The Servant in German Enlightenment Comedy

Roman S. Struc is a professor in the Department of Germanic and Slavic
Studies at the University of Calgary.

Professor Alison Scott-Prelorentzos, since 1959 in the Department of Germanic Languages at The University of Alberta in Edmonton, presents a much-needed study. German literary scholarship has long neglected the study of German comedy in general, and specifically of the comedy of the Enlightenment. This neglect stems probably from two sources: literary criticism has traditionally concentrated on “serious” drama and/or tragedy, with the consequence that no authoritative poetics of comedy came into being; furthermore, comedy did not thrive in Germany to the same extent as, for example, in Italy, France, or England, and has not elicited as much critical attention as other dramatic genres. Therefore the appearance of a study on German comedy is a welcome event.

The author concentrates on the figure of the servant in the mid-eighteenth century Enlightenment comedy. She traces this stock figure back to the Italian sources, especially in the commedia dell’arte, as well as to the German and Austrian models of the late Renaissance, coming to the conclusion that its function in the early Enlightenment comedy was primarily that of low comedy and simple satire. It is mainly in the hands of the mature Lessing that the servant assumes a serious role, serving as a corrective mirror to the follies of the principal characters and a trustworthy confidant(e) and advisor. Indeed, the author finds, these characters at times overshadow the main characters. However, as Enlightenment comedy in Germany declines, so does the serious and significant function of the servant. He or she takes back that somewhat traditional role in comedy and becomes again merely a dramatic convenience and convention.

The chapters of the study are chronologically arranged; longer quotations in German appear in good English translations in an appendix, and a judiciously compiled bibliography concludes the book.

The handy and handsome format of the book, and its lively and clear style, enhance the value of this important study.