The Search for an Enlightened Sovereign in Lessing's Drama

T h e S ea rch fo r a n E n lig h te n e d onmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA S o vereig n in L e ssin g ’s D ra m a R IC H A R D C R IT C H F IE L D I It was Heinrich Heine who wrote that Lessing was “mehr als man ahnte . . . auch politisch bewegt.”1 Years later Adolf Stahr characterized Lessing as the first republican of Germany. At the same time, Stahr stressed that Lessing sought “keine revolutionaren Umwalzungen.”2 However, Franz Mehring argued in the L essin g ' L eg en d e (1893) that Lessing was “der verwegenste Revolutionar, den die burgerliche Welt in Deutschland hervorgebracht hat bis auf die Borne und Heine, die Marx und Engels/’3 Marxist critics continue to see in Lessing an exponent of revolutionary politics. Thus, Lessing’s E m ilia G a lo tti (1772) represents, in Joachim Muller’s view, a call to political action “gegen die Ubergriffe des Feudalabsolutismus.”4 Yet, contrary to the political portrait of Lessing, the viewpoint also per­ sists that the dramatist, in fact, “besass kein echtes Interesse am Politischen.”5 The antithetical images of Lessing, who is portrayed on the one hand as a bourgeois revolutionary and on the other as a non­ revolutionary, if not apolitical, reveal that an objective interpretation of politics in Lessing is still a desideratum.6 251 252 / ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA R I C H A R D C R I T C H F I E L D Certainly, Lessing’s plan to translate Crebillon’s C a tilin a (1749), the fragments S a m u el H en zi (1753) and S p a rta cu s (1771), and most im* portantly, E m ilia G a lo tti and E rn st u n d F a lk (1778) are evidence of an enduring interest in politics. One of the salient features of politics in Lessing is the fusion of moral and political issues. Lessing’s stand with respect to the question of morality and politics is not an exception in eighteenth-century Germany. The conviction shared by Lessing that moral principle should dictate in political issues finds adherents in such figures as Kant.7 Moreover, Lessing is concerned with the philosophical question of the best possible form of government. From Lessing’s vantage point it is self-evident that the state should exist for the greater happiness of all its members.8 In addition, Lessing is preoccupied with the image of an enlightened sovereign who would work toward such an ideal. Indeed, Lessing’s dramatic enterprise reflects a continuous, yet problematical quest for an enlightened sovereign: a quest which culminates in the personage of Saladin in N a th a n d er W eise (1779). The present study begins with a discussion of S a m u el H en zi, a work in which the fusion of morality and politics, and the search for an enlightened ruler find their early expression in Lessing’s drama. II In his dramatization of the abortive and tragic revolt in the Swiss Canton of Bern, Lessing depicts in his hero a moralist and patriot who clearly does not seek a revolutionary solution to the political dilemma of Bern’s citizens. Henzi states of the governing council: Er bleibe, was er ist, wann er uns nicht mehr drucket, Wann Dienst und Regiment zum gleicben Teil beglucket, Wann er als seinen Herrn erkennt das Vaterland Und ist nur, was er ist, des Volkes Mund und Hand.9 By way of contrast, Henzi’s adversary Ducret is the actual proponent of a popular revolt. Ducret’s revolutionary dictum reveals his will­ ingness to subject moral values to political necessity: T h e E n lig h ten ed S o vereig n in L essin g ’s D ra m a /onmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQP 253 Die Not heisst alles gut. Sie hebt das Laster auf; Und bald wird’s Tugend sein, folgt Gluck und Sieg nur drauf. (II, 541) From the standpoint of the moralist, revolutionary violence, which will inevitably cost the lives of fellow citizens, can never be equated with virtue. Henzi...