“The Riddle of  the Sphinx is playing out Horatio,” said Hamlet.. The Ruke of Weimar using his alter ego Wolfgang Goethe to manipulate and oust the Dinnersteins from their tenancy in trhe princiupality so as to carry on his debauchery with a talented singer from Leipzig.

 

                                                              II

 

An explosive affair would rock the staunt relationship between the ruling family ;the Dutchess would be sizzling her petticoats .Despairing to the nth degree as aristocrats disguise their lamentations.

 

Catching the Duke & husband, in an affair would rock the tiny kingdom.

Should Goethe, the Duke’s alter ego, take sides, his own desire for conjugal intimacy with the beauty not to be ignored.

 

                                                               III                                                               

 

Rumor had it that the Monty Pythons of London heard the vibes of a scandal. That Robin Williams had identified his  genius of a gig with a four legged animal.

Per se a Lassie from a Beverly Hills shelter.

 

Nothing to quibble about  as Goethe’s own survival was to placate  his Duke, humor the Duchess, and find some solace for the Dinnersteins.

 

To route the pasturized milk on ice delivery by Dinnerstein’s kid brother rom Frankfurt. No

social networking like a Face Book “cite”a bipolar lust. Big as the internet synergy sweeping over the Alps.

 

                                                                V

 

Meanwhile Goethe sitting as a Weimar magistrate not unlike his father playing out that role in Frankfurt, the Duke’s alter ego, seemed to hearing out H. Dinnerstein’s tale.

 

Uncharted waters indeed as Monty Python’s jab at authority figures would say. Didn’t the Dinnersteins in their family tenancy in Weimar pay their dues. The family in all due respect to the monarchy modulate the gardening, clip the shrubs, mow the lawns plant seeds  down the road. Now that a natural like Goethe was taken byhe aristocracy to be one of their own.

 

Goethe wished he could have Marcus Aureoles sitting alongside of him. How could he find aq rationale not to offend his benefactor. To do right by the Dinnerstein’s Magna Carta/ Dfidn’t the brothe delivering pasturized milk on ice,horse&wagon from the market in Frankfurt.

 

Goethe was a mixed up bugger trying to resolve the riddle.

 

                                                                VI

 

It was one thing to place the Duke ‘s lust for the Leipzig sultry siren with resideny the Duke b  her lover and support system as she played out her Marlene Dietrich like role..

 

Caught in an anxiety like psychic conflict, the author  of Werther, identified with Dinnerstein. An undue hardship weighed against the Duke’s  selfishness.

 

                                                                 VII

 

A guilt  capturing his soul, Goethe beckoned the claimant. “Recess, Herr Dinnerstein. We must take a pause in these proceedings while we retreat to  chambers. Weigh our underlings reality.”

 

Inside the luxury of privacy, the young alter ego turned to volume one of Dr. Kurt Eissler, who had psychoanalytically toured Goethe’s odyssey: birth adolescence thru old age. Like Werther  once on the brink of self destruction, he had attained “honor,

luxury and rank” n the tiny monarchy outside Frankfurt.

 

Aside from the envy and jealousy of the sycophants and flatterers, there seemed to be no way out for the Duke’s counselor and best friend.

 

The Dinnersteins were like his own mother and father, caught adrift in their descent into dependency. A struggle against a masochistic fantasy which can be traced back to adolescence.(a dream of being enclosed in a sack)

 

Putting aside, his fear of narrowness, the Werther like magistrate, was not to be bought off by the Duke nor his royal court. He opened the door of his chambers.

 

“Herr Dinnstein, your Magna Carta of a Super Bowl prevails. We extend your employment lease for twelve more months . Count your blessings, Sir.”

 

Dinnstein , sobbing like a baby, rushed the podium , Goethe stiff arming him as thou he was  at the football game of the Century.

 

“Man is never quite master of himself. Since he is ignorant of the future, the next

moment is even a secret to him, he often has to fight when he intends involuntary sensations. Premonitions, dream like images about which he may well laugh shortly thereafter. But which are more weighty in the moment of decision.” 

 

Goethe and the Duke playing out their own Super Bowl some 3 centuries earlier.

 

The city that never sleeps February 2 2012