Very rare poster issued by the the Royal German Theater in Berlin in 1841 . Performing : "Nathan the Wise" from ...

Very rare poster issued by the the Royal German Theater in Berlin in 1841 . Performing : "Nathan the Wise" from Jerusalem. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, (1729-1781), German dramatist. Nathan der Weise (1779), Lessing’s “dramatic poem” in iambic pentameter. This is a didactic play of a theological and philosophical nature, combining ethical profundity with many comic touches, and is a work of high poetic quality and dramatic tension. Nathan der Weise symbolizes the equality of three great religions in regard to their ethical basis, for the play celebrates man’s true religion—love, acting without prejudice and devoted to the service of mankind. Among the representatives of the three religions—Islāmic (Saladin), Christian (the Templar), and Jewish (Nathan)—only the Jew, in whose character Lessing paid tribute to his old friend Moses Mendelssohn, lives up to the ideal of full humanity; he alone is capable of complete self-abnegation and has the courage to speak the truth even to the mighty. The fact that the main characters discover in the end that they are blood relatives serves to underscore their common membership in the larger family of mankind. In German. Condition: Decent-bad. There are many tears and stains but most of the damage is around the edges. The text is mostly in tact and completely legible. . Taped on the back .