ABSTRACT
Walter Benjamin identifies Baroque tragedy and a widespread family of its many dramatic relatives as Trauerspiel. Trauerspiel as Spiel vor Traurigen, 'plays for the mournful' codifies and mirrors onstage the sorrowful consciousness that already prevails in the reality the audience knows; by the same token, spectators are inclined to experience actual, historical events as a Trauerspiel. Benjamin observes that the turn away from the eschatology of medieval mystery plays marked drama throughout Europe, but unreflective flight into a natural world unredeemed by divine grace is specifically German. Benjamin's concept of mourning it bears repeating has little to do with affect and lamentation because someone has died or defeat is imminent. If the Trauerspiel is a 'play for the mournful', it would be all but absurd to understand such a sensibility in the same way as ancient demonstrations of grief, public vigils, processions and graveside songs of lamentation all of which constitute a background and point of reference for Greek tragedy.
