Friederike Brion, who, however, had no brother like Marie to call him
to account. It was characteristic of him that, on reading the
_Memoire_, it at once struck him as affording an appropriate theme for
dramatic treatment, and it was further characteristic that he needed
an immediate stimulus to incite him to the task. He has told us how
the stimulus came. As a diversion to relieve the monotony of Frankfort
society, the youths and maidens of Goethe's circle had arranged for a
time to play at married couples, and, as it happened, the same maiden
fell thrice to Goethe's lot.[167] At one of the meetings of the
couples he read aloud the narrative of Beaumarchais, and his partner
suggested that he should turn it into a play. The suggestion, he
relates, supplied the needed stimulus, and a week later the completed
play was read to the reassembled circle.

[Footnote 167: Of all the women who came in her son's way, Frau Goethe
thought that this lady, Anna Sibylla Muench by name, would have made
him the most suitable partner in life.]

The first four Acts of the play, which Goethe entitled _Clavigo_, are
simply the narrative of Beaumarchais cut into scenes, and they contain
long passages directly translated from the original--a proceeding
which Goethe justifies by the example of "our progenitor Shakespeare."
In the first Scene of the first Act we are introduced to Clavigo and
Carlos discussing the prospects of the former. Clavigo, who is
represented as a publicist of genius, with a great career before him,
is distracted by the conflict between his ambition and the sense of
honour and gratitude which should bind him to his betrothed Marie, a
sickly girl, by position and character unsuited to be the helpmate of
an ambitious man of the world. Unstable and irresolute, he is as clay
in the hands of Carlos, who plays the part of the shrewd and cynical
adviser to his friend, in whose genius and brilliant future he has
unbounded confidence. As the result of their talk, Clavigo decides
with some compunction to abandon Marie, and, as his fortunes rise, to
find a more suitable mate. In the second Scene the other characters of
the play are brought before us--Marie Beaumarchais, her sister
Sophie, married to Guilbert, an architect, and Don Buenco, a
disappointed lover of Marie. The theme of their conversation is the
ingratitude and faithlessness of Clavigo, to whom, however, Marie,
dying of consumption, still clings with fond idolatry. At th