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
TEMPLAR.
How? what?
NATHAN.
You are no Stauffen.
TEMPLAR.
Who then am I? Speak.
NATHAN.
Conrade of Stauffen is no name of yours.
TEMPLAR.
What is my name then?
NATHAN.
Guy of Filnek.
TEMPLAR.
How?
NATHAN.
You startle—
TEMPLAR.
And with reason. Who says that?
NATHAN.
I, who can tell you more. Meanwhile, observe
I do not tax you with a falsehood.
TEMPLAR.
No?
NATHAN.
May be you with propriety can wear
Yon name as well.
TEMPLAR.
I think so too. (God—God
Put that speech on his tongue.)
NATHAN.
In fact your mother—
She was a Stauffen: and her brother’s name,
(The uncle to whose care you were resigned,
When by the rigour of the climate chased,
Your parents quitted Germany to seek
This land once more) was Conrade. He perhaps
Adopted you as his own son and heir.
Is it long since you hither travelled with him?
Is he alive yet?
TEMPLAR.
So in fact it stands.
What shall I say? Yes, Nathan, ’tis all right:
Tho’ he himself is dead. I came to Syria
With the last reinforcement of our order,
But—but what has all this long tale to do
With Recha’s brother, whom—
NATHAN.
Your father—
TEMPLAR.
Him,
Him did you know?
NATHAN.
He was my friend.
TEMPLAR.
Your friend?
And is that possible?
NATHAN.
He called himself
Leonard of Filnek, but he was no German.
TEMPLAR.
You know that too?
NATHAN.
He had espoused a German,
And followed for a time your mother thither.
TEMPLAR.
No more I beg of you—But Recha’s brother—
NATHAN.
Art thou
TEMPLAR.
I, I her brother—
RECHA.
He, my brother?
SITTAH.
So near akin—
RECHA (_offers to clasp him_).
My brother!
TEMPLAR (_steps back_).
Brother to her—
RECHA (_turning to Nathan_).
It cannot be, his heart knows nothing of it.
We are deceivers, God.
SALADIN (_to the templar_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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