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LESSING, GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM (1729–1781)
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See also:LESSING, GOTTHOLD See also:EPHRAIM (1729–1781) , See also:German critic and dramatist, was See also:born at See also:Kamenz in Upper See also:Lusatia (Oberlausitz), See also:Saxony, on the 22nd of See also:January 1729. His See also:father, Johann Gottfried Lessing, was a clergyman, and, a few years after his son's See also:birth, became pastor primarius or See also:chief pastor of Kamenz. After attending the Latin school of his native See also:town, Gotthold was sent in 1741 to the famous school of St Afra at See also:Meissen, where he made such rapid progress, especially in See also:classics and See also:mathematics, that, towards the end of his school career, he was described by the See also:rector as " a steed that needed See also:double See also:fodder." In 1746 he entered the university of See also:Leipzig as a theological student. The philological lectures of Johann Fried-See also:rich See also:Christ (1700–1756) and Johann See also:August See also:Ernesti (1707–1781) proved, however, more attractive than those on See also:theology, and he attended the philosophical disputations presided over by his friend A. G. Kastner, See also:professor of mathematics and also an epigrammatist of repute. Among Lessing's chief See also:friends in Leipzig were C. F. See also:Weisse (1726–1804) the dramatist, and Christ-lob Mylius (1722–1754), who had made some name for himself as a journalist. He was particularly attracted by the See also:theatre then directed by the talented actress Karoline Neuber (1697–176o), who had assisted See also:Gottsched in his efforts to bring the German See also:stage into See also:touch with literature. Frau Neuber even accepted for performance Lessing's first See also:comedy, Der junge Gelehrte (1748), which he had begun at school. His father naturally did not approve of these new interests and acquaint-, ances, and summoned him See also:home. He was only allowed to return to Leipzig on the See also:condition that he would devote himself to the study of See also:medicine. Some medical lectures he did attend, but as See also:long as Frau Neuber's See also:company kept together the theatre had an irresistible See also:fascination for him.
In 1748, however, the company See also:broke up, and Lessing, who had allowed himself to beccme See also:surety for some of the actors' debts, was obliged to leave Leipzig too, in See also:order to See also:escape their creditors. He went to See also:Wittenberg, and afterwards, towards the end of the See also:year, to See also:Berlin, where his friend Mylius had
established himself as a journalist. In Berlin Lessing now spent three years, maintaining himself chiefly by See also:literary See also:work. He translated three volumes of See also: See also:Lange; as a See also:retort to that writer's overbearing See also:criticism, Lessing exposed with scathing See also:satire Lange's errors in his popular See also:translation of See also:Horace. By 1753 Lessing See also:felt that his position was sufficiently assured to allow of him issuing an edition of his collected writings (Schriften, 6 vols., 1753–1755). They included his lyrics and epigrams, most of which had already appeared during his first See also:residence in Berlin in a See also:volume of Kleinigkeiten, published anonymously. Much more important were the papers entitled Rettuagen, in which he undertook to vindicate the See also:character of various writers—Horace and writers of the See also:Reformation See also:period, such as See also:Cochlaeus and Cardanus—who had been misunderstood or falsely judged by preceding generations. The Schriften also contained Lessing's early plays, and one new one, :See also:Miss Sara See also:Sampson (17J5). Hitherto Lessing had, as a dramatist, followed the methods of contemporary See also:French comedy as cultivated in Leipzig; Miss Sara Sampson, however, marks the beginning of a new period in the See also:history of the German drama. This See also:play, based more or less on Lillc's See also:Merchant of See also:London, and influenced in its character-See also:drawing by the novels of See also:Richard son, is the first biirgerliches Trauerspiel, or " tragedy of See also:common life " in German. It was performed for the first See also:time at See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Oder in the summer of 1755, and received with See also:great favour. Among Lessing's chief friends during his second residence in Berlin were the philosopher See also:Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), in association with whom he wrote in 1755 an admirable See also:treatise, See also:Pope ein Metaphysikerl tracing sharply the lines which See also:separate the poet from the philosopher. He was also on intimate terms with C. F. See also:Nicolai (1733–18,1), a Berlin bookseller and rationalistic writer, and with the " German Horace " K. W. See also:Ramler (1725–1798); he had also made the acquaintance of J. W. L. See also:Gleim (1719–1803), the See also:Halberstadt poet, and E. C. von See also:Kleist (1715–1759), a Prussian officer, whose See also:fine poem, Der Friihling, had won for him Lessing's warm esteem. In See also:October 1755 Lessing settled in Leipzig with a view to devoting himself more exclusively to the drama. In 1756 he accepted the invitation of Gottfried Winkler, a wealthy See also:young 4 merchant, to accompany him on a See also:foreign tour for three years. They did not, however, get beyond See also:Amsterdam, for the out-break of the Seven Years' See also:War made it necessary for Winkler to return home without loss of time. A disagreement with his See also:patron shortly after resulted in Lessing's sudden dismissal; he demanded See also:compensation and, although in the end the See also:court decided in his favour, it was not until the See also:case had dragged on for about six years. At this time Lessing began the study of See also:medieval literature to which See also:attention had been See also:drawn by the Swiss critics, Both-tier and Breitinger, and wrote occasional criticisms for Nicolai's Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften. In Leipzig Lessing had also an opportunity of developing his friendship with Kleist who happened to be stationed there. The two men were mutually attracted, and a warm See also:affection sprang up betweem them. In 1758 Kleist's See also:regiment being ordered to new quarters, Lessing decided not to remain behind him and returned again to Berlin. Kleist was mortally wounded in the following year at the See also:battle of See also:Kunersdorf. Lessing's third residence in Berlin was made memorable by the Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend (1759–1765), a See also:series of critical essays—written in the See also:form of letters to a wounded officer—on the See also:principal books that had appeared since the beginning of the Seven Years' War. The See also:scheme was sugs gested by Nicolai, by whom the Letters were published. In Lessing's See also:share in this publication, his critical powers and methods are to be seen at their best. He insisted especially on the See also:necessity of truth to nature in the imaginative presentation of the facts of life, and in one See also:letter he boldly proclaimed the superiority of See also:Shakespeare to See also:Corneille, See also:Racine and See also:Voltaire. At the same time he marked the immutable conditions to which even See also:genius must submit if it is to succeed in its See also:appeal to our sympathies. While in Berlin at this time, he edited with Ramler a selection from the writings of F. von See also:Logau, an epigrammatist of the 17th See also:century, and introduced to the German public the Lieder eines preussischen Grenadiers, by J. W. L. Gleim. In 1759 he published Philotas, a See also:prose tragedy in one See also:act, and also a See also:complete collection of his fables, preceded by an See also:essay on the nature of the See also:fable. The latter is one of. his best essays on criticism, defining with perfect lucidity what is meant by "See also:action" in See also:works of the See also:imagination, and distinguishing the action of the fable from that of the epic and the drama. In 1760, feeling the need of some See also:change of See also:scene and work, Lessing went to See also:Breslau, where he obtained the See also:post of secretary to See also:General Tauentzien, to whom Kleist had introduced him in Leipzig. Tauentzien was not only a general in the Prussian See also:army, but See also:governor of Breslau, and director of the See also:mint. During the four years which Lessing spent in Breslau, he associated chiefly with Prussian See also:officers, went much into society, and See also:developed a dangerous fondness for the gaming table. He did not, however, lose sight of his true See also:goal; he collected a large library, and, after the conclusion of the Seven Years' War, in 1763, he resumed more enthusiastically than ever the studies which had been partially interrupted. He investigated the early history of See also:Christianity and penetrated more deeply than any contemporary thinker into the significance of See also:Spinoza's See also:philosophy. He also found time for the studies which were ultimately to appear in the volume entitled Laokoon, and in fresh See also:spring mornings he sketched in a See also:garden the See also:plan of Minna von Barnhelm. After resigning his Breslau See also:appointment in 1765, he hoped for a time to obtain a congenial appointment in See also:Dresden, but nothing came of this and he was again compelled, much against his will, to return to Berlin. His friends there exerted themselves to obtain for him the See also:office of keeper of the royal library, but See also:Frederick had not forgotten Lessing's See also:quarrel with Voltaire, and declined to consider his claims. During the two years which Lessing now spent in the Prussian See also:capital, he was restless and unhappy, yet it was during this period that he published two of his greatest works, Laokoon, oder caber die Grenzen der Malerei card Poesie (1766) and Minna von Barnhelm (1767). The aim of Laokoon, which ranks as a classic, not only in German but in See also:European literature, is to define by See also:analysis the limitations of See also:poetry and the plastic arts. Many of his conclusions have been corrected and extended by later criticism; but he indicated more decisively than any of his predecessors the fruitful principle that each See also:art is subject to definite conditions, and that it can accomplish great results only by limiting itself to its See also:special See also:function. The most valuable parts of the work are those which relate to poetry, of which he had a much more intimate knowledge than of See also:sculpture and See also:painting. His exposition of the methods of See also:Homer and See also:Sophocles is especially suggestive, and he may be said to have marked an See also:epoch in the appreciation of these writers, and of See also:Greek literature generally. The See also:power of Minna von Barnhelm, Lessing's greatest drama, was also immediately recognized. Tellheim, the See also:hero of the comedy, is an admirable study of a manly and sensitive soldier, with somewhat exaggerated ideas of conventional See also:honour; and Minna, the heroine, is one of the brightest and most attractive figures in German comedy. The subordinate characters are conceived with even more force and vividness; and the See also:plot, which reflects precisely the struggles and aspirations of the period that immediately followed the Seven Years' War, is simply and naturally unfolded. In 1767 Lessing settled in See also:Hamburg, where he had been invited to take See also:part in the See also:establishment of a See also:national theatre. The scheme promised well, and, as he associated himself with Johann See also:Joachim Christoph See also:Bode (1730-1793), a literary See also:man whom he respected, in starting a See also:printing establishment, he hoped that he might at last look forward to a peaceful and prosperous career. The theatre, however, was soon closed, and the printing establishment failed, leaving behind it a heavy See also:burden of See also:debt. In despair, Lessing determined towards the end of his residence in Hamburg to quit See also:Germany, believing that in See also:Italy he might find congenial labour that would suffice for his wants. The Hamburgische Dramaturgie (1767-1768), Lessing's commentary on the performances of the National Theatre, is the first See also:modern handbook of the dramatist's art. By his See also:original See also:interpretation of See also:Aristotle's theory of tragedy, he delivered German dramatists from the yoke of the classic tragedy of See also:France, and directed them to the Greek dramatists and to Shakespeare. Another result of Lessing's labours in Hamburg was the Antiquarische Briefe (1768), a series of masterly letters in See also:answer to See also:Christian Adolf See also:Klotz (1738-1771), a professor of the university of See also:Halle, who, after flattering Lessing, had attacked him, and sought to establish a See also:kind of intellectual despotism by means of critical See also:journals which he directly or indirectly controlled. In connexion with this controversy Lessing wrote his brilliant little treatise, Wie die See also:Alten den See also:Tod gebildet (1769), contrasting the medieval See also:representation of See also:death as a See also:skeleton with the Greek conception of death as the twin-See also:brother of See also:sleep.
Instead of settling in Italy, as he intended, Lessing accepted in 1770 the office of librarian at See also:Wolfenbuttel, a post which was offered to him by the hereditary See also:prince of See also:Brunswick. In this position he passed his remaining years. For a time he was not unhappy, but the debts which he had contracted in Hamburg weighed heavily on him, and he missed the society of his friends; his See also:health, too, which had hitherto been excellent, gradually gave way. In 1775 he travelled for nine months in Italy with Prince See also:Leopold of Brunswick, and in the following year he married Eva See also:Konig, the widow of a Hamburg merchant, with whom he had been on terms of intimate friendship. But their happiness lasted only for a brief period; in 1778 she died in childbed.
Soon after settling in Wolfenbuttel, Lessing found in the library the See also:manuscript of a treatise by See also:Berengarius of See also:Tours on See also:transubstantiation in reply to See also:Lanfranc. This was the occasion of Lessing's powerful essay on Berengarius, in which he vindicated the latter's character as a serious and consistent thinker. In 1771 he published his Zerstreute Anmerkungen fiber das Epigramm, and einige der vornehmsten Epigrammatisten—a work which See also:Herder described as " itself an See also:epigram." Lessing's theory of the origin of the epigram is somewhat fanciful, but no other critic has offered so many pregnant hints as to the See also:laws of epigrammatic See also:verse, or defended with so much force and ingenuity the character of See also:Martial. In 177 2 he published See also:Emilia Galotti, a tragedy which he had begun many years before in Leipzig. The subject was suggested by the See also:Roman See also:legend of See also:Virginia, but the scene is laid in an See also:Italian court, and the whole play is conceived in the spirit of the "tragedy of common life." Its defect is that its tragic conclusion does not seem absolutely inevitable, but the characters—especially those of the Grafin Orsina and Marinelli, the prince of See also:Guastalla's See also: Having completed Emilia Galotti, which the younger See also:generation of playwrights at once accepted as a See also:model, Lessing occupied himself for some years almost exclusively with the treasures of the Wolfenbuttel library. The results of these researches he embodied in a series of volumes, Zur Geschichte and Literatur, the first being issued in 1773, the last in the year of his death. The last period of Lessing's life was devoted chiefly to theological controversy. H. S. See also:Reimarus (1694-1768), professor of See also:oriental See also:languages in Hamburg, who commanded general respect as a See also:scholar and thinker, wrote a See also:book entitled Apologie oder Schutzschrift fur die verniinftigen Verehrer Gottes. His standpoint was that of the See also:English deists, and he investigated, without hesitation, the See also:evidence for the miracles recorded in the See also:Bible. The manuscript of this work was, after the author's death, entrusted by his daughter to Lessing, who published extracts from it in his Zur Geschichte and Literatur in 1774-1778. These extracts, the authorship of which was not publicly avowed, were known as the Wolfenbutteler Fragmente. They created profound excitement among orthodox theologians, and evoked many replies, in which Lessing was bitterly condemned for having published writings of so dangerous a tendency. His most formidable assailant was Johann Melchior Goeze (1717-1786), the chief pastor of Hamburg, a sincere and See also:earnest theologian, but utterly unscrupulous in his choice of weapons against an opponent. To him, therefore, Lessing addressed in 1778 his most elaborate answers—Eine Parabel, Axiomata, eleven letters with the See also:title See also:Anti-Goeze, and two See also:pamphlets in reply to an inquiry by Goeze as to what Lessing meant by Christianity. These papers are not only full of thought and learning; they are written with a See also:grace, vivacity and See also:energy that make them hardly less interesting to-See also:day than they were to Lessing's See also:con-temporaries. He does not undertake to defend the conclusions of Reimarus; his immediate See also:object is to claim the right of See also:free criticism in regard even to the highest subjects of human thought. The See also:argument on which he chiefly relies is that the Bible cannot be considered necessary to a belief in Christianity, since Christianity was a living and conquering power before the New Testament in its See also:present form was recognized by the See also: These ideas formed a striking contrast to the principles both of orthodox and of sceptical writers in Lessing's day, and gave a wholly new direction to religious philospphy. Another work of Lessing's last years, See also:Ernst and See also:Falk (a series of five dialogues, of which the first three were published in 1m, the last two in 1780), also set forth many new points of view. Its nominal subject is See also:freemasonry, but its real aim is to plead for a humane and charitable spirit in opposition to a narrow patriotism, an extravagant respect for rank, and exclusive devotion to any particular church. Lessing's theological opinions exposed him to much See also:petty persecution, and he was in almost See also:constant straits for See also:money. Nothing, however, broke his manly and generous spirit. To the end he was always ready to help those who appealed to him for aid, and he devoted himself with growing ardour to the See also:search for truth. He formed many new plans of work, but in the course of 178o it became evident to his friends that he would not be able much longer to continue his labours. His health had been undermined by excessive work and anxiety, and after a See also:short illness he died at Brunswick on the 15th of See also:February 1781. " We lose much in him," wrote See also:Goethe after Lessing's death, " more than we think." It may be questioned whether there is any other writer to whom the Germans owe a deeper debt of gratitude. He was succeeded by poets and philosophers who gave Germany for a time the first See also:place in the intellectual life of the world, and it was Lessing, as they themselves acknowledged, who prepared the way for their achievements. Without attaching himself to any particular See also:system of philosophical doctrine, he fought See also:error incessantly, and in regard to art, poetry and the drama and religion, suggested ideas which kindled the See also:enthusiasm of aspiring minds, and stimulated their highest energies. BIrsLIOGRAPHY.—The first edition of Lessing's collected works, edited by his brother Karl Gotthelf Lessing (1740-1812), J. J. See also:Eschenburg and F. Nicolai, appeared in 26 vols. between 1791 and 1794, as a continuation of the Vermischte Schriften, edited by Lessing himself in 4 vols. (1771-1785); the Samtliche Schriften, edited by Karl See also:Lachmann, were published in 13 vols. (1825-1828), this edition being subsequently re-edited by W. von Maltzahn (1853-1857) and by F. Muncker (21 vols., 1886 ff.), the last mentioned being the See also:standard edition of Lessing's works. Other See also:editions are Lessings Werke, published by Hempel, under the editorship of various scholars (23 vols., 1868-1877) ; an illustrated edition published by See also:Grote in 8 vols. (1875, new ed., 1882); Lessings Werke, edited by R. Boxberger and H. Blumner, in Ki.irschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vols. 58-71 (1883-189o). There are also many popular editions. Lessing's See also:correspondence is included in the Lachmann editions and in that of Hempel (edited by C. C. Redlich, 1879; Nachtrage and Berichtigungen, 1886); his correspondence with his wife was published as early as 1789 (2 vols., new edition by A. Schone, 1885). The chief See also:biographies of Lessing are by K. G. Lessing (his brother), (1793-1795, a reprint in Reclam's Universalbibliothek); by J. F. Schink (1825); T. \V. Danzel and G. E. Guhrauer (1850-1853, 2nd ed. by W. von Maltzahn and R. Boxberger, 2 vols., 188o-1881) ; A. Stahr (2 vols., 1859, 9th ed., 1887); J. Sime, Lessing, his Life and Works (2 vols., 1877) ; H. Zimmern, Lessing's Life and Works (1878); H. Mintzer, Lessings Leben (1882); E. See also:Schmidt, Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften (2 vols., 1884-1892, 3rd ed., 1910)—this is the most complete See also:biography; T. W. Rolleston, Lessing (in Great Writers," 1889) ; K. Borinski, Lessing (2 vols., 1900). Cf. also C. Hebler, Lessing-Studien (1862); A. See also:Lehmann, Forschungen fiber Lessings Sprache (1875); W. Cosack, Materialien zu Lessings Hamburgischer Dramaturgie (1876, 2nd ed., 1891); H. Blumner, Lessings Laokoon (1876, 2nd ed., 1880); H. Blumner, Laokoon-Studien (2 vols., 1881-1882); K. See also:Fischer, Lessing als Reformator der deutschen Literatur dargestelll (2 vols., 1881, 2nd ed., 1888); B. A. See also:Wagner, Lessing-Forschungen (1881); J. AV. Braun, Lessing See also:im Urteile seiner Zeitgenossen (2 vols., 1884); P. Albrecht, Lessings Plagiate (6 vols., 1890 ff.) ; K. Weeder, Vorlesungen iiber Lessings Nathan (1892); G. Kettner, Lessings Dramen inl Lichte ihrer and unsrer Zeit (1904). See also:Translations of Lessing's Dramatic Works (2 vols., 1878), edited by E. See also:Bell, and of Laokoon, Dramatic Notes and the Representation of Death by the Ancients, by E. C. Beasley and H. Zimmern (1 vol., 1879), will be found in See also:Bohn's " Standard Library." (J. Si.; J. G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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