1800. ] 
from the ftage of Hanover, and offended 
the ancient company belonging to the 
theatre. It had certainly a very fingular 
appearance, that, at the very time when in 
London and Paris Kotzebue’s Mifanthropy 
and Repentance, and his Child of Love, 
raifed their author to the ftars of ‘the 
theatrical heaven, and ingrafted into many 
thoufand inhabitants of thofe cities the 
firft love of German Literature, this 
very fame Poet, in the refidence of the 
Emperor of Germany, was obliged to put 
up with having the moft odious afperfions 
publifhed again him. The Emperor 
himfelf, though perfonally attached to 
him, -could not fhelter him, and gave him 
a penfion of 1000 florins per annum. He 
has juft publifhed a curious work about 
all thefe tranfaétions, very interefting in- 
deed for fuch who would be delighted 
with a peep into the green-rooms of the 
Vienna theatre. His prefent refidence is 
Weimar in Saxony, where he enjoys all 
the comforts of a fequeftered literary life, 
compofing newdramas with an unparalleled 
fertility. He has juft finifhed a Comedy 
in one Aét, the plot of which runs about 
that contefted point of the beginning of the 
mew century. , 
The theatre at Berlin poffeffes in the 
perfon of Iffand, at the fame time, the 
moft able of managers, and the moft ex- 
cellent of a€tors; and a more commodious 
houfe is now expected from the bounty of 
their beloved fovereign. Connoiffeurs 
who, in forming their opinions on dif- 
ferent theatres, have travelled far and 
near, do not for a moment hefitate to 
affisn to the Berlin company, on the 
whole, the chief rank among their numer- 
ous fellow-comedians in the many theatres 
of Germany. A wonderful combat is 
here fought, the iffue of which is as yet 
undetermined. The queftion is, Whether 
the gratification of gaping and ftaring at 
a fhew, which charattertzes the middling 
and lower claffes of people, who here form 
the majority, and who crowd the houfe on 
every trefh reprefentation of that nonfen- 
fical Bailet Dow Quixote at Gamachoes 
Marriage, fhall drag the fuperior per- 
formers down to their level; or whether 
the perfeét a€ting of an Iffland and of a 
Company united with him, can raife to 
their ftandard a mals of people fo difficult ~ 
to animate. How pitifully the clapping 
and unbounded applaufe of the multitude 
only a few months ago was directed, is 
teftified in the Aznals of the. Pruffian Mon- 
archy, by a fharp reproof from the pen 
_ of Iffand himfelf. However, on the other 
diand, appearances “are more. flattering ; 
Fiew of the German Theatres. 
35 
fince within this little while, four pieces 
in verfe have been there ftudied and got up 
with approbation, namely, Don Carlos, 
and The Piccolomini, both by Mr. Schiller ; 
Claudine of Villa Bella, by Mr. Gothe ; 
and, laftly, on the Queen’s Birth-day, 
Voltaire’s Merope, by Goiter. If it be 
poffible to breathe new vivacity and life 
into the art of declamation, whith has 
been fo murdered by the low chatting - 
ftyle of common dramas, the true way 
will be to compofe and reprefent pieces 
in verfe, in which view alfo the late ap- 
pearances of Walleuftein and ‘The Picco~ 
lomini, by Schiller, refemble now the Mef- 
fenger of Light, and the firft kifs of 
Aurora’s beam on the eaftern hills. As 
' for Iffland himfelf, a -fine medal in filver 
has been ftruck 1n his honour by the court 
medallitt of the King, M. Loos, at Berlin, 
in which his head is exprefled with a ftrik- 
ing likenefs, with a pretty Latin inf{crip- 
tion of: the reverie. 
At Hamburg, the monftrous coalition 
of five managers of unequal abilities and 
inclinations fuperintend now the felf-fame 
ftare, where once Rofcius-Schroeder ter- 
rified in Lear, and aftonifhed in the Mifer. 
That fuperior actor took his farewel of 
the ftage two years ago ; and, equally far 
from the buftle of cities and from felfith 
egotifm, repofes in a little fnug villa at a 
village of Holftein, fome miles from Ham- 
burg, by name Rollingen, fmiling at the 
much-admired idols of our modern thea- 
trical world. His fucceffors renounce 
even the balfamic waft of falfe praife. By 
their bad a&ting, which appears to be ex- 
prefsly adapted for the upper. gallery, they 
exclude from their reprefentations the 
polifhed part of the Hamburg audience, 
who beguile with foreign exhibitions in 
the French theatre an appetite which is not 
over-nice in its cravings. Mrs. RKighzz is 
the favourite fonefter of the German ftage. - 
Much more fuccefsfully does the Frank- 
fort ftage flourifh, at leaft in fome fide 
branches of that art, which unites in 
itfelf all the polite arts. Vocal and in- 
ftrumental mufic in the Operas, and the 
coincidence of every decoration, are found 
here in perfe€t union, each excellent in its 
way. Whoever has feen Saliere’s Palyura 
reprefented there, in the moment of enjoy- 
ment, did certainly not feel the want of a 
more elevated fubje&i- Al fo, fingle aétors 
are better paid than, perhaps, at any other 
place at Frankfort, where to the rich 
merchants, who have a fhare in the ma- 
nagement, whatever deferves eftimation is 
looked upon as worthy of any price. 
There are alfo now in Germany many’ 
7 EB 2 theatres 
“< 
