EGMONT

A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS

BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE




Translated by Anna Swanwick




Introductory Note

In 1775, when Goethe was twenty-six, and before he went to Weimar, he
began to write "Egmont" After working on it at intervals for twelve years,
he finished it at Rome in 1787.

The scene of the drama is laid in the Low Countries at the beginning of the
revolt against Spain. In the fifteenth century Philip of Burgundy had
usurped dominion over several of the provinces of the Netherlands, and
through him they had passed into the power of his descendant, the
Emperor Charles V. This powerful ruler abolished the constitutional rights
of the provinces, and introduced the Inquisition in order to stamp out
Protestantism. Prominent among his officers was the Fleming, Lamoral,
Count Egmont, upon whom he lavished honors and opportunities of
service--opportunities so well improved that, by his victories over the
French at Saint-Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558) Egmont made a