Note 777 — Chapter III · GOETHE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

I should think better of the criticism of Germany if it did not habitually speak of “Romeo und Julia.” In the first place, it is surely common good manners not to alter an author’s title—though you may abbreviate it. In the second, which is more important, the change argues an æsthetic and gynæcologic callousness. Julia and Juliet are quite different persons.