Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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Germany has a hterature xx hlch 19 as old as its hxstory If one seeks IH the museums of Germiny one fmds fragments of xery old books xx hlch date back almost to the time of Charles the Great A l1ter1turc xx hnch lg old must haxe manx treasures and the German llterature IS one of the r1chest IH the world Thelr greatest poet xx 'ls ohwnn Wolf qinq xon Goethe He ranks amonq the four greatest poets of all tlme Homer Dante Shakespeare and Goethe Germany s greatest lyrlc poet 1nd dramatlst and a popular nox ellst oddly enouqh he xx 'ls also 1 sci entlst a xx ell knovxn art cr1t1c and a philosopher Th1S mterestmq poet belonged not to one perlod but to sex eral for he hyed from the mlddle of the Eighteenth Century until somewhere 1nto the Nlneteenth Century Thus he experlenced many ex ents ln xxorld hlstory the French Rex olutlon the Amerlcan Reyolutlon and the rise and fall of Napoleon He also saw many changes IH llterature he hmm self g1xe the example for new 1deas and new forms Wlth Goethe the German hterature reached 1ts zenlth and thxs great per1od IS called the Classlcal Perlod Goethe lox ed the old folk sonqs of the earher llterature He h1m self wrote many such sonqs xxhlch are so mus1cal and natural that they are easlly sung Some of hls most well known poems are Der Erlkonlg Das Heldenroslem Der Flscher and Gefunden and Uberallen Grpfeln Ist Ruh Goethe s dramatic masterplece IS Faust Faust IS a long drama rn two parts upon whlch the poet worked for sxxty years When Goethe was a child he saw a puppet show of the old story of Doctor Faust Thxs puppet show made a great lmpressxon upon h1m and he used many parts of the old story ln hrs masterpnece but he changed the fundamental ldea Goethe s Doctor Faust made an agreement wlth the deyll Me phlstopheles The devnl was to let h1m experlence the most subhme happmess of the xxorld In return Faust prom1sed h1s soul The agree ment was sealed w1th blood In the agreement Faust prom1sed that if once a slngle moment of Joy would be so sweet to h1m that he would say Do stay you are so beauuful then the dev11 could have h1s soul Me phxstopheles changed the old Faust mto a handsome young man He let h1m enjoy the most supreme pleasures but the dev1l could never satlsfy h1m he xxas alxyays strlxlng further Whoever belongs to the educated people of the xxorld must be acqualnted xxlth Goethe s Faust Almost everyone has seen the opera Faust or at least has heard the mus1c of It Here 1n Amerlca xxe are well acquamted xxlth the famous opera Faust by the French composer Guonod Schlller 15 the greatest German poet after Goethe In front of 1 theater 1n Welmir IS a fimous monument of Germinys txxo qre1test poets Goethe and Sch1ller It exalts the beautlful frlendshlp of the txxo In Goethe s hand rests Schxller s hand and encxrclmg the hands of both IS a laurel wreath The monument stands ln Wexmar xxhere Goethe and Schiller l1x ed for years and xxhere they xx rote thelr best works They wlso dled 1n We1mar The world knoxxs Goethe much better than Schiller but Schlller his lonq been the fixorlte of the people If Schlller had not dled so eirly he xxould hwxe been renoxx ned ln vxorld l1ter'1ture Ten years German Literatu re . . . . . . I - 1 - . , c , - .1 . I n s C 7 . . 1 7 . .1 . 1 . , c . K V 1 G . . ff 1 K 1 1 C 1 . 1 , . . t c . 1 . 7 1 .- 1 , , , c . c . . . V 7 . . . 1 K 7 V t . 1 Y . 1 . 7 . 1 '-' 1 1 - 1 . . . 1 L , - . c , . , . . . . . . A , . 1 . , 1 . . rl . 11 Q - U rl . . 11 .1 , 11 11 11 .1 1 1 1 . . 11 1 . .1 . . rl 11 11 11 . 1 I - . .1 11 , 1 1 1 . 1 . . ,-1 V ... . V 1 1 - . , . ' I 1 an . 11 . . I I ' ' 1 . 1 7 . 1 , . . , 1 1. 11 Y V 11 11 1 1 . . . . V 1 V. 1 .1 11 1 1 1 - . . 1 . . c . f . c , .' c . 1 . ' c ,' . 1 . 1 . . 1 1 1 1 . . . 7 - 1 . . 1 1 V 7 . 1 ' ' . 1 . 'Q c 1 rf c ' . c - e L Y 1 K - 1 1 C 1 -

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Englrsh and Amerrcan Lrteratu re 1Contmucdl French Literature readrng The three plays that are studred are ulrus Caesar Mac beth and Hamlet Emphasrs rs placed on characterrzatron vxhrch of course rnxolxes rdeals of lrxrng so dear to the hearts of youth Modern Amerrcan and Brrtrsh Poetry by Lours Untermeyer Mrl stones rn Amerrcan Lrterature and Mrlton s poems make up the vrork Debatrng and publrc speakrng drffer greatly from the other toprcs that haxe been drscussed because they make rt more necessary for the student to use hrs own rnrtratrve Students are not only taught hovx to address an audrence but also how to carry on com ersatron and hovt to rntroduce people properly Debatrng sharpens the vxrts by rts mental combat and also assrsts the students to face problems rn therr later lrfe He vxho loves lrterature lox es lrfe Homer Dennrson The e1rlrest form of French Lrterature to rex e'1l rtself was the play and French Lrterature rs very rrch rn plays Prerre de Cornerlle vxhose most famous work rs Le Crd was the frrst famous playwrrght Com parrsons vsere drawn from hrs artrstry It rs as beautrful as Le Crd Then we hear of Vrctor Hugo a most grfted poet who was knovxn as an rnfant prodrgy At the age of twenty one he commenced hrs wrrt rnq of plays and novels One of hrs famous works rs Les Mrserables vrhrch most of us haxe seen acted on the motron prcture screen Next we come to the great realrstrc wrrter of the Nrneteenth Cen tury Gustave Flaubert who wrote Madam Bovary It vxas one of hrs drscrples Guy de Maupassant who became the most vrvrd yet realrs trc short story wrrter Some of the other drstrngurshed French wrrters are Anatole France a member of the French Academy Edmund Rostand who wrot L Arglon a story of Napoleon s son acted rn recent years by Eva Le Gallrenne Cyrano de Bergerac and Chantecleer rn whrch the char acters are fowls Le Comte de Monte Crrsto by Dumas rs one of the best known of the French novels of the Nrneteenth Century The story tells of the unlust rmprrsonment of Edmund Dantes for polrtrcal reasons Durrng hrs stay rn the state prrson Chateu d If he communrcated xxrth another prrsoner Abbe Farra who was an old prrest by means of a secret pas sage vt hrch they had dug Before hrs death rn the prrson the old prrest had tauqht Dantes a great deal of hrstory and scrence and he also told hrm of a hrdden treasure At Farra s death Edmund Dantes escaped by changrng places vrrth the body of the old prrest He vras thrown rnto the sea srnce rt was the custom to drspose of the dead prrsoners rn thrs way Edmund frnds the treasure and dex otes hrs vxealth and the rest of hrs lrfe to revenge for the rnlustrce done to hrm French prose rs famous for rts clearness and pornt and far surpasses rts poetry Zoe Hughes O . Q 1 . rr . 11 rr 1 ' 1 11 .. 11 . . . . . 1 1 . , , ' 7 V ' 7' 1 . rr . . . 11 , rr . ' 0- . . . 11 . 1 Y 0 . ., c , . V y . . 4 V r V 1 s V I . , . .r . . 11 V 1 ' I 1 C , B. . U' , 7 , 1 . n . 11 . . 1 I - . . . rr . . 4 . 1 11 1 ' 1 . . V 1 1 , - 1 - - . . fr . 11 1 ' ' 1 1 ' ' Y - rr 11 r 1 1 - - 1 1 1 1 ' F, . , .. ll Y I YY I 1 1 1 1 ll YY ll ll 1 n . . , Y Y Y . u . 11 . . . . 1 . . 1 1 1 1 V 7 - r 1 1 , . . . . 1 - 1 ' V' . 7 . , . . y - 7

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German Llteratu re 1Cont1nuedl Latln and ltallan Literatu re younger than Goethe he was born rn 1759 dy1ng IH 1805 But rn thxs short t1me h gave to German lrterature 1ts greatest dramas Goethe and Schlller xxere drfferent ln almost ex ery respect Goethe xx as the son of a rxch man Schlller xxas the son of a poor army offxcer Goethe xxas Wlthout fmanclal xxorry but Schxller had a contmual struggle he recelved an mner freedom Whlch expresses rtself m all h1s works Por thxs reason h1s characters and h1s works have someth1ng subllme Sch1ller has wrxtten ballads and poems but h1s prrncxpal works are h1s dramas The most of them are h1stor1cal dramas of well known char acters Mane Stuart Dre ungfrau von Orleans and Wallensteln H15 most beloved drama 15 Wxlhelm Tell the story of Swmtzer land s struggle for freedom Through Schiller came somethmg new m German lxterature a lofty xdeallsm and a great love of freedom Wxl helm Tell has become famous through Rossml s opera wr1tten around the drama The study of the German tongue then has 1nf1n1tely more to offer the student than the mere drscxplme of grammar Zoe Hughes The purpose of a lrberal educatron IS not to f1ll the mmd xxrth brts of 1nformat1on wrse or otherxx 1se lt IS to create standards of taste by contact wlth the best ln any fleld to study the means and the methods by xxhxch masterpleces are created An lI1tQI'1SlV6 and cletalled study of any artrst s work xx hether 1t be the xxork of Mllton Dante Vxrgxl Raphael or Tlt13H xx1ll toughen the flber and purrfy the taste of ex en the most lackadalsrcal and sentlmental of xx ould be art1sts Why teach V1rg1l CICGIO Mrchelangelo Leonardo Lorenzo to youthful students? To create a standard of taste and to protect us from the bogus masterpreces of the mmor poets and the obscenltres mon stros1t1es deformltles of what passes rn the present day lnternatlonals under the name of art ClXlllZEd man adxances from xxhere he IS to xxhere he xx ould be by profntmg by the ga1ns of h1s c1x1l1zed forbears He does not klck the ladder erected by h1s prxmrtxxe ancestors out of the marshy lake up 1nto the sunlxght from beneath hrm He proflts by the efforts and ga1ns of the past Cxx 1l1zed art1sts do the same They knoxv that masterpneces sprlng out of the l1x es of the myrlads xxho make up the race not out of the sub conscrousness of the rsolated 1I1CllW1ClLlE1l Therefore man s accumulated gams rn the arts are not klcked asxde l1ke a useless ladder Thev are the solid foundatlons upon xx h1ch he erects h1s scaffoldlng Masterpleces 1n all the arts must be taught to students whrle qurte young To teach them how not to xx rxte not to compose not to pamt If more of our Elmor Wylles Cabells DFEISCIS had been d1sc1 pl1ned mstead of grossly flattered 1n youth had been set to analyze sound llterature had been set to track Colerldge to h1s la1r then h1s 1ntr1 , , . - 9 . . . , - . . Y . . v 7 ' a U y I , . 7 . . . Y . . V V ' 1 Y , - I ll 1 V' ll n YY ll 1 YY ' 7 Y ' ' a ll I I' l . V v . . . . v Q I ll 4 r - ' VV . .V . . . . . . . 7. . . . . V. . V . V , 7 . . . , . . V . 1 , V Y , . . . . 7. V V V V . . 7 . . . V 7 r . V V V , - Y Y - .. .. . U . VV V ' r ' ' 1 ' V 1 C L V , . .Y . 7 ' . V . . - ' . . V . . . 4 s 7 Y ' V 1 5 - , V 1 ' -