174 ACCOUNT of the GERMAN THEATRE. 



ble, but very common-place maxims, were pompoufly brought 

 forth, and received with loud plaudits, I confefs, though I 

 thought meanly enougli of the genius of the poet, I have 

 thought, and been happy while I thought, highly of the peo- 

 ple. The people, whofe opinions may often be folly, whofe 

 conduct may fometimes be madnefs, but whofe fentiments are 

 almoil always honourable and jufl ; the people, whom an au- 

 thor may delight with bombaft, may amufe with tinfel, may 

 divert with indecency, but whom he cannot miflead in princi- 

 ple, nor harden into inhumanity. It is only the mob in the 

 iide-boxes, who, in the coldnefs of felf-intereft, or the languor 

 of out- worn diflipation, can hear unmoved the fentiments of 

 compaffion, of generofity, or of virtue. 



In examining thefe pieces in detail, and appropriating them 

 to their refpeclive authors, one is immediately (truck with the 

 name of Lessing, whom Germany fo much reveres as one of 

 the founders of her drama. He is the author of the firft piece 

 in Friedel's collection, Emilie de Galotti, another tragedy in 

 one act called Pbilotas, a third called Sara Sam/on, and a drame 

 entitled Nathan le Sage. He is author alfo of feveral other plays 

 contained in the Theatre Allemand of Junker, one of which, 

 Minna de Barnhelm, is reckoned the chef d^arnvre of German 

 comedy. I have perufed it with all the attention to which its 

 high character entitled it, and indeed with a great degree of 

 the pleafure, though not with all the admiration which that 

 high character led me to expect. It is of the graver or fenti- 

 mental kind of comedy, where the characters maintain a war of 

 generofity, from which the embarrafTments and implications 

 of the plot, not very intricate nor artificial ones, refult. The 

 principal perfon is a Major Telheim, a difbanded officer, 

 whofe merits his country had ill rewarded ; a man of the moll 

 confummate bravery, generofity and virtue, for whom thofe 

 qualities have gained the love of every foldier and domeflic 

 around him. They have procured him a ftill more valuable 



attachment, 



