The New International Encyclopædia/Nathan der Weise

NATHAN DER WEISE, nä′tan dĕr vī̇′ze A dramatic poem by Lessing, published in 1779, in which the author clothed in poetic form the principles underlying his controversial writings. The interest of the drama concentrates itself in the seventh scene of the third act, in which Nathan, the Jew, summoned by Sultan Saladin, to express his opinion as to which of the three religious creeds professed in Palestine he holds to be the true one, recites the parable of “The Three Rings,” purporting to show that the true religion is to be known only by its fruits. The drama is based upon the story of Melchisedec the Jew, in Boccaccio's Decamerone. The character of Nathan is a monument to Lessing's friend Moses Mendelssohn, the Jewish philosopher.