66

Herder, undertook the management of a periodical
called the German Mercury, and not long afterward
made the acquaintance of Goethe, which soon ripened
into a friendship only dissolved by death. In 1789,
he was appointed to the chair of history in the uni-
versity of Jena, and besides lecturing to crowded
audiences, he published his "History of the Thirty
Years' War," and engaged in various literary enter-
prises, which had great influence on the literature
of Germany. "Die Horen" and "Der Musen-
Almanach," to which the most eminent men in
Germany contributed, belong to this period. He
also produced the "Xenien," a collection of epi-
grams, and wrote his Ballads," which are reck-
oned among the finest compositions of their kind in
any language. About 1790 he exhibited a strong
tendency to consumption, which by precluding him
from lecturing, greatly reduced his income; but he
was relieved from the pressure of misfortune by the
kindness of the prince of Denmark, who settled
upon him a pension of a thousand dollars for three
years, and thus enabled him to pursue his studies,
free at once from narrow circumstances and public
duties. He soon after settled at Weimar, in order
to direct the theater in conjunction with Goethe, in
accordance with their mutual tastes and opinions;
and here he at intervals published dramas which,
together with those above mentioned, have immor-

an inundation of imitations, in which, according to
Schlegel, "there was nothing historical but the
names and external circumstances; nothing chival-
rous but the helmets, bucklers and swords; and
nothing of old German honesty but the supposed
rudeness. The sentiments were as modern as they
were vulgar; from chivalry pieces, they were con-
verted into cavalry plays, which certainly deserve
to be acted by horses rather
than men."

IFFLAND.

A. W. IFFLAND.

AUGUST IFFLAND, born at Hanover, in 1759, was one of the best dramatic writers of Germany. In 1796 he was invited to Berlin, to take the direction of the theater there, and, in 1811, was appointed general director of all the royal plays. He died in 1814. His works comprise 47 plays, memoirs, and reflections upon the theory of his art. So greatly was he admired by many, that he was termed the Molière of Germany; and Madame de Staël said of him, that there was not an accent or a gesture for which Iffland could not account as a philosopher and an artist.

talized his name. Among these are Wallenstein,
Mary Stuart, Joan of Arc, and William Tell. There
is a "Life of Schiller," by Thomas Carlyle, and
an English translation by Lady Wallace of the
Life by Palleske. Coleridge translated the "Picco-
lomini" and "Death of Wallenstein," and Sir E. B.
Lytton has translated the "Poems and Ballads of
Schiller." An English edition of his works forms
part of Bohn's Standard Library. He died in 1805.
Lessing, Schiller, and Goethe became at once the
fathers and the masters of the German theater; and
it must be objected to these great men that, in the
abundance of their dramatic talent, they sometimes
forget that their pieces, in order to be acted, must
be adapted to the capabilities of a theater; and thus
wrote plays altogether incapable of being repre-
sented. Their writings, although affording many
high examples of poetry and passion, are marked
with faults which the exaggeration of their followers
has often carried into total extravagance. The
plays of Chivalry and of History were followed by

KOTZEBUE.

AUGUST FRIEDRICH FERDINAND VON KOTZEBUE, the famous dramatic writer, was born in 1761, at Weimar. At the age of sixteen years he entered the university of Jena, where his inclination for the Drama was confirmed by his connection with a

private theater. In 1781 he went to St. Petersburg, at the suggestion of the Prussian minister at that court, and became secretary to the governor-general, Von Bawr. He was recommended to the empress, who became his patroness, and he was finally appointed president of the government of Esthonia. In 1795 he retired to a country place about 35 miles from Narva; but soon after went to Weimar, and from thence again to St. Petersburg. He had,

A. VON KOTZEBUE.

EMIL DEVRIENT.

ficient in those feelings of liberality, generosity, and honor, which may be considered as proper to their situation in life. This contrast may be true in particular instances, and, being used sparingly, might afford a good moral lesson; but, in spite of truth and probability, it has been assumed, upon all occasions, by these authors, as the ground-work of a sort of intellectual jacobinism; consisting, as Mr. Coleridge has well expressed it, "in the confusion and subversion of the natural order of things, their causes, and their effects; in the excitement of surprise, by representing the qualities of liberality, refined feeling, and a nice sense of honor in persons and in classes of life where experience teaches us least to expect them; and in rewarding with all the sympathies that are the dues of virtue, those criminals, whom law, reason, and religion, have excommunicated from our esteem."

The German taste was introduced upon the English theater, but the better productions of her stage have never been make known; for, by some unfortunate chance, the wretched pieces of Kotzebue found a readier acceptance, or more willing translators, than the sublimity of Goethe, the romantic strength of Schiller, or the deep tragic pathos of Lessing.

Austrian dramatist, F. Grillparzer (1791-1871), began
his long career. He is assuredly the foremost of
the later dramatic poets of Germany, unless that
tribute be paid to the genius of H. von Kleist
(1776–1811), who, in his short life, produced, besides
other works, a romantic drama, a rustic comedy, and
an historical tragedy of singular originality and
power. Grillparzer's long series of plays includes
poetic dramas on classical themes, and historical
subjects from Austrian history. The Romantic
school, which, through Tieck, had satirized the
Drama of the bourgeoisie and its offshoots, was in its
turn satirized by the Count August von Platen's
admirable imitations of Aristophanic comedy. Among
the objects of his banter were the popular play-
wrights E. Raupach and K. Immermann (1796-
1840), a true poet, who is, however, less generally
remembered as a dramatist. F. Hebbel (1813-
1863) is justly ranked high among the foremost later
dramatic poets of his country, few of whom equal
him in intensity. Other names of literary mark are
those of Chr. D. Grabbe (1801-1836), J. Mosen,
(1803-1867), O. Ludwig (1813-1865), F. Halm
(1806-1871), Karl Gutzkow (1815-1878), and
among living writers Gustav Freytag and Heinrich
Laube. The last of these names recalls in one of
their most noteworthy examples the long-continued
and systematic efforts which have raised the modern
German stage to the position at present occupied by
it among the theaters of Europe. These efforts
have not been confined to fostering the art of acting
in a succession of eminent representatives, among
whom the sons of L. Devrient, in various ways,
acquired a reputation worthy of their name, and
Emil Devrient (1803-1877), one of the most brill-
iant of the brotherhood, did much toward main-
taining as intimate a relation as possible between
the stage and literature. The latter, on retiring
from his profession in 1867, devoted himself to
writing a History of the German Stage. Hap-
pily contrasting with other European countries
by the number and variety of its centers of
intellectual life-rivals in artistic effort even where
political or social rivalry is out of the question
-Germany has not only cherished its own na-
tional Drama, but with a catholicity of taste, aided
by the powers of a language admirably adapted for
translation, has opened its theater to the dramatic
masterpieces of other nations also.

Meanwhile the so-called Romantic school of German literature was likewise beginning to extend its labors to original dramatic composition. Outside this school the youthful talent of Theodore Koerner (1791-1813), who gave considerable promise as a dramatist, was extinguished by a patriotic death. The efforts of M. von Collin (1776-1823), in the direction of the Historical Drama, remained isolated attempts. But of the leaders of the Romantic school, A. W. (1767-1845), and F. von Schlegel (17721829) contented themselves with frigid classicalities, and L. Tieck (1772-1855) melted legend and fairy tale, novel and drama, poetry and satire, into a compound, enjoyable indeed, but hardly so in its entirety, or in many of its parts, to any but the literary mind. F.de la Motte-Fouqué (1777-1843) infused a spirit of poetry into the Chivalry Drama. Clemens Brentano (1777-1842) was a fantastic dramatist, unsuited to

the stage.

The "destiny dramatists"-a feeble outgrowth of the romanticists-Z. Werner, A. Müllner, and C. E. V. Houwald, achieved a temporary success, and it was with an attempt in the same direction, that the

TAGE MATTERS in Germany made little progress until what is called "the Hamburg Period" when the Ackermans (father, wife, and daughters), Eckhof, Brackmann, and Schroeder, combined with the assistance of Lessing, the father of German literature (who not only shone as a great dramatist, but also as a critic), banished the loose, sensuous French productions from German soil, and planted wholesome, moral, deep thought and language on the German boards. That was a great time for Germany, for it now began to have its own dramatic literature, and paved the way for such illustrious names as Wieland, Goethe, Schiller, Bürger, Kotzebue, Iffland, Schlegel and Tieck. But it had a still greater significance, for it was at that period that Shakspeare was introduced into Germany and achieved an overwhelming success. On the 20th September, 1777, Schroeder's version of Hamlet, based on Wieland's translation, was produced for the first time in Germany. Brackmann played Hamlet; Eckhof, the Ghost; Schroeder, the Grave-digger. The sensation was so great that for a time nothing was talked of in Hamburg but Brackmann's Hamlet. Busts, engravings and medals were made of him, whose conception of the part was principally bitterly ironical and humorous. Schroeder went before the curtain and announced that this most extraordinary character would be played by several

of the company, and four different actors alternated in the part. Schroeder himself (whose Hamlet was most liked) played Laertes and the Gravedigger on different occasions. Hamlet was followed by Richard III., Henry IV., King Lear, and Othelloall Schroeder's versions. Schroeder played Iago, and it is remarkable that the actors as a rule cared little for Othello. The blacking of the face was a drawback to the facial expression, and Garrick's shrewd refusal of the part, on the ground that he was too little, and that he would remind the audience of the Moorish boy in one of Hogarth's prints, must to some extent have spread the prejudice.

F. L. SCHROEDER.

Schroeder-whom, throughout his life, Macready took as his example-was the father of the German stage. As a child of three years old, when playing the part of Innocence in Petersburg, before Empress Elizabeth (1744), he had to say, "O no; I liberate you!" He spoke the words so sweetly that the Empress kissed and hugged him, and gave a beautiful present to his mother. But he was very nearly lost to art. At Warsaw, in his thirteenth year, his step-father, Ackerman, placed him in the School of the Jesuits, who produced so great an impression upon him through their kind treatment-so contrary to that he experienced at home-that he yielded to their wish to stay with them. The troupe was to leave. The boy had escaped from home and no one knew where he had gone. The police were called into requisition, but in vain; and nothing but the determination and daring of Krohn, the actor, who had on several occasions accompanied Schroeder to the Jesuit cloister, and insisted that he must be concealed there-saved him from his fate. Krohn