Daily inter mountain., 1900-12-22

|
| Winckelman together established
| grandeur and repose as the ideal of
| Hellenic sculpture and painting and as
| the principle which should govern mod
ern artists But when Winckelman
| went farther and derived the distinctive
| character of the Greek masterpieces
| from a certain stocal compOsure of soul,
and tried to discover the same spirit in
| the Greek poets, Lessing could not agree
| with him.
Heroic stoicism, which only excites
| cold admiration, was not at all to his
| mind; and it was easy to show that it
F! was also contrary to the spirit of the
| Greeks. In the development of this
| controversy with Winckelman, Lessing
has given us signal proof of his ability
| to think a thing out in the abstract, and
at the same time to accurately observe
! and appreciate facs.
He pointed out how differently the
| death of LAGOON had been treated by
| Virgil on the one hand, and by the Greek
| sculptor on the other, and how in this
| they had followed the different laws
regulating poetry and plastic art. He
| sought to remove the confusion between
| the two, and above all to abolish that
kind of word painting in poetry, which
had come into Breitnger's influence.
| 1t seems that for Lessing an import
| ant personal hope was bound up with
this work; he hoped by it to attract the
| kings attention and to obtain the APP
| poinment of director of the royal libra
ry in Berlin a post for which his name
4 and Wickelman's had been mentioned
/ faVOrably to the king.
| But both We're destined to be disap-
| pointed in their hopes.
| The kings jmnraScion of T,accipo. bad n
been formed by the description which
the enraged Voltaire had given him of
| the young author who had offended him.
Frederic therefore utterly refused to APP
| point Lessing to the post.
| WinckelmanS appointment also fell
through owing to a dispute about the
! salary, Frederick declaring that the pro-
| posed salary 5000 was too much for a
German, and that he would only give
| him half that amount.
In the end an utterly incompetent
F'renchman was appointed over the
heads Of Lessing and Winckleman.
If Frederick could only have recog-
| nzed it, no German author was really so
akin to his inmost character as Lessing.
Both had the same vivacty and ambi-s
ton, the same youthful thirst for glory
| which led them recklessly to humiliate
1
what was bad; both felt strongly the
need Of friendship, while both We're but
slightly susceptible to the love of women;
in both enjoyment of life was combined
! with strong sense of duty, both had
the same liberal views, and tolerance
| the same clear, ready and rational style.
| Lessing demanded of a historian that
he should relate contemporary events,
demand which Frederick fulfilled.
Lessing introduced strict rule in liter
ature, as Frederick did in the field and
in home me-government.
Lessing, like the great king, defended
the national cause against the foreigner.
| There were never two men more created
| for each other than Lessing and Fred
erick the Great. and Frederick could not
| have found any where subject who
would have served him with greater
faithfulness and a more worthy aim, or
a writer who would have so fully COM
pensated him for the loss of what at
tracted him in his beloved French.
| But the improved and unjust accusa-
| tion made years before by Frenchman,
whom the king despised as much as he
| admired him, was sufficient reason for
striking out the name of this German
poet, and scholar forever from the list of
those who might serve him.
From Brandenburg Lessing next went
to Hamburg where q new disappoint-
ment awaited him. A permanent Ger
man theater was about to be founded in
the town, which had been the home of
the early German opera, the art of act
ing had been raised to much higher
level, the many excellent actors and ac-
tresses coming to Hamburg were ready
to support Lessing in his new dramatic
schemes.
Lessing was to be the reporter. was to
train the actors by his free criticisms and
to educate the public taste. From the
first of May, 1867, his (Hamburgische
Dramaturgie) Hamburg Dramaturgy'
| appeared twice a week. 1t was a paper
written entirely by himself, and devoted
exclusively to the interests of the Ma
tional theater but the actors, as usual,
| did not care to be found fault with, but
only to be praised; the public did not
show any great sympathy with the un-
dertaking,. and the means soon began to
fail; the scheme was abandoned after
two years. The paper had, for some
time. given up eriticising the represen-
tations regularly, and had introduced
general discussion of the drama instead,
did not get farther than two volumes
But these two volumes are of mex
haustible value. They are rich in in
formation about the plays of the time,
rich in penetrating criticism Of dramtic
art and dramatic poetry in general. They
form a continuation of the theatrical
periodicals which Lessing had published
in his youth, a continuation of his earlier
polemical writings on the weaknesses of
the French school, and sequel to his
LAGOON
The LAGOON was to have eliminated
in glorifcation of the drama as the
highest form of poetry. All art, Lessina
declared, must aim at the direct repre-,
sentation of nature; and poetry, which
can only describe and represent indi-
rectly and by means of words, rises in
the drama to the full level of a first