The Sources of Hebbel's "Agnes Bernauer"

Abstract

IT is a significant fact that no fewer than five of Hebbel's dramas. owe their origin to his dissatisfaction with an already existing work on the same subject. Although Hebbel had known the Volksbuch of Genoveva from his boyhood2, he only definitely commenced work on his drama when disappointed at not finding the story adequately treated by Maler MUller and Tieck. The representation of Massinger's Ludovico3 (a version of the Herod-Marianne story of Josephus) and Raupach's Nibelungen Hort4 at the Hofburgtheater incited Hebbel to write his Herodes und Marianne and Nibelungen trilogy. Schiller's Demetrius called forth Hebbel's last drama, and similarly Agnes Bernauer owes its existence to Graf Torring's Agnes Bernauerinn, ein vaterldndisches Trauerspiel. Hebbel has himself stated how important a rdle Torring's drama played in the genesis of his own. 'Ich kannte dies Werk, ich achtete es auch als eine sehr gelungene Ausbeutung der historischen Anecdote, konnte mich aber mit der Auffassung so wenig befreunden, dass gerade sie mich vorzugsweise mit zu meiner Arbeit antrieb5'; in other words it was Torring's treatment of the problem, which drew Hebbel's attention to its suitability for giving voice to several of his favourite ideas.