On Epic and Dramatic Poetry by Friedrich Schiller and Wolfgang Goethe
Translation
An original translation of an essay co-authored by Schiller and Goethe which appears in our up-coming epic-themed issue of New Lyre Magazine.
The epic and dramatic poets are both subject to universal poetic laws, especially the law of unity and the law of development. They both treat similar subjects and can both use all kinds of themes. Their essential difference, however, lies in the fact that the epic poet presents the events as completely past, while the dramatic poet presents them as completely present. If one wanted to compare the particular laws which both must derive from human nature, one would have to constantly imagine a rhapsode and a mimic actor, both as poets, the former surrounded by his quietly listening circle, the latter by his impatient onlookers; and it would not be difficult to develop which benefits each of these two types of poetry most, which subjects each will primarily choose, or which themes each will employ. It should be emphasized: for, as I already noted at the beginning, neither can claim to be completely exclusive.
The subjects of the epic and tragedy should be purely human, profound, and pathetic: the characters are best placed at a certain level of culture where self-activity unfolds of its own accord, where one’s actions are not moral, political, or mechanical, but personal. The legends from the heroic age of Greece were particularly favorable to poets in this sense.
The epic poem primarily presents personally limited activity, tragedy personally limited suffering; the epic poem represents the individual acting outside of themselves: battles, journeys, and any kind of undertaking that demands a certain sensual breadth; tragedy represents the individual who is drawn inward, and the actions of true tragedy are more confined.
I know of five types of themes:
