Dryden's Relation to Germany 43 



ein Shakspere'sches Genie zu denken vermogend gewesen." Then 

 he quotes a fragment of his own Faust, depicting the scene be- 

 tween Faust and the seven fleet spirits of hell, which is made up 

 of short speeches and quick replies. At the close of the scene he 

 adds: "Was sagen Sie zu dieser Szene? Sie wiinschen ein 

 deutsches Stiick, das lauter solche Szenen hiitte? Ich auch." 



3. German Criticism of the Essay after Lessing's 

 Translation 



Naturally Dryden's Essay won prestige in Germany through 

 Lessing's translation, and the utterances in the Literaturbrief. 

 After Lessing's connection with it German critics quote from and 

 cite the Essay as if it were generally known and accepted as an 

 authority. Concerning Dryden's claim for English humor, espe- 

 cially in Jonson, the Bibliothek der schonen Wissenschaften 

 (1762) remarks: " Dasz die Franzosen, wie Dry den anmerket, 

 nichts aufweisen konnen, was dem Humor des Ben Jonson gleich 

 kame."^® In the Hamhurgischen neuen Zeitting Gerstenberg sub- 

 stantiates his claim that nothing is easier than writing a French 

 tragedy with : "Schon Dryden sagte zu seiner Zeit, dasz nichts 

 leichter ware, als ein franzosisches Trauerspiel zu schreiben."^'^ 

 Schiitze, the Hamburg theater-historian, laments that Gottsched 

 introduced from France the servile observance of the stage. 

 " Schon der Britte, Driden, warf den Franzosen vor, dasz sie 

 durch die zu angstliche Beobachtung des Regelmassigen den grosz- 

 ten Haufen der Zuschauer einschlaferten."^^ 



Further proof of Dryden's influence upon Lessing is furnished 

 by the commendatory reviews of the Essay itself, and of Lessing's 

 translation. The Berlinische priv. Zeitung (May 22, 1759) desig- 

 nates the translation " einen lehrreichen Auszug."-'^ Dryden's 

 Essay is one of the few English works on the drama known to 

 Schmid, who gives it the first rank, and also cites Lessing's trans- 



26 VII, Stiick 2, p. 354. 



2^^ See Literatur Denkmale, CXXVIII, p. 155, Berlin, 1904. 

 ^^ Hamhurgische Theatergeschichte, p. 216, Hamburg, 1794. 

 29 Julius W. Braun, Lessing im Urtheile seiner Zeitgenossen, p. 96, 

 Berlin, 1884. 



