Ancient tragedy is based upon an unavoidable "should," which is intensified and accelerated only by a counteracting "would." This is the point of all that is terrible in the oracles, the region where _Oedipus_ reigns supreme. _Sollen_ appears in a milder light as duty in _Antigone_. But all _Sollen_ is despotic, whether it belongs to the domain of reason, as ethical and municipal laws, or to that of Nature, as the laws of creation, growth, dissolution, of life and death. We shudder at all this, without reflecting that it is intended for the general good. _Wollen,_ on the contrary, is free, appears free, and favors the individual. _Wollen,_ therefore, is flattering, and perforce took possession of men as soon as they learned to know it. It is the god of the new time; devoted to it, we have a dread of its opposite, and that is why there is an impassable gulf between our art, as well as our mode of thought, and that of the ancients. Through _Sollen,_ tragedy becomes great and forceful; through _Wollen,_ weak and petty. Thus has arisen the so-called drama, in which the awful power of Fate was dissolved by the will; but precisely because this comes to the aid of our weakness do we find ourselves moved if, after painful expectation, we finally receive but scant comfort. If now, after these preliminary reflections, I turn to Shakespeare, I can not forbear wishing that my readers should themselves make the comparison and the application. Here Shakespeare stands out unique, combining the old and the new in incomparable fashion. _Wollen_ and _Sollen_ seek by every means, in his plays, to reach an equilibrium; they struggle violently with each other, but always in a way that leaves the _Wollen_ at a disadvantage.