32 Milton D. Baumgartner 



2. Its Relation to Lessing and his Seventeenth Literatur- 



brief 



Prior to Lessing's connection with the Essay, however, the sig- 

 nificance of its relation to Germany was inconsequential. The 

 close relation of the Essay to Lessing, especially to the utterances 

 in the seventeenth Literaturhrief, has not been adequately treated. 

 Erich Schmidt only vaguely suggests the relation by adding to 

 the sketch of the Essay, the single sentence : " Ein Jahr spater 

 schrieb Lessing den siebzehnten Literaturhrief."^ Karl Borinski 

 asserts, that it is quite evident that Dryden is Lessing's guide 

 in the English theater, but does not specify the connection be- 

 tween the Essay and the Literaturhrief.'^ Meisnest directly con- 

 nects the Essay with Lessing's utterances on Shakspere in the 

 Literaturhrief, but he did not use the internal evidence to reach 

 his conclusion, and his argument in favor of Nicolai's influence {"^ 

 based on a wrong date.''' 



Before presenting the evidence of relationship between the two, 

 a sketch of Lessing's early acquaintance with Dryden through 

 Voltaire, and Gottsched's later connection with the Essay, are 

 necessary for the understanding and the partial justification of the 

 attack upon Gottsched in the Literaturhrief. As Erich Schmidt 

 has shown, Lessing was introduced to Shakspere through Vol- 

 taire's Lettres sur les Anglais (1732).^ Similarly it may be said 

 that Lessing was also introduced to Dryden through Voltaire's 

 Lettres, for the characterization of Shakspere as a tragedian, and 

 the quotation of " to be or not to be " from Hamlet are directly 

 followed in the same Lettre with a characterization of Dryden, 

 and the quotation of the well known lines from Aureng-Zehe: 

 "When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat." While not altogether 



s Lessing, Geschichte seines Lebens tind seiner Werke, I, p. 376, Berlin, 

 1884. 



^Lessing, I, p. iii, Berlin, 1900. 



"' Lessing and Shakspere, PubUcation of the Modern Language Asso- 

 ciation, XIX, p. 234 ff. (1904). Meisnest dates the review made by Nicolai 

 of the Neiien Probestiicke der englischen Schanbilhne (Bibliothek der 

 schonen Wissenschaften, VI, Stiick I, pp. 60-74), 1758, while it was not 

 published until 1760, one year after the publication of the Literaturhrief. 



* Loco citato, I, p. 166. 



320 



