Dramatische ‹mise en page› in Handschrift und Druck

Abstract

Abstract The paper compares the typography of the first edition of Goethe’s collected writings 1787–1790 with the layout (‹mise en page›) of the manuscript copies from which the print was set. It tries to establish the textual authority of particular typographic devices for print dramas such as the indications of scenes, stage directions, and speech prefixes by tracing their relation to the manuscript setting copies and their development in subsequent volumes of the print edition, but especially for the tragedy Torquato Tasso. It turns out that print typography is sensitive to the manuscript record but shows substantial tendencies to introducing additional typographic hierarchy, thereby underlining outward form, i. e. external characteristics of classicist drama. Later editions published during Goethe’s lifetime seem to go much further in this direction. The consequences for the typographic setup in critical editions of Goethe’s dramas are discussed.