Writing to Cardinal Newman in 1872, Arnold said that there are four people, 'in especial', from whom he had learned habits: Goethe, Wordsworth, Saint-Beuve, and Newman himself. His notebooks and reading lists confirm a deep and lifelong engagement with Goethe's work, which was just beginning to be discovered by early Victorian English writers.
This book, originally published in paperback in 1979 under the ISBN 978-0-900547-52-2, was made Open Access in 2024 as part of the MHRA Revivals programme.
The Historical Background: Goethe and England 1775-1850; Arnold's early years. For many years now editors and critics have suspected that Arnold's intimate acquaintance with the huge mass of Goethe's writings exercised a considerable influence both on his intellectual development generally and on the formation of his ideas on specific questions related to poetry and literature. This hypothesis was suggested not only by the frequent references to Goethe scattered throughout Arnold's works, but also by his own admission of indebtedness.
Arnold's ideas and practice, 1842-57. A religious crisis was almost inevitable for any intelligent young man of that time aware of the new ideas that were seeping in from the Continent.The nemesis of faith was a fact of life for Clough and Froude no less than for Arnold. But Matthew's case has certain unusual features. Firstly, in comparison with his friends Arnold lost his faith at so early a stage in his development that almost nothing is known of the details. And secondly, Arnold's 'conversion' seems to have been relatively painless. There was no tormented vacillation between one form of confession and another - or if there was, no evidence of it has survived. Note cues in this chapter refer to endnotes in the end matter of the book.
Matthew Arnold, 1853-88. Goethe may not have been the original influence behind Arnold's questionings about the poet's relationship to his age, but his role was nevertheless important. It is hardly necessary to prove that Goethe's comments on subjects so closely related to one of Arnold's deepest concerns must have had a special interest for Arnold. Even if he did reach his conclusions independently of the German poet, the similarity of their views must inevitably have constituted one of the sources of Goethe's attractiveness for him. It is more likely, however, that the similarities are not coincidental, and, if this is so, then it is no exaggeration to say that Arnold received from Goethe's critical writings a number of fundamental insights which he eventually developed more fully and in ways not directly suggested by his source. Note cues in this chapter refer to endnotes in the end matter of the book.
Science, Religion, and Politics, 1858-88. 'It is a mistake to think that the judgement of mature reason on our favourite author, even if it abates considerably our high-raised estimate of him, is not a gain to us.' The judgement of Arnold's mature reason on Goethe did indeed considerably abate the high-raised estimate of him expressed in the 1853 Preface. In 1885 Arnold was still able to speak of him as 'great', but also as 'the stiff, and hindered, and frigid, and factitious Goethe who speaks to us too often from those sixty volumes of his'? His mature judgement on the German poet - expressed in the essay 'A French Critic on Goethe' (1878) - was an ambivalent one: a 'double judgement' he himself called it. Note cues in this chapter refer to endnotes in the end matter of the book.
It is not possible to sum up Arnold's relationship with Goethe in a neat formula. It was, as I have tried to show, a shifting and complex affair. Arnold certainly learned from Goethe and was indebted to him for several important insights. But no less important was the feeling of confidence, which Arnold derived from his intimate acquaintance with Goethe's thought, that - as a continuer of Goethe's path - his own work was central and relevant, truly modern. Arnold felt a deep kinship with the greatest critic of modern life, and this perhaps is why he was able to adopt such an assured and magisterial public manner. Note cues in this chapter refer to endnotes in the end matter of the book.
Appendices A to F are side-discussions of points raised earlier in the book; Appendix G offers the original German text of quotations translated in the chapters. Note cues in the Appendices refer to endnotes in the end matter of the book.
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