Dryden's Relation to Germany 33 



favorable to Dryden, Voltaire's criticism proclaims him an "Au- 

 teur plus fecond que judicieux, qui auroit une reputation sans 

 melange, s'il n'avoit fait qui la dixemi partie de ses ouvrages." 



The Lettres of Voltaire, which discussed among other topics 

 English tragedy and comedy, did much toward inspiring Lessing 

 to take up the cause of the English drama and Dryden, just as the 

 Spectator had first called the attention of Bodmer to Milton and 

 his epic, Paradise Lost. The Beytrdge zur Historie und Aitfnahme 

 des Theaters (1750), edited jointly by Lessing and Mylius, con- 

 tains a translation of Voltaire's Lettres. Lessing, however, 

 planned the work, wrote the introduction, and contributed most 

 of the articles.® In the introduction of the Beytrdge he says that 

 one purpose of the work will be to translate ancient plays, then 

 modern dramas little known in Germany, especially English and 

 Spanish. He then enumerates a number of dramatists, and 

 among the English commends Shakspere, Dryden, Wicherly, Van- 

 brugh. Gibber, and Gongreve. " Diese sind alle Manner," he says, 

 "die zvvar eben so grosze Fehler als Schonheiten haben, von 

 denen aber ein verniinftiger Nachahmer sich sehr vieles zu Nutze 

 machen kann." Lessing has enuinerated here only the dramatists 

 which Voltaire has discussed in the Lettres, and the faults and 

 beauties, which he ascribes to them, are evidently a reflection of 

 Voltaire's criticism. 



Even though Lessing at this time still regarded Gottsched as the 

 authority on the German stage, the introduction to the Beytrdge 

 shows that he is no longer fully in accord with Gottsched's idea 

 of the German theater and that he has greater faith in the Eng- 

 lish drama as a model for the Germans. He regrets that only the 

 French have been taken as a model, and continues : " Dadurch hat 

 man aber unser Theater zu einer Einformigkeit gebracht, die man 

 sich auf alle mogliche Art zu vermeiden sich hatte bestreben 

 sollen." He is more emphatic in his views in favor of the Eng- 

 lish, when he enumerates the list of English dramatists. " Shak- 

 spere, Dryden, — sind Dichter, die man bey uns fast nur dem 

 Namen nach kennet, und gleichwohl verdienen sie unsere Hoch- 



9 See foreword to the Theatralischen Bibliothek (Berlin, 1754), in 

 Lessifigs IVerke, V, p. 10, edited by Boxberger. 



321 



