ABSTRACT
Weimar looked very much like a market town rather than a capital with a Court. In Vanity Fair, published in 1847–1848 and reviewed by George Henry Lewes, W. M. Thackeray makes fun of the quaintness of Weimar. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had arrived in Weimar in 1775 at the invitation of his friend, Carl August, the new ruler of the Duchy. Lewes had planned to stay and work in Weimar, and it was a matter of some urgency for them to find suitable, affordable lodgings. With the main theatre closed for the summer, they decided to walk to the nearby village of Ober-Weimar in the evening and see the advertised comedy at the Tivoli-Theater. To their surprise, they discovered on their way a splendid avenue of chestnut trees, leading in a straight line out of Weimar into beautiful countryside. The Tivoli turned out to be a small wooden, open-air summer theatre which put on comedies and other light entertainment.
