1. 5. jenes würde kühner lassen; an idiomatic phrase instead of ' aussehen, erscheinen; ' — ' the former would look bolder.' ' Lassen ' with the dative of the person is synonymous with ' stehen; ' e. g. ' Wie lässt mir dieser Hut? Er steht Ihnen nicht übel.' ' How does this hat become me? Not badly.' See note on hüsslich lässt, p. 29, 1. 19.
284 uVOTES.
1. 12. Turpe senilis amor, ' hideous is love in old men;' Ovid, 1. 21. 'And yet, dcspite her beauty, let her go, Nor bring on us and on our sons a cur?e.'
Lord Derby.
1. 30. ' O'er her head she threw A snowy veil; and shedding tender tears She issued forth, not unaccompanied.'
Lord Derby.
P. 164, 1. 4. durfte also...entstehen; ' dürfen ' is here used in the sense of ' brauchen,' — ' need not arise ' er • did not necessarily arise.'
1. 8. so etwas, 'anjthing of the kind,' so below, so etwas geläufiges, 'something so familiär' and the phrase 'so ein Mann,' p. 189,!. 15. Statt finden = to have place = be found.
1. 12. brünstig; — derived from an obsolete 'die Brunst;'— a con- sumingfire; cp. 'brennen.' We still use ' die Feuersbrunst,' a confla- gration; ' die Inbrunst,' the ardour; ' inbrünstig,' ardent. Lessing uses ' brünstig ' in the sense of ' inbrünstig,' ardent, enraptured. So Goethe: ' Und ein Gebet war brünstiger Genuss ' (Faust, i.\ 1. 14. von ihrem proportionirten Umrisse. ' of her well-propor- tioned outline.'
1. 24, den Schimmer, acc. abs. Eve, § 336.
1. 32. äussert, with supine, on the analogy of ' behaupten '; Eve.
1. 33. würde sich...verhalten, ' would bear the relation.'
P. 165, 1. 4. so gar vieler Gemälde nicht erwähnt, ' erwähnen ' may be used with the accusative or with the genitive of the person or thing mentioned. ' Man erwähnt deiner nicht' or 'dich nicht in diesem Buche.' If we tum this sentence into the passive it must run either: ' Du wirst in diesem Buche nicht erwähnt,' or ' es wird deiner in diesem Buche nicht erwähnt; ' this latter construction we have in the above passage.
1. 5. hätten, virtual oblique narration.
P. 166, 1. 2. künstliche Beleuchtungen, ' artistic effects of light.'
1. IG. Abdruck, properlyan 'Impression,' 'stamp,'so 'reproduction' in general.
1. 13. die übrigen...harmoniren; ' all the other features have no similarity with each other except that they harmonise with the one xesembling fealure in the onc as well as in the uther i^work^.'
' He said, and nodded witli his shadowy brows; Waved on the iminoital head the ambrosial locks, And all 01}mpus treinbled at his nod.'
Lord Derby.
1. 17. bei seinem olympischen Jupiter; Losging refers of course to the famous statue which was placed in the temple of Zeus at Olympia, one of the seven wonders of the ancicnt world. See Miirray, Grcek Scnlpture, vol. ii. eh. 18; Overbeck, Geschichte der Griechischen Plastik, bk. iii. eh. i.
1. 18. propemodum...petitum, 'almost brought down from heaven.'
1. 19. "Wem...heisst; literally, ' for whom this means saying no more but that;' more freely: 'who is of opinion that this means nothing more than that...'
1. 24. zu einer weit gründlicliem Befriedigung, ' so as to produce a far deeper satisfaction.'
1. 26. So viel, as in 'So viel ich weiss' 'so far as I know.' Zu- gleich, ' withal,' i. e. at the sarae time that he made the remark.
1. 27. quanta, etc., 'what agrcat part of the soul.'
1. 29. Vielleicht, dass, is elliptic = ' it may be that.'
P. 168, 1. 2. ambrosisches Haar; dfißpuaios, originally, 'immortal,' ' divine.' Homer gives this epithel to everything that belongs to the gods; as, ambrosial meat, ointmtnts, etc.
1. 3. das Sprechende und Bedeutende der Mienen, 'the language and meaning of the features.'
1. 5. Myron, a Greek sculptor, about 450 B. C. Pliny says of him, that he paid attention only to the shape of the body, and did not express the feelings of the soul, and in rendering the hair did not improve upon the traditions of an older and rüder school.
1. 13. Hogarth, William, 1697-1764; the celebrated English painter and engraver, published, in 1753, a work on the ' Analysis of Bcauty,' in which he represented the curveas the line of bcauty. Mylius, a fiiend of Lessing, translated it into German in 1754 under the title 'Zerglie- derung der Schönheit.' In chapter xi. p. 149 (On Proportion) he speaks of the Statue of the Apollo Belvidere. This famous statue Stands in the Cortile di Belvedere, which forms part of the Vatican, together with the group of Laocoon and the statue of Antinous.
\. 14. Antinous, a youth of extraordinary beauty, the flivourite and constant coinpanion of the Emperor Hadrian. When Antinous was drowncd in the Nile, Hadrian, inconsolable at his loss. caused countless statues of him to be erected in his honour, and a kind of public worsliip to be devoted to his departcd spirit. The most celebrated of the re- 286 NOTES.
maining statues of Antinous is that in the Vatican, the features of which betray a deep melancholy. The eighteenth Century critics, to whom the Parthenon marbles were still unknown, over-Cntimated these Graeco- Roman statues.
1. 21. da...klar ist; ' as upon examination, its disproportion is evident even to a common eye! ' 1. 27. Andreas Sacchi, a famous Italian painter, bom 1598 at Net- tuno near Rome, died 1661 at Rome. He distinguished himself through great industry, an exact study of nature, and great technical skill.
P. 169, 1. 3. den Tonkünstler Pasquilini. A cerlain Pasqualini was a populär singer and composer of the Pope's private choir at the time of Sacchi.
1. 7. aus der Acht lassen, ' to neglect.'
1. 14. dass das...geschienen; 'that, what has been hitherto thought so ineffably excellent in its general appearance, was due to what seemed a blemish in a part of it.'
1. 21. Antenor, an old Trojan who desired to bring about a recon- ciliation between the Greeks and his countrj-men. Menelaus and Odys- seus stayed at his house when they came to Troy as ambassadors of the Greek army.
XXIII.
P. 170, 1. 3. die übereinstimmende...stören, ' can mar the harmonious effect of many parts in the production of beauty.'
1. 12. Thersites, son of Agrios, one of the Greeks before Troy, famous for his loquacious malignity as well as for his ugliness; Iliad, P. 171, 1. 6. Allerdings wird sie das, — \\z. 'gehindert,' — 'of course it (the effect of ugliness) is hindered.'
1. 1 2. ein Ingrediens; Leasing might have used the German word for it: ' der Bcstandtheil,' or ' die Zuthat.'
1. 24. meines Frevmdes; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786% a philo sophical writer of the rationalistic school. He was a Jew of a noble and amiable character, and of a large mind. He is supposed to be the prototype of Lessing's Nathan der Weise.
1. 25. nicht zu krall; ' krall ' or ' grell,' is used of sudden and start- ling impresäions made on the ear or the eye; ' ein grelles Licht,' ' a glaring light'; 'ein greller Ton,' * a shrill tone.'
1. 26. Opposita, contrasts of colour or of light and shade.
1. 28. Aesop; Aesopus, the famous Greek fabulist, who lived about the middle of the sixth Century B. c. The life of Aesopus containcd in the coUection of his fahles which was made by Maximus Planudes, a monk of the fourteenth Century, described him as extremcly deformed and subject to Stammering.
LAOKOON. XXIII, 287 LAOKOON. XXIII, 287 1. 30. eine alberne Mönchsfratze, * the silly whim of a monk.' 'Fratze' is originally a ridiculous contortion of the face, then a ridi- culous and absurd utterance or fancy. Cp. Faust in answer to Mephistopheles' demand that he should sign the compact with a drop of blood: 'Wenn dies dir völlig G'nüge thut. So mag es bei der P'ratze bleiben.' das FeXotov...zu wollen, ' to attempt to transfer also to his person the comical elemcnt in his instructive fables, by representing him as misshapen.'
P. 172, 1. 3. Sie gewähren kein Drittes, i. e. they do not amal- gamate to form a new substance.
1. 14. ■William 'Wycherley (1640-1715), the famous writer of vvilty but immoral coniedies.
1. 24. mein Freund, Moses Mendelssohn.
1. 25. jener Contrast, the contrast of perfection and imperfection alluded to in the definition of the ridiculous by Mendelssohn.
1. 28. zu stehen kommen, with dative of person = ' to come to,' ' to cost,' See note on p. cjy, 1. 13.
P. 173, 1. 3. Quintus Calaber, vide Chap. V. die Penthesilea. the queen of the Amazons, who came to the assistance of the Trojans but was killed by Achilles.
1. 7. macht ihm diese Liebe zum Verbrechen, ' imputes this love to him as a crime.'
1. 10. 'That deprives a man of his reason, Be he never so wise.'
1. 15. Der jachzornige; we say now more commonly 'jähzornige,' given to sudden anger, ' hasty '; from ' gäh ' or ' gähe,' or more commonly now 'jäh, jähe' (M. H. G. ' gach '); it means impetuous, abrupt, precipitous.
1.22. die Verhetzungen = 'Aufhetzungen ' or 'Hetzereien,' 'the instigations,' from 'hetzen,' 'to setthe dogs on,' 'tohnnt'; ' die Hetze ' or ' die Hetzjagd,' 'the chase'; 'aufhetzen ' figurative, 'toinstigate.' ' Er hat meine Freunde gegen mich aufgehetzt.'
1. 26. und dort hä.tte...verhangen. The verb ' verhängen ' is used of the penalty which the judge pronounces on the criminal; e. g. ' der Richter hat die Todesstrafe über den Mörder verhängt ' (Lessing, ' verhangen '). Translate the above passage: ' and that there (at sea) a divine decree of punishmcnt had doomed fleet and people to utter destruction.'
288 NOTES.
XXIV.
mark the contrast between ' Fertigkeit ' and ' Kunst.' The former is a readiness, a skill acquired by industry and practice, the latter sopposes an innate talent; painting as that skill vvhich produces a likeness of things is ab!e to express ugliness, painting as a fine art refuses to do so, 1. 20. Als jener...zu; 'als jener,' a dalive, in apposition to the following 'ihr,* which refers to ' Feitigkeit.'
P. 176, 1. I. schliesst sie sich ein, ' it restricts itself,' or, ' is con- fined lo.' The phrase commonly used to express this idea is ' sich auf etwas beschränken.'
1. 5. Ein scharfsinniger Kunstrichter, Moses Mendelssohn.
1. 15. "Was hilft's...verräth; ' what consolation is it for the offended soul, that the art of Imitation should be ever so conspicuous.' • 1. 16. Ihre Unlust; ' ihre ' refeis to the preceding ' Seele '; — its dis- pleasure.
]. 20. Mendelssohn argues thus: ' The representation of fear, of sorro.v, of pity, does not rouse in us actual displeasure, unless we know that the evil that produces those emotions is actual and real. In art, therefore, the recollection of the unrcality of the evil can dissolve that displeasure thus roused in us into a Sensation that admits of a certain degree of pleasure. It is verj' different with the feeling of disgust. This is excited in our imagination not only by the object itself, but even by the mere representation of the object; the disgusting ought, therefore, never to be represented in painting.'
1. 22. unserm Geschmack an Ordnung und Uebereinstinunung, mnst be taken togethcr, ' our taste for,' etc.
1. 30. von dieser Hässlichkeit zu abstrahiren, ' to withdraw our thoughts from this ugliness.'
P. 177, 1. 2. und diese Ueberlegung...ziehen, • and this con- sideration will seldorn fail to bring about a contempt for the artist.'
1. II. Allein...nichts, 'but no inference can be drawn from this in favour of the representation of ugliness.' zum Besten here = ' in favour of; distinguish from the phrase 'zum Besten haben '=»'to make sport of.'
1. 19. das Gleichgewicht halten, 'counterbalance.'
1. 23. sich bloss stellen, with dat., ' to expo.-e oneself.'
P. 178, 1. I. dieses Schrecken; we should now say ' dieser Schrecken.'
1. 7. verliert...das Schneidende, 'loses its keenness,' 'its edge.
1. 13. Da also...nützlich sein könne. The backbone of the sentence is: ' Da die Hiisslichkeit der Formen an und vor sich selbst kein Vorwurf der Malerei sein kann: so käme es darauf an, ob sie ihr LAOKOON. XXV. 289 nicht als Ingrediens nützlich sein könne.' In translating it is advisable to form two main sentences: ' thus then ugliness of form cannot be in itself a subject for painting as a fiue art, because, etc. Now it remains to see whether it (ugliness) cannot be useful to it (painting) as an ingredient for strengthening other sensations, just as it is useful to poetr}'.' 'Es käme darauf an;' the conditional mood is used to state one's opinion in a modest and polite fashion by expressing it hypo- thetically.
1. 31. Anzüglichkeit Stands here in the sense of ' Anziehungskraft,' ' attraction,' ' charm.' It is now only used in the sense of ' poignant Personalities,' 'abusive language.'
1. 33. zu bedenken geben, ' to put to consideration,' ' call attention to a thing.'
P. 179, 1. 13. possirlich, ' comical; ' from 'die Posse,' the farce; whereas 'der Possen,' the trick played on a person. ' Er hat mir einen Possen gespielt.'
1. 19. sie aus dem Homer selbst wegzuwünschen, ' to wish that Homer himself had left it out.'
1. 21. ein Gelehrter; Christian Adolph Klotz, professor at the University of Halle, who enjoyed for some time a great but undeserved reputation for scholarship. Lessing waged against him a literary war in which he demolished the literary fame of the professor.
XXV.
1. 6. ausser der Nachahmung, ' setting aside imitation.'
I. II. Tennyson expresses the contrary judgment, ' That sorroVs crown of sorrow is remembering happier things,' in a line remembered from Dante, Inf. v. 121.
1. 19. Es braucht...auf sich selber, ' but little attention to the workings of our own mind is required.'
P. 181, 1. 2. dadurch, used as a relative conjimction, see note on 1. 12. ihm refers to ' Ekel.'
1. 15. da sie deren...sie refers to ' die Empfindung des Hässlichen,' and deren is 'der Mischung von Lust.'
1. 25. den Geschmack...dem Ekel ausgesetzt glaubet; another instance of the accusative with the infinitive, which Lessing frequently uses. It might run: ' nach welcher er glaubt, dass nur die allerdunkel- sten Sinne...ausgesetzt sind.'
1. 27. Jene beide...und dieses, * the former two' are taste and smell; ' the latter ' is touch.
1. 29. den berührenden Fibern, ' the nerves that touch it.* U 290 NOTES.
lip; ' eine gepletschte Nase, a provincialism, instead of ' eine platt- gedrückte Nase,' — ' a fl.it nose.'
1. 14. Nur dass, literally, ' only that.' The idea is: there is only one difference between these sensations and actual nausea, viz. that these sensations soon snbside.
1. 22. Die dunkeln Sinne, 'the obtuser senses.' 1. 26. und kann nicht anders als...begleitet sein, * and cannot but be accompanied,' etc.
1. 28. TJebrigens...Hässliche; 'and furthermore the disgnsting bears exactly the same relation to imitative art as the ugly.'
P. 183, 1. I. getrauete ich mich doch wohl zu behaupten; the subjunctive imperfect is used here instead of the conditional; 'I should be bold enough to maintain.'
1. 3. zu den nämlichen vermischten Empfindungen, the ridi- culous and the horrible are meant. ' M. But lately of a thought magnificent A lizard robbed him. St. How? I pray thee, teil me. M. As he was contemplating with open mouth The ways and changes of the varying moon, A lizard from the roof dropped filth npon him. St. O clever Lizard that could foul the mouth Of Socrates.'— Translation by SiR Robert Phillimore. 1. 21. in dem Kenner, ' The Connoisseur; ' a weekly paper, written almost entirely by Colman and Thomton in 1761; one of the many successors of the ' Spectator.' Cowper and Chesterfield contributed a few papers.
1. 22. Chesterfield; Philip Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773), statesman, critic, and man of letters, chiefly known for his Letters to his son, and papers contributed to various periodicals.
1. 25. Ein gequetschter...Nase; instead of a nose a piece of flattencd cartilage.
1. 27. durchbeizet, 'tanncd,' as 'das Leder ist noch nicht gehörig durchbeizt.'
P. 184, 1. 4. beim Hesiodus; one of the earliest Greek poets (about 850 B.c.), wrote an epic poem called'Epya /col 'Huffxu, Works aiid Days. The personification of sadness alluded to by Lessing is found in his 'Aanis 'HpaK\fovs, a description of the shield of Hercules. 1. 5. T'tjs ttc \ifv f)iv(Sv n.v|ai ^fov, wined the dripping from her nose. 1. 8. iiaKpol 5' övux*s x'^P*'''''''-^ virticrav, long nails protmded beyond the fingers, Aifji' a.iT€X€iß«T' tpa^e, from the cheeks blood ran to the earth.
LAOKOON. XXV. 29 1 ' NE. I see no trace of human creatnre here. OD. Nor food, nor household implements to cook it? NE. A mass of leaves heaped up to form a couch. OD. All bare besides? Naught eise beneath the roofi NE. A bowl made all of wood, the workmanship Of some rüde band; see, too, some firewood. OD. And this is all the treasure that he hath. NE. Alas! alas! these reeking rags behold, The solace of his wounds, laid here to dry.'
Sir R. Phillimore. P. 185, 1. 15. die Strafe des Marsyas, beim Ovid; Marsyas, proud of his skill in playing the flute, challenged Apollo to a contest. The Muses, who were the arbiters of the fight, wäre on the point of according the prize to Marsyas, when the God began to sing to his lyre. They then prononnced for Apollo, who, to avenge himself on his presumptuous rival, flayed him alive.
'The skin was rent from off the shrieking wretch, And he was all one wound. The blood Flowed all around, while the discovered nerves Lay open and the palpitating veins Quivered without their covering, you might see Bowels protniding from their place, — the fibres Transparent in his breast you might have countcd.'
Sir R. Phillimore. Lessing appears to have forgotten that the Greeks made the myth of Marsyas the subject of representation in painting and sculpture. See Baumeister 's ' Denkmäler der antiken Kunst,' s. v. Marsyas.
P. 186, 1. 12. aus der Acht schlagen; Lessing combines two ]ihrases; we say either ' sich etwas aus dem Sinne schlagen,' or ' etwas ausser Acht lassen; ' both mean ' to forget.' 1. 13. von der Oreade.
* To her far ofF, To her the goddess's commands he bears; Awhile delaying, and while distant still, But now arrived, she seemed at once to feel The pangs of hunger.'
SiR R. Phillimore. L 19. diese ansteckende Kraft, ' this contagious power.' 1. 31. er refers to ' der Anblick.'
1. 23. Eresichthon, son of Triopas, king of Thessaly, had excited the anger of Ceres by felling trees in a grove sacred to her; the Goddess despatched an Oread to Fames (hunger), to order her to penetrate into the entrails of the sacrilegious man, and never to leave them again.
2gZ NOTES.
The poets describe the agonies endured by Eresichthon; so the Greek poet Callimachus in bis hymn to Ceres.
1. 30. ' And he devoured the cow which bis mother bad reared for Vesta, and bis victorious warborse, and the cat, at wbose sight small animals tremble; and he, the son of the king, sat in the streets begging for scraps of bread and for the off-scourings of the feast.'
P. 187, 1. 7. ' Bat when the violence of the evil had consumed all possible food...he began to lacerate bis own limbs witb bis teetb; and the wretcb sustained his body by consuming it.'
1. II. die hässlichen Harpyen, ' the hideous Harpies,' avenging demons, represented as birds of prey, witb the faces of maidens, human arms, monstrous claws, etc. They are chiefly known through the story of Phineus, a blind seer, who in order to please bis second wife, had blinded bis sons by a first marriage. The gods abandoned bim to the Harpies, who tortured him by snatching his food away from bim, or by defiling it. The Argonauts delivered him from tbese monsters.
I. 14. Apollonius Rhodius, a Greek poet of the Alexandrine school. He lived about 200 B. c, partly at Rbodes, partly at Alexandria, where he died as librarian at the Museum.
L 15. ' Even from the trifling food that they may leave Rises a foul intolerable smell, Such as no mortal could endure to face, Not had he beart of beaten adamant, But bitter need of food compelleth me To stay, and staying fiU my wretched maw.'
Sir R. Phillimore.
Sir R. Phillimore.
1. 22. die ekele Einführung der Harpyen beim Virgil. The poet narrates, that the Harpies after their expulsion from the bouse of Phineus stayed in the Strophadian Islands. When Aeneas landed there, they disturbed bim and his Trojans at their meal. Having been over- come in battle by Aeneas, one of the Harpies prophesies that the Trojans should indeed reach Italy, but should not found a city, before they were driven by hunger to consume the very tables on which they dined. This prophecy is fulfiUed when the Trojans, having landed in Latium, use the loaves they bring with tbem as tables to place their meat cn, which loaves they afterwards consume.
1. 2-,. ein einstehender; ' einstehen' is obsolete in the meaning of * bevorstehen,' ' to impend.'
1. 26. ein "Wortspiel, ' a play upon words,' lying in the word ' tables.'
1. 28. Ugolino; Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) relates the stör)' ofCount Ugolino in his Divina Comedia (Inferno, xxxiii. 13-78^ Count Ugolino, a powerful and ambitious party chief in the bloody feud that raged be- tween Guelfs and Ghibellines, was taken prisoner with two sons and two grandsons by Ruggiero, archbishop of Pisa VI2S8), and shut up in the LAOKOON. XXVI. 293 LAOKOON. XXVI. 293 tower of Gualandi (called afterwards La Torre di Fame^, where they wcre all staned to death. Dante represents him taking his revenge; he appears in Hell in the Company of his deadly enemy; he has fastened his teeth on the head of Ruggiero, which he bites and gnaws ferociously.
P. 188, 1. 7. von welchen...entsagen würde; * es versteht sich von selbst; ' ' it is a matter of course; ' ' entsagen ' is here made to govem a genitive, ' ihrer '; it generally govems the dative; — translate: ' which painting as a hne art would as a matter of course renounce.'
1. 12. Pordenone. an Italian painter of the sixteenth centurj'.
1. 24. Doch die Malerei will...the argument of the adversary.
1. 26. Auf ihre Gefahr! ' At her peril I ' viz. will painting (personi- fied) do so.
1. 28. gilt...viel mehr. 'appHes still more closely to,' etc.
1. 39. sichtbaren.,. hörbaren, ' which appeals to the eye,' — ' which appeals to the ear.'
P. 189, 1. 3. in seiner eigenen cruden Gestalt; 'crud,' from I-atin crudus, French cru, raw, shapeless.
XX VI.
P. 189, 1. 8. vernünfteln, ' to reason nicely,' ' draw subtle conclu- sions; ' note the termination, and see note on ' winseln,' p. 9, 1. 26.
1. 9. über lang oder kurz, a proverbial phrase; generally used in the Order ' über kurz oder lang,' sooner or later.
1. 12. sie werden sie nicht enger zugezogen haben, 'havenot, I believe, drawn them more tightly.'
P. 190, 1. 6. "Weni tritt er darüber bei? ' Whose side does he take in this matter? ' 1. 18. Hätte...erklären müssen. ' Nevertheless, if he too had been dazzled by an appearance of such Imitation, he would have been obliged to pronounce himself for the former,' — viz. for those who believe that Virgil had the group before his eyes.
P. 191, 1. 3. die Olsrmpias; we generally say ' die OljTnpiade.'
1. 7. Mafifei, an Ttalian poet and archaeologist (i675-i755\ 1. 8. hat wissen wollen, ' professed to know,' as in ' er will es selbst gesehen haben; ' see Lange, p. 158.
1. 9. auf dessen "Wort, ' relpng on his word.'
1. 10. haben andere, als Richardson, nachgeschrieben, ' others, as Richardson. have niade the same Observation.'
1. II. Polycletus, an excellent Greek sculptor, a contemporary of Phidias, was bom in Sicgon, but worked at Argos; he lived in the middle of the fifth cenlun,- B.C.
1. 16. warum...bewenden; 'bewenden ' is used in Mod. H. G. only in the infinitive, synonymous with ' verbleiben ' and ' beruhen.'
294 NOTES.
'Ich lasse es dabei bewenden,' 'I leave a thing at rest;' 'I acquiesce in it; ' 'I content myself with it.'
1. i8. Widerlegt er sich von selbst? 'er' refers to 'der Grund.' ' Does it refute itself? ' 1. 20. so machet er...Wahrscheinlichkeit, ' it constitutes of itself a slight probability.'
P. 192, 1. 4. das Vorgeben des Maffei, 'Maffei's assertion;' 'vor- geben ' is generali)' uscd of making an assertion that is not bome out by facts. 'Er gibt vor mich gesehen zu haben, das ist aber unmöglich.' Translale the whole passage: ' Herr Winckelmann cannot have acted intentionally in declining incontrovertibly to refute the assertion of Maffei by the production of this circumstance.'
1. 8. dass er sich unbekümmert gelassen ihat'; literally, 'that he allowed himself to be undisturbed by the idea that, etc.; or, more freely, ' that he did not trouble himself with considcring whether,' etc.
1. II. von den argutiis; argiitiae, 'niceties.'
1. 16. Lysippus, a Greek sculptor about 330 B.C.; famous for his statues of Alexander the Great. \Ve possess a copy of a work of his in the ' Apoxyomenos ' or ' Athlete scraping himself with a strigil,' now in the Vatican.
1. 18. Damit ich...übergehe, ' to pass by,' ' to say nothing of,' etc.
1. 26. Strongylion, a sculptor of Athens, about 410 B. c. His most celebrated works were an Imitation of the Trojan horse, a group of Muses, and an Amazon; of this last statue Nero was especially fond. Lessing, led astray through a mistake comniitted by Winckelmaim, transfers him here to a far later time, to the age of Caesar. Arcesilavis, a Greek sculptor about 74-46 B. c.; he made a statue of Venus Genitrix for the temple of this goddess which Caesar erected in Rome.
1. 27. Pasiteles, a sculptor and writer on art, who flourished at Rome between 72 and 48 B.c. He was the leader of an archaistic revival, and his influence is seen in such statues as the so-called ' Electra and Orestes ' in the Villa Albani. See O verbeck, Geschichte der griechi- schen Plastik, vol. 2, bk. 6, eh. 4. Posidonius, mentioned by Pliny. We know nothing about him. Diogenes, a Greek sculptor of ihe time of Augustus; he adorned the Pantheon of Agrippa with statues.
1. 28. zum Theil, ' partly,' i.e. some of them. Dem Besten, with * gleich.'
1. 30. ungezweifelte; usually ' un^^zweifelte; ' as ' zweifeln ' is an intransitive verb it cannot be used in the passive.
1. 32. Hesse sich, etc.,...' if their age could not be determined otherwise than by tlieir art, what divine Inspiration could prevent the critic from deeming himself compelled to refer them,' etc.
P. 193, 1. 7. aus dem Zusammenhang der ganzen Stelle; vide riinius. xxxvi. 5.
LAOKOON. XXVI. 295 1. 9. wissen after wollen with a participle = *to have,' 'hold,' 'con- 1. 13. Praxiteles, one of the greatest sculptors of Greece; he lived between 360 and 330 B. c. \Ve possess a work from his own band in the Statue of Hermes carrying the Infant Dionysus, found during the German excavations at Olympia, 1878.
1. 14. Scopas, a famous Greek sculptor, bom in the island of Faros about 350 B. C. He worked on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassos.
1. 17. folgender Gestalt; — syn. 'folgender Weise,' an adverbial genitive; — 'in the following way.' ' Beyond these, there are not many sculptors of high repute, for in the case of several works of very great excellence, the number of artists that have been engaged upon them has proved an obstacle to the fame of some, no iiidividual being able to engross the whole of the credit, and it being impossible to award it to several artists combined. Such is the case of the Laokoon, for example, in the palace of the Emperor Titus, a work that may be looked upon as preferable to any other production of the art of painting as well as of statuary. It is sculptured from a single block, büth the main figure as well as the children, and the serpents with their marvellous folds. This group was made in concert (de consilii sententia) by three eminent artists, Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, natives of Rhodes. In a similar manner also the palaces of the Caesars on the Palatine have been fiUed with most splendid statuary, the work of Craterus in conjunction wilh Pythodorus, of Poly- deuces and Hermolaus, and of another Pythodorus with Artemon: some of the statues, also, are by Aphrodisiiis of Tralles, who worked alone. The Pantheon of Agrippa has been decorated by Diogenes of Athens; and the Caryatides by him, on the columns of that temple, are looked npon as master-pieces of excellence: the same is also the case with the statues that are placed in the pediment, though, in consequence of the height, they have not had an opportunity of being so well appreciated.'
1. 22. Ex vino lapide. This is a mistake of Pliny; the group con- sists of six pieccs.
1. 32. This is the only passage to be found in ancient writers referring to the group of Laokoon, and volumes have been written about it. Cp. among others, Overbeck, Geschichte der griechischen Plastik, Leipzig, 1882, vol. 2, bk. 5, eh. 2; Professor Prien, Ueber die Laokoon Gruppe, ein Werk der rhodischen Schule, Lübeck, 1856; Lübke, Geschichte der Plastik, p. 202. All three agree in maintaining that no conclusion whatever can be drawn from the words of Pliny as to the period in which the group was made. Yct this does not rcfute Lessing's interpretation of the passage, which is moreover supportcd by Lachmann, who calls the expression ' de consilii sententia,' a technicai tcrm referring to a board of public works existing under the empire.
296 Ä'OTES.
which gave the order for the execution of the gronp. Some reasons why, in spite of Lessing's and Lachmann's arguments, there is a greater probability that the statue belongs to an earlier age, have been given in the Introduction.
P. 194, 1. 13. In dem Verstände nämlich, ' in the sense that,' etc.
1. 15. Supply 'haben' before ' versetzen lassen.'
1. 27. äyaXfia äpxMov, ' an archaic image.'