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.