Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (tr John Black) | Page 3

course of Dramatic Literature at Vienna,
which comprises every thing remarkable that has been composed for
the theatre, from the time of the Grecians to our own days. It is not a
barren nomenclature of the works of the various authors: he seizes the
spirit of their different sorts of literature with all the imagination of a
poet. We are sensible that to produce such consequences extraordinary
studies are required: but learning is not perceived in this work, except
by his perfect knowledge of the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of composition. In a
few pages we reap the fruit of the labour of a whole life; every opinion
formed by the author, every epithet given to the writers of whom he
speaks, is beautiful and just, concise and animated. He has found the art
of treating the finest pieces of poetry as so many wonders of nature,
and of painting them in lively colours, which do not injure the justness
of the outline; for we cannot repeat too often, that imagination, far from

being an enemy to truth, brings it forward more than any other faculty
of the mind; and all those who depend upon it as an excuse for
indefinite terms or exaggerated expressions, are at least as destitute of
poetry as of good sense.
"An analysis of the principles on which both Tragedy and Comedy are
founded, is treated in this course with much depth of philosophy. This
kind of merit is often found among the German writers; but
SCHLEGEL has no equal in the art of inspiring his own admiration; in
general, be shows himself attached to a simple taste, sometimes
bordering on rusticity; but he deviates from his usual opinions in favour
of the inhabitants of the South. Their play on words is not the object of
his censure; he detests the affectation which owes its existence to the
spirit of society: but that which is excited by the luxury of imagination
pleases him, in poetry, as the profusion of colours and perfumes would
do in nature. SCHLEGEL, after having acquired a great reputation by
his translation of Shakspeare, became also enamoured of Calderon, but
with a very different sort of attachment from that with which
Shakspeare had inspired him; for while the English author is deep and
gloomy in his knowledge of the human heart, the Spanish poet gives
himself up with pleasure and delight to the beauty of life, to the
sincerity of faith, and to all the brilliancy of those virtues which derive
their colouring from the sunshine of the soul.
"I was at Vienna when W. SCHLEGEL gave his public course of
Lectures. I expected only good sense and instruction, where the object
was merely to convey information: I was astonished to hear a critic as
eloquent as an orator, and who, far from falling upon defects, which are
the eternal food of mean and little jealousy, sought only the means of
reviving a creative genius."
Thus far Madame de Staël. In taking upon me to become the interpreter
of a work of this description to my countrymen, I am aware that I have
incurred no slight degree of responsibility. How I have executed my
task it is not for me to speak, but for the reader to judge. This much,
however, I will say,--that I have always endeavoured to discover the
true meaning of the author, and that I believe I have seldom mistaken it.
Those who are best acquainted with the psychological riches of the
German language, will be the most disposed to look on my labour with
an eye of indulgence.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
From the size of the present work, it will not be expected that it should
contain either a course of Dramatic Literature bibliographically
complete, or a history of the theatre compiled with antiquarian accuracy.
Of books containing dry accounts and lists of names there are already
enough. My purpose was to give a general view, and to develope those
ideas which ought to guide us in our estimate of the value of the
dramatic productions of various ages and nations.
The greatest part of the following Lectures, with the exception of a few
observations of a secondary nature, the suggestion of the moment, were
delivered orally as they now appear in print. The only alteration
consists in a more commodious distribution, and here and there in
additions, where the limits of the time prevented me from handling
many matters with uniform minuteness. This may afford a
compensation for the animation of oral delivery which sometimes
throws a veil over deficiencies of expression, and always excites a
certain degree of expectation.
I delivered these Lectures, in the spring of 1808, at Vienna, to a
brilliant audience of nearly three hundred individuals of both sexes.
The inhabitants of Vienna have long been in