The Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe, from 1794-1805, translated from
the Third Edition of the German, with Notes, by L. Dora Schmitz, Vol. II. (Bell and Sons), carries us down to the death of Schiller, on the 9th of May, 1806. As before, it is chiefly interesting to those who are well acquainted with German literature. Of Eng- lish books—Shakespeare, who is frequently mentioned, excepted— little is said. We note a criticism of Goethe's which bears directly on a literary topic now much discussed :— "Your letter again finds me engaged with the Iliad. The study of this poem has always chased me round a circle of delight, hope, in- sight, and despair. I am more than ever convinced of the unity and inseparableness of the poem ; and in fact, there no longer is, and never will be, any one capable of judging it. At all events, I find myself forming a subjective opinion ; it must have been so with others before us, and will be with others after as. However, my first idea of an 'Achilleid' was correct, and if I am to do any- thing of the kind, I must keep to this. The Iliad seems to me so round and so perfect—let people say what they will—that nothing can be added to or taken from it."
Goethe had thought of writing an "Achilleid."
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