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the apoftles and poets of this new and formidable fed arofe in the 

 midft of courts, and were to be found in the bofoms of defpotic 

 fovereigns. 



The Germans are fond of imitating fome of the writers of Eng- 

 land. Shake/peare, in particular, is an objed of peculiar venera- 

 tion among them. It is probable, that a fervile, yet diftorted, 

 imitation, of this immortal bard, in his very defeds and rudeneffes, 

 fuch an imitation, as the painters call anamorpbq/is, or diftorted 

 likenefs, has produced a negled of rules, a wildnefs of manner, a 

 croud of ufelefs perfonages, a multiplicity of unneceffary incidents, 

 an unclaflical and revolting mixture of buffoonery and bombaft; a 

 complication of low and ludicrous incidents, with others of a feri- 

 ous, bloody, and terrjfic ftamp. At leaft, the concurring example 

 of fuch a genius as Shake/peare, has contributed to inflame the na- 

 tional propenfity to the wild, the monftrous, and the terrible, and- 

 to juftify the total difregard of rule and method. ^ 



Yet flill, perhaps, the caufes, which I have hitherto enume- 

 rated, are infuflicient, to account for the peculiarities of the Ger- 

 man v>7riters, efpecially for the ftrange and fmgular prevalence of 

 the gloomy and horrible through their compofitions. I apprehend, 

 we muft feek for fome principle of diflindive and feparative na- 

 tional tafte, more powerful and more deeply feated. — Shall we not 

 find this principle, in a powerful enlhufiafm, not unmixed with 



wildnefs 



