The Englishman - A Dramatic Phantasey
The Englishman - A Dramatic Phantasey is a sketch published in 1777 by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz and is considered to be the author's last drama.
staff
Robert Hot , an Englishman
Lord Hot , his father
Lord Hamilton , his friend
The Princess of Carignan
A major in the Sardinian service
Various soldiers
Tognina , a lover sister
A clergyman
Various servants
content
The setting is Turin.
first act
First Scene
That night Robert stands with the rifle in front of the palace. In a monologue he explains his longing for Armida, who is sitting in a lighted room but does not see him. His father arrives tomorrow to take him back to England and marry him there - he wants to see her again before that. Finally he fires his rifle, the princess comes to the window - he kneels and explains to her that he will die if she does not ask him to come over. He appeals to her memory - they are said to have danced together at a masked ball - but she can give him nothing more than regret. When the round comes and the major asks why the shot was fired, he claims to have discovered a deserter - himself. The major has him taken to the main station.
Second act
First Scene
The princess had the major called over to her, as the trial against Robert is pending and she wants to put in a word for him. The major reminds her that under martial law he “forfeited his life” - the princess points out his high status and his “hidden melancholy” and warns the major to pronounce the death sentence.
Second scene
Robert is in prison, plays the violin and sings a melancholy song about his longing for the princess. The princess and her brother enter the prison disguised as officers. Robert speaks of a "heavenly light" that surrounds him. She brings the news of his pardon and gives him a bracelet with a portrait (???). He takes courage for his life sentence. His father steps in, explains his disappointment, but also his understanding. He was with the princess and brings him the news of his release. Robert wants to tear them apart - he prefers imprisonment in the Palace of Freedom in England. He cannot imagine that it was the princess who wanted him to go to England and live there with someone else. He gives himself up to melancholy and his fate.
Third act
First Scene
Robert arrives in England. He now seems to be completely insane and is talking to himself about himself in the third person. He sees himself in the position of the scorned and laughed at, describes himself as a maggot that is stepped over. Next to him, Lord Hot is talking to Lord Hamilton, who tells of a good-looking lady. Robert throws his watch at him, causing Lord Hot to lose his temper and abuse him. Lord Hamilton asks him to be quiet - he approves of Robert's outbursts and points out similar behavior by Lord Hot. Completely surprisingly, Robert jumps out of the window during a monologue.
Fourth act
First Scene
During the night Robert stands disguised as a Savoyard under the princess's window and holds a monologue to himself, occasionally calling for the princess. When he calls for money, someone throws something wrapped in paper out of the window - he catches it eagerly. When he finds nothing in it and realizes that it was not thrown by the princess, he falls back into melancholy.
Fifth act
First Scene
Robert lies in his room with a headache. Lord Hot comes to fetch him and bring him to the princess. He should congratulate her on her marriage. When Robert finds out, he apparently collapses dead. Lord Hamilton comes in and after a few movements he wakes up confused and excited again. The two lords want to let him calm down and leave the room. When Robert tries to jump out of the window, however, the rushing Lord Hamilton prevents him. Since Robert does not want to calm himself down, servants are called. Robert calms down by talking to the wall. Tognina, a fanatic, comes in and sits down by his bed. When, at his request, she gives him scissors to cut the necklace with the picture of the princess, he snatches them from her and stabs his throat. The surgeon can no longer help him - after a conversation with his confessor, he lifts Armida's picture in the air, presses it to his face (“Keep your heaven for you”) and dies.
background
As the subtitle suggests, this work is not a fully worked out drama, but rather a sketch or, to stick with Lenz's choice of words, a Phantasey. Glarner puts the work in a row with the better known dramas " Der Hofmeister " and " Die Freunde make the Philosophen " and justifies this from the autobiography: In these dramas Lenz tries to exploit his complex relationship to his father in literary terms. This is also expressed in the fact that the main characters in these dramas always ask themselves the professional question. In the "Engländer" in particular, Lenz processes his entire life situation in an increased manner. In addition to the motifs of the embrace, the structural build-up, recognition-remorse-forgiveness, the spatial distance between the hero and the fatherland is reinforced. The resignation becomes particularly clear in the Englishman: the main character, like Lenz himself, cannot escape the prevailing conditions and see no way out. In this context it should also be noted that Lenz gives up his radical anti-Aristotelian line and tries (resignedly?) To fit into the scheme of the three units .
literature
Work edition
- Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold: The Englishman. A dramatic fantasy. In: Ders .: Works and letters in three volumes (Vol. 1). Edited by von Damm, Sigrid. Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig. Insel Verlag, 1992.
Secondary literature
- Johannes Glarner: "The Englishman". An end point in JMR Lenz's drama work. In: Stephan, Inge; Winter, Hans-Gerd (ed.): "Unaufnahmlich Lenz read ...": Studies on the life and work of JMR Lenz. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 1994.
- Gert Mattenklott: Melancholy in the drama of Sturm und Drang. Königstein: Athenäum-Verlag, 1985.
Web links
Original text The Englishman at Zeno.org
Original text The Englishman in the Gutenberg J.MR Lenz project
in the German-language Wikisource
Individual evidence
- ↑ Glarner, Johannes: "The Englishman". An end point in JMR Lenz's drama work. In: Stephan, Inge; Winter, Hans-Gerd (ed.): "Unaufnahmlich Lenz read ...": Studies on the life and work of JMR Lenz. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 1994, pp. 195–209, here 196f.
- ↑ Glarner: An end point in the dramatic creation. P. 200f.