Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1991. British and American Philologycal Studies (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 20)

Tibor Tóth: William Shakespeare's Reception in France and Germany

74 When the triumph of absolutism began to be imposed on literature through the French models, there was a stagnation in the representation of the Shakespearean drama in Germany. Still, in 1741, Gheimart Kaspar Wilhelm Von Bork translated Julius Caesar using German alexandrines: Bork's translation generated in a Germany a series of critical attitudes similar to those of the French criticism of the time: Gottsched criticised Shakespeare's "untruthfulness" and not respecting the "sacred rules"

1 ' required by classicist aesthetics and taste. In the same year , Elias Schlegel set forth a new approach: Schlegel quoted Shakespeare in the original, and his investigation marked a new evaluation of literary translation as well, since he remarked, noted and criticized Bork's deviations from the Shakespearean formula. Comparing Shakespeare to Andreas Gryphius, Schlegel ranked the f ormer's Julius Caesar above Gryhphius' Leo Armani us. Schlegel observed that Shakespeare creates a "free space, a free space for new dimensions of the hero's thoughts" af ter every emotional climax. Thus Schlegel touched upon the complexity of emotional involvement created by Shakespeare and condemned Gryphius for Iiis incapacity in this regard. * ^ Sciilegel in one of his later works

1*5 proceeds from the comparison between English and French drama to give a fine opinion of the Shakespearean: Sciilegel favours English drama, stressing the idea that the complexity of Shakespearean drama offers more than the single-character plays of the French dramatists. Schlegel views his material as an integral part of the historical development of drama as genre: In Ms opinion Shakespeare^ píays marked an important step towards realism. Schlegel also favoured the idea that every nation should create its own theatre, Schlegel considered that in creating a new national dramatic literature Shakespeare could be a grea help, since: "Shakespeare is closer to the German soul than the classicist French drama."

1 ^ Bessenyei expressed much the same ideas in 1777, hoping to create a "new literature and a suitable style" by translating Shakespeare.

1 ^ Lessing accepted this idea later, in 1759, in his letter on new literature (Brief e die neueste Literatur betreffend, 1759). Lessing considered that translating Shakespeare would have better served the development of German dramatic literature than presenting Racine and Corneille to the German audience: The Genius can be set on fire only with the help of another Genius, and through one indebted to nature, through one who does not accept the awkward ways of art

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