Dear Nathaniel,

More thoughts about Goethe's Egmont.

As distinct, for example, from Schiller's heroes in Wilhelm Tell
whose opposition to the Austrian occupation was unconditional,
Egmont was anything but an opponent of the Spanish government of
the Nedthetlands in the 17th Century. He was, in fact a collaborator,
like Philippe Petain in Vichy France or Vidkun Quisling in Norway
who presumed to mediate between the conquerors and his countrymen.

At least after he put Goetz von Berlichingen behind him, Goethe was
a conservative who wanted to see and who saw the world in a rosy
light. Egmont goes into battle not under any flag of liberty, but
under the banner of compromise and accommodation.In consequence of
this attitude, he was blind to the cruelty and brutality of Alba
with whom he was all too ready to cooperate. Egmont's death was
not a sacrifice for an ideal, unless it be the pleasure principle,
but a consequence ofs what today one might call the malfunction
of the bureaucracy of the occupation. Goethe's interpretation of
Egmont's fate is not inconsistent with the untroubled view of
the world articulated at the end of Faust II:

Tiefe Nacht

LYNKEUS DER TÜRMER:
Zum Sehen geboren,
Zum Schauen bestellt,
Dem Turme geschworen,
Gefällt mir die Welt.
Ich blick' in die Ferne,
Ich seh' in der Näh'
Den Mond und die Sterne,
Den Wald und das Reh.
So seh' ich in allen
Die ewige Zier,
Und wie mir's gefallen,
Gefall' ich auch mir.
Ihr glücklichen Augen,
Was je ihr gesehn,
Es sei wie es wolle,
Es war doch so schön!

To what degree if any, these insights into the politics of Egmont
affected the decision of Viennese authorities in 1809 to stage
the tragedy and to commission from Beethoven the overture and
the incidental music, I'm too ignorant to try to judge. Likewise
I have no idea, whether Beethoven's endorsment of Egmont in 1809
should be interpreted as a milestone on Beethoven's journey from
the mindset that made him tear up the original dedication of the
Eroicas in 1803 to the attitude that made it possible for him to
celebrate Wellington's Victory in 1815.

Jochen