For Schäkespears day
On Schäkespear's Day there is a speech by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , which he gave on October 14, 1771 on the occasion of Shakespeare Day in Frankfurt am Main in his parents' house; In it he honors the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare for his work and expresses his very personal relationship with him. Along with Herder's program publication Shakespear, it is an important document of the Shakespeare enthusiasm of the Sturm und Drang era . It was first printed in 1854 on the basis of a presumably original copy by Goethe in the General Monthly for Science and Literature in Braunschweig.
Text summary
According to Goethe, Shakespeare's works contained many characteristics typical of the Sturm und Drang. So Shakespeare breaks the old rules of classical theater. The three units of place, time and action, which, according to Aristotle's principles, were used in the construction of dramas, are only fetters that do not allow the free interpretation of a work. These were rightly not taken into account in Shakespeare's dramas.
“I never doubted for a moment that I would give up regular theater. The unity of the place seemed so fearful to me, the unity of action and time troublesome shackles of our imagination. I jumped into the open air and only felt that I had hands and feet. And now that I have seen how much injustice the lords of the rules have done me in their hole, how many free souls are still writhing inside, my heart would have burst if I hadn't announced feuds to them and hadn't looked daily for their towers beat up. "
Goethe also sees in Shakespeare's works the struggle of the individual against the rest of the world, a facet that was groundbreaking for the Sturm und Drang era. The term genius should also be applied to Shakespeare's dramas. So there is a character who has all the qualities of an original genius , a character with absolute creativity. Goethe also sees the aspect of the natural man present in Shakespeare's works. Thus the typical stormy-pushy man is one with nature or with what one ascribed to idealized nature; Freedom of rules and non-conformity are two essential keywords in this regard.
Aspects of speech
Shakespeare's peculiarities after Goethe
It is not only in Goethe's speech that it becomes clear again that William Shakespeare and his works were unique for his time and continue to be precious for world literature.
As diverse as Goethe's justification for his veneration of Shakespeare is, Shakespeare's work was just as diverse. In addition to writing historical dramas like King John , he also wrote plays on timeless topics such as love, jealousy, and family conflicts. The most prominent example of a tragic clan enmity is undoubtedly the love drama Romeo and Juliet , while the comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream portrays the errors and confusions within romantic relationships in a humorous, but very realistic way. That is why Goethe describes Shakespeare's works as a box of rarities, in which the history of the world flows past the invisible thread of time before our eyes (line 61/62). And this closeness to life, this authenticity, is what convinces the striker and Dränger Goethe of him, after all, nature or the natural being of man was the ideal image of Sturm und Drang ( and I shout: Nature! Nature! Nothing like that Nature as Shakespeare's people (line 73)).
His illustration of relationships, interpersonal problems, conflicts, etc. is also a real liberation, since, according to Goethe, Shakespeare is able to bring to the stage what no philosopher has yet seen and determined (line 64). Let it be the secret point around which all pieces [would] rotate (line 64); no one can say exactly what constitutes a certain state of affairs, but it can be recognized and understood by everyone through Shakespeare's plays. In this regard, however, Goethe also admits that Shakespeare was not the first to bring such topics to the stage ( I doubt whether Shakespeare deserves the honor of invention; […] ) (line 53). But much more important is that Shakespeare made it tangible and understandable, and not that it premiered in his works.
Shakespeare's relevance to the Sturm und Drang
If you study the text in depth, you will inevitably come across the secret point that Shakespeare would make in his works. The question of its definition could be answered in three ways, since Goethe recognized precisely those aspects in his work that made Shakespeare's works so relevant for the Sturm und Drang. The struggle of the individual against his environment was paramount. The small, hermetically sealed microcosm of the bourgeoisie was the power from which the writers of the epoch and their characters tried to break out and mostly failed because the whole thing (line 65) was too strong in the sense of a torrent. Goethe finds precisely that motif again in Shakespeare (on this [...], in which the peculiarity of our ego, the pretended freedom of our will, collides with the necessary course of the whole ) (lines 64-66). Romeo and Juliet can once again serve as a well-known example : With their unconditional and hopeless love, the two fight against the hardened fronts of their parents' homes - and fail.
The break with the old - be it in literary form or in real life - was also an important part of this epoch-making theory of ideas . I never doubted for a moment that I would renounce regular theater (line 29) - as Goethe put it after he had read. Because this one too differed fundamentally in its style and subject matter from other contemporary and classical authors. So he was a rule breaker in the best sense of the Sturm und Drang.
But his role as a nonconformist was subject to his most fundamental, but also most logical identity: Shakespeare was above all a creator, a creator who combined as much authenticity as fantastic in his works. Goethe notes bitterly that he is therefore often misunderstood, but that is more likely due to the fact that his size was incomprehensible and understandable ( he competed with Prometheus, reproduced his people move before move, only in colossal size - therein is it that we misunderstand our brothers - and then he animated them all with the breath of his spirit, he speaks from everyone, and one recognizes their kinship ) (lines 76-79). It should be noted, however, that Shakespeare embodied the genius concept of Sturm und Drang and was thus an ideal image of this time.
Goethe's personal relationship with Shakespeare
Above all, Goethe's speech on Shakespeare Day shows his respect for Shakespeare. The very fact that Goethe is writing a speech in honor of Shakespeare is proof enough that he was not only interested in Shakespeare and his works, but saw something deeper and extremely important in them . According to his own statement, Goethe felt like someone born blind, to whom a miraculous hand gives his face in an instant (line 24/25) and whose existence has been expanded by an infinity (line 25/26). He recognized in Shakespeare's works a way of depicting the world in all its facets, unknown to him, because Shakespeare had succeeded in recognizing the secret point (which no philosopher had yet seen and determined) (line 63/64) and thus for the first time to create a comprehensive picture of the world and to clarify the basic questions of humanity .
In addition, Shakespeare embodies for Goethe the genius , the ideal of Sturm und Drang, since he breaks with the traditional, rule-compliant and creates something new. Only through this break will it be possible to attain true genius as Shakespeare possessed and thus to become a creator. Goethe seemed to have found his master in Shakespeare, who not only inspired him, but literally enlightened him.
He even went so far that he showed Shakespeare all his awe and even humility, because with his self-made assertion at the end of the day, I [Goethe] recognize that I am a poor sinner (line 83/84) after Goethe has read Shakespeare's works ( […], Because it sometimes happens that at first glance I think: I would have done it differently! ) (Line 82/83) Goethe radically degraded his previous work and contradicted the self-confident nature that is actually known from him. In this respect there is also the amazing thing about the speech: The great Goethe, who was more than aware of his skills and his position as a man of letters, bows down to a master of the past few days. With this he not only proves that his self-indulgence was by no means absolute, but also turns the passionate, enthusiastic and typical of Sturm und Drang Goethe outward.
Goethe's life according to Shakespeare's ideals
Nature, genius, drama - Goethe's image of Shakespeare can be reduced to these three models in an extreme form. It is one thing to choose a master and his teachings , but living out these exemplary norms is another. But it becomes obvious, probably in line with expectations, that Goethe woven the ideals of Shakespeare into his life. Drama and nature, i.e. the purity of the human character, without boundaries from good to bad, guided entirely by feelings, are groundbreaking for the life of the young Goethe. Apart from the fact that he devoted himself to dramatic works in his fabrics, he also seemed to have subjected or opened his everyday life to the Sturm und Drang. He didn't care about the socially accepted values of the 16th century and often fell out of favor for his seemingly arbitrary behavior. It is therefore hardly surprising that he drew the templates for his dramas, especially for love stories, from his own wild life. He often went away full of action, joined a circle of intellectuals and was influenced by the various literary and philosophical currents of the era.
Just as Shakespeare did in his opinion, Goethe also embodied the genius of Sturm und Drang. One of his most famous works, The Sorrows of Young Werther , he put on paper in just four weeks, guided by emotions and inspired by a real incident, following the example of Sturm und Drang. This genius did not go unnoticed; Johann Christian Kestner , a friend of Goethe, described him in a report as astute as well as spirited, talented as well as unbiased and creative.
Individual evidence
- ^ Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile, Winfried Siebers: The 18th Century: Age of Enlightenment. Akademie Verlag , Berlin 2008, p. 159.
- ↑ H. Children: To Schäkespears Day. In: Kindlers Literature Lexicon.
literature
- Peter Boerner : Johann Wolfgang Goethe in personal reports and photo documents. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1964.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Speech on Shakespeare Day 1771. European publishing company, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-434-50102-9 . (with an essay by Klaus Schröter )
- Hermann Kinder: For Schäkespears Day. In: Kindlers Literature Lexicon. dtv, Munich 1974, vol. 23, p. 10408.