[2] "What beautiful image is this that the artist has created? Under what genial sky was this man born? Is there no inscription to tell me his name, since these dead lips are dumb for ever? The eye glows with noble desire; enthusiasm shines from that fair brow, surmounted only by clustering curls, not yet by the laurel wreath. He is a poet. The wondrous smile of love, of life, is on his lips; romance dwells in these thoughtful eyes, drollery in the cheeks' roguish curves. Fame will ere long proclaim his name, and set the crown of laurel on his brow." [3] Gödeke: _Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung_, iii., Erste Abth., 31. [4] "Long years ago the nightingale sang as she sings now. How sweet it sounded! We were together then. I sit alone and spin and sing, and cannot weep; clean and strong I spin my thread, as long as the moon shines. The nightingale sang when we were together; now she but reminds me that you have gone from me. It is of you alone that I think in the moonlight; my heart is clean and strong as the thread I spin; may God unite us again." [5] "The ensign came riding, his white flag he waved; 'Stop! here is the pardon--fair Nanerl is saved.' 'O ensign, good ensign, fair Nanerl is dead.' 'Thy soul is with God! Good night, Nanerl!' he said." XV MYSTICISM IN THE ROMANTIC DRAMA There is one form of literature in which men and women are, for the most part, portrayed as essentially intellectual beings, endowed with freedom of will and action. That form is the drama. In lyric poetry emotion reigns; in epic the character is partly lost sight of in the broad painting of the circumstances and powers which determine it; but the subject of the drama is action; and because the human character, acting and willing, is in itself something absolutely definite, it compels the author to give clear, well-defined form to his production. The drama demands lucidity and intellect; in it, where there is a reason for everything, the forces of nature must be either the servants or the masters of the mind; but, above all, they must be comprehended; they cannot appear as dark, mysterious despots, who are not expected to give any explanation of their nature or business. Tieck's two Romantic dramas, the tragedy, _Leben und Tod der heiligen Genoveva_ ("Life and Death of St. Genevieve"), and the ten act comedy, _Kaiser Octavianus_, are really only dramas in name. His admiration of Shakespeare's _Pericles_ and _Winter's Tale_ and Calderon's lyrical and musical interludes betrayed him into a lyric-epic formlessness unequalled in the history of literature. It would be difficult to find dramatic works more destitute of plan and style. All their author's care is lavished upon what he calls the "climate" of events, their atmosphere and fragrance, tone and colour, the mood they inspire, the shadow they cast, the light in which they are seen, which is invariably that of the moon. His medieval characters are possessed by