ABSTRACT
Their cooperation and friendship became a national legend. Some legends are grounded in truth, and this is one. It will not do to see in the partnership a tactical alliance which lacked warmth; or a relationship which benefited Schiller but endangered Goethe’s ‘deeper’ poetic self; or one which rested on basic misunderstandings between two admittedly different kinds of mind. 1 The documents, especially the letters, convey discreetly but eloquently the mature affection of men who have come to terms with themselves and each other; who recognise divergence but see it resolved in a common purpose; who, far from forcing their own principles on jeach other, actively encourage each other’s characteristic approach; and who delight to learn from one another in the cause of poetic perfection.
