52 Fragments might as well never begin, since it w i l l only egies about its loss. [AW] 244. The comedies of Aristophanes are w o r l from all sides. Gozzi's* plays have one poin 245. To become popular w i t h the masses, a p a little o f everything, has to be a kind of mici and a little happiness, a bit o f art and a bit amount of virtue and the right dose of vici along with w i t , even philosophy, and particumn^ ...v..^...^, with politics. I f one ingrediënt doesn't help, then maybe another w i l l . A n d even supposing that the whole lot o f them f a i l , then like many medicines that deserve eternal praise for precisely this reason, they at least won't do any harm. 246. Magie, caricature, and materialism are the means by which modem comedy can become inwardly similar to the old Aristophanic comedy, just as demagogie popularity is the ontward means. Gozzi has succeeded here to the extent o f reminding us o f i t . But the essence of the comic art w i l l always remain enthusiastic spirit and classical f o r m . 247. Dante's prophetic poem is the only system o f transcendental poetry, and is still the greatest o f its kind. Shakespeare's universality is like the center o f romantic art. Goethe's purely poetical poetry is the most complete poetry o f poetry. This is the great triple chord o f modern poetry, the inmost and holiest circle among all the broad and narrow spheres o f a critical anthology o f the classics o f modern poetry. 248. The individual great figures are less isolated among the Greeks and Romans. They had fewer geniuses but more brilliance. Everything ancient is brilliant. A l l o f antiquity is a genius, the only genius that could without exaggeration be called absolutely great, unique, and unattainable. Athenaeum Fragments 53 2 5 1 . There are so many people nowadays who are too tender and .softhearted to be able to see tragedies, and too noble and dignified to go to comedies — a tangible proof of the delicate morality of a century that only tried to slander the French Revolution. 252. A real aesthetic theory o f poetry would begin with the absolute antithesis of the eternally unbridgeable gulf between art and raw beauty. It would describe their struggle and conclude with the perfect harmony o f artistic and natural poetry. This is to be found only among the ancients and would in itself constitute nothing but a more elevated history of the spirit of classical poetry. But a philosophy of poetry as such" would begijnwith the independence o f beauty, with the proposition that beauty is and should be distinct from truth and morality, and that it has the same rights as these; something that — f o r those who are able to understand it at all — f o l l o w s from the proposition 1 = 1. It would waver between the union and the division o f philosophy and poetry, between poetry and practice, poetry as such and the genres and kinds of poetry; r' and it would c.oji£litde with their complete u n i o n j lts beginning would provide the principles of pure poetics; its middle the theory of the particular, characteristically rhodern types o f poetry: the didactic, the musical, the rhetorical in a higher sense, etc. The keystone would be a philosophy of the novel, the rough outlines of which are contained in Plato's political theory^ O f course, to the ephemeral, unenthusiastic dilettantes, who are ignorant o f the best poets o f all types, this kind o f poetics would seem very much like a book of trigonometry to a child who just wants to draw pictures. Only a man who knows or possesses a subject can make use of the philosophy o f that subject; only he w i l l be able to understand what that philosophy means and what it's attempting to do. But philosophy can't inoculate someone with experience and sense, or pull them out of a hat — a n d it shouldn't want to do so. To those who knew it already, philosophy of course brings nothing new; but only through it does it become knowledge and thereby assume a new form. 249. The poetizing philosopher, the philosophizing poet, is a prophet. A 253. In the nobler and more original sense o f the word correct — didactic poem should be and tends to become prophetic. meaning a conscious main and subordinate development o f the inmost and most minute aspects o f a work in line with the spirit of the whole, the practical reflection o f the artist —there probably is no modern poet more correct than Shakespeare. Similarly, he is also systematic as no other poet is: sometimes because o f those antitheses that bring into picturesque contrast individuals, masses, even worids; sometimes through musical symmetry on the same great scale, through gigantic repetitions and refrains; often by a parody of the letter and an irony on the spirit o f 250. Whoever has imagination, or pathos, or a gift for m i m i c r y ought to be able to learn poetry like any other mechanical art. Imagination consists of both enthusiasm and invention; pathos, o f soul and passion; and mimicry, o f penetration and expression. * C o u n t C a r i o G o z z i ( 1 7 2 0 - 1 8 0 6 ) , Italian poet and d r a m a t i s l w h o defended the Commedia dell'arte against G o l d o n i ' s attempts at r e f o r m .
