Nathan der Weise

Nathan der Weise, a verse play (Ein dramatisches Gedicht in fünf Aufzügen) written by G. E. Lessing in 1778, and published in 1779. It was first performed in Berlin on 14 April 1783. The time is that of the Crusades and the place Jerusalem. A young Templar (Tempelherr), captured and unexpectedly released by Saladin, rescues Recha, a Jew's adopted daughter, and after much hesitation seeks her hand. But Nathan, the adoptive father, temporizes. The Templar, in anger which is inflamed by the well-meaning Christian servant Daja, who believes that Nathan has seduced his adoptive daughter from Christianity to Judaism, comes near to betraying Nathan to the intolerant Christian patriarch of Jerusalem. Meanwhile Saladin, in need of money, summons Nathan and sets out to sound his quality, asking the Jew which of the three great religions is the true one. Nathan answers with a parable of three identical rings (adapted from Boccaccio, Decameron, I.3), and his wise tolerance gains him Saladin as a friend. As a result of their meeting it is discovered that the Templar and Recha are brother and sister, children of Saladin's deceased brother and his Christian wife.

The play is a noble plea and argument for religious tolerance. For Lessing it was a counterpart on a higher plane to the embittered controversy with Pastor Goeze, in which he had been silenced by ducal censorship. Nathan der Weise, noteworthy for its pioneering of blank verse in German drama, is a masterpiece of comedy, wit, and noble serenity.