Ludwig Tieck's Herr Von Fuchs (1793) As the Perfect Embodiment of Romantic Irony

This paper deals with a long forgotten German version of Volpone: Herr von Fuchs, written by the pre-Romantic playwright Ludwig Tieck in 1793 and unjustly neglected by editors, critics and theatrical directors alike. As an analysis of the play reveals, Herr von Fuchs is an accomplished and thought-provoking appropriation of a classical piece of drama which privileges the employment of Romantic irony as the best means to question widespread assumptions about political, educational, religious and aesthetic issues. It is the aim of this paper to grant Tieck's masterful example of creative translation the high recognition it deserves as a most accomplished German adaptation of Ben Jonson's Volpone.