1815 Wordsworth wrote: 'The Germans, only of foreign nations,
are approaching towards a knowledge of what he [_i.e._ Shakespeare] is.
In some respects they have acquired a superiority over the
fellow-countrymen of the poet; for among us, it is a common--I might say
an established--opinion that Shakespeare is justly praised when he is
pronounced to be "a wild irregular genius in whom great faults are
compensated by great beauties." How long may it be before this
misconception passes away and it becomes universally acknowledged that
the judgment of Shakespeare . . . is not less admirable than his
imagination? . . .'

{345} Cf. _Wilhelm Meister_.

{346a} Cf. _Jahrbuch der Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft_ for 1894.

{346b} _Ibid._ 1896, p. 438.

{347} The exact statistics for 1896 and 1897 were: 'Othello,' acted 135
and 121 times for the respective years; 'Hamlet,' 102 and 91; 'Romeo and
Juliet,' 95 and 118; 'Taming of the Shrew,' 91 and 92; 'The Merchant of
Venice,' 84 and 62; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' 68 and 92; 'A Winter's
Tale,' 49 and 65; 'Much Ado about Nothing,' 47 and 32; 'Lear,' 41 and 34;
'As You Like It,' 37 and 29; 'Comedy of Errors,' 29 and 43; 'Julius
Caesar,' 27 and 29; 'Macbeth,' 10 and 12; 'Timon of Athens,' 7 and 0;
'The Tempest,' 5 and 1; 'Antony and Cleopatra,' 2 and 4; 'Coriolanus,' 0
and 20; 'Cymbeline,' 0 and 4; 'Richard II,' 15 and 5; 'Henry IV,' Part I,
26 and 23, Part II, 6 and 13; 'Henry V,' 4 and 7; 'Henry VI,' Part I, 3
and 5, Part II, 2 and 2; 'Richard III,' 25 and 26 (_Jahrbuch der Deutsche
Shakespeare-Gesellschaft_ for 1897, pp. 306 seq., and for 1898, pp. 440
seq.)

{348a} Jusserand, _A French Ambassador_, p. 56.

{348b} Cf. Al. Schmidt, _Voltaire's Verdienst von der Einfuhrung
Shakespeare's in Frankreich_, Konigsberg, 1864.

{350a} Frederic Melchior, Baron Grimm (1723-1807), for some years a
friend of Rousseau and the correspondent of Diderot and the
_encyclopedistes_, scattered many appreciative references to Shakespeare
in his voluminous _Correspondance Litteraire Philosophique et Critique_,
extending over the period 1753-1770, the greater part of which was
published in 16 vols. 1812-13.

{350b} _Melanges Historiques_, 182 ?, iii. 141-87.

{350c} _Ibid._ 1824, iii. 217-34.

{351a} Very interesting comments on these performances appeared day by
day in the Paris newspaper _Le Globe_. They were by Charles Magnin, who
reprinted them in his _Causeries et Meditation