ABSTRACT
Goethe has already outlined his future position in Weimar in letters to the Duke from Rome. In these he writes as one sovereign to another, and Karl August displays the nobler side of his character in accepting this. The correspondence between them, which hitherto has often been almost school-boyish in its camaraderie, and coarse as well - the coarsest of their notes, in which they exchanged experiences in the lighter forms of love, have been lost - now takes on a completely different tone. During these months the correspondence reaches a level unique in the annals of princely relations with a poet, and as a result this petty Weimar Prince has rightly earned his own small share in the immortal fame of his Court. In other respects he remains as he always has been, and soon reverts to his senseless hunting, both on horseback and on foot through the woods. Goethe is no longer his companion in these activities. He is now only a ‘guest’, as he himself defines his role: ‘Whatever else I am is for you to judge and make use of.’ Above all, however, he is now an artist, as has become clear to him in Rome. By this he does not mean a painter, that is a dream he has given up; he wants to be a poet, a writer, an explorer among all the phenomena of life, nature and the sciences - in a word Goethe the uomo universale, who has selected modest Weimar as his residence.
