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

75 In another work, Schlegel, comparing the ghost scenes in Hamlet and Voltaire's Semiramis, noticed the artificiality of the latter and praised the tragic power of the first.

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9 The same was his verdict when comparing the image of jealousy offered by Voltaire's Orosman in Zaire and Shakespeare's Othello: "We listen in Orosman to a jealous man. We see him accomplish his deed; but we do nut find out anything more about jealousy than we have known before. Othello on the other hand is the complete treatise (Lehrbuch) on this sad foolishness, about what preceeds it, how it is awakened and how it could be avoided The documents showing how the attractive force of Shakespearean drama came to replace the idolatry of French classicist drama in the German public taste are numerous. Shakespeare became the real standard around which the adepts of a new, national popular art gathered as a result of dissociation from artistic formulae imposed by the aesthetic rules of the period. One of the German writers who was successful in this respect was M. Wieland. When he decided to study and translate Shakespeare, his translations in prose (17621766) had an overwhelming importance for the growth of the popularity of Shakespearean drama in Germany. The translations were accompanied by Wieland's comments and notes regarding the Shakespeare material in different publications. Wieland stated that Shakespeare did not lose in artistic power by ignoring the "sacred rules", but on the contrary he gained in originality and force. Wieland concluded by stating that those who questioned Shakespeare's greatness started from a superficial analysis of the problems involved. Another adept of the Shakespearean drama was Johann Gottfried Herder. Herder studied Shakespeare minutely as shown in a letter addressed to his fiancée: "I haven't read Shakespeare, but studied it; I underline the word."^ * Herder's enthusiasm is touching. He exclaims: "Who could imagine a more sublime poet of the Northern Nature."^ Herder in his theoretical works stressed the idea of the primary importance of the genius. Remembering Lessing's formula of the mutual interference in the case of "giant talents" , Herder's conception of "Naturpoesie" and "Volkpoesie", both Homer and Shakespeare are "Naturdichter": if we add to these Herder's progressive conception of "Volkpoesie", and his stressing the "cosmic" character of Shakespeare's creation (as opposed to that of the divine character of the genius), the image of his attitude in this matter is nearly complete.^