SOURCE: “Realms of Action in Grillparzer's Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg,” in Studies in the German Drama: A Festschrift in Honor of Walter Silz, edited by Donald H. Crosby and George C. Schoolfield, The University of North Carolina Press, 1974, pp. 149-61.

In the following essay, Schmidt places Grillparzer's drama Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg in its historical and intellectual context, asserting that this lends layers of meaning to the play.

In trying to come to terms with Grillparzer's Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg, the reader will experience the frustrating sensation that T. S. Eliot formulated so well in his line “That is not what I meant at all.” He ponders, tries to see through the veils that obscure the essence of the play. An insight may be about to take shape, but in formulating it, he sees that he is missing his mark. He conveys something, finally, that may be true...