I must now take you again to the theatre, and in the company, too, of the celebrated Lord L----, an old acquaintance of mine, who, after his varied and busy career, now preserves himself by daily washing with vinegar; whereas he used formerly to pickle others in a sauce as sour and pungent as that of the former 'Confiseur' of the _Elegante Zeitung_, both in writing and by word of mouth. We talked of past times; and as we reached the door of Drury Lane, he recited some wild but beautiful verses of Moore's.[83]* * * * * * * * They are nearly as follows, in my usual halting verse--translations of the moment.[84] * * * * * * * * * * No bad motto for Desdemona, which awaited us; though truly the Moor's was a fearful return for such devoted love. Before I go to the performance itself, let me make a few general remarks. It is a constantly contested point in Germany, whether Shakspeare should be given in a literal translation, in a free one, or in a still freer paraphrase. I decide for the second; premising that the liberty should be restricted to this,--unfettered scope in the spirit of the German tongue,--even though a play of wit or words should occasionally be lost by the means. But to alter in any considerable degree the course of the play; to omit scenes; to give to Shakspeare words and ideas perfectly foreign to him,--can only deform and mutilate him, even when done by the greatest poet. People say Shakspeare is better to read than to see, and cannot be performed in a literal translation without carrying us back to the infancy of the scenic art; since, as they maintain, theatrical representations in Shakspeare's time were no more than stories in dialogue, with some attempt at costume. I will not go into the question of the accuracy of this assertion; but thus much I know,--that the representation of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello, on the English stage,--all which pieces are given with slight omissions, and in which things generally supposed the most shocking to taste and probability, even the obligato king's trumpeters, are not wanting,--nevertheless leave a feeling of such full and untroubled satisfaction on my mind, as reading or hearing read (even by Tieck, the best reader I know of,) never had the power to produce in the most distant degree;--nay, still more, I confess that it is only since I have see them _here_, that I have been sensible of all Shakspeare's gigantic proportions in their full amplitude. It is true, that to produce this, a degree of concert on the part of all the actors and an excellence in those who support the chief characters are necessary, which are wholly wanting in Germany;--for Macbeths in Berlin, (as Clauren would say,) and Macbeths in London, are as different sort of people as Shaskpeare himself and his excellent commentator Franz Horn. The first actors here,