Nathan the Wise | Page 5

the burdens in the Camenz parsonage. At Berlin the office of Royal Librarian became vacant. The claims of Lessing were urged, but Frederick appointed an insignificant Frenchman. In 1767 Lessing was called to aid an unsuccessful attempt to establish a National Theatre in Hamburg.
Other troubles followed. Lessing gave his heart to a widow, Eva Konig, and was betrothed to her. But the involvements of her worldly affairs, and of his, delayed the marriage for six years. To secure fixed income he took a poor office as Librarian at Wolfenbuttel. In his first year at Wolfenbuttel, he wrote his play of "Emilia Galotti." Then came a long-desired journey to Italy; but it came in inconvenient form, for it had to be made with Prince Leopold, of Brunswick, hurriedly, for the sake of money, at the time when Lessing was at last able to marry.
The wife, long waited for, and deeply loved, died at the birth of her first child. This was in January, 1778, when Lessing's age was 49. Very soon afterwards he was attacked by a Pastor Goeze, in Hamburg, and other narrow theologians, for having edited papers that contained an attack on Christianity, which Lessing himself had said that he wished to see answered before he died. The uncharitable bitterness of these attacks, felt by a mind that had been touched to the quick by the deepest of sorrows, helped to the shaping of Lessing's calm, beautiful lesson of charity, this noblest of his plays--"Nathan the Wise." But Lessing's health was shattered, and he survived his wife only three years. He died in 1781, leaving imperishable influence for good upon the minds of men, but so poor in what the world calls wealth, that his funeral had to be paid for by a Duke of Brunswick.
William Taylor, the translator of Lessing's "Nathan the Wise;" was born in 1765, the son of a rich merchant at Norwich, from whose business he was drawn away by his strong bent towards literature. His father yielded to his wishes, after long visits to France and to Germany, in days astir with the new movements of thought, that preceded and followed the French Revolution. He formed a close friendship with Southey, edited for a little time a "Norwich Iris," and in his later years became known especially for his Historic Survey of German Poetry, which included his translations, and among them this of "Nathan the Wise." It was published in 1830, Taylor died in 1836. Thomas Carlyle, in reviewing William Taylor's Survey of German Poetry, said of the author's own translations in it "compared with the average of British translations, they may be pronounced of almost ideal excellence; compared with the best translations extant, for example, the German Shakespeare, Homer, Calderon, they may still be called better than indifferent. One great merit Mr. Taylor has: rigorous adherence to his original; he endeavours at least to copy with all possible fidelity the term of praise, the tone, the very metre, whatever stands written for him."
H. M.

NATHAN THE WISE.

"Introite nam et heic Dii sunt!"--APUD GELLIUM.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
SALADIN, the Sultan. SITTAH, his Sister. NATHAN, a rich Jew. RECHA, his adopted Daughter. DAYA, a Christian Woman dwelling with the Jew a companion to Recha. CONRADE, a young Templar. HAFI, a Dervis. ATHANASIOS, the Patriarch of Palestine. BONAFIDES, a Friar. An Emir, sundry Mamalukes, Slaves, &c.
The Scene is at Jerusalem.

ACT I.

SCENE--A Hall in Nathan's House.
NATHAN, in a travelling dress, DAYA meeting him.
DAYA.
'Tis he, 'tis Nathan! Thanks to the Almighty, That you're at last returned.
NATHAN.
Yes, Daya, thanks, That I have reached Jerusalem in safety. But wherefore this AT LAST? Did I intend, Or was it possible to come back sooner? As I was forced to travel, out and in, 'Tis a long hundred leagues to Babylon; And to get in one's debts is no employment, That speeds a traveller.
DAYA.
O Nathan, Nathan, How miserable you had nigh become During this little absence; for your house -
NATHAN,
Well, 'twas on fire; I have already heard it. God grant I may have heard the whole, that chanced!
DAYA.
'Twas on the point of burning to the ground.
NATHAN.
Then we'd have built another, and a better.
DAYA.
True!--But thy Recha too was on the point Of perishing amid the flames.
NATHAN.
Of perishing? My Recha, saidst thou? She? I heard not that. I then should not have needed any house. Upon the point of perishing--perchance She's gone?--Speak out then--out--torment me not With this suspense.--Come, tell me, tell me all.
DAYA.
Were she no more, from me you would not hear it.
NATHAN.
Why then alarm me?--Recha, O my Recha!
DAYA.
Your Recha? Yours?
NATHAN.
What if I ever were Doomed to unlearn to call this child, MY child,
DAYA.
Is all you own yours by an equal title?
NATHAN,
Nought by a better. What I else enjoy Nature and Fortune gave--this treasure, Virtue.
DAYA.
How dear you make me pay for all your goodness! - If goodness,