[Hofmannsthal and the gliding out of this world]

In the sphere of language, Hugo von Hofmannsthal was already in his childhood talented by nature. His first poems and essays he wrote when he was 17 years old, his first drama ("The Death of Tizian") in his 18th year. From the beginning he followed the great tradition of the theatre of Vienna. His lyrical creations end already before he turned 30 years. At this time the dramatist begins with the reception of the medieval mystery plays, Calderon and the greek-oriental myths. The phenomena of gliding-out-of-the-world are found before this time, in the period of his very own spiritual conceiving. They show a remarkable inclination to abandon the world of reality (Wirklichkeit, koinos kosmos): gliding into the world of dream and trance, of phantastic tales, of magic and demonia, of depersonalization and dilusion, of dying and of death (idios kosmos). These tendencies vanish when Hofmannsthal turns to more conventional topics.