comfort from Ahasuerus, and straightway takes his own
life. Then was to follow the scene retailed in the legend--Jesus
fainting at Ahasuerus's door on his way to death; Simon the Cyrenian
relieving him of the burden of the Cross; the reproaches of Ahasuerus
addressed to the Saviour for neglecting his counsel; the transfigured
features on the handkerchief of St. Veronica; and the words of the
Lord dooming his stiff-necked gainsayer to wander to and fro on earth
till his second coming. As the subsequent narrative was to be
developed, it was to illustrate the outstanding events in the history
of Christianity--one incident in the experience of the Wanderer marked
for treatment being an interview with Spinoza.

In concluding the sketch of the poem as he originally conceived it,
Goethe remarks that he found he had neither the knowledge nor the
concentration of purpose necessary for its adequate treatment; and in
point of fact, in the fragment as it exists there is little
suggestion of the original conception. The title which Goethe himself
gave it at a later date, _Gedicht der Ankunft des Herrn_, more fitly
describes it than the title _Der Ewige Jude_. Of the two main sections
into which the poem is divided, the first, extending to over seventy
lines, corresponds most closely to the original conception. In twenty
introductory lines the poet describes how the inspiration to sing the
wondrous experiences of the much-travelled man had come to him. The
note struck in these lines is maintained throughout the remainder of
the fragment. It is a note of ironic persiflage which is plainly
indicated to the reader. In lack of a better Pegasus, a broomstick
will serve the poet's purpose, and the reader is invited to take or
leave the gibberish as he pleases. Then follows a description of the
shoemaker, who is represented as half Essene, half Methodist or
Moravian, but still more of a Separatist--certainly not the type
originally conceived by Goethe as that of the Wandering Jew. The
shoemaker is, in fact, a sectary of Goethe's own time, discontented
with the religious world around him, and convinced that salvation is
only to be found in his own petty sect. Equally as a picture of
historical Christianity in all ages is meant the satirical presentment
of the religious condition of Judaea--of indolent and luxurious church
dignitaries, fanatics looking for signs and wonders, denouncing the
sins of their generation, and giving themselves up to