Ugolino (drama)
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| Title: | Ugolino |
| Genus: | tragedy |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg |
| Publishing year: | 1768 |
| Premiere: | June 22, 1769 in Berlin |
| Place and time of the action: | in Pisa, Italy in March 1289 |
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Ugolino. A tragedy in five acts is a forerunner of the Sturm und Drang and is considered the main work of Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg . The tragedy, published anonymously in 1768 , tells the story of Count Ugolino , who was imprisoned with his sons and left to starve.
action
prehistory
At the end of the 13th century, bloody feuds between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines in Pisa, Italy , both want to rule the city. Ugolino, head of the Guelfi party, became lord of the city after some efforts. In order to remain the unrestricted ruler, he allies himself with his mortal enemy Archbishop Ruggieri Ubaldini. But the bishop deceives him and secretly incites the Pisans against him. In the following popular uprising, Ugolino and his sons are locked in a tower and the tower key sunk in the Arno .
Gerstenberg does not tell this prehistory, as the material was taken from Dante's Divina Commedia ( Inferno XXXII / XXXIII) and was therefore assumed to be known. Accordingly, Gerstenberg begins without exposure in the dungeon and only describes the end of the ordeal of Ugolino and his sons, who, one after the other, find their deaths in the tower.
content
After Ugolino and his three sons Francesco, Anselmo and Gaddo were overwhelmed and imprisoned after a popular uprising fueled by Archbishop Ruggieri Ubaldini, the first son, Francesco, tried to escape from the tower. A short time later, however, he and Ugolino's wife are taken to the dungeon in a coffin, the woman dead, the son poisoned. In despair and above all due to a lack of food, the others gradually lose their minds and can hardly control their thoughts and actions. Delirious monologues follow, as well as delusions and tattered memories of happier times past. The emotions fluctuate between sensitive love for one another, despair and anger and find their climax in cannibalism when the starved, thirteen-year-old Anselmo attacks the dead mother and attacks his father with a dagger. Ugolino then kills his son delusional to have the archbishop in front of him. Finally, the youngest son Gaddo also dies of exhaustion. Ugolino is now holding out alone until his own end.
particularities
The story of Ugolino is told in the traditional five-act scheme and space and time are strictly limited, but Gerstenberg dispenses with the classicist canon of rules: There are neither props nor a large ensemble of figures, the entire concept is downright minimalist. Gerstenberg also limits himself to the emotional climax when Ugolino is confronted with the death of his own children. The realistic portrayal of the characters' passion, emotions and sensations, the characters themselves, are the focus of the drama, not the plot in the sense of Aristotle.
In terms of content, the archbishop's counter-world is completely left out and only visualized linguistically in reactions and memories. Nor is the classic collision of the interests of protagonist and antagonist at the center of the story, but rather the physical and mental torments of the characters who are almost forced to be passive. With Francesco's attempt to break out of the dungeon, contact with the outside world is established for the last time and thus for the only time in history dramatic tension is shown in the traditional sense.
Differences from Dante
The historical events of the story are based on Dante's Ugolino episode in the Divina Commedia . In contrast to Dante, there are three sons in Gerstenberg's work - Francesco, Anselmo and Gaddo - who are locked in the tower with their father. Ugolino is imprisoned with Dante with two sons and two grandchildren. Another grandson named Anselmo dies before the arrest. Gerstenberg says: “The story of this drama is known from Dante.” Dante also assumed the prehistory, since he was a contemporary witness of the events and the readers themselves were familiar with it.
Text history
The fact that Gerstenberg never spoke or wrote about his works before they were finished was shown, for example, in a literary correspondence with Friedrich Nicolai from the time Ugolino was created . He does not refer to his work at all here. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing did not like the ending of the story chosen by Gerstenberg, as he said that Gerstenberg should not orient himself so much towards Dante. According to Lessing, the characters' great suffering is in itself a dramatic mistake. Likewise, the unfortunate outcome is much too early and clearly recognizable. Gerstenberg then rewrote the last scene several times. In the version from 1815, Ugolino, addicted to madness, kills himself.
Relationship with Shakespeare
Gerstenberg's Ugolino is the first German drama, the creation of which would be unthinkable without William Shakespeare , who was downright adored by Gerstenberg. Even Johann Gottfried Herder wrote of a Gerstenberg, who was a great connoisseur of the British.
Expenses (selection)
- Gerstenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm von (1768): Ugolino. A tragedy in five acts . With an appendix and a selection of theoretical and critical writings. Stuttgart: Reclam. ( Reclams Universal Library No. 141) ISBN 3-15-000141-2 .
- Gerstenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm von (1815): Ugolino. A tragedy , in: Mixed Scriptures. First volume. Altona: JF Hammerich.
Literature (selection)
- Gerecke, Anne-Bitt (2001): Ugolino. A tragedy in five acts. Hamburg and Bremen 1768, in: Heide Hollmer and Albert Meier (Hrsg.): Dramenlexikon des 18. Century . CH Beck, Munich 2001, pp. 70-72. ISBN 3-406-47451-9 .
- Jacobs, Montague "Monty" (1898): Gerstenbergs Ugolino: a forerunner of the Geniedrama . Berlin: E. Ebering.
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Gerecke, Anne-Bitt (2001): Ugolino. A tragedy in five acts. Hamburg and Bremen 1768, in: Hollmer, Heide (Hrsg.) And Meier, Albert (Hrsg.): Dramenlexikon des 18. Century. Munich: CH Beck. P. 70.
- ↑ cf. ibid., p. 71f.
- ↑ cf. ibid., p. 71.
- ↑ cf. ibid., p. 70.
- ↑ cf. ibid., p. 71.
- ↑ cf. Jacobs, Montague "Monty" (1898): Gerstenbergs Ugolino: a forerunner of the Geniedrama . Berlin: E. Ebering. P. 41f.
- ^ Gerstenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm von (1768): Ugolino. A tragedy in five acts . Stuttgart: Reclam. P. 6.
- ↑ cf. Jacobs (1898), p. 42.
- ↑ cf. ibid., p. 45.
- ↑ cf. ibid., p. 48.
- ↑ cf. Gerstenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm von (1815): Mixed writings. First volume. Altona: JF Hammerich. Pp. 505-510.
- ↑ cf. Jacobs (1898), p. 54.
- ↑ cf. Herder, Johann Gottfried (1770): Ugolino review in the General German Library, Vol. XI , in the appendix of: Gerstenberg (1768), p. 81.