About the work
The Young Scholar is a comedy in three acts that the twenty-year-old Gotthold Ephraim Lessing wrote in 1747. The theatre troupe of Friederike Caroline Neuber staged it in 1748 as his first performed play.
Plot
The conceited Damis considers himself a scholar of European standing and rejects the marriage to Juliane arranged by his father Chrysander to save the family's fortune. Through the servants' scheming and a forged letter, Damis ultimately fails an academy competition and leaves the house, allowing Juliane to marry her true love Valer.
Cultural significance
The play is regarded as Lessing's best-known early work and already displays his gift for pointed dialogue. It gently mocks the academic world Lessing himself was just then leaving behind as a student.