Section 131 Goethe’s Daily Life at Weimar. — III
He was fond of wine (S. 3, N. 2) and drank daily his two or three bottles. Lest1 this statement should convey a false impression, I hasten to2 recall to the reader’s recollection the very different habits of our fathers in respect to drinking. It was no3 unusual thing to be called “a three-bottle-man” in those days in England, when4 the three bottles were of port or Burgundy; and Goethe, a5 Rhinelander, accustomed from boyhood to wine, drank a wine which his English contemporaries would have called water. The6 amount he drank never did more than exhilarate him, and never made him unfit for work or for society. Over7 his wine, then, he sat some hours; no such thing as dessert was seen upon his table in those days; not even the customary coffee after dinner. His mode8 of living was extremely simple; and even when persons9 of very moderate circumstances burned wax10, two11 poor tallow candles were all that could be seen in his rooms. In the evening he often went to the theatre, and there12 his customary glass of punch was brought (S. 4, N. 4, man) at six o’clock (App. § 9). If (S. 27, N. 7) not at the theatre, he received friends at13 home. Between eight and nine a frugal supper was laid14, but15 he never took anything except a little salad or preserves. By16 ten o’clock he was usually in bed.—G. H. Lewes, “Life of Goethe.”
Notes
1 Lest — impression = In order that (Damit) this observation may (Present Subj. of mögen; read App. §§ 33 and 34) not make a false impression.—For the position of the verbs see App. § 18.
2 to — drinking = to remind the reader of (an) the very different (ganz andern) habits of our fathers in respect of drinking.—To transl. ‘drinking’ form a noun of the infinitive of the verb ‘to drink’, and use it with the def. art., according to S. 3, N. 2, and S. 11, N. 7.
3 no — thing, nichts Ungewöhnliches; in those days, damals, which place with ‘in England’ after ‘was’.
4 ‘when’, here wo. Notice that: The relative conjunction ‘wo’ is often used in reference to time as a translation of ‘when’ in the sense of ‘at (in or during) which time’; as—Es geschah zu einer Zeit, wo (zu or in welcher) Sie abwesend waren, it happened at a time when you were absent. It is also used relatively, in reference to place, instead of a relative pronoun preceded by a preposition; as—Kennst du das Land, wo (in welchem) die Zitronen blühen? (Goethe) Know you the land where (in which) the citrons bloom? Dies ist das Haus, wo (in dem) er wohnt, this is the house where (in which) he lives.
5 a — wine, als Rheinländer von Jugend auf an Wein gewöhnt.
6 The — him = What he drank had never any (= an) other effect than (als) to exhilarate him; to exhilarate, angenehm an´regen.
7 So he sat for hours (stundenlang) over his (beim) wine.
8 Lebensweise, f.
9 Leute; of = in.
10 wax = wax candles.
11 two — rooms = one saw in his rooms only two poor (dürftig) tallow candles.
12 dahin.
13 bei sich zu Hause.
14 to lay a frugal supper, ein einfaches Abendessen auftragen; to lay the table (the cloth), den Tisch decken.
15 Say ‘but he (himself) took (essen or genießen, S. 3, N. 8.) only a little salad or preserves’.
16 Um.