Rule without elections is considered dictatorship in democracies and is not well tolerated. Not so in European drama literature. Until the 19th century, her political plays primarily dealt with the difference between good and bad autocracy. In the absence of political alternatives, the poets (and very few poets) mostly only asked the question of how the king (and very few queens) could be guided to rule wisely and kindly. The answer was usually: tragedy. Insight comes through strokes of fate. Schiller’s “Give Freedom of Thought” was a nice attempt. But the dictatorship only becomes wise through harm.
“Life is a dream” at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg: Dictatorship only becomes wise through harm – culture
