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IX.—Lessing and Shakespeare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

F. W. Meisnest
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Extract

The object of this paper is to show that Lessing's knowledge of Shakespeare and his influence in introducing and popularizing the great English poet in Germany have been generally overestimated. To forestall any preconceived opinions it may be stated that the position advocated has not been suggested by such works as Franz Mehring's Die Lessing-Legende or Paul Albrecht's Lessings Plagiate, in which the sole purpose of the authors seems to be to pluck the laurel wreath from the head of one whom Herder regarded as the greatest critic of Germany and Macaulay as the first of Europe.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , 1904 , pp. 234 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1904

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References

page 237 note 1 The note quoted by Lessing : “The word ‘wench’ heretofore signified a young woman, often an amiable woman, so that some have thought it a corruption only from the word Venus,” is taken from Hanmer's edition, Vol. VI, p. 488.

page 239 note 1 Fresenius (Sh. Jb. 39–245) asserts, without citing his authority, that Lessing is the author of Hamlet's monologue “To be or not to be” in Schroder's version of Hamlet.

page 241 note 1 Karl Sendel does not agree with Hettner. See Schnorrs Archiv, II, 72–93.

page 242 note 1 Letter to Mendelssohn Nov. 5, 1768. (Hemp. 20, 1, 296).

page 242 note 2 See correspondence between Lessing and Eschenburg.—(Hemp., 20–II.).

page 245 note 1 The writer has in preparation a thesis on “Wieland und Eschenburg als Shakespeare-Übersetzer,” where this subject will be further discussed.

page 246 note 1 Eugen Reichel assigns this article to Gottsched in his recent work, Ein Gottsched-Denkmal, p. 33.