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 their influence. Goethe poured forth, in his voluminous writings, a mass of equally illuminating and appreciative criticism (cf. Wilhelm Meister); and, although he deemed Shakespeare's works unsuited to the stage, he adapted ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for the Weimar Theatre, while Schiller prepared ‘Macbeth’ (Stuttgart, 1801). Heine published in 1838 charming studies of Shakespeare's heroines (English transl. 1895).

During the last half-century textual, æsthetic, and biographical criticism has been pursued in Germany with unflagging industry and energy; and although laboured and supersubtle theorising characterises much German æsthetic criticism, its mass and variety testify to the impressiveness of the appeal that Shakespeare's work has made to the German intellect. The vain effort to stem the current of Shakespearean worship made by the dramatist, J. R. Benedix in ‘Die Shakespearomanie’ (Stuttgart, 1873, 8vo), stands practically alone. In studies of the text and metre Nikolaus Delius (1813–1888) should, among recent German writers, perhaps be accorded the first place; in studies of the biography and stage history Friedrich Karl Elze (1821–1889); in æsthetic studies Friedrich Alexander Theodor Kreyssig (1818–1879), author of ‘Vorlesungen über Shakespeare’ (Berlin, 1858 and 1874), and ‘Shakespeare-Fragen’ (Leipzig, 1871). Ulrici's ‘Shakespeare's Dramatic Art’ (first published at Halle in 1839) and Gervinus's Commentaries (first published at Leipzig in 1848–9), both of which are familiar in English translations, are suggestive but unconvincing æsthetic interpretations. The German Shakespeare Society, which was founded at Weimar in 1865, has published forty-three year-books (edited successively by von Bodenstedt, Delius, Elze, F. A. Leo, and Prof. Brandl), which contain many useful contributions to Shakespearean study.

Shakespeare has been no less effectually nationalised on the German stage. The three great actors—Friedrich Ulrich Ludwig Schroeder (1744–1816) of Hamburg, Ludwig Devrient (1784–1832), and his nephew Gustav Emil Devrient (1803–1872)—largely derived their fame from their successful assumptions of Shakespearean characters. Another of Ludwig Devrient's nephews, Eduard (1801–1877), also an actor, prepared, with his son Otto, an acting German edition (Leipzig, 1873, and following years). An acting edition by Wilhelm Oechelhaeuser, appeared previously at Berlin in 1871. As many as twenty-eight of the thirty-seven plays assigned to Shakespeare are now on recognised lists of German acting plays (cf. Jahrbuch der Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft for 1894). In 1895 as many as 706 performances of twenty-five of Shakespeare's plays were given in German theatres (ib. for 1896, p. 438). ‘Othello,’ ‘Hamlet,’ and ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ usually prove most popular. Of the many German composers who have worked on Shakespearean themes, Mendelssohn (in ‘Midsummer Night's Dream’), Schumann, and Franz Schubert have achieved the greatest success.

In France Shakespeare won recognition after a longer struggle than in Germany. Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) plagiarised ‘Cymbeline,’ ‘Hamlet,’ and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in his ‘Agrippina.’ About 1680 Nicolas Clement, Louis XIV's librarian, allowed Shakespeare imagination, natural thoughts, and ingenious expression, but deplored his obscenity (, A French Ambassador, p. 56). Half a century elapsed before French public attention was again directed to Shakespeare (cf., Voltaire's Verdienst von der Einführung Shakespeares in Frankreich, Königsberg, 1864). The Abbé Prévost, in his periodical ‘Le Pour et Contre’ (1733, et seq.), acknowledged his power. But it is to Voltaire that his countrymen owe, as he himself boasted, their first effective introduction. Voltaire studied Shakespeare thoroughly on his visit to England between 1726 and 1729, and his influence is visible in his own dramas. In his ‘Lettres Philosophiques’ (1731), afterwards reissued as ‘Lettres sur les Anglais,’ 1734 (Nos. xviii. and xix.), and in his ‘Lettres sur la Tragédie’ (1731), he expressed admiration for Shakespeare's genius, but attacked his want of taste and art. He described him as ‘le Corneille de Londres, grand fou d'ailleurs, mais il a des morceaux admirables.’ Writing to the Abbé des Fontaines in November 1735, Voltaire admitted many merits in ‘Julius Cæsar,’ on which he published ‘Observations’ in 1764. Johnson replied to Voltaire's general criticism in the preface to his edition (1765), and Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu [q. v.] in 1769 in a separate volume, which was translated into French in 1777. Diderot made, in his ‘Encylopédie,’ the first stand in France against the Voltairean position, and increased opportunities of studying Shakespeare's works increased the poet's vogue. Twelve plays were translated in De La Place's ‘Théâtre Anglais’ (1745–8). Jean-François Ducis (1733–1816) adapted without much insight six plays for the French stage, beginning in 1769 with ‘Hamlet,’ which was acted with applause. In 1776 Pierre Le Tourneur began