Leipzig trembled, and the cheeks of his spouse grew white with fear—or from pearl-powder. One may say that the whole dramaturgy of Lessing was written in the interest of Shakespeare.
Next to Lessing we have Wieland. By his translation of the great poet he increased more practically the recognition of his merits in Germany. Strange that the poet of Agathon and of Musarion, the trifling, toying cavaliére servante of the Graces, the hanger-on and imitator of the French, was the man who all at once grasped the British earnestness so powerfully that he himself raised on his shield the hero who was to put an end to his own supremacy.
The third great voice which rang for Shakespeare in Germany was that of our dearly-loved Herder, who declared himself with unconditional enthusiasm for the British bard. Goethe also paid him honour with a grand flourish on his trumpet; in short, it was an array of kings, who, one after the other, threw their votes into the urn, and elected William Shakespeare the Emperor of Literature.
This Emperor was already firmly seated on his throne when the knight August Wilhelm von Schlegel and his squire, Count Councillor Ludwig Tieck, succeeded in kissing his hand, and assured all the world that now his realm and reign were really sure the thousand-year-long rule of the great William.
