Author

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing(1729–1781)

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing is documented in Fuller’s letters, reading notebooks, and manuscripts (1833–1837). 5 distinct works are named, most often in Letter to James F. Clarke, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.

Engagement: ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
Present in: Letters · Notebooks · Manuscripts
Documented: 1833–1837

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

Dated
1833Emilia GalottiAttested
“E. Galeotti is good in the same way as Minna.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · June 1833
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re248 (L-2 Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth, letter_1012.txt; tier A; same passage) — counted once here. Part of the same continuous reading report as 1297 ('E. Galeotti is good in the same way as Minna'), reflecting her direct assessment after reading.
1833Minna von BarnhelmAttested
“E. Galeotti is good in the same way as Minna.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · June 1833
Same sentence as 1298, part of her continuous reading report on the returned Lessing plays.
1833Minna von BarnhelmDemonstrated
“F.—Von was fur Tugenden spricht er denn? Minna.—Er spricht von keiner; denn ihn fehlt keine.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · 3 June 1833
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re245 (Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (sections), Mem-2-02 l.4753-4754; tier B; same passage) — counted once here. Two-line German dialogue exchange quoted verbatim from Minna von Barnhelm, a sustained excerpt beyond a single phrase.

In Fuller’s words

“From Lessing. / Traun, / Da mussen Herz und Kopf sich lange zanken [...] Der grosse Mann braucht überall viel Boden [...] Tempel Herr. Nathan! Ich schäme mich, / Euch einen Augenblick verkannt zu haben. / Nathan. Und ich bin stolz darauf. Nur das Gemeine / Verkennt man selten. / Saladin. Wenn Gott [...] Es sind / Nicht alle frey, die ihrer Ketten spotten.”

Nathan der Weise · Notebook: Bouquet, 1836–1837 · 1836

When Fuller engaged with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed6records

IV. Transcendentalist6records

V. New York

VI. Europe

✦. Memoirs (1852)2records

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Lessing in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p201

analyzed · quoted · read3 selected passages

“For 'tis not always true what Lessing says and I myself once thought / "F. Bon was fur Tugenden spricht er denn? Minna. Er spricht von keiner; denn ihn fehlt keine.”

Fuller quotes directly from Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm, act 2, scene 1—the exchange between Franziska and Minna about Tellheim's virtues—in German, then critiques this sentiment as "not always true" in the context of discussing Socrates and genuine virtue; Hudspeth identified she and Clarke have been reading Lessing's dramas together.

“E. Gaelotti is good in the same way as Minna.”

“There are many trans. in the N York Mirror from Lessing Herder and Richter”

Inferred She confirms active reading but does not identify any specific Lessing work; this is an author-only reference consistent with her earlier 1833 engagement with Lessing's dramas.

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p183

analyzed · quoted · read4 selected passages

“I return Lessing. I could hardly get through Miss Sampson.”

Also reprinted in The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. VI: 1850. Counted once, at its first appearance.

“E. Galeotti is good in the same way as Minna. Well-conceived and sustained characters, interesting situations, but never that profound knowledge of human nature...”

“E. Galeotti is good in the same way as Minna.”

“For 't is not always true what Lessing says, and I, myself, once thought,— F.—Von was fur Tugenden spricht er denn? Minna.—Er spricht von keiner; denn ihn fehlt keine.”

Inferred Fuller quotes in German from Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm, Act 2, scene 1, an exchange between Franziska and Minna about Major von Tellheim's virtues.. She uses the quotation to contest the view that virtue arises only from the heart's overflow, demonstrating substantive literary engagement with the play.

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Vol. I: 1817-1838. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1834—

Fragmentary Reading Notes and Autobiographical Reflections

mentionedManuscript page

“let me read Lessing's Laocoon.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Fragmentary Reading Notes and Autobiographical Reflections." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

1836—

Notebook: Bouquet, 1836–1837

p132–p133

excerpted · readManuscript page

“From Lessing. / Traun, / Da mussen Herz und Kopf sich lange zanken [...] Der grosse Mann braucht überall viel Boden [...] Tempel Herr. Nathan!”

Fuller, Margaret. "Notebook: Bouquet, 1836–1837." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (43); Box 6 (43).

1837—

Letter to Unknown

p278

analyzed · read3 selected passages

“Lessing's Nathan, Minna, Emilia Galeotti”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p156

analyzed · quoted · read5 selected passages

“June, 1833. — I return Lessing. I could hardly get through Miss Sampson. E. Galeotti is good in the same way as Minna.”

“Lessing's Nathan, Minna, Emilia Galeotti”

“she had read German books, and for the three years before I knew her, almost exclusively, — Lessing, Schiller, Richter, Tieck, Novalis, and, above all, Goethe.”

Inferred Margaret Fuller’s profound engagement with German literature is evident in her extensive reading of authors like Lessing, Schiller, Richter, Tieck, Novalis, and particularly Goethe.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.