The Contexts of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Faust Translations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Percy Bysshe Shelley’s fascination with Goethe’s Faust spanned a large part of his writing career, starting with a line-by-line translation of nearly a thousand lines from the drama’s opening in 1815 and culminating in a poetic rendition of the ‘Prolog im Himmel’ and ‘Walpurgisnacht’ finished shortly before his untimely death in July 1822. This article offers a detailed examination of the two Faust translations and the contexts in which they were produced. The 1815 translation is read against the backdrop of contemporary language learning materials whereas the 1822 translation is brought into relation with Goethe’s conception of Weltliteratur as a web of textual encounters across linguistic boundaries.