i$6 ACCOUNT of the GERMAN THEATRE. 



As the drama of every country marks more ftrongly than 

 any other of its productions, the features, both of its genius 

 and of its manners, I thought I mould afford a not unaccepta- 

 ble piece of information to this Society, by giving an account 

 of thofe publications, accompanied, as it naturally muft be, 

 with fome remarks on dramatic compofition in general, arifing 

 from the particular obfervations excited by the works in que- 

 flion. Neither that account, nor thofe remarks, will pretend to 

 completenefs or regularity. Written amidft a variety of other 

 occupations, with but little leifure either of time or of mind, 

 I only mean them as prefenting to the Members of this Society 

 a fketch of fomething that merits the further enquiry of the 

 induflrious, and which, as an amufement, will well repay the 

 time which the unemployed may be induced to beftow on it. 



It appears by a preliminary difcourfe, prefixed to Mr Frie- 

 del's tranflation, fome what contradicted, but without much 

 effect, by the preface of Mr Junker, that it is only at a very 

 late period that the theatre of Germany has arrived at any de- 

 gree of perfection. In the year 1727, Gottsched, profeffor 

 of Philofophy in the Univerfity of Leipfic, undertook a re- 

 formation of the German ftage, till that time funk in a ftate of 

 barbarifm. But he gave only tranflations of French plays, 

 with one or two miferable originals of his own, long fince for- 

 gotten. It was not till between the years 1740 and 1750, that 

 any performance of merit appeared, or that actors of eminence 

 (with very few exceptions) feem to have exifted to perform them. 

 About that period, the celebrated Eckhof, the Roscius of 

 Germany, began his theatrical career, in which he continued 

 to delight his countrymen till his death, which happened in 

 1778, a year remarkable in the annals of the ftage, fince it de- 

 prived the world of three of its greateft actors, Le Kain, 

 Garrick and Eckhof. 



Besides the low ftate of polite literature in Germany before 

 shat period, of which I have taken notice above, the fmall ex- 

 tent 



