ACCOUNT of the GERMAN THEATRE. 191 



" Thus far it was in human power to go, and thus far he has 

 " gone ; but here his courfe is clofed, and his genius cries out, 

 " All is confummated." He difmiffes his band, except two fa- 

 vourite officers, with an exhortation to ufe their invincible cou- 

 rage in the fervice of their country. To thefe two favourites, 

 whofe fouls are not fo deeply tinctured in blood, he bequeaths 

 his paternal domain, and defires them to leave him, and to devote 

 their future lives to virtue and obedience to the laws. " And 

 " I too, he concludes, will obey the laws ; I will bear the 

 " fterneft punifhment of their decree." And he goes to deliver 

 himfelf up to juftice. 



T have ventured this long and particular account of the 

 tragedy in queftion, becaufe it appears to me one of the mod 

 uncommon productions of untutored genius that modern times 

 can boaft. Confeffedly irregular and faulty, both in plan and 

 conduct:, it were needlefs, and perhaps unfair, to offer any re- 

 marks on its defects. But its power over the heart and the ima- 

 gination muft be acknowledged. Every body has heard the 

 anecdote of its effects on the fcholars at the fchool of Fribourg, 

 where it was reprefented foon after its firft appearance. They 

 were fo flruck and captivated with the grandeur of the cha- 

 racter of its hero Moor, that they agreed to form a band like 

 his in the forefts of Bohemia, had elected a young nobleman 

 for their chief, and had pitched on a beautiful young lady for 

 his Amelia, whom they were to carry off from her parents 

 houfe, to accompany their flight. To the accomplifhment of 

 this defign, they had bound themfelves by the mod folemn and 

 tremendous oaths ; but the confpiracy was difcovered by an 

 accident, and its execution prevented. 



The energy of this tragedy's effect is not to be wondered at, 

 efpecially on young minds, whofe imaginations are readily in- 

 flamed by the enthufiafm of gigantic enterprife and defperate 

 valour, whofe fenfibility is eafily excited by the fufferings of a 



great 



