Miss Sara Sampson

   by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

   Premiered 1755. A reversal of the Medea plot, Sara represents Creon's innocent daughter Creusa, while the adventurous Mellefont is Jason. Lessing re-figured the play's classical antecedents in the disguise of a "domestic tragedy," borrowed from the English dramas he greatly admired. Sara and Mellefont have arrived in an English inn before their intended departure for elopement in France. Sir William Sampson also arrives in the hope of seeing the two before they depart. Mellefont is pursued by the evil Marwood, by whom Mellefont has conceived a child. Sara remains chaste and forgiving throughout, and in the end Marwood poisons her. In her dying breath, Sara asks her father to forgive Mellefont and to love his child. Marwood departs for Dover, where she claims she will commit suicide. Sir William intends to raise the illegitimate daughter as his own, as a legacy to his now departed daughter. The play seems overwrought and melodramatic by contemporary standards, but it was a precedent-setting and successful undertaking at the time of its premiere and for many years afterward.