-Clavigo,
Carlos, Marie, and Beaumarchais--are entirely of Goethe's own
creation. Moreover, in what is original in the dialogues there are
touches everywhere introduced which are not to be found in the
original, and which are precisely those that are of special interest
for the student of Goethe. Of the play as a work of art he was himself
complacently proud. It was written, as he tells us, with the express
intention of proving to the world that he could produce a piece in
strict accordance with the dramatic canons which he had flouted in
_Goetz von Berlichingen_.[169] "I challenge the most critical knife,"
he proudly wrote to the same correspondent, "to separate the directly
translated passages from the whole without mangling it, without
inflicting deadly wounds, not to say only on the narrative, but on the
structure, the living organism of the piece." In _Clavigo_, at least,
he has achieved what he failed to achieve in any other in the long
series of his dramatic productions; it proved a successful acting
play, and is still produced with acceptance to the present time. Yet
from the beginning those who have admired Goethe's genius most have
shaken their heads over _Clavigo_. It was to be expected that the
youthful geniuses of the _Sturm und Drang_ would be wrathful at the
apostacy of their protagonist, who in _Goetz von Berlichingen_ had set
at naught all the traditional rules of the drama. But more discerning
critics, then and since, have expressed their dissatisfaction on other
grounds. There are in _Clavigo_ no elements of greatness such as
appear even through the immaturities of _Goetz_ and _Werther_. Clavigo
himself is so poor a creature as to leave the reader with no other
feeling for him than contempt; Marie is characterless; and the other
persons in the play have not sufficient scope to become well-defined
figures. And the last Act, the only original addition to Beaumarchais'
narrative, is in a style of cheap melodrama which, coming from the
hand of Goethe, can be regarded only as a weak concession to the
sentimentalism of the Darmstadt circle. "You must give us no more such
stuff; others can do that," was Merck's mordant comment on _Clavigo_.
Merck's opinion may have been influenced by the fact that in the
cynical Carlos there are unpleasing traits of himself, but succeeding
admirers of the Master have for the most part been in agreement with
him.[170]

[Footnote 168: To Fritz Jacobi, August 21st, 1774.]

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