Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
Gotthold Ephraim (1729-1781), a celebrated German dramatist and critic. As literary productions his writings rank with those of Goethe and Schiller. Among those whose influence has been of importance to the literature of Germany, no name is greater than that of Lessing. As Luther gave to Germany a national language, so Lessing gave to Germany a national literature, completing the work begun by Klopstock in freeing writers from foreign models.
Lessing was born at Kamenz in upper Lusatia. He was descended on both sides from long lines of Lutheran pastors. His own father was a clergyman who placed his son in a school at Meissen when he was twelve years old, and later sent him to the University of Leipsic. At Meissen the master described the boy's ability by saying that he was "a horse that must have double fodder." He studied Latin, Greek, and modern languages, and was proficient in mathematics. To Leipsic the seventeen-year-old boy was sent to study theology. As a matter of fact he devoted his time to general literature and to the theater. In Leipsic society he was considered a brilliant youth. He took lessons in fencing, riding, and dancing, because he felt conscious of awkwardness. These worldly indulgences troubled the good people at home to whom they seemed, if not really wicked, at least wholly unsuitable for a future pastor. They therefore sent for him to come home. The elder Lessing was a man of great intelligence, however, and shortly discovered that his boy had acquired a surprising amount of knowledge; that he was not idling away his time in frivolities, but was learning to think and to know. He was consequently sent back to Leipsic, this time to study medicine, which, however, proved no more attractive than theology.
In 1748 Lessing went to Berlin, where he supported himself by translations, reviews, magazine articles, and the like. He here formed a friendship with Voltaire that had no little influence on his career. He went to Wittenberg for a time at the request of his father, who believed he would then come under more orthodox influences. But he was soon back in Berlin. From this time Lessing's life is spent chiefly in Leipsic, Berlin, Breslau, and Hamburg. We find him occupying various positions,--secretary to the governor of Breslau, critic and director of the theater at Hamburg, librarian to the Duke of Brunswick at Wolfenbuttel. He was usually struggling with poverty, although too sincere to accept lucrative positions which in any way hindered his independence. Hosmer says of him that he might have smoothed his path by a little fawning to those in power, but that nature had left his knees unhinged." In his forty-eighth year, Lessing married a woman in every way worthy. She died within a year. Much broken by this loss, Lessing lived for three years thereafter. He died in Brunswick at the age of fifty-two.
The writings of Lessing are numerous. Beginning with his university days, he continued to write until the last. His collected works, including magazine contributions and miscellaneous papers, were published in Berlin in 1828 in thirty-two volumes. Of these, four are of especial interest. These are Laokoon (1766), Minna von Barnhelm (1767), Emilia Galotti (1772), Nathan der Weise (1778). Minna von Barnhelm was called the first national drama of Germany, and is ranked by many critics as the greatest German comedy. It was written with a threefold purpose,--to free the stage from French influences, to call attention to the indifference shown by those in authority to the soldiers who has served faithfully in the Seven Years' War, and to bring about more peaceful relations between Prussia and Saxony than then existed. All these purposes were fulfilled to a marked degree. In addition Minna von Barnhelm is an admirable and pleasing literary production. The piece is pervaded with a delicate humor and its noble lessons are learned in that unconscious way which makes lessons most effective. The character of "Minna" is charming and natural.
Emilia Galotti is a tragedy, ranked by certain critics as the greatest of German tragedies. To the popular taste it is not equal to Nathan der Weise, which is Lessing's masterpiece. As a production for the stage, the latter is open to criticism, but it should be read as a dramatic poem. It might even be called a didactic poem, for it teaches religious tolerance as no other literary production has ever taught it. The Jew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan are brought together on common ground. A religious controversy in which Lessing had defended free inquiry had been discontinued by command of the Brunswick government. Nathan der Weise was the final and powerful answer of Lessing to his opponents.
Laokoon is a critical work of importance. The title is taken from the name of a celebrated piece of classical statuary representing Laocoon and his two sons in the coils of the serpents. The work of Lessing is a treatise on the fundamental differences between poetry and what he calls the "formative arts,"--painting and sculpture. The work was not completed, but is a great production, the fruit of years of study. Its influence upon the development of poetry is of especial moment.
Lessing must be regarded preeminently as a critic, but he was a critic in the highest sense of the word, not a critic who tears down only, but one who builds up. He was great enough to comprehend the needs of the human race and his work was for all people and all time. His contemporaries "admired him, feared him, and let him suffer," but future generations and nations will unite to do him honor.
QUOTATIONS.
What costs blood is certainly not worth blood.
Only when an artist is free to follow the impulses of his own mind is he truly an artist.
Not the truth of which a man believes himself to be possessed but the sincere effort he has made to gain truth, makes the worth of a man.
According to my way of thinking, the reputation of a zealous patriot is the very last that I would covet; that is, of patriotism which teaches me to forget that I am a citizen of the world.
If God held all truth in His right hand, and in His left the ever-living desire for truth; if He said to me, Choose, I should, even though with the condition that I should remain forever in error, humbly incline towards His left, and say, Father, give; pure truth is for Thee alone.
TRIBUTES.
Lessing wished to disclaim for himself the title of poet, but his immortal works testify against himself.--Goethe.
No mortal has ever surpassed him.--Gervinus.
Had Lessing's work as a literary critic not been performed, the subsequent German development in art and literature could not have taken place; Goethe and Schiller would have been impossible.--Hosmer.