A THE NEW YORK ASTOR, LENOX AND Repair No 168 LENOX LIBRARY NEW YORK PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR. Ir the Translator of the following Drama has but moderately succeeded in his attempt, he conceives that a Preface to recommend a work of SCHILLER to the English Public would be superfluous. Should he have quite failed in his undertaking, he is also well aware, that the penetration of that Public is such, that no panegyric of his could recommend a mutilated performance to its attention. Notwithstanding these considerations, he is induced, by reasons which he hopes will not be deemed entirely unsatisfactory, to prefix a short Preface to this Work. He has been so fortunate as to witness the immediate effect produced, by the representation of b the piece, on a German Audience; he has heard not only very general approbation, but at the same time some tokens of partial disapprobation; and thinks that possibly a double advantage may arise from a short view of the piece, which, while it reconciles to propriety and to truth the points objected to by some German critics, may clear the way for his English readers and enable them to form a more adequate judgment of the merits not only of the whole together, but also of its constituent parts. The Author has taken his view of the interest attending this historical fable from a new point. The action commences after the commissioners have sentenced Mary. Elizabeth has not yet signed the death-warrant. In the short period between this and her death, the poet has brought an astonishing variety of interest into action, and most of the circumstances, which constituted that of former plays on this subject, are only touched in the dialogue. The characters appear to be all drawn with wonderful propriety.—It was objected at the re presentation of the tragedy, that Mary, by acknowledging in the first Scenes of the first Act, her guilt in conniving at the murder of her husband, departs too much from the character required of heroine, and abases herself in the eyes of spectators, who are expected to pity her misfortunes. If a faultless character were, for the purposes of the Drama, a conditio sine quâ non, I fear that the history of the world would furnish very few subjects for either heroes or heroines. Mary is represented as what she must be; she is the gold of the mine, intrinsically precious; yet burthened with much extrinsic impurity, which lessens, at the first glance, the value of the royal ore. The fiery ordeal is necessary to develope the metal from the substances with which it is mixed; with every process, her innate worth becomes more and more conspicuous, till at length quite freed from the fortuitous excrescences which deformed her, she enforces that respect, which was perhaps before due to the virtuous part of her character. I know not whether the representation of such a character, with all its imperfections on its head, may not better serve the purposes of religion and morality, than one supernaturally virtuous; which, however it may excite our compassion by its unmerited sufferings, would be exempt from the most terrible of all, the consciousness of guilt, and the agony of remorse. Indeed her's appears to be exactly the character which Aristotle chooses as the best possible for dramatic representation: 'Es de Tolos, ὁ μήτε ἀρξη διαφέρων, καὶ δικαιοσύνη, μήγε διὰ κακίαν καὶ μοχθηρίαν μεταβαλλων εις την δυςυχίαν, ἀλλὰ δι ̓ αμαρ Nav Twα. i. e. “It is he, who neither excels in virtue and justice, nor through vice and depravity, falls into calamity; but through some fault incident to human nature." For such the word anaga seems to be; a fault committed, contrary to the natural disposition of the agent, when transported by some violent passion; and as such it is surely used by the Evangelist.-As to the accusation. upon which her sentence was founded, the Poet supposes her innocent. It is a controverted point in history, and he is entitled to his choice. The persecutions she has suffered, for a crime she has not committed, rouse our commiseration; our |