But the truth is, this is not the German mode any more than it is ours, as I have fhewn, and fhall ftill fhew, in various inftances. It is the act and deed folely of the author of this drama, who has therein not only put his heroine to death for his own amusement, but has committed an affaffination upon a much greater character, even Nature herself; and this is one example, out of an hundred, that has made me wifh, gentlemen, who have the life and death of their characters, as dramatic writers in their hands, would be a little lefs lavish of human, at least of poetical blood, without fhewing caufe in the courts of reason, nature, and confcience. Not that I mean to attach this ftrain upon dramatic or natural laws, to the productions of the German poets in general. They very frequently write, and act, with the most accurate knowledge of the human heart, and feldom fail to find their way to it, when their purpose is to interest its affections.

I was, indeed, foon recompenfed for the above related outrage of probability, by the performance which I faw at the fame theatre, a few nights after, when all was

"Nature to advantage drefs'd.”

It was, properly speaking, a gala play, being reprefented in honour of the Prince Stadtholder's birth-day, one of the very few occafional events

which

which bring a fufficient number of people to fill the Hague theatre; for, although it is not larger than Colman's in the Haymarket, there is rarely audience enough to pay for the few pounds of candle bestowed to illumine the gloom; and, doubtless, this is one reason why there is not more light thrown upon the audience of the Hague. On this great occafion, however, there were about half as many lamps ftuck over the Stadtholder's box, as would have adorned the board of his Britannic Majefty's corn-cutter on the 4th of June; and even the under tier of sconces, that usually stand unoccupied, were filled with wax! In a word, I beheld the aftonishing circumftance of a Dutch theatre crowded; and, inftead of " the beggarly account of empty boxes," I found myfelf amongst the flower and fashion of the Hague.

After being waited for by the actors and the audience the decent time, that is, juft long enough to wind up expectation to the proper pitch, without ftraining its fprings, his Serene Highness, and his auguft partner, made their appearance; the first in a modeft fuit of flightlyornamented blue broad cloth; the laft, according to the etiquette in thefe cafes made and provided, glittering in white filver tissue. Brunf wick's eldest hope was fhining at their fide, and his Duchess attended the graceful and lovely

Princefs Hereditary in the ftage-box, decorated, for that night only, to receive them.

But, alas! all this was but the gay difguife of concealed anxiety; or rather, it was but the trapping and incumbrance of a comfortless fituation, too mighty for difguifes. Three days and nights previous to this theatrical exhibition of themselves, had the Prince, Princefs, and train, been made the illuftrious victims of this anniverfary martyrdom: and every moment that was not devoted to the bendings, bowings, and other pliabilities of the court, was feized upon by the camp; for it was the time when above a thousand foldiers were preparing to counterbalance the devaftations of the last campaign in Flanders. The Stadtholder is indefatigable in his military duties; and these, happening to fall at the period when he was to receive the compliments of the nobility and gentry, on gaining the forty-fixth year of his age, you will not wonder to hear that he brought to the play-house a weary head, and, perhaps, an aching heart; the more especially as it was faid an heavy piece of public news had been received from the frontiers, which it was neceffary to hush up in his own mind, and in that of his auguft partner in diftrefs, left it fhould check the ardour of the troops about to take their departure. There is, you know, a crifis in fplendid, as well as other mifery, at which the

oppreffed

It

oppreffed fpirits and faculties take refuge in fleep. It appeared to be exactly this crifis, when the party above mentioned gained the theatre; for scarcely had the natal falutations been received and acknowledged, than a deep fleep fell upon both their Highneffes, and upon the prince of Brunswick. Never did I fee three illuftrious perfonages fo oddly disposed of. They funk fubdued into a comfortable nap, as if it had been a preconcerted thing to refresh themselves at the theatre with a doze of this fort; and which, to fay the truth, they ftood fadly in need of. feems they had been exhaufting themselves in public affairs and ceremonies, from five in the morning to the midnight of the preceding day. But that the anodyne was very powerful, may be gathered from their enjoying it, almost unbroken, through the three long acts of a German opera, fpun to the length of as many German miles. Once, indeed, his Serene Highness opened half an eye, and cast it, in a dizzy way, first at the fleeping Princess, then at the fnoring Duke, as if to explore the cause that roufed him; but, perceiving it was only the crash of inftru. ments, in a general chorus by way of finale to. the second act, he again bade adieu to unwel. come recollections, in the oblivious arms of that power which is very juftly called the kind "reftorer of nature." I could not help a reflection

VOL. III.

D

flection on the different allotments of human kind, as I faw the most illuftrious of the audience the only parts of it which were unable to enjoy either the harmony or the pleafantry of the entertainment, and altogether infenfible to the furrounding splendours. We rave about, and we are bleeding at every pore, and fermenting in every vein, for Equality, my dear friend; we are hearing perpetually of the neceffity of bringing the poor on a level with the rich, nobles with peasants, and kings with beggars-ah, God of them all! with how little reafon! with how little recollection of the hiftory of human conditions! The worst and the most unhappy is probably that which winds up the climax! and fo on of the feries fince it is most likely the houseless beggar, who eats his morfel of alms under a hedge of thorns, when the rude hand of winter has torn off every sheltering leaf, in remembrance of the day that brought into the world the brat which he buckles to his back, has a more exquifite relish of that morfel, and is more foothed by the gra tulations of his weather-beaten companions, than the Prince and Princefs of the Republic of Holland, fleeping amidst the felicitations of a theatre, or, in truth, any prince or princefs in thefe times. Equality! alas, were all men reduced to a level like this, how foon would thofe who, till then perhaps, without being conscious of it, had experienced