Wednesday, February 7, 1827

To-day Goethe spoke severely of certain critics, who were not satisfied with Lessing, and made unjust demands upon him. " When people," said he, "compare the pieces of Lessing with those of the ancients, and call them paltry and miserable, what do they mean? Rather pity the extraordinary man for being obliged to live in a pitiful time, which afforded him no better materials than are treated in his pieces; pity him, because in his Minna von Barnhelm, he found nothing better to do than to meddle with the squabbles of Saxony and Prussia. His constant polemical turn, too, resulted from the badness of his time. In Emilia Galotti, he vented his pique against princes; in Nathan, against the priests."


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