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264 actess of the English stage, though undoubtedly possessed of a high degree of excellence.

One scene of the tragedy would have excited the indignation or laughter of an English audience. A character of considerable consequence in the piece is discovered on the stage with a lighted pipe of tobacco in his mouth, which he smokes at his ease, delivering, in the interval between each puff, a soliloquy. The Dutch audience not only tolerated, but applauded this incident.

Nearly all the plays which have appeared in Germany or England, from the rapid pen of Kotzebue, have been exhibited on the Dutch stage; and the theatres of Holland are also enriched with faithful translations of the best dramatic pieces which exist in the English or French languages. Nor have there been wanting dramatic authors of the Dutch nation, whose works have been favourably received on the stage. The public taste for dramatic representation in Holland has, like the public taste in England, been vitiated by the numerous pieces which have