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Lessing's Relation to Early English Sentimental Comedy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Paul P. Kies
Paul P. Kies*
Affiliation:
State College of Washington
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Extract

In the present article I hope to show that Lessing's Der Freigeist (1749) and Die Juden (1749) were influenced by early English sentimental comedy, and that about 1753 the German dramatist studied the work of Edward Moore, author of the chief English sentimental comedy of the second quarter of the eighteenth century—The Foundling (1748).

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , September 1932 , pp. 807 - 826
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932

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References

1 The relation of Der Freigeist and Die Juden to Steele and Cibber has not hitherto been taken into consideration. Dramatists that have been mentioned as Lessing's chief masters in middle-class comedy before 1750 are Marivaux, Destouches, De la Chaussée, and Geliert. Cf. Th. W. Danzel and G. E. Guhrauer, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 2d ed. (Berlin, 1880), i, 154–158; Erich Schmidt, Lessing, 4th ed., ed. by Franz Schultz (Berlin, 1923), i, 107–149; Waldemar Oehlke, Lessing und seine Zeit (Munich, 1919), i, 106.

2 Œeuvres (Paris, 1862), i, 25.

3 Versuch einer kritischen Dichtkunst (Leipzig, 1730), p. 594.

4 Ibid., pp. 596–597.

5 Middle-class is here preferred to sentimental because the latter term has come to include too many qualities to have a specific meaning, and acquired such a derogatory connotation that one hesitates to apply it to a literary masterpiece like Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm.

6 In this paper, dates given for English plays, unless otherwise specified, indicate the time of first publication. Those from 1660 to 1800 are based on the play lists in Allardyce Nicoll's A History of Restoration Drama 1660–1700 (Cambridge, Eng., 1923), A History of Early Eighteenth Century Drama 1700–1750 (Cambridge, Eng., 1925), and A History of Late Eighteenth Century Drama 1750–1800 (Cambridge, 1927).

7 For a detailed historical account of sentimental comedy in England before 1780, see Ernest Bernbaum, The Drama of Sensibility (Cambridge, Mass., 1925).

8 Lachmann-Muncker, vi, 50.

9 Ibid., vi, 52. See also the passage immediately preceding the quotation.

10 Ibid., ix, 271–272.

11 Ibid., vi, 51.

12 Ibid., vi, 53.

13 Ibid., v, 168, and ix, 272.

14 Ibid., vi, 53.

15 Ibid., vi, 50.

16 “Lessing's Early Study of English Drama,” JEGP, xxviii, 16–34; “The Sources of Lessing's Die Juden,” PQ, vi, 406–410. The former article contains a discussion of Lessing's early practice in reworking material from complicated English plays (see esp. pp. 17–19 and 27–28).

17 The motto of Weiber sind Weiber is:

ME. … optuma faemina … EU. ubi ea est? quis ea
Est nam optuma?
Nam optuma nulla potest eligi: alia alia
Pejor … est. Plautus. (Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 280.)

During the early part of 1748, to be sure, Lessing had planned to write an Ephesian Matron. Cf. Christian Felix Weisse, Selbstbiographie (Leipzig, 1806), p. 14. But according to Karl Lessing in Gotthold Ephraim Lessings Leben (Berlin, 1793), i, 64, he had intended to soften the satire of Weisse's version.

18 Lachmann-Muncker, v, 168–169.

19 Ibid., vi, 52.

20 Ibid., vi, 51–52.

21 Ibid., v, 180.

22 Ibid., vii, 60–61.

23 In The Conscious Lovers, to be sure, the match has been broken off by the girl's father, but neither of the young men is aware of this fact at the time.

24 “Ihre Gelassenheit, Theophan, ist hier nichts besonders. Sie glauben Ihrer Sachen gewiss zu seyn” (iv, vii; Lachmann-Muncker, ii, 103). “This cool manner is very agreeable to the Abuse you have already made of my Simplicity and Frankness” (iv, i; London, 1723, p. 57).

25 Tom is characterized thus by Humphrey: “Oh, here's the Prince of poor Coxcombs. … Your great Oaken Cudgel when you were a Booby, became you much better than that dangling Stick at your Button now you are a Fop … I hope the Fashion of being lewd and extravagant, despising of Decency and Order, is almost at an End, since it is arrived at Persons of your Quality” (i, i; London, 1723, pp. 5–7).

26 In this article (as also in my “The Sources and Basic Model of Lessing's Miss Sara Sampson,” Mod. Phil., xxiv, 65–90) when it is essential to distinguish between model and source, the former term is used as involving type, kind—the latter as referring to material, plot, content. Structure does not come into consideration at present, Lessing still observing the rules of the unities.

27 Farquhar's The Beaux Stratagem, one of the main sources of Die Juden (cf. PQ, vi, 407–410)—though having a strong “sentimental” tendency in the major plot and presenting a thesis in the minor plot—differs greatly from Lessing's comedy in type.

28 Die Juden: Lachmann-Muncker, i, 381. The Conscious Lovers (London, 1723), pp. 9 and 7.

29 Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste (Leipzig, 1757 ff.), i, 36.

30 Lachmann-Muncker, xv, 45 n.

31 Cf. PQ, vi, 406–407.

32 For a brief comment on the cynical treatment of the loyal wife theme in Weiber sind Weiber, see Danzel-Guhrauer, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 2d ed. (Berlin, 1880), i, 149.

33 i, i; Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 282.

34 ii, i; Plays (London, 1721), i, 345.

35 Lessing is commonly supposed to have derived the motif from De Lisle's Les caprices du cœur et de l'esprit, of which he published a synopsis in the “Entwürfe ungedruckter Lustspiele des italiänschen Theaters” (issued 1759). Cf. Schmidt, Lessing, 4th ed. (Berlin, 1923), i, 142. The author himself, however, stated that he did not utilize De Lisle's plot (Lachmann-Muncker, vi, 344). Though he seems frequently to have made special efforts to conceal his sources, we have no evidence that he ever told a direct lie in such matters. In the present instance the denial is particularly trustworthy, in that he himself called attention to the plot similarity between Der Freigeist and Les caprices.

Shadwell's The Virtuoso (1676), which also contains a transverse-love plot, does not resemble Der Freigeist in any specific points. Moreover, though Lessing's consultation of this Restoration comedy in connection with the writing of his own piece is not precluded, I can think of nothing that would be likely to cause one of the plots of The Virtuoso to be associated with material from The Conscious Lovers.

36 Dramatis personae.

37 Cf. Henriette's characterization in the scenario: “Henriette frey, und oft wild, doch sonst liebenswerth” (Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 262).

38 “Juliane, still, zärtlich und fromm.”

39 Muncker's conjecture that Weiber sind Weiber was not begun till the last few weeks of 1749 (Lachmann-Muncker, iii, “Vorrede,” ix) is precluded by the fact that the piece was announced October 18 of that year in the Jenaische Gelehrte Zeitungen.

40 Cibber, Plays (London, 1721), i, 11.

41 Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 262.

42 Dramatis Personae.

43 Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 323. The italics are mine.

44 Dramatis Personae. The italics are mine.

45 Act i; Plays (London, 1721), i, 8.

46 Cf. PQ, vi, 409, n. 18.

47 Evidence for this conclusion is presented in PQ, vi, 409–410. I might add here that the paper of Der Dorfjunker bears the same watermark as do two manuscripts definitely dated 1749: the scenario of Der Freigeist and the fragment Tarantula. For this information I am indebted to Doctor Willi Göber, of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek at Breslau, where the manuscripts are preserved.

48 Lessing, 4th ed. (Berlin, 1923), i, 140.

49 iii, v; C. F. Gellerts sämmtliche Schriften (Leipzig, 1784), Part iii, p. 286. Inasmuch as Geliert was an older contemporary of Lessing, and Das Loos in der Lotterie (1747) was one of his most successful plays, we may take for granted that Lessing knew it in 1749. Gellert's home was in Leipzig, where Lessing had been attending the university from 1746 to 1748. In the early 1750's Lessing frequently referred to Gellert's works, including the dramas, in such a manner as to indicate that he was well acquainted with them. Moreover, Der Vater ein Affe, der Sohn ein Jeck itself seems to contain a reminiscence of Das Loos in der Lotterie. Both Lessing's and Gellert's fops complain that the German woman is too closely bound by convention. Von Modisch “will auf einen ziemlich freien Fuss mit ihr [i.e., Lisette] conversiren. Das deutsche Frauenzimmer von Stande sey noch viel zu gezwungen, und ein Galanthomme könne kaum bey einem Kammermädchen à son aise seyn” (i, iv; Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 324). Simon says, “Und was wollen Sie mit der Tugend einer Frau haben? Wie lange werden doch die Deutschen träumen? Das nenne ich Tugend, seinem Stande gemäss leben, und sich die Hochachtung der Welt erwerben. Was ist das Leben ohne Freyheit, ohne Zufriedenheit?” (iii, v; Geliert, op. cit., p. 286).

50 Cf. Ernst Ortlepp, Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabeners sämmtliche Werke (Stuttgart, 1839), i, 21.

51 For a detailed account of the strained relations between parents and son, see Karl Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim Lessings Leben (Berlin, 1793), i, 69–104.

52 Lachmann-Muncker, xvii, 16. The italics are mine.

53 Cf. the review in the Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen (May 31, 1755): “Es ist so aufgeweckt und reitzend, dass es ungeachtet seines ernsthaften Inhalts eines der angenehmsten Lustpiele ist: es stellet den Freygeist nicht auf der verhassten, ja nicht einmahl eigentlich auf der lächerlichen Seite vor, die bey den meisten Leuten dieser Art doch die gantze auswendige Seite, und das Inwendige dazu ist, sondern es bildet nur seine ungerechten Vorurtheile so ab, dass vielleicht ein Freygeist, der es lieset, sie an sich erkennen und ablegen wird.”—Lessing im Urtheile seiner Zeitgenossen, ed. Julius W. Braun (Berlin, 1884), i, 54.

Lessing himself regarded the final version of Der Freigeist as unusually serious in tone: “Wer nicht zu lachen genug darinn findet, mag sich an dem darauf folgenden Nachspiele der Schatz erholen” (Lachmann-Muncker, vii, 26).

54 Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 262.

55 Lessing almost certainly knew The Atheist when he began Der Freigeist, inasmuch as he studied Restoration comedy of manners intensively in the early years of his career. He read at least one Otway play in 1749, Venice Preserved (see my “Lessing and English Domestic Tragedy,” Research Studies of the State College of Washington, ii, 131), and at least two more within the next ten or fifteen years (Lachmann-Muncker, xiv, 197; iii, 401–02). Moreover, a passage in The Atheist calls to mind one of the aspects of the character of Lessing's Johann (this resemblance was mentioned by Josef Caro in 1899 in “Lessing und die Engländer,” Euphorion, vi, 473). Daredevil is an immoral atheist, “a Cheat, that would have you of opinion that he believes neither Heav'n nor Hell, and yet never feels so much as an Ague-fit, but he's afraid of being damn'd.”—i; (London, 1684), p. 7. On being slightly wounded, he thinks he is about to die and cries, “A Parson! a Parson! dear Sir, a Parson! Some pious good Divine, if you have any Charity” (iv, [ii]; p. 54). He then confesses to drunkenness, adultery, and other sins (v, [iv]; p. 70). Somewhat similarly, Johann boasts of atheism: “Ich will, ich will— — auf der Stelle verblinden, wenn ein Teufel ist” (ii, v; Lachmann-Muncker, ii, 78). When his eyes are covered by Lisette, he is ready to repent: “Ach! Ich bin gestraft, ich bin gestraft … Ich will mich gern bekehren! Ach! was bin ich für ein Bösewicht gewesen!” That this scene represents an extremely important element or even the central idea of the April, 1749, plan is suggested by the fact that Lessing had worked it out before writing the extant scenario. Instead of giving in the sketch the content of ii, v, he says, “Siehe die schon ausgearbeitete Scene” (Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 266).

56 See the senario for Der Freigeist (Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 262). This parallelism is extremely striking. No other play or sketch of Lessing contains this feature.

57 i, iii; Lachmann-Muncker, ii, 57.

58 v, iii; ibid., ii, 115.

59 i, iii; ibid., ii, 57.

60 i, iii; ibid., ii, 56–57.

61 ii, v; ibid., ii, 76.

62 PQ, vi, 409.

63 MP, xxiv, 70.

64 The use of the name Jean de la Fleche and of a few other minor points from Holberg does not indicate necessarily that the character itself comes from the Danish dramatist. On the contrary, except in well-known material (such as the Lucretia, Faust, and Alcibiades stories), Lessing regularly altered the names when he borrowed plots and characters. For instance, Marwood in Miss Sara Sampson is not the Mrs. Marwood of Congreve's The Way of the World, but the Mrs. Termagant of Shadwell's The Squire of Alsatia (MP, xxiv, 70).

65 Der Vater ein Affe, der Sohn ein Jeck—Lachmann-Muncker, iii, 323. Der Freigeist, v, i; Lachmann-Muncker, ii, 111.

66 Lachmann-Muncker, ii, 53; Cibber's Plays (London, 1721), i, 8.

67 JEGP, xxviii, 28–29. I wish to take this opportunity to mention a piece of evidence which, together with the reasons given in JEGP, xxviii, 28–29, practically establishes 1749 as the date of Der gute Mann, a companion scenario to Der Vater ein Affe, der Sohn ein Jeck. In a letter of December 20, 1928, Doctor Göber informed me as follows:

“Auf einem Foliobogen des gleichen Papieres [i.e., the same as the paper of Der Dorfjunker and the first sheet of Der Vater ein Affe, der Sohn ein Jeck] stehen zusammen: Der Freygeist, Der gute Mann und Die beyderseitige Überredung (der zweite Teil hiervon: ”Wie Sylvia, so früh?“ auf einem halben Bogen extra). Die Reihenfolge der Lage dieses Adlerpapieres ist folgende:

  1. Bl. 1 leer.

  2. Bl. 2, 3, 4, 5r Freigeist.

  3. Bl. 5v leer.

Dann folgt das einzelne lose Bl. von Die beyderseitige Überredung.

  1. Bl. 6r Die beyderseitige Überredung.

  2. Bl. 6v leer.

  3. Bl. 7, 8, 9r Der gute Mann.

  4. Bl. 9v, 10, 11, 12 leer.

Da 1 und 12, 2 und 11, 3 und 10 usw. die zusammenhängenden geknickten Bogen bilden, ergibt sich als feste, von Lessing selbst herrührende Reihenfolge: Der Freygeist, Die beyderseitige Überredung, Der gute Mann.“

In a communication of September 14, 1929, Doctor Göber added the following significant information: “… dass das Manuscript kaum einen Zweifel daran zulässt, dass Der Freygeist, Die beiderseitige Überredung, Der gute Mann zeitlich unmittelbar zusammen gëhoren. Tinte und Schrift sind ganz gleich.”

68 Moore's play is a “sentimental” adaptation of the Luis and Aurora episode, being far more serious in tone than the original. The author has an obvious moral purpose, Lewis is reformed, and a subplot involving an attempted assassination is introduced.

Paul Albrecht—in the “Prospect” (Nov. 2, 1890), p. 8, announcing his Lessing's Plagiate (Hamburg and Leipzig, 1888–91)—stated that Lessing's manuscript was related to Moore's version, but did not present the evidence. Because of his unreliability as a scholar, his suggestion seems to have have been entirely ignored.

69 Act i, London, 1751, p. 9.

70 Act i, p. 10.

71 Act i, p. 10.

72 ii, [ii], p. 19.

73 Lachmann-Muncker, iii, “Vorrede,” xi.

74 Ibid., vi, 4.

75 To Moses Mendelssohn. Ibid., xvii, 46.

76 Cf. Franz Muncker in Lachmann-Muncker, iii, “Vorrede,” p. x; Karl Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, 3d ed., ed. Edmund Goetze (Dresden), Vol. iv, Part i (1916), p. 367.

77 i have not been able to identify the play cited in the scenario as the basis of the plot.

78 Cf. MP, xxiv, 65–90.