Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise) [German English Bilingual Edition]
by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise), is a five act is a five act play published in 1779 and is a fervent plea for religious tolerance. Its performance was forbidden by the Church during Lessing's lifetime; it was first performed in 1783 in Berlin.
Set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, it describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and the initially anonymous Templar bridge their gaps between Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Its major themes are friendship, tolerance, relativism of God, a rejection of miracles and a need for communication.
About the Author
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (January 22, 1729 – February 15, 1981) was a German writer and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theater historians to be the first dramaturg. His theoretical and critical writings are remarkable for their often witty and ironic style and their unerring polemics.
Today his own works appear as prototypes of the later developed bourgeois German drama. Scholars see Miss Sara Sampson and Emilia Galotti as amongst the first bourgeois tragedies, Minna von Barnhelm (Minna of Barnhelm) as the model for many classic German comedies, Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise) as the first German Ideendrama (drama of ideas). His theoretical writings Laocoon and Hamburg Dramaturgy (Hamburgische Dramaturgie) set the standards for the discussion of aesthetic and literary theoretical principles.
In his religious and philosophical writings he defended the faithful Christian's right for freedom of thought. At one point, Lessing was silenced through a law that took away his freedom from censorship, to which he responded with his most influential play, Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise).
The idea of freedom (for the theatre against the dominance of its French model; for religion from the church's dogma) was his central theme throughout his life. Therefore he also stood up for the liberation of the upcoming middle and upper class from the nobility making up their minds for them.
He died at the age of 52.
About the Bilingual Edition
The paragraph-by-paragraph translation series is a continuing project making available great original German writers' texts along with their English translation.We believe that this edition, which offers after every original language paragraph its translation, makes both grammar and vocabulary checks as painless as possible. Idiomatic forms that could be overlooked can be easily detected. Furthermore, large paragraphs have been broken down to much smaller units so that the check is as effortless as possible. We do hope that by reading German writers that defined the language itself or whose work permeated the German culture, you will be able to get the maximum benefit from this language series. This edition is a very powerful tool to speed up the process once you have attained the intermediate level and beyond.
by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise), is a five act is a five act play published in 1779 and is a fervent plea for religious tolerance. Its performance was forbidden by the Church during Lessing's lifetime; it was first performed in 1783 in Berlin.
Set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, it describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened sultan Saladin, and the initially anonymous Templar bridge their gaps between Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Its major themes are friendship, tolerance, relativism of God, a rejection of miracles and a need for communication.
About the Author
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (January 22, 1729 – February 15, 1981) was a German writer and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theater historians to be the first dramaturg. His theoretical and critical writings are remarkable for their often witty and ironic style and their unerring polemics.
Today his own works appear as prototypes of the later developed bourgeois German drama. Scholars see Miss Sara Sampson and Emilia Galotti as amongst the first bourgeois tragedies, Minna von Barnhelm (Minna of Barnhelm) as the model for many classic German comedies, Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise) as the first German Ideendrama (drama of ideas). His theoretical writings Laocoon and Hamburg Dramaturgy (Hamburgische Dramaturgie) set the standards for the discussion of aesthetic and literary theoretical principles.
In his religious and philosophical writings he defended the faithful Christian's right for freedom of thought. At one point, Lessing was silenced through a law that took away his freedom from censorship, to which he responded with his most influential play, Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise).
The idea of freedom (for the theatre against the dominance of its French model; for religion from the church's dogma) was his central theme throughout his life. Therefore he also stood up for the liberation of the upcoming middle and upper class from the nobility making up their minds for them.
He died at the age of 52.
About the Bilingual Edition
The paragraph-by-paragraph translation series is a continuing project making available great original German writers' texts along with their English translation.We believe that this edition, which offers after every original language paragraph its translation, makes both grammar and vocabulary checks as painless as possible. Idiomatic forms that could be overlooked can be easily detected. Furthermore, large paragraphs have been broken down to much smaller units so that the check is as effortless as possible. We do hope that by reading German writers that defined the language itself or whose work permeated the German culture, you will be able to get the maximum benefit from this language series. This edition is a very powerful tool to speed up the process once you have attained the intermediate level and beyond.