Approves redacted "Tasso" for Iffland’s stage
Autograph note signed ("G").
Folio (340 x 205 mm). 7 lines on a bifolium.
€ 14,000.00
Postscript to a letter from Franz Kirms concerning the actor director August Wilhelm Iffland and the staging of "Tasso". Kirms reports Iffland’s wish to receive the play in the abridged form used at Weimar and sets out practical and artistic considerations regarding Berlin performances and guest appearances by the actor Wolff. Goethe, concurring with Kirms’s reasons, grants his consent to dispatch a revised copy of "Tasso": "Vorstehende Gründe überzeugen mich, so dass ich meine Einwilligung in die Absendung einer redigirten Abschrift von Tasso nicht versagen kann. G".
A concise theatre document from Goethe’s administrative practice, illuminating repertoire policy and text control for outside stages; it also reflects his high regard for Iffland, whose acting helped shape Weimar performance style. The dating to March 1811 is suggested by contextual evidence in the correspondence and repertory discussions of that season.
J. A. Stargardt, Auktion 327 (Berlin, 1931), no. 6.
