Criticism > Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism > English Romantic Hellenism - Influence Of Greek Literature, Art, And Culture On The Romantics

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INFLUENCE OF GREEK LITERATURE, ART, AND CULTURE ON THE ROMANTICS

August Wilhelm von Schlegel (lecture date 1809)

SOURCE: "Vorlesungen über dramatische Kunst und Literatur," 1809, translated by J. Black, 1815. Reprinted in English Romantic Hellenism, 1700-1824, edited by Timothy Webb, Manchester University Press and Barnes and Noble Books, 1982, pp. 213-19.

[In the following excerpt from a lecture, Schlegel enthusiastically praises Grecian art, poetry, and drama.]

The formation of the Greeks was a natural education in its utmost perfection. Of a beautiful and noble race, endowed with susceptible senses and a clear understanding, placed beneath a mild heaven, they lived and bloomed in full health of existence; and, under a singular coincidence of favourable circumstances, performed all of which our circumscribed nature is capable. The whole of their art and their poetry is expressive of the consciousness of this harmony of all...

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1. Introduction
2. Representative Poetry
3. Overviews
4. Historical Development Of English Romantic Hellenism
5. Influence Of Greek Mythology On The Romantics
6. Influence Of Greek Literature, Art, And Culture On The Romantics
7. Further Reading
8. Copyright