806), M. R. Lenz[286] and F. Muller[287] the "painter." The
youthful genius of the greatest of German poets was itself under the
influences of this period, when it produced the first of its
masterpieces. But Goethe's _Gutz von Berlichingen_ (1773), both by the
choice and treatment of its national theme, and by the incomparable
freshness and originality of its style, holds a position of its own in
German dramatic literature. Though its defiant irregularity of form
prevented its complete success upon the stage, yet its influence is far
from being represented by the series of mostly feeble imitations to
which it gave rise. The _Ritterdramen_ (plays of chivalry) had their day
like similar fashions in drama or romance; but the permanent effect of
_Gutz_ was, that it crushed as with an iron hand the last remnants of
theatrical conventionality (those of costume and scenery included), and
extinguished with them the lingering respect for rules and traditions of
dramatic composition which even Lessing had treated with consideration.
Its highest significance, however, lies in its having been the first
great dramatic work of a great national poet, and having definitively
associated the national drama with the poetic glories of the national
literature.

Goethe.

Schiller.

Thus, in the classical period of that literature, of which Goethe and
Schiller were the ruling stars, the drama had a full share of the
loftiest of its achievements. Of these, the dramatic works of Goethe
vary so widely in form and character, and connect themselves so
intimately with the different phases of the development of his own
self-directed poetic genius, that it was impossible for any of them to
become the starting-points of any general growths in the history of the
German drama. His way of composition was, moreover, so peculiar to
himself--conception often preceding execution by many years, part being
added to part under the influence of new sentiments and ideas and views
of art, flexibly followed by changes of form--that the history of his
dramas cannot be severed from his general poetic and personal biography.
His _Clavigo_ and _Stella_, which succeeded _Gutz_, are domestic dramas
in prose; but neither by these, nor by the series of charming pastorals
and operas which he composed for the Weimar court, could any influence
be exercised upon the progress of the national drama. In the first
conception of his _Faust_, he had indeed sought the sugges