ΤΟ

The Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P.,

IN MEMORY

OF LONG FRIENDSHIP

AND A COMMON LOVE OF HOMER

THESE PAGES

ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

BY THE WRITER.

Certain Notes prepared by Lessing for a Second and Third Part of

the Laocoon, and perhaps for a new edition of the First Part.

First Section

Second Section

Third Section

Fourth Section

289

291

295

312

Fifth Section

Index

314

356

PREFACE.

SECTION I.

1. Birth and Education of Lessing"..-2. State of German Literature when Lessing began his career as author.-3. Lessing's Works generally.— 4. Winkelmann; Lessing's Laocoon. 5. Ancient Versions of the story of Laocoon.-6. Notice of some of the principal Modern Authors referred to by Lessing.-7. Notice of Modern Authors not referred to by Lessing, but who wrote, before the publication of the Laocoon, on Poetry and Painting.

1. THE territory which once formed the ancient German margraviate of Lusatia was divided into Upper and Lower Lusatia. It lay between the Elbe and the Oder, situated to the north of Bohemia, to the south of Brandenburg, and to the west of Silesia. The race which dwelt on the northern declivities of the Giant mountains (Riesen Gebirge), which separate Silesia from Bohemia, were men of robust and vigorous minds; and early in the seventeenth century intellectual life began to develope itself simultaneously in Upper Lusatia and Silesia.

The principal authorities to which I have had recourse for the materials of this sketch are:-G. E. Lessing's 'Leben und Werke,' vol. i. by Danzel, vol. ii. by Gurauer: Leipzig, 1849. G. E. Lessing's 'Sein Leben und Seine Werke,' von A. Stahr: Berlin, 1859. Goedeke's 'Grundriss zur Geschichte der Deutschen Dichtung,' 1, 611, § 221. Gervinus's Geschichte der Poetischen National Literatur,' 4, 318: Leipzig, 1843. 'German Classics,' by Dr. Buchheim, vol. iii. of Clarendon Press Series: Oxford, 1873. Gostwick and Harrison's Outlines of German Literature,'

201.

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