`Toleranz? Noch spür' ich sie nicht': Erwin Sylvanus' Modern Sequel to Lessing's Die Juden

Abstract

Hamann reported to Herder in May, 1779, that Kant had dismissed the just published Nathan der Weise disparagingly 'blos als den 2. Theil der Juden.' 2 This verdict was scarcely upheld even among the mixed reactions of 1779, and to-day – with Nathan securely established as a classic of both literature and stage – we may simply reflect patronizingly that great men have their off-moments. But what of the implication in Kant's remark that the earlier play is incomplete? It is a commonplace of modern Lessing-criticism to commend Die Juden as an extraordinary work for its twenty-year-old author in 1749, while adding that this brave attempt to fuse serious subject and traditional comic form does not quite succeed. 3 Clearly Lessing could exploit prejudice as a dramatic theme only in a limited way: the serious topic is as alien to the comedy-world of the mid-eighteenth century as the Jew is to the country estate, on which he can impinge for less than the day's span allowed by the dramatic unities. The revelation of identity, which in the conventional satiric comedy would have begun a