War der Augsburger Reichstag von 1530 eine Komödie? Zur Verwendung dramentheoretischer Begriffe in den Briefen Luthers und Melanchthons

Abstract

During the Diet of Augsburg Luther and Melanchthon discussed the political and religious developments in their extensive correspondence between Augsburg and Coburg. Strikingly, they used a complex metaphorical system of terminology, which is otherwise known only from the theory of ancient drama (comedy and tragedy). After explaining the terminology and its significance in its original context of dramatic theory (above all Donatus/Euanthius as the ancient inventor of the theory, but also Melanchthon himself in his commentaries on Terentius), the article analyzes Luther's and Melanchthon's use of the terminology. All in all, the terminology reflects a surprisingly clear view of the expectations of each of the correspondents in the course of events. While Luther uses all the terms of the concept of comedy (which means that he expected a happy ending), Melanchthon seems to organize his expectations around a concept of tragedy (which means that he feared an unhappy ending and did not want to be the tragic hero who makes the crucial mistake that leads to disaster). Only when some hope arises that things might still turn out well, does Melanchthon switch to the terminology of comic theory. From all this we can see that there was a highly developed system of communication, which was derived from the theory of drama and by which the correspondents could precisely express their views about the quality of a single event in the context of a whole course of events. In order to understand Luther's and Melanchthon's views and feelings about what was going on and to judge their behavior, it is indispensable to have a clear understanding of the linguistic and intellectual concepts that were underlying their approach to the world. One of these concepts was the ancient theory of drama.