Lessing’s Criticism and the Drama

Abstract

Lessing’s services to German literature were greatest in the sphere of the drama. His first interest in Leipzig had been the theatre ; and so, when he decided to live by his pen in Berlin, it was the theatre which was the first subject of his journalism. In collaboration with his friend, Mylius, he began in 1750 to issue a quarterly periodical with the title, Contributions to the History and Encouragement of the Theatre (Beyträge zur Historie und Aufnahme des Theaters). The programme of this magazine, as announced in the preface, was nothing if not ambitious. Its chief aims were : to inculcate the principles of taste by an examination of works of criticism and to provide models for the German theatre by means of translations of plays from Greek, Latin, French, Italian, English, Spanish and Dutch.