Anthony Meech is a lecturer in Drama at the University of Hull where his translation of Minna von Barnhelm was performed in 1979 at the Gubenkian Studio Theatre. He has already published a translation of Buchner's Leonce und Lena and has particular interest German theatre. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729 081) was an influential playwright and theare critic whose plays were among the first important works written for the German stage. He steered German drama away from the influence of French Classical tragedy towards the strengths of Shakespeare and the English dramatic tradition. His plays set a pattern to be followed by subsequent writers of the Golden Age of German theatre such as Goethe and Schiller.