Goethe left a rich and heterogeneous body of work in the dramatic genre. Besides the five major dramas (Götz von Berlichingen, Egmont, Iphigenie auf Tauris, Torquato Tasso and Faust), various completed works survive of differing style, length and quality, as well as a large number of fragments and sketches. But even if we isolate the major dramas, we are again struck by their diversity. To be sure, while Faust (which is treated separately in this volume) is unique and incommensurable, Götz and Egmont are both historical plays written in prose, while Iphigenie and Tasso are both written in blank verse. A closer examination will show, however, that each work has its own unique features. For Goethe each dramatic work represented a fresh challenge to discover the appropriate vehicle for his immediate needs. In view of this diversity I shall not confine myself here to the small canon of major works, as some other critics have done, but shall try instead to do justice to the breadth of Goethe's remarkable body of work in this genre.