LAOCOON. =An Essay upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry.= WITH REMARKS ILLUSTRATIVE OF VARIOUS POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT ART. BY GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING. TRANSLATED BY ELLEN FROTHINGHAM. [Illustration: [Logo]] BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1890. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by ROBERTS BROTHERS, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON & SON, CAMBRIDGE. TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. A translation of the Laocoon was given to the English public by E. C. BEASLEY, one of the tutors of Leamington College, in 1853. Very few copies found their way to America, and the book is now difficult to obtain. The desire of the present translator has been to make a version which could be easily read by persons ignorant of any language save English. To this end an attempt was made to banish all foreign languages from the text, and substitute for the original quotations their equivalents, as near as possible, in English. This method was found, however, on trial, to be incompatible with the closeness of Lessing’s criticism, depending, as that in many cases does, on the shade of meaning of the original word. For the sake of consistency, therefore, Lessing’s method has been adhered to in every instance; the words of the author cited being retained in the text, and a translation given in a foot-note wherever the meaning was not sufficiently indicated by the context. The same course has been pursued with the modern as with the ancient languages. Dryden’s translation of Virgil has been used throughout, and Bryant’s of Homer in every case but one, where a quotation from the Æneid and the Odyssey stood in close connection. In this single instance Pope’s version was preferred; his style being more in harmony with that of Dryden, and his want of literalness being here not objectionable. Such notes as were not necessary to the understanding of the text have been transferred to the end of the book. The translator would here acknowledge the valuable assistance received from Mr. W. T. BRIGHAM in the rendering of quotations from the classics. ELLEN FROTHINGHAM. BOSTON, June, 1873. PREFACE. The first who compared painting with poetry was a man of fine feeling, who was conscious of a similar effect produced on himself by both arts. Both, he perceived, represent absent things as present, give us the appearance as the reality. Both produce illusion, and the illusion of both is pleasing.