Shakespeare's Influence | Shakespeare and the Humanities
Shakespeare Without End." Such was the title of an essay that Goethe wrote, in two parts, in 1813 and 1816. It was not a long essay—the two fragments are short, but they are meaty. Their intention was to "place" Shakespeare in the world of art and thought, as well as acknowledge again the powerful influence he had had on Goethe as poet, playwright, and thinker. It was just then, in the early 1800s, that Europe as a whole was entering upon what has been called Bardolatry—idolizing Shakespeare above all other authors since ancient times. The title of Goethe's essay clearly implies that...
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