Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Artificial signs are not constrained in their content by the natural properties of the signs themselves.

Painting uses natural signs that communicate their objects by resemblance between the signs' fundamental properties and the objects' fundamental properties.

Poetry uses artificial signs whose content is not constrained by the natural properties of the signs.

Music uses natural signs of succession.

Painting and music use natural signs, which restrict their representational scope to objects in space and temporal successions, respectively.

Poetry uses primarily artificial rather than natural signs.

Because poetry is unconstrained by the natural properties of its signs, poetry can represent any subject matter in the proper hands.

Natural signs communicate through resemblance to their objects, making them suited to represent what they resemble.

Poetry has a wider sphere of truth accessible to it than painting or music.

Painting uses natural signs that communicate their objects by resemblance between the signs' fundamental properties and the objects' fundamental properties.

Painting and music are best suited to represent objects in space and successions of events in time, respectively.

Poetry is not restricted to the depiction of events and can effectively represent anything.

Shakespeare was doing fundamentally the same thing as Sophocles despite producing superficially different drama.