apricious coquette with such effect that she drives her despairing
lover to hide himself from the world and to retreat to a hermitage
which he constructs for himself in the neighbouring wilds. Elmire now
realises her hard-heartedness, and exhibits such symptoms of distress
as to waken the concern of her mother and Bernardo. Bernardo, however,
is in Erwin's secret, and contrives to bring the two lovers together
and to effect a happy reconciliation, to the satisfaction of all
parties--the mother included. The play was dedicated to Lili in the
following lines:--

Den kleinen Strauss, den ich dir binde,
Pflueckt' ich aus diesem Herzen hier;
Nimm ihn gefaellig auf, Belinde!
Der kleine Strauss, er ist von mir.

This posy that I bind for thee
I cull'd it from my very heart;
This little posy, 'tis from me;
Take it, Belinda, in good part.

[Footnote 203: _Ib._ p. 113.]

[Footnote 204: He says of the piece that it cost him "little
expenditure of mind and feeling." _Ib._]

There was a sufficient reason for Goethe's praying Lili to take the
piece "in good part." In the cruel coquette Elmire Lili could not but
see a portrait of herself, and there are expressions in the play which
she could not but regard as home-thrusts. "To be entertained, to be
amused," says Erwin to Bernardo, "that is all they (the maidens)
desire. They value a man who spends an odious evening with them at
cards as highly as the man who gives his body and soul for them." In
another remark of Erwin's there is a reference to Goethe's own
relations to Lili and her family which she could not misunderstand. "I
loved her with an enduring love. To that love I gave my whole heart.
But because I am poor, I was scorned. And yet I hoped through my
diligence to make as suitable a provision for her as any of the
beplastered wind-bags." Trivial as the play is, it was acted in
Frankfort during Goethe's absence,[205] and at a later date he
considered it worth his while to recast it in another form.

[Footnote 205: Goethe was not known to be the author. In a letter to
Johanna Fahlmer, he expresses his curiosity to know if Lili was
present at its performance. _Erwin und Elmire_, it should be said,
contains two of Goethe's most beautiful songs, the one beginning "Ein
Veilchen auf der Wiese stand," and the other "Ihr verbluehet, suesse
Rosen."]

_Erwin und Elmire_ was followed by another play, more remarkable from
its contents,