[ 4^ ] 



is the common lot of man. It is requifite to the moral diredion 

 of the Drama, that it (hould give examples of crimes puniflied, 

 of vice and folly fubjeded to juft contempt, and of men expofed 

 to mifery, by the blind indulgence of paffion and feeling in ex- 

 cefs. Thus, will the dramatic poet officiate, writh pure and pious 

 hands, at the fhrine of virtue. — Could it even be queftioned, for 

 a moment, whether the Drama is bound to anfwer the purpofes of 

 a moral deftination ; yet, furely, it cannot be denied, that a 

 Theatre, which inverts all the rules of decorum and decency, and 

 outrages all the principles of religion and morality, ought to be 

 reprobated, in every well-regulated fociety. 



Little inftrudlon can be conveyed, litlle fympathy can be ex- 

 cited, by the generality of pieces, which iffue from the German 

 Theatre. To produce thefe effeds, men muft fee their refem- 

 blances on the ftage, fomething that comes home to their own 

 breafts. Such men and women as appear in the German plays are 

 rarely met with, in the world, and when, here and there, fuch do 

 make their appearance, the police of the place (if there is any 

 police) takes charge of them on itfelf, and confines them in 

 Bedlam or the Work-houfe. The favourite charaders, mod fre- 

 quently difplaycd on the German Stage, are frantic lovers, parri- 

 cides, highwaymen,* minifters, miftreffes, melancholy and raving 

 perfons of all forts ; the bulk of mankind can derive but little in- 

 ftrudion, from the exhibition of fuch charaders.— Far from lead- 

 ing 



* See the Plays of Schiller. 



