Affecting grace : theatre, subject, and the Shakespearean paradox in German literature from Lessing to Kleist

## Acknowledgments I am indebted to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for affording me several intervals of time for sustained reflection and writing. I am likewise grateful to the University of Oregon for furnishing a humane environment and a healthy supply of supportive and stimulating colleagues and students. Among these, the following deserve special mention for their active and enduring interest in my work:

Affecting Grace examines the importance of Shakespeare’s poetry and plays within German literature and thought after 1750 – including its relationship to German classicism, which favoured unreflected ease over theatricality. Kenneth S. Calhoon examines this tension against an extensive backdrop that includes a number of canonical German authors – Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Lessing, von Kleist, and Nietzsche – as well as the advent of Meissen porcelain, the painting of Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi, and aspects of German styles of architecture.

Extending from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (c. 1597) to Kleist’s The Broken Jug (1806), this study turns on the paradox that the German literary world had begun to embrace Shakespeare just as it was firming up the broad but pronounced anti-Baroque sensibility found pivotally in Lessing’s critical and dramatic works. Through these investigations, Calhoon illuminates the deep cultural changes that fundamentally affected Germany’s literary and artistic traditions.

"Affecting Grace examines the importance of Shakespeare's poetry and plays within German literature and thought after 1750 -- including its relationship to German classicism, which favoured unreflected ease over theatricality. Kenneth S. Calhoon examines this tension against an extensive backdrop that includes a number of canonical German authors -- Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Lessing, von Kleist, and Nietzsche -- as well as the advent of Meissen porcelain, the painting of Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi, and aspects of German styles of architecture. Extending from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (c. 1597) to Kleist's The Broken Jug (1806), this study turns on the paradox that the German literary world had begun to embrace Shakespeare just as it was firming up the broad but pronounced anti-Baroque sensibility found pivotally in Lessing's critical and dramatic works. Through these investigations, Calhoon illuminates the deep cultural changes that fundamentally affected Germany's literary and artistic traditions."-- Provided by publisher Contents 7 Illustrations 9 Acknowledgments 11 Introduction 13 Chapter One. Mercy and the Spirit of Commerce: Shylock’s Shadow in the Age of Disinterest 38 Chapter Two. Judging Adam: Theatre and the Fall into History 56 Chapter Three. The Virtue of Things: Meissen Porcelain and the Classical Object 77 Chapter Four. Poison and the Language of Praise: From Hamlet to Miss Sara Sampson 98 Chapter Five. Architectural Fantasies: Bellotto in Dresden, Goethe in Strasbourg 123 Chapter Six. Sovereign Innocence: Schiller’s “Walk” and the Naive Spectator 158 Chapter Seven. Caught in the Act: The Comedic Miscarriage of Kleist’s Broken Jug 190 Epilogue 229 Notes 235 Bibliography 269 Index 283