499 
to fhew, that there was not any neceffity 
Yor the government to be fo careful of 
Fouquet, as to fend him to Paris with an 
iron-mafk ; and that afrer the indulgence 
of his family being allowed to vifit him, 
the precaution was ufelefs. I Go not there- 
fore believe the card, faid to have been 
found in the Baftille; has any conneétion 
whatever with the man with the iron- mafk 
mentioned by Voltaire. Great care was 
taken when he died to burn every thing 
belonging ‘to him—of courfe the warrants 
of reception would have been deftroyed. 
You may fee alfo a note on this fubjeét, 
by the Abbé Soulavie, in his Life of the 
Marfhal de Richelieu. I am, Sir, 
May 14, 1801. Your’s, &c. 
Fe way i 
a ® 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
STATE of GERMAN LITERATURE at 
HE Parifian critics are divided into 
et two hoflile parties with refpect to 
the value of German literature, which for 
the laft four years has attraéted more at- 
tention than formerly, and been ferved up 
in various tranflations to the French pub- 
lic, who think it quite fuperfluous to learn 
any except their own univerfal language. 
The emigrants, indeed, who had returned 
from Germany, did their beft to turn to 
good,account the talent they had acquired 
during their exile: but, except fome no- 
vels by Schulz, Lafontaine, and Spiefs, 
which were fuited to the tafte of the frivo- 
lous and fentimental clafs of readers, no- 
thing would take root and thrive. The 
firft forcible impulfe towards German li- 
terature was given in Paris, as in Lon- 
don, by one of Kotzebue’s plays, ‘* Mi- 
fanthropy and Repentance,’? which the 
Citoyenne Mcle imported from Amiffer- 
dam to the French capital. It is almoft 
incredible what mighty effect that piece 
produced at the Theatre Feydeaux ; where, 
as a wit obferved, they began to fob and 
melt into tears even when paying the en- 
trance-money at the door. From that 
time the Parifians began to believe, that 
the Germans actually poficfled fome ge- 
nius; and even Madame Stael, in her in- 
genious work on literature, allowed them 
a manly energy, although fhe as good as 
denied them all claim to tafte. In the 
mean time, the tranflators proceeded briik- 
ly with their work, in order to keep alive 
and increafe the rifing flame of enthufiafm 
for this branch of Northern literature. 
To Kotzebue’s fucceeded the moft cele- 
brated German dramas which were not 
State of German Literature at Paris. - 
[July 1, 
already known from Junker’s and Frie- 
del’s Theatre. But {ome unlucky genius 
{o ordered it, that hereagain they made an 
egregious miftake in their choice. Schil- 
ler’s <* Cabal and Love,’? was completely 
damned when produced on the French 
ftage. Before that, a very indifferent 
tranflation of two volumes of his ** The- 
atre’’ had been fent forth, and roufed the 
French critics to arms. Some pieces of 
Ko:zebue even could now-no longer meet . 
with that favourable reception which had 
at firft been given to his Mi/anthropie et 
Repentir. _Iffland’s Foreffers, and fome 
other dramatic .pieces* which were offered 
to the faftidious Parifians, fell to the 
ground, to rife no more-—Two tranfla- 
tions of Wieland’s Oderon made their ap- 
pearance, but unfortunately they were pro- 
faical in more than one fenfe of the word. 
The deer of one of thefe trarflations fent 
a copy of it to Wieland at Offmanfiadt, 
by whom he had been once hofpitably en- 
tertained at Weimar: but the venerable 
peet was fo provoked on reading it, that > 
he would not let it remain even one night 
under his roof.—Bitaubé, who had refided 
many years at Berlin, as member ef the 
royalacademy, but during the Revolution 
returned to Paris, where he became a mem- 
ber of the National Infiitute, ventured to 
try his ftrength upon Gothe’s idyllic epo- 
poe Hermann and Dorothy. But the pro= 
faic chanter of the chalte Jofeph and of 
the Batavians, fo far from being able to 
transfufe into his tranflation the peculiar 
beauties of the original, did not even ren- 
der the fenfe in general correctly. «With 
fomewhat better fuccefs, Citizen Cramer 
tranflated Klopfock’s Hermann’ s-Schlacht~ 
and Bardiete: but the difh itfelf did not 
fuit the ftomachs of Frenchmen, even 
though it had not been cooked in a Ger- 
man-French kitchen. The confequence 
was, that almoft the whole was fold for 
wafte-paper. The enterprifing brothers, 
Levrault of Strafburg and Paris laft year 
eftablifhed a feparate journal for German 
literature, entitled the Bibliotheque Germa- 
nique, the editing of which was jointly un- 
dertaken by the Canonefs Polier and Citi- 
zens Labaume and Dumaimicux. This 
would certainly be the fureft medium for 
bringing quickly and generally into circu- . 
lation among the French fuch of the neweft 
productions of German literature as are 
moft diftinguifhed for wit or folid learn- 
ing. But then the Bibliotheque Britan- 
nique, publifhed at Geneva, with much. 
tafte and effect, by Piftet and his coad- 
jutors, fhould have ferved as a model to it. 
Unfortunately, however, the editors” Se 
di the 
