PROLOGUE TO MAURICE GEROTHWOHL’S VERSION OF VIGNY’S “CHATTERTON” 217 Goethe says in a little poem[A] that “Poems are stained glass windows”--“_Gedichte sind gemalte Fensterscheiben_”--to be seen aright not from the “market-place” but only from the interior of the church, “_die heilige Kapelle_”: and that “_der Herr Philister_” (equivalent for “indolent Reviewer”) glances at them from without and gets out of temper because he finds them unintelligible from his “market-place” standpoint. This comparison is a pretty conceit, and holds good as a half truth--but not more than a half: for while the artist who paints his “church windows” needs only to m…
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