Samuel Gotthold Lange

Lange, Samuel Gotthold (Halle, 1711-81, Laublingen nr. Halle), minor poet and translator, studied theology at Halle and was afterwards pastor at Laublingen. Together with his friend J. I. Pyra he founded in Halle, while still a student, the Gesellschaft zur Förderung der deutschen Sprache, Poesie und Beredsamkeit (1733). He sought to counter Gottsched's francophile literary policy by advocating the adoption in German of classical metres. In 1745 Pyra's and Lange's poems were published by Bodmer without Lange's consent (Pyra had died the year before) as Thirsis und Damons freundschaftliche Lieder, Damon being Lange. Lange's Freundschaftliche Briefe were published in 1746 and Horazische Oden in 1747. His translation of the Carmina and Ars poetica of Horace (Des Qu. Horatius Flaccus Oden fünf Bücher und von der Dichtkunst ein Buch poetisch übersetzt, 1752) was philologically inaccurate and presented a Horace who was too close to the pattern of the Lutheran pastor.

It was a misfortune for Lange that so formidable a critic as the young Lessing set about his translation; for, in consequence of Lessing's campaign, Lange is now chiefly known as the butt in Lessing's title Vademecum für den Herrn S. G. Lange, 1754. The best of Lange's rather thin poetry was written under the stimulus of his more gifted friend Pyra.