440 
may not wander again, nor tire, nor con- 
tradi& you any more, I will finifh now: 
and fhall be glad if you will dine at 
Strawberry-Hill next Sunday, and take a 
bed there ; when I will tell you how many 
more parts of your book have pleafed me, 
than have ftartled my opinions, or, per- 
Account of Schiller. , ae 
haps, prejudices. I am, fir, your obedi- 
ent humble tervant, Hor. WALPOLE, 
P. S. Be fo good as to let me know, 
_ by a line by the poft to Strawberry- Hail, 
whether I fhall have the pleafure of feeing 
you on Sunday. 
een ee ee 
ORIGINAL ANECDOTES, LETTERS, &. 
| Charaéterifiic Account of Foreign 
Literati. oP 
SCHILLER. 
HIS dramatic writer has acquired 
an uncommon degree of a See 
as well among the Germans as the 
-lifh. None of his performances have 
efcaped the lafh of criticifm, which, per- 
haps, never has been more juftly inflicted 
txan upon his eccentric compefitions. 
twill hence be underftood, that, in bzs 
ew country, particularly among critics 
who combine a correét tafte with a judi- 
cious arrangement of fatts—facts founded 
upon the fwrity of rooral motives—he 
holds but a middle rank. 
SCHILLER is a native of Stutgard, the 
capital of the dutchy of Wurtemberg, 
born in 1760. As his father was an ot- 
ficer in the army of the late reigning 
Duke of Wurtemberg, who had erected 
a military academy, in imitation of that 
eftablifhed at Berlin, by the late Great 
Frederick; our bard was naturally placed 
in this feminary, where he received the 
firft rudiments of his education—by no 
means congenial to his talents. “Under 
all the difadvantages of a military {chool, 
he, however, foon diftinguifhed himfelf 
among his companions, by his metapho- 
rical language in converfation, and his 
oetical turn in compofition. Though 
the leader,in almoft. every clafs through 
which he pafled, his talents did not ren- 
dér him the objet of envy and hatred 
among his fchoolfellows; for he was a 
perfect ftranger to referve and artifice. 
SCHILLER’s parents obvioufly wifhed ~ 
him to try his fortune in the army; but 
his natural propenfity to dramatic ttudies 
foon determined him to prefer the elegant 
purfuits of the Mufes, to the riotous and 
diffipating fcenes of a military life. 
We are not informed at what period of 
life ScHILLER left Stutgard; but he 
muft have been very young (perhaps, not 
twenty years of age), when he. wrote, at 
Manheim, his famous tragedy, ‘‘ The 
Rebbers.’. Manheim then poffeiled. one of 
a 
the beft theatres in Germany, and was 
well fupported by the dramatic talents of 
Beck and Ifland, two excellent per- 
formers: the latter of whom has alfo 
written a confiderable number of good 
plays, amounting to 25 at leaft, with 
the various merits of which, his country- 
“men are well acquainted. 
SCHILLER’s next performances were 
** Cabal and Love,” (tranflated mto Eng-' 
lifh by Mr. Lewis, under the title of 
© The Miuifier 5”) “* The Confpiracy of 
Fiefeo,”’ and *¢ Dox Carlos.” Each of 
thefe plays, particularly the latter, met 
with a favourable reception on the Ger- 
man ftage. It is, however, worthy of re- 
mark, that, though all SCHILLER’s com- 
pofitions bear the ftamp of great genius, 
fupported by a brilliant and fertile ima- 
gination, yet they are neither ealculated 
to become completely popular, mor to 
withftand the attacks of the moft lenient 
critics. In fact, they are meteors on the 
German horizon ; they aré not only defi- 
cient in the defign, or arrangement of 
parts, but are: likewife written im fo ex- 
travagant, or rather infuriated a dialogue, 
as to excite the idea, that they muft be att- 
ed by beings inhabiting a very different 
world from that we live in. Befides, the 
ftyle and phrafeology of SCHILLER can- 
not be held out as a pattern of German 
writing, to thofe who apply to the ftudy 
of that copious and energetic language. 
The natives of Germany, who have 
ftudied their language grammatically, and 
critically, are annoyed in evety page of 
his earlier compofitions, with Swabian 
and Bavarian provincialifms. 
Soon after the four dramatic pieces 
above mentioned had made their appear- 
ance, SCHILLER prefented the public 
with a volume of poems, which greatly _ 
incieafed his reputation, already efta- 
blithed among a certain clafs of readers, 
who delight in the marvellous, and which, 
not undelervingly, were the mexns of in- 
troducing him into the higher circles of 
life. The reigning Duke of Saxe-Wei- 
mar, a true Mzecenas in German litera- 
ture, is faid to have been fo much pleafed — 
with 
