Lessing’s Minna von Barnhelm: Act 1, scenes 2 and 6.
1: The smooth and charming innkeeper offers a glass of liqueur to Tellheim’s manservant, surly Just, who is angry because the innkeeper has turned out his master. Although initially distrustful and refusing to drink, Just finally accepts it after all: “I almost feel I oughtn’t! — Yet why should I let my health suffer for his rudeness?” (He takes it and drinks.)
2. Tellheim and the lady in mourning; he declines the payment of debt: “By no means, Madam! Marloff in my debt? That can hardly be.”
(Here and following: Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Illustrationen zu Lessings Minna von Barnhelm [1769]; Genealogischer Calender auf das Jahr 1770. — Translations: Minna von Barnhelm or Soldier’s Fortune, trans. Otto Heller [New York 1917].)
Act 2, scenes 2 and 7.
1. The innkeeper, the list of inn guests under his arm, compliments Minna and her maidservant, Franziska.
2. Minna, overjoyed at having found her beloved: “He is mine, he is mine!” (With outstretched arms) “Oh, I am happy! and jubilant!” (Franziska enters.)
Act 2, scene 9; act 3, scene 7.
1. Minna seizes Tellheim’s hand, who no longer feels worthy of her as a “cripple and beggar.” Minna: “Your hand, dear beggar!.” Von Tellheim: “This is too much! — Where am I? — Let me go, Madam! Your kindness tortures me! — Let me go!”
2. Werner tries to force the roll with the 100 Ducats onto Tellheim: “Go, Werner!”
Act 3, scene 10; act 4, scene 2.
1. Franziska jokingly warns Tellheim against Just, who has told her that his master had such good luck with women in Saxony that his 20 fingers could already be full of engagement rings. Franziska: “All twenty, Sergeant??” (Holding up both hands with fingers spread.) Werner: “Little woman, little woman, don’t you know how to take a joke?”
2. Franziska, vexed, watches, Riccault tell Minna about the ten pistoles as a “portion” at his gaming table to help cheat, or rather: “correct his fortune.”
Act 5, scenes 9 and 11.
1. Minna reads Tellheim the king’s letter, which rehabilitates him.
2. Werner throws the bag of money at Tellheim’s feet, who refuses to take it, and looks angrily aside while Franziska plays the coquette. “In his fury,” Tellheim “bites his finger nails, turns his face away, and hears nothing”; Minna tries to calm him.
Act 5, scenes 12 and 13.
1. Tellheim and Minna come together; Werner soon puts aside his affected indifference.
2. Minna leads Tellheim to her uncle and guardian, Count von Bruchsal.
Minna, Tellheim, and Werner
This play became a perennial favorite during the second half of the 18th century; here a vignette (not by Chodowiecki) of Minna, Tellheim, and Werner from the Theater-Kalender, auf das Jahr 1776 (Inhaltsverzeichnis deutscher Almanache, Theodor Springmann Stiftung).