Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/77

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
GOETHE
GOG AND MAGOG
69


an essay on the dispute between Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier, on the question of unity of composition in the animal kingdom; and his last words were, “More light.” He was then in the 83d year of his age. A seal, with an inscription from one of his own poems, Ohne Hast, ohne Rast, sent to him on his birthday in 1831, by 15 Englishmen, had given him great delight, for among the Englishmen who participated in the homage were Wordsworth, Scott, Southey, Wilson, Lockhart, and Carlyle. Goethe was the master spirit, the spokesman, as Carlyle says, of his age, the artist par excellence of the 19th century. The letters of Goethe are among the best illustrations of his character. They are, in the chronological order of the periods covered by their dates, those to friends in Leipsic (published in 1849), to Merck (1835-'47), to Jacobi (1846), to Lavater (1833), to Herder (1858), to Knebel (1851), to Klopstock (1833), to the countess Augusta of Stolberg (1839), to Frau von Stein (1848-'51); his correspondence with Schiller (6 vols., 1828-'9; 2d ed., 1856; translated into English by G. H. Calvert, Boston, 1845), with Zelter (6 vols., 1833-'4), with A. W. von Schlegel (1846), with the baron von Stein (1846), with Nikolaus Meyer (1856), with Döbereiner (1856), with Reinhard (1850), with Grüner (1853), with C. F. L. Schultz (1836), and with the councillor Schultz (1853); Goethe's Briefe und Aufsätze aus den Jahren l766-'86 (Weimar, 1856); “Goethe's Correspondence with the Brothers Humboldt, 1795 to 1832,” edited by Prof. Bratanek (3 vols., Cracow, 1873); and his Naturwissenschaftliche Correspondenz (2 vols., Leipsic, 1874). His “Correspondence with a Child” (Elisabeth or Bettina von Arnim) is not genuine. (See Lewes's “ Life of Goethe.”) The most important notices by his contemporaries are those of Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe (Leipsic, 1836; translated into English by Margaret Fuller, Boston, 1839), and Falk, Goethe aus persönlichem Umgang dargestellt (Leipsic, 1832). The best biographies are by Viehoff (4 vols., Stuttgart, 1854; 3d ed., 1873), Schäfer (2 vols., Bremen, 1851; 2d ed., 1858), and G. H. Lewes (2 vols., London, 1855; translated into German, Berlin, 1857-'8; new ed., abridged, 1873). Among recent works relating to Goethe are: “Goethe and Mendelssohn,” by Karl Mendelssohn (English translation, London, 1872); Gœthe: ses œuvres expliqués par sa vie, by A. Mézières (Paris, 1872); and Les maîtresses de Gœthe, by Henri Blase de Bury (Paris, 1873). Bayard Taylor and Karl Goedike have lives of Goethe in preparation. The oldest complete edition of his works is that of Stuttgart and Tübingen (40 vols., 1827-'31, to which his posthumous works were added, 15 vols., 1833-'4). Subsequent editions are numerous; the best are the latest, published by Cotta (30 vols. 12mo, and 12 vols. 8vo, Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1856-'60). Many of his works have been translated into different languages. Among the best into English are “Götz von Berlichingen,” by Walter Scott (1799); “Wilhelm Meister,” by Thomas Carlyle (1824); “Truth and Poetry,” by Parke Godwin (1847); and “Hermann and Dorothea,” by Miss Ellen Frothingham (1870). Of “Faust” there have been many translations; the best are those of Charles T. Brooks (Boston, 1857), and Bayard Taylor (Boston, 1870-'72). A monument to Goethe, to be executed by Schäfer, and erected in the Thiergarten, Berlin, was commenced in 1873.


GOFFE, William, an English regicide, born about 1605, died in Hadley, Mass., in 1679. He was one of the most fervent of the Puritans, was a devoted adherent of Cromwell, one of the best officers of the parliamentary army, and one of the judges who tried Charles I. After the death of the protector and the restora- tion of the Stuarts he escaped to America, and was in 1660, with his father-in-law Edward Whalley, received with courtesy by Gov. En- dicott at Boston. Warrants soon after arrived for their arrest, a price was set on their heads, and Indians as well as English were sent in pursuit of them. They removed from house to house, living in mills, in the clefts of rocks on the seashore, and in caves in the forests. They hid themselves for months in a cavern near New Haven, from which they issued only by night. This retreat was discovered, and they fled successively to Milford, Derby, and Branford. At length they found an asylum in the house of a clergyman at Hadley, where Goffe passed the remaining 15 years of his life. In 1675 the town of Hadley was surprised du- ring a religious service by the Pokanoket In- dians under their celebrated chieftain Philip. The inhabitants were about to fall beneath the tomahawk when an old man with a long white beard appeared in the church, rallied the dis- heartened colonists, disposed them for a charge upon the Indians which he himself led, and put the savages to flight. This was Goffe, who in the moment of victory disappeared again for ever, leaving the colonists in the persuasion that a heavenly messenger had fought for them.


GOG AND MAGOG. These names occur un- connected in Genesis and 1 Chronicles as the names of several persons ; Magog, in the ethno- logical table of the former book (ch. x.), be- ing the second son of Japheth, and brother of Gomer and Madai, who are generally consid- ered to represent the Cimmerians and Medes respectively. In Ezekiel Gog and Magog are connectedly used to designate a prince and a people of the north, apparently of the Scythian race. In the book of Revelations the words denote the enemies of Christianity who were doomed to destruction. The two famous effi- gies in Guildhall, London, known as Gog and Magog, have been from time immemorial the pride of the city. There are various legends relating to them. According to one, they rep- resent the last survivors of a race of giants who infested Britain, and were extirpated by the Trojans who came there soon after tho destruction of Troy. They were chained as