Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim ( 1729 – 81 ),German critic and dramatist. He was educated at Leipzig University, was the literary adviser of the National Theatre at Hamburg ( 1765 – 9 ), and in 1770 became librarian to the duke of Brunswick at Wolfenbüttel, where he died. As a dramatist his principal works were: the serious comedy Minna von Barnhelm ( 1767 ); Emilia Galotti ( 1772 ), a tragedy on a social theme; and Nathan der Weise ( 1779 ), a plea for religious tolerance. Miss Sara Sampson ( 1755 ), the first significant domestic tragedy in German, was modelled on Lillo's George Barnwell ( 1731 ). Lessing was, in the words of Macaulay , ‘beyond all dispute, the first critic in Europe’, who emancipated German literature from the narrow conventions of the French classical school, suggesting that German writers look instead to Shakespeare and English literature as more congenial...
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