Herr Vogt

On Calderón

Abstract


From: Karl Marx, “Herr Vogt”;
Source: Marx Engels On Literature and Art, Moscow 1976;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.


In Spanish drama there are two jesters for every hero. Calderón provides holy Cyprian himself, the Spanish Faust, with a Moscón and a Clarin. In the same way, the reactionary General von Radowitz had two comic adjutants in the Frankfurt parliament, his harlequin Lichnowski and his clown Vincke.

Abstract

The National-Zeitung has borne out Pope’s words:

Still her old empire to restore she tries,
For horn a goddess Dullness never dies.

But Pope’s realm of dullness differs from that of the National-Zeitung in that there “Dunce the second rules at present, as once did Dunce the first,” while here the old Dunce, Dunce the first, still holds sway.