Miss Sara Sampson

Miss Sara Sampson (original spelling Miß Sara Sampson) is a play by the Enlightenment philosopher, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Written in 1755 while the author was living in Potsdam and set in an English inn, it is seen by many scholars to be one of the first bourgeois tragedies. In the same year it was put on at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, where it was very well received. It was afterwards translated and acted in France, where it also met with success. The play was Lessing's first real success as a playwright and it was in part due to the success of this play that he was asked to be the dramaturg at the German National Theatre in Hamburg.