go te, (1749-1832), the greatest figure in German literature, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, August 28, 1749. His father, who was a Doctor of Laws and an imperial councilor, was a well-to-do citizen and an admirer of the fine arts. At an early age young Goethe learned the French language, and a French theatrical company, performing at Frankfort, awakened his taste for the stage. Drawing, music, natural science, the elements of jurisprudence and the languages occupied him until, in 1765, after the breaking off of a youthful love affair, he was sent to the University of Leipzig to prepare himself for the legal profession. Here he followed no regular course of studies, but he learned much about men. Goethe began at this period what he kept up throughout his life, the practice of embodying in a poem, or in a poetical form, whatever occupied his mind intensely; and no one, perhaps, was ever more in need of such an exercise, as his nature continually hurried him from one extreme to another. In 1768 he left Leipzig, and after an illness of some length he went in 1770 to the University of Strassburg, to pursue the study of law, according to the wish of his father. At Strassburg he became acquainted with Herder--a decisive circumstance in his life, as Herder helped him to free himself from the restraints of French classicism and inspired his mind with views of poetry more congenial to his character than any which he had hitherto conceived. In 1771 he took the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence and shortly afterward went to Wetzlar to practice law. While there he fell in love with a young lady who was betrothed to a friend of his, and he soon left Wetzlar in consequence. This was the experience which formed the basis of his Sorrows of Weriher. The attention of the public was first forcibly attracted to him by his drama Gotz von Berlichingen, which appeared in 1773, and in the following year he became world-famous on the publication of The Sorrows of Werther. Not long after the publication of this work, Charles Augustus, the hereditary duke of Saxe-Weimar, made the acquaintance of Goethe, and when he took the government into his own hands, he invited Goethe to his court. Goethe accepted the invitation, and late in 1775 he arrived at Weimar. Wieland was already there, having been the duke's tutor; Herder was added to the band in 1776; Schiller was afterward one of its members for a few years; and other poets, critics and novelists were gathered round these chiefs. Goethe was the leading spirit of the group, even during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, when these men and others were constructing and guiding the literature of all Germany; and his supremacy became yet more absolute afterward, when for another generation he stood alone. In 1786 he set out on a journey to Italy, where he remained two years. This residence in Italy had the effect of developing still further his artistic powers. Here his Iphigenie was matured, Egmont was finished and Tasso was projected. In 1790 was published the earliest form of the first part of Faust, which belongs rather to Goethe's whole life than to any particular period of it. At the time that Goethe was engaged in the production of these works he had been pursuing various other studies of a scientific nature with as ardent an interest as if these had belonged to his peculiar province. The result of his studies in botany was a work in which he gives expression to the view that the whole plant and all its different parts may be regarded as variously modified leaves. In the following year (1791) he began to apply himself to optics, and he published a work on this subject also. In 1791 he became director of the court theater at Weimar, and his work here, with the production of Wilhelm Meister, occupied him until 1792, when he followed Charles Augustus during the campaign of the Prussians against the revolutionary party in France. In 1794-1796 Goethe published Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, a novel which has become well known to English readers through the translation of Carlyle and which contains some of the most beautiful songs ever written. His next work of importance was Hermann und Dorothea (1797), a narrative poem, in hexameter verse, the characters of which are taken from humble life. In 1806 Goethe married Christiane Vulpius, with whom he had lived since 1788 and of whom he always spoke with warmth and affection. In 1809 was published Elective Affinities, another novel, and between 1811 and 1814 appeared his autobiography, one of the finest autobiographies in any language. The Westostlicher Divan, a remarkable collection of Oriental songs and poems, appeared in 1819. Goethe's last work was the second part of Faust, completed in 1831.