Hamburg Dramaturgy

Here we see the beginnings of the dichotomy between external and internal acting – that is, the technique of “putting on the clothes and pretending to be the character in voice, motion, etc.” vs the technique of “digging deeply into the actor’s life for analogous emotions and experiences, bringing them to the character and living them, moment to moment on stage”

Well before Stanislavski and others, Lessing understood the need for both literal and emotional understanding of the text so the actor could convey the fullness of the work to the audience.

Thank you for the comment! We had also caught that mistake in our revision of the essay for publication. Our revised translation of the sentence will read: “For although this is a silent poetry, it wants to make itself immediately understood by our eyes; and any sense must be gratified if it is to communicate directly to the soul those concepts that have been entrusted to it.”

“jeder Sinn will geschmeichelt sein, wenn er die Begriffe, die man ihm in die Seele zu bringen gibet, unverfälscht überliefern soll.” may mean “every sense must be flattred/satisfied, if (the actor) want it to communicate those concepts—which are given to it— to the soul clearly ”.

That is because, in deutsch, for exemple, “Das Autofahren will gelernt sein” means “(People) must learn how to drive (before drive) ”，but not “Driving is learned”.

Dear Émilie, The entire translation is now online! Enjoy!

These thoughts are developed further in his work Laocoon. I find it particularly interesting that he notes theater to be between poetry and the visual arts, though it does make sense. In Laocoon he seems to be extra-critical of painting and what it can do versus what poetry can, the main difference of which is that poetry can “move.” I wonder if his thoughts on theater changed later in his life.

I have never heard it before. I like it and it is an excellent warning for all writers. Deaths should be linked to earlier events to satisfy our internal logic of causation.

The proper use of heroic sentiment shows up with Antigone only willing to keep to the laws of the Gods. It would have greatly diminished that play had both sisters to that stance.

comfortable with the moderation to which art obliges them ….