Nathan the Wise; a dramatic poem in five actsLessing, Gotthold Ephraim
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Nathan the Wise; a dramatic poem in five acts
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim
German drama -- Translations into English
NATHAN.
Then ’tis well we’re both accommodated.
That I can’t send thee all I have of treasure
Arises from the templar; thou must know him,
I have a weighty debt to pay to him.
SALADIN.
A templar! How, thou dost not with thy gold
Support my direst foes.
NATHAN.
I speak of him
Whose life the sultan—
SALADIN.
What art thou recalling?
I had forgot the youth, whence is he, knowest thou?
NATHAN.
Hast thou not heard then how thy clemency
To him has fallen on me. He at the risk
Of his new-spared existence, from the flames
Rescued my daughter.
SALADIN.
Ha! Has he done that;
He looked like one that would—my brother too,
Whom he’s so like, bad done it. Is he here still?
Bring him to me—I have so often talked
To Sittah of this brother, whom she knew not,
That I must let her see his counterfeit.
Go fetch him. How a single worthy action,
Though but of whim or passion born, gives rise
To other blessings! Fetch him.
NATHAN.
In an instant.
The rest remains as settled.
SALADIN.
O, I wish
I had let my sister listen. Well, I’ll to her.
How shall I make her privy to all this?
SCENE.—The Place of Palms.
The TEMPLAR _walking and agitated_.
TEMPLAR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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