"The disproportion of talent to life" is the subject matter of Tasso (1790), as described by Goethe himself. But this play about the predicament of an artist at odds with the world around him is profoundly relevant to us all, since everyone is forced to adjust their imaginged selves to the reality of their social surroundings. Tasso, the sensitive Renaissance poet, is driven to despair, not by his enemies, but through misunderstandings with friends which lead to personal catastrophe.

Clavigo (1774) is the earliest work of Goethe for the theatre that has survived in the repertory. Based closely on an incident in the life of Beaumarchais, it contains numerous images from Goethe's own life and character at the time, ans, as may be expected, casts a long shadow into the future, introducing aspects of Goethe's work that can be picked up in much of his later writing.