During my studies of German philology, I came across a few sentences in Goethe's biography that shed light on his relationship with Schiller. I read that after his initial successes as a poet, Goethe had increasingly mutated into an administrator at the duke's court, and his subsequent literary outpourings were received favourably, but without concerning amounts of enthusiasm on part of the readership. But when the acquaintance with Schiller turned into a genuine, productive friendship, everything changed again, and Goethe was inspired to new literary exploits. Whether all that really happened, I do not know of course, but the story stuck somehow with me.