 The sentimental poet’s divided consciousness opens up new possibilities for poetic genres, depending on what relation between the two components of poetry—the actual world and the poet’s idea—is predominant (NA XX, 442/E 205). When poets take the “contradiction between the actual and ideal” as their subject matter, the result will be satire. Given the division inherent in the modern world, Schiller suggests that satire is a paradigmatically modern literary genre. Because comedy and tragedy also foreground incongruities, Schiller considers them related forms. Ironically, given his status as one of Germany’s most accomplished tragedians, Schiller identifies comedy as the higher of the two. While in a tragedy, the subject matter generates what happens, in comedy “everything happens because of the poet” (NA XX, 445/E 208). This in turn means that the subject matter is more free, making comedy the more free art. This freedom extends to the comic poet who must only “remain himself” and “be at home” in his production. Comic characters are then beautiful, as opposed to tragic characters, who are sublime: comic characters are always free and at ease, “while the sublime character is free only by fits and starts and with a struggle” (NA XX, 445/E 208). Comedy’s goal, in fact, tracks