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world: whofe genius either foars adventrous with the epic mufe, and fings the hero on the embattled plain, or thews the world a picture of itself, or playful fports among the flowers, and paints the fimple manners of the hepherd's life.. Of these, the firft in rank and dignity is Klopstock, whofe towering genius fought in vain an object worthy of its powers on earth; then borne on fancy's wing, beyond the fkies, he found a theme in Heaven, and fung in rapturous ftrains the great Redeemer of the world. Gellert, the glory of your ftage, advances next. Delightful, whether he excite the tender emotions of pity, or defcribe the tranfports of fuccefstul paffion; whether he ridicule the folly, or expofe the deformity of voice, he ftill delights. Geffner, your favourite pastoral bard, by feeming to elude, deferves your praife. Crowned with the fweeteft flowers, his gentle mufe flies, trembling flies, the crowded city and the dia of arms; fecluded in the vale, the fings the blamelefs ruftic, and his fimple life, and gathers wreaths to crown her Daphne's hair; fo fimply fweet the lay, it feems the voice of mature-her's the song, and her's the

gentle life that fong defcribes.

I have chofen this triumvirate to reprefent the poetical genius of your country; and it clofes the curfory furvey I have taken of German emi'nence in arms, and arts, and science. A fketch, at beft, but hafty and imperfect. But yet how many fubjectз for an honest triumph will even this afford? Europe delivered from the fword of the infidels; from the civil tyranny and ecclefiaftical ufurpations of Rome; the world enlightened by the difcoveries, inftructed by the fcience, and amufed by the genius of your country. Thefe, gentlemen, are topics fit for declamation. Grateful to you; glorious to your country. Such themes no other nation's pride can boaft. Indulge then the pleafing emotions they excite, and emulous of the action you admire, study to deferve an equal fame. Such were the Germans in their native foil-nor has their genius left them in a foreign land. Their emigrants have been led by wildom and prudence. Labour, induftry, and ingenuity, have, attended their steps, while their progrefs is marked by cultivation, improvement and plenty.

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paffion, the momentary, almoft evanefcent fhades of mental emotion, it fixes and embodies the fleeting fcene, in one great picture, for our warning or inftruction. In reprefentations of this nature, the tragic drama has ever held the highest station. Greater in its fubject, as including all the ftronger motives of the foul, and more interefting to the heart, as connected with the fources of human forrow and calamity, it has left comedy only the inferior province of correcting folly by ridicule, and fixing on those lefs dignified and humbler paffions, which, though not unproductive of a certain diftrefs and intricacy, are Sttle related to terror or pity. But it is not alone as fubfervient to the pleasures of mankind, or as claiming to herfelf a rank among the loftier efforts of mental activity, that the tragic mufe prefents itself to notice. She affumes a weightier office, without which the tear of pity is vain and fterile, and the paffions taught to move without an end. In her proper poft, her voice is that of the inftructrels of mankind, the moderatrix of paffion, the fcourge of vice. Considered in this light, the importance and utility of tragic compofition augments with the increafe of the power of pleafing. The appeal to the heart gives irrefiftible energy to the precepts of wildom. Nor was it without foundation, that the great Stagyrite pronounced a cafect tragedy

the nobleft work of human intellect.

From caufes like thefe, an attention to the drame, paticularly tragedy, has ufually kept pace with the civilization of nations, and has prefeated in general no inadequate ftand. ard, by which to judge of manners and refinement.

An acquaintance with French tragedy has long been univerful among the students of polite literature in this ifland. But the diffufion of this know-, ledge has, on the subject of tragic poetry, been attended with little congeniality of fentiment in the two coun

tries. The farcafms of Voltaire and his adherents fufficiently fhew, with what averfion a nation, of which the delicacy was vitiated almoft to dif eafe by exceffive refinement, regarded the rough energy with which the genius of the English drama fhot wild and unconftrained. And the Englithman has generally turned with dif gult or inattention from the polished artifice and laboured declamation of the French theatre, to feast with double rapture on nature and pathon in the pages of his own Shakespeare. A new and untried field ftill presents it felf; the tragedy of a great, old, and original people, has long lain in that und ferved fhade of obfcurity, which in this country furrounds the real brilliancy of the laft æra of German literature.

The German tragedy, from general caufes of retardation, appeared at a very late period, and under a form little indicative of the ftrength and vigour, which were to mark its later and more improved stage. From a begin ning of the utmost rudeness, it gra dually affumed the form, which in the hands of Goethe, Leffing, and Schiller, has appeared fo respectable and interefting. The earlier efforts of the German ftage bear the strongest refemblance to our own myfteries, and like them only afford a picture of the flow gradations by which the human mind rifts from ignorance and depreflion to intellectual light and vi gour. The religious origin of the drama must in most nations be (till the fame.

The spirit which pervades thefe ruder fketches is chiefly that of laborious tameness, prefenting few vettiges of that bold and natural pencil with which their modern delineations of the human foul are drawn. The fire and animation of their tragedy did not manifeft itself till a much later period. The co-operation of many caules laid the foundation of the prefent prevailing genius of German tragedy.

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The intereft of our nation in the tragic writing of the Germans will probably increafe, when they know the rank which Shakspeare holds in their eftimation, and that probably much of the prefent taste in the German drama owes its origin to an acquaintance with our immortal poet, whofe works, at no great dit nce of time, were received with all the avidity that a congeniality of thought, with deep and keen perception of his merit could produce. Some of their tragedies are written in profef fed imitation of Shakespeare, as Goethe's fingular tragedy of Goets von Belichingen; and a wildnefs and irregularity, to be traced to this fource, is general in the modern compofitions. Goethe himself has made many en thuliafts, and added not a little to the turn for elevating and furprifing, which marks fo many German productions of later times.

To Leffing the German tragedy is indebted for an attempt to unite the beauties of art with the energies of natural fire and spirit. Elegance and neatness of diction, beauty of cadence, correctnefs, chastity, and regularity, are joined in his Emilia Galotti, to high ftrength and warmth of conception. The last productions of Schiller, as well as fome other pieces, fufficiently fhew, that the German tragedy may have its wildness and irregularity polifhed down, without facrificing its effential excellencies.

When we confider the nature of thofe agents, which tragedy employs, to produce a certain effect upon the mind, they feem properly to refolve themselves into the two provinces of art and nature. To make a perfect tragedy, the union of both is neceTary; but fuch perfection has hardly yet appeared. According to the genius of nations, and a variety of moral caufes, the tragic poetry of different countries has fought for effect by one of thefe means, commonly to the impolitic exclufion of the other. To conciliate

the judgment by frict attention to the unities; to arreft the ear by the exquifite polish of diction, or the mufic of verfification, to charm the fenfes by declamatory eloquence, to fufpend the mind in anxiety and terror by the intricate involution of plots, are powers, for which tragedy is indebted to the affiftance of art, and this effect has ever increafed with the progress of refinement, and the improvement of art and ingenuity. Bat to place the human mind in action before our eyes, to convey tie trugeles of glowing paffions in the frong language of the heart; to melt with pity, to hike with terror; to be great, fublime, affecting, is a province where nature rules alone.

From this divifion two dint forms of tragedy will refult. The grand chara&antic feature of difcence between the German and French ftage is, that in the former the natural expreffion of paffion, in the latter art and exquifite refinement, predominate. It is on the strong and vivid delineation of mental emotion that the merits of the German ftage may fafely be refted; often full of the groffelt truths, and violating every rul, their tragedy moves the foul, feizes the attention, wakes vivid curiofity, terror, and pity; the, materftrings of the human foul fe touched in every fccne, and though often with too rude a hand, the feelings acknowledge the inflance. This is the animating pint, that gives life and energy to the tragic drama; without its prefence all other aids are feetle, play round the head, but come not near the heart. It is not cold approbation, not the mere reafoning vert of judgment, this fpecies of poetry is to claim. The breail mu be moved, agitated, torn ; the author muft ceafe to speak, to exift; his foul must be transfited into the ficlit ous peronages of his drama; the delufion must be perfect, end a new creation riting before our cycs claim all our intercit and fympathy;

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melt the heart with the foftnefs of paffion, or fhake the foul with grateful terrors.

To thofe converfant with dramatic criticism, it is needlefs to fay, that this effect can only be gained by imitating mental emotion, never by deferibing it. The French writers who, as Voltaire has confeffed, are afraid of being too tragic, have almost uniform ly adopted the defcription of paffion, in thofe fituations on which they reft the pathos of their fcene. Our own Shakespeare has ever fought for effect in the ftrong and bold imitation of the paffion itself. In this, as in many other refpects, the German and Engh poets are related. They both aim at this high excellence, though both with too little regard for fubordinate and affiftant beauties.

In the tra dy of the Germans little or no declaration finds a place. The genius of the people is inimical to it, and the pathetic effect of their pieces has gained in confequence. The eloquence in which the characters, groaning beneath the ftroke of calamity, picture their feelings, and ornament their forrows, impreffes a 1pecies of languid admiration; but we hear with our curiofity little awakened, our armer emotions and intereft nearly dormant. To what caufe is this apathy to be referred? The fentiments are lofty, the diction poetical, the piece exactly modelled according to rule. Art indeed has done its part, but the caule will eafily be found in the violation of nature. At all periods Nature is the fame; ShakeIpeare and Sophocles have in fimilar fituations employed a language, fort, timple, and abrupt, or filence more eJoquent than words, to paint the workings of the human heart, oppreft and roken by mifery. When Othello at laft receives the damning proof of perfidy where he had garnered up his foul; or Romeo is thunderstruck by the death of Julier; when the wife and children of Macduff are at one

blow cut off, and the heart of Lear rent by filial ingratitude; we find no declamation, no idle pomp of words. The man is brought before our view; intolerable agony mocks the power of utterance, and freezes up the fprings of speech, till at laft the incoherence of high-wrought emotion, the fimple ftrokes of nature," He has no children;"" I gave you all,” burst forth amidst the ftorm and conflict of pal fions. The poet vanifhes, it is Macduff or Lear himself that has made an intereft in our breasts, him alone, we fee, we hear, and our heartfelt tears declare the conviction of reality.

This intereft can alone fupport the illufion of tragedy, which in itself is weak and impotent. Without this the attention is every moment called to improbability and incongruity. The vivid picture of character and paffion arrests the foul, nor fuffets the minuteness of cool examination to be active.

The leap of Glocefter from the fictitious cliff of Dover, or the ludicrous battles of imaginary armies, would fhock credulity, or move contemptuous laughter; but the attention is borne down in the mighty torrent of emotion, and the mind, dazzled by the blaze of genius, lofes fight of impropriety in fympathy and wonder.

As highly finifhed dramatic poems, the French tragedies have, in the hands of Crebillon, Voltaire, Racine, and Corneille, attained to no fmail. degree of excellence. Uniting high propriety and exact decorum to pohfhed verfification and eloquence, they claim no fmall portion of our approbation. But the appeal is to the head and not to the heart. Poetical, elevated, and regular, they do all but affect; they produce prafe without fympathy, and while they gratify the judgment on cold examination, they are little adequate to arreft attention, or roufe that itrong emotion which is the foul of the drama. In them the fcenes which should be moft intercit

ing, fuggeft the elegance, the foftnefs, the delicacy, of the poet, of whom we are unable to lofe fight, while we are little or not at all involved in that delufion on which the force and fpirit of the scene depends. The mind revolts in difguft and incredulity when it finds the pang of diftrefs fuggefting

only a happy turn of expreffion, and the fullness of paffion evaporating in the laboured artifice of eloquence. The German tragedy, as it participates, at prefent, but little in the pe culiar excellences of the French drama, is alfo not liable to the reproach of its defects.

With rough majestic force they move the heart, And strength and nature make amends for art.

The influence of the manners of a nation on their poetry, has pervaded the French tragedy, and foftened down the ftrength and difcrimination of character to the refined standard of modern gallantry. The rough unbending hero of the earlier ages of Greece or Rome, difgufts us but too often on their stage, with the artificial manners of the most polished times, and the verbiage of a petit maitre in love. The comparative roughnefs of the German manners, is not without its advantages in preferving the energetic diftinctions of character, and communicating a certain prominence of feature, which, though fometimes liable to degenerate into harfhnefs, contributes highly to dramatic effect and intereft. The ftronger de ineations of paffion are on the French ftage, either cautiously avoided or artfully foftened down, and shaded. The more terrible ftruggles which lay wafte and defolate the human breaft are kept back, and the more romantic difficulties of love, the animating fpirit of fo many of their pieces, often fupport the intereft, and create the whole diftrefs of the fcenes meant to be the most pathetic. The German drama, more daring, aims commonly at the expreflion and imitation of the higher, fiercer emotions. Never fearful, like the French, of being too tragic, the ftrongest delineations of paffion, the most daring images, and unafual combinations are hazarded. Energy in conception, and force in expreffion, are the of jects which are

confidered as well attained by the facrifice of leffer and fofter beauties. Hence the German tragedy is little marked by the refined and subtle reafonings, which, fpun cut into dialogue, fupply fo often the place of action on the French theatre. A difquifition on the application of verfe to tragedy would be here mifplaced: fome remarks of Voltaire point out that he coufidered verfification and rhyme as nearly effential to that of the French. Thele ornaments have little heightened the labour or diminifhed the ftrength of the modern tragedies of the Germans. Thefe are almoft all in profe, but of a species. which neither neglects the elegance of structure or the harmony of cadence. Some of the more interefting features of comparifon, between the French and German Mufe of tragedy, have now been traced. Taken as a whole, the French tragic drama is the perfection of elaborate refinement; all is foft and regular, every harshness fmoothed, and even the minuteft parts brillant with the exquifite polish of art and labour. In the German, refined nicery and the praife of regularity is little fought for; but a picture, ftrong, though fometimes harfh, of the pow ers, of unfettered genius, artlessly and vigorously exerted in the boldelt ftrokes of paffion and feeling, is ever refented.

The French may be compared to one of their own regular parterres, fhining with flowers artificially difpofed by the hand of elegant induftry,

where

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