Chapter III · (continued 9)

In a converse way, however, and in contrast as such to the above generally prosaic type of treatment, the modern world, too, has elaborated a world of comedy which is both truly comic and poetical in its nature. The fundamental note here again is the cheeriness of disposition, the inexhaustible resources of fun, no matter what may be the nature of miscarriage or bad luck, the exuberance and dash of what is at bottom nothing better than pure tomfoolery, and, in a word, exploited self-assurance. We have here as a result, in yet profounder expatiation, and yet more intense display of humour, whether the sphere of it be more restricted or capacious, and whether the mode of it be more or less important, what runs on parallel lines with that which Aristophanes in the ancient world and in his own field created beyond all rivalry. As the master, who in a similar way outshines all others in his field, or rather the particular portion to which I now refer, I will, though without now further entering into detail, once again emphasize the name of William Shakespeare.

*

Having completed our review of the types under which comedy is elaborated we have at last reached the absolute conclusion of our scientific inquiry. We started with symbolical art, in which the ideality of the human soul struggles to discover itself as content and configuration, and, in a word, to become an object to itself. We passed on to the plastic of classical art, which displays to human vision that which has become unveiled to itself as substantive being in man's vital personality. We reached our conclusion in the romantic art of the individual soul-life, that inward world united to the absolute medium of its self-conscious energy, which expatiates unfettered within its own ideal life of Spirit; and which, content with that realm, no longer unites itself with what is objective and particularized, and finally makes itself aware of the negative significance of such a resolution in the humour of the comic Spirit. Nevertheless we find that in this very consummation it is Comedy which opens the way to a dissolution of all that human art implies. For the aim of all art is nothing else than that identity asserted and displayed by the human Spirit, in which the eternal, the Divine, the essential and explicated truth is unfolded in the forms and phenomenal presence of the objective world to the apprehension of our external senses and our emotional life and imagination. If, however, as is the fact, comedy merely enforces this unity under a mode that annihilates it, inasmuch as the absolute substance,[65] which strives here to enforce its realized manifestation, perceives that this realization is,—through the instrumentality of those interests which have now secured an independent freedom within the embrace of the objective world of Nature,[66] and are as such exclusively directed to what is contingent and personal to the soul,—itself shattered, it follows that the presence and activity of the Absolute is no longer truly asserted in positive coalescence with the individual characters and ends of existing objective reality, but rather solely gives effect to itself in the negative form that everything which does not correspond with itself is thereby cancelled, and all that remains is the presence of this free personal activity of soul-life which is displayed in and along with this dissolution as aware of itself and self-assured.

By such a path, then, as this we have arrived at our goal; and with the aid of our philosophical method have gathered every essential type and determinant of the beauty and conformation of art into a garland, the task of arranging which in its associate completeness belongs to the most worthy of any within the range of human science to undertake. For in human Art we are not merely dealing with playthings, however pleasant or useful they may be, but with the liberation of the human Spirit from the substance and forms of finite condition. We are occupied with the presence and reconciliation of the Absolute in sense and the phenomenal, with a revelation of truth, which is not exhausted of its wealth in natural-history, but is unfolded in the history of the world, as a constituent part of which Art supplies us with the most beautiful point of view, the most generous reward for the severe labours of our contact with objective reality and the grievous pains of knowledge. And for this reason it was impossible that our inquiry should wholly restrict itself to the criticism of individual works of art, or any mere recipe or inducement to their production. Rather it could have but the one object, namely, that of following up, of seizing and retaining in and through the instrumentality of thought the fundamental notion of beauty and art through all the stages which it passes in its process of realization.

If I may be permitted to assume that from the above explained point of view my exposition has not been wholly inadequate to general expectation, and that the bonds of obligation with which I have throughout been united to my reader in the pursuit of an object which we hold in common are now released, I will merely add the wish, it is my last word, that a bond yet more exalted and indestructible with the idea of beauty and truth may rivet itself between us in place of that released, and establish an union which shall now and for good remain secure.

INDEX Accompaniment, Music as, iii, 377-379, 413-418; of human voice, iii, 383. Aeschylus, reference to the "Agamemnon," i, 285; to the "Eumenides," i, 302, 303, 372; ii, 213-215, 223; iv, 306, 324; to the "Coephorae," and the "Seven before Thebes," iv, 318; change of scene in his dramas, iv, 257; universal powers in dramas, i, 377; char acter of Clytemnaestra, ii, 345. Aesop, Fables of, ii, 115. Anacreon, odes of, iv, 203, 233. Aphrodite, description of, iii, 185. Architecture, types of classical, iii, 80-90; Roman, iii, 87-88; Gothic, iii, 91-104; Byzantine, iii, 105. Aristophanes, subject-matter of his comedies, iv, 277, 283, 304, 329; himself an actor, iv, 286; his "Ecclesiazusae," iv, 303. Aristotle, reference to the "Poetics," i, 19; on tragedy, i, 283; on use of simile, ii, 143; proper subject of tragedy, iv, 131; on unities of time and place, iv, 256. Artist, as executant, iii, 426-430. Athene, nature of as goddess of Athens, iv, 325. Bach, J. S., supreme master of ecclesiastical music, iii, 419. Beethoven, L. van, soul-release in art's freedom, iii, 349; symphonies of, iii, 355 n. Bosanquet, B., references to translation of Hegel's Introduction by in present translator's notes, i, 28, 29, 31, 32, 37, 40, 45, 52, 65, 66, 68, 69, 71, 73, 76, 88, 93, 96, 100, 108, 109, 116, 181. Bradley, A. C., reference to Lectures on Poetry, i, 265 n. Bradley, F. H., i, 73, 96 n. Brahman, supreme godhead in Hindu theosophy, ii, 50-61, 91. Calderon, quotation from, ii, 142; comparisons of, ii, 149. Camoens, the "Lysiad" of, iv, 190. Cervantes, type of comedy in "Don Quixote," i, 262; ii, 374; dissolution of chivalry as depicted by Cervantes and Ariosto, ii, 373. Chivalry, general description of, iv, 185-187. Chorus, Greek, nature of, iv, 315-317. Cid, the Spanish poem of the, description of, iv, 182; heroic personality of the, ii, 348; iv, 138-140; nature of collision in, i, 321. Columns, Greek, iii, 69-76; orders of, iii, 82-85; on the Greek temple generally, iii, 79. Creutzer, his work on symbolism, iii, 17, 18; affinity of Egyptian and Hellenic art on coins, iii, 203. See also ii, 138; iii, 39, 41. Cuvier, analytical power of, i, 176. Dante, conciseness of, i, 350; allegory in, ii, 19; on the love of Beatrice, iii, 340; description of the damned, iii, 319; the "Divine Comedy" contrasted with "Æneid" and "Odyssey" as epical narrative, iv, 163; general description of "Divine Comedy," iv, 184. Denner, realistic portraits of, iii, 270. Destiny, supreme significance of in Epos, iv, 144; fate in tragedy, iv, 312, 322; as necessity, iv, 254. See also particularly as to Greek art, ii, 261-264. Drapery. See under Sculpture. Dutch School, description of, i, 228-230; ii, 382-386; iii, 334-337; landscape in art of, i, 397; colouring of, iii, 276. Einbildungskraft, meaning of as distinct from Phantasie and Vorstellung, i, 55 n., 62 n., 381 n. Euripides, the "Alcestis" of, i, 275; treatment of love in the Phedra, iii, 340; transition of drama of to sentimental pathos, iv, 321. Eyck, H. van, supreme concep tion of God the Father, iii, 252; his picture of the Madonna, iii, 255; his "Adoration," iii, 262; description of brothers Hubert and John, iii, 330. Ferdusi, "Shahrameh" of, i, 251, 277. Fichte, his position in history of Aesthetic Philosophy, i, 89-91. Flesh-colour, nature of, in painting, iii, 285. Giotto, reforms of, in painting, iii, 322. Goethe, definition of the beautiful by, i, 21, 36-38, 91; reference to his "Iphigeneia," i, 262, 304-306, 373; iv, 307; to "Faust," iv, 333; to his Tasso, iv, 307; to "Hermann and Dorothea," i, 256, 353; to "Werther," i, 271, 321; to the "Bride of Corinth," ii, 270; to the "Westöstlicher Divan," i, 372; ii, 96, 400; iv, 233; to "Dichtung und Wahrheit," iii, 289; to the "King of Thule," ii, 363; his "Mignon," iii, 298; his theory of colour, i, 117 n.; on the innate reason of nature, i, 179; Goethe on Hamlet, i, 307; ii, 364; his pathos contrasted with that of Schiller, i, 313; rivalry of with Shakespeare, iv, 338; quotation from Goetz von Berlichengen, i, 366; the ripeness of his maturity, i, 384; on Gothic architecture, iii, 76; Xenien of, ii, 145; on harmonious colouring, iii, 283; supreme quality of folk-songs of, 386; songs of comradeship, iv, 205; prose in his dramas, iv, 71; imitation of Icelandic, iv, 208; as a Lyric poet generally, iv, 217. Greek art, origin of in freedom, ii, 183; content of, ii, 184-186; Gods of, ii, 224-228; iii, 183-186, 188; absence of the sublime in, ii, 237; incapable of repetition, iii, 396; Greek epigrams, ii, 398; character of dramatis personae in Greek art, iv, 317-320. Greek chorus. See under Chorus. Greek mysteries. See under Mysteries. Greek oracles. See under Oracles, Hafis, Lyrics of, iv, 237; quotation from, ii, 94, 95, 147. Helmholtz, researches of in music, iii, 390 n. Herder, his conception of Folkslied, i, 364. Herodotus, statement of as to Homer and Hesiod, ii, 190, 231; his account of temple of Belus, iii, 37; date of his history's commencement, iv, 39; on battle of Thermopylae, iv, 23; as general authority for Egyptian history and art, see vol. iii, ch. i. Hesiod, mythology of, ii, 63, 64, 167, 216; reference to his "Works and Days," iv, 108. Hindoos, architecture of, iii, 48-51; religion of, ii, 47-64. Hippel, humour of his "Life's Careers," ii, 365. Hirt, connoisseur, his emphasis on the characteristic, i, 22-24; on origins of architecture, iii, 27; on Memnons, iii, 41; on the original materials of building, iii, 66. Homer, vividness of his characterization, i, 225, 235; the heroes of, i, 250; starting-point of Iliad in wrath of Achilles, i, 290; iv, 30, 156, 167; hero as focus of many traits, i, 316; landscape in, i, 341; iv, 123, 154; type of society in Iliad, i, 352, 377; whether personal experience of poet, i, 357; iv, 122; his use of simile, ii, 154; quotations from the Iliad, ii, 154, 155; sacrifices in the Iliad, ii, 192; unity of Homeric god-world, ii, 219; human motives defined through god's action, ii, 234, 235; freedom of Greek gods in, ii, 239; individuality of gods in, ii, 242-258; poet later than the Trojan war, iv, 124. Horace, Ars Poetica of, i, 19, 69; artificial character of his Odes, iv, 229. Iffland, reference to, iv, 290, 344; superficial quality of, ii, 381. Immortality, contrast of conception in Pagan and Christian thought, ii, 287-290. Irony, the views of Schlegel, Solger and Tieck on, i, 90-94; iv, 271. Jacobi, the "Woldemar" of, i, 322. Kant, Immanuel, relation of his philosophy to Philosophy of Aesthetik, i, 78-84, 149, 154 n.; on the sublime, iii, 86, 87. Klopstock, his rank as an Epic poet, iv, 150-152; his personality, iv, 216, 244, 245; partly artificial enthusiasm, iv, 229. Kotzebue, popular effects of, i, 362; superficial rapidity of, ii, 381; bad composition of, iv, 290; ethical baseness of, iv, 304. Landscape gardening, i, 332-333 Laocoon, statue group, iii, 191. Lessing, his introduction of prose into drama, iv, 71; didactic drama of, iv, 277. Libretto, nature of good, iii, 355-357. Light, the nature of as an element, ii, 225-226. Longinus, his Essay on the Sublime, i, 19. Lötze, See i, 82 n. Luther. See ii, 13. Memnons, iii, 41-43. Meredith, George, i, 36 n., 216 n.; ii, 339 n.; iv, 347 n. Michelangelo, his power to depict devils, iii, 307. See also, i, 224 n.; iii, 27 n. Molière, character of comedies of, iv, 345-347. Mozart, example of precocity, i, 37 n.; symphonies of, iii, 385; Libretto of his "Magic Flute," iii, 415; just mean of splendour in opera, iv, 291. Mysteries, Greek, ii, 221. Natural, the natural in art as distinct from the barbarous or childish, iii, 6-8; natural diction in Lessing, Goethe and Schiller, iv, 265-267. Oracles, Greek, ii, 205-208. Originality, nature of in art, i, 394-405. Ossian, character of his heroes, i, 343; similes of, ii, 151, 153; authorship of, iv, 146, 180. See also iv, 114, 127. Ovid, Metamorphoses of, ii, 126; similes of, ii, 152, 198. Pathos, nature of, i, 308-325; pathos of drama, iv, 265; that of Goethe and Schiller compared, i, 313. Pheidias, school of, i, 235; materials used by, iii, 199; the plastic ideal of, iii, 133; Elgin marbles, iii, 138; the "Zeus" of, iii, 117, 184. Pindar, Odes of as occasional, i, 271; his odes compared with elegies of Callinus and Tyrtaeus, iv, 201; Pythian priestess on his merit, iv, 216; enthusiasm of, iv, 229; his creative gift, iv, 241. Plastic, personality, of Greeks, as Pericles, Pheidias and Sophocles, iii, 133. Plato, relation of his philosophy to the universal concept or notion, i, 27, 28, 197; his relation to art generally, i, 141; citation from, i, 210; his use of simile, ii. 143. Portraiture, in painting, iii, 307-311. Praxiteles, iii, 190. Prometheus, ii, 209-215. Psalms, Hebrew, general character of, i, 378; illustrate the sublime, ii, 102-104; iv, 226-228. Pyramids, the, iii, 55. Racine, the "Esther" of, i, 361; his Phèdre, i, 321. Ramajana, the, episodes from, ii, 51-53, 61. See also iv, 110, 112, 165, 175. Raphael, general references to, i, 37, 212, 380, 385; possesses "great" manner with Homer and Shakespeare, i, 405; his Madonna pictures, iii, 227; cartoons of, iii, 242; mythological subjects, iii, 245; his "Sistine Madonna," iii, 255, 262, 304; his "School of Athens," iii, 254; vitality of drawings of, iii, 275; perfection of technique, iii, 328; translator's criticism on extreme praise of Raphael and Correggio, iii, 329 n. Reni, Guido, sentimental mannerisms of, iii, 264. Richter, J. P., Kaleidoscopic effects of, i, 402; sentimentalism of, ii, 365; humour of compared with Sterne's, ii, 387. Rösel, Author of "Diversions of Insect life," i, 59. Rumohr, von, Author on Aesthetic Philosophy, i, 148, 232; on style, i, 399; on Italian painters and in particular, Duccio, Cimabue, Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Perugino, Raphael and Correggio, iii, 316-330. Ruskin, J., i, 62 n., 72 n., 230 n. Sachs, Hans, religious familiarity of, i, 359. Satire, in Plautus and Terence, ii, 277; iv, 305; in Sallust and Tacitus, ii, 278; not successful in modern times, ii, 279; belongs to third type after tragic and comic drama, iv, 305. Schelling, Art Philosophy of, iii, 23 n. Schiller, rawness of early work, iii, 38; his "Letters on Aesthetic," i, 84-86; quotation from, i, 214; reference to "Braut von Messina," i, 258; to "Kabale und Liebe," i, 261; iv, 333; to Wallenstein," iv, 288; to the "Maid of Orleans," i, 261; iv, 291, 339; extreme scenic effect of the latter drama, iv, 291; narrative too epical in same drama, iv, 161; reference to "Wilhelm Tell," i, 379; pathos of Schiller, i, 394; his use of metaphor, ii, 144; attitude to Christianity, ii, 268; profundity of, iii, 414; character of his songs, iv, 207, 239; his criticism of Goethe's Iphigeneia, iv, 275; leaves much to actor, iv, 288. Schlegel, F. von, Aesthetic theory of, i, 87-89; art as allegory, ii, 134; statement of, that architecture is frozen music, iii, 65. Sculpture, drapery of, iii, 165-171; materials of, iii, 195-201; Egyptian, iii, 203-210; Etruscan, iii, 211; Christian, iii, 213; the Laocoon group, iii, 178-191; soul-suffering of, iii, 256. Shakespeare, William, materials of his dramas, i, 255, 324; reference to drama "Macbeth," i, 277; to Lady Macbeth, i, 324; to witches of "Macbeth," i, 307; ii, 366; to "Macbeth," iv, 337, 341; to "Hamlet," ii, 378; iv, 334, 342; to "Othello," iv, 337; to "Falstaff," ii, 375; to tragedy of "Othello," i, 283; to "King Lear," i, 296; to "Romeo and Juliet," i, 319; iv, 342; to "Richard III," iv, 341; the clowns of, i, 320; the fool in "King Lear," ii, 375; quotations from "Richard II," ii, 141, 159; from "Romeo and Juliet," ii, 153; from "Henry IV," ii, 158; from "Henry VIII," ii, 159, 160; from "Julius Caesar," ii, 260; from "Macbeth," ii, 160; from "Anthony and Cleopatra," ii, 161; mythical material of dramas, i, 351 n.; his historical dramas, i, 374; his use of metaphor, ii, 144, 156; the fidelity of Kent in "King Lear," ii, 346; self-consistency of characters, ii, 356-358; iv, 340; intelligence of vulgar characters, ii, 366, 375; subsidiary interest of part of material in dramas, iv, 260; vitality of characterization, iv, 274, and in particular, iv, 337; superiority in modern comedy, iv, 348. Sophocles, reference to the "Philoctetes," i, 275, 301; iv, 306; to "Œdipus Rex," i, 276; iv, 319; to the "Antigone," i, 293; ii, 215; iv, 318; to "Œdipus Coloneus," ii, 503; iv, 319; to the "Electra," iv, 318; the choruses of, i, 371; no unity of place in the "Ajax," iv, 257; quotation from "Œdipus Coloneus," ii, 222; treatment of love in the "Antigone," ii, 339; praise of the "Antigone" as work of art, iv, 324; the "Œdipus Coloneus" as a drama of reconciliation, iv, 325. Style, significant of vitality, iii, 9; the beautiful style, iii, 10; the great style, ii, 400; educated style of Roman poetry, iii, 11. Tasso, his "Jerusalem Liberated," iv, 141. See also iv, 132, 149, 159, 189, and for Goethe's play under head of Goethe. Thorwaldsen, the "Mercury" of, i, 270. Tieck, novels of, ii, 167; and for both Tieck and Solger under "Irony." Van-Dyck, the portraiture of described, iii, 292. Velasquez, reference to Turner and Velasquez, i, 336 n. See also iii, 337 n. Vergil, artifice of V. and Horace, iv, 69; eclogues of compared with idylls of Theocritus, iv, 170. The "Æneid" as a national Epos, iv, 179. Versification, rhythmical of ancients discussed, iv, 81-84. That of rhyme compared, iv, 84-98. Vishnu, the Conserver of Life in Hindoo theosophy, iii, 52; second Deity in triune Trimûrtis with Brahman and Sivas, ii, 59. Voltaire, contrasted with Shakespeare, i, 313; his "Henriad," iv, 132; his "Tancred" and "Mahomet," iv, 290. Watts, George, R.A., flesh colour of, i, 337 n.; relation to symbolism, ii, 27 n. Weber, his "Oberon" and "Freischütz," i, 216. Winckelmann, on Greek sculpture, iii, 138, 150-155, 172-176, 182, 184; on Greek coins, iii, 181. Zend-Avesta, light-doctrine of, ii, 37-44; cultus of, ii, 44.