dy on the subject of
Esther, which forms part of the burlesque, is a malicious parody of
the French models which he had begun by imitating, but which were now
the sport of the youths who led the _Sturm und Drang_.

The _Jahrmarktsfest_ is a genial explosion of madcap humour. Not so
another succession of scenes produced about the same time. The subject
of them is that Leuchsenring whose acquaintance, we have seen, Goethe
had made under the roof of Sophie von la Roche. Since then,
apparently, Leuchsenring's proceedings had provoked a repugnance in
Goethe which displays itself in a strain of bitterness hardly to be
found in any other of his works. It was Leuchsenring's habit to
ingratiate himself with households where his pseudo-sentiment made him
acceptable, and by questionable methods to make mischief between their
members, and especially between the two sexes.[137] Goethe had seen
the results of these intrigues in circles with which he was
acquainted, and it was to punish the sinner that he wrote _Ein
Fastnachtspiel, auch wohl zu tragieren nach Ostern, vom Pater Brey dem
falschen Propheten_. Pater Brey, the false prophet, is Leuchsenring,
and his sugared speech and shifty ways are the main object of the
satire, but other persons are introduced into the piece and exhibited
in lights which are a singular commentary on the taste of the time.
The victim on whom Pater Brey plies his arts is Caroline Flachsland,
who appears under the name of Leonora, and the injured lover is Herder
(Captain Velandrino).[138] The Captain, who has been informed of Pater
Brey's philanderings with his betrothed, appears on the scene, is
assured of her faithfulness, and in concert with another character in
the piece (Merck) plays a coarse trick on the Pater which makes him
the laughing-stock of the neighbourhood.

[Footnote 137: A quarrel had arisen between Merck and Leuchsenring,
and Goethe had warmly taken Merck's side.]

[Footnote 138: As we have seen, Herder was jealous of Goethe's own
attentions to Caroline.]

Herder had good reason to resent the licence with which his private
affairs had been obtruded on the public in _Pater Brey_,[139] but in
the same year Goethe made him the main subject of another production
which raises equally our astonishment at the manners of the time and
at the wanton audacity of its author. In _Pater Brey_ the prevailing
sentimentalism, as veiling dubious motives, had been the theme of
ridicule; in _Satyros, od