1798.] 
trifling foible of his private conduct into 
a crime of the firft magnitude, and perfe- 
cuted him with juch unrelenting malig- 
nity, that he thought proper to retire from 
his f{plendid office of itate, and to devote 
the remainder of his life to the fervice of 
amore grateful public. Hence he betook 
himielf entirely to literary purfuits, and 
having lett the Ruffian dominions he re- 
paired to the court of Vienna, where he 
readily obtained the appointment of ¢ Dra- 
matift to the Imperial theatre.’ It is un- 
necefiary to detail here the complicated in- 
trigues carried on under the late empreis 
of Ruffia in every province of her extenfive 
empire ; and the frequent perfecutions 
which foreigners promoted to office fuf- 
tained trom the iemi-barbarous natives. 
Let it fuffice to obferve that they too 
often fucceeded in their nefaricus defigns 
againft thofe aliens, whom they hated 
both on account of their fuperior talents, 
and their abhorrence of Ruffian floth and 
drunkennefs. KoTzEBUE was one of the 
many objects of perfecution in Ruffia, 
although his mora! character muft have 
been unexceptionable ; as it is not pro- 
bable that the emperor of Germany would 
otherwife have appointed him to be his 
€ dramatic poet.’ 
The merits and demerits of this writer ~ 
in the wide field ot romance, as wellas of 
the drama, are but impertfeétly known in 
this country, as only a tew of his pro- 
ductions have been tranflated into the 
Englith language. And trom the meta- 
morphofed itate in which German tranf- 
lations generally appear before the Eng- 
lifh public, it is not an eafy matter to 
afcertain the due and relative merits of 
either author or tranilator. KOTZEBWE 
has publithed, befides a great variety of 
romances and novels, about thirty dra- 
matic pieces of various merit. Among 
the latter,, we find * Menfchenbafs und 
Reue”’ ox ** Mifanthrepy and Repentance ;”’ 
<< The Negro Slaves ;’—and “ The In- 
dians in England,” which three are indeed 
the moft popular of his performances. 
‘The firft of thefe has been tranflated with 
fome fuccets in this country, (though in 
a very mutilated condition) under the ti- 
tle <¢ The Stranger ;” where it has dur- 
ing a great part of laft feafon attracted 
crowded audiences to Drury-lane theatre. 
The other two pieces, namely “* The Ne- 
gro Slaves,’” and ‘* The Indians in Eng- 
land,” have likewife met with tranflators, 
though the latter of them is not yet pub- 
lifhed ; nor is it likely that any other of 
his dramatic compofitions will ever be 
_ brought onthe Englithftage. This may 
Biographical Account of Kotzebue. 
11g 
be partly afcribed to the great difference 
fubfifting between the national tafte and 
manners of the Englifh and Germans, and 
partly to a certain peculiarity in the writ- 
ings of KoTzeBUE, which charaéterizes 
and diftinguifhes his productions from 
thofe of all other modern writers. His 
Knowledge of the human heart and its 
fecret meanders is unqueftionably great : 
he has not only made the prevailing man- 
ners, oddities, and vices of the age, but 
alfo man himfelf, as influenced by a varie- 
ty of ardent paffions, the objeét of his 
minuteft refearch. Few writers have ever 
attained to his excellence in pe ene 
whimfical and impaffioned charatters® 
and in {cenes drawn from private and do- 
meftic life, our poet eminently excels his 
cotemporary rivals both in the unaffect- 
ed delicacy of the fentiments he conveys, 
and the freedom and precifien with which 
he introduces them. His language, though 
generally correét and dignified, is ecca~ 
fionally tinétured with an ambiguous 
mode of expreflion, and his dialogue fome- 
times degenerates into a whining tone. 
But this is net fo much the fault of an 
individual, as of the depraved tafte of his 
countrymen. ‘This falfe tafte, however, 
may be manifefted in different ways: in 
England the conftant vifitors of our thea- 
tres well know, that equivocal phra/zs or 
fentiments, fach as do not too grofsly of- 
fend the delicate ear of females, are not 
untrequently more applauded’ than the 
moft refined moral doétrines. Korze- 
BUE’s plans are formed with great art, 
and developed for the moft part in a moft 
unexpeéted and fuccefsful manner. His 
fyftem of morals, however, as exhibited 
in his dramatic compofitions, does not 
{eem free from cenfure, for it certainly is 
too great a facrifice made of virtue, when 
characters of vicious habits are ‘repre- 
fented as having attained their end, and 
finifhed their immoral career in triumph, 
merely becauie fome fortunate accident 
turned the fcale in their favour. If the 
remark which has frequently been made 
in our reviews as well as newfpapers be 
juft, that a// German produétions of ths 
dramatic kind ** abound in fentiment and 
reafoning ;"’ and if thefe are objection- 
able qualities of a performance which is 
to be fubjected to a popular:tribusal, there 
is little or no danger to be apprehended, 
that the Englifh tage will be inundated 
with German plays.—With refpect to 
the tranfactions in KoTZEBUE’s life, a 
few circumftances only have tranfpired to 
public notice. It is known, that in his 
youth he was a favourite pupil of the 
; late 
