Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832), German man of letters, statesman, scientist, and philosopher, who devoted much of his time and genius to the theatre. He had already written a couple of unimportant comedies when he was introduced to the works of Shakespeare. Immediately captivated by them, he expressed his enthusiasm in the first German play to be written in the Shakespearian style, Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand. Produced in Berlin in 1773, this somewhat idealized portrait of a robber baron became the spearhead of the Sturm und Drang movement, a model for young dramatists, particularly Schiller, and the prototype of a wave of Ritterdrama which swept across Germany. Later plays included Stella (1776); the domestic tragedy Clavigo (1779), set in Spain and based on a true incident in the life of Beaumarchais, seen in London in the World Theatre Season of 1964; and Egmont, not completed until 1787. Dealing with the revolt of The Netherlands against Spain in 1567, the play was first performed, with extensive alterations by Schiller, in 1791. The original version was not seen until 1810.

In 1775 Goethe accepted an invitation from the reigning duke to settle in Weimar, where he remained for the rest of his life. One of his duties was to organize ducal entertainments, and among the plays he directed was the first (prose) version of his Iphigenie auf Tauris (1779). During two years' sojourn in Italy, 1786–8, he recast it in verse, superimposing on the situation of Euripides' Iphigenia the moral vision of the 18th century. The play, one of the masterpieces of European drama, is an expression of Goethe's belief that the salvation of mankind can come only through humanity and renunciation. In its new form it was produced in 1802. The visit to Italy was also responsible for Torquato Tasso (1807), which portrays a poetic temperament in conflict with the world of action. These two classical plays are cast in iambic verse of exquisite mellowness and have an intimate, personal appeal lacking in Goethe's earlier works. After his visit to Italy the first signs of the Olympian detachment which was such a feature of his old age began to appear. In 1791 he was appointed director of a professional company established in the Court theatre, which became known throughout Europe.

The crowning achievement of Goethe's career, as both playwright and poet, and in some ways as philosopher, was his Faust. Begun in the early 1770s and inspired by a puppet-play seen in his youth, this was to occupy him throughout his whole life. The original draft, which he abandoned, was discovered and published as Ur-Faust in 1887. A second version, which had not been acted, was included by Goethe in an edition of his works published in 1790. It was Schiller who in about 1799 persuaded Goethe to return to the play and finish it. Part I, which contains the seduction and desertion of the innocent Gretchen and her execution for infanticide, appeared in 1808; Part II, in which occurs the scene of the raising of Helen of Troy used by Marlowe in his Dr Faustus, was completed in the last year of Goethe's life and appeared posthumously. Taken together, the two parts are a distillation of an old man's wisdom, accumulated over a long and active career and embracing all aspects of human life, and insisting throughout on unremitting activity and endeavour as the true aim of man's life on earth. Owing to its complexity the play has always proved difficult to stage and many directors fall back on the simpler Ur-Faust. Part I was not seen in Germany until 1829; Part II in 1854. The first production of both parts was in 1876 at Weimar, and there have been notable later productions by Reinhardt and Gründgens.

Although most of Goethe's works, including his plays, have been translated into English, very little of his dramatic work has been seen on stage; but in 1963 the Bristol Old Vic put on a version of Götz von Berlichingen by John Arden as Ironhand, and Iphigenia in Tauris was seen in Manchester and London in 1975.