Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/316

 310 Roller Humboldt's translation, encouraged by Goethe since 1797, of the Agamemnon, does Goethe's enthusiasm break forth. Here, as in the case of Homer, a large part of his interest is connected with such works by his contemporaries as the translations of Tobler, Humboldt, Danzen, Voss, Stolberg, and the work of Hermann on the fragments of the Niobe and the Philoctetes. Sophocles probably ranks next to Homer in Goethe's esti- mate of all the Greeks, the two representing to him the highest in Greek literature. In 1804 Goethe hears of a treatise written to prove that Sophocles was a Christian: "Das ist keineswegs zu verwundern, aber merkwiirdig, dasz das ganze Christentum nicht einen Sophokles hervorgebracht. " On several occasions he treats the literary art of Sophocles as the standard by which to judge others. The Ajax and Electro, concern him little, the Trachiniae is not mentioned; due in large measure to Rochlitz's version (1808) of the Antigone and its production on the Weimar stage (1809), this play receives the most attention. He speaks of the "sublime holiness" of the Oedipus Colonus. Sophocles "represents the 'beautiful' style of Greek tragedy; his rhetorical ability is so great that it sometimes threatens to become a fault; his ability as a playwright impresses Goethe; his loftiness of soul appeals to him" (p. 84). Goethe was acquainted with a large number of the plays of Euripides; his interest centers chiefly in the Bacchae which was his favorite, in the Ion, the Iphigenia in Aulis, and the Cyclops. The Helena and the Electra are called "schlechte Stiicke." The Phaethon, and somewhat the Philoctetes, as well as some of the lost plays of Aeschylus, were very tempting to Goethe as problems for restoration. Goethe's highest admiration of Euripides comes in the last years of his life. There is a personal element in his attitude toward this poet whom he defends against the philologists; these consider Euripides inferior to his predecessors merely because the harlequin Aristophanes "ihn gehudelt hat." He is particularly angered by A. W. SchlegePs saying that the Greek theater degenerated through Euripides. The latter's fault of conventionality, of being too rhetorical, is freely granted by Goethe, the blame for which is laid at the door of his age, and "Euripides' great achievement was just this, that he realized the need of his time and was able to satisfy it, thus gaining the great popularity which so impresses Goethe" (p. 93). To Aristophanes Goethe pays much less attention than to the tragedians. Of the plays he was acquainted with the Birds, the Clouds, the Knights, the Acharnians, the Frogs, and the Ecclesiazusae, but this list may not be exhaustive. He was impressed by the boldness and cleverness of the comedian's jests; he does not remark anywhere upon the beauty of Aris-