ABSTRACT
The emphatic tradition author spoke of militates against A. W. Schlegel: chorus as such, without stage, the primitive form of tragedy, is incompatible with that chorus of ideal spectators. An infinitely more valuable insight into the significance of the chorus was furnished by Schiller in the famous preface to his Bride of Messina. Schiller used this view as his main weapon against commonplace naturalism, against the illusionistic demand made upon dramatic poetry. The contrast between this truth of nature and the pretentious lie of civilization is quite similar between the eternal core of things and the entire phenomenal world. The Dionysiac Greek, desiring truth and nature at their highest power, sees himself metamorphosed into the satyr. Such are the dispositions and insights of the revelling throng of Dionysos; and the power of these dispositions and insights transforms them in their own eyes, until they behold themselves restored to the condition of genii, of satyrs.
