Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

Shakespeare’s most incidental figures are all alive because they arose out of a true desire of the theater.
Things that imitate reality no longer live upon the astral plane. Only what arises from emotions and not
from the intellect. Vulgarly comical things come to life immediately on the astral plane as they are not
created in order to imitate reality.
I ventured to say that the most important thing about Shakespeare was his enormous influence on
Goethe. The reason for that can be found in the fact that Goethe was completely unaffected by what was
stated in an academic way about Hamlet and Julius Caesar. What had an effect upon Goethe was not what
we can read everywhere, including those things that Goethe himself said about Hamlet. There is certainly
much of what he said in that regard that we can object to. I am speaking of something, however, to which
there can be no objection. Namely, where he says they are not poems, but are more like the book of fate,
where the stormy winds of life flip the pages back and forth. That is something that more closely expresses
his own experience, but when he speaks of Hamlet he does not really express his own experience.
A teacher: We read Macbeth in my eighth grade class.
Dr. Steiner: You can certainly read Macbeth. You may need to modify some of the things we cannot give to
children….
There is a question about Bible editions.
Dr. Steiner: We should teach the Bible so that the children can understand it. The Old Testament is not
intended for children. It contains things you should not teach them. The Catholics have done a good job.
Schuster’s Bible is good for children. I saw a copy in Schubert’s room. It is very well done.
These are problems you could solve within the faculty. How could we prepare the Bible for each
age? How about Schiller or Goethe or Shakespeare?
All of the attempts until now are childish. Things cannot be done that way, they need to be done
with some interest and insight. Things need to be rewritten and not simply left out. Certainly, we can use
Shakespeare’s comedies very well.
A teacher: I have been asked about books that are not in the school library, for instance, Hermann Hesse.
Dr. Steiner: Seventeen or eighteen year olds could read that. In regard to reading Faust, you should also
consider that if children read such things at too young an age, their taste will be spoiled for later life. A
young person who reads Faust too early will not understand it. I did not even know it until I was nineteen.
Fourteen or fifteen year olds can read Wallenstein as well as Shakespeare. Lear is perhaps the most disturbing
modern drama dealing with fate, and should probably be read later. A feeling should remain and you
should not numb it….
There are many things you could give to the children as a first drama. I think you might perhaps
begin with one of the dramas of antiquity, for example, Antigone. However, you cannot present real drama
until at least the age of twelve or thirteen…. During the whole week in Stratford, there were performances
of Shakespeare…. It was rather humorous that the most important Frenchman, Voltaire, referred to
Shakespeare as a “crazed wild man.” I noticed how much better the comedies were performed. Julius Caesar
was not well done. The Taming of the Shrew was done well. There was also Much Ado about Nothing, All’s
Well That Ends Well, and Twelfth Night.
The children should read Cid in French. They should know something of that. They can also read
Racine, Corneille, and Molière. Every well-educated person should be able to speak of Corneille and Racine.
People should also know Molière. Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner (336-340)
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