Chapter 3
Romeo and Juliet in Germany
From the English actors to Goethe
Although Romeo and Juliet was one of the first of Shakespeare’s plays to find its way onto the German stage, it was invariably in versions that were far from Shakespeare’s original. Published translations aspired to reflect the original more completely but Shakespeare’s supposed lapses in taste, his constant breach of neoclassical form, and his mixing of tragedy and comedy, along with German translators’ failure to understand the basic principles of Shakespeare’s dramaturgy, often led to misunderstandings and misapprehensions. Critics and theorists of the Sturm und Drang developed a comprehensive view of Shakespeare as a heroic genius, but it would take well over a century before their vision could be represented on the German stage.
Article outline
- Introduction
-
Englische Comödianten (English actors)
- The Enlightenment
-
Sturm und Drang
- Toward Romanticism
- Conclusion
-
Note
-
References
References (19)
References
Bauman, Thomas. 1978. “Opera versus Drama: Romeo and Juliet in Eighteenth-Century Germany.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 11 (2): 186–203. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blinn, Hansjürgen. 1982. Shakespeare-Rezeption: Die Diskussion um Shakespeare in Deutschland. 2 vols. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cohn, Albert. 1865. Shakespeare in Germany in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Repr. Wiesbaden: Martin Sändig, 1967.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Engler, Balz. 2007. “Was bedeutet es, Shakespeare zu übersetzen? Die erste deutsche Fassung von Romeo and Juliet
.” In Shakespeare im 18. Jahrhundert, edited by Roger Paulin, 39–47. Göttingen: Wallstein.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. 1887–1919. Werke, ser. 1. 55 vols. Edited by Gustav von Loeper, et al. Weimar: H. Böhlau.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. 1887–1912. Werke, ser. 4. 50 vols. Weimar: H. Böhlau.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Herder, Johann Gottfried. (1773) 1953. “Shakespeare.” In Werke, edited by Karl-Gustav Gerold, vol. 1, 875–895. Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Huesmann, Heinrich. 1968. Shakespeare-Inszenierungen unter Goethe in Weimar. Vienna: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold. (1774) 1982. “Anmerkungen über Theaters.” In Blinn 1982, vol. 1, 122–143.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mensel, Ernst Heinrich. 1933. Die erste deutsche Romeo-Übersetzung. Northampton, MA: Smith College Studies in Modern Languages.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oppitz-Trotman, George. 2015. “
Romeo and Juliet in German.” Notes and Queries 62 (1): 96–98. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pascal, Roy. 1937. Shakespeare in Germany, 1740–1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Paulin, Roger. 2003. The Critical Reception of Shakespeare in Germany, 1682–1914. Hildesheim: George Olms.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schlegel, August Wilhelm. 1846. A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. Translated by John Black. London: Henry G. Bohn.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schlegel, August Wilhelm. 1846–1848. Sämmtliche Werke. Edited by Eduard Böcking. 16 vols. Leipzig. Repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1971.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Weiße, Christian Felix. 1937.
Romeo und Julie
. In Die Aufnahme Shakespeares auf der Bühne der Aufklärung in den sechziger und siebziger Jahre, edited by Fritz Brüggemann, 234–306. Leipzig: Reclam. Repr. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wieland, Christoph Martin. (1757) 1982. “Theorie und Geschichte der Red-Kunst und Dicht-Kunst.” In Blinn 1982, vol. 1, 68–70.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wieland, Christoph Martin. 2005. Romeo und Juliette. Project Gutenberg Ebook. Accessed July 7, 2016. [URL]
Williams, Simon. 1990. Shakespeare on the German Stage. Volume 1: 1586–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Keinänen, Nely
2023.
Finland, and Shakespeare. In
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare,
► pp. 1 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.