What did Thomas Carlyle mean by “Close thy Byron; open thy Goethe” ?
A. Britain’s preeminence as a global power will depend on mastery of foreign languages.
B. Even a foreign author is better than a homegrown scoundrel.
C. Abandon the introspection of the romantics and turn to the higher moral purpose found in goethe.
D. In a carefully veiled critique of the monarchy, byron and goethe stand in symbolically for queen victoria and charles darwin respectively.
