‘Intimidation through Classicism’ was the heading Brecht gave to his notes on Goethe's Faust in 1964. The colossal scope of this work does indeed have such an intimidating effect that many readers (and the vast majority of directors as well) content themselves with Faust i, not even daring to approach Faust ii, which is almost twice as voluminous. Furthermore, the work as a whole is burdened by 200 years of reception and interpretation, surrounded by countless scholarly interpreters, and completely armed against the curiosity of uninhibited readers with its reputation of fearsome profundity and overwhelming demands. It is easy to see why Thomas Mann wrote to Hermann Hesse that one might be ‘tempted some time to write a totally fresh, intimate commentary on Faust which would relieve people of their all too pious timidity in the face of this sublime, serene, by no means inaccessible work, exceptional and bold but humanly fallible as it is’.

Such a ‘fresh, intimate commentary’ would also have to explain what might otherwise be misunderstood and would certainly be worth understanding correctly. Goethe himself believed that such assistance was required in the case of the great old masters: