person

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Lessing

also: Лессинг

German dramatist and critic (1729-1781) whose Hamburgische Dramaturgie and Laokoon were standard references in nineteenth-century dramatic theory.

Reading notes

On Drama §4 Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), German dramatist and critic whose Hamburgische Dramaturgie and Laokoon were standard reference points in nineteenth-century discussions of dramatic theory -- another name Poluekhtov drops to sound cultured.
To A. S. Suvorin, 14 May 1889. Sumy. §7 horrified all over again that I haven't read Lessing.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, invoked here exactly as in the headnote (where Chekhov compares his own new play unfavorably to Lessing's "Nathan the Wise"); the joke that Svobodin will again be "horrified" that Chekhov hasn't read him suggests a running exchange between them.
To A. S. Suvorin, 17 February 1890. Moscow. §10 Not half a word about Lessing
A pointed negative aside: whatever discussion of the German playwright and critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing might have been expected from the theater-minded, literature-loving Svobodin, none came up -- the letter does not specify why Lessing would have been anticipated as a topic, only that his absence was notable enough to remark on.