ABSTRACT
Seen merely from the outside the last ten years of Goethe’s life are spent in the narrow confinement of his home; for his mind it is a period of extensive exploration into the measureless regions of the infinite. He ceases to travel; even nearby Jena becomes remote. Every corner of the big house on the Frauenplan is filled with records of his life, with gifts, diplomas of honour, his natural history collections, his art treasures. Even during his lifetime it becomes a museum, an archive, a chancellery from which every day countless letters are dispatched to every part of the world. It is also the scene of splendid receptions; on formal occasions visitors are expected to wear full evening dress ‘with decorations’. His table is superb. At one of his suppers, by no means a great occasion, the tutor to the Weimar Princes, a young man from Geneva named Soret, notes, as contrasting somewhat with the homely fare he is used to in Calvinist Geneva, cups of strong cold consommé (taken at first for chocolate by Soret), caviar, cold meat and venison, three or four dishes of salads and sandwiches decorated with anchovies and lampreys, all these courses accompanied by three kinds of wine; for dessert pickled fruits, and, to end up with, large fruit tarts. Goethe still drinks freely even in his old age, and he enjoys serving wine to his guests from the large squat wine bottles of the day.
