Dumpfdröhnender Trommel Drauf los drum, zu spät ist's zur Flucht. 4. Die Flöte seufzend bang Das Sehnen ungestillt Klingt flüsternd aus der Laute Klaggesang. 5. Es strömt in heißen Tönen Die Fiedel aus die wilden Triebe, 6. Doch welche Kunst erreicht, Die Töne in der Engel Chor. 7. Orpheus vermochte zu zähmen der Wildnis Ungeheuer, Und Bäume selbst, entwurzelt, verließen ihren Stand, Gehorsam seiner Leier. Doch größres Wunder noch vollbracht Cäcilias Hand: Als ihre Orgel brauset, von Tönen voll geschwellt, Ein Engel hört's und naht, weil er Die Erde für den Himmel hält. Großer Chor. Wie durch die Macht der heilgen Weisen Den großen Schöpfergott zu preisen So werden, wenn die letzte Schreckensstunde Now let us read the original. It is an Ode, a poem built up of lines of irregular length. Please, note the various rhythms or metrical movements of the stanzas: "From harmony etc. (s. Herrig-Foerster). I must not forget to mention his "Fables Ancient and Modern", which are graceful paraphrases from Virgil, Chaucer, Boccacio. As a political writer he did good service to the Tories by writing satires on the Whigs. At that time the Tories (court party) were quarrelling with the Whigs (country party) about who was to be the next king - the people disliked the King's brother, as he was a Roman-Catholic, and wished to have the Duke of Monmouth, who was the king's illegitmate son and a Protestant. I told you, that Monmouth tried to seize the crown, but was defeated at Sedgemoor and beheaded in the Tower. Dryden's most powerful political satire is that in which he attacks the Whig Earl of Shaftesbury for having supported the claims of Monmouth. 3. Stunde: Show that in politics Dryden, like many other men of his day was an obsequious time-server. I'm afraid you don't understand that expression. A timeserver is one who, for selfish ends, adapts himself to the opinions of the persons in power. -What was the final result of his time-serving? What fine "Pindaric" Ode, that's what irregular songs are commonly called, did Dryden write in the period of his political eclipse? I said "eclipse", what did I mean? Well, if the earth is between the sun and the moon and if they are in one straight line, the earth takes its light from the moon, it obscures or "eclipses" the moon. Dryden had lost his offices, this loss deprived him of his political influence, it made him obscure as a politician, it caused his political obscuration or eclipse. To whom did Dryden do good service as a writer of political satires? Against whom was his most effective satirical attack directed? — Let me tell you by the way, that his historical poem the Annus Mirabilis, the Year of Wonders is of some interest, as it describes the great events of the year 1666, the bombardment of Sheerness by the Dutch fleet, sailing up the Thames, and and the Great Fire which reduced London to ashes. Dryden began his poetical career as a dramatist. Following the example set by the court the public found great pleasure in theatrical performances. The theatres were crowded with playgoers. As of all kinds of poetry the drama paid best, the young Dryden discovered his genius for drama and turned to the stage in order to make money. The rhyming tragedy and comedy of the French was then favoured by the court and society, and therefore, if a dramatist made his plays on the French model, he was sure to be a success. Corneille, Racine, Molière were now regarded as standard authors in England, too. But the English have ever been a conservative people, and Dryden, the dramatist, proved himself a thorough Englishman by trying to carry on the Elizabethan drama which had been put a stop to by the Puritanic movement. Shakespeare's genius was alive in him and gave him constant trouble. As Dryden was gifted with the poet's soul, he felt the great dramatist's extraordinary power over the human mind. But he was under the pernicious spell of the French influence. The example of the French classicists prompted him to modernize Shakespeare, to touch him up, clean or purify him, dress him after the French fashion. His lifelong endeavour was to tame him: break him in, to subject that wild irregular genius to the rules and reason which he thought to be the characteristics of perfect art. As Pope after him, he was eager to correct Shakespeare, the great barbarian, according to the good style borrowed from French pseudo-classicism. Sticking fast to the tradition, Dryden advocated the amalgamation of the old romantic drama of the Elizabethans with the pseudo-classical style of the rhyming tragedy of the French. His ideal was "Shakespeare in a periwig". In the prefaces to his dramas and in his essays on dramatic poetry he pleaded for the treating of romantic subject-matter in the form of the classic drama. In other words, he wished more freedom in regard to the story, plot, theme, matter, subject of a play1), and he was unwilling strictly to observe the Unities. Finding that rhyming verses were more in keeping with the manners, bearing of highborn persons - common people cannot be made the heroes or heroines of a drama than the rimeless blankverse, Dryden used rhyming pentameters for his plays which became known as "heroic couplets". All his life long Dryden wavered between French regularity and Shakespearean irregularity, or, as we moderns should say, between classicism and romanticism. By serving the depraved taste of the court 1) "We don't speak of the 'fable' of a play". and society, he did much harm to the theatre, because he helped to estrange from it all the decent people in whom the Puritan conception of life had taken root i. e. the best part of the nation1). His adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, e. g. the Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, were mere deformations, and his own tragedies, which he called "heroic plays" were noisy pageants: Spektakelstücke, Haupt- und Staatsaktionen, exhibiting: showing the thoughts and deeds of kings and queens, princes and princesses, great warriors of the blood royal and such like persons. Though well constructed, these pageants were without much truth to nature, and all his twenty odd plays, in spite of their brilliant temporary success, have long been forgotten2). The action is not based on clearly developed characters. There passes by the spectator, a procession of heroes, who all suffer from the pangs of love. Unhappy love and cruel mishaps cause their deaths. That you may see what these heroic plays were like, I'll tell you the contents of "The Indian Queen". Montumeza, a powerful general, loves Horatia, the daughter of the king. He asks the king to give him Horatia in marriage, but the king refuses to do so, because Montumeza is not of the blood royal. Now Montumeza takes a cruel vengeance. He passes over to the enemy and gains a great victory over his ancient master. The king and his daughter are taken prisoners. But the queen of the enemy has fallen in love with Montumeza at first sight. Feeling instinctively that the young and beautiful Horatia is a danger to her love, she determines to kill her. Now something occurs that nobody has expected. The queen's son commits suicide, when he learns what wicked deed his mother is planning. He, too, had fallen in love with Horatia. Meanwhile, a rebellion has broken out in the empire, we are not told why, and thus the plan of murder cannot be carried out yet. Montumeza defeats the rebels and is proclaimed king for the good service he has done. The wicked queen kills herself, Montumeza marries Horatia, for now he is a king, and 1) Im Anschluß hieran bespreche ich den Aufsatz “The English Drama", in Sander-Cliffe, Großbritannien, Diesterweg. 2) "All for Love (a treatment of the theme of 'Anthony and Cleopatra') was revived in London recently, and created considerable interest among the "highbrows". The rest of his plays are never acted, though they are often read-must be read by students of literature. moreover it is found out that he was descended from a race of kings. This exciting action was set off by magnificent scenery, besides the sensation was intensified by spectres appearing as divine powers of destiny, and by drums and trumpets in the battle-scenes. As after the Revolution the drama was purged of the immoral element that had been so prominent during the Restoration period - public opinion having changed, largely owing to a fearless attack on the stage by a Protestant clergyman- so the false pathos and faulty character-drawing in Dryden's rhyming tragedies were soon realised by critics who had preserved a sound, healthy, unspoilt taste: men of taste, and it was not long before they were parodied. The wittiest of these dramatic satires: burlesques was "The Rehearsal" — before a play is performed publicly, it must be practised several times in private, it is "rehearsed"; a "rehearsal" is a preparatory performance of a play. In this "Rehearsal", which was composed by a Duke, Dryden and his characters were brought on the stage and held up to ridicule. But notwithstanding this attack Dryden's supreme authority as a man of letters continued to be recognized. As a sort of "dictator" he presided over the literary club which gathered at Will's coffee-house, and when he died (1700) "Glorious John" was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey among the eminent men of his country. 4. Stunde: What did Dryden's literary career begin with? - Why did he turn to the stage? - Why could he hope he would make money by writing plays? Why were the playhouses crowded after the Restoration? What drama was then fashionable? By whom had the French drama been made known in England?Dryden did all he could to promote the influence of the French stage. What plays did the court and society especially take delight in? What must be said of the Restoration comedy? — What did Dryden call the tragedies he wrote ? What may we call these "heroic plays"? pageants: brilliant spectacles arranged for effect. Was Dryden a mere imitator of French art? What dramatic style or rather what kind of drama was his ideal? What caused him again and again much trouble? Shakespeare's genius - Did he preserve Shakespeare's blankverse? Why not? What did he call the rhyming verse which he used in his plays? Later on, he gave up rhyme and used blank verse. What effect had Dryden's trifling adapta |