The Express. — 1853-07-05 (London, England)

DRAMA.  THE GERMAN PLAYS.  The second season of the German Plays commenced last evening with Egmont. The unbroken attention of a full audience to a rather dull play, which lasted tuur hours, must have proved to the most sceptical that the taste for German literature in the country is a great fact. There is too much declamation and too little action in Egmont to render it per se very attractive to a British audience, and we must therefore attribute the favour with which the performance was received to an appreciation on  the part of the spectators of the richness of ‘;he diction of the poet, and of the skill with which the characters are pourtrayed. When we have said that Goethe has falsified history in his treatment of Egmont, by representing him as engaged in an illicit amour; that the moral of the drama is not over nice; that there is no plot to the piece, but that it is a mere representation of a scene from the history of the Netherlands; and that it is too long to suit English ideas of the proper length of a draina,we have exhausted our catalogue of faults. Egmont will ever remain one of the meat admirable of the productions of the great poet of Germany. We have stigmatised it as dull, but it is only dull on the stage. In the closet there are few plays which read better. Egmont is the most perfect representation of chivalry and patriotism that has ever been delineated. Chirchen is one of the most masterly creations in the whole range of the modern drama. She has lost her innocence through her love for Egmont, but her utter unconsciousness that sin can by any possibility stain the clearness of a love so deep, so overflowing as that which Wain' the mastery over her whole being, preserves the dignity of her character. She is a peasant, and she has sinned, and here there would ap• pear to be no elements of interest. But as Schiller has remarked of the character, she is ennobled by love and by nothing else. In the idolatry of her passion she not only glorifies the object of her love but herself also. Her illfated passion seems to be the sesult of a stern necessity, as inevitable as the decree of the ancient fates. Her suicide appears at the moment the only fitting termination to a life which bad been lifted as far above the ordinary currents of human thought and feeling. We no more think of judging it at the moment by ordinary rules, than of gravely debating whether Othello was a fit subject for Christian burial. There are strong ethical objections to the manner of her life and death, but the power of the poet is sufficient for the time to banish all such considerations from the mind.  Herr Devrient looked and acted Egmont to perfection. His exquisite intonation and pronunciation are something marvellous. German is sometimes thought to be rather a harsh language ; it is only neemery to hear Herr Devrient to be disabused of the prejudice. Herr Dsuoir's dressing for Alba was perfect —he looked u if he had jut stepped out of the frame of one of Vandyke's pictures; but there was a coarseness and monotony in his delivery, which although perhaps historically true, were not agree►ble. We should, however, be sorry to judge of the performer's capabilities by his treatment of • part which gives so Mge scope to professional talent. Of Frau Stolte we can only say that she performed her part of Clara as well as it could be performed, although from what we have said above the reader may easily infer that the part is too truly ideal not to lore much in the represntation. The senses are but clumsy workers for the imagination. Hen Birnstill did so much with a very insignificant part, Vinson, that there is little doubt of his distinguishing himself in characters which will afford a scope for his talents. It only remains to be added that Fraulein Fuhr, • lady of considerable personal attractions, delivered with good emphasis a rather lengthy and not very interestMg address.