The foundation of Prague

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Clemens Brentano
(1778-1842)

The Foundation of Prags is a historical-romantic drama by Clemens Brentano , which, written in Prague and Bukowan from 1812 , appeared in November 1814 with Conrad Adolf Hartleben in Pest and Gerhard Fleischer the Younger in Leipzig. The play, the first part of a trilogy that was not continued, was never performed.

Bohemia around the year 740: scenes from the Maiden War alternate with spotlights on the fight between pagan priests and missionaries from the Orient.

material

The foundation of Prague (1852)

After Frenzel, Brentano wrote his piece on the basis of the two legends of the Princess Libussa and the Maiden War in Bohemia. The figures in question appear in Cosmas , Dalimil , Hajek von Libotschan and in Hans Sachs , Herder , Musäus and JFE Albrecht .

After Schultz, Friedrich Creuzer , Joseph Görres and Friedrich Schlegel are among Brentano's pioneers. In Prague the author met Josef Dobrovský and Joseph Georg Meinert .

characters

Lapack , priest
Zwratka , priestess, Lapack's wife

Maidservants

Libussa , ruler
Tetka , priestess, Libussa's triplet sister
Kascha , healer, Libussa's triplet sister
Wlasta , leader, Zwratka's daughter
Stratka , leader
Dobrowka , Rozhon's wife

Slavic men

Werschowetz
Domaslaus
Primislaus
Slavosh
Biwog
Rozhon
Stiason

Other

Hubaljuta , student of the Zwratka
Ziack , a nine-year-old boy from the magic school
Pachta , Slavic Christian
Trinitas , Christian from Byzantium
Moribud , son of the Avar king

content

1st act

Wlasta is the daughter of the priestess Zwartka and the limping priest Lapack. As a young thing, Zwartka had got involved with Tschart , the negator. Tschart, counterpart of the Bilobogi , had pinched a nail on her back then. Since then, Zwartka has been a sorceress. She curses the cock crow. He announces the bright day.

The triplets Libussa, Tetka and Kascha are daughters of the late Duke Krokus . This prince was Chech's successor. As children of the elf Niva, the three virgins are particularly gifted. Libussa even has vision . On their 20th birthday, the three princely daughters are honored with a golden apple each - Tetka with the apple of heaven, Kascha with the apple of the earth and Libussa with the apple of life. The triplets also receive magic apples from Zwartka, their former teacher, to bind the virgins to Tschart. The boastful Lapack wants to be crowned the successor of the crocus - also because he is the nephew of the deceased. The people of Böheim vacillate. First Tetka, then Kascha and finally Libussa should wear the crown. Libussa is crowned by drawing lots.

2nd act

On the day after the coronation, the ruler has to assert herself at the head of her defensive group of maids against invading Avars. Stratka, one of Libussa's leaders, has captured Moribud, the son of the King of the Avars. Moribud, the strongest enemy, is in league with Zwartka. The sorceress poisoned his arrow. But the missile missed Libussa and hit Zwartka's daughter Wlasta. The faithful had thrown themselves into the line of fire in the turmoil. Zwartka curses Lapack. He also incited nine-year-old Ziack, her talented student of magic, into the service of Libussa, as did his daughter. The fight goes on. Libussa appoints Werschowetz and Domaslaus as their military leaders against the Avars, although it was once their fathers who laid the saw and hatchet on the oak tree in whose trunk mother Niva lived. Stratka loves the bold Werschowetz, but her opinion of the men is not the best:

Cursed be everyone with a beard!
That of you, that of me, that of another maid
With flattery tongues,
And pleads, and urges, and loops, and swears, and laments,
Until he loosens the belt of her discipline,
That she bound with the fruit of her lap
At his hearth, which Sclavinn disgusts,
The burden of misery, the broom of his court,
Despairingly curses at the tired breast,
Who were otherwise glorious, free and blessed.

Libussa gives the “little girls” extensive freedom of choice. Her sister Kascha leaves the maiden status and follows the warrior Biwog, a "giant man of courage and strength in noble slavery". Libussa's approving comment: “Giving and sustaining you may be of use.” The princess sends the men to war against the Avars.

3rd act

When the men return home victorious, there is a scuffle in the forest with the guarding band of maids. But

With flat blades and sharp words
Only the empty air has been wounded.

Werschowetz throws Moribud's head at Stratka's feet. Stratka throws her head into the sacrificial fire. The returning warriors move on and stop at Primislaus, a poor plowman. The warrior Slavosh gives Primislaus news. It "shall be poured a new God". Pachta, “a Slavic sculptor who became a Christian in Byzantium”, has already built “the furnace for casting” next to the former hut of the crocus. Like her people, Libussa is still in the dark about the new God. His picture will "delight the eye". Pachta corrects: "It is God and not an idol." The priest Lapack scoffs at Christianity:

But how do you explain to the virgin son
Who conceived and born virginal?

so he asks and has a scornful answer ready. Presumably the virgin claimed out of embarrassment that her son "was of a god". Libussa, "the free duchess of Bohemia" has completely different worries. Her maidservant group says, "she must never surrender to a man". Libussa's thoughts go in the same direction. Clients are annoying to her. According to the will of her warriors, however, the princess is supposed to marry immediately: “One man will only set us free from prostitutes.” Primislaus rebukes the men. The people had put Libussa on the throne and if she didn't want a man, it was the men's fault. The little eavesdropper Ziack makes bad blood. He has heard that the maids want to cut off the right thumb of every boy so that he can never grasp a sword. Dobrowka, a woman, is even accepted into the crowd of maids. She ran away from Rozhon, her husband, after he beat her up. In this way this warrior had taken revenge on Libussa, from whom he had received no right in a neighborhood dispute over a mythical oak. Now, having returned from the battle against the Avars, Rozhon spreads the rumor, "Libussa will murder everyone there [in her castle] whose love has satisfied her." He wants to chase Libussa away and replace it with a prince. Action follows his word. When he attacks Wlasta with the ax, Rozhon is struck down by Primislaus with a sword stroke. Wlasta is also sinking bleeding. It looks as if patriarchal conditions are imminent in Böheim. As he dies, Rozhon thanks the gods that no maid slew him. Primislaus wants to comply with his last wish and bury the warrior under the mark about which he fought in vain before the princess. When the vengeful Dobrowka desires the head of her dead husband emphatically, Domaslaus pierces her backwards. When Werschowetz appears with his warriors in front of Libussa's castle and worriedly inquires about the state of health of the ruler, she does not relieve him of his concern. The further behavior of the warriors proves Libussa right. The army does not want to leave until the mistress chooses a man: "Choose a master, a master be married to you!"

4th act

Meanwhile, Pachta pours an image of Our Lady , a cruzifix and a pelican for the three daughters of the crocus . The Christian wants to be the first to convert the pagan priestess Tetka to faith, love and hope. Zwartka probably notices that.

Due to the romp of the men, Libussa gives up the resistance to a husband: "The bride is the virgin, because the time is in heat." Werschowetz and Domaslaus get a basket from Libussa. The ruler would like to choose the plowman Primislaus as her husband. When Tetka and Kascha congratulate their sister on their choice, the seer Libussa replies that she alone did what the gods commanded her in the dream. Wlasta, who refuses to bow to any man, is so violently against Libussa's decision that the princess has to part with the deserving leader. The outcast, who has become a monster, goes to her mother. Zwartka gives the daughter a witch's potion. The sorceress wants to fight the followers of the new religion by all means. Zwartka promises her chart: "I will slaughter you who ignore yours." Stratka, sent from Libussa, goes to Wlasta. Wlasta explains her behavior: She loves Primislaus. Werschowetz and Domaslaus join in and want to win over the maids for their plot against Libussa. When Domaslaus suggests stabbing the plowman in his field during the takeover, he is stabbed by Wlasta. Werschowetz, disarmed, flees Stratka to Primislaus. The plowman prevents Stratka from killing the fugitive. From the enemy Werschowetz becomes the friend of Primislaus. Then Wlasta also enters the plowman's field. The desperate woman, with the bloody sword in her hand, asks Primislaus for help against the effects of the witch's potion. The plowman does not help a murderess. Primislaus cannot believe it at first. Let him become Libussa's husband! Werschowetz takes off the plowman's bast shoes and puts the gold shoes on him. Primislaus says: "Goodbye, my plow, I must greet the throne!" Wlasta wants to die and curses the men.

5th act

Zwartka calls those three pious pictures that Pachta cast "nonsensical idols" and throws them down from the rock into the Vltava. Trinitas, a Christian who followed Pachta from Byzantium to Böheim, converts Hubaljuta, one of Zwratka's magic students, to Christianity. Trinitas is shot with an arrow by Zwartka while she is baptizing Hubaljuta in the Vltava. Slavosch rushes over, kills the shooter and throws her down.

Libussa receives her groom Primislaus in bridal jewelry. The plowman explains to the people how he wants to rule. When Stratka again shows the plowman the betrayal of Werschowetz, he forgives the hypocritical warrior a second time. Wlasta has since recovered a little. Still intoxicated with the magic potion, she reproaches Libussa; reveals the cards in front of the princess: Wlasta loved Primislaus. It looks like Wlasta and Stiason can become a couple. The young warrior always chased the leader. Lapack wants revenge on Slavosch. Primislaus prevents the bloody act. Lapack is being led away. Primislaus, the new ruler, thinks about how to solve the Slavosh case. After all, the warrior killed a priestess. The verdict of the wise plowman: Slavosh's blood guilt is considered to have been carried away if a priestess washes his hand. Tetka does so and chooses him as husband.

Libussa founds Prague . A busy room begins. Primislaus marks the area of ​​the new city with his plow, where the Brusna brook flows into the Vltava.

shape

The drama consists of 9,360 verses in rhyming iambs. Brentano helps the reader. He underpins the historicity of the text with 113 footnotes. The author is not always able to suppress his antics.

  • "A sword! a sword! all of Böheim for a sword! "

he has Libussa exclaimed, for example, and chats in a footnote that while looking through the manuscript he sees that Libussa seems to be “ imitating Shakspear ”.

Christians and Gentiles

  • Pachta and Trinitas fight against “paganism” in Böheim. Both figures remain pale. The Christianization efforts of the two missionaries, which were pushed in several times - in the dramatic battles between the pagans - seem completely out of place.
  • Without a doubt, Libussa is the dominant ruler figure. Her two sisters Tetka and Kascha, however, also remain colorless. The story of Wlasta's tragedy runs through the branched piece. Her love for Primislaus is not returned and she is torn between the powers that represent the old and the new religion. The tragedy of the warrior Rozhon is also convincingly presented by Brentano. Rozhon cannot come to terms with matriarchy.

Quotes

  • "He who plants flowers."
  • "How the winds rummage / In the dark manes of the night!"
  • "Whoever is not powerful will never be powerful in others."

Testimonials

  • In a letter from February 1813 to the pastor Johann Heinrich Christian Bang (1774-1851) Brentano describes the piece as his "best most perfect poem".
  • In a letter of February 8, 1824 to Johann Friedrich Böhmer , Brentano distanced himself from the play. The reader should turn away from it and forget about it.

reception

  • On February 10, 1815, Achim von Arnim wrote to Wilhelm Grimm : “It is incomprehensible to me how, with so much beauty, elaboration and perfection in detail, a wonderful tragic material can be so spoiled as a whole.” Schulz suspects that Arnim speaks the salvation event and the expectations of redemption: Christianity will one day triumph over the Gentiles.
  • May 1815: Review in the Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, No. 97, p. 289: The author depicts the life of the lower classes in Bohemia in a rough, cheeky and bizarre way.
  • Jacob Grimm to his brother : "... it is extremely excellent and strange and probably Clemens best work."
  • In the play, according to Schulz, Brentano understands romanticism as the reawakening of the historical through the power of the imagination.
  • The Libussa legend comes from the first half of the 8th century.
  • Riley points out the transitional nature of the work. Tetka as the priestess, Kascha as the doctor and Libussa as the sage represented three faces of Jesus Christ. The Trinitas is a redeemer . All in all, the piece bridges the gap to Brentano's extensive, religiously oriented late work.
  • Riley names further leading works: E. Grigorovitza (Berlin 1901), O. Brechler (Munich 1910), G. Müller (1923), W. Frühwald (1967), H. Steinmetz (Heidelberg 1968), N. Reindl (Innsbruck 1976 ), O. Seidlin (Stuttgart 1979) and U. Ricklefs (Erlangen 1983).

Dissertations

PhD on the work

  • Hans Taeschler: The founding of Prague: interpretation of the historical-romantic play by Clemens Brentano. Zurich 1950. 109 pages
  • Renate Matthaei : The mythical in Clemens Brentano's “The Foundation of Prague” and the “Romances of the Rosary” . Cologne 1961. 200 pages
  • Ute Sponagel: Fate and History in Clemens Brentano's historical-romantic drama “The Foundation of Prague”. Marburg 1972. 198 pages

First edition

Clemens Brentano: The foundation of Prague. A historical-romantic drama. 450 pages. CA Hartleben, Pesth anno 1815. With engraved frontispiece . Marbled cardboard ribbon with back label.

literature

sorted by year of publication

  • Wolfgang Pfeiffer-Belli: Clemens Brentano. A romantic poet's life. 214 pages. Herder publishing house, Freiburg im Breisgau 1947. Direction de l'Education Publique GMZFO
  • Werner Vordtriede (ed.): Clemens Brentano. The poet about his work. 324 pages. dtv Munich 1978 (© 1970 Heimeran Verlag Munich), ISBN 3-423-06089-1
  • Konrad Feilchenfeldt : Brentano Chronicle. Data on life and work. With illustrations. 207 pages. Carl Hanser, Munich 1978. Series Hanser Chroniken, ISBN 3-446-12637-6
  • Helene M. Kastinger Riley : Clemens Brentano. Metzler Collection, Vol. 213. Stuttgart 1985. 166 pages, ISBN 3-476-10213-0
  • Gerhard Schulz : The German literature between the French Revolution and the restoration. Part 2. The Age of the Napoleonic Wars and the Restoration: 1806–1830. 912 pages. Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-09399-X
  • Hartwig Schultz : Clemens Brentano. With 20 illustrations. 224 pages. Reclam Stuttgart 1999. Series of literature studies. Universal Library No. 17614, ISBN 3-15-017614-X
  • Elisabeth Frenzel , Sybille Grammetbauer: Substances of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 300). 10th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-30010-9 , pp. 352-355.

Quoted text edition

Web links

  • The text at Zeno.org
  • The text as anthrowiki-pdf
  • The text facsimile anno 1852 published by JD Sauerländer, Verlag Frankfurt am Main

Individual evidence

“Source” means the quoted text edition.

  1. ↑ Schultz, p. 179, 13. Zvo
  2. ↑ Feilchenfeldt, p. 95, entry October / November 1814
  3. ^ Facsimile Bavarian State Library, Munich
  4. ↑ Schultz, p. 179, 11. Zvo
  5. ↑ Schulz, p. 624, 8. Zvo
  6. ↑ Schultz, p. 183, 3. Zvo
  7. ↑ The maid war took place around 740 (Schulz, p. 624, 21. Zvo)
  8. ↑ Frenzel, pp. 537-540
  9. ↑ After Brentano, Grillparzer , KE Ebert and FC Schubert took up the subject. Operas: von Lannoy - Libussa, Bohemia's first queen (1818/1819); Joseph Carl Bernhard and Conradin Kreutzer - Libussa - Romantic opera in three acts (premiere: December 4, 1822 in the Theater am Kärntnertor Vienna); Josef Wenzig and Bedřich Smetana - Libusa (premiered in 1881).
  10. ↑ Schultz, p. 177 above, p. 179
  11. ↑ Böheim is Brentano's word for Bohemia
  12. ↑ Here maidservants are warlike virgins; comparable to the Amazons .
  13. ↑ Werschowetz is also called Wrsch and Wrschowetz by Brentano
  14. ↑ Brentano's writing: Source p. 126, verse 2162
  15. ↑ Source p. 239, verse 4485
  16. ↑ Source, p. 262, verse 4948
  17. ↑ Source pp. 309, 81.
  18. ↑ Source, p. 406, verse 7925
  19. ↑ Prague was built from the Lesser Town .
  20. ↑ Pfeiffer-Belli, p. 141, 11. Zvo
  21. ^ Vordtriede, p. 197, 5th Zvo
  22. ↑ Schulz, p. 624, 16. Zvo: rhymed blank verse
  23. ↑ Source, p. 290, verse 5444
  24. ↑ Source, p. 510, footnote 77
  25. ↑ Source, p. 254, verse 4784
  26. ↑ Source, p. 287, verse 5405
  27. ↑ Source, p. 340, verse 6452
  28. ^ Vordtriede, p. 196, first letter from above
  29. ↑ Schultz, p. 180, 14th Zvu
  30. ^ Vordtriede, p. 199, first letter from below
  31. ↑ Riley, p. 134, 10. Zvo
  32. ↑ Schulz, p. 624, 16. Zvu
  33. ↑ Schulz, p. 625 below
  34. ↑ Schulz, p. 626, 10. Zvo
  35. ↑ Schultz, p. 181, 9th Zvu
  36. ↑ Schulz, p. 626, 17th Zvu
  37. ^ Riley, p. 135, 3. Zvo
  38. ↑ Riley, pp. 139-140
  39. ^ Riley, p. 140, last entry