SOURCE: Benn, Maurice B. “Leonce und Luna” and “Lenz.” In The Drama of Revolt: A Critical Study of Georg Büchner, pp. 157-63; 186-93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

In the following excerpts, Benn considers the tragic aesthetic of two works by Büchner, Leonce and Lena and Lenz.

Leonce Und Lena

Leonce und Lena is exceptional among Büchner's works. Firstly because it is a comedy. Secondly because, more clearly than any of his other productions, it was prompted by an external occasion. On 3 February 1836 the publisher Cotta announced a prize for the best German comedy, and it was this competition that supplied the immediate impulse for the writing of Leonce und Lena. The deadline for Cotta's competition was 1 July 1836.¹ Büchner's manuscript arrived too late and was returned to him unopened, whereupon, it appears, he set himself to revise and improve the work. In a letter of...