[ 39 ] 



In the German pkys there is an open and outrageous violation of 

 the oramatic unifies of time and place ; the adion flies, from coun- 

 try to country, and that often in the courfe of the fame ad, and 

 it frequently embraces a period of many years. But this licenfe is 

 pardonable, or even j'iftifiable, compared with the grofs difregard 

 of the more important unity of the fable. Without requiring the 

 fevere fimplicity of the Greek Tragedy, and rigidly excluding epi- 

 fode and under-plot, common-fenfe demands at leaft an integrity 

 of plan, a fymmetry of ftrudture, a connexion of the parts, with 

 each other, and with the whole, and a conftant but imperceptible 

 endeavour, in the perfonages and incidents, as they are gradually 

 brought forward, to advance and produce- the cataftrophe. Far 

 from this, a German play often combines two or three ifolated 

 principal flories with a number of unconneded epifodes, and in- 

 troduces a variety of perfonages who do not contribute to forward 

 the cataftrophe. It is rather a wild Romance in dialogue, than a 

 legitimate Drama. To conned the different fcenes with each 

 other ; to develope in them the different perfons of the Drama, 

 and to explain their feveral intereffs and motives ; to prepare for, 

 and to mark the exits and entrances of the charaders, and to take 

 care that the ftage fhould not be left vacant ; thefe are matters of 

 which the German play-wrights are ignorant, or, if they know 

 them, they are unwilling to fubmit to the ftudy and labour which 

 they require. The perfonages are not left to announce themfelves ; 

 a German play takes care to charaderife them largely in the 



Dramatis 



