LEBAHN'S "FAUST."
THIS is a useful book, and a great deal of pains must have been expended on its compilation. Goethe's Faust, which is selected by Dr. Lebahn as a vehicle for conveying instruction in the German language, is printed entire, and is followed by a sort of syntax. The examples of the syntax are taken from Faust alone ; and as they are sufficiently numerous to exhaust the whole poem and are invariably translated into English, the reader may go through a complete course of Faust, not only with a literal translation, but also with a perpetual grammatical comment. This intellectual journey he may perform from opposite starting-points, thanks to a double system of figuration. If he takes Faust in hand, and yearns for a grammatical explanation, there are numbers placed against the lines to direct him to the pages of the syntax. If, on the other hand, his genius is more philological than poetical, and, starting from the grammar, he needs authority for his examples, there are numbers placed against the rules to direct him to the pages of the tragedy.
But while Dr. Lebahn thus laudably works up a classical Ger- man poem into a book of grammatical teaching, what dwmon has tempted him to limit the sphere of his popularity by the introduc- tion of certain theological remarks that can gratify nobody and may offend a great many ? Priestcraft is doubtless a very bad thing in its way, but we do not see why a German grammarian, the object of whose book is to teach Englishmen his native lan- guage, should indulge in anti-clerical orations that will surely cause his work to be shunned at Oxford. Neither do we see why the orthodox British student should be annoyed by a Vol- tarian scoff at the miraculous ascent of Elijah, simply because Faust and his familiar sail through the air on a cloak. We fear Dr. Lebahn has so identified himself with Faust that he has had a Mephistopheles at his elbow.
• Faust: a Tragedy, by 5. W. von Gaethe. With copious Notes, Grammatical, Philological, and Exegetical, by Falck Lebahn, Ph. Dr. Published by Longman and Co.
Previous page
