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Nathan the Wise; a dramatic poem in five acts By: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) |
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NATHAN THE WISE: A Dramatic Poem in Five Acts by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Translated by William Taylor of Norwich
INTRODUCTION Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was born on the 22nd of January, 1729,
eldest of ten sons of a pious and learned minister of Camenz in the
Oberlausitz, who had two daughters also. As a child Lessing
delighted in books, and had knowledge beyond his years when he went
to school, in Meissen, at the age of twelve. As a school boy he
read much Greek and Latin that formed no part of the school course;
read also the German poets of his time, wrote a "History of Ancient
Mathematics," and began a poem of his own on the "Plurality of Worlds." In 1746, at the age of seventeen, Lessing was sent to the University
of Leipsic. There he studied with energy, and was attracted
strongly by the theatre. His artistic interest in the drama caused
him to be put on the free list of the theatre, in exchange for some
translations of French pieces. Then he produced, also for the
Leipsic stage, many slight pieces of his own, and he had serious
thought of turning actor, which excited alarm in the parsonage at
Camenz and caused his recall home in January, 1747. It was found,
however, that although he could not be trained to follow his
father's profession, he had been studying to such good purpose, and
developing, in purity of life, such worth of character, that after
Easter he was sent back to Leipsic, with leave to transfer his
studies from theology to medicine. Lessing went back, continued to work hard, but still also gave all
his leisure to the players. For the debts of some of them he had
incautiously become surety, and when the company removed to Vienna,
there were left behind them unpaid debts for which young Lessing was
answerable. The creditors pressed, and Lessing moved to Wittenberg;
but he fell ill, and was made so miserable by pressure for
impossible payments, that he resolved to break off his studies, go
to Berlin, and begin earning by his pen, his first earnings being
for the satisfaction of these Leipsic creditors. Lessing went first
to Berlin to seek his fortune in December, 1748, when he was
nineteen years old. He was without money, without decent clothes,
and with but one friend in Berlin, Mylius, who was then editing a
small journal, the Rudigersche Zeitung. Much correspondence brought
him a little money from the overburdened home, and with addition of
some small earning from translations, this enabled him to obtain a
suit of clothes, in which he might venture to present himself to
strangers in his search for fortune. A new venture with Mylius, a
quarterly record of the history of the theatre, was not successful;
but having charge committed to him of the library part of Mylius's
journal, Lessing had an opportunity of showing his great critical
power. Gottsched, at Leipsic, was then leader of the war on behalf
of classicism in German literature. Lessing fought on the National
side, and opposed also the beginning of a new French influence then
rising, which was to have its chief apostle in Rousseau. In 1752 Lessing went back to Wittenberg for another year, that he
might complete the work for graduation; graduated in December of
that year as Master of Arts, and then returned to his work in
Berlin. He worked industriously, not only as critic, but also in
translation from the classics, from French, English, and Italian;
and he was soon able to send help towards providing education for
the youngest of the household of twelve children in the Camenz
parsonage. In 1753 he gave himself eight weeks of withdrawal from
other work to write, in a garden house at Potsdam, his tragedy of
"Miss Sarah Sampson." It was produced with great success at
Frankfort on the Oder, and Lessing's ruling passion for dramatic
literature became the stronger for this first experience of what he
might be able to achieve... Continue reading book >>
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