ACCOUNT of the GERMAN THEATRE. 157 



tent of each individual ftate mud neeeflarily have obftrucled 

 the progrefs of theatrical exhibition. The eftablifhment of a 

 good theatre is too expenfive for the limited revenues of the 

 fmaller potentates, among whom great part of Germany is divi- 

 ded. At Vienna, Berlin and Drefden, there were theatres fupported 

 at very confiderable expence ; but thefe, I believe, were deftined 

 for the opera. This would indeed naturally be the cafe, where 

 the entertainment was meant for the Court. Dramas that 

 roufe the paflions, that fhake the foul, afford pleafure only to 

 the body of the people ; the great and the fafhionable relifh 

 much more thofe fpecies of entertainment which gratify the 

 finer fenfes, or amufe the lighter fancy of the indolent and the 

 voluptuous. Mufic and dancing, or mufical dramas which 

 include both, are always their favourite amufements. 



The progrefs of the German ftage muft have alfo been con- 

 fiderably impeded by the circumftance of the language being 

 fo different in different parts of the empire ; and in fome of 

 them fo degraded in the patois of the country, as of courfe to 

 make French the common language of the better fort of 

 people. 



In the year 1747, Lessing, whom the Germans regard as 

 the chief of their dramatic authors, produced his firft comedy 

 at Leipfic ; and from this time downwards, a variety of au- 

 thors of genius contributed to form and to eftablilh the thea- 

 trical tafle of Germany. Their attempts, however, feem ftill 

 to have been obftrucled by the particular fituation of the coun- 

 try. No capital, like Paris and London, united or rewarded 

 their efforts. The King of PrufFia, from whom one would 

 have looked for literary patronage, had always a prepofleffion 

 for French, and a contempt for German literature. We find 

 him therefore beftowing high honours on Le Kain, who acled 

 occasionally on a French theatre eftablifhed at Berlin, but never 

 interefting himfelf about the eftablifhment of a German flage. 

 It is pretty remarkable, that the mufes of the empire found 



protection- 



