The Unbridgeable Divide

Abstract

Hamlet more than any other tragedy came to seize the European imagination. The play conquered the German stage and soon most of the educated classes in Northern climes. If Shakespeare failed to get into French convincingly and allowed Racine to develop a classical tragedy, the same cannot be said of the classical German authors. They are celebrated not only for their devotion to the English genius but also for their final break with the Christian tradition. Even before the French Revolution, the voices of the eighteenth century were either religious or secular, and this divide widened partly because of the Revolution and its effects. The reasons are not far to seek, and historians will dwell upon the economic, sociological, and political factors which changed the character of the theatres and their audiences. These were no longer convinced of the presuppositions of the past: namely, of the existence of a benevolent god, of a providential rule in the universe, of human immortality. But worse was to follow: with the advent of British empiricism in philosophy, and Hume’s views of human understanding, of tragedy, of miracles, the whole cosmic edifice of the past was undermined for ever.