Gotz Von Berlichingen: A Play

The play that brought the youthful Goethe immediate fame, and inspired Scott, Hugo, Dumas and others! Gotz von Berlichingen is a play written with all the fervor of youth. Published before its author was twenty- four, to instantaneous nationwide acclaim, it was an event in literary history. Immediately followed by dozens of imitations, Goethe's first play inaugurated a new era of dramatic art. Besides its warmth and joy and vigor, this play has a special importance. It launched a great literary career; it revived a tradition in abeyance since Marlowe and Shakespeare, the tradition of drama based on the history of one's own country, rather than on Greek and Roman subjects. It pronounced "Open Sesame!" before the door of European Romanticism--setting the course for Schiller's more ambitious dramas, inspiring Walter Scott's historical romances, and joining with other influences to stir into life the dramas and tales of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. Gotz von Berlichingen, in short, was the point of origin for patriotic and nostalgic period pieces in many languages. To read it today is to immerse oneself in a play by youth for youth and for the young at heart, and to relive a stirring moment in the history of world literature.