Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow SCENE IV. - Goethe's Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc)

Return to Title Page for Goethe’s Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Literature

SCENE IV. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe’s Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc) [1885]

Edition used:

Goethe’s Works, illustrated by the best German artists, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: G. Barrie, 1885). Vol. 3.

Part of: Goethe’s Works, 5 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


SCENE IV.

Iphigenia.

(Alone.) Gracious protectress! thou hast clouds

To shelter innocence distress’d.

And from the arms of iron fate

Gently to waft her o’er the sea,

O’er the wide earth’s remotest realms,

Where’er it seemeth good to thee.

Wise art thou,—thine all-seeing eye

The future and the past surveys;

Thy glance doth o’er thy children rest,

E’en as thy light, the life of night,

Keeps o’er the earth its silent watch.

O Goddess! keep my hands from blood!

Blessing it never brings, and peace;

And still in evil hours the form

Of the chance-murder’d man appears

To fill the unwilling murderer’s soul

With horrible and gloomy fears.

For fondly the Immortals view

Man’s widely-scatter’d, simple race;

And the poor mortal’s transient life

Gladly prolong, that he may lift

Awhile to their eternal heavens

His sympathetic joyous gaze.

lf0841-03_figure_043

ACT II.

lf0841-03_figure_044