Jane V. Curran

Goethe’sHelen: A play within a play

Helen’s name is first mentioned in Goethe’sFaust I during the Witches’ Kitchen scene, long before she appears in person. InFaust II Act 1, she is briefly conjured up onto a stage for the entertainment of an audience in the Imperial Palace. After witnessing this first appearance of Helen, Faust is thrust into the world of the Classical Walpurgis Night, to experience the company of a whole series of ancient and mythological creatures, by way of preparation for his ultimate meeting face to face with Helen. When the two do come together, Goethe employs a number of poetic and metrical devices to create an atmosphere suggestive of ancient Greek tragedy, into which he then introduces Faust as a modern hero. Linguistic assimilation takes place on both sides, so that Goethe, by incorporating modern material into it, builds onto the myth of Helen. In composing his Helena-Akt, Goethe uses methods which accord with Aristotle’s remarks in thePoetics concerning the re-use of myth by tragedians.

Wieland's revival of horace

In eighteenth-century Germany there arose a tremendous enthusiasm for translating, particularly from texts written in the Classical languages. Translation theorists in this period outline two possible methods: either the emphasis lies with the ancient source or with the modern idiom. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813) translated theEpistles (1782) andSatires (1786) of Horace into lively verse in a loose iambic pentameter scheme. The translations, with their accompanying introductions and commentaries, display Wielands expertise as a Classical scholar and his skill as a poet. By contrast, in the Horace translations of Johann Heinrich Voß (1751–1826), too strict an adherence to the metrical and syntactical features of the original produces an unnatural German style. Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700–1766) translated HoracesArs Poetica as a treatise on poetry,Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst (1730). Gottscheds allegiance lies with contemporary literary style; he translates freely, using rhyming Alexandrines. Wielands method, a mean between these two extremes, provides the most faithful reproduction of the Roman poet.