Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/68

56 destroyed in a great measure the effect of her sweet notes. Madame Banti had been at Rotterdam in the summer, and all were full of her praise. It proceeds from a want of liberality, not of taste, that first-rate singers and performers are not to be met with here.

My attachment to dramatic representations led me the first opportunity to the theatre; and I was so well satissied with the entertainments of the place, that I have twice repeated my visit. The play-house is a small neat building, and decorated with considerable taste. The boxes, of which there is only one tier, are furnished with elegant chairs and cushions; and what is an admirable convenience, backs are placed to the seats of the pit. It is seldom well attended, though the dramas I have seen were pieces of sterling merit, and the performance of the actors considerably above mediocrity. One evening the "Misanthropy and Repentance" of Kotzebue, which bears the name of "The Stranger" in England, was acted with great judgment and effect; and another time a play borrowed from "L'Enfant trouvé" of the French stage.