482 Additional Notes, 



Two comic productions of Mr. Sheridan, besides his 

 School for Scandal, have been celebrated; viz. The Rivals^ 

 and The Critic. Both these works, and especially the latter, 

 are considered as doing honour to the fertile genius of the 

 author. 



The younger Colman is entitled to a place among the 

 distinguished comic writers of Great-Britain, at the close of 

 the century under consideration. He is said, «by some, to be 

 inferior only to Mr. Sheridan. His Ways and Means, his 

 Surrender of Calais, and his comic opera of Inkle and Ya- 

 rico, have commanded much popular applause. Some of his 

 dramatic pieces, however, are said to be tinctured with mis- 

 chievous principles, and to have an immoral tendency ; but 

 of the nature and extent of these faults 1 have too little know- 

 ledge to be able to speak precisely. 



The close of the century was distinguished by the drama- 

 tic publications of Mies Joanna Baillie, who is considered 

 by many as having retrieved the declining character of the 

 age with respect to tragic composition. A respectable critic 

 has pronounced, that, " for lofty poetry, sublime sentiment, 

 and true pathos, her tragedies stand unquestionably at the 

 head of every modern effort of the tragic muse." 



The three plays of Beaumarchais, mentioned in page 

 217, form one story; and in the last of the three, the crimes 

 and follies of the characters are represented as punished. 



Besides the German dramatists«mentioned in pages 220 and 

 221, there are several others who deserve respectful notice. 

 Schlegel, Weisse, Leisewitz, and Gerstenberg, have 

 produced tragedies of high reputation. 'Hie tragedies of 

 Klopstock are also represented as models of sublimity, both 

 in sentiment, language, and action. — In comedy, Cruger, 

 Klinger, Wetzel, Grosmann, and Engel, are spoken 

 of as having merit of a very conspicuous and popular kind. 

 But while many of the dramatic productions of Germany, 

 during the period under consideration, stand high on the scale 

 of genius and taste, some of them deserve to be reprobated 

 as replete with erroneous sentiment, and as being most per- 

 nicious in their moral tendency. 



The character of the drama in America, towards the close 

 of the eighteenth century, began to be more distinct and na- 

 tional than at any former period. Instead of waiting altoge- 

 ther for the productions of the English stage, and continu- 

 ing to be its servile echo, the American stage has exhibited a 

 considerable number of original pieces, and others adopted 



