Excerpt from Great Plays French and German What Lessing did was to disestablish the French tradition, to force his German contemporaries to think about the drama for themselves, and to open a way for Goethe and for Schiller. With Lessing the German drama asserts itself, and with Goethe and Schiller it proves itself. Of the two friends, Goethe was no doubt the broader genius, but Schiller was the more natural playwright. Goethe trod the stage like a conqueror, it is true; but Schiller breathed its air like a native. Scarcely a play of Goethe's is alive in the theatre to-day - except always the immortal Faust - while one or another of Schiller's bold and manly dramas is constantly in the repertory of the leading German playhouses. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.