on this spot. Here too, as in so many other places during our present tour, we felt how impossible is was to enjoy and to be fully impressed with grand objects on a passing visit.

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