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204 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
walk through without any moleftation. In fome parts of the park you likewife fee
rows of ladies magnificently dreffed, fitting together as in the Thuilleries, and have
the fame freedom of ftaring them full in the face, and comparing them to one
anether. You alfo meet with moft of the literati of the place at itated times. ‘There
are refrefhments of every kind provided, nor is there, as at Vienna, a police to pre-
vent any amufement ladies and gentlemen’ may choofe to fall into.
Thad no oportunity of feeing the Royal Opera, which is looked upon as one of the
beft in Eurape, but is feldom open except in winter; nor is there any theatre here ex-
cept avery indifferent German one, which is not to-be compared with thofe of Vienna
and Munich. The manager, Mr. Dobbelin, has fome very fingular opinions. He
places the ftrength of his company in the number of his aCtors, and feems to difiribute
the parts among{t them by lot. I have often obferved that he who plays the fervant is
much better qualified te play the mafter, who again, was nature attended to, would
play the fervant. Among fifty actors there are hardly four that would be reckoned
tolerable at Vienna. ‘Che wardrobe is of a piece with the reft. I faw two pieces in
which modern manners were reprefented, played in Spanifh drefles no longer wore.
Amidft drefles of the fifteen centuries, you often behold a nrodern one, efpecially
amongft the women. The women feldom change their head drefs, though the fcene
fhould happen to be in India; and yet Mr. Dobbelin makes a great outcry about his
wardrobe, and the propriety of the co/fume. - This theatre is fo fmall, that many of the
{fpectators are obliged to take care leit the clouds of heaven over them fhould be entan-
gled in their hair. I faw trees which were hardly big enough for waiking fticks. Some
of this great king’s troops are carrion, whom hunger has robbed of ali their flefh ; and
many are hardly able to move their legs and arms, for which want of action, the a¢treffes
-are accountable, as you may eafily difcover by the found of their voices. Mr, Dob-
belin’s wages, which are from fix to eight guilders a week, are indeed not calculated to
give his people a great deal of ftrength. Their forte confequently confiits in fainting
away, in which art two or three of his women furpafs every thing that I have ever feen
of the kind. In this they are only excelled by themfelves when they die. Dying isthe
principal bufinefs of every German actor, and when he knows how to give life to his
death, like fome great ators I have feen, whole convulfions began in the feet and ran
through the whole body, he is fure of the applaufe of aGerman pit. The tragedy tafte
which obtains throughout Germany, from the Mediterranean to the Eafiern fea, would
lead a foreigner to imagine that the country was made up of ravifhers, houfe-breakers,.
&c. efpecially as the fame cannibal gufto is difcoverable throughout mott of their modern,
romances. >
Though the inhabitants of Berlin, including the garrifon, amount to one hundred:
and forty-two thoufand men, yet it is not able to keep up a good company of players.
It is entirely owing to waat of encouragement that Mr. Dobbelin fuffers half his com-
pany to ftarve, and plays in a building, which in any other city would be looked upon as
a barn. In this refpect the city is wmigue. You will imagine that the officers alone,
who are conftantly from eight to nine hundred in number, would be fufficient to keep
up a good theatre; but it isnot fo. In truth this is one of the moft eminent marks of
the poverty and parfimony of the people of this place.
A man would not wonder to find the public of all the great cities of the Pruffian mo-
narchy difaffected to plays. The great induftry which they are remarkable for muit
have this effect ; but the capital is the rendezvous of all the idlers of the country, and
though the number of them does not amount to that of any other capital, it fhould, one:
would think, be fufficient not to let a couple of dozen of players ftarve. “Thefe parti-
10 cularities:
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