interchanged can be no comedy," said the critics; and still less could they admit that a poor rogue, who, like the teacher of gymnastics, Massmann, had small Latin and less Greek,[1] could dare be so bold as to use the great classic heroes to a comedy.
No, Troilus and Cressida is neither a comedy nor tragedy, in the common sense of the words; it does not belong to any determined class of the drama, and still less can it be measured with the current standard rules—it is Shakespeare's own and most peculiar creation. We can only in general principles recognise its eminent excellence; for a close criticism of it we need an Aesthetic, which is not as yet written.
Since I have registered this drama under the heading of Tragedy, let me first show how strictly I hold to the title. My old teacher of poetry in the gymnasium of Düsseldorf once remarked very shrewdly that all plays in which the melancholy of Melpomene prevailed over the gay and joyous spirit of Thalia, belonged to the realm of tragedy. Perhaps I had that comprehensive definition in my mind when it occurred to me to place Troilus and Cressida among the tragedies. And in truth there prevails in it an exultant bitterness, a world-mocking irony, such as we never met in
- ↑ This was originally said of Shakespeare himself by Ben Jonson. In Heine's text it reads, "Blutwenig Latein und gar kein Griechisch."—Translator.
