The Sorrows of Young WertherGoethe, Johann Wolfgang von
General
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Germany -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Unrequited love -- Fiction; Young men -- Germany -- Fiction
"I have implored your father to protect my remains. At the corner of the
churchyard, looking toward the fields, there are two lime-trees—there
I wish to lie. Your father can, and doubtless will, do this much for his
friend. Implore it of him. But perhaps pious Christians will not choose
that their bodies should be buried near the corpse of a poor, unhappy
wretch like me. Then let me be laid in some remote valley, or near the
highway, where the priest and Levite may bless themselves as they pass
by my tomb, whilst the Samaritan will shed a tear for my fate.
"See, Charlotte, I do not shudder to take the cold and fatal cup, from
which I shall drink the draught of death. Your hand presents it to me,
and I do not tremble. All, all is now concluded: the wishes and the
hopes of my existence are fulfilled. With cold, unflinching hand I knock
at the brazen portals of Death. Oh, that I had enjoyed the bliss of
dying for you! how gladly would I have sacrificed myself for you;
Charlotte! And could I but restore peace and joy to your bosom, with
what resolution, with what joy, would I not meet my fate! But it is the
lot of only a chosen few to shed their blood for their friends, and by
their death to augment, a thousand times, the happiness of those by whom
they are beloved.
"I wish, Charlotte, to be buried in the dress I wear at present: it has
been rendered sacred by your touch. I have begged this favour of your
father. My spirit soars above my sepulchre. I do not wish my pockets to
be searched. The knot of pink ribbon which you wore on your bosom
the first time I saw you, surrounded by the children—Oh, kiss them a
thousand times for me, and tell them the fate of their unhappy friend! I
think I see them playing around me. The dear children! How warmly have
I been attached to you, Charlotte! Since the first hour I saw you, how
impossible have I found it to leave you. This ribbon must be buried
with me: it was a present from you on my birthday. How confused it all
appears! Little did I then think that I should journey this road. But
peace! I pray you, peace!
"They are loaded—the clock strikes twelve. I say amen. Charlotte,
Charlotte! farewell, farewell!"
A neighbour saw the flash, and heard the report of the pistol; but, as
everything remained quiet, he thought no more of it.
In the morning, at six o'clock, the servant went into Werther's room
with a candle. He found his master stretched upon the floor, weltering
in his blood, and the pistols at his side. He called, he took him in
his arms, but received no answer. Life was not yet quite extinct. The
servant ran for a surgeon, and then went to fetch Albert. Charlotte
heard the ringing of the bell: a cold shudder seized her. She wakened
her husband, and they both rose. The servant, bathed in tears faltered
forth the dreadful news. Charlotte fell senseless at Albert's feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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