The Comedy of Seduction appeared in the year 1787, and was received with very great applause. Some few hints for this play were taken from _Les Liaisons Dangereux_; but it was chiefly original, and possessed great merit. In 1789, appeared the translation of the King of Prussia’s works, in twelve or thirteen volumes, and also the translation of the Essays of Lavater. For the former of these, Mr Holcroft received 1200l. from Robinsons, the booksellers. He had worked almost night and day to get it out soon, and to prevent the possibility of anticipation. He had, I believe, very early, and before the publication of the original work, procured a copy through the interest of the Prussian Ambassador. He complains, in one of his letters about this time, of the difficulty he had in translating the poetry of the great Frederic, for whom our author, though he translated his works, seems to have had no great predilection.[11] His translation of Lavater’s smaller work has certainly been the means of making the English public acquainted with the system of that ingenious and lively writer; but it was criticised with unusual severity by the authors of the Analytical Review, and this led to some disagreeable altercation between Mr Holcroft and the Reviewers. In 1790, the German Hotel appeared at Covent Garden, a play which is little more than a translation from the German of Brandes. The plot is very neat and lively, and sometimes interesting: but there is very little besides plot and incident in the piece. Baron Thorck seems the counterpart of Squire Thornhill, in the Vicar of Wakefield. The most striking circumstance in this drama is the perfect preservation of the unities of time and place. In the present instance, this peculiarity adds to the natural effect of the scene by riveting the imagination to one spot, and thus giving a sort of reality to it, and by making the incidents follow one another in such quick succession, that the mind has no time to question their probability. The events are some of them the most improbable that can be supposed; yet such is the mechanical construction of the plot, that they seem inseparably interwoven with each other, and as if they could not happen otherwise. The whole play is like a scene really passing in a hall of a large Hotel, in the course of a few hours. Mr Holcroft brought out the Comedy of The School for Arrogance, in the beginning of 1791. In consequence of some disagreement between Mr Holcroft and Mr Harris respecting former pieces, it was imagined it would not be very graciously received if the author were known; and a friend undertook for a time _to father_ the piece. After the comedy had been twice performed, the author wrote the following letter to the manager of the theatre. It is published in the preface.