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Untitled Article
of an author ' s skill . The dialogue between Alva and Egmont renders it , perhaps , the finest of the tragedy . The count begins by the assurance of his loyal attachment to his sovereign , but is artfully drawn on by the insidious sophistries of the duke and a skilful assertion of the rights of sovereignty , to maintain the claims of liberty and humanity ; he is awakening to his real condition , when the folding doors open , and he finds himself disarmed and in the custody oC the guards .
The fifth Act consists altogether of scenes of diversified pathos . Clara , excited to heroism by the peril of her lover , endeavours in vain to rouse the citizens to his rescue . They are terrified , not animated by her eloquence , and leave her alone with her humble follower Brackenberg . Egmont in prison gives expression , in a
long soliloquy , to his feelings at the prospect of death . And then again Clara is attended by Brackenberg : he describes to her the dismal preparations for the execution . She takes poison and leaves the stage , he follows her . The stage direction says , * The scene remains unchanged for a time , music denotes the death of Clara , and the lamp which Brackenberg had left unextinguished , after flaring several times , goes out . The scene then changes to
the prison . ' Jigmont is awakened from sleep on his couch by Silvia and Ferdinand . Silvia reads to him the sentence of death , announces his immediate execution , and leaves Ferdinand behind . A dialogue of great effect follows . The youthful Ferdinand
consoles the hero by the assurance of his love and admiration , and deplores his inability to effect his escape , to which Egmont passionately exhorts him . Worn out by the conflict , Ferdinand having left him , he again lies down , when the wall opens behind his couch , and Clara appears above him as the goddess of liberty . Music is heard , first of a plaintive character , till Clara holds
before him a bundle of arrows , the cap of liberty , and finally , over his head presents the laurel crown . Military music is heard at a distance . The vision vanishes . The sound becomes louder , Egmont awakes , snatches at the crown over his head , and bursts out into an eloquent monologue , which , though the rest of the play is in prose , would have had more effect in verse . The day breaks , guards enter , and ' drums beat , and the curtain falls as
Egmont goes towards the back-ground . A symphony of victory terminates the piece / This melo-dramatical termination of the tragedy was , at the time , loudly censured by Schiller in the severe review which appeared in the Algemeine Literatur Zeitung . It was in the year J . 788 that this tragedy was published , and we may therefore be the
more certain that it expresses the genuine political feelings of the author . The same remark applies to Schiller ' s review , which is eqiiqlly curious as showing the early direction of his taste and opinions . His admiration of Goethe did not interfere with a strong expression of his unfavourable opinion of the character of EgOiojit . Hia objections amount to this , that Egmont is not a
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516 Goethe s Works .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 516, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/12/
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