tible of romantic devotion. The generous warmth of his heart was quickly kindled on behalf of Lessing, who now, by his severance from Winkler, was in the wide world once more wholly unprovided for- a sparrow on the housetop,' as he said of himself -living wretchedly on the pittances to be derived from literary drudgeries. Having relations with men of considerable influence at Berlin, in high circles, Kleist appealed to them with passionate eagerness to bestir themselves with the view of procuring for Lessing an appointment of some kind.

Try hard, he writes to one friend, to get for Lessing a place in the War Office, or some other convenient appointment; he will quickly learn the duties." Some days later he has a new plan. In the Berlin Palace Library there is a very old librarian, who must die soon or want an assistant. Do write about this at once.' 'Oh, work with me to obtain some post or other for our dear Lessing,' Kleist exclaims to Gleim. 'He is to be greatly pitied; never have I seen a friend in such a position.' His necessities at this time were so great that Lessing had to beg small loans from friends.

pen

with no more definite provision than his and the hearty welcome given by Mendelssohn and Nicolai. Three years he continued in the capital; three years of intense, often desultory, and too often irksome task labour. One work, however, demands notice. In conjunction with Mendelssohn and Nicolai, who furnished the pecuniary means, Lessing planned and founded a literary periodical, to contain reviews of current literature in different countries, in the shape of letters. It was a bold plan, and the articles, which were mostly by Lessing, attracted much notice. Though the issues of the letters were irregular, the strain of the work before long became fatiguing even to a mind so elastic. Evil times also supervened. The capital was occupied by the Russians, and Lessing witnessed the public flogging of two journalists, one his own successor at the Vossische Zeitung.' Disgusted with the situation, he was meditating flight, when unexpectedly General Tauentzien, recently appointed Governor of Breslau and Director-General of the Silesian Mint, who had met Lessing in Kleist's society, offered to take him as his secretary. Kleist, though himself not rich, came Without a moment's hesitation, Lessing freely with his purse to the rescue; but in jumped at the engagement, and, having again 1758 an order arrived that called him into decamped without a word of farewell even the field. In the year spent at Leipzig to his bosom friend Mendelssohn, he found Lessing has become so dear to me himself installed at Breslau, as an important that I feel as if he were dead, or rather as official, in November, 1760. General Tauif I were half dead.' These words are in a entzien ranked amongst Frederick's foremost letter to Gleim, with the testamentary in- paladins. It was popularly said that, struction that of 1200 thalers deposited with should by a reverse of fortune the great the latter (apparently his whole fortune) 200 King's following be so reduced as to find were in the event of his death to be given sufficient standing room under the bough to Lessing and Ramler. Then came this of one tree, Tauentzien would infallibly be afterthought in a postscript, Rather give in this gallant band. There is no indicathem the money now, and, should I live, tion of his having partaken of Kleist's litit may be returned whenever they have be- erary tastes. He made himself known only come rich enough.' He did not return, as a brave soldier and a sagacious adminisbut was mortally wounded on the fatal day trator. That he therefore should delibof Kunersdorf. Carried to Frankfort-on-erately have picked out Lessing as confidenthe-Oder, he expired after several days' tial assistant in his responsible post, is fresh suffering. For a while the catastrophe was proof of the deep impression made by the not positively known to his friends, and a latter upon minds of superior intelligence. suspense of hope animated them. Ah, Lessing's own feelings at the change in his dearest friend, it is unhappily true, he is life are graphically expressed in a letter to dead,' wrote Lessing to Gleim. In the Ramler. In the Ramler. You will be surprised, perhaps, at greatest pain he was throughout calm and my decision; to confess the truth, for at cheerful. His greatest wish was to have least one full quarter of an hour every day seen his friends once more. Oh, would I am myself perplexed by it.' What really this could have been! My sorrow is a wild determined Lessing's decision can be gathsorrow. He had already before three or ered from the following entry in his scrapfour wounds. Why did he not leave the book. 'I now will for a while spin around service? For less and smaller wounds gen- myself, as an ungainly caterpillar, in order erals have retired. But he wished to die.' to come to light again as a bright bird.' The kind of journeyman's taskwork to which he had been of late bound had come to prove a yoke, from which relief at almost

Leipzig had now become thoroughly distasteful to Lessing, and so we find him once more of a sudden in Berlin-though again

6

Miss Sara Sampson' was drawn from a general view of real life, Minna' palpably embodied actual life. In it the spirit of the Seven Years' War-of the vicissitudes so largely and so painfully connected there

As a

any cost had become to him an object well- | with an idea that, because he thus gave a nigh of necessity. The continued drudgery considerable rein to dissipation, Lessing was he was tied to pressed down with crushing at this time oblivious of higher purposes. weight even the marvellous elasticity of his While an habitual visitor at taverns and an mind. Convulsively Lessing longed for a habitual votary of faro, Lessing contracted repose from daily necessities, which might intimacies with grave professors, actively enable him to recruit his intellectual forces corresponded with his literary friends at for higher efforts than fugitive notices and Berlin, and became notorious for his eager the jobs set by speculative booksellers. The purchases of books at sales. In fact, this Breslau appointment offered exactly what Breslau period may be considered to have he was in search of. The salary was con- been one when, in the greatest enjoyment siderable, according to the scale of the of freedom, Lessing was out at grass, retimes, and he was freed from all household cruiting a jaded system, and imbibing in his cares by living with the Governor. In- own peculiar fashion the elements and vigour deed, Lessing might have made a fortune for ulterior and higher work. That such easily. It is well known how Frederick improved condition was the effect of these was driven to have recourse to questionable holiday sallies is proved by his next imcurrency devices. The Silesian Mint was portant production, Minna von Barnhelm ;' largely concerned in these, and so trusted for, though published after his departure an officer as Tauentzien did nothing which, from Breslau, this play was conceived and according to the practice of the age, was sketched during his sojourn there. If deemed unworthy of his character, in profiting to his own benefit by operations based on official knowledge. Lessing had the same opportunities. Lucrative offers came from brokers anxious for early information, and it is highly to his honour that he im-with-of honourable gallantry and broken perturbably rejected all proposals to derive benefit from a class of transactions then commonly dealt in by responsible officials. When he left the service his fortune consisted in an investment in curious books and some very trifling savings. Truth, however, demands the admission that during the Breslau phase of his life Lessing was drawn into extravagance and even dissipation. Release from the galling strain so long upon him would seem to have re-acted on his vigorous system in a wild burst of pent-up spirits. His constitutional fondness for the pleasures of society, with a strong special liking for intercourse with military men, made Lessing a ready frequenter of the taverns where officers congregated, and a willing participator with them in the games of chance it was their habit to indulge in. Eye-witnesses describe how Lessing would throw himself into play with the heat of a confirmed gamester, thick drops of sweat trickling over his face as he hung on the turns of fortune. So high were the stakes he risked, that Tauentzien made friendly remonstrances. Lessing's answer was eminently characteristic of the volcanic force the inward need for occasional explosion-in his nature. 'Were I to have play coldly,' said he, then I should not play at all. I have an object in playing with such passion. The violent movement sets my blood in flow, and frees me from a physical depression I suffer from at times.'

Let not the reader, however, run away

fortunes-was visibly paraded before the
audience. With Minna von Barnhelm '
the protoplasm of a German historical
drama was ushered into the world.
mere piece of workmanship the drama was
decidedly in advance of Lessing's previous
productions. On the contemporary genera-
tion the piece produced quite an electrical
shock. The poetess Karsch, writing from
Berlin, says: To-day "Minna was given
for the eighth time, and it was astounding
how the public crowded to it yesterday.
The gallery, the boxes, the pit, were cram-
med, and I had to be content with a seat
on the stage, for even that was full on both
sides; an extraordinary addition to Herr
Lessing's honour, for no German before has
contrived to fill with enthusiasm and thor-
oughly to delight both gentle and simple,
learned and unlearned.' Goethe, talking
in his old age with Eckermann, said:

You may imagine what an effect "Minna " made on young folks when, in that dark season, it came out. Truly it was a glittering meteor. The run of the piece was quite unprecedented, but without benefiting the author; for, by the unsatisfactory copyright then prevailing in Germany, the profits of a theatrical success accrued solely to the manager. Previously to this brilliant hit, in 1764, Lessing had been brought to death's door by fever. From this sick-bed he rose with the determination that he would no longer continue his present life. From Breslau and its surroundings he would

perforce get free in some manner or other. | Travel to Italy again floated much before his mind, for Wincklemann's great book had just appeared, and already Lessing was engaged in meditations, ultimately resulting in his 'Laokoon.' The serious epoch of my life is approaching,' he wrote to Ramler; I am beginning to be a man, and I flatter myself in this hot fever to have raved away the last lees of my youthful follies.' In vain, however, did Lessing look about in various directions for some suitable place of refuge. A professorship at Königsberg was indeed offered him, but he would have nothing to do with it, because it must have entailed the obligation of a yearly oration in honour of the ruling Sovereign, a courtierlike task to which he could not accommodate himself. So it came to pass that at last he flung up his post without having any provision assured, and betook himself back again to his old haunt, Berlin.

It is true he was not wholly without a secret hope of obtaining the vacant Keepership of Baron Stosch's celebrated collection of antique gems, so highly prized by Winckelmann, which had been bought by Frederick. But on Lessing's name being submitted for the appointment, the King instantly remembered the unpleasant associations relating to the Voltaire episode, and curtly ostracized, as an objectionable fellow, the great German genius, to give the Keepership to an utterly incompetent French adventurer. Thus again the pleasant vision of a comfortable anchorage vanished away, and again Lessing was adrift in the wide world, still, as he said, a sparrow upon the housetop,' with nothing but his energy to rely upon. Under such circumstances it was that he found the leisure to complete the treatise entitled 'Laokoon,' which, with 'Nathan the Wise,' is the most widely celebrated of his works.

The

It would be quite impossible here to enter into a critical consideration of the principles and canons laid down in this treatise, nor is this necessary for our purpose. originality of the book is at once attested by the extraordinary and lasting impression it produced. To realize the effect wrought by Lessing's "Laokoon, ," wrote Goethe in 'Dichtung und Wahrheit,' one must be young; it transported us out of the region of trivial observation into the limitless area of thought.' Following in publication close on that of Winckelmann's startling History of Art,' this treatise equalled the sensation produced by that magnum opus. It is true that Lessing had been already meditating, some years before, an essay on the aesthetical points which formed the sub

44

ject-matter of this treatise. It cannot, how-
ever, be questioned but that the History'
directly determined the completion of
'Laokoon.' It was meant by Lessing as a
corrective to what he considered as an im-
perfection in Winckelmann's criticism. Be-
tween these contemporary and in many re-
spects cognate publications there is an es-
sential distinction in the treatment of kin-
dred subjects, due to a radical difference
between the writers. Both enthusiastically
admired the classical and the antique ; but,
while Winckelmann approached his sub-
ject as a connoisseur, Lessing approached
it as an abstract scholar. Winckelmann, in
his ' History,' presented himself before the
public as a master in vertu, who led his
readers pleasantly from chapter to chapter,
as it were, through a range of art galleries,
each shut off for works having in common
some particular distinguishing features,
which he indicated with the charming clear-
ness and precision of one who by long and
familiar observation is thoroughly at home
with all these characteristic points. Les-
sing, on the contrary, burst out, as Goethe
said, in a lightning-like flash,' with the
voice of a prophet, solving problems lurk-
ing in the very depths of the realm of
thought, but with speech so clear and lucid,
and with illustrations so happy and so tell-
ing, that his conclusions seemed to carry
their proof with them, and his sentences
struck deep into the minds of his contem-
poraries, as heavy hail-stones strike into
the soil they fall upon. That rare combina-
tion of metaphysical and illustrative facul-
ties, so conspicuous a quality of Lessing's
mind, was nowhere shown more effectively
than in this treatise, which sought to define
landmarks for the shadowy confines between
the domains that belong to the Arts of
Painting and of Poetry. Winckelmann's
work is now practically obsolete, and for-
gotten as a manual by all but special stu-
dents, because material connoisseurship has
vastly advanced since his day. Lessing's
'Laokoon' is, on the contrary, still read
largely, and for the reason that, though
antiquated in points of detail and erroneous
in several of the canons laid down, its in-
tellectual substance, vivid with the flash of
genius, is still and will ever remain as preg-
nant with matter for deep reflection as on
the day when the sentences were thrown
off. Translations still continue to appear-
we will only refer to one by Sir R. Philli-
more, and another by Mr. Beasley, which,
by the competent Editor of the newest
edition, is pronounced almost faultless. That
edition, issued from the Clarendon press,
deserves particular notice for the excellent

introduction prefixed to it by Mr. Hamann. | signed to become the organ for enunciating The reader will there find in lucid English dramatic canons, and for a free critical disan admirable analysis of the treatise, with cussion of the performances of the Hamillustrations perfectly to the point in regard burg troop. At the same time Lessing conto previous and contemporary labours in the nected himself with another undertaking. same field. Mr. Sime, too, has devoted A Hamburg man of letters-Bode-now much care to the matter, but in Mr. Ha- remembered only for a version of Tristram mann's pages everything that requires to be Shandy,' had conceived the project of a said is given in a manner from which most vast printing and publishing establishment, readers, we apprehend, will carry away that would bring profit to the owner and distincter impressions than from Mr. Sime's prove a boon to men of letters. He prorather prolix comments. posed a partnership to Lessing, who, with a naturally sanguine temperament, at that moment specially elated by the dramatic prospects suddenly opening up before him, rushed into the scheme with enthusiasm. The practical Nicolai warned him, but in vain, that the scheme, however plausible on paper, rested on a rotten basis in the then state of the German copyright law, which made the trade a warren for piracy. Lessing was far too passionately set upon getting to Hamburg, which then beamed before his eyes as a haven of peace and comfort, to listen to such prudential observations.

But his sanguine anticipations were speedily doomed to grievous disappointment; the single beneficial result of the Hamburg episode, exclusive of new acquaintances, being further addition to literary reputation. The Dramaturgische Blätter,' his dramatic periodical, acquired, and has retained in Germany, a classical standing. The only instance we can call to mind of a like abiding reputation, retained in the literature of any country, by a publication issued in a fugitive form, is the

'Laokoon' brought additional reputation, but it brought no money, and of money Lessing now was in dire need. Besides his personal wants, he was sorely distressed by the painful situation of his parents. A large family-daughters at home-had reduced the old Pastor to positive indigence, and Lessing had freely given of his little savings in response to appeals from the Manse. He was now, however, verging upon forty, without any assured provision, and with the creeping sense that the vigour of youth was ebbing; that the spirits were waning which once buoyed him up under the drudgery and servitude. 'I stood in the market-place without engagement, but there was no one who would have me, doubtless because no one knew of any use to turn me to,' was what he said some years later of his situation at this period. Suddenly, in the moment of closing darkness, there came a call which made him start with the irrepressive thrill with which the old war-horse starts at the sound of the trumpeter's blast. Some wealthy Hamburg citizens has combined in a public-spirited idea to convert an humble theatre, already Spectator.' Though the actors, and in existing in their city, into a nursery of most instances the plays that were the imhigh drama on a quite magnificent scale. mediate subjects of review, have quite passThere was something decidedly fantastic ed away from recollection, the Dramain the whole conception. Not merely am-turgische Blätter' are known to every wellple salaries, but even munificent pensions for their old days, were to be ensured to actors, who had to submit to a regular schooling, so as to be trained to elevated style; while the talents of dramatic writers were to be secured by analogous pecuniary advantages. To Lessing, as the most eminent playwright of Germany, an engagement was proposed as dramatist of the company, with a fixed salary. This duty he, indeed, declined to assume, on the ground that he felt himself lacking in the requisite productiveness; but he eagerly responded to the proposal that he should associate himself with a scheme entirely in sympathy with his tastes, and he accordingly undertook to be the counsellor and critic of the company, and to write a periodical that was not merely to review plays, but was de

read German at the present day, and for the reason, that in them are to be found some of the subtlest and most brilliant criticisms ever written on the essence of the drama. The principles of dramatic art have never been discussed more profoundly, nor illustrated with more striking vividness, than in the Dramaturgische Blätter,' which vibrate with the full force of Lessing's critical genius at every page. It is self-evident that essays of this character must always have been above the taste of the general public. Individual minds of superior culture read them with keen delight, but as a periodical the 'Dramaturgische Blätter' had no sale. Lessing was guilty, however, of a yet graver error as regarded the interests of the Hamburg theatre than that of overweighting the pages of his peri

and a condition which could hardly have continued long without unhappy results.

While struggling manfully thus to cope with creditors, the idea of emigration laid hold on him strongly. Lessing seriously contemplated embarking in one of the many ships alongside the Hamburg quays, and sailing away to some Italian port. It was no longer a merely vague notion, the idea grew into a resolution; and that it was not ultimately carried into effect, was due to accidental circumstances. The prudent Nicolai, having hazarded some words of caution, was met with the remark: What I mean to do in Rome? At present I can only say this, that in Rome I have at least as much to expect as anywhere in Germany.' Rumors soon spread of his intention, and various stories got afloat. Lessing was going to fill Winckelmann's place in the Albani household; he had declared himself ready to conform to the Catholic faith; he was to become Librarian at the Vatican. These reports, being related to Lessing, angered him greatly. Munzel

odical with abstruse matter. He subjected with Rhadamanthine sternness the members of the troop to such uncompromising strictures, that the green-room quickly raged with all the furies of Eolus. In truth the theatre was hardly started, when the want of all competent management became painfully perceptible. A month only after the opening Lessing wrote: There is discord among the directors, and no one knows who is cook and who is waiter!' The grim fact was patent that the performances did not draw. To stave off embarrassments the directors after a while tried to cater for more vulgar tastes, and Lessing with a wry face had to acquiesce in an exhibition of harlequinade on the boards originally meant to be exclusively sacred to the legitimate drama. But even this did not save the illcontrived enterprise, and after eighteen months' existence the would-be national theatre closed its doors as a wholly bankrupt concern. 'Transeat cum ceteris erroribus,' wrote Lessing to Ramler ; 'this pleasant dream of founding a national theatre here in Hamburg has vanished. . . . I Stosch, nephew to the great collector, havwithdraw my hand from the plough as will-ing, through Nicolai, offered an introducingly as I put it there.' Unfortunately tion to Cardinal Albani, Lessing replied the misfortune was not single-handed. At thus :— the same time the other enterprise-Bode's fanciful scheme-came to utter grief, and in this catastrophe Lessing, as a partner, was personally involved to a serious extent. fact, ruin-crushing ruin-now seemed to be impending; and, to add to his sorrows, there came again heartrending appeals from his sister at Kamenz for some pecuniary assistance to his sorely-distressed parents. 'My heart bleeds when I think of our parents,' he writes to his brother. God is my witness I am not to blame if I do not relieve them. At this moment I am poorer than any one in the whole family, for the poorest, at least, owes nothing, whereas, while without the commonest necessities, I am over ears in debt.' Amidst all these grievous troubles-dunned by creditors, beset with troubles, harrowed by griefs-Lessing yet retained the energy to throw off several brilliant productions. It was at this time that he composed his 'Antiquarian Letters;' that he wrote a specially celebrated disquisition on The Form given in Classical Art to the Representation of Death;' and that he engaged in a literary controversy on points of scholar- When the spring came and ships sailed, ship, which excited much attention, with Lessing, however, still was in HamburgKlotze, a Halle Professor. The tone of fettered by embarrassments, harassed by this controversy, as well as of his corre- importunate creditors, worried by troubles, spondence, and the feverish activity gen- and jaded by labours when from his erally displayed by him at this time, indi- friend Ebert there unexpectedly came a procate, however, an over-tension of the brain,posal, which could not but have much in it

In

'I am beholden to Herr Munzel-Stosch for myself thereof, and will let him know when the obliging offer. Pray tell him I shall avail

and where I would like to have the letters
but to tell you the truth at once, I
have no intention of making any use of them
at all.
I don't care to make any but.
chance acquaintances in Rome. Had Winck-
elmann not been such a particular friend and
client of Albani's, his Monumenti, in my opin-
ion, would have turned out differently! I can
see what I want to see, and live as I care to
do, without Cardinals.'

His irritation was specially intense at the report of his being about to apostatize, and this he strongly expressed to his old friend Ebert, then at Brunswick :—

thinks of Winckelmann.

What have Winck

'What annoys me is that every one to whom I say I am going to Rome at once elmann and the place he made for himself to do with my journey? No one can rate the man higher than I do-yet I should be as little pleased to be Winckelmann as I often am content to be Lessing.'