"or the counter is within reach. These haberdashers' "heroics come home to the business and the bosoms of "men. And you may readily make ten footpads, where you would not have materials nor opportunity for a single tyrannicide. "The subject of the piece, which I herewith trans"mit to you, is taken from common or middling life; "and its merit, is that of teaching the most lofty "truths in the most humble style, and deducing them "from the most ordinary occurrences. Its moral is "obvious and easy; and is one frequently inculcated 66 by the German Dramas which I have had the good "fortune to see; being no other than “the reciprocal "duties of one or more husbands to one or more wives, " and to the children who may happen to arise out of "this complicated and endearing connection." The plot, "indeed, is formed by the combination of the plots of "two of the most popular of these plays (in the same 66 way as Terence was wont to combine two stories of "Menander's) The characters are such as the admirers "of these plays will recognize for their familiar acquaintances. There are the usual ingredients of "imprisonments, post-houses and horns, and appeals “to angels and devils. I have omitted only the "swearing, to which English ears are not yet sufficiently accustomed. "I transmit at the same time a Prologue, which in some degree breaks the matter to the audience, "About the song of Rogero, at the end of the first "Act, I am less anxious than about any other part of "the performance, as it is, in fact, literally translated "from the composition of a young German friend of “mine, an Illumine, of whom I bought the original for "three and six-pence. It will be a satisfaction to those "of your Readers, who may not at first sight hit upon “the tune, to learn that it is setting by a hand of the "first eminence.—I send also a rough sketch of the plot, and a few occasional notes.-The Geography is by the young Gentleman of the Morning Chronicle.” 66 THE ROVERS; OR, THE DOUBLE ARRANGEMENT. DRAMATIS PERSONE. PRIOR of the ABBEY of QUEDLINBURGH, very corpulent and cruel. ROGERO, a Prisoner in the Abbey, in love with MatilDA POTTINGen. CASIMERE, a Polish Emigrant, in Dembrowsky's Legion, married to CECILIA, but having several Children by MATILDA. PUDDINGFIELD and Beefington, English Noblemen, exiled by the Tyranny of King John, previous to the signature of Magna Charta. RODERIC, Count of SAXE WEIMAR, a bloody Tyrant, with red hair, and an amorous complexion. GASPAR, the Minister of the Count; Author of ROGERO'S Confinement. Young POTTINGEN, Brother to MATILDA. MATILDA POTTINGEN, in love with ROGERO, and Mother to CASIMERE'S Children. CECILIA MÜCKENFELD, Wife to CASIMERE, Landlady, Waiter, Grenadiers, Troubadours, &c. &c. PANTALOWSKY, and BRITCHINDA, Children of MaTILDA, by CASIMERE. JOACHIM, JABEL, and AMARANTHA, Children of MATILDA, by ROGERO. Children of CASIMERE and CECILIA, with their respective Nurses. Several Children; Fathers and Mothers unknown. The Scene lies in the Town of WEIMAR, and the Neighbourhood of the ABBEY of QUEDLinburgh. Time, from the 12th to the present Century. PROLOGUE-in Character. Too long the triumphs of our early times, With Civil discord and with regal crimes, Have stain'd these boards; while Shakspeare's pen has shewn Thoughts, manners, men, to modern days unknown. Too long have Rome and Athens been the rage; And classic Buskins soil'd a British stage. [Applause. To-night our Bard, who scorns pedantic rules, His plot has borrow'd from the German Schools; -The German schools-where no dull maxims bind The bold expansion of the electric mind, Fix'd to no period, circled by no space, He leaps the flaming bounds of time and place : See the "Robbers," a German tragedy, in which Robbery is put in so fascinating a light, that the whole of a German University went upon the highway in consequence of it. + See "Cabal and Love," a German Tragedy, very severe against Prime Ministers, and reigning Dukes of Brunswick.This admirable performance very judiciously reprobates the hire of German troops for the American War in the reign of Queen Elizabeth-a practice which would undoubtedly have been highly discreditable to that wise and patriotic Princess, not to say wholly unnecessary, there being no American War at that particular time. See the "Stranger; or, Reform'd Housekeeper," in which the former of these morals is beautifully illustrated ;-and "Stella," a genteel German comedy, which ends with placing a man bodkin between two wives, like Thames between his two banks, in the Critic. Nothing can be more edifying than these two Dramas. I am shocked to hear that there are some people who think them ridiculous. Slow are the steeds, that through Germania's road With hempen rein the slumbering post-boy goads, Slow is the slumbering post-boy, who proceeds Thro' deep sands floundering, on those tardy steeds; More slow, more tedious, from his husky throat Twangs through the twisted horn the struggling note. These truths confess'd-Oh! yet, ye travell'd few, Germania's Plays with eyes unjaundiced view! View and approve!—though in each passage fine The faint translation* mock the genuine line, Though the nice ear the erring sight belie, For U twice dotted is pronounced like I;* [Applause. Yet oft the scene shall Nature's fire impart, Warm from the breast and glowing to the heart! Ye travell❜d few, attend !-On you our Bard Builds his fond hope! Do you his genius guard! [Applause. These are the warnings very properly given to Readers, to beware how they judge of what they cannot understand. Thus, if the translation runs " lightning of my soul, fulgura"tion of angels, sulphur of hell; we should recollect that this is not coarse or strange in the German language, when applied by a lover to his mistress; but the English has nothing precisely parallel to the original Mulychause Archangelichen, which means rather emanation of the archangelican nature or to Smellmynkern Vankelfer, which if literally rendered, would signify made of stuff of the same odour whereof the Devil makes flambeaux. See Schüttenbrüch on the German Idiom. |