396 HENRY KIRKE WHITE S REMAINS. 



introducing his kings in rags, as if they were more to be 

 compassionated than other men. 



Tolg dv&^oiTTOi';' (paivour siuai. 



Some will, perhaps, imagine that it is in the power of 

 the poet to excite our sympathy in too powerful a degree, 

 because at the representation of certain scenes, the spec- 

 tators are frequently aifected so as to make them shriek 

 out with terror. But this is not sympathy ; it is horror, 

 it is disgust, and is only witnessed when some act is com- 

 mitted on the stage so cruel and bloody, as to make it 

 impossible to contemplate it even in idea without horror. 



" Nee pueros coram populo Medea trucidet, 



Aut humana palam eoquat exta nefarius Atreus." 



HoR. Ars Poet., 1. 185. 



It is for this reason, also, that many fine German dra- 

 mas cannot be brought on the English stage, such as the 

 Robbers of Scliiller, and the Adelaide of Wulfingen, by 

 Kotzebue ; they are too horrible to be read without vio- 

 lent emotions, and Horace will tell you what an immense 

 ditference there is in point of effect between a relation 

 and a representation. 



" Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, 

 Quam qu£e sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quas 

 Ipsi sibi tradit spectator." 



Ars Poet., 1. 180. 



I shall conclude these desultory remarks, strung to- 

 gether at random, without order or connection, by obser- 

 ving what little foundation there is for the general out- 

 cry in the literary world against the prevalence of Ger- 

 man dramas on our stage. Did they not possess uncom- 

 mon merit, they would not meet with such general appro- 

 bation. Fashion has but a partial influence, but they 

 have drawn tears from an audience in a barn as well as 

 in a theatre royal ; they have been welcomed with plau- 

 dits in every little market town in the +hree kingdoms 



